I've been building

Hey it's TheBeard (as I appear to have become named on here - and I can go with that :)..) again still in Belgium but very much on the slope towards home and pretty relieved about that I am too - less than four weeks to go as I sit typing this on a Sunday evening. Mostly this update is going to be about my modeling and painting and other creative stuff that I've been getting on with to prevent myself from going mad however there are a couple of other items to get out of the way that are probably more interesting to you guys so feel free to leave once you've read them..

Around Mechelen

So here are the non-creating incidents of the last couple of weeks. I've not just been camped in the front room of this apartment breathing in noxious varnish fumes and counting down the seconds until I can go home... Not just....

The whole team, just before it split up

Beers to say goodbye to the designers

Celebrating a successful final presentation

Convention cookie

The project I came here to do had its deadline over the past couple of weeks. It has been a really fun team to be part of and apparently we have triggered complaints from the rest of the office for laughing too loud and too often. My reaction when told this was "great, keep it up team!" because having fun is better than being dour and boring. We did lose a couple of team members when the two designers moved on to another project (they are kind-of contractors like me, but really consultants in that they go where their boss tells them to) which was a shame because they were nice and Joren is the first designer I've worked with who I liked a lot. A week or so later we were out having beers again after the final presentation of our product went really well and that was quite a drunken night. I cycled home at about 9pm (I know, dirty stop out) along the canal and in the morning, which started at 3.30am as I woke feeling like someone was stabbing me repeatedly in the head, I was quite amazed I'd not fallen in said canal. It was a fun night though. Last week Cis was at a convention in London and he brought home a box of amazing cookies, and a robot which almost brought the office to a complete work-halt as we drove it around the floor. We lose another member next week, sadly, and then it's into a hand over process before I go home and say goodbye to these new friends. It's been good.

Awesome early morning sky

Waiting at work

Suitcase strapped to my bike

I almost wore this little fella

The weather has been just outstanding while I've been here. We've had very little rain for what you'd expect in Belgium and it's stayed really warm up until last week. I had to actually wear my coat over my vest while cycling to work last week (though this was also down to me being a bit under the weather and not wanting to make myself feel worse). Having said that about good weather this weekend has been pretty rainy and there was a very heavy rain storm a couple of weeks ago that soothed me to sleep as it pounded on the flat roof made of glass. As an aside the cat for the person upstairs absolutely loves pouncing on said glass flat roof and making a racket that makes me jump every time. We've had some thunderstorms the last couple of days, though they were all over very quickly compared to Bulgarian storms. I've been getting to work very early and watching the sun come up while sat waiting for someone to open the office up which has been giving me a good opportunity to get lots of words learned on memrise. I've really been gasping to get home for the past two weeks - it's been so tough. It got so bad that I went and bought a suitcase from Carrefour (and yes I did cycle back with it like that) so I could start packing. Yeah, with over five weeks left here of a 14 week contract. Meh. There was one other not very pleasant episode where I picked my shorts up to put them on to go to work and a huge spider jumped out and scuttled across the room. It was very large indeed. Suffice to say I've not left my shorts in a pile on the floor ever since.

Creativity - painting

And so we get into the things I've been doing to keep myself from going sane. With mixed success, it has to be said. Anyway, onwards to the pictures and a few words.

Before I started - note how I protected the table top :D

The first colour goes on

Attempt number one, and not too bad

The second go is definitely better I think

Side by side comparison

When I was very much younger I used to have a bit of talent for drawing cartoons, but only if I was copying them from someone else. I was, of course, not THAT good but I wasn't terrible. Fast forward all these uncountable years and it is all those years since I last really tried to do anything really arty. What I was realising was that I needed to be able to paint at least clouds on a sky with some mountains if only for the backdrop for the model railway. After watching so many videos on YouTube and seeing it look so easy I went out and bought a load of water based acrylic paints and a cheap pad of paper and gave it a shot. It came out so much better than I was expecting that the quality of the paper ended up actually mattering. My second attempt was on proper paper and this was far easier to work with, though it still wasn't perfect by any means. Since these two I've started a third however it isn't finished yet so no picture for you this time.

Creativity - The Shed

After my success with the first painting I turned my attention to another design that has been bubbling in my head for a little while. This is also for the model railway and, if I can get it home safely, it will appear in the first layout element that I'm starting hopefully this winter.

The drawing, and some of the materials and tools

Matchsticks glued over the drawings

Carefully cutting the doorway out

A rusty old tin roof

Four walls and a floor

A purple shed floor - perfectly normal, right?

