Calm before the dust ...

I thought I'd perhaps save some of my photos from today for a "job over" collage, and so I'm sharing my early morning photo of a sunlit Firth of Clyde before it became cloudier and less pleasant. We were up at least an hour before our usual time, not only because we were expecting two lots of tradesmen to arrive but also because the car electrics are acting up and it had to be at the workshop for 8.15am. So here was I, with just a slight hangover, clothed and in my right mind by 8am.

I think there were two things about today that really got to me: dust and smell. The dust came with a sudden eruption of noise in the back garden as one of the chaps set about breaking up some solid Victorian concrete with a circular saw - and in no time at all a great cloud of dust was wafting over the neighbourhood. Eventually one of them damped it down before it could drift, using my watering can which he'd found under the hedge. People will be wondering if there's been another Saharan influx. And neither of the men wore masks. 

Meanwhile the new gas flue went in safely, with much shouting up the chimney to where a small plumber had been despatched to the loft space - not the floored part, but the horridly cramped eaves - to ensure fit and seal. I don't know quite what it is that smells so odd - plastic sheeting? cutting metal with whatever-they-use? joining bits of metal? This was also when the big gas man found he could get through the hatch to under the floor after all. (He has enormously broad shoulders and I was concerned.) This allowed him to introduce the mandatory hidden gas pipe up through the base of the hearth instead of the fire surround - another win.

I managed to escape for a solo march along the East Bay and back, just for the air, and by the time they all left I had to make dinner and eat it before the last choir meeting of the session. We're both completely exhausted, and we have to be up again in the morning before they all come back - all so far set on finishing their respective tasks by close of play.

Fingers crossed...