With many of my workers back helping, I got them started and then I took the family off to Norwich to see MFI about the kitchen design after stopping off at the Riverside Cafe in Wroxham for coffee.
Di took the girls off to the beach at Winterton for a short trip to the seaside as me and my helpers worked on the boat-shed roof raising
Rather late back to the boat last night after watching some TV but it was so moonlit, warm and muggy I was able to put the canopy sides and back on well after midnight. Then the lay in this morning, awaking with a start to find the time after 7.00am. A bowl of cereal and drink and then quickly out to find that David had arrived early as I was unlocking the outbuildings. Alan joined him and, as they were removing and folding the barge cover, Steve arrived. This was the first week that he could work more than three days and so we started the week in high hopes of good progress. The electrician was back as well, after collecting conduit from Jewsons, and so there were four of them working away as I took the family off to Norwich to see MFI about the kitchen fittings.
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We first stopped off at the Riverside Cafe in Wroxham for coffee and then at Eyre Electrical where I not only bought some more cable, but also left them with a list of parts and equipment needed to complete the electrical installation so that they could quote me for it. We found the Norwich MFI busier than that at Bedford but we still found an assistant to re-design the kitchen layout for us and leave us with a diagram and quotation for final checking and ordering. Lunch at the McDonalds on the ring road and then, once Diana had dropped me back at Heronshaw, Di took the girls off to the beach at Winterton for a short trip to the seaside. They were happy to amuse themselves as I worked on with the others to get the new boat-shed along. I was chivvying up the electrician and helping him to get huge 25mm cables along a conduit and fitted across the building for the new consumer unit position. I also helped the other three from time to time as they raised the first of the rafters above the enclosed accommodation which was a tricky job due to the height of the building.
Steven and I had a well-earned pot of tea before the girls got back and then Diana got some rolls and cake ready which, being quite hungry, Steve and I ate with some enthusiasm. I got Steve and the girls to try some fishing after tea whilst I started taking the furniture off of the hardwood windows ready for staining. Della came to help me and then. when she got bored, Debbie after that! We had a nasty experience today when the "Lynx"-type wild cat that inhabits this part of Horning crept onto our lawn and went scampering off with one of the voles screaming in its mouth. Della was very upset but I got her to help me chase it up the road and then pretended that I saw the cat drop the vole so that it could scramble away. In truth, the vole was a gonner but I was saving Della the anxiety.
By the end of the evening, the window frames were all disassembled ready for painting and I still had time to bath and write up this last two days' journal before Di finished watching television and was ready for bed. The threatened storm held off today to let us get a full day's work in but then started in earnest after we had got back to the boat. We retired to the sound of heavy rain, thunder and lightning hoping that this would be over by the morning.