It Might Seem That I Had Not Much To Do,

whilst Diana was not here,

 but I was quite busy, we had discussed removing the big aquarium completely and using the gravel from that in the smaller aquarium as it was a lot lighter in color, also not restock the smaller one until we returned from our travels, I planned to do this when Diana was not here to surprise her when she returns from the Philippines, I have not split this up into days but it seemed to take forever, so the smaller aquarium (125 gallons),

 was emptied and gravel removed,

 you can not believe how dirty the gravel was,

 but at least it was done,

 then on to the larger aquarium, (150 gallons), water out and disconnect it from ultraviolet sterilizers and a chiller I used on it when I was keeping discus or growing aquatic plants,

 one small problem with removing the aquarium was that we would be losing a lot of storage space in the drawers under the aquarium,

 so I drove to Tesco Lotus and bought these to keep in the spare room,

 I decided to repair the door on the oven, then changed my mind,

 and made a trip to HomeWorks to buy a new one,

 back to the big aquarium, as we wanted the gravel in the smaller aquarium, not only did I have to take it out, but wash all of the fish poo out of it as well,

 eventually it was completed,

 the next evening the cooker fitting team arrived,

 old cooker out,

 new one unboxed,

 fitted and wooden surround attached,

 tested cleaned,

 and protective plastic removed, I just hope Diana likes her early Christmas present,

 the aquarium lifting crew arrived,

 altogether now,

 and it was on it's way,

 followed by the remarkably heavy cabinet,

 outside with it,

 and on top of the aquarium,

 I thought they were going to make two trips,

 but I was wrong,

 all tied down also I asked them to take a badly water damaged mattress to the city dump,

 Arry started to remove the pump and water chiller from outside of the building,

 the pump looking like it had seen better days,

 pipework removed, now just holes in the wall,

 some of the pipe work,

 the two UV sterilizers,

 even more pipe work,

 the chiller and it's rainproof housing,

 one of the kitchen cabinets had become badly water damaged,

 so it had to be replaced, also once the holes in the wall had been repaired I decided to have the living room repainted,

 so work began on that,

 the job was tackled in two halves to make the living room livable,

 in case of further flooding I decided on a concrete tilled base rather than wood, so small bricks cemented in place,

 a second coat for the living room,

 tiles placed on the front of the brickwork,

 we could not buy exactly the same tiles,

 they look quite different in the pictures,

 but in life without the flash of the camera they look a good match,

the smaller aquarium pulled out, this side of the living room finished,

second coat nearly done,

all finished and everything back to normal,

a final clean up,

and the smaller 125 gallon aquarium all set for when we return from our travels,

in the space that was occupied by the aquarium we had decided to move the DVDs from the office, the only problem was that the bookcases there were in were no longer made, we were going to buy one the same size as the other two, but there it is, so I had one day to relax before Diana arrived home and there was everyone thinking I had nothing to do!