Doesn’t matter any more, the roof is finished. Guess what? It’s even better now than it was originally not that the builders did a bad job, just an average job as they usually do, whilst my approach is belt and braces. It should last at least 20 years but I don’t really care providing it lasts twelve months - long enough for the estate agent to mention it as a selling point.
So it’s no more tripping over buckets and I can begin to think about decorating the extension and sorting the garage which adjoins. That’s just one job down out of 112 (I have a detailed list!) but it was probably the most difficult and certainly the most urgent.
It’s quite satisfying to know that I can still do these things although the body is reminding me that I am now old! Gone are the days when I do stuff for other people, now I need all my energy to do things for myself. If anyone sees the chance of getting their roof fixed when I get to Lewis they can certainly ask - and I’ll pass the enquiry over to Fred!
So it’s another hot bath and a bash at another variety of Hebridean Soap (thank you Linda 
) before watching some TV. Getting out of bed tomorrow could be interesting!
I’ve just realised I have been blogging in song titles - Up On The Roof (Carole King), Let It Rain (Sarah Brightman). I’ve just googled and there’s a song by Everlast called I Can’t Move so maybe that will be tomorrow’s post!
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 03:00:05
Les,
I spent most of yesterday looking at real estate. Most of the homes were 2 story homes. I have felt muscles today that I have not used in a long time! I am not used to walking up and down stairs. It is an unkind reminder that I am not getting any younger. Getting older just “s_ ks”! I do remember an old song that goes, It Hurts, Hurts, Hurts…, but it’s about forlorn love.
I envy your supply of “Hebridean” soap!!
Hope it doesn’t hurt to bad tomorrow!
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 09:04:31
well done Les only 111 jobs left to do then ,eh? you will race through them in jig time I’m sure. Or do you take Big Man’s line on DIY which is do a job, wait six moths till twenty or so MORE jobs have been added on and then do another one??
No I’m being deeply unfair, he has done quite a lot this Easter break. The sink is still in the bedroom in it’s box tho’.. Big Man now cunningly trying to disguise it as a clothes horse..
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 11:49:52
Even if you feel 10 years older for tomorrow, the sense of satisfaction of completing the roof will over-ride the pain. So? What’s next on the list?
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 15:02:33
Hullo, Les, welcome to the club! I just got back from a week’s sailing and selling on the West Coast (of Scotland). The thing that knackers me is these cheapie flights. Hours of waiting in line to a) check in, b) go through security, c) wait for the gate) d) wait at the gate, e) the ear-numbing and totally incomprehensible messages on board, delivered in a variety of UK and Continental accents at double speed and a minimum of 140 dB throughout the flight, f) waiting to disembark, g) waiting for your luggage. Of course I do not bother to comment on the size of the seat on the aeroplane, everyone knows thay were bought cheeeap from an Hollywood production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Elope”. Then go through it all again as there is no direct cheap flight from Glasgow to Copenhagen, so one has to travel via Stansted. During a journey lasting 13 hours I was actually on the move for 3 3/4 hours. 50 minutes of this was on the train from Largs to Paisley and this turned out to be the least uncomfortable bit. Self-inflicted, I grant you. And cheap … £ 161 return trip. So I am thankful for the price but not the experience.
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 15:35:26
I’ll do you a swap Barney. You fit the two new back doors for me (they are in the garage at the moment) replace the rotten windows and paint the outside of the house and I’ll go gallivanting around the West Coast of Scotland!
Friday, 24. April 2009 - 20:37:04
No, no, no! Read more carefully! You have to go gallivanting around on Easy Jet or Ryanair (the choice is yours) and somehow transmogrify me from Swithiod to the West Coast of Scotland. On the way back I’ll fix the doors.
Saturday, 25. April 2009 - 13:10:12
A Two-back-door Hoose? There’s posh. Or maybe just part of the belt&braces approach! But wait, they’re still on the roof…aren’t they? I expect you just haven’t got around to the built-in wardrobes yet…
Saturday, 25. April 2009 - 18:51:12
Aw Barney!! I love the train journey from Largs to Glasgow..( “we are now aproaching…. Kilwinning. Please mind the gap.”) did you see the Snow White Vignette out of the widow of the train, just outside Fairlie? It’s in somebody’s garden and consists of a large model of snow white and the dwarves! Plastic, maybe? Beats gnomes hand down!!!
I was down last Tues just for the day- we are like ships that pass in the night…
Saturday, 25. April 2009 - 22:00:20
The widow of the train???
What does that look like? A wee black train with a veil and sensible shoes…
Could I purrlease be first in line to beat the gnomes? I know its not politically correct to pick on PORGS, but one must take one’s simple purrleasures where one can find them!
