WMC's diary pages, 2003.

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See-also: http://www.wmc.care4free.net/diary/.

September 2003

Mon 1st

Again a clear-ish day: to Salcombe, managing to leave at 10.15, M & Ma having made a picnic. S has narrow lanes & only a short-stay car park (later: discover exists a long-, somewhere), we having spurned the p&r. So drive straight through, up winds then down, to N Sands. Which is road, car park behind, cafe (closed), & some buildings (poss tea rooms) at S end. & beach, only a little viz now at high tide. Pause to view, D climbs on boulders protecting the road. Then to S sands. 11. Car park: £4.75/day but no-one is around to collect our fee.

Look around, then get ferry to Salcombe: takes 15 mins. A motorised landing stage takes us out to the ferry, there being no jetty: or rather, takes the others as I video, & I wade after up to the crotch. D is v sad 'cos he thought I was being left behind.

& so to S: more fun than p+r. To 'the only pub with an estuary view' for lunch. All ok except for thin coffee.

Soir: Chomsky: null use of 'there' as in '...seems to be...' Look up in 'trad' grammar book.

Tues 2nd

Its another sunny day: look out of window down to Burgh Is. 'botheration' says D: he wants rain so he can watch 'James & the Giant Peach'.

11: to S Sands so M can kayak. Car park has only a few spaces left: its sunnier today. Only 15m of beach: but this is high tide? Yes. M *is* out kayaking, though they are special 'e-z' float type ones. She has no trouble kayaking out of sight.

She makes it to Castle; across channel; & back. All in 1h. Meanwhile we dig & E mostly watches from D's folding chair.

Lunch: a modest set of sandwiches today.

I too decide to have a go: sailing would be beyond me (? Or at least they would be dubious about lending to me) & anyway you go further by kayak. So I too do much the same round (having failed to persuade D to come; nb rules are that you have to stay line-of-sight of the boat house): land at castle (mortar has survived better than stones); cross channel & land on virgin sand (a nice feeling). Then back across - poss too close to sea as it gets quite excitingly wavey for a bit. Visit a beach & a cave - just space to turn round. Back, exactly on the hour.

More digging: a huge canal system to divert main stream into someone else's dam, in an effort to burst it.

To Overbeck house, just up some zig zags, at 4. Its nt/youth hostel. We join! (nt) my idea. Its an interesting place (starting with good tea room), for approx 1h (house collection: misc inc ships, animals, eggs, insects; 'secret room' with hunt-the-friendly-ghost for D) & unknown (gardens) since we are due home & do quick look outside: great for hide-&-seek. Views over estuary partially blocked by trees.

Home, 6.30, late. But no-one home: m+j's car is though (they only get a few days since F). E asleep; D tired.

M+J back 7 (had been out walking), Ma a little later. Dinner: cod-in-sauce, except eggs for me.

D's bedtime, Ma is selected. Brings in mind '(bed)Time considered as a helix of Arthur Ransome stories'.

Soir: more Chomsky. W f/cast is good. Mfd confirms 'there' is a known grammatical construct, poss 'auxillary'.

Since MfdJ here, orig plan in opp: E in cot with us & Ma in E's bunk.

Wed 3rd

O'cast, unexpected: I'm sure it will burn off. 11: others to Buckfastleigh (steam trains; otters), we will do Eastuary walk.

Note: High tide (plymouth) 16:13 (gmt, hence 17:13).

Bees loud on ivy as we go round shore, fail, & walk up from Cockleridge. Evil golf course. Green lanes near 'green well'.

1-20: stop for 'lunch' (orange & banana) just after Lincombe. Tide is high so have had to follow path up & down. Then gentle slope down through small oaks to road skirting/fording est.

To Aveton Gifford (why *gif*ford sez M; from a landowner, poss Giffard, sez pub & book; poss Auton from r Aune; confusion of written u/v) just in time for last food (2) at 'fishermans rest'. Cheese baguette.

On: over bridge/causeway (curiously less interesting close up than when driven over) & up slowly on path. Full sun now. Stiddicombe wood is pleasant (in fact this side is poss better than other) & we decide to follow path not forge our way by the waters edge. Bantham at 4:15: 'the sloop' shut at 2:30 & we've missed the 3-4 ferry. But thats ok: we'll wade.

Down to sand dunes/grass above sands: lovely: this is the correct approach to beach: memories of wales.

Wade river as test: just below crotch & fast: but 1h to low. Sit up on dry sand; M reads tyler & I decide to walk round this side of the beach. Which is a pleasant thing to do slowly shoeless under a clear sky.

