Alice and the Red Queen

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” — Red Queen.

I’m spending about 2, 2 1/2 hours each morning doing (at the moment) the plumbing and electricity. Meanwhile Frank is running out of work to do, he has to tile the bathroom walls, but not before I’ve plumbed the bath mixer tap in and checked for leaks. He has to patch up the wall in the kitchen, but not before I’ve wired up the light switch boxes. And it seems to me that he works more slowly the less work he has, to make sure of his continued employment. Understandable, of course. But that means that I’m the handbrake on the works.

I told him that next week he’s starting to paint the outside of the house. That will keep him busy, giving me time to catch up with the plumbing.

Unless it rains, of course.

The previous owners added the triple garage, and a wondrous thing it is, but they never painted the cement blocks, so that’s where Frank will start. On the shopping list : 20 liters of plaster primer and two rollers & trays.

Meanwhile Tanya is choosing the colours — she doesn’t like the current green & white scheme. Me? I’m a guy. Red, green and blue are colours, Mauve, Lilac and Magenta are characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. (OK, I might be mistaken about Mauve and Lilac).

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