Heading off on holiday

It's been rather a long break between updates, unusual even for me, as I've been so busy with non-house related stuff however as we head off to the UK tomorrow for family, friends, and Whisky I thought I'd best do an update covering the last 10 days or so, get some pictures up, and warn you that the next update won't be until mid June. At least.

There's too much to go through in a diary form so I'll group my pictures up. First of all some nature pictures,

Lovely waning moon

Sun rise to greet us

Good night with a hue sky

Huge storm while on the bus

A storm cell flies past

Beautiful good morning

The first picture was taken just after publishing my last update; a lovely clear moon seen out of the window of Room 13. Stunning. The weather before my business trip to the UK was pretty good, with lovely temperatures and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Of course it changed while I was away and there were some impressive storms, one in particular which the bus I was on coming back from Sofia had to drive through and it was very heavy rain and lots of lightning. The couple of days after I arrived saw more storms at home, though this one which was amazingly threatening didn't really drop much on us; it just rumbled in the distance and missed us. Our house sitter has arrived (and she is a blog reader as well which is awesome to hear) and we've had coffee on the balcony this morning while the sun rose and the region showed off its best.

Louise poised to play

Full speed after the ball

Rather be in bed

Rambo happy we're about

Helping A stack the wood away

Thelma standing on the old fire pit

Look at the burn

Louise sheltering from the rain

Of course the puppies deserve their own section. Louise has been becoming much more playful recently and chasing her ball while Thelma is also chasing hers. This time, however, she got too cold (it was quite early morning) and took herself back to bed to get out of the chill breeze. We've been doing a fair amount of tidying and once again Thelma got the chance to attack Henry - she actually bites so hard she lifts the head off the floor. Another chore that has been started is stacking the wood into the woodshed and Rambo came and "helped" (which means he got in the way) but he just loves the company. We also did a burn to clear away a load of paper rubbish, the first we've done for ages. Thelma doesn't like being up in the grass on the top bank any more (maybe she's faced down a snake up here some time?) and would only stand on the old fire pit. It started to spit with rain so Louise took shelter under a bush.

Night before travelling comfort food

4am unhappy beard face

Sunrise taken from the bus

Blurry wonky picture of lots of poppies

Happy in the sun with a Crabbie's

Pork on the rotisserie over the BBQ

Being worked hard by James

After the hard work, beer and burgers

Playing a quick game

Awesome food, but very expensive

Manchester rooftop bar sunset

Six days of the past 10 have been taken up with being in the UK on business. The night before I went we had a dirty fast food meal in town with kebab and a pizza and even beer. The next morning I was unhappy to be awake but the bus drive over was pretty lovely with the sun rise and all the millions of poppies turning the verge red. When I got to John's house it was lovely weather and I bought some Crabbies to enjoy in the sun. We had a lovely BBQ and some of his friends came over which was good. The next day we went to my mate's gym which was AMAZING. I was pretty wiped, as was John, but it was great to work out together. After this we went for food to a pub and then had a quick game of SBG at the local club. It was tiring but good fun. Business was really good, broken up by a nice meal and some beers on a rooftop bar. Once again I met up with a friend who collected me from the airport hotel which was great and then the trip back was the usual early morning and grumpy with too many people around. All in all the trip was badly timed (what with us leaving to go back to the UK tomorrow morning) but for having to go I had a good time and it ended up being worthwhile.

Sunshine on one side

Approaching Armageddon on the other

And so that is that. We've settled the house sitter, packed the car, and are all ready for tomorrow. Right now a storm is brewing and heading this way, though it'll probably miss us, so I'm about to go do that last of the packing to avoid rain and 4am tomorrow we'll be on the road and making our way towards the UK.

See you all after the trip.

And the workmen are done

Hello again, another short one as I'm tired (though not as tired as I was last night - I was in bed for 9 and slept right through until 6.30am!) and I want to spend time with A, who is ever more tired that I am today. It's been an exciting day of progress, though, topped off by the final pictures you'll see in the update. So let's get this going.

Early morning view

Moon above the village

The sun starts to appear

A golden display

When I woke it was a cooler morning with mist in the air, but stunning. The moon was still up and above the misty landscape and my photograph really doesn't do it justice. I was out onto the balcony a couple of times to get pictures as the sun came up however it was too cold for A so we didn't take our morning cuppas out there, sadly. The forecast is to rain all next week, when I'm not here, so this cooling down may be a pre-cursor.

Two separate units lifted in but not fixed yet

Single unit in place

Hikmet gets back to his scraping

Mesut touching up the paintwork

When A went to collect the men I did my chores and then finally got myself into gear to start the process of bringing the wood to the outside store. I did four or five barrows full before they arrived back, which is a good amount that will now get stacked away by A (who is far better at this task than I am). I then went and helped the men to bring the big units into the Games Room, which was fun as they are very heavy, while A made an amazing porridge for breakfast. With the corridor now cleared of units Hikmet went back up his scaffold and recommenced scraping. Bekir focused on fixing the units to the walls and making them square and straight while Mesut made himself useful around the Games Room touching up bits of paint and other tiny things that caught his eye; eh's a good worker.