Cross river with M about 6 easily; sit a while on jetty watching wading birds (inc heron again) & sunlight on water. Then up path (puff); home just after others, who have had a good day. E is conked out on sofa; D in bath.

Dinner for all. J reads to D.

Soir: I bath too.

Thurs 4th

Dawns sunny as f'cast. Our last full day but since hol is short no-one is really thinking like that. Ma & D go blackberrying & I sit in sun in porch so no hurry: beach past 12. Do usual beach-type things from high tide. D remains obsessed by stream/canal system & stays in wellies & jeans while all around are in s'suits: at the end of the day I *force* him to go wading in the sea: first this hol. Lunch: I stay on beach & read Chomsky & guard kit while others to Venus. I get misc apricots & bics in my bag. Hide under umbrella from sun.

MfdJM to Burgh Is to look round (err, & have a drink...). I swim in sea. Ma brings E down who is most distressed (by sea?).

Late: I walk round corner & up river a ways & drift down: a bit chill but fun: not deep.

Mfd, D & I walk back at low tide up hill: others have car'd earlier. D helps Ma with b'berry&apple crumble. He & E are tired. He chooses *me* to read him b'time story.

Fri 5th

Last day. Grey. Pack & off by 10.30. People in opp corner house ask about ours so we show them; in return D & Ma look at theirs: ours better (bigger & views).

To Killerton House (M's choice) via Totnes (M's map reading... though we did get turned round on some tiny roads). 1:45h. Good lunch. Rain stops.

'open door & walk through' puzzle to D. He understands, but reaction is to rephrase it to try to remove 'problem'.

I am trapped in 'wedding dress hell' but D is happy looking for the hidden teddies. Nt arbitrary rules irritate: no photo, no vid, no sitting on carpet. D & I look at gardens while M goes back to ch E. 2:30h total: too long, we have little time for elsewhere.

1:30h to services. 1:40h to anon parking: D & (mostly) E shouty as is perhaps to be expected from this long in car. 1:25h to home: 8:30...

... where Marion & John are installed in l'room, by prior arrangement, we having left the key with A+C. Hello, etc. They have brought dinner in exchange for bed (quiche and oven chips, which M gamely cooks, though the chips take awhile, and I munch on some lovely-looking super-mouldy cheese).

Sat 6th

Starts with an uneasy night then a pre-8 am vomit. Oh dear. Must have been that mouldy cheese I ate while waiting for dinner. Oh dear oh dear. The rest of the day I am semi-functional, not rising till 10 and skipping lunch (indeed all food bar a little yoghurt and one lettuce leaf and a small carrot) in favour of sleep by the fire. Still I do manage to talk to M+J somewhat, mostly about baby things strangely enough since Marion is in the process of having one, she has reached 6 months so far, and they have just finished their "last" holiday.

MJ off 3 ish. I mostly collapse and M kindly does most of the DE watching.

Bed early: 9: read till 10; then blessed sleep.

Sun 7th

Up bright and sprightly, in fact better than I have for ages, I blame yesterdays enforced rest and early bed! Weather lovely: sun and light dew. Hack back vine now we don't need it as a sunshade.

M takes DE to lammas land as they are both far far too bouncy: this extends till about 2. Meanwhile I potter and ponder and wash some clothes and read with coffee.

Lunch. Then E to bed (she having become v ratty).

3: to b+q for:18x32x(2.1,2.7)x8; t+g 2.1x95x7.5x3; corotherm 3mx0.7x4 (£80); 18x70x2.4x4; 6x45x2.4x4; woodglue (fail but danish oil .5l instead): £127.37 total.

Bw: D runs with great enthusiasm up & off the skateboard ramp left there. D Baldwin comes over to talk; the ice cream van goes by; D asks for an ice and I send him off with £1. He comes back and sits under a tree. Later, I discover that somehow he had not got anything, so begins the hunt for the van because D is sad... eventually we find it, hurrah!

Home: M is cooking dinner. D and I go to the much much delayed task of hoovering the car (discover mystical missing blue square & red 'lescun' water bottle). E comes out to watch for a while. Get most of it done (forgot drivers seat) and re-institute blanket on back seat. Dinner. M beds DE: they take ages to settle and get naughty. Which annoys M.

Soir: quiet/wiki.

Mon 8th

Back to work! But more than that, start of y2 for D. He slots in with no sign of 3 days missed, & happily Genevieve & Oliver are still in Mrs S's class.

