We had a fantastic weekend away 'vannin'. The weather was, for the most part, better than the forecast, although we did get a bit of rain, on and off. This was most inconvenient on Saturday night when we were trying to have a BBQ, however a bit of ingenuity, string, spare poles and the flap from the awning made a perfect roof for the BBQ area, and a very nice meal was had by all. The awning was severely smoked in the process, and is now hanging up in the shed, drying and airing, so the shed itself now smells like I imagine one of those kipper-smoking huts smells.
The only other slight fly in the ointment, but not one that caused grief for long, was the fact that the Maggots and their maggoty friends made a camp, as you do when camping in amongst the trees. Unfortunately, this contravenes Rule 4, subsection iii of the woodland code*, and so our friendly ranger, whilst doing his rounds with snake hook** in hand, did drop by to inform us of our transgression. Needless to say that we have now tutored the maggots in the perils of Ranger Danger.
On other news, I am half way through replacing white plastic sockets and switches with brushed stainless versions in the rest of the house, to match the newer part of the house. By so doing, I have been and gotten myself a bit of an education on two way switches, being totally floored by an issue with the hallway light for an hour or more, before Uncle Google came to the rescue. I am currently learning about three way switches, for the landing light, and realise that you need a special "intermediate" switch in the middle that has four, not three, connections. A quick trip back to the electrical wholesaler will hopefully sort that one out.
I have realised however that, were events to take a turn for the worse on the employment front, "Electrician" is not one of the out-of-the-box jobs I will be considering. It is just too damn fiddly. Maybe it is my chubbly little fingers (the same chubby fingers that stops me playing even a passable rendition of any Hendrix riff***), but those little screws and the short wires and all that messing about just does nothing for me. The switches and sockets so far converted do, though, really look the business, and have finished off their host rooms nicely.
This weekend, LO is in London on Saturday with Samantha, so undoubtedly David and myself will be doing something together with the Maggots. Probably Pizza Hut like every other saddo daddo. I am also planning for Sunday to be the floor re-varnish day. Now we have the patina of oil-based varnish as a base, I plan to use water-based Diamond Hard Varnish from Ronseal, and being water-based means that it does dry quicker. I can re-coat after 2 hours, and it should be dried sufficiently to tiptoe in 8 hours, and fully dry in 24, although experience tells me it will be fully hard in a week or so. This will mean clearing the room of furniture, made somewhat easier from the recent painting, which means that the room is only a skeleton room anyway. The plan I think is to move it all to the extension, and set that up as the day room proper with sofa, chairs and TV setup. We will then be confined to downstairs until late afternoon.
David does not know it yet, but I hope to lure him back from Pizza Hut on Saturday to help with the lifting, assuming his back can take it, which is not a given.
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* Nothing may be tied or attached to any tree within the site.
** Well, it was either a snake hook or a litter spike.
*** I am all for artistic licence, but really, Hendrix? Are you sure? Ed.
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