A Busy Day,

well not for me,

but it was for Diana who was asked to go into work today as there were staff shortages, and for Harry, who arrived with so much kit,

but first the blind from the kitchen window was taken down, I will make a trip to the dump with both of them as well as the 4 unwanted sash weights,

then work began in earnest, firstly remove the temporary window,

then out with the sanders,

and paint after the top pane was put in place,

it was secured in place and a few touch ups to the original outside window frame,

time to start on the bottom window,

I mentioned he had brought a lot of kit with him, 

this is just a bit of it, 

and of course his trusty hover, after he leaves the area is spotless,

I mentioned a few touches of top up paint, and this is his paint kit, 

bottom window in place,

a final hoovering up,

and then the brightwork is fitted, all nicely polished rather than the countless coast of paint that was on them before, job done and he was done for today, tomorrow he is off on his holiday with his family, a 2 week relax in the sun, so no more window refurbishment for a couple of weeks, during the afternoon Diana returned home, 

after he left time for my sherry and read,

we had the doggie bag of Indian that we had on Friday,

and nice it was too, 'Cheers!', next a Midsomer Murder, which we followed with,

 Johnny English, not to everyone's taste but we found it funny, a comedy based upon an inept James Bond showing how to be a secret agent, not, after which rather surprisingly there was another Midsomer Murder showing so we watched that, then Diana was off to bed, a 04.00AM start for her tomorrow, for myself a Bangers & Cash before I too was off to bed.

It Was A Busy Day,

not for myself, 

but for Harry and Bob, 

they brought in huge amounts of gear,

and started work on the window by my computer, 

this one will be taken to be refurbished next, 

Bob set to work, as Harry brought the bathroom window upstairs and started fitting it, 

frames nearly removed, 

a final check, 

sash cords nailed in place,

and window out,

then the work could really begin, 

the frames cleaned of old paint, 

and there was a lot of it!

one last thing to do now that Harry was finished in the bathroom, block up the window whilst it is being refurbished back at his workshop,

in the bathroom, the new window fitted, easy to open and totally draught proof, 

assemble their kit and it was goodbye until Saturday, when hopefully the window next to my computer will be replaced,

on to my evening read and sherry, 

for tonight Diana had made me a Chinese chicken curry, 'Cheers!', then time for my evening film, 

 The Day the Earth Stood Still, the original was much better than the remake, but still watchable for the special effects, after which I picked Diana up from work, we settled down to watch the first part of a old favourite series,

I, Claudius, a great BBC series from 1967, over 10 hours long in all, we watched it until just after midnight, I read somewhere that the incredible performance by Derek Jacobi as the stammering fool actually spilt over into his private life, it took several months after filming had finished for him to stop stammering, a trait he did not poses before filming started, I should say that now it looks very dated with sets that were vastly underfunded, but what a story as Clau-Clau, that many would mockingly call him, recites his life history to you, the viewer, and what a history! from approximately the death of Marcellus (24/23 BC) to Claudius' own death in 54 AD, he shows what life at the top of society was like, the BBC mini series is based on a book of the same name by Robert Graves, if you have time watch it, but forget about over budgeted film sets, this is by comparison done on a shoestring, and is all the better for it, after which we were off to bed.

It Was A Busy Day,

first thing the asbestos crew arrived, 

the troublesome door being removed, as they were doing that Harry arrived to replace the cords on some of our sash windows, 

he brought a mountain of kit with him, 

and there was even more that stayed in the car park!

we resorted to wedging the windows open during the hot spell, 

the same living room window being worked on, next the second large living room window, 

followed by the kitchen, 

then the bad news, the bathroom was so far gone, 

it had to be taken away, it took the whole day, so next my evening meal followed by the usual Outback Opal Hunters, I then decided on a film, 

Witchfinder General, in the mid 1600's Roundheads and the Cavaliers battle over England, but in this sometimes lawless time a man was on a crusade,

Matthew Hopkins was perhaps the most notorious name in the history of English witchcraft, throughout his reign of terror 1645-1646, Hopkins acquired a feared and evil reputation as a ‘fingerman’ (informer), paid by local authorities to commit perjury, together with his henchman and fellow ‘Witch-Pricker’ John Sterne, in just 14 months, Hopkins was responsible for the condemnations and executions of some 230 alleged witches, more than all the other witch-hunters that proliferated during the 160-year peak of the country’s witchcraft hysteria, yes basically all of the above is all true, although his death in the film is not what is thought to have happen in life, but what did apparently happen in real life was the barbaric way the Hopkins had his victims burnt to death, typically by the time the flames have reached the victim they are already unconscious by smoke inhalation, but Hopkins did things a tad differently, a scaffold was built, then the fire was lit, when the fire was raging the tied victim on a ladder, for want of a better word, was then slowly lowered over the flames face first,

similar to this, but the bottom of the ladder placed further back next to a scaffold, ropes behind the scaffold would slowly be let out, the victims face getting nearer to the flames without the 'luxury' of passing out first, horrible, to even think about it never mind watching it in the film! after that it was time to pick up Diana, arriving home a Have I Got A Bit More News For You before Diana was a tad tired, as it happens so was I, so we were both off to bed.