Work / yoga (first for ages) / work. 4: Z's seminar, but he has hugely overest our knowledge of sbl's.

Tues 9th

Work, quite hard.

7:20: to parents evening. Talks from Mrs M etc, pta, then on to: Ks1 by Mrs S:

Indep start 9 change own reading books pencil grip individual healthy snacks & water pe: tues & thurs pm label clothes no sandals for outdoor pe (but bare feet for indoor). Don't buy anything rules for class (written by kids) mostly 'be kind to each other'.

Fr club?

Soir: M mails, I wiki.

Wed 10th

Now slipping back into routine: D to school (*on time* this year; but we forgot wellies for playtime & w'bottle); slowly home with E; misc; cycle to town (via s to drop off b+b); swim, arj (E heads straight to her favourite biscuits), cb1. Outside: rain.

Thurs 11th

Work / yoga / home, in drizzle: to find M, who I left asleep on the sofa, home but awake. Companionable lunch.

4: shed.

6: pick up D then E.

M wants a tumble drier.

Fri 12th

Work: acw in hadcm3 commences. Home 2: coffee in sun (after grey/wet days).

Pick up DE: we have N over. D & she are happy together, after long summer sep. They want something, unclear, - a den? - under/in the apple. So I make little bench from decking with jigsaw & this goes well. They keep E clear. D practices bike a bit. M back 6; I get another cup. Take N back 7: she cycles.

Read D ch 2 of 'coot club' which Tom says is good - I recall M being unkeen.

Soir: begin org of b'days.

Sat 13th

Lie-in till 9. To town: find u'pants in m/s but not shorts: nor in (ugh) gap. Hey ho. R/s: driers: eg bosch wta3204: 5kg / £349 / 3.3 kwh/cycle. Cond tends to 4.2 but 6kg: is it per kg? No its total: thus cond is 4.2/3.3 * 5/6 more: 6%. Not a lot.

Pm: M to town, E to sleep. Make banana/walnut/choc bread (cake) with D: needs more taste. Tablespoon def? Then play orient exp'n 'golden dragon' game over web with D. Break, outside in sun, on new bench, eating cake. Then lego gears game, D hooked. E wakes.

M back 7. She has order an aeg cond. Prune vine more towards winter state.

Soir: bold as love. So-so so far.

Bed: move D back to his: 2nd in a row. Moon shines brightly now vine chopped.

2: to newnham trains, reminded by my palm. We take N; after a while A+C with B,G,Stanley arrive too: its good in a group like this. A took B to see Cambrdige U yesterday: it worked well he said: would d

Sun 14th

Am: D still addicted to lego gears game, with occaisional breaks for E's goes. Outside: hot sun: E & I sit on new bench. M up 10.30.

Shed about 2h, doing outside front "rafters" or whatever you call them. Good. Odd stringly contrail-clouds (you can tell I'm a met-man) in an otherwise very blue sky.

Interesting clouds Three on a train Waving D watches, fascinated
2: to newnham trains, reminded by my palm. We bring N, & A+C bring BGS too: & have a good time. With more adults a chance to rest.

Back 6; borrow N for dinner, they want to play the game, D walks her through the early levels.

Mon 15th

W/Y/W.

Back slightly early: 6.30: find others outside: M had forgot her key. DE have found a fast (unsettlingly so) big fat caterpillar with a blue horn: Dr Internet says it is a Lime hawk-moth (blue horn).

M to yoga; DE to bed.

Tues 16th

Work: frustrating: mail & slow sys.

Home: lunch, then some shed & get a nasty splinter :-(.

School: pick up DBSam & E. Getting them all moving... sigh. D & S come down from their tree on only second call. But B is in tears before house: earning DS a stern reprimand. & so down garden: tree house (more intervention req) & I do a little shed. D: boasts: my daddy is a woodworker! He's always starting things! Then frogs: S catches 1 large & 3 small: enough.

Inside: pirate ship: E & I have some tea: others too busy. Comes 6 & nearly time to go: pirates has mutated into 'schools' into running around, so I call them down. D v sad no dinner together, but popcorn instead. Andy, then Penny, arrive; kids run to tree house but are chased out. M back.

I dig out & pump up & oil beauteous bike.

D confesses to his part in the 'adam incident'.

Jellyfish clouds at sunset as I cycle off to gp agm over the fields: a superb display: but I have no camera.

Wed 17th

A lovely morning. D to school, I have a word with Mrs S.

E plays 'hiding' behind st p's road sign: I now understand when she runs ahead at this pt.

