The big sweep

By the time Clive left the house this afternoon, he’d, single-handedly tidied almost the entire ground floor.  He’d removed all the cardboard from the floor, took up the boards protecting the parquetry, vac’ed throughout and then went mad in the front garden.  I think Dave the Builder must have told him to make it a bit more habitable for me.

But that’s not all he did today (though it was very much appreciated).  He finished off the path to end at the bottom step off the terrace.  He’d had a long discussion with Robbie on Friday.  They laid out the old paving bricks and thought long and hard, viewing from all available angles.  They shook their heads and moved them all aside.  They then tried the same thing with Staffies.  Robbie was certain that’s what I’d want.  I’m glad he was here when I told Clive I wanted the paving bricks.

Oh, how they laughed.  Actually, Clive generally looks quite miserable.  He comes across as a bit of sad-sack character because of the seemingly permanent direction of the corners of his mouth.  He’s not, at all.  I think his face has just not weathered well.  So, seeing Clive laugh was like the torch being lit in a lighthouse.  In fact, the laugh spread over his face almost making his legs shake with mirth.

Fortunately, they’d only laid out the bricks and not fixed anything so it was very easy to start again.  By lunchtime, Clive had finished and it looked excellent.  And, for the record, the first one to use it was Day-z.  As soon as Clive stood up from his labours, she decided to see what he’d been doing, feet first.  Lucky she only weighs 7.2kg.

Meanwhile I heard from Dave the Builder who said he’d ring Tim the Electrical Engineer to ask him if he could pop in and fix the Internet connection.  He later let me know that Tim will come over first thing tomorrow morning.  So, hopefully, I’ll be back online very soon.  Not that I mind going to Starbucks to use their connection but it would be nice to do it from my office.

Dave also told me that Tatt-man’s wife had successfully given birth while the other decorator had had a car accident over the weekend…which explains why I only saw Clive (and Robbie for a very short while) today.

For most of the day, I remained in the office, scanning old archive documents prior to burning the paper versions.

I feel the need to also mention that Day-z has a problem with dragons. Last night, I was watching a Game of Thrones episode in which three baby dragons were being held hostage in a tower. Their plaintive wails could be heard from somewhere off-camera. Upon hearing their mewling, Day-z immediately jumped off the dining chair and went to the front door, barking at it. She wouldn’t calm down until I opened the door and showed her that the street was dragon free.

She might be useless as a guard dog against humans but if we ever get an uninvited dragon at the door I can rest assured, she’ll be prepared to see it off.