Five thousand!

Short blog today; had a headache most of the day (brought on by lack of tea this morning, and thinking lots about going back to England) so I just want this to get out the way.

Super bright moon last night

First of all, the best picture of the moon from last night. It was so bright when we went through to bed it was casting shadows of the furniture on the balcony and it stayed up through most of the night as every time I woke it was really bright outside. The alarm went off this morning and I snuck an extra snooze time and then, having turned it off, we stopped in for another 10 minutes or so neither of us wanting to wake up at all.

Pre sunrise photography

Sunrise from the guest bedroom

When I finally did drag myself out of bed (after A had kindly brought me a brew in bed) I went straight to get my camera as the sunrise was lovely. A was just coming with hers as well so I followed her out onto the balcony and got a picture of her taking a picture of the gorgeous glow just before the sun appeared. A little while later, as I was walking along the corridor I was struck by the strength of the light coming out of the guest suite so popped in and the sunrise was getting really amazing and shining so brightly in the window; what a lovely room this will also be.

Breakfast was almost missed as my first task for the morning (doing my books) was delayed by looking through old pictures and watching old videos of Rambo and the view from an old flat right on the sea front in Blackpool. I had not moved to do anything by the time A got back with the men and this shamed me into getting started. I had done my accounts but not eaten when Bekir came to say he was ready to go into town for the roof tile shopping we had been planning for a while. I asked him to wait and wolfed down a few slices of toast with my mother's lovely jam on it (it is really very nice indeed) and then, after a walk around to confirm the plans for wiring up that we would also be buying parts for, we were ready to head off.

Our first stop we saw some expensive Macedonian tiles and some cheap and nasty Bulgarian ones and also worked out that I would need FIVE THOUSAND roof tiles of this size to do the job. We also found a large water tank which should be good for my reserve in case the water goes off and it was much cheaper than I expected it to be. From there it was to the normal large builders yard where first of all we went into the normal shop for some items and then went to look at their tiles. They had some very nice Serbian tiles at a good price but after a couple of trips to the office it was established that they didn't have any in stock and it would take 15 working days for the quantity I was looking for to arrive. They were pushing me quite hard towards some concrete tiles however I didn't like how they looked, and they would have also worked out a little more expensive over all. Bekir did his thing at this time and called Isat who said he had three thousand in stock and would get the other two thousand over the next week. This will all now be finalised tomorrow morning when I go to collect the men and we swing past that yard but it is good to know how much it'll cost and have it all sorted out.

With this done we went past another couple of shops first of all getting tiles to put down when Sassy is with S and S to stop her digging, and then off to the electrical supply store to spend a huge amount of money on a seemingly small amount of stuff but I now have the wiring and other stuff to put power and lights in the loft, our bedroom and the guest room. This is a good thing. So we headed back home having had a successful time out but it had taken longer than planned and I was gasping for a brew when we got back, with the slight headache that would bother me for the rest of the day.

Space for lintel

A was already out on her excursion for her day off when I arrived home and the men had not been idle; I had been a bit worried that no lintel was in for the new door for the guest room but by the time I got back the gap had been knocked our ready for filling. I put the kettle on and went to offer the men a coffee I found they were all sat around their frying pan having lunch so I left them to it. I was doing a bit of paid work first of all but then went to have lunch and just had time to get some cheese and pickle butties in me before Bekir appeared again saying he needed to go to the local builders merchant to get more wood.

Long load

We dropped down and Bekir arranged which wood it was he wanted then we rearranged the cars and vans in the carpark so I could back Thomas to get it loaded in the back then Bekir pointed out we could get the plasterboard loaded on top of said wood so more rearrangement of the carpark followed so I could get Thomas positioned for that to be loaded. All in all it took about an hour to sort this out and when I got back up home A had got home. I backed Thomas right up to the door, delayed the onloading for a picture, and then went to see how she had got on.

She had had a good time, and had bought me a pair of tracksuit bottoms as the weather is cooling now, and also a load of food from the favourite town shop, and now she decided the rest of the day was for relaxing. I did what work I could but my head was not getting any better so I went for a lay down and after a few minutes of reading my eyes closed and I slept for quite a while before waking and reading for a bit more. I then felt frustrated with lazing around again so I was up and back in Room 13 with another glass of water. After another failed attempt at working I went to join A outside and we took a lovely stroll around the garden, ending up sitting in the cool breeze up by the Silver Birch and Mo's grave. It was really rather gorgeous to be sat there in the peace and quiet and with the fresh air chatting and fussing Rambo and Ralf and by the time we wandered on and headed back inside my headache was starting to clear.

Drilling to secure the reinforced beams

One of the things that was difficult about today was the task which the men were working on; they were using my SDS drill to knocking some holes in the roof near where the beams would go and while I'm not complaining at the progress they are making it wasn't ideal with a headache. They were really hard at work though trying to get the bottom reinforcement for this end of the roof out to the sun terrace completed before it was time for home.

Metal work and concrete for reinforcing beam

While we were sat having a brew I noticed that the men had pulled one of the big bottles of water onto the roof using their pulley and a little bit later there was the sound of lots of water falling. We went to look and water was pouring through holes in the roof in Sassy's room. We went onto the roof and found that the concrete laying had reached the middle near where the doors were and Bekir was washing and wetting the concrete prior to pouring new in.

She looks scared; she is...

We both stayed up there a little while watching the men work and A headed to the other end of the roof and climbed the rickety ladder to look at the view. I passed my camera up so she could get some photographs and then got one of her about to climb down; if she looks worried it is because she is as that ladder bends and sways and feels very unsafe indeed.

Reinforced and ready

The men worked late today but they achieved their aim as they always do, and were quietly happy in the car on the way back. As we got close to their village it started to rain which meant I could tease Bekir as it wasn't raining at mine and he has teased me before that it always rains at my house and never at his. The journey to and fro was easy as the rain was never torrential but looking across the valley towards Greece there was some serious downpours occurring there. When I got back dinner was on and I have just finished eating my favourite meal; bangers and mash with gravy. I snapped a quick picture of the progress and here you can see that the reinforced lintel is up and has been poured already.

So I am going to sign this off, maybe watch a Sopranos maybe get to bed really early as I am still quite battered from what could have been a migraine but hasn't yet broken into one. I really hope it clears tomorrow.