And then nothing happened

So alarm went off at 8. Got an email to say that tiler wasn’t coming. Jamie tossed me off, so at least I did. Shopping arrived half hour earlier. Delivery driver was an idiot. Tap arrived on time. It’s a tap. Looks like the old one. I’m sure they are all made in the same Taiwanese sweatshop. Got up. Threw a bit of a paddy at work. Have a big issue where one part of the company wants every addition under the sun without any frame rate reduction and another which just wants the bloody thing finished and bug free. I basically logged out of our chat system and went AWOL for the day. I was still working, I just wasn’t prepared to talk to any one, without killing them. It worked quite well, I must do that more often. Walked Sasha, even though it wasn’t my day. Caught Jamie using one of those pay day lenders which I really don’t approve of. Now, your mother has read that she may have a go at you as well. He also failed to put the shopping away as he didn’t get out of bed early enough. See, if you did that I may not have mentioned it.

Went to Pump. Did a session with Laverne and worked on my arms. Also filled her in about the fun bathroom saga. I have no idea who’s turning up tomorrow if anyone.

And then everyone was happy bunnies

So got up at 8AM, plumbers did actually arrive at 8:30. They removed bath. I had a word and said I’d compensate him slightly as I think drilling a hole in the wrong place shouldn’t completely wipe out his profit margin, especially when he still has to pay for his fat minion, mind you, he could do with a few less pies. I did say I would try and get shot of the bath. Now, my sister, who always has an eye for a bargain, unlike my mother who always has an eye for total shit, made a rather ridiculous offer. Okay, it’s not new. It does come predrilled though…These baths are £700. I know he paid with delivery around £460. So I asked what he’d take for it. He mmmd and ahhhed, then said £200? I said I didn’t think that was fair. He gave me an odd puzzled look like I’d just clamped his testicles in a vice while I was asking him how many sugars he wanted in his coffee. I said I’d give him £300. So Sarah gets a cheap bath, plumber is only down £160 so can still feed burger boy and I feel vaguely nice. He then proceeded to finish off everything ready for the tiler, who starts tomorrow. Now I’m still expecting a hell of a lot of sucking up for this, I want my door trimmed and everything fitting. I also wouldn’t mind a blowie, and Jamie wouldn’t say no either (from the plumber that is, he considers my head work to be like doing Russian roulette with your dick in a liquidiser).

Anyway, work was dull. Many bugs. Did get to finish at 4:30 though. Which meant I finished at 5:30. As it was snowing I decided against running and went to Spin instead. I resisted Laverne’ offer of going to Zumba. Came back home and practised on the keyboard. I’m now well on the way to nailing the whole of ‘Are friends electric’. Torture porn night.

So if you have a double ended tap, where do you put the taps? At one of the ends, I think not.

Took Dillon to daycare at 6:20. So plumbers turned up at 9:30. I pointed out the hole in the ceiling and questioned the cistern placement. He said it would fit in the frame, I said only if it’s shrunk my about 40mm. He then got it out the box. It was bigger than the frame. Anyway, he sorted that and did all the plumbing for the shower and the remaining plasterboard. Seems to have lost the top off the cistern and hacked half the polystyrene off it. Walked Sasha. Came back and they were doing the bath. Now remember we already discussed tap and waste positions on Monday. I went upstairs to get Sasha’s Kong. Popped my head into the bathroom. And there, was the bath all in place, with the bloody tap at the far end. Now this is a double ended bath, what in gods name made him stick the bloody tap there. I clearly specified that the tap should be in the corner, the same as the controls. I also said the waste should be on the outside for when it breaks. To say I was seething was a fucking understatement. He said ‘ah, sorry’, followed by ‘I know a man who fixes chips in baths’. I walked out. Now, if there was a time I was going to have a heart attack caused by stress then this would be it. Thankfully the ticker worked fine. The plumber isn’t a huge bloke and to be quite honest in a fight I quite fancy my chances. I could fend his fat monkey off with a burger. I went back in and said basically we’d spent a shit load of money on this bathroom (well I have, Jamie only offers abuse), and that it needs to be right. I’d specifically had the bloody conversation about taps. And the bath will have to be replaced. He apologised and said he must have misunderstood me (not the first bloody time, or lets face it, even the first cock-up) and that he would have to replace it. Thankfully it’s down in price at the moment, he’ll get away with about £380. That will wipe out his profit margin. Anyway, he then left, I went and picked up Dillon. Came back and did some more work (I have been working during the day).

Went to Pump. Worked on my arms, still fairly seething. Came back. Email from plumber, new bath ordered, it will be here Monday. He’s coming tomorrow at 8:30 to finish the plumbing and remove the bath. Oh and the fucking tap leaks, I’m more pissed off with that than the bloody thing being in the wrong place, it cost a bloody fortune. So that will have to go back and now I have to get another tap. He says he can hopefully ‘sale’ the old one and apologised once more saying he ‘must have misheard me’. More like he wasn’t paying bloody attention.

One thing is certain. If I’d done it myself, it may have taken 3 years, but I wouldn’t have fucked it up.

I’ve yet to meet a tidy electrician, today’s continued that legacy

Got up not at the crack of dawn, but still earlier than I’d liked. Electrician turned up near enough on time. Then drank two cups of coffee and spent almost two hours placing three cables and making a hell of a mess while creating a hole in my nicely flattened ceiling. After he left I went up into the loft and redid one of the wires for the underfloor heating as it was routed in such a way that all the boards would no longer fit. I kind of expect that. I’ve worked with a multitude of electricians and they are all bloody messy. It may take me fucking hours to do a job but at least I do it properly. I’ve moaned about the whole in the ceiling, that will need to be fixed. Anyway, plumber due back again tomorrow. I have no idea how he expects to be finished this week.

