My Birthday, and the next day

There was no blog yesterday as I made the executive decision to not go anywhere near my laptop if I could help it, and to spend lots of lovely time with my family as it was my birthday. So here I am with two days to write about.

The morning that greeted me - stunning

My day, laid out in tasty nomminess

Birthday bunting in the dining room

Birthday boy with his headgear

The best way to start the day (just like Christmas)

Cheers! Here's to you!

Breakfast of champions

So yes, yesterday was my birthday and it was made so special by everything that A had done as of course with the lockdown and nothing really open she was put in a very difficult position to prepare anything. I loved every bit of it. I woke early to a gorgeous sky and then, when I was allowed downstairs, went to find that there was my favourite meals lined up for through the day - crumble for breakfast, cake for lunch and lasagne for dinner! She had also decorated the room and it was so lovely to see. We had some head bands to wear (the men saw me in this and didn't even blink or comment! hah!) and then pink fizz with our breakfast. What a lovely start to the day. A had been up crazily late preparing everything and it was super worth it (from my well rested point of view).

Shuttering for the next column

Back to the traditional methods

Tiny bucket to fill the columns

Getting ready for the surface

As I say the men turned up and were not phased by my headwear and got stuck in to the tasks in hand. First of all this was to shutter and install more reinforced concrete for the porch. Sally and Halil went back to traditional mixing of cement methods for the small amount they needed and then after lunch everyone got involved in fixing the wooden forms so that Sally could do his magic and skim the walls with cement.

Lunch, as has been observed already, involved cake but not just cake - candles and singing and cake. Wonderful! The cake tasted amazing and we all enjoyed it - Rosie particularly I think :)

A sign of the times

Wood strapped to car

The toilet is getting fitted!

Bekir fitting the hose to the vacuum pump

The reservoir will sit on these beams

My afternoon was taken up working with Bekir to get the toilets fitted and everything in place but first we had to pop to the builders merchant (I was waved through by the policeman who knows me with a big smile so that was nice) where I wore my mask then strapped a 100 x 100 beam to the roof of the truck; what else does one do on ones birthday. When we got back we set to and pretty quickly had the toilet positioned and threaded the piping to where the reservoir is going to go. We were able to get everything in place but did find we were missing some fittings however a trip to the shop again was not a nice thought so we left it. At the end of the day the reservoir was on its supports, the pump was secure and we knew where the power supply would sit.

The worst sight ever for a lasagne lover

Good beer to make it better again

And so it came to the evening and my lasagne and what a tragedy struck. I was carrying it to the table and I felt it starting to slip but it wasn't slipping out of my hands, the bottom was falling out of the Pyrex dish! It landed with a bang and a sizzle on the dining table with glass everywhere and that was that - no lasagne and me almost (well, actually) in tears at the waste of effort and love from A. The redeeming thing was that it didn't injure anyone, was cleaned up quickly, and we had some lasagne left over from my mum's visit in the freezer. Still, what a thing. I was, and still am, seriously gutted. I did get to enjoy the final Islay Ales that I'll ever taste, which was lovely, and after dinner we went outside and I let off the big banger that A had bought me. This was great, but Thelma legged it and it took us a while to find her again, poor wee puppy. All in all, other than the lasagne tragedy, it was a superb and amazing day and I thank A again for making it so good.

The shuttering gets removed

Pipes strapped to Thomas

Sally reaching the top of the wall

Bekir tidies at the end of the day

And so to today. Once more it was a glorious day and we've been outside almost all of it. The men have cracked on as well. Bekir removed the shuttering first and the Sally got back on with the finishing off work. We went down to the shop to pick up the stuff that we would need to fit the second toilet, and finish the first, but found that the fitting we needed was not available. Bekir will try and find it over the weekend. We got most everything else however and had some more interesting strapping on Thomas to transport pipes. When we got back Sally was getting to the end of the first wall but obviously couldn't be bothered to find the ladder - inventive. Bekir was inside, meanwhile, working on drilling out and making way to bring water down for the toilet into the bathroom. He did this very neatly indeed with minimal disruption in the guest room, just what I hoped for. And that was that.

Brambles grow so fast

Rosie watches the sheep

I got the grass towards the driveway cut this afternoon which was great; the brambles by the green building are shooting back up, however. We'll be doing something about them again next week I think. I took Rosie on a little adventure up the land to the bins and on the way back she stopped to say hello to the sheep - she absolutely loves watching them.

So there you have it; another week done and I'll be back on Monday hopefully with another update. Thanks for reading.