It's almost 12 months since I accepted the offer on the UK house. How time flies. And me with no progress to show for it bar a waterproof roof and a fancy paint job.

Fortunately my lurgy (the allergies segued into a flu and I am still coughing like a choked up motor), seems to be on the mend, though tomorrow's exertions may well change that once more. What exertions I hear you say. Well the planning permission for the shed has finally come through so now I have to get a wriggle on and sort out the rainwater tanks so they have open space in which to build said shed (long story, yet to come). So I chased up the chap who was going to give me a quote three months ago and he turned up just now to say he can start on Monday.

This means between now and Monday (despite a full day in the History Room) I have to clear the long grass away from the area of operation, find a home for the various things stacked on the site to be cleared for the tanks and move them there and generally run around like a headless chicken. I have left a message with the local yard man to see if he can help but if not I will need to don a breathing mask and get stuck in tomorrow (not today - too cold and windy today, so I am staying firmly inside bar walking the dog and cleaning the bank later on).

Also called Council to see if they had made any progress regarding my request they share the cost on the neighbour's tree removal, but no, they had not yet discussed it with higher up, and promised they would do so today (so another phone call on Monday may be in order).

And checking out tank availability for delivery - another task to be dealt with - so an email to them too.

As I mentioned, it is blooming cold today, but it is the first cold weather in a while so I shouldn't complain. Fortunately I remembered to buy a bag of wood when down in Hobart last week, so the fire is going, albeit at a slow rate to ensure the supply lasts the distance.

The shed approval is through - no objectors to my great astonishment. We did not lodge for building approval as the rules change on 1 January and theoretically at least, approval will not be necessary. But we can't start before than as the current rules will apply to anything started before that date. And after that date it still has to go to Council's building inspector to determine whether it is an exempt development (the new, 'simplified' approach) and so forth and so on. The kit can not be ordered till after Christmas anyway, so it still looks like a February start for building the shed. Not such a bad thing as progress on the earthworks, tanks, tree etc has lagged somewhat and given the impact of Christmas, the tendency for Australian companies to use Christmas as an excuse to close for a month etc, I will still have to stay on their cases.

Meanwhile I have been doing my usual stuff and doing it slower and slower due to the progress of the allergies/lurgy and running out of energy to do anything other than turn up where I am expected to be, doing what needs to be done and staggering home to walk the dog before sagging into a chair.

That and pandering to the more peculiar behaviours of guests at the cottages who apparently can not find their way to the Reception area (three signs directing them there) and once there, can not find the envelope with their names on it which contains check-in instructions, or who get huffy because there is a power outage of 2 minutes duration which was clearly aimed at them personally. It is actually quite hard to explain this one convincingly as half Oatlands is served by one power source and the other half by another. Given the location of the cottages at the intersection, they do find they are surrounded by dwellings which still have electricity, but I know what is going on as I too am affected by such outages on that particular line.