h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've quite a bit lined up for the next few days. I don't think I'll have time to do all this:

Friday:

Early evening - putting up a picture hook for the brother-in-law.
Evening - nothing!

Saturday:

Morning - work, starting at 8. The last of our disaster recovery testing site switches.
Afternoon - clearing out the shed of Mrs G's father's house - now "Sale Agreed"
Evenng - Singalong Messiah

Sunday:

Morning - attend Trinity Chapel Communion Service followed by Mulled Wine and Mince Pies
Afternoon - performing at Choral Evensong, St Patrick's Cathedral
Evening - rehearsal for Christmas Carol Concert

Monday:

Day: normal working day
Evening: Christmas Carol Concert in National Concert Hall

After that, things start to settle down a bit. Although there are still concerts to attend, presents to be bought and The Hobbit!!! to see, I'm not doing any more performing.

So I've told Lanza that I can start sub-editing again on Tuesday.

yay! (to the sub-editing!)

although you've got a full weekend, apart from working on Saturday, the rest sound lovely thing to do. Even shed clearing can be interesting, you might discover something curious in there.

mmmm! Mulled wine - I've just got nearly to the end of the mincemeat I'm making from basic ingredients. Mulled wine will be perfect to wash it down

That sounds exhausting, Gnomon!

Are you living on stollen time, Sho?

yes, from now until all the Stollen has gone!

A spare part arrived for our tumble dryer - a new drive belt. It's been out of action for about a week. Fitting the belt required removing about 50 screws, as well as hoovering out 16 years' worth of dust from inside it. It's all back together now.

So, I'm in work watching the sun come up. I'm the co-ordinator, so I don't have a lot to do. I've a free parking space in the lane outside (because it is Saturday), and I can actually see my car from here.

8:55 The sun is up!

It's shining in my eyes.

How long did that picture hook actually take?

The picture hook turned out to be quite a story. D, my brother-in-law, had a huge extension done on his house, with some existing rooms changed around and other new ones built on. I was asked to hang a picture in the new downstairs loo. The wall was a plasterboard one.

He had tried to punch a hole in the plasterboard using just a screwdriver, but had run into something hard, and without a drill he couldn't go any further.

I tried my drill on it with a small bit, and the bit broke immediately. I enlarged his hole slightly and found a cross-head screw! D had managed to punch his hole exactly where there was a screw behind the plasterboard. Bizarre.

Putting my screwdriver into it, I was able to turn it, but I'd no idea what it was - it could be something to do with the plumbing, and I worried that if I removed it, water would come gushing out, so I carefully re-tightened to its initial state, and punched a new hole an inch to the left. More metal, although it wasn't a screw this time.

Eventually I remembered I had a metal detector, and I managed to plot out all the metal behind the plasterboard - it seems this was originally a utility room with shelves on this wall, and the builder had left the metal support for the shelves in the wall and just plasterboarded over it.

It was then an easy job to find a new location, put up two hooks and hang the picture.

Total time 1 hour for something that should have taken five minutes.

Sod's Law

Work on Saturday went well. I wad finished by 1:30. After lunch I spent a very strenuous 2 hours cleaning out the shed in my late father-in-law's house. I decided not to go to the sing along Messiah. Mrs G went with a gang and said it was great fun. Evensong went well - the Byrd Vigilate is a wonderful piece. Tomorrow we're singing Christmas carols in the National Concert Hall.

The Christmas Carol concert went well, in that we sang well and the audience enjoyed it. But it was only half full, so we won't have made any money on it to pay for our big Spring concert.