Minimal Disruption

You know when someone used the phrase "minimal disruption" you should actually be focusing on the "disruptive" part rather than the word minimal. The plumber/electrician/all round good guy has started work on those jobs around the bathroom that I talked about last time. I took the day off work on Monday, just i case he needed anything after he had actually started on the job.

Well for most of Monday he had to turn off the electicity as he had to replace the utility box in the kitchen. The old one didn't have any spare RCD's (Residual Current Devices - a type of circuit breaker) so he had to fit a new one with more room. As he was fitting a new one he had to retest every other circuit in the house ( as each one had a new RCD). That took all of monday.

It is now Wednesday and he is currently almost halfway through (he's probably going to overun by half a day on the original estimate). The radiator has been fitted and he's done all of the wiring now. What's left is to fit the taps and the shower. Currently my house looks like this.

The Corridor from front door to bathroom.

My spare room/temporary workshop.

So what disruption have I left. Well, to fit the shower he actually has to remove the bath entirely from the bathroom to reroute some pipes (which means no showers until it's finished). And of course that probably means the water will be turned off as well. But it's all in a good cause. I also have Friday booked as a day off from work to make sure everything is finished correctly. Only when he's finished will I take some "work in progress" pictures.

So that's the week ahead, what about the week previous? Well Friday was obviously the 13th an while I had no bad luck personally 2 of my charges tried to injure themselves in spectacular fashion during our weekly sports session. Neither was injured seriously it just meant more paperwork for me to do.

On the Sunday I attended an all day T'ai Chi course held by our instructor for all of his classes in the area. It was actually part of an all week easter course that he was running, but because of other commitments I could only attend on the final day. God's I was sore after that session. I tweaked a muscle on the inside of my thigh as well (Steady girls!). It was my own fault, I stretched I bit to far during one of the exercises. Part of the lesson was spent on Massage techniques (which is part of our discipline) and I think that section went on longer than he intended, probably because our instructor was enjoying it so much. This is actually a good skill to have after doing a long session such as this one.

Work has been, well work. The French have been really quiet and instead the Swede's keep ringing/emailing with problems - mostly to do with Windows. Would you believe I think there is a langauge problem with English versions of Windows talking/networking with Swedish versions. I have also been using out remote monitoring system to watch a new site we are currently trying to install, that just doesn't seem to work. Everything points to the fact t should work, it just doesn't!

The rest of my working time has been spent on a monster Excel document. I'm running a few equations through tables of variables trying to simulate various conditions when it comes to controling the temperature of gas burners during certain conditions. It's more interesting than it actually sounds as it's part of our efforts to reduce the fuel consumption of our machines. It's all to do with environmental efficiency in todays global/political climate. All of the number's it is producing is just making my head spin.

I still have weeks when I do wish I could have a quick drink now and again. Speaking of drinking (and it's a bit disturbing how this link works), I'm thinking of organising a get together at my place in the mid/late summer region of this year. Yes I know it's been over 2 years since I moved in (hey with house parties it's better late than never). But after all this time I felt it's time I actually hoseted one, rather than just helped. I've attended so may other's that I definatelty have more than one favour to return. ;-)

Any who, I'm just casting the net to see who would be initially interested. I'm doing it here as I'm going to restrict numbers initially due to space issues. I also realise that for those London based people it's a long way for you to come, so don't worry if it's not possible.

Like I said, I'm just fishing for responses at the moment, like a little garden gnome by the side of a pond. ;-)