Be careful what ones says!
Be careful what ones says! Well one shouldn’t speak so prematurely should one.
On the way home from work on a rather dreary Tuesday evening I had agreed to drop in on Alan the draughtsman who’d put together my plans for the roof fix, the wall removal and lintel insertions. I got there on the minute of 5:30 when we’d agreed to meet and Alan took me through his detailed plans. He’d been rather canny and had done the plans on a joint deal with Darlington council (where he used to work) so things were going better than if they’d just gone through Durham.
The repair had gone through planning as a repair so that could be done asap but the room conversion and the subsequent patio door had still to go through planning with this taking up to four weeks longer. Anyway Alan was wonderful and for all his hard efforts he only charged me £160, there was another charge of £199 for the planning but all in all Alan has been great, a brilliant bloke and really reasonable too.
Anyway stepping outside and there was a flake or two of snow in the air as I got into the car. Heading home I followed the GPS and it decided to take me on a new more adventurous route. Being pitch black and now with a blizzard to contend with on an unfamiliar windy dark country road I recalled my previous musings on how my driving was a much more complex thing of wonder as I slipped and stumbled through the inky black countryside. A roadblock, a doubleback and ages of uncomfortable driving later I arrived back home regretting all I’d written about my new honed driving skills.
I thought well at least the house is holding up to this terrible weather.
Anyway a nice drive to work the next day and I was the only off-roader sporting a layer of snow as I cut through snow free Darlington on my way to work. I wore it like a badge of honour, huh call yourselves proper offroaders in your Chelsea tractors, where I come from it has proper weather.
Anyway a day at work and then off to my parents to pick up Izzi who had been staying with them for the day. Generally not a good day to take Izzi back home as it had been very very windy all day (disasters all over the country, hurricane force weather) and I worry about the risks of driving at night for an hour with a four year old in the back. However add to this the really bad weather and this adds quite an exponential dollop of danger to the expedition. Still the car is pretty sturdy, it’s getting old at 10 years but I service it regularly, I have work done when it needs to be done and being a Nissan X-Trial it should carry on for years if I maintain it. I invest too in a set of hybrid tyres that do snow and summer driving, good lights and wipers, and I have the boot lined with warm gear, high-vis’ jacket, salt, two snow shovels, oil, torches, water etc…. Just in case.
Anyway the drive back was very windy and wet but nothing that the old car couldn’t handle, Izzi and I busied ourselves with chatting and a sing song. I got her to her Mum’s in plenty of time to get her to bed, read her a couple of stories and then a glass of milk in the dark before falling to sleep with her snuggling up to me.
Anyway 9:30 arrived, Izzi in bed Anna returned and I zipped off back to Glenville.
Strange what’s that I thought as I pulled into the drive, a large lump of something just next to the garage path? On closer inspection it turned out to be a large pile of roofing felt… hmmm I hope that’s not mine I thought, but being dark it was impossible to tell. Anyway I comforted myself as my outhouses look as though they’re all tiled so it must have blown in from somewhere else.
Well unfortunately the next morning revealed that although most of my outhouses are tiled but the garage isn’t and it is felted instead… well it was felted.
I think someone up there must be reading this blog….
So much for the driving prowess and the zombie proofedness of the house. Hey actually it wasn’t the house at all it was the outhouses….
Now think before you type another work. I better be careful what I say as someone might be reading this and it could be the main roof next time…
Erm yes, pride before a fall.
Speaking before one’s chickens are hatched….
Etc..