Flashback

The entire renovation of 42rvh just flashed before my eyes once more, and into my joints and bones via a van and 'dechetterie' or waste disposal.

I finally got around to removing all the debris and waste that I had temporarily parked in the empty room on the ground floor - the room whose owner was less than happy when he found it all there - how was I to know?, the place looked long abandoned and uninhabitable.

I shared a van rental with Patrick for the day and we shifted two loads out of the bar in the morning and then two loads out of 42rvh in the afternoon. In the process I relived 18 months of renovation as out came old doors, balustrades, tiling, baths, radiators, plasterboard, plumbing, electrics, wood and walls (in the form of hundreds of bags of debris).

Each load carried took me straight back to the time we removed it from it's original place and how and why it had to go and what is in it's place now.

But I am very very glad that I will never see them again. I must have moved half that rubble three times already and that was definitely the last. When we finally finished at six o'clock I was exhausted. I hadn't felt that tired for a very long time and my bones and muscles are definitely feeling it today.

That finally brings to an end the long running Operation Barney - hurrah, and I did manage to find my missing grout testing board - the one I had used to mix different measures of colour until we got just the right shade. I wasn't going to throw that away

To cap the day off, I had guests for dinner at eight, so two hours to shower, change, get my breath back and get dinner ready and the table set, when actually all I wanted to do was lie down.

I sometimes wonder why we put ourselves through these things - but dinner was a success and the guests are very happy and I feel better now that all the debris has gone from that room, so I guess it was worth all the effort.

Everything I pick up feels very heavy today though