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I thought I’d stop by and say hello – again – to fill you in on my latest news. Actually, there’s no news as such – essentially just alot of cleaning and working!
First up – the MA assignment is complete and uploaded. Not heard whether I’ve passed yet or not – it might be another week or so until I hear anything, but for now I’m not bothered – am just pleased it’s in!
Secondly, the window is now also complete! Yay! It’s been a two week process from the day the joiners first came in and bulldozed my bedroom – to my cleaning efforts in restoring it to something habitable. Take a look…
The window was fitted, but sadly the top semi-circle glass was too big for the alcove, so the joiners had to cut everything back to re-panel and re-plaster it all. They had to reveal the original 150 year old dormer roof, so there was obviously black line dirt and dust everywhere! Despite keeping doors closed as much as possible, it also seems to have spread through the whole flat too!
The wet weather has been a problem – as it took the joiners four days to fit the window and complete it all; but that was only stage 1! The painter and decorator was on another job so he could only manage the occasional hour, here and there, to start glossing it all back to niceness again. As the weather was slowly improving, priority was obviously on painting the outside frames, maximising the dry weather – and the scaffolding (which had only been hired for a month).
Despite fully appreciating this, I was understandably frustrated as no one seemed to be communicating and I was desperate to return to some sort of normality. The painter didn’t get inside the flat until another 4 days later! The novelty of living in one small room – and sleeping on the lounge floor, surounded (sorry, that should be nose-touching) to all my worldly goods, was starting to wear off! A lot of loud assertive talking to the decorator possibly made an enemy of him, but he got the job finished that day – so c’est la vie! A few other little jobs and tweaks have happened since – but at least I’ve been able to start airing and cleaning the room (in and amongst everything else) at least. However, spider plants, bowl of onions, essential oils nor the open windows seemed to be fully shifting the paint odour! Being of a sensitive nature (!) there was absolutely no way I could sleep in the room until the smell had all gone.
So two weeks later from the chaos, I have completed the marathon clean (of the bedroom anyhow – still some of the flat still to de-dust) and we spent our first night in the newly-windowed bedroom, complete with fresh bedding – and fresh everything! I’ve even been out on the scaffolding myself to clean the outside of the windows!
Making copious cups of tea and biscuits for the workmen obviously did help, as when I asked the ‘chief’ whether or not they could make me a shelf for a piece of stained glass that I have (so that it was out of harms way) they willingly obliged. You can see it clearly on picture one above – doesn’t it look fab; life is starting to return to normality!
Thirdly, OFSTED are in at work this week – (the date has arrived!) so I have been busy trying to tweak and complete the necessary paperwork. All my schemes of work are done, folders are sorted – all I have to do now is finish off my lessons plans – as well as a few other things on behalf of my co-ordinator (who is still off sick) – and everything will be in place. Thankfully I teach the second half of the week, so I have a few more days to finish it all. So, on with more cleaning…for now!
Thankfully, I’ve got some things to look forward to; this weekend I’m going home to see my folks (and Ben too) and the following weekend I’m off to London to teach my composed song to ‘The Last Cuckoo’ actor! Should be fun!