and summer begins...

After the wedding, I found my sleeping pattern was completely messed up. I was getting up ridiculously early. I would be up at 7 and would have nothing to do. I found myself helping out around the house, dismantling all the climbing frames and swings in the garden (the young children mentioned in the previous post will be very disappointed when they visit), to make room for a big water feature - it seems a bit of a daft place to situate this water feature, considering the site is surrounded with big horse chestnut trees and hazelnut trees, we'll be forever clearing it free from the falling leaves. Regardless of whether there would be a water feature there or not,  the play area had to be demolished all the same. When my dad fitted in the swing, he had safety at the top of his agenda. He followed the instructions carefully, ensuring he put much more concrete than necessary, so that there was no chance that the swing would collapse at my weight. Unfortunately, my dad's consideration of safety was very short sighted (if not blind) for he did not consider the safety hazards when removing these 2ft cubed concrete blocks at a later date. So here we are, some years later, trying to get these blocks to even budge. Oh and I forgot to mention...there are four of them.

Despite the obvious difficulties with the size and weight of these concrete blocks, we managed to get all four of them out of the ground. Looking back, I don't know how we managed it, considering it was just my dad and I. I am surprised neither of us did any damage to ourselves. Not even a pulled muscle.

I also cooked the Sunday Dinner...on a Monday. It seems a tradition in this house, to always - and I mean always - under any circumstances, have a Sunday Dinner. Of course, we were out on Sunday at this pub lunch with the family, so we had the Sunday dinner on the Monday. I was complimented for my crispy roast potatoes, and have been told that they were almost as good as Dad's (Dad's being the best roast potatoes the world has ever seen - and I think anyone who has tried them will second that). And so now I have been promoted, from laying the table and sorting out drinks on a Sunday, to helping out in the kitchen, as a a secondary chef. And just like any other promotion in this modern day, the pay is just the same - I still get the same number of spuds on my plate at the end of it all.