The Dirty Dozen.....

.....or Twelve Good Men and True? Definitely the latter. There are 12 men on site at the moment - 2 plasterers, 2 sparkies, 2 labourers, 2 carpenters, 2 brickies, 2 roofers - oh, and Steve our foreman, our True.

From steady, continuous but unobtrusive work, we seem to have reached a frenzy of activity where not only do decisions have to be made but we can see things coming together. Both sets of stairs are now in, and A Shirl has at last been able to venture up to view her upstairs rooms, a lot of the window frames and glass to go therein arrived today, ready for fitting tomorrow, and the sparkies will have completely finished wiring both houses by Wednesday. Insulation has been fitted into Aunty Shirl's, along with sound-proofing in the internal walls (good job, too, as Shirl The Twirl is renowned for her raves!).

We at last have Colin Container back to ourselves, having stored some neighbour's furniture in there over winter, so we've finally been able to move some Anglesey-bound bits and pieces out of the main house thus regaining the dining room. One of our twelve good men glibly remarked it'd be easier to carry said items than use the tractor but soon beat a hasty retreat when informed (politely through gritted teeth) that dad had arthritis and I'd had a brain haemorrhage. Probably thought he'd get roped in for carrying duties if he said any more. It transpires that not only Colin has been harbouring both ours and the neighbour's furniture, but also a Walton-sized family of mice who must have moved in when the neighbours did. They've feasted well on macaroni, rice and other dried staples but didn't manage to gnaw completely through the dried parmesan pot. Let's hope they enjoyed the special Sunday lunch we left out for them........

And talking of uninvited guests, we returned from a cat food expedition over the weekend to find a baby rabbit 'asleep' in the hall. The second one this week, although we couldn't tell if number one was asleep as it was without its head. Fiona was also fortunate enough to find a baby mouse in one of her boots, still alive. Don't know why we bother to go out shopping for cat food at all as our gang seem more than capable of catching their own.

It's not been overly good on the brain front over the last week or so. I've had my first cold since September, which isn't bad going really, but this one has more than made up for it. Due to the brain-burst and subsequent medication you have to be really careful with what cold remedies to take so it's really dragged on without much respite. However, coming to the end of it now, touch wood, but have to visit the GP for a check-up tomorrow. Also, tomorrow, I've got a CT scan back at the brain hospital to see if I'll need a tap on the head. Not that Fiona doesn't give me a tap on the head frequently when I do things like blow up the microwave, which I managed to do last night.....