BW, town: rs (no shorts :-(), arj/cb1, preceded by giving sa E's old green boots.

Home (via H re incident): E sleeps on bike but wakes on being put to bed, but stays there. Coffee. DM back 4-, I get 1:30 on shed, to finalise front roof. Need base now (which requires movint it probably; but it needs this anyway because the sloe is in the way at one side) then fit out.

D is 1.175 m tall; E is 0.85 m, by M's measure. So E will be 1.70 when grown?

Soir: pub with A+S.

Thurs 18th

Work: machines f*ck*d again, so read White quite profitably. Yoga. Home (via Mad Mulch, who don't do paving slabs they say but there is this chap in Milton...), coffee & lunch. Then! Allot! First for some time. Front patch: dig over some & dig up pots & onions, & pick some spinach. Clouds: will it rain? Stop for 1/2 cider at Plough at 5.

Pick up D; then E.

Soir: quiet. Some planning for D's party.

D sees from bed a hedgehog out the front.

Fri 19th

At last minute, D insists on finishing his homework: writing 20..1, M and I disagreeing over who supervises: well, are *you* going to take him to school sez I, 'cos she is slowing this up? And in the end she does, since we all leave at 9, so she drives him up while I cycle with E so no-one is too late, except M I suppose.

Work: at least things are working again, muted hurrahs. Decline ucl sea ice meeting since I would have to cross picket line. Home: lunch; coffee. 3:30: pick up E, and lead D, N and Adam to multi-sports. Which is up on the field, it being a warm sunny pm. And so they run aronud and catch balls and stuff and seem happy: its not just their year but mostly young folks. Barbara is there too watching Milan and she leads me into the secret garden (sorry the wild g) once we've found the key and we look at the pond liner (numerous holes, but mostly high up; buytl rubber - can you patch it?) and the uncontrolled plants: much hacking required.

After this they want to stay and play; at my instigation they race: D marginally beats N up the field but knocks N (accidentally?) on the way round; then deliberately found both N and A on the second race, and gets sad and acts surprised when I disqualify him. And so on. Finally drag them home, N and A on bikes; all 3 go the long way round. Misc at home, fairly peaceful. Just cooking noodles at their req when M comes in 6:20 ish, ie late, so I take book and retire to peace of down-the-garden.

M puts infants to bed, which goes well until she appears at 8:30 odd... can I help clean up D's vom? Urgh oh great... D isn't too sad, just the effects of 2 hot chocs, and mostly hit the floor, though poor huggy is a bit slimed. E is confused, but quiet.

M reading Coot Club to D: she says: he is a little disappointed no small children to relate to.

Bed 10.30: D still sleepily awake.

Sat 20th

Yet another lovely day... some rain would be nice. Lie in till 9, even DE not up till 8. B'fast, coffee & paper outside. D makes me smash Dee-dee, she proves resilient, her head cannot be twisted off. Then, having considered town & decided on a morning at home, more hacking at vine up ladder & ivy. Mde eventually to w/s 11 ish, I to allot via produce stall (who ask after honey!). Mostly hacking back & preparing for autumn, esp around blackcurrants. Then, 1, to pub for cider: outside, watching world go by: though few do.

D catches a small frog from pond to bucket. Then I should catch a big 'to look after small'.

3: with E sleeping in back, in search of paving slabs (having decided to make shed base a hollow rect of them). To place on ind est on Milton r'about recc by Mad Mulch but shut w'end. So: b+q: & along way decide to use concrete instead: such are my fickle ways. Buy 25kg x (1 cement, 2 sand, 2 10mm gravel) £15 total. Presumably I could have had it delivered... even ordered on web? 4:45 to Orchard for coffee, & apple j for E, since we're passing. Sun is relentless (esp in town).

MD back 6:30 ish.

E in her trolley in the old old pushchair from Dot Sun 21st

Quiet day. I'm up with infants, but not too early, so happy. D to sunday club, which he is keen to attend, and has fun there. Various phone calls to Tom to try to arrange sailing but no go. So I get to put in some solid work on the shed, and spend something like an hour apiece on the slabs at each corner, first moving the shed back off the slabs, then digging down to firmer earth, levelling, putting sand down (sparingly: I don't have much; use 1 1/2 25kg bags); then shuffling the shed back onto them. And lo! It is done, and appears good.

Meanwhile, D plays on the green and elsewhere with G+E; and Tayler (girl); and Connor (her brother). And they spend quite some time ronud here, in the tree house (without dying); frogging in the pond (beats back the weed a bit; then find more frogs than I thought were there); and swinging madly on the double-seater.