Thelma is almost asleep

Louise is far less relaxed

Bekir fixing the unit to the wall

Loads of rubble as Hikmet continues

We have noticed recently that Thelma has had an intermittent limp, but she never complains. Anyway A noticed a little thorn in her paw and then found another so she checked her and Louise fully. Thelma lays there so calmly while Louise wriggles and struggles. They are funny in how they are so different. Bekir was, in the meantime, making good progress getting the units fitted to the walls. I did make sure he made use of the spirit level to get the units actually straight. How he stands on the very top of that ladder does freak me out, though. In the corridor the rubble was starting to build up again; I'll be pushing Henry around tomorrow morning I think. With the single unit fixed Bekir moved to the double while Mesut continued cleaning and finishing the rest of the room.

Bekir fits fly screens

Mesut fills in some gaps

The curtain rail is back up

Bekir has fitted shelves in the kitchen units!

So much dust from this job

With the units on the walls that was the Games Room completed (no picture for you yet, though) and Bekir began working through the list of odd jobs we had for him. First of all he put the fly screen on the window in the Games Room where it was missing, and then hinged the other one that had been fixed in place with no hinge by the people doing the insulation. Mesut he got to work on the unfinished parts around the guest room bathroom. The other tasks included putting the curtain back up in the nook and fitting shelves for A in the kitchen units. We didn't quite get everything done but it was close; nothing that was missed is vital for now. Hikmet, for his part, made loads of dust and then spent the final time tidying up.

And so that was that; the men finished all the jobs so we paid them off and I took them home. It'd been a really busy day for me, work wise, and so I rushed back to eat my dinner during a phone call and then I've been waiting for another one since. In that time I took the opportunity to go and set the gaming table up in the Games Room and so, below here, I present four views of the Games Room; I am very pleased and very excited.

View from the doorway

Another view

And another view

The final corner

HERE IT IS!!

I'm pretty pleased!

So with the workmen done the regularity of these updates will reduce as well. I'm not totally sure when I'll be back as I'm away on business next week and then we are on holiday for a while after that as well. I'll try and return as soon as possible, probably in a week or maybe a bit more. Thanks for reading, and I hope you read me again soon.

So very close to finished

Another update covering two days, but an update that needs to be finished quickly; I got back from dropping the men just now, sat in the reclining chair in the kitchen, and promptly fell asleep. I'm pretty tired. I had a dreadful night last night with music waking me after an early night and I was awake from 11pm until nearly 4am; not good.

Breakfast on the Balcony

Beautiful Dippy Duck Eggs

Thelma with duck shit on her neck

A loving her art room, and her art

The puppies love it also

Clive up on the bathroom windowledge

Awesome Iskander for dinner

Good night day off

Anyway, yesterday was a day off from the men as Bekir had paperwork to complete however A forgot and still got up at the usual time. Once she got over this we headed onto the balcony with dippy duck eggs which were absolutely lovely. The rest of the day was taken up with Thelma getting a shitty neck, A painting in her new awesome room, Thelma and Louise enjoying the awesome new room, me working, Clive standing on the bathroom window and then us going out for an Iskander in the evening. It was a good day, and nice to have time off from the workmen and be able to relax again.

Thelma and Louise still sleeping

Fitting plugs

Grouting onwards

I was still asleep when A headed to get the men but was up and about by the time she got back, though I wouldn't say I was strictly awake. The puppies had also struggled to wake up, apparently. The first job for Bekir of the day was to remove the four plug sockets in the art room and replace them with the plugs A had bought that wouldn't pull of the wall. Mesut and Hikmet were both working on the grouting, with Hikmet cleaning up and Mesut putting new stuff just ahead of him; a well oiled team.

One grouts while one cleans

Chasing the hoover

Sweeping up before grouting

Grouting done, just the cleaning

Thelma play time in the corridor

The rest of the day was a haze of excitement as we edged closer and closer to final completion. The grouting was shooting along while Bekir was making steady progress with the sockets in the Gaming Room having finished up for A in the Art Room. She was able to take a bit of time in there again today in breaks from her work, which was ideal. Bekir was using Henry to tidy up, rather than sweeping, and the girls got involved with that as they often do. The corridor being cleared is also awesome for Thelma as she can really easily play with her ball along it.

I'm even more excited than I look

Lending a hand to lift it on top

Base units for the gaming table brought through

The units are in place

At the end of the day I thought briefly that maybe we would actually complete everything today but moving all the shelving units in would have pushed another hour or two out of the day however I did get them to make a start carrying stuff in and getting the units in place. It's so exciting to see how well they fit together! With the wall units in I started thinking about putting the gaming table up tonight so got them to help lift the base for that in however I've since realised that I need to leave that clear until the shelving unit next to it is done. I am chuffed to bits and if I wasn't so tired I'd be in there straight after this starting to make use of the units.

Patience, grass hopper.

Digger man working away

Sun into the clouds

Taking the men home I encountered a digger on our lane and it is still working away now as the darkness gathers. I'm not 100% sure what it is doing so we'll find out in the morning. There was more roadworks on one of the bridges between here and the men's village and when I got back it was nearly time for dinner and as I said above I fell asleep on the recliner. We had lovely Chicken and Rice for dinner, sat on the balcony as the sun sank into the clouds gathering on the horizon.

We'll have all the men back tomorrow and hopefully that'll be the last of it, with maybe another day from Bekir if he doesn't get all the little things completed tomorrow. How awesome!