Smoke and mirrors

First thing this morning, we met with Dave the Builder to discuss the Contract and when we’ll be moving out so he can demolish the back of the house and generally make a bigger mess.

We had a good discussion about various things, including near death experiences while working with steel beams. I asked him how they were going to put our big beam in over the sliding doors – it will go across the entire width of the house. He reckons six men and a lot of grunting and groaning. This is going to happen on Monday. Apparently. Meanwhile, the beam still sits in our drive.

After he left to pick his son up from the new skate park, we hopped into the car and went and saw the people who are making our doors, window and ceiling lantern.

We want stained glass in the long window between us and Dave and Gail. Because it’s double glazed, we have to have transfers, which seems to work really well. According to the guy we spoke to, it was really popular and fashionable about 20 years ago. We declared that we were about to make it popular again.

Back at home, I packed some boxes into Sidney and we set off for the lock-up then on to Hankley.

The hardest thing I found this week was walking around the park and remembering the places that Carmen loved. This feeling was increased around Hankley. So many walks, so many places she loved. While sad, I found it very cathartic and, in a sense, something of a closure. Day-z, clearly sensing something, didn’t run off as she normally does, preferring to walk with us all the way around.

That’s not to say it was all gloomy and miserable. Hankley looked stunning in the pre-spring weather we’re experiencing at the moment. The chapel set for Macbeth is still there and there was even some filming going on.

We saw smoke rising from behind a ridge and a man sitting on the crest. When a particularly jumpy dog and his owner approached this man, they were turned away, down another path, so as to not walk through camera shot. As we walked along the main ridge, the site became clearer.

The smoke was fake – it was coming out of the black pipe you can see on the ground. We weren’t sure if it was a battle scene or the witches. Macbeth has both. So it could be either.

I’ve included a close up, taken from the above photo, in order to see what’s going on. There’s a lot of people milling about.

Close up

A little further along, close to where Skyfall was, the ‘chapel’ is still standing but the little tents have all gone. There’s also a little building that looks like a chicken house. Clearly it is only filmed from the other side because the roof isn’t complete on the back.

As Mirinda said, “We’re walking through a film set.”

Of course, it means we’ll have to see the movie when it comes out. Fortunately Macbeth is probably my favourite Shakespeare, so it won’t be that much of a hardship.

Back at home, and after a brief rest, Mirinda left us to go up town to see Ibsen’s Ghosts. We’ve had the tickets for a while but, because we can’t really leave Day-z on her own at night, it was decided I’d stay at home while Mirinda went with Sarah. I didn’t mind. While I appreciate Ibsen, I do find him a bit heavy going.

When Mirinda texted to say when she’d be home, I asked her how it had been. I felt slightly miserable when she replied “Superb.” Still, Day-z and I had a lovely evening watching the final episodes of Rome and eating pizza.