Filling my weeks

In the loft, June 2021

More LTRP activity this week. Olf's Mate and Olf's Mate's Mate turned up after several phone calls to chase them, to remedy the overflow situation for the two tanks in the loft - one for the water and the other for the central heating. I had acquired stains on two patches of ceiling which weren't growing, and our best guess is that these happened due to overflows rather than leaks. The evidence for this is that both overflow pipes had sections of uphill gradient, and contained sections with very dodgy joints. They took a morning to put in new pipes, and while they were at it they replaced the insulation around the water tank and gave me a new lid for the heating tank.

Ilf embarked on another phase of the LTRP, decorating the main bedroom and finishing a few bits in the shower room. He manages to cause problems whenever he comes - in past visits he has broken a toilet seat and a lampshade, but this time he managed to lose my visitor parking permit, which we think was stolen from his car. On the plus side, he does work hard and usually does a good job (except for wallpapering). I cancelled the parking permit and ordered a replacement, and the kind person on the end of the phone waived the £5 admin fee because the permit was only valid for six more weeks before I'd have to buy another.

I was planning to take advantage of having a second person in the house to order a self-assembly wardrobe, as I thought it might be helpful when it comes to any large or heavy parts. It was delivered in time but in the end I didn't get the opportunity to build it while Ilf was there. It took the whole weekend to build on my own, looks pretty good and fits the space I'd set aside for it. I only screwed one part on the wrong way round and luckily didn't need help with anything heavy. Now I have a full car-load of polystyrene and cardboard packaging to take to the tip, along with empty paint pots, a load of cassette tapes, a broken keyboard and all the usual stuff from the garden.

Since stopping my two days at the Diabetes Centre my weeks are still full because I've tried to ramp up the time I spend on Mr MXF's work, and I've done some more volunteering for Lola II. Mr MXF's work is intensely frustrating, and despite setting aside full days I can only manage about four hours before I want to throw the computer out of the window. I'm not sure I've made any progress in the last month, but Mr MXF assures me that a time will come when it all makes sense, so I'm hoping he's right.

We had a small Covid scare before Lola II was due to deliver her course, as she had a sniffle and a runny nose. That very day the BBC had reported that new Delta variant produced symptoms resembling a cold, so although she came up negative on a lateral flow test she went off to a proper test centre, just in case. That was negative too, but I still had to think hard about whether I even wanted to risk the possibility of a cold. I did go there in person in the end (and escaped without infection). Supporting the IT on the course was quite straightforward, although the microwave in the house had to be put out of action because turning it on it knocks out the internet. The internet went down anyway at exactly 4 p.m. and threw us out of the Zoom meeting - just after Lola II had thanked everyone and they were filling in their evaluation forms.

I stayed an extra day with Lola II and Mr M because we had planned a Day Out In London. You will be learning much, much more about this next time...