It's not that exciting though. It's a shed. I got some ideas of scale from a few websites and sat down and drew out a plan of parts on some squared paper. When I was happy with this I taped some greaseproof paper over the top and then began the process of gluing the walls together. I did this with cut up matchsticks and white glue, liberally smeared on the paper, matchsticks pressed into it, then glue applied over the top as well. This dried really well and I'm glad I've tried this technique out properly. Then it was just a case of assembling it, having cut the doorway out and also made a tin roof from cardboard and tin foil with a bolt having been run over it to create grooves. Yes I know they are grooves going in the wrong direction. I don't care right now. Of course I had to paint the floor of it purple for A and it looks great. It's carefully packed now waiting to be shipped home with Ken.

Creativity - River

I'm really trying to have a go at lots of techniques that I am going to need to use when I get into my "proper modeling" when I get home and one of the biggest things I've been reading and watching videos about is how to work with water. I was close to not bothering with this while in Mechelen as I figured I wouldn't be able to do it without materials and tools but eventually the need to do something that wasn't painting (I may have found I don't suck as much as I thought I did, but it isn't my favourite creative outlet) pushed me to give it a go. There's a fair few pictures, so sorry.

The edges of the banks roughed out

Starting to cut out further shapes

Superb weighting down with various items

Poor man's papier mache attempt

There are so many methods for making rivers and if you don't believe me do a quick search on YouTube for instruction videos. With the limited materials available to me I had to work out a method that would work for me and it is one that I haven't seen anyone else use. First of all I marked out the stream bed that I wanted to have and then, with these blanks, I cut about 10 or maybe 12 of each side out of cardboard from a rice crispies box. These blanks were all glued to each other and left to dry fully before they were mounted onto another sheet of cardboard, this time from a keyboard box that I saved from the recycling at work. With this fully glued together I began the process of applying watered down white glue and toilet paper to the whole of the model. I think my glue was a bit over-watered however it worked well enough and I was left with quite a nice effect on the river bed, and smooth banks.

Basic colours added to the river

Expertly weighed down with pasta sauce

A few touches of colour from the moss

River glistening in the sun

A small silicon dam

This was painted and then I added some rocks before using boat varnish to build up multiple layers of clear water type material. I'm not sure I'd use this again, certainly not with me having to put such a thick coat on to cover everything, and right now I'm on the fifth layer (plus one more of white glue half way through that) and it's drying waiting another coat before work in the morning. I've put some twigs on to represent trees and have begun to experiment with adding moss (gathered from the back garden) as river weeds. The banks are a very red colour which was the mud I was aiming for and I'm debating whether to use some of the scatter I have bought to do grass. I think I will, on reflection. You'll have to wait for the next blog update to see the results though. One of the biggest issues is that the base is just cardboard and I've had to weigh it down so many times to prevent it from curling into a bow shape. I've had to build little dams at each end out of silicon as the thickness of varnish I'm adding started to drip off the end.

And there you have it. I've started another little scene today to try another technique out but you'll have to wait for the next one to find out about that. Maybe that one will even be my last ever blog while in Mechelen. We'll  see.

A week of weakness

A whole week to update on today, but in honesty, there is little to report in terms of my own progress. As the title suggests, weakness and exhaustion featured more than anything. I was under the weather for most of the week in fact and did as much as my body allowed, so here we go.

Monday

After a lovely roast dinner on Sunday evening I decided that I would make some soup from the stock I made from the chicken carcass. It was rather nice to get back into doing this again, I miss my bowl of lunchtime broth.

Boiling it up

Whilst at the supermarket I had the foresight to stock up on the soup veg and before very long, the chicken was strained, meat separated, a couple of treats for the pups before the veg went in and hey presto!

Healthy

In the pot

The thing I always remember my Nana saying to me is, "a boiled soup is a spoiled soup", so this simmered for almost two hours and it was delightful. I got most of the week's lunches from this. Simple things.

Next on the list was to have a quick rearrange of the wood store. This was mainly to make some room for the kindling that was still stored in the green building in preparation for winter. Winter is a looming demon here at the Old School and there always seems to be a big push to work towards making life as easy as possible for ourselves. It of course means that there is very little rest, even when you think you could wind down! Not a complaint, well not really. I am admittedly struggling with my motivation at the moment. 

Wood store

Excess from last year

Sally 2's achievements

Kindling for winter

Overflow

So as you can see, there is a slight overflow in the green building. Let's hope it sees us through winter. If not, there are more branches that can be broken up should we need to. Thelma and Louise are here to show you where and were on the trawl of rat sniff, I believe.

Ratting

Having had to almost tell them off to get them out of there, I was fettling around and doing a bit of a tidy when I heard a lot of commotion around. Coming from the garage, I found these two little blighters had jumped up onto the roof tiles and climbed in through the open window in the green building, rummaging for yet more rats amongst the pile of stuff the Mister has to clear before winter. We will probably have to have a bonfire, but not until it rains here as it is way too risky to start a fire at the moment.

Maybe one day they will actually catch a rat. That would be nice.

