After an early start getting ready before the builders arrived, I failed to meet Sony Amis himself before Di and I left to go shopping with the girls in Norwich and returned to carry on working on Heronshaw and wondering about saving the building as it seemed to be well-built with good timber.
I was awake very early and so was Della as I helped her to find her tape just before dawn at 3.30am! Diana was then up and about around 7.00am, making sure that she had used the Heronshaw bathing facilities well before the workmen arrived at 8.00am. I quickly shaved and dressed and finished scrubbing the Paxton Princess decks before I needed my boots to see over the site with the Amis crew. I chatted with them and the main man soon explained that he had tried to adhere to my instructions about the dredging and ground levelling but his boss had overruled him. This still left me short of fill material and wanting more dredging done and so I will have to see Sonny Amis himself about trying to arrange a better finish.
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Off to Norwich with the girls. I was wearing my shorts and tee-shirt with no vest again, but the weather, though sunny, was cooler in the shade with an easterly breeze. Morning drinks on the way in Wroxham and then time afterwards in our favourite Norwich places: Della enjoyed Jarrolds' toy department whilst I browsed through their book shelves swotting up on building matters. A lunchtime rendezvous at Oliver's and nice meal of fresh salad sandwiches, before time in the Library where I found another book about wherries. Back to Horning in mid-afternoon, hoping to find Sonny Amis around but I had to leave a message for him to come by in the morning as he was nowhere to be found. Diana did some more shopping in Wroxham until tea whilst I visited Jack & Dolly Edwards and borrowed his chain saw and then trimmed off the sleepers supporting the garage so that I could start the process of filling in and building up the section of ground next to it.
I called another couple of builders this evening and one of them, Ray Lond-Caulk from Hoveton, came round to have a look. He will be too busy to build my new boat-shed this year, but can be available at £5 per hour for any odd building jobs and possibly to help with Heronshaw itself. He took a good look at the old building and thought that it was well-built with good timber and worth saving. Worked out the day until dusk clearing up and at least found enough time today to bury an excavated tree trunk and clear up a lot of the site rubbish whilst the girls had a bath and then did some revision for their exams later in the week.