New Years Day

So - 2012 then ... Wonder where the other 12 years got to. I remember when I was younger and I worked out how old I would be when the turn of the century came around, and concluded i would be nearly dead by then I would be so old. And here we are 12 years later and I am still here. One of the real pleasures of the Hall committee is that i am the youngster of the group - by at least a decade and often quite a bit more. While this has its down sides, it does make me feel a bit better about the aging process.

Today was started at 2 am when the sounds of hammering and thumpings arose which caused minor alarm but then I went back to bed. Turns out the local lads have repeated their efforts of the last three NYEs and painted the road (again), removed and defaced 'for sale' signs (again) and left several inches of rubber on the roads (again). As Alison and i said as I helped her remove all the 'for sale' signs from her front fence, it is time we showed them how it is done. So perhaps next year she and I will give them a lesson in how to bring the NY in with style, (if I can stay awake that long, lol).

Barbara and Lucas came up for lunch and a sticky beak a the hall. Then Barry and Eleanor called around (by invitation - Barry is an architect) and provided a bit of advice/confirmed my views on why the hall was leaning and how best to deal with it -as well as what additional research might be desirable (like getting into the roof space - something I have avoided so far). So now I can be a bit more confident about the various 'solutions' proposed by my councillor Vice President whose approach to building solutions seem a little gung-ho. With any luck I will win solely on the basis of cost, as his solution (run tie rods across the hall at intervals, and jack it up to level) will cause more problems than it solves in my view and (fortunately) in Barry's.

Then they all wandered off again and left me with the dog and one cat. Smidgen has been returning late for a few nights. Last night was justified as the neighbour's dogs got stuck in and he went to ground under Alison's house. Not sure what his excuse is today as he has to be about somewhere but is not responding to calls. Will leave the laundry window open for him and hopefully he will be back some time soonish.