Last task for me on Monday was to do something with the oversized logs which came with out winter wood delivery. With the chainsaw now back in operation, I set to it. It is very surprising how quickly you forget and also, how quickly you must get used to performing an action you have never done before. I do not remember the chainsawing being this hard last year. I can only guess that I got more used to it because I had so much practice. This was just harder work than I remember.

Cutting and splitting

I got the axe stuck like this a lot

The splitting was the hardest part of this task. I am definitely moving that to the "blue job" list. I am only so strong.

At the end of my day and just as I was preparing to think about dinner, Little Lady and her son arrived with a huge pole and a couple of buckets to try and collect the walnuts from the land. They are late this year, but coupled with a bad drought this summer, there were very few to gather. They handed me over the bucket once they had finished and we'd had some coffee, but we still have a huge box of them from last year that we are never going to get through, so I gave them back to her. Feels good to give back as they are so good to us and also, because they had a smaller harvest this year from their own trees.

Harvesting walnuts

Tuesday

As I said at the beginning, this week I have been feeling rather odd. I have no pictures from Tuesday at all to show you. I was back at my job and at my desk and I had absolutely no energy at all, so I mainly worked and slept.

Wednesday

Wednesday was chicken fun day. Again, I was working and I took a nap at lunchtime and whilst a bit quieter, went down to see what the birds were getting up to and how they were finding their freedom. It seems they are having quite the ball! I was washing the dishes when this happened:

Guests

Followed everywhere I go

They trail me no matter where I go.

Thursday & Friday

Another couple of non-eventful days I am afraid. I did go to do the weekly shop on Friday and that was possibly as much energy as I could muster. I still have no idea what or why, but I am certainly starting to feel better again thankfully.

Saturday

We had the men back and not just Bekir, but also Sally. They had returned to get further along with the roof terrace, as mentioned before, before any rain gets down in behind the insulation and causes damage. We are praying for a continuation of the dry weather. They were sharing the task this weekend. Bekir is usually the tiler, but Sally was hands on and doing his bit on his section of wall.

Bekir's wall

Sally's wall

They had developed a time saving method for the mixing of the terracol and grout whilst they were up there. I went to the garden mid-afternoon to move the hose onto another bed in the vegetable garden only to find the hose had disappeared. My memory is shocking and I just thought I had moved it somewhere stupid and forgotten about it, No. Not so. 

Smart

They had switched from the free water to the mains water at the manhole and were currently enjoying not having to traipse up and down stairs with a full water bottle or bucket. They of course returned it to the garden for me in the evening. Such stars.

Not being totally idle all week, and starting to feel a little better, yesterday brought me a couple of chores. The first was to split the plant that S&S bought for us, way back when. This is the one which shoots a pink spiky flower from the centre and S has done some research and she said that the "babies" growing to each said of the mother plant are the new flowerers. She told me I should separate them out as the mother plant (central) dies and the two "babies" start to produce flowers. So I did.

Before

After

Close of play was late. They tried so very hard to get the chimney finished, but sadly time was just not on their side. Bekir got slightly distracted by a leaking standpipe in the garden which he replaced the tap opener on.  However, it is still looking really well and hopefully the lighter colours of the tiles will help to keep this a more manageable sun trap for my fair Irish skin!

Close of play

Sunday

Today has been a much better day for me. I was up and about around 7.30, letting the animals all outside for their morning exercises. I had watched a film on Saturday night and was quite late to bed, having gone out for my dinner. Oh, I almost forgot! I have been hankering after this all week and I finally felt well enough to go out and have a meal away from the School. It. Was. Divine.

Kunefe - a Turkish dessert that is just to die for. Recipe here, with obviously some regional variations: Kunefe.

Kunefe

So, back to Sunday. First off it was the chicken house, which was well overdue a clean out. I hate this job and it is actually more the thought than the doing as it really doesn't take any more than 45 minutes. 

Not much straw for summer

I cleared the room and squirted a fair bit of this stuff, Diatomaceous Earth to help with any parasites they may or may not have. Although seeing they are coming out of their moults, they are looking in quite good condition. Still, can never be too sure.

Diatomaceous Earth

Finally, the extra bedding for the colder nights was in place.

Clean hay

What else did I do? I tidied up mainly in the kitchen. I hoovered with my new Vax hoover, which I have to say has fantastic suction and I am pretty pleased. I also tackled the deep fat fryer, which admittedly has been neglected and so needed a huge scrub clean. Other than that and pottering around finding tools and things that I am going to need over the next week or two, I have mainly been chainsawing. It is hard work, but worth it come winter.

Starting small

First of two lots

That is the week so far and if you made it this far and read to the end then you deserve a bit of a giggle. I forgot about this video last week, but it still makes us both laugh very much. So until next time, leka nosht!

 A xx