More Work
29 October

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Today is the longest day of the year - it's 25 hours long.

And it's the first time in many a year that I have passed that long night with its extra hour not wrapped in the arms of my little lover. I am pissed off that we don't live together.

Work has been crap this week. It would be untrue to say that I am disillusioned because I came to the job with few illusions. However, the longer I stay, the more I see that the corporate ethos and I have different understandings as to what training is about, what standards should be achieved and how best to organise things. My difficulty, at present, is that I am not sure whether I want to put the effort in to change things for the better. And, frankly, the organisation is more chaotic than my previous employers - a statement that will shock the pants off anyone who knows UCL.

Actually, I'm far more interested in getting the house sorted.

I'm finding out more and more how Mr Terry - the previous owner - really cut corners over everything. I'm so glad now that I stuck out for the lowest price I could get. Latest things include poor installation of central heating system, trapping the damp of new plaster behind insulated wallpaper, buying cut price kitchen units and fudging the dilapidation of the rear chimney stacks.

This latter was pointed out to me by my new next door neighbours. He is quite a cutie but quite obviously ruled by the matriarch of the household, who could just be of the hard-faced-cow variety. He does, however, have suggestions about the building trade and has given me a few contacts for re-tiling the back kitchen floor.

The work on the damp proof course is complete. These pictures of the back kitchen or morning room or whatever you want to call it show a distinct history.

Here you see the quarry tiled floor and range as it was. The floor then gets grubbed out and the plaster hacked off the walls up to the daido rail.

Now there's a concrete floor in place and the plasterwork has been replaced. The kitchen is a complete write off, however. I guessed it would happen. Because Mr Terry has used poor quality units, as soon as the workmen had to remove them to get at the plasterwork behind, they fell apart. I'm currently scouting Magnet as a possible source of a new kitchen. I want something of quality to set the tone for the heart of the house.

Here's the music room. The hole in the floor has gone and the plastering has been done. The week before I move in, the floors will be sanded and varnished. I think it should look good. You also get a better view of the (somewhat non-period 1950s-style) fireplace in that room. I do have an image of me sitting in front of a roaring fire in a comfy chair with a cat on my lap listening to nice, soothing music - possibly something chamberish by Schubert.

I've also been out in the back garden. The first shot shows the space overgrown in the summer. The latter shows the hacking back I've just done. Those hydrangeas must go. And there's a superfluity of cotoneaster as well. Ah, well, another five year plan in the making.

Oh, yes, and, for those of you who are interested, that is the gorgeous estate agent Phil in the garden. When I have time and when the moment is right, I shall try and see if I can get more photographs of him. And for those of you who wished to see the underwear as well, frankly if it ever gets to the stage of my getting to see his Calvins, the last thing on my mind will be taking photographs for you lot to gawp over.