The news is I’m getting my left hip done. Had a good chat with the surgeon yesterday and am going to arrange a date with his secretary. Severe osteoarthritis. I feel quite good about it as the right hip hop was a real success. The left hip doesn’t stop me swimming, which is generally quite good for the hip but also for the rest of me, but it does stop me from walking properly. I will need to find an excuse other than the hip as to why my golf has been so crap but leave that with me. Maybe golf will improve 🙂
A side effect of swimming is that I get fairly tired of an evening which can’t be a bad thing and I guess will diminish as I get fitter. The old pool at Yarborough has now reopened. It’s pretty cheap for an off peak membership but the pool is mostly given over to family fun swims so the few lane swimming sessions are likely to get busy. I’m unlikely to move back even though it’s a lot nearer our house. Once the summer holidays are over the family fun sessions are likely to morph into school swimming lessons which I guess is fair enough but just as inconvenient for us committed swimmers.
We’ve been having some work done on the house. The old single brick garage which is attached to the house since we did the side extension has only ever been used for storage. Now Darryl the Plasterer (for that is his name) has waved his magic trowel and we have a proper cavity wall with insulated lining. He is coming back next week to add a floor and once Kris the electrician has finished his bits we will be able to move my workbench in from the garage. The garage has no natural light and isn’t a place conducive to bench usage and creativity.
I already have my first project in mind. One of the drinks tables in the shed has two crates as a base and a couple of bits of scaffold planks glued together as a tabletop. These are going to have some sort of fixing that keeps the top in place on the crates and are then going to have various old tickets and leaflets glued to it as a funky cover.
The other table, which is round and uses a coffee bean barrel as a base, has lots of old rum bottle labels stuck on it. These came from THG’s dad who used to collect them as part of his job as a customs and excise inspector. I scanned the originals and reprinted them. Wasn’t going to glue the real thing down. No way José.
I’m thinking I might also stencil something onto the side of the crates. Château Pétrus, or Corona or something. We shall see. Never tried Château Pétrus believe it or not. They’ve never had it on the wine list in the Woodcocks pub after golf on a Thursday. I have consumed Corona, yonks ago. Is it still a brand?
The next job after that is to cut to size a piece of wood and affix to the end of the shelving unit in the shed so that I can conveniently position a drink (diet coke, milk, water, tea etc) when sat on the sofa. All good stuff.
When I built the shed my original thinking was that it would be a multifunction space that could accommodate a bench as well as a shed. However this doesn’t really fit with the serious work ethos of the building and so having a separate place for manual creative activity makes sense. During the first lockdown we had three of us working out of the shed and the spare desk remains for the use of any visitor requiring a temporary spot to plonk down for a conference call, spreadsheet manipulation or business planning. Yanow the sort of thing. Maybs.
The good weather seems to have returned for the moment and the shed doors are once again thrown wide open.
One good byproduct of having the new workshop is that I will need to review my collection of tools. A bloke can never have too many tools although I may take the opportunity to rationalise my collection of screwdrivers of which I have far too many in the red plastic box in the garage. I will also be moving my “History of the Adjustable Spanner” book from its place in the shed to the steel shelving unit that is going to run down the side wall. The wood recognition book that I bought from Axminster Tools can also go in there. Makes sense to me.
Unfortunately Axminster Tools in Cardiff closed its doors earlier this year. V sad. They do have another branch but I believe it may be in Axminster and thus nowhere near anywhere I am likely to be anytime soon. The Cardiff branch was always worth a bit of a pilgrimage. Almost a reason to go to Cardiff by itself. That and the beer in The Corp which is around the corner from our Sue’s.
Anyway gotta go. I’m rereading “Hanes Plwyf Llandyssul” by Y Parch W.J.Davies. Several relatives get a mention and it reveals more everytime I open it.