So spent most of the working day looking at clouds again. Then fixed a couple of odd bugs. Walked both dogs. Came to the conclusion that I only really need to skim the cheek of one window reveal. Everything else just needs patching up. Need to think about tile trims and grout. Neither of which I really have a clue about. The onyx grey seems to match well with something called ‘manhattan’ so will try and get a sample of that. Probably leave this until everything is delivered and it’s pretty simple to get it all. Also need to get the flooring. More cost. I’m sure it’s all going to look awful.

Went to Combat. Looked at my arms.

So yesterday I did stuff and got a haircut. We then went out in the evening and had a curry. Oddly at the same restaurant at the table next to us was the guy who cut my hair earlier.

So today was all about the bass. Okay, actually it was all about the bathroom. Started with one coat of neutraliser, followed by blasting out all the remaining tiles. Got all that done, then took down all the plasterboard. It surprised me how this house actually stands up considering how piss poor some of the framing work is. Where then end of the bath is, there is now jointing to anything. Still, all gone now. Made a trip to the tip, git rid of a load, still lots lots more to go. Got the side of the bath off, that’s all free now. Two more coats of neutraliser and I’ve sanded down everything else. All looking pretty good. Plumber number one is going to give me a new quote. He’s still available at the end of November and isn’t VAT registered, which generally means he will be crap. No quote from Polish guy yet. I’m going to give him a serious mouthful if he ever gives one, which if he has any sense he just won’t bother.

We went to the local fireworks display, it wasn’t bad considering it was free. Had a bath. Now looking forward to the joys of work next week.

Work was very dull, so won’t even go there. Spent quite some time in the bathroom removing plaster. I’ve finally worked out whats gone on there. The wall by the window has been tiled before. So, going by layers, there was paint, followed by plaster, followed by PVA, tile adhesive, plaster, hard wall, then brick. What’s happened is moisture has got behind the first layer of plaster, activated the PVA and all the plaster has become loose. Anyway, all that side of the radiator the plaster has now been removed, back to the tile grout. The other side of the radiator the plaster is fine, thankfully it’s been skimmed to about 1mm, so the difference in levels can be made up with tile adhesive. So where are we now. Well I’m now working on the right hand side of the radiator, just removing the cling-strip and the rest of the paint. There’s still quite a way to go there. Both window ledges have been removed, a bit of repair work required one side, the other side is fine. So job for tomorrow is to hopefully remove all the rest of the paint. Then Sunday that leaves removing the rest of the tiles and then ripping out the plasterboard around the bath. That should then just leave some sanding and filling jobs. It won’t go to plan though, never does.

So this morning I got up early as this plumber was meant to arrive. So started work. By eleven thirty he still hadn’t arrived. So phoned, he was stuck over at Hanham. Said he would phone in the next four to five hours. I worked on cmask caching, which was interesting, but slightly uneventful. Walked both dogs. Went for a run in the dark. Came back, had shower, had phone call from plumber. Tried to call back, left answering machine message telling him not to bother. I get a text saying he was in the bath and could come over now. He came over, really wished he hadn’t. First thing he said was, “This is a perfect example of why people who don’t know what they are doing shouldn’t touch things.” He’d kind of blown it there and then, but by this point he’d actually wiped his hand across a wall and touched his face, so he now had a white dot of plaster on his knows. From this point on I couldn’t really take him seriously. He then went on to tell me the joys of why I didn’t need to remove the paint and then asked about why I wanted an electric shower. I said it was because the water pressure was too low. He then said I had a problem with my pipes or my boiler. I finally got bored and told him it was a gravity fed system. Still he pointed out everything that needed doing and asked when I wanted it done by, I said Christmas, he said no chance. Then why the fuck did he ask. He buggered off saying he would mail me a quote. I look forward to that. I think I’ll go back to plumber number one who wants to put bonding on fucked plasterboard walls and tile over that, thats a disaster waiting to happen. Bonding takes ages to set, then you really have to prime it properly. Really if I want it doing properly I should take the time and do it myself, as I can do the research and then do all the preparation. Still, I said I would rip out the plasterboard around the bath, at least then it can be replaced and done properly. Bonding, fuck me, probably the worst thing you could tile over, next to grass or water. I just know I’m going to pay this guy two and a half grand and half the job is going to be bodged to fuck and it will forever annoy me.