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 10:08:17
Landylady …. SWOON! So near and yet so far, twice in one week! Good thing I have a strong heart or else t’would break into a thousand pieces.
Landlady, sit down before reading further:
I myself was on the train Tuesday, Largs to KW, change for Troon. We may have seen each other - Sob! But perhaps the Big Man was with you … in that case perhaps best so (for me).
EffCee, the widow of the train is an unfortunate women who, in order to make public her grief, goes around with a flowing black train, I think made of lace. Nighttime, she can sometimes be seen doing things with rope to Snow White while the dwarves stand around encouraging the pair. Your participation will obviously fit in well and surely be a welcome addition to the orgiasts.
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 13:53:18
Oh BARNEY!!! No, I was alone… apart from my trusty MP3 player. I was trying not to sing along to a bit of Joy Division- surely that should be moan along- so if you saw middle aged short lady sitting in corner of train grimacing a bit, that was me. Now, you weren’t the drunk chap who kept trying to engage everybody in spirited conversation were you?
FC we could plan a midnight raid on Fairlie and do unspeakable thing to the dwarves before Snow white’s placid gaze? Or maybe she could wear the Travellin’ Teacosy on her head?
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 14:10:45
FC- whats a PORG?
Les- I am now convinced that there is some element of Tourist Information Board involvement in IB. Obviously some one from the branch in Lewis has hatched a plot to get EVERYBODY to move up to Grimshader! there’s Natjane, with all her children, Sarahmac with seriously adorable photos of Eric the wee fluffly wuvly lambikin- and last night I suddenly noticed one more blog cunningly entitled “Moving to Grimshader ”
Now c’mon Les, what’s Grimshader got that Millport hasn’t???
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 15:12:06
That’s FC being PC but, strangely, it seems even more insulting to be called a PORG rather than a dwarf or midget.
I don’t know what it is about Grimshader - we didn’t get there when we were in Lewis - but maybe it’s the Shady Ladies club trying for new members or, maybe some of the men have been advertising for women like the Australian sheep farmers do and it has all gone wrong with the women bringing all their kids with them. I think that ‘Moving to Grimshader’ may well be one of Natjane’s children who is currently either too shy to post or who has been put off by all the remarks from the IB veterans.
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 18:54:45
Oh NO! I do hope it wasn’t me….
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 19:27:44
I said the Shady Ladies not the Scary Ladies
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 21:13:30
No, Landlady, I wasn’t the drunk. I can’t recall anyone fitting the description that yu have given. Remember:
“To travel hopefully is better than to arrive”.
Especially if KW is your destination.
Sunday, 26. April 2009 - 22:29:57
No!
never neverPC Les! How could you!
My dear Yer Maj, Person Of Restricted Growth. In the same bulging PC file along with circumferentially challenged and otherly abled…
I can’t imagine how anyone could be put off by the IB Veterans League. We’re such a nice friendly welcoming bunch.
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 15:49:49
oh now thats a new acronym on me. We seem to have gone through every possible description at work and are now on ” children with disabilities” -children first, disability comes second!! har har yep you can bet that makes all the difference to some poor sod trying to get their wheelchair into the tiny lift and then REVERSE out ….
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 15:52:36
Could be worse Barney.. You might have had to leave the train at Johnstone…
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 16:02:36
I can’t be doing with all this politically correct language which makes it almost impossible to know what people are talking about. What’s the point in talking about ‘propelling people of restricted growth’ when we all know it’s good old Dwarf Tossing! (Don’t suppose that’s considered a politically correct sport though
)
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 16:16:31
I think EffCee was refering to her curious purrrdeliction for a Mac (not a Macintosh). But I could be wrong: I often am. Sigh.
What frustrated me was several times during the week going through West Kilbride but not, apparently, anywhere near enough to East Kilbride to give Jill a shout. So I’ll try it now:
JILLLLLLLL!
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 23:46:10
oh my no, Barney, west kilbride pretty little village ,nice shops ,lovely hills, rural location. EEEK.? Not. but better shops, eh jill?
Monday, 27. April 2009 - 23:48:35
Les I’m not sure that dwarf WANTED to get tossed, judging by his face… now can I just point out that whilst short in stature, by anybody’s standards, I do not want to be thrown.Or Tossed.. Indeed..
Tuesday, 28. April 2009 - 15:30:24
But you must want some sort of hands-on stuff, My Queen? Or is Big man totally handy?
Tuesday, 12. May 2009 - 15:02:10
i have a record called “let it rain” but it waqs eric clapton singing