Can’t remember what I did at work, oh actually it was rather dull. Something to do with environment maps. It’s been very windy. Went out for a run at about five thirty, managed about eight miles. Had a shower. Did a but more work. Then took some wine gravity readings. One was ready, so added the stabiliser and gave it a stirring with the drill. Then added the finings and another stir. The other one is about 996, so I’m going to leave it a couple more days to see if it drops some more, it won’t harm. The other one takes around fourteen days to clear, so hopefully this one I can do the finings on Thursday and Friday, that one only takes about a week to clear, so probably ready for bottling next Thursday. The other one will be a week after. Then it’s on to the red and the other white, which I can’t even remember what it is now.

Haven’t heard back from plumber. I think I’ll cling-strip the rest of the paint, I can’t be assed to steam it.

So started off by finishing off what I was doing last week, that basically took all day. Walked Sasha. Got most bits finished then went to the gym and did Combat. Came back a did a few more bits. Looking at some parallel reduction stuff, which sounds more impressive than it actually is. Got the quote through from the plumber. It was a bit higher than I’d like, but it looks like he wants to remove all the walls and replace then, which is a hell of a job. I was contemplating removing all the tiles myself and making good the walls. But to be honest, I can’t really be assed. So I think I’ll just strip the rest of the paint off and fill in all the crap plaster, then it’s all his problem. Still have the ceiling to repaint, but if I get a good run on it on Sunday I should get the lot done. I can then move on to the lounge, although the entire decorating budget has now been used up. Still contemplating putting a TV in as well though….

Oh, I think the wine fermentation is complete. I’ll take a gravity reading tomorrow and then degas it all if its ready.

So woke up at 9AM, couldn’t really get back to sleep. So printed out all my ‘evidence’ for ‘Bathstore’. Headed over there at 11AM. Started cruising at towel rails. Eventually got to the guy I saw yesterday. Said I was after a towel rail after taking his advice and that he’d got his figures wrong. He went through them and saw it was actually the web site that was wrong, but had no problem at all in honouring the figures. So basically for an extra sixty odd quid I got four hundred quids worth of towel rail. They made 0.3% mark up. Came home, put some paint stripper on the glass above the bathroom door then started working on digging in the alarm cable. I then noticed a major problem, none of the paint was really keyed into the plaster properly and it was coming off in handfuls. If you put a weighty tile on that it would just rip off and fall on the floor. So I decided just to steam the lot off and be done with. Eight hours later and three quarters of it is done. I’ve let the plumber know that I’m quite happy to take all the tiles off and make vaguely good the backing if it reduces time and cost. At least then I’ve kinda had some hand in it. Finished just before eight, then with an hour cleanup, in bath by nine. Now time to make a curry. I even went for a run, for a break! I worked hard today, but it’s very satisfying. Jamie wonders why we don’t have sex anymore, it’s because I’m knackered as I do everything, while he does nothing.

Not sure what happened yesterday, it was probably very dull. Oh that was it, Jamie was home all day with Ebola, so annoyed the shit out of me. Did work. Went to the gym and did Pump with Trudie. No extra tonight as no Laverne. Watched the first one of the new series of ‘The Apprentice’. I do enjoy that. Went to bed in the spare room as the noise coming from ours was horrendous. Didn’t sleep well.

Woke up. Jamie was now on the couch, thankfully he’d now shut up and was asleep. Made breakfast for three and took the paper back to bed. Jamie joined me and managed to keep his respiratory system under control. I got up and measured all the bathroom walls. Shopping arrived. We then ventured out. First to Tesco to get a passport photo and a flu jab. Photo machine broke down and the pharmacy had just closed. Managed to get photo at Tesco photo lab. Booked in for flu jab. Went to pet shop and Argos, came back. Had flu jab. Then went to B&Q. Bought paint. Saw some floor tiles we liked. Went to bathstore. To cut a long story short, we bought a bath, sink and loo, together with all the other shit and wall tiles. I came to two grand, I could have saved ninety quid online, but the bloke was nice and I have the feeling that if anything was wrong I could just go back there and punch him. Time was getting on and the jewellers closed at 5PM. I was in Cabot Circus car park at four fifty. I ran right across town and made it to Parsons. There shutter door was already partway down. I dived under it, much to the surprise of the four women behind the till standing there with there handbags. They said they were closed, I looked at my watch. I still had fifty seconds. I was dripping in sweat, just said I’d come to pick up a repair. They somewhat relented now figuring out that I wasn’t about to rob them and managed to pick up my necklace. Drove up to Cribbs. Went in Topps Tiles. Bought four real stone marble tiles for the sink to go on. Need to pick up next week. Then went across to B&Q and bought the floor tiles.