We Are Back!

and what a great time we had,

we have been a tad busy since our return, so Diana has not had enough time to send me all of the photographs, so this will be a on-going post as Diana sends them, I know this is day three,

and we were in Portugal, I think!

as always we go ashore to sample the local produce, 

and start with a small coffee and breakfast,

selfie time!

and then a walk,

I am showing Diana a photograph I took of her, 

next a walk, 

before another coffee break,

we sampled the local wine, made from of all things tomatoes, it was rather nice as it happens so we bought a bottle, 

we continued sightseeing, 

so many steps, that is my daily dozen or more done for today!

climb up the steps and take a tuk-tuk down?

back to the ship, 

in the evening time for a show, and good it was too,

for 2 evenings I tried my hand at the blackjack table, both evenings I was sat next to a charming couple, whose names I regretfully did not take a note of, they gave me, a first time novice a blackjack table, so much help and encouragement, if you are reading this again many thanks I really did appreciate all of your help, but after the second night it was obvious I had absolutely no blackjack skill at all, so I called it a night for the rest of the holiday, before I lost the farm as they say!

I forget where we went, but after a day out, a drink by the pool,

a lager for myself, 

and surprisingly a pina colada for Diana, she was really getting into the holiday sprit, 

'Cheers!', as we tuck into our breakfast, I have to say the food onboard was excellent, 

I should point out that some evenings it was a black tie event,

a amuse bouche before the meal, after a starter, 

our main course, 

another 'Cheers!',

before our desserts, 

and one more during them,

then time for a late evening stroll around the deck,

with a cocktail each as the sun went down, this is the first of a few posts of our holiday, we went to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Gibraltar and Morocco, more of those in later posts, now back to good 'ole Blighty, we arrived back in Southampton after the cruise, we had booked a coach to take us back to London, but we were a few hours early for it, so we paid a extra £18.00 to change tickets to the earlier coach, 20 minutes after leaving Southampton the coach ground to a halt, the gearbox had a hissy fit and refused to go on, so we had to wait for a spare coach to be sent, it was galling to see the coach we were going to be on go sailing past! I looked at trying to claim the £18.00, but one look at the form told me that it would be a uphill struggle, so that was £18.00 down the tube, arriving home our Internet was still not working, worse still having made a appointment for when we returned for the engineer to call, he arrived 1 week into our holiday, so that was it, we than had to make another appointment for him to call back, which we did and he has now fixed the fault, before we left everyone with BT had their Internet cut, but it all came back on except ours, he plugged a bit of kit into our wall telephone socket and showed me a device that had 622 in green on it, apparently the problem was 622 metres away! soon all was well again, when everyone's Internet went off the main roadside box was the culprit, everyone was reconnected, except us! someone forgot the last two wires we were told, which is why we were the only one with no Internet, on to the next problem, our front door, 

this is our front door, and nice it is too, but, it does not conform to the latest fire regulations, so all of the flat owners are having to have a new front door fitted and the old one taken away, 

the new door looks like this, anyway having paid a deposit of 50%, well over £1,500, it was our turn to have our one fitted, but, you guessed it, the fitters would not take our door as it had a painted over sheet of asbestos on the back of it, so they packed up their tools and left, no idea what is going to happen next, but a specialist asbestos removal firm will have to be called in, on to the next problem, on the buildings fire alarm box, a yellow light was on, a battery had failed, we had notified the buildings managing agents some months ago, we had tried calling the company that fitted the alarm, but they could only take instructions from the management company, eventually the fire alarm company called round, the problem being as no one had told the fire alarm company the system decided to ignore the alarm when a new battery was fitted, so that meant that the alarm sensor had to be replaced, and the sensor? in our flat! why does this sort of always go wrong for us? a new sensor has been ordered, everything is now back to normal as far as our lives are concerned, on Diana's first day back it was a 05.00am start, so no change there then! I spent the day trying to make a slideshow for my photography website, with not a lot of success, must try harder tomorrow!

 in the evening time for my read and sherry, 

for tonight a huge tuna salad that Diana had left for me, in the evening I watched the usual Outback Opal Hunters and Deadliest Catch before a Midsomer Murder, after which Diana returned home so it was a Have I Got More News For You, so everything back to our normal routine, after Have I Got More News For You, we were both off to bed.