Things keep happening

Here I am again but this time not before taking the men so I may keep it short. We'll see, huh.

We'll start off last night as we lay in bed and listened to the noise of an unmuffled, backfiring motorbike or quad. It was so loud it sounded like it was in our garden and I put up with it for about five minutes before snapping and jumping into Thomas to go and find them and tell them to shut up. I drove up the road to the turn off for the next village but didn't see anything however as I drove back and up the hill I stopped, turned the engine off, and could hear them. There were three kids by a garage revving it up so I leant on the horn, swung the truck up towards them, and let out a tirade of Anglo Saxon which I think they understood as they very quickly started packing up. This is not ideal as I really do not want to end in a feud with anyone however I remember my run in with the farmer last year and me shouting at him did no lasting damage to our standing in the village so we'll see. I just hope they don't repeat it tonight; I do not want to have to go down and yell every night and it will obviously only become more angry every occurrence, on both sides.

Just before the sun comes up

Anyway when I got back home (I was only out for about five minutes or so) I lay in bed and eventually managed to fall asleep, even though I was laying there listening hard in case they decided to follow me back (I'm not exactly hard to recognise) and cause trouble. Nothing happened and we woke as usual with Louise making a racket wanting to go out. I decided today to not stay in bed after A got up and I made her coffee while she was out with them and doing the chickens. It was before the sun was up again and I made the effort to grab the camera to get these amazing shots which don't actually do it justice. I love this place!

Not dodgy scaffolding at all

While A was out getting the men I got my backside into gear and actually did some graft for a change. First of all I shifted all the dry hay into the green building and then I moved a load of the fallen wood from around the land, dragging it up (with a close attendance from the girls who were trying to bite it as it moved) to where we've collected it all. I was still on with this, just pulling some quite large branches from thick grass, when they turned up and I followed them up the drive dragging my load. I had worked up a good sweat doing this which is always nice in the morning. I went back to my desk and then chatted through Sally's tasks for the day. First of all he was finishing off putting the curtain rails up in both the guest rooms.

Bekir also gets cracking

Bekir was straight into the bathroom to get on with the tiling on the other main wall. After today that are two more full days of effort available to get this done and ready for my parents and I am now thinking that we may just about be OK, though the vestibule will not be tiled. At least I hope that there will be a working shower fitted and usable for Thursday evening/night.

Curtains hung in the Green Room

We were able to put a washing load on this morning so got the bedding done for the double room, and also washed the covers for the new chairs. I was able to break my day up by doing little tasks like hanging the washing out, emptying the double room of building site stuff and then hoovering it (though this was done over lunch time really) and other stuff which is always good for my mood. Once A was able to help we lifted the scaffold into the double room and I hung the curtains up. It's really awesome to have the room back and finished and the lights in there have worked really well; I know the parents are going to love that room. Also, as it is at the front of the building it doesn't get sun through the day and so it is actually quite cool in the night which is another bonus.

Getting ready

When Sally came down from his lunch break he helped me to lift the mattress and bed frame into the double room (wow they are both heavy items) and then I carried my whisky display cabinet (or the base for the same) in as A had identified it as a suitable bedside table. We just need to get a bulb for the lamp, put the bedding on, and the room will be perfect.

Making the shuttering for the new window sills

The task given to Sally after the curtain rails was to fill in around the windows in the top corridor, specifically underneath where the unnecessary course of bricks had been knocked out. He set to this task with a vim and seemed so much happier than when he was making the doors. It's great to see him smiling and enjoying his work. By the end of the day all the windows have their shuttering and he was outside labouring away to dig out gravel and stones for the cement mix from the scattered remains of old deliveries; so frugal with our money.

I reached the end of my tether with work late afternoon and decided to finish off cleaning the tiles in Room 13, though there is still a task on to get the half-tiles in around the edges and then move all our gear back inside. The puppies are so very amusing while I'm doing this. When I began the job the other day they were in their getting involved trying to pounce on the rag and getting right in the way. They don't half get in the way but are also highly amusing; it is only when they actually bite my hand (not that I find it easy to avoid bopping their noses as I wipe) that it gets a problem.

They are so funny on this slippery floor

With the floor done I put the sheet on the double bed, pulled the covers in for the chairs and put them back on the foam (not as easy a job as you'd expect) and generally pottered about. The girls have been loving the new floor in Room 13 as it is cooler there than out here and they love sitting in the sun with the cool tiles underneath them. It is going to be a challenge to keep this clean while we have so much dust around; this picture was taken after I had hoovered the whole place.

Second to last course

And so the day wound down with Bekir finishing the tiling on the last large wall. This is an important success (though we will need to seal it all the way around with silicon so as to not let water through to the plasterboard behind) and means that tomorrow he can do the floor tiles and Thursday he can work on the plumbing and my mother and father can have a shower when they arrive (and we may be able to before they arrive and therefore not stink too bad). This would be very nice indeed.

Sun behind the new table canopy

The journey to take them back was unremarkable other than I gave some guests in their village a lift back to the village at the bottom of our hill which was nice, if not a little strange as we didn't have much language in common. It is so nice to be able to help people out like that though. A was cooking away when I got back and I got time to make a good start on this blog before we headed outside for our dinner. The sun was shining brightly as it descended and while I waited for her to bring the plates out I got this arty shot with the new table and the sunset.

Two plates of dinner, two glasses of beer

Dinner was really nice, awesome chili with loads of rice, and it was again really nice to sit on the balcony as the road noise was negligible and the kids on their motorbikes had obviously gone for their dinner. I have spoken to my police friend about these and he suggested to talk to the kmet so hopefully we'll do that tomorrow. If not he says he'll come and try and sort it out.

Relaxing on the bean bag, not begging at all

The puppies were being their usual awesome selves while we were eating, fighting away on the beanbag and generally having fun. They do still need to be reminded that they are not allowed to beg and we send them to sit on their "bed" which as A says is generally the closest soft thing on the floor. They're very awesome though and give us lots of laughs.

Golden sunset

I will leave you with this last picture, taken just as we finished eating, of the sun burning golden bright behind a tree on the edge of our land. It is noticeable how the evenings are already drawing in but we are still able to get our dinner finished before the sun disappears. This will only serve to reduce our evenings, though, and soon we will be watering in the dark.

Right, time to join in on the watering round, then place the pictures and publish this update. Thanks, as always, for reading and to the nice man on twitter who today told me he had just started reading the updates, this is how long it has taken you to get even this far through the blog.