Panno play

Yesterday, in Starbucks, I was surprised by Silvi, an ex-barista who left a number of years ago to give birth. I remember her being incredibly pregnant when she finally left and, I think, she had the baby the following week.

I was standing in the queue when she tapped me on the shoulder and said hi. We then had a jolly good chat about her first then second son. (Actually she said she had two small children at home and I suggested it was three if she included her husband who doesn’t seem to understand what she does all day.) They had decided to have their second child as soon as they could after the first in order to get it over and done with. Sounded like a good idea to me!

Anyway, she is doing very well (naturally she showed me a photo of her boys about which I made the appropriate noises) and looking forward to when she can return to the world of adults in due course.

Then, this morning I was sitting in Starbucks when Jo walked in holding her baby daughter. Jo is also an ex-barista who left to give birth to her fourth child. They already had three boys and Jo insisted she wasn’t going to stop until they’d had a girl. Fortunately the fourth was female.

I’m wondering if the next time I’m in Starbucks I’ll run into Jade, another ex-barista who left to have a baby.

* * * * * *

It was another beautiful day so I thought it was ideal for cleaning the outside of the ceiling lantern. It’s a pity I didn’t have my ice skates. I’d decided I was going to use the high pressure hose to scrape off the mucky green stuff that comes from somewhere unknown.

I managed to get the big yellow beast of a machine out the Green Room window, plugged it in and turned it on. I then had to get the hose up there as well. I decided rope was the answer.

I tied the hose and hooked the rope over the exhaust pipe that hangs out of the wall at a reasonable height. I turned the water on and headed back upstairs.

I hauled up the hose and connected it, turned on the compressor and waited for it to reach the required pressure. I then pointed the hose and prepared for a great blast…nothing but a dribble came out the end. I tried a few times but there was nothing but a dribble. It was very disappointing.

It didn’t take long for me to realise it was because the water was frozen in the hose and the tap. It was so frozen that when expanding, it had snapped the connection off the tap. This was not good but, fortunate, given I found it before the big thaw.

I packed everything up, turned the water off, put the beast away and filled a bucket with warm water, dish washing detergent and headed back onto the roof with the mop. It was then just a case of slowly destroying the mop head while I gripped anything a little more solid than the ice underfoot.

The rest of the day was spent tidying ahead of a Management Meeting being held in the extension on Friday. It’s remarkable how much longer it takes when you’ve been nursing a knee injury since August and haven’t been as dedicated to housework as normal. Max was the worst.

Eventually, it was all looking pretty good which just leaves the cooking tomorrow.

* * * * * *

While in the park with the dogs I had a bit of a play with the panorama function on my phone. I quite like this one:

Panno Plus

I also snapped a shot of one of my favourite trees which you can only really see once the leaves have fallen from the trees all around it.