Tried to transfer the wine, fucked it up, it’s gone all cloudy so will have to clear again. Had enough of today really.

Took Sasha to daycare. Cleaners arrived and did a shit job. Chisel was finally at Aztec. Worked on stuff, which wasn’t very successful. Have an idea though that may be more successful. Walked Dillon, he was quite happy without Sasha. Talked to another plumber, he is coming tomorrow. Have a feeling my jointing compound exercise will now need a coat of some sort of waterproofing over the top, as jointing compound will turn back to powder if it gets wet, which is not great. But a waterproof coating may be a pretty good idea anyway. Still, see what chap says tomorrow. Picked up chisel, picked up Sasha. Went to Pump. Came back and played with chisel. It’s quite good fun. It’s certainly a lot quicker than a bolster and a lump hammer. Anyway, far too much going on in my mind at the moment. This bathroom may get done this decade.

I spent all day looking at cache issues. Well, not issues really but performance. For a 4K memory clear I have to flush 512K of cache. It’s very annoying. That really did eat up pretty much all of it. Rang up the hire company, they completely managed to fail to get a chisel bit from Swindon to Aztec West. So moaned. They have now requested it again, plus the same bit from Heathrow. All to pop a few tiles off.

Went for a run, worked out a new night route. It’s about an hour and ten minutes, so spot on. Came back and washed bottles with what can only be described as a spring loaded bottle douche. Anyway, thirty bottles now all prepared.

Work was quite interesting. As in I managed to get a reasonable gain in frame rate by changing very little. Which was quite a result. Then ended up fixing a few odd bugs. I’m now rather intrigued by a stalling problem with graphics synchronising with compute. One to investigate tomorrow. Walked Sasha, it is rather cold. Dug in the garage and found an SDS drill. Went to hire shop and ordered a tile remover chisel thing for it. It’s like six quid for a week. I’ll hopefully pick that up tomorrow and give it a blast in the evening. Went to Combat, that only had about six people in it. Think I’ll have an early night and read new book. I decided to do radiotelephony a bit later as I’ll get a lot more practise in as I go along, so studying human performance and limitations, it’s a small book, which says a lot about human performance and quite a lot about it’s limitations.

Started off this morning with an extra hour in bed, but still not long enough. Breakfast, coffee, Staverton. Now we had a hell of a wind today, so practised auto’s to full run on landing and towering take-offs. We got a couple of phone calls apparently as we were causing noise problems, “Please review your circuit profile”, as ATC said.

Drove back. Posted a quick video of the days activities and ate a couple of eggs. Picked up the dog shit. Then it was on to removing tiles. I did nine hours. I’ve got to about three quarters of the way across the bath. So probably about another twenty to go. But I’ve been sanding along the way and filling it all in with jointing compound. Which I’ve kinda fallen in love with. Goes on a piece of piss, easy to sand and sets like concrete.

Had a bath in the alternative bathroom, this confused Dillon.

Got a couple more plumbers to ring tomorrow who are interested in the job. Curry time.

So started off this morning, oddly, tossing Jamie off. I think I was just in the mood to annoy him as he was off to work. Had breakfast, read the paper. Then got the chisels and lump hammer out. Started beating crap out of the bathroom tiles. Did that for an hour or so. Then Jamie came home, said he’d actually booked the day off and forgot as he planned on drinking the night before. My theory with him and alcohol therefore still holds true. Belted crap out of the rest of the tiles on that wall. Then went and picked up the solid marble tiles and some bonding compound. Also got some thick rigger gloves as I was getting pissed off shoving a chisel through my hand. Went into the mall.

Came back and sanded down that wall a bit, then started coating it with compound. That’s all done now, will probably need a couple of coats. Now moved into the other bathroom. Did the accounts, worked out that I’ve totally maxed out one of my cards. Had a shower, in spare bathroom.

Flying tomorrow, then yet more tile thumping. I’ve only got a couple of weekends to finish the whole job.

Got an idea for a new video as well, may give that a go tomorrow.