Five weeks Down and One to Go... I Doubt It

This has been a cold week and my arm has ached.  Quieter today.
I doubt that there is one week to go...  Time will tell.  Probably this will be an on-going process.

I am feeling braver about travelling. If all is well with the placement of the bones, then I can expect the journey to healing to proceed routinely.  Then, and perhaps during, there is rehabilitation to take place.  Our wrists move wonderfully in different directions.   I look forward to being able to do more with it as the weeks go by.

On Tuesday Glenn and I visited the Botanic Garden.  Lovely to visit there whenever I can.

On Friday Sarah and I visited the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Park.  Lovely to see many familiar artworks that I have visited periodically for the past sixty years as well as see new ones too.

Happy Birthday to Angela for Friday!  We thought of you!  We will celebrate with you when we get there.

In the evening we enjoyed being with our Dessert Club for supper.

I washed my own hair yesterday.  Sarah, who has been helping me t ese past five weeks, leaves for her mission tomorrow.  Next week I will go to the hairdresser and have my hair trimmed, so that wash and style will be taken care of.  I hope to have one of my daughters or granddaughters help me the week after.  One week at a time!

Yesterday Cecilia and I took a journey to Dukes Court to clean finally.  As I drove out of the driveway I wondered how I would do it - the journey, and the cleaning.  Since my car is automatic I managed fine enough.  I realize I am finding ways to manage with my teeth or my elbow or my legs or feet substituting for my right hand/arm.  Driving yesterday I noticed myself using my left thigh to hold the wheel steady while I altered the position of my left hand on the steering wheel.  Important always to think ahead and take quieter roads.

Douglas has not been well these last couple of days...  Yet he presses on as well as he can.

We attended Joyce Levy's 85th birthday celebration yesterday afternoon.  Lovely to be there with her and family and friends.

Last night Glenn and I watched The Tales of Narnia:  The Voyage of The Dawn Treader.  Exciting!  Gillian introduced me to CS Lewis' Tales of Narnia.  If you haven't discovered them yet... do get one of the books and enjoy the rich symbolism and lovely use of our language.

Jackson and Dorah Mkhabela leave soon to be Mission Presidency couple in Zimbabwe mission.  I shall miss both of them.  This morning they and their daughter who is going with them, and Sarah spoke in our sacrament meeting.  Tender moments during their talks and during the hymns.

This afternoon I mixed the chocolate chip cookie dough and Glenn formed it into balls and baked it.  Good for us!  We will enjoy them!

Good week to you all!

Pin-hole Leak Repair

Dukes Court pinhole leak developed

where the galvanised pipe meets the copper one.

 

Complex plumbing configuration before.

Why would they have chosen the u-shaped join...?

 

"My man maak a plan."

 

Doug was doing another job at Dukes Court so drove with us.

His idea was to hang the spanner on the hose emptying the geyser.

 

I wasn't strong enough to hold the one spanner, so the

unyielding wall was the resistance to Glenn's wrenching.

I held the blue handle as hard as I could away from the wall,
and the black handle in my other hand,

so there would be less pressing on the tile which I thought

might well break with the full pressure of Glenn's strength.

Some of the tools of Glenn's trade...

He wished he had an old toothbrush for this job.

He might put one in one of his two portable tool-cases for future possible use,

in the event that he might need it in the future... 

This time he used a paintbrush which is in the one.

 

Pin-hole leak sorted.

I'm sorry I didn't take an 'after' photo...

The complex junction was simplified.

 

And perhaps we have a buyer for the flat.

I will possibly know later today.

The Finish of the Dukes Court Project

Thank you Glenn for putting up the Medicine Cabinet.

Fruitful Friday

The baths, toilets and basins re-enamelled,

The parquet floor stuck down,

 

Dessert club at our home,

Pasta evening:  Chicken Shells, Tuna and Pasta and Macaroni Cheese.

 



And I found my favourite knife!

It was in the sink dish-dryer - in plain sight!

I have been looking for it a couple of days.

 

We bought it about 40 years ago with a life-time guarantee

which I doubted...

I use it at least once a day.

I gave it a kiss when I found it before my very eyes.

 

I said to Glenn
"I will ask Rohan and Colleen whether they took it with them somehow,

before I mourn the loss of my favourite knife..."

 

It wasn't long after that that I turned around... and there it was!

 

Maybe it is time to look at current knives...

A Devil of a Job

At last the paper-work for the water damage at Dukes Court is properly done.

I decided rather to have two teams work on one day.  I thought it would be better than one team on one day and the other on another day - disturbing our tenants more days.
Good in one way, and a bother in another.
Anyway it all worked out well enough yesterday.
As it happens we still need to be there today and tomorrow too.

Glenn and Sylvester worked at replacing the lifted wooden blocks in part of the passage.

Ishmael was stripping the loosened paint on the one bathroom ceiling.
The ceiling and walls of the other bathroom have previously been done by Doug and his team.

Sylvester and Ishmael work for Douglas.  He is the contractor responsible for the restoring of the wall and floor damage - results of a serious leak from the flat above.

Glenn and I were there to add a precise eye and an aesthetic eye.
And also... I really wanted to see how the mend-a-bath application was done.

The one bath "before" - both of them really needed doing!

The bath "during..."  a powerful paint stripper was generously applied.

Jonas from mend-a-bath was working on this.

 

The other bath "during..."

The pink bathroom basin "during"

Then, because Jonas was working on the baths, Ishmael joined Sylvester with the wooden blocks.

This is Jonas working away.  He works excellently.  He was a pleasure to watch.  I love watching someone who is good at their work and does it well!
After the bubbled paint is removed, the whole surface is thoroughly cleaned, chips are repaired with epoxy, dried, and then acid wash is applied to prepare for the paint application.  This is then dried.

The bath looks so good... but the surface was now compromised in preparation for the re-enamelling.

From the main bedroom into the one bathroom.  A lot of little parquet flooring blocks had to be re-stuck down.  Because of the water the last of the wet and dried blocks needed to be shaved a little or a lot to fit in.

Jonas masked off the baths, the one basin and one toilet.  The other basin and toilet will be done on Friday.

We each paused for lunch and a break along the way...

The spraying on of the enamel coat was potently fumey.  I felt sorry for our lungs.  Jonas had a sophisticated mask on.  I was glad.  He has been doing this for 19 years. 

Douglas came to inspect the progress and took Sylvester for another job, I then became Ishmael's assistant on the floor. 

When Jonas started spraying it was "let's leave the floor and find a place where there is some fresher air!"

I found a fan and positioned it to direct some air out into the passage towards the open front door.

Glenn and one or two of Doug's workers go again this morning to work on the floor, and I go again on Friday when Jonas will come and do the other basin and toilet.

A devil of a job!    Two of them.  The sort that when it needs to be done you hunker down and press forward and onward, and when it is done you cheer!

I took along three books and read from one and then the other throughout the day before I got to helping Ishmael in the afternoon.  It was a nuisance to Sylvester and Ishmael on the floor to get past them in the passage.

I took some time during the day too to be still and reminisce.  This is where our Dad lived for about seven years (Glenn and I worked it out last night - maybe we are a little or a lot off.  Probably five years at least.)

I remember visiting Dad and Sister Anna there.  I am glad to have had the time to be there and do some more finishing off of any business that might be unfinished somewhere inside the depths of me.

One day down... probably the worst... two more to go.
The one bathroom still needs the floor replaced at a future date.  A new cupboard arrangement also has to be placed in that bathroom.   I am not sure when Doug has that in his schedule of work.
I will post pictures of the "after" in due time.