Demolition man

The builders returned today.

They moved the mud around a bit, filling up the trench either side of the footings as well as putting in the soak-away. This required a big hole to be dug in front of the beech tree. Of course, this was relatively quick and easy with the digger but the subsequent filling it with rubble was a bit labour intensive as wheel barrow after wheel barrow was moved from the front to the back.

At lunchtime, there was a bit of drama on the street as an old man and his wife tried to turn their car around at the top of the street. As well as Sidney and the builder’s truck, there was a decorator’s van parked outside of the Crazie’s house. The old man (close to 90 by the look of him) managed to knock over their brick wall.

I was in the shower at the time but, looking at the scene afterwards, it looks like he accelerated instead of braking. He made a right mess, bringing most of the wall down. They weren’t home and I reckon they’re not going to be very happy.

At least there were lots of witnesses as our builders were having lunch in their van at the time and Dave (next door) was on hand to lend assistance if required. The Crazies like Dave so at least he’ll be able to say it was nothing to do with us, which was our greatest fear.

Mirinda came home from Heathrow just after the drama and we went and picked up the poodles. Naturally they were all bouncy and happy to see us. Looking out the back door, this is what they saw.

Mirinda was a bit concerned about a particular plant I hadn’t transplanted. It was half under one of the digger heads and covered in reo. While she worked, I managed to move it to the hospital bed. I also moved the third staddle stone in case they used it as back fill.

Our construction woes, however, were far from over. At the moment, Hale Road is being resurfaced and is closed every night. While this doesn’t really impact on us (apart from being completely inaccessible after 8pm each night) one of the vehicles they are using is unusually noisy. It emits an almost constant beep-beep which then echoes around the neighbourhood with piercing regularity. It woke Mirinda up at 4am, something she didn’t need.

But enough of that…Here’s another Molly video, this time she directed and filmed it as well.

[2024 UPDATE. At some point, all of Molly’s YouTube videos were made private and I no longer had access to them.]