London home gets a bit of a facelift
Wed 21st - Mike went to work. I went over to visit Keith - with instructions to bring him a big mac and fries this time! Popped to Sainsburys for him (where I was able to get a brilliant birthday card for Mike) and then down to the Co-op. Then changed the sheets on his bed - which gave us chance for a bit of a chat. I got back before Svetla left and, as arranged, we went up to the spare room to get it set up the way I wanted - only to find it was still full of Lorraine's stuff and also that the bed was piled high with stuff. We moved it all out into the back room and just had time to move the bed over to the other corner before Svetla had to go. In the afternoon I made up the bed with the superking duvet and duvet set and cushions and throw which Jayne had given me and it looked really nice.
Took Suki for a walk and then went to Guy's where we scored a nice handbell peal of Lincolnshire - there was a bit of chaos after a couple of hours but it got sorted and otherwise it was a good peal. Mike was suffering a bit by the end - he looked a bit pale and his stomach was playing up.
Thurs 22nd - Mike's birthday
Lorraine came over later and put all her stuff in the loft, including all the stuff from the living room. We had a lunch of soup and bread together. She had one of the storage boxes I had bought - and then broke it when it fell to the floor full of DVDs! I spent nearly all day putting up the pole - I was able to drill the holes directly into the wall, although one of them wasn't quite as deep as it should have been, so I didn't need to put a wooden baton up first. After all the struggling and swearing, I was very pleased with it when it was finished, and the curtains moved smoothly opening and shutting.
In the evening I went to Kris Fowler's flat near Old Street and attempted another peal of Lincolnshire with her and Robert and Tricia Newton. It failed after about an hour - I don't think it was me, but it could have been. We then rang a QP of Superlative - good for me to try something inside on the fly so to speak. We had a drink (me beer, Newton's tea, Kris wine) before going home about 9 pm.
Fri 23rd - Got up nice and early and had Suki walked, breakfast things washed up and Mike's back dressed in good time to get to Steve's in time for coffee and croissant. We had a nice morning ringing Cambridge Royal without actually scoring anything. Came home and made cheese on toast for lunch. Walked Suki then mowed the lawn before going to Barnes to ring in QP of Plain Bob Major called by Colin Friend - his first as conductor. It was quite a reasonable QP by Barnes standards. The practice was well attended and enjoyable - Julia turned up just after 7.30. We went to the Red Lion afterwards and Mike and I had the special Pork and Venison burgers which were lovely. Got home about 11 pm and sat in the kitchen chatting over Ovaltine before going to bed.
Sat 24th - Mike went to Barnes in the morning and Julia was off on her Irish Association outing which she had arranged. I had a complete rush of blood to the head and decided to paint the bathroom. I got up early and put the futon covers on the futons while I was waiting for the rest of the house to wake up! They looked great - so much better than having the throw over them.
I walked Suki up to Stamford Brook station with Julia and managed to fall flat on my face, bending my glasses. Again no real damage - just a bruised knee and dented pride! When I got home I immediately set to and painted the ceiling and radiator in the bathroom. I had just finished the radiator when Mike came back in so I then went down and helped Mike install the new downstairs toilet seat I had bought in Trago Mills. This took about an hour - Mike did it all properly and it was quite an eye opener as Jayne and I had installed the same model seat in Bovey and had really struggled. It looked really good when finished - and very secure as it is glued in place as well as screwed. An unexpected bonus is that the flush button is not accessible if the lid is up, so from now on I shouldn't have to keep closing the lid when other people leave it up!
We had a light lunch and I then gave the bathroom ceiling a second coat of emulsion. It all looked so much better and brighter - I considered giving the radiator a second coat of paint but had really run out of oomph so left it for the time being as it is still so much better now. I put the new shower curtain up and installed the new free standing shelf rack for the shampoos etc and then Mike was able to have a shower.
Sun 25th - Got up at 6 and took Suki for a walk then Mike and I went to 8 am service. I decided to wear contact lenses because my glasses were bent, and put the hearing aids in again to try them out with the T-loop system at church. The T-loop system was very good and I heard everything clearly - including the stuff being whispered by the celebrant up at the altar, and the man in front of me scratching his knee! Monica gave Mike a lift over to Barnes and I went and picked up Julia - we met up with Mike and Monica in the cafe. We rang a creditable touch of Stedman Triples at Barnes - quite a feat for a Sunday (and probably a safer bet than the Bristol Eddie thought we could ring!!). Then it was over to Chiswick where we rang some Stedman Doubles with Miranda on the tenor before the two from Barnes came over to join us. When we got home Mike and I went straight round to Wendell Market and had a good browse and came away with lots of nice goodies including salami, olives, cheese and loads of Moroccan food. I had lots of good intentions of carrying on with some painting etc, but in the end decided to do some stuff on the computer and then tackle the huge pile of ironing. It was a beautiful day and I was able to get the sheets and towels washed and hung out ready to use again for Jayne's visit next weekend. In the evening we watched the 2015 film Everest - about the events leading up to Rob Hall's death (along with several others) - which we enjoyed very much even though there were some bits that had clearly been given a lot of poetic/dramatic licence.