Went for a run in the afternoon. Did more work. Practised various things on keyboard. Edited a new helicopter video. Lets see what delights I will experience tomorrow.

There’s no way the cistern is going to fit inside that framework

So got up at 8AM. Plumber due at 8:30. Plumber arrived twenty minutes late. He brought a fairly chubby sidekick. Anyway, they cracked on and got the bath and loo our fairly quickly. The rest of the time they did the plumbing for the towel rail and sorted out all the plaster boarding. They built a frame for the loo. There is a hidden cistern, there is no way in hell it will fit in there. That will be interesting. They had buggered off by 4. Not even here tomorrow, that’s the electrician. Anyway, seems to be fine so far, they actually reinforced half the wall where the original builders had bodged it. Saying that they’ve used more packing than Amazon getting their stuff straight. I now have a bath in the front garden, I feel like a chav.

Went to Combat. Liz was away, so Trudie and Laverne did it, haven’t seen so many people in a combat class for a long time. Laverne was typically useless. Two girls walked out. I’m sure Trudie and Laverne were teaching different releases. Anyway, much fun had by all. Came back and almost mastered ‘Bye Bye love’, much to Jamie’s amusement. I think I’m going to work on ‘Imagine’ next, as I don’t really like any of the songs in between.

“Why is your will so far away?”, “It’s not it’s just small”

So this morning finally started with breakfast. Then sex. Neither of which were every fulfilling, actually I preferred the coffee. Wasn’t really in the mood, stressed with work, stressed with this bathroom fit, I’ll be glad when both are over. So got up and cleared the bathroom out. Removed all the masking tape. And generally cleaned up. Then I re-fixed all the skirting board edging in the hall way. Cleaned the kitchen. Now all Jamie had to do was get out of bed and take the dogs out with me. We had a dinner date at his dads at 4PM. We got there eventually at 4:30PM. I must admit that his dad and step mum I can find sometimes a bit dull, but after they’ve had a gin or two, by god does the conversation heat up. Discussed far too much, it was very enjoyable though, nice couple of hours of family time. Came home and relocated my office to the dining room. Fairly painless experience. Everything appears to be working fine. I’m glad I put an Ethernet port in the dining room now.

Can’t say I’m looking forward to next week. But what I am really looking forward to is the end of it. I hope Jamie and his team do a good job, I do have really high hopes for them, mind you, I also have really high expectations. If I’m spending six grand on an ensuite, then it’s got to be perfect. I just wish I could spend the same sort of capitol on the rest of the house, but it will be nice to have one room that I’m really proud off. Saying that I’m actually really happy with the rooms I’ve done myself, the spare room is perfect and so is the dining room. The whirlpool bath is indeed a bit of a gimmick, what I’m really looking forward to is a shower that’s hot and has more pressure than a 70 year old with prostate problems.

I could do a jigsaw puzzle inside a sock

So started this morning very slowly. Actually it was a bit weird, I remember being woken up by Jamie at about 3AM saying Sasha had opened the bin and eaton a load of chicken wings. He then proceeded to cough violently for ten minutes, I then had enough and disappeared to the spare room. I woke up at about 6AM, Sasha needed to go out. I went downstairs and found a cling film wrapped raw chicken breast in the hall way. Went back to bed. Got up eventually at ten ish. Got breakfast for me and Dillon. Sasha went without for being a naughty girl. Sanded and painted the door frame again, then cleaned the window above it. Had lunch, then did a home check for a cat. Came back and picked Jamie, then did another home check and went to the Apple store. Came back and spent probably a good hour on the keyboard. Worked out that ‘Bye bye love’, sounds way better if you belt it out on a full draw bar organ. Did the accounts. Upgraded the firewall. Had a bath. Which should hopefully be the last time in that bathroom. Jamie is cooking tonight, look forward to being ill tomorrow.

So I worked on my arms again (and grass)

Started just after ten. Shopping arrived. Jamie’s off so he dealt with it. Working on some grass bugs, as well as squeezing in some performance improvements. Apart from going to the post box that was pretty much it until it was time for Pump. Did Pump, back up to full weights now. Then did a good session with Laverne afterwards. Came back, had protein shake, then did far too much work. It’s now almost eleven and only had two bits of toast all day. Need to hang the washing up. Then watch Big Brother. More painting to do tomorrow, then clear out the bathroom ready for the plumber.

And it’s still all about the bloody grass

So started just after 10. Worked through until just gone two. Working on grass again, well it had a bug in it, which was a pain in the ass. So while I was there I did a few other tweaks as well. Walked the dogs. Then went for a run, had a shower. Basically took about two and a half hours off. Then started work again and finished everything off. Racked up over nine hours and it’s still not checked in yet. Going to sit down now and drink wine, haven’t had any since Sunday, aren’t I good. Laverne is back (not going into why she was away) for the moment, so Pump as normal tomorrow.

Plumber has confirmed, so it may get done after all

Spent part of the night in the spare room as Jamie’s stomach and flu respiratory problems kept me awake. I went off in about two minutes in there. Woke up at 6:20, took Sasha to daycare. Went back to bed and didn’t get out until about half ten. Worked through until it was time to pick up Sasha again. All about video players today. Came back along the M5 as the traffic was awful. Went to Pump and worked on my arms. Came back and did a bit more work. Finished late, due to late start. Watched Big Brother. Time for bed. Oh, the plumber responded to my email, he’ll be here at 8:30 on Monday.