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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Started at a reasonable hour again. Worked all the way through until about four. With the online team today, was quite fun configuring my network to fall over with massive packet loss and large latency. Went for a run for an hour, came back and had a shower. Did a bit more. Painted the door frame. Didn’t do much work on Faithless. Ate. Watched Big Brother. Really liking Katie Price, she’s very down to earth and loved her description of what she did to her ex.

So stated work almost on time. Worked through until lunchtime. The cupboard doors arrived, all okay. Drove over to the stonemasons and picked up the marble vanity top. Looks very nice, is bloody heavy. Came back and worked until early evening. Went to Combat. Came back and did another hour. Then thought I’d work on a different piece of music, so went for the riff out of ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless. This is a rather tricky piece and needs to be played fast with a very strange rhythm. It’s coming on, but needs a lot of practice.

So this morning started fairly normally with breakfast and coffee. Then soon up to Staverton, for part two of the weekend. I got into it fairly slowly and calmly. We took off and did an auto on the first circuit then a normal second circuit. James got out, then I had an hour to play by myself in quarter of a million quids worth of helicopter. I started off with a couple of circuits, the first one was way off for landing, second was absolutely bang on. Then I did some hovering, knocked out a couple more circuits, then more hovering. Finally finished off with two circuits. On the last one I got caught out by a cross wind, which suddenly then turned behind me. I was in serious vortex ring territory and everything was shaking. But knowing the signs I got out of it and just increased the forward velocity, scary for a bit, but recovered nicely. Today I was in charge of the helicopter, it was no longer in charge of me. Before I knew it, my hour was up. Drove back, had lunch, got petrol. Then we took the dogs out to the field. Came back and did a video for Jamie’s channel. Changed the bed. Had a bath. Now waiting for Jamie to cook for me, could be interesting.