M cooks 6-ish and we chase the others off.

Soir: I bathe with Weirdstone of Brisangimanen or whatever, which appears to try to incorporate as many elements of Tolkein as it can. But the crawling-through-the-mines was scarey.

After: feel very hot. Sit outside, still feel hot. Bed: still feel hot, or at least rather warm. Get up to settle E, who tosses and turns. And I have a disturbed night somehow. But nothing comes of it.

Mon 22nd

Why doesn't the toilet refill? Odd. Still water from taps, perhaps a little slowly. At school, discover why: village has a water problem: school will need to shut at lunchtime if not solved. Oh-err. Arrange with Claire for her to take D if this occurs.

Tee-shirt only to work, its so warm. Work / yoga / work. But by lunchtime rain has started and pours down... still pretty wet when Im coming home. Water *was* restored so all is well. Home a little early: how has shed fared in rain? Quite well, except ridge blew off: oops: hence drips down center.

New tumble drier is outside at back, somewhat wet in its packaging. Clear l'room space and bring it in, discarding packaging outside. Its not too heavy. OK... so: take down cupboard to L of sink (fortunately its slightly discontinuous from others) in about 15 mins (ha! fastest work I've done in a while!) and we put the new machine into place, test it for 1 sec (OK) and then M to yoga (obviously, it will be her job to *use* the machine).

E to bed. D wants to stay downstairs awhile, so he eats an apple blanket-wrapped by the fire, quietly listening to Bagpuss for the first time, while I wash up. More coot club, then bed for him.

Tues 23rd

Chill sun. D to school: I have forgotten his lemonade bottle for instrument-making but just as I'm resigned to going home and failing to find one Naomi turns up with a spare for him - someone has been predicting our incompetence...

Work: The great racking, vol 1.

Home, lunch.

3:30: pick up E & see D off to S's with B. M sez: D much happier now S corraled at lunchtime. To bw with E.

Home: tidy, hoover. Put dismantled cupboard shelf mid opp; cut new shelf from carcasse & put L opp; restore (cut) upright between wash & dry. Cook: pots, aub, sos, onion. MD back 6:30+, D sad (trivia) & won't eat.

7.30: to gov i.o.g. Tricias till 9. Ok.

Soir: M browsing catalogues for D's present.

Wed 24th

Hot sun. Talk outside school with N & P, then bw till 10.30 with E, whose hair is getting golden. E plays happily while I mostly lie back on the bench in the sunshine and fend off her attempts to get me up. I pretend to snore: she pushes my head from side to side.

But enough of this: put the washing out, hitch up the saddle, and ride off into town, tee-shirt only. I am looking mostly for a spirograph for D, and posibly a present for E and Helen, but those two sort of slip out of my head. RS *have* a s'g, but, its not the one I remember, more modern and not so good looking. Hmpf. But nowhere else even has one. well, leave it for now. Arj, where E rnus straight to the biscuits she likes; cb1, where all is quiet, I can watch the sun on the houses opposite and read "the sirian expts" which is *still* a weird book, even if readable. Home, via oxfam: get (first editions, since thats what they had) of Engine Summer (£6) and Majors Clangers Rocket (£20): something of a contrast!

Home, E to bed, me to coffee and sit in sun with Major C and the iron chicken. Palm beeps: D is to O today: oh I'd forgotten: phone around and arrange N to remind M; but then M cycles back. N has proposed joint b'day for D and N: sounds good to us, just a question of how to arrange.

I go to work briefly to look at the new racking and arrange one other matter. Then spend 5-6:30 concreting a slab between the back 2 paving slabs. This requires 3.5 times D's orange B+Q bucket, full of (1xsand, 1.5xgravel, 1/2xcement of D's red bucket - is that precise enough). Which is more than I wanted to use: then next slabs are going to be thinner and shallower. Anyway, thats my first ever concrete, done as much for the practice as anything. I wonder how it will stand up?

Fill bucket of misc pond stuff for Joanne, which M takes. Tidy outside a bit. Dying sun, but someone has lit a bonfire and the smoke trails along the ground.

MDE back, D happy, and with his musical instrument, a 2l lemonade bottle with a string stretched taut inside, which he proudly shows me can be variably tightened to change the note. We settle down to read Major C, and M reads it again later, but with different voices: I did Major C with a gruff voice, but he is also supposed to be clangerish, of course, so M did him squeaky. Who knows.

