Friday and I’m up early to move cars but not before taking my vitals that are all good. The builder badgers also arrive early and are at it very quickly with the intention of laying the new foundation brick works to the new patio today. That’s what I call efficient. After yesterday’s continued dismantling and grubbing our of hedges it feels has if things are moving rapidly. Our mounds of rubble are ever growing but the grand plan is to have huge front garden pyramid and then bring two twenty ton lorries with grabbers to shift all the debris from back and front in one go. All I can do is make them coffee and biscuits and cheer them on.

So by nine thirty I am breakfasted, my partner has been to the GP, I’ve started the blog and the sun is shining. I cross my fingers and hope for a good day, I’ve been fooled before, it would be nice for this one to go okay. My partner returns from the GP with a paper which I pounce upon and do the crosswords. My to do list needs to up dated which I do and then head off out to pick up my monthly drugs from the chemist. Having picked up my pharma I walk the length of the village back to the post office where I send my driving licence renewal off. Back home I start the blog for the day.

There are a few things to do, like mend one of the shoe racks that had sprung apart. It feels like I’ve been busy by the time I get to check the progress of the video letters I had sent earlier in the week. To my surprise the one to Nairn had arrived but the ones to York and locally, Stafford had yet to arrive. I am beginning to no trust the mail system. It used to be that first class mail would reliably arrive the next day, but this is clearly no longer true. I take some time to help me eldest daughter sort out an appointment with a specialist to assess her torn ankle tendon. With that done I take the opportunity to refill the bird feeders and the squirrel feeder. I peek inside the hedgehog box but nothing is in residence apart from a large slug. As a last morning thing to do I book a couple of night out at events being put on by our local venue, the De Montfort Hall. It is keeping with the life style that is developing due to my current symptoms, namely, drive somewhere, sit and be entertained and either stay over night or drive home. It’s a sort of dash out, be quiet and dash back in again, like some sort of timid creature surviving in a dangerous environment.

My partner finishes work at lunch time and we go off to our favourite garden centre café for a late lunch. On retuning home we find the builder badges have gone home, ( a set , presumably), and it has started to rain and there is more in the forecast. On checking how the water but system has been left I find the done pipe has been left open, which means if its left it will flood out onto the newly laid foundation brickwork. I therefore dash around improvising a run off hose from the roof down pipe. Below is a picture of my bodging, but it does explain why I ask for gaffer tape every Christmas and birthday.

It remains to be seen if my construction works, but on the safe side I have ordered three types of waterproof sealant to arrive over the weekend. So I expect at some point I will be spraying, painting and daubing sealant all over my handiwork. Overall the builder badgers have cracked on and made good progress, so I expect we will see them again on Monday.

Of course there is a price to pay for all this activity. When I go for a piss after all this activity I piss blood, not significant amounts but enough to be identifiable. Nothing for it but to get my feet up and rest and drink a load of water for the evening. If it goes right then over the next hours I will recover and go back to normal, but nothing is guaranteed. So tonight is set for TV and keeping myself warm and hydrated till I down my evening meds and probably a co-codamol. So in essence I have slipped into preservation mode until I have got back to some sort of normal. And so it goes.