Alarming alarms

This morning we were woken by the delivery of a little red Mini. We didn’t realise it at the time but it was being brought home from some sort of roadside problem though, at the time, through bleary eyes without glasses, it looked brand new from our bedroom window. At least that’s what I thought. It made me wonder why anyone would have a Mini delivered at 2am. Apart from anything else, it was very, very annoying.

Later, on my way home from the shops, I noticed the red Mini parked outside next door (it’s not their’s) and realised it was not new and, in fact, had a very flat tyre. I’m guessing the owner either didn’t know how to change a tyre, didn’t have a spare or there was more wrong with it than was obvious.

The truck wasn’t the only cause of a rude awakening for me today. After my workout I was standing under the shower at the gym, hair just shampooed when I heard a very muffled announcement over the tannoy. It was impossible to understand so I continued with my shower.

Suddenly the fire alarm went off causing me to jump and involuntarily shout an obscenity. It was twice as loud as the announcement had been muffled. I listened in case there was a sudden mass evacuation – I wasn’t the only person in the change room – but everything was carrying on as normal. I figure that the muffled announcement was to tell us that there was going to be a rather abrupt test of the fire alarm and we shouldn’t let it affect our activities.

However, my day wasn’t just about being woken up, I spent a lot of it sorting out a bibliography for Mirinda’s pre-proposal proposal for her DBA final piece of work. I also cleaned the tiles on the terrace.

While I enjoyed both, the tile cleaning was particularly enjoyable.

I can only do a half of the terrace at a time for various reasons too dull to go into but this is how the half looked that I did this afternoon…

BEFORE

I think the comparison can be better ascertained from this photo which shows the boundary between clean and dirty…

Betwixt and between

Mirinda quite helpfully took the puppies up to Hankley for a nice long romp which makes it a bit easier. Not that they get in the way. They hate any machine, running for safety at the hint of a motor. But they do rather enjoy walking across the wet tiles, leaving lovely muddy footprints everywhere.

This is how it looked when I’d finished…

AFTER

Tomorrow I’ll complete it…as long as the rain holds off.

And a short video which shows why I love my Karcher high pressure spray eraser, so much…

I should mention that I shot the video with one hand while spraying with the other so the tile doesn’t look as good as it did when I’d finished it properly!