Friday 26 June 2015

Making use of ourselves in Solihull

Steph gets stuck in
It's probably time we did something for someone else and who better than for my niece Steph and husband Sam in their new (to them) house in Dickens Heath. With the team of Denise and Paul (grandma and grandad), Steph and Sam and with three month old Rory and Twinks the cat as audience we set to work. 









Fence repairs
Much preparation had already been done by them all (and was still to be done after we had left), so our help was useful (and extremely tiring - we're just not used to it, how do they do it?), but a mere blip on the mountain of work done and to be done. Working in a team is always fun, singing along to old songs that S&S had never heard of, tuneless whistling, oh the neighbours must have loved it! 







They seemed impressed with my fence repairs that did go very well and presented few problems, but didn't deserve the lavish praise, just wait till Steph sees the plant trampled under my foot, well, it did look like a weed to me! Walls bashed and electrical sockets fitted and then up to the loft with Sam to fit a loft ladder, some electric lights up there and floor board half of it for storage. Always good to spend time with people and particularly Sam who I didn't know that we'll, you find out such interesting things. Found out he even applied to join MI5 (am I allowed to write that?) but turned it down in his own mind (before they turned him down by letter) due to the poor Civil Service salary pay. 
Hard working Paul
'Did you want be a spy?' I asked and would the package have additional perks like an expense account that paid for vodka martinis (shaken not stirred), chips for the casino and use of a company Aston Martin as per James Bond. Apparently not. Amazing what you find out while sitting amongst wood shavings and loft insulation while bashing you head on unnoticed beams of wood (why do they put so much of it in odd placed up there?). Meanwhile downstairs there's Rory to be fed, walls and ceilings to be painted, step ladders to be climbed up and down innumerable times, gloss paint to be applied, songs to be murdered and, oh, is that Twinks' little paw prints across that newly painted window shelf. 

Sam in the newly boarded loft with his vacuum cleaner!
All in all, great fun, good to catch up with everyone and three days of hard work. With muscles aching (two days after we finished) we're getting ready to drive to Luton airport to pick up Jackies dad and Elizabeth, here for a weekend party, we'll see them for one night out before, before going on to Dartmoor for a drunken weekend of walking and laughter with our friends. And my head is still feeling a bit dull from our night out at the pub last night with Jackies mum Pauline in our home village of Alvechurch. Such a busy life!


Head massage for Rory from Jackie
 
Tea break and Rory feeding time

 
Evening glass of wine to celebrate

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