Men at Work...

Tesco delivery arrived and I had just finished putting it away when the door bell rang.

As I walked through the hall I could see a man in a shirt and suit trousers at the door and my first thought was, "what's he selling?"  Then I realised there was another man with him, wearing jeans and a hoody and I thought "Oh oh, they're going to offer to cut down trees / re-tarmac my drive / re-roof my house" so I put on my best scowl and opened the door, ready with a no thank you, not interested response to whatever they were about to ask.

Turns out it was the structural engineer with a colleague and they were here to dig some trial pits in the garden to check the soil in preparation for the extension!

The structural engineer (a very nice man called Robert) also wanted to check out the walls that are coming down in the kitchen.

I apologised for my torn-faced demeanour and offered coffee but they were men on a mission and before I could say milk with that, they were in the side garden digging to their heart's content!

Three hours and three pits later they were done and Robert was able to give me the great news that our soil is absolutely perfect.  "Really?" I asked, "I thought it was rubbish.  Can hardly grow a thing in it!"   "Oh it's rubbish for gardening," he said, "but perfect for building.  It's solid clay."

Great news when you want to sink a pool into it I suppose!  :-))

In other news, Alan is so excited about France his appetite is diminishing and I fear he is heading for a flare up of his ulcerative colitis.  I've left a message for the gastro nurses as I'm hoping they can give us some idea of how to stave off a full blown flare up like the one he had when we came back from holiday last year.   My heart just sinks at the thought of him being so unwell again.  Fingers crossed it's just excitement.


Sunday