Time found, well for some things.

This image is from Vaseline company archives of various published materials. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The weather was brilliant on Monday, sunshine most of the day and the wind had dropped dramatically. I hadn’t any electrical work to do, my first job was to be Tuesday morning so I had the day to myself, almost. I had to take advantage of the fine weather and get the soil-pipe connected to the stack. I hadn’t noticed that the elbow connection I had purchased together with the length of pipe had a small crack in it which meant a trip to the plumber’s merchant to have it replaced. I had to go there anyway as the guy doing the tiles asked if I would buy some sealant. However in the meantime I accidentally dropped the elbow and it broke along the crack causing a large piece to break away. I wasn’t sure if the plumber’s merchant would now accept the fact that I hadn’t broken it myself. It would be difficult to do that as these fittings are quite substantial. A flaw in it, in this case a crack, made it possible. I need not have worried, the guy understood and replaced it free of charge without argument. I did have to purchase the sealant of course! I returned home and set about cutting and fitting the pipe, having to use ‘Vaseline‘ to get the parts to slide together past the neoprene seals and even then it was difficult. I had it all done in an hour and fixed with a bracket. I mixed some mortar and filled in around the pipe at the same time. I could have dismantled the scaffolding tower at this point but decided not to as I will be using it again at the rear of the house in order to clean out the gutter and clear the small roof beneath my bedroom window of the accumulated moss there. I will move the tower round there when I propose to do that job which may be a few days away. For the moment it can remain where it is. It would be at least an hour before it was lunchtime so I busied myself doing minor tasks around the house. E had made Mick our tiler some sandwiches and had some filling left over so she asked if I would like a sandwich too. We all sat down together and ate our food. Almost immediately I’d finished my mobile phone rang and it was someone asking me to do a small job for her 92 year-old mother. I had been there once before last year. When I arrived the old lady was confused even though her daughter had phoned to say I would be there within the hour. I did not know what the task was and getting the information out of the old lady was a real challenge. My ten minute job took me an hour though during that time I had to visit a local supplier for materials. When it came to payment she found it extremely difficult to understand what the fee was going to be. I had written an invoice/receipt but had to read it out for her. I then had to count out her money in her presence and show her what I was taking. When I placed the remaining cash back into her purse she wondered what I was doing and I had to explain everything to her once more. I decided to phone her daughter and explain to her what I had done and how much I had taken but she didn’t answer her phone. A couple of minutes later her husband called me so I explained everything to him. The old lady asked me who was on the phone and when I told her it was her son-in-law she reacted at first as if she didn’t know what I was talking about then piped up ‘George’? In some ways I feel sorry for the lady but she seems to very happy and contented. 92 and totally independent, I wonder if I could claim the same thing if I were to reach her age? When I again returned home E and I had plenty to do cleaning and removing rubbish before we could finally relax after our evening meal. It was at that time I finally found it possible to do some sewing. I had a garment that needed a ‘stitch in time’ and that was the only time I had free to do it.

‘Mick’ had finished the tiling but promised to return at our request to help us bed-in the shower tray and apply sealant around its edges and elsewhere. I can then begin to fit the furniture and do the plumbing for the bath tap.

Shirley Anne