Moving forward

Jlfs 3, 4, 5 and 6 at work, April 2026

The Severn Trent Water investigation last week meant that there was no need to dig up the pavement, so the scaffolding went up before Easter in preparation for painting the front of the house (masonry and woodwork). I am tempted to skip the naming of these contractors (scaffolding and painting) given that I am hoping to need no more tradesmen before quitting Lola Towers but that would be tempting fate, so let's call them collectively Jlf. 

Jlf 1 is managing the project, Jlf 2 arranged the scaffolding which was erected by Jlfs 3, 4 and 5, and Jlf 6 has been doing the actual preparation and painting. There was much flaking paint and he reported from the eaves that the wooden decoration was at risk of actually dropping off, so the whole job is very timely. All of these people have been delightful to work with, although it turns out that Jlf 6 does not drink anything but tea and there were a couple of hot days, so I had my work cut out making sure he survived. The Jlfs arrived to take the scaffolding down on the next working day - I'm not sure they were the same Jlfs but it's hard to tell them apart: they move very quickly. They all called me 'Bab', which is a very Brummie nickname and made me smile. The front of the house is now eye-wateringly white.

In my regular GRUHI report there has been more eBay action - the vintage Meccano that belonged to dad received huge numbers of views and watchers but disappointingly just a single bid, so that buyer got a bargain. In contrast, the Denby crockery I bought about 30 years ago has so far brought in about £45 with more to come. And, because listing and postage were so easy, I put 17 old car and motorcycle tax discs on eBay and got a fiver for them. There's just no predicting what people want. The question of why I had 17 old car and motorcycle tax discs will remain unanswered; I don't have them any more, so that's a step forward.

I remain a regular visitor to the tip for both landfill and recycling, and made an appointment to take the evil gardening poisons there. The garden had its first mow of the year to reveal that grass is now about 30% of the lawn as 70% is moss. It's lovely and green and spongy so I don't care. The first car-full of garden clippings went to the tip too.

I finally got round to dealing with the bricks that were left over from the kitchen extension in 2019 by offering them within the local LETS group (the cashless trading system I'm part of). Who would have thought this would be the most attractive offer out of all the things I have tried to pass on? Three different people want them, although it might take a while for them to come and collect, and I have more potential recipients in reserve.

The visit from the Secretary of the Leamington History Group finally took place, shortly after I unearthed a treasure trove of historical documents when I was thinning out my filing cabinet. She was a strange bird, and seemed less interested in the history of the house than informing me that Wisden was probably not connected with the cricket ground despite people suggesting that he was (I had made no such claim). She has borrowed all the documents but said that her Group probably wouldn't want to keep them and I should perhaps offer them to the County Record Office.

I'm taking leave of my vinyl records too. One of the Buddhists kindly offered to digitise the five records that I want to keep, and in return he had the pick of the collection for himself. I've sold the rest to UJ - I didn't really want to because she doesn't have a settled home yet, and as far as I know she doesn't have a turntable to  play them on. But she did ask for them and it seems unfair not to let her have them as she does seem to like having things a great deal.

There have been some less arduous things going on too. A lunchtime organ recital was advertised at the nearest church so I thought I'd pop in, but didn't enjoy it all that much because the organist was frankly Not Very Good. U3A walking and board games were suspended for Easter and then again because of scaffolding and painting supervision. I spent a morning at the Repair Café advertising LETS and trying to shift a few more of my own things - someone with a very large garden took the walky talkies and I came away with two goose eggs. Apparently they're very good for cakes, but I ate them scrambled for breakfast and they were all right - I wouldn't go out of my way to acquire more.