Came back home. Walked the dogs. Then worked out bathstore would have been ninety quid cheaper online, but considering they have an ever changing sale on every three minutes anyway, it’s all a bit impossible to work out. Went through doors for the cupboard with Jamie. Did the accounts, sent off for a quote for the doors. Bought taps from Amazon. So the only things outstanding now are a towel rail, the shower and some blinds. And yes we did spent over four hundred quid on a bathroom cabinet (before all the various discounts), but it’s a really cool cabinet. You won’t get that off fucking QVC.

Took Sasha to daycare at 6:30. Went back to bed. I couldn’t persuade Jamie to do anything exciting with my penis, although I gave certain hints. Got up and had coffee. I then spent probably the best part of three hours trying to get something to work, which basically was just badly implemented and almost non-existent in places. Ranted a lot. Then spent the rest of the day fixing odd bugs, wasn’t really in the mood for anything else. Yet another set of small hand tools arrived, I was determined to find the correct one for that bloody HK250. And finally cracked it, it was a Torx T5. So I can now strip it done. I think I will strip it down completely, make a list of all the parts and then attempt to rebuild it from scratch. That’ll be a fun job for my retirement as I haven’t got clue when I’m going to do it otherwise.

Went to gym and did Pump. I do like Trudie who plays the CD about 25% faster than it should be, it gets it all out the way.

Heard again from Plumber man. He recommends stuff from bath store, so we should be fine there. I don’t think the p-shape bath is going to fit, so instead I think I’ll try and go for a double ended slightly wider one. It’ll still be a whirlpool. It’s all a bit stressful. I need to do some sealing of the ceiling, then a bit of painting. Plumber man is coming tomorrow, we will chat, he will quote, I will have a coronary then spent seven hundred quid on helicopter lessons instead.

Started late as I was waiting for something to be fixed. It wasn’t fixed even then. Still, by the end of the day I had everything checked in and working. It was yet another miserable and rainy day. I spent a long time looking at bathroom suites and tiles. The p-shaped bath I wanted was too big. It came to about two and a half grand. Tonight I found another one, bath, screen, panel, sink, loo, cistern and taps, about eleven hundred quid. Just need to look at tiles. Went out for a run in the rain. Came back, fed the dogs. Then went for another run. Had a shower. Measured the gravity of the wine, both were bang on at 1010. So sterilised two more buckets and transferred them across. Now set for the secondary fermentation, which should take about two weeks. Sat down and looked at more bathrooms.

Started reasonably early I guess. Well on time anyway. I had a nasty bug left over from last Friday. It probably took me the best part of five hours to trace it. One line slightly wrong. Always the bloody way. Then I had hud rendering flickering all over the place, that needed a bit more tracing. The weather has been shit, constant rain. Walked Sasha in the drizzle. Went to the gym and did Combat. Was okay. Came back and did another hour or so, have to resolve a lot of code and data now before I can check it all in. Hopefully will be quite quick tomorrow as I want to get on to something a bit more interesting.

Keep trying to work out how I can get this hdmi cable from the bay window up to the ceiling. I reckon I can get part of it under the floor, then up the stud wall. I may have to do some exploratory drilling and sawing of flooring. It will be an interesting project anyway.

Okay, so I had a bit of a lazy morning, which kind of drifted into the afternoon. Read the paper, studied ‘Operational Procedures’, almost got the hang of that now. Finally got up and walked Sasha. Had some toast. Then I went to do a home check for a horse sized dog. Hmmm. “Where will the dog sleep at night?”. Lets just say an incorrect answer was supplied. There’s a few other things as well. I think I have only ever failed about one home check before. But have to think of the dog, wrong type of dog this time for the situation. Drove to Curry’s, tried to find a Hero 4 black edition, no chance. Got stuck in the car park. Got back home, then went out for a couple of hours, there was a fairly new Geocache over towards the station so walked there. Spent about ten minutes standing under a bridge up to my ankles in water. Found it eventually. That takes me up to 214, which sounds much better than 213. Did the accounts. Think I’ll have a bath now. Flying tomorrow.