Kitchen finished, suddenly

I'm typing this out very fast in a brief period after dropping the men off and before we go out for food. Downstairs A is stuck into the middle of the usual fight with the girls to eat their food and not Rambo's, and Rambo to eat his food and not the flies that are bothering him. When this drama has fully played out we'll be leaving and I'll have to come back to this when I return.

The sight which greeted me first thing

I slept much better last night, though I was up at about 1am to go and turn the water off outside where it was filling up the oil drum as the water had FINALLY come back on just before we went to bed, which was good and I woke up when A got out of bed and took the girls with her. This was before the alarm went off so I snoozed for a few minutes before dragging myself out of bed. We had a fair few things to do this morning (or at least I did) before the men arrived so while I wanted a lie in I didn't allow myself one. The sun was shining nicely in through the window so I grabbed my phone for an arty shot to start the blog.

More stuff gets moved into the living room

We both supped our brews and A was disappointed when she found she didn't have time for a second brew before leaving for the men. When she left I sprang into action and started my jobs which was to clear the guest room so Sally could make a start on the finishing touches. This involved carrying whisky downstairs, shifting the boxes of delicate decorations out from under the bed and moving the two wardrobes out of the room. I just about managed to get it all done, and also did a bit of clearing in the living room, before A arrived back with the men.

A with her present

Bekir had, as promised, brought back the present for A fixed together and as you can see from this picture she is very happy about it. She has been talking about wanting one of these for quite a long time so it's the perfect little unexpected gift.

Cementing the water pipes into place

Bekir and Sally got stuck straight into their work as always and when I went to have a look at what was going on I found that Sally had already skimmed over the pipes they had laid yesterday and was cracking ahead with finishing this all. The boiler will eventually be connected just by where this work was being done and I was most impressed to see that the ends of the pipes, open to possible cement-fall, were covered with paper and stuffed to stop that happening. Attention to detail.

[[ I have just returned from my meal; that was as far as I got before... anyway.... onwards... ]]

Excellent looking wasp

The other early job, having not done it yesterday as it just got too hot, was to conduct a burn.We're still using the old oil drum as the one we bought to replace it has been seconded as water storage following the supply problems. When it had been lit and was burning nicely we came inside and I went to take a picture from the window. I didn't tell A at the time but I found this awesome wasp on the ledge. After a picture was taken I pushed it outside.

Very clear weather front goes over

The bright start to the day did not last long. The forecast had been for rain today and as we were out doing the fire the front blew over. It really was a distinct demarcation in the sky between lovely blue sky and the onrushing clouds. This weather has stayed with us pretty much the whole day and only recently blew away leaving broken cloud in its wake.

Been a relaxing day today for A

A sadly started feeling really unwell shortly after she got back from collecting the men. I encouraged her to go and take an hour rest and surprisingly enough she took my advice and went through to bed. I'd promised to leave her an hour and when I went through after that time she was asleep so I left her to it. The next time I checked on her she was outside on her bean bag reading her book and relaxing. It was cloudy, but still warm, and there was quite a cool breeze blowing and I think this must have helped as she did look a bit better.

So much better without the rubbish pile

While I was out there I took the opportunity to take a picture of where the rubble pile used to be. Isn't that just so much better! It even feels like there is more light on the balcony though this is probably an illusion from all the dust left behind after the big machines tore up the ground. I sat with A for a bit and then went in to get back to work. A was very sensible and actually spent the entire rest of the day properly resting; reading in bed, on the balcony and sleeping in between.

Thelma chilling on the balcony

Thelma and Louise have also enjoyed a relaxing day and have spent almost all of it with A, though they did come to see me through the day whenever they remembered.

Just after lunch I was about to pop to town with A when Bekir came and said he wanted to get a load of things. A decided she wasn't feeling up to it after all which was probably the best decision and so off we went. First of all it was into the big town and to try and finally pick up tiles for Room 13. After ages in our favourite shop we left with nothing. The tiles were out of stock, the small chainsaw did not meet with Bekir approval, and the pumps were underwhelming. We headed just up the road to the other tile shop and I found some red and black tiles which I just went for.

After this we headed on via a refuelling stop to a shop near the market where we picked up a pump. The two guys in there were really friendly and had some English and they helped us to pick out a cheaper option than we initially thought we needed. After this we picked up a boiler in a nearby shop and finally went to the closer town to buy the rest of the supplies, including the drain for the bathroom and a switch so I can do the lights in the roofspace. We also put 500kg of cement of "byalo" in Thomas which lowered his suspension some but he coped very well indeed.

Fitting the wet room drain in the correct place

When we got back A was out on the porch and the girls were having a great time in the sand pile for the kitchen workers. I didn't get any pictures of this but they were digging away and chasing each other around loads. We really must get them a sandpit to play in sooner rather than later as they cannot really keep messing up the workers stuff. We unloaded everything and Bekir got back to work. Sally had been busy while we were gone and had done lots in the nearly finished guest room, filling in old electrical points with cement and generally smoothing it all off. Bekir was back to fitting the plumbing and he eventually got to actually cementing in place the drain, including fitting the grill I had chosen.

Covering the tiles for plastering the walls

With Bekir ensconced in the bathroom I had Sally's help with the final bits in the bedroom.We lifted the mattress out (it is heavy as it has the wooden base and struts incorporated into it) and then hefted the base which is even heavier. It is now in the living room (along with EVERYTHING ELSE) and the bedroom is clear so he pulled down the black waterproofing material spare from the roof and the room is now ready for plastering and covering in whitewash. We'll need to make sure some plugs are provided near the bed as well; another thing to remember.

Looking through the double doors

Across the kitchen from where my sinks will be

Looking back up the corridor from the winter dining area

The end of the working day was largely taken up with a communication breakdown caused by Google Translate. It turns out the boss of the firm doing the kitchen had been over during the day for pay; now as far as I was aware the job wasn't finished and so I said I would pay when it was finished. It turned out eventually after much confusion that actually they had done the kitchen, suddenly, and so I sent an apologetic email saying "of course, come for your money". It was all a big misunderstanding which was a relief. Also, what a buzz; the new layout of the kitchen is now visible and it looks amazing!

Starters, my main, her main

The trip back with the men today was completely without excitement; there wasn't even the standard police checkpoint at the men's village turnoff. I got back and that is where the typing of this blog started, kind of like a snake eating its tail. Feeding was not a great success and most of the puppies' food was put in the fridge for tomorrow. We went and fed and watered the birds (they are really getting used to us now, and Ginger/Baker came running inside as soon as we were there so they could eat) and then we headed down to what remains our favourite restaurant for food. It was lovely to go there, marred only by some kids who thought running around by the tables was better than playing on the excellent play equipment provided until I told them to stop running past me as I'm eating and would you believe it they stopped.

And so we're back here, the girls are fighting as they should, A is reading her book, and when this is published I'm heading to bed as I'm pretty exhausted; it's been another full on day.