Soir: M to N to discuss b'days, then to pub with Andy. I write B+vonS wiki.

Thurs 25th

M stays in so Mr Adaptive can complete our broadband.

Drive in to pick up legs. Ok. No yoga.

Home: try b'band (works: fast), relax, then shed: rear eaves, nearly last bit of roof. Concrete looks ok, & bears weight of legs + plywood sheet making a 'bench'.

Pick up D & take home: he wants to play game: won't work. Odd. Go get E.

M does tortillas & refried beans for us (good).

Can't log in to bas soir: odd. & b'band now unfunc. & my bas newsposts are still blocked somewhere in nerc's empire, or above. Computers, eh?

Quiet soir: Engine S & some tidying & stuff to loft.

Fri 26th

Network f*ck*d & no ip. Sigh. Manage some work.

Home 2. Coffee. Quick go at shed: twiddles of rear eaves.

School: get happy E, go find D, to check he is multi-s'ing ok. Go up to field with him, N, A & O. They play at top & D is *v* sad (absurdly, annoyingly so) when I call him down to the hall. Stern words. Others come ok: D, as usual, had got wrapped up in his project. E & I watch inside a bit: 'ice hockey': 2 groups of 6, he calls out '1!' etc & 2 kids #1 jump up & play till goal or 3 hit-outsides. D's turn (#6): he is a little slow & his opp, perhaps by luck, gives one whack & scores before D has really worked it out. D turns, dejected; & coupled to earlier sadness its too much: head to knees & tears. I comfort him a little (but since its 'my fault' this doesn't help much) then E & I go home (Mrs L catches us re poet Kate). BW. E clears up rubbish, bare foot.

When we get back, M is home, a pleasant surprise. We all sit in l'room. Phone Kate (uncertain) re poetry at school; & John M re lift to Huntingdon tomorrow. M cooks omlette. Rain. 6.15: drive off to get D from N.

D stays up till 8.30, tired but playing quietly & happily. I read him CC by fire while M mails.

Sat 27th

Hmpf. E awakes wet 3-ish but happily M does her. Then she burbles to herself 6 on. They come into our bed (D being silly throwing blanket & crow down).

I leave 8:10 to cycle to Histon where I await John M to give me lift. Sun. Wait at holiday inn entrance; jm; we arrive with 10m free: sit in sun. Despite '9.45 sharp' we start at 10. And so it goes: quite active, lots of questions from most people (starting with me) and some people quite belying their looks. Some of the content was a little dull (esp statutary-vs-section-137) but the questions saveed it. Lunch was good, too, and we ahd a small amount of free time to sit outside in the sun. Its a nice quiet place (on a sat, at least). Fin 3; back to my bike by :30. What to do now: tired, so head for town and cb1 for a well deserved (?) sit down. Though as it transpires on sunday M doesn't think so. Anyway: home before 6 (pausing to chat with Paul B on the rec and Nick re preserving apples), but they are still out, so I wander down the garden for a little while, before they return. They had fun, but D says it was a bit young for him.

Sun 28th

Up with infants. Take D to s'club 11-12. When I go to pick him up they are all busy, colouring in their snap cards, which are paired: a thing broken, and the thing to fix it.

After, to B+Q, just for once not mostly for shed but for shelfboard for the kitchen top shelf (its been a short board in its plastic for years now, silly) and for the loft. D doesn't want to come. Get:

1.5x300 x2 (loft) 2.35x (400 + edge strip 1') (kitchen). ... x 70 boxes! Dark blue 40l. sand, gravel.

£66.50 (but mostly non-shed). And boxes and jigsaw blades etc from xxOctopus about £40.

Bees v busy: sensing end of summer? I mow back lawn where bouncy castle is to go, and start out to dig out the rats tunnels from the compost heap but M comes and recalls me to my duty, and it transpires that I owe her for yesterday... anyway.

A family type afternoon.

Mon 29th

Work / pub (Jds 50) / work.

Soir: top shelf: cut bottle holes (leaves 3 nice wheels), put on edging, oil. Realise needs cuts for brackets: tomorrow.

Tues 30th

Early: get new top shelf up, while DE conveniently have bath.

Work till 3: arn for Roger. Gets me early to school, unlunched. Quiet pm with DE.

Cook: pots, onions, sos: which D rejects untasted.

Collect 3 doors from Caroline's skip for shed.

Soir: N over to help M stuff party bags till 9.30; I tidy. Realise that some of D's invites may never have arrived...


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