Stickpile

Chris the Gardener was due to come last Thursday and remove the stickpile. Unfortunately, he had to rush off to the hospital with his ‘other half’ because she’d eaten too much fatty food. Not having a gall bladder (it was removed) means her body can’t process fatty foods properly. Sadly she loves fatty foods and sometimes will just binge. As long as you don’t mind the discomfort and the trip to the hospital, I guess it’s fine.

Anyway, he rescheduled for today and turned up at 9, before Mirinda left for work so she could take him through the things to do.

At almost the same time, a newly bearded Tim the Electrical Engineer turned up to fix the bathroom exhaust fan. This is part of Operation Snag, set into motion last week by Dave the Builder. The second exhaust fan has never worked (the first one did…sort of) and we wanted it replaced with an old-fashioned, string pull operated one because we know that will work. This took Tim all of 15 minutes. And he was off. (He really looks quite different with his big, bushy beard.)

The plumbers, chippy and decorator were all coming tomorrow but Jem and Matt turned up unexpectedly to look at the boiler and the tap in the bathroom. Which they couldn’t fix because they couldn’t find the access panel into the vanity that Karl supposedly made. They are coming back tomorrow.

Meanwhile Chris was slogging away in the garden, dragging big bags of ex-stickpile into his nice, shiny, new van following the demise of his old one. He actually told us quite a funny story about the old van.

He had a problem with the side door a few weeks back. Actually it fell off. He managed to get it back on, temporarily at least ready to drive home. As he was driving along, the door decided to fall off and, still attached, drag along the road. Naturally, it was sparking everywhere. He managed to pull into some sort of estate, blocking a mechanic in who he paid to fix it there and then. Given the mechanic couldn’t get out without fixing it, he did. Needless to say, Chris bought a new van.

The old van which he’d bought years ago from a lake in Kent – it was in a field which had become submerged after rain – was pretty worthless. The chassis alone was more rust than metal. He sold it for scrap. And, no, he didn’t buy his new one from a lake in Kent.

Stickpile gone, he then cleaned up the front a bit before heading off while we were walking in the Park.

I say ‘walking’ but Day-z has done something to one of her front paws and is hobbling everywhere. I’ve booked her in to see the vet tomorrow.