Cold - Colder - Coldest

Today I am mostly playing catch up. Two 12 hours days has one knackered. Am on nights tonight and hoped for a couple of hours shuteye, but no such luck. The bloke next door has recently had a block paved driveway created and I thought they had finished it. Oh no - they arrived about lunch time with a little digger to dig up the rest of the lawn and finish the path down the side.. Bring on the boys with toys. First of all the bloke in charge gets on the digger. He plays for a little while trying to get to grips with the forward/reverse until he finds the thing that spins it round. OOO much time was spent then going backwards and forwards spinning round. This is of course whilst the other three guys stand with hands on hips whooping with glee and shouting instruction to him. Bring on the digger driver. He arrives in a van and parks across our driveway. Now ordinarily this would not bother me but somehow today I find it mildly irritating. Anyway, I continue to watch from the safety of my icecube of a house (the heating has packed up and the only time the plumber can come and 'have a look' is tomorrow sometime so I can't go to bed til he's been - I am chuffing freezin'. I digress) as I consider myself an interested party. So now it's down tools and cup of tea time. The digger driver suitably refreshed gives them all a lesson in how to drive the monster bobcat. And then they get to work shifting the soil. But no! Something is terribly wrong. What can it be. They've downed tools. It seems they've only just discovered that the skip isnt here for the removed soil! Der. After another cup of tea the skip arrives and much tooing and froing and revving was done to position the skip correctly. Satisfied that it was in the right place, the skip wagon went forth and work resumed.

At this point I went into the greenhouse (it seems to be the warmest place today) and created the seed den. Now I'm pretty pleased with one even if I do say do myself. Baldrick said I would need help and that we would do it on Sunday (the greenhouse - nothing else I can assure you all) but impatient little me (yes - I admit to being the one to poke fingers into plant pots and munjel about trying to find signs of life after having planted seeds a couple of days before) decided that it had to be done and done now. And it was good. It's a pity that I dont have one of those digital cameras to post photos (I'd have no idea what to get even if I did go and get one) as I'm sure you would be impressed. I've created a sort of capsule in big bubble wrap, floor to ceiling all tucked in at the bottom and attached to the roof at the top (stating the bleeding obvious if its floor to ceiling init?) and in there its got a table now with the seeds on, a heater and a thermometer to make sure it gets a bit warmer. And no he's not having the spare bubble wrap to roll about on the floor in. Eeee what's he like? (I'm sure I remember watching a soft porn film many many years ago and they did something similar - but it could have been clingfilm.....racks memory........perhaps too much........... no we'll leave that one).

So right now the boys from the black stuff are playing with a stihl saw (a circular saw for cutting stone etc). They are all wearing masks with no goggles so they can breathe but none of them can see for the brick dust! And just as I speak an 8 wheeler turns up to tip something ....... just let me go and have a look and see what it is........ golden gravel. Now I don't know about you but if you lay an expensive looking red block drive why would you put golden gravel next to it? Am I bitching? I know - I'm sorry. I do however have it on good authority that red gravel is more expensive than gold. But I also know that the guy next door has just finished a considerable stint in the RAF and must have had a mega payout. We got a letter from the council last week asking if we had any objections to the exRAF guy building a conservatory - so it seems that is the next project. And they have no mortgage now... And they have another house they rent out... And on top of that they have a place in Cyprus (and can you believe they put a price list for it in this years Christmas card)! I am looking forward to my meagre retirement payout from the NHS!!!!!!! But don't get me started on that.

The upshot of my ramblings is that it has been too noisy to sleep and is now too late to try. I think I'll go for a bath - sugar - will have to wait for the immersion heater - I forgot - no boiler!