Thursday 12 March 2009

Busy and St Martins

Wednesday was a bit of a blurr for me as I spent all day at my mate Scots' house doing vinyl in his kitchen,dining area and utility,I even went back in the evening after a wicked football coaching session with the kids to finish off the vinyl.
He was moving back into his house today and I spent an hour or so putting the cooker and other stuff back into the kitchen with him and also a bit of finishing off with the carpet that I did on Saturday..
After that I had a very small carpet to re lay after it had been lifted in order to do some decorating.
With that done I organised a trip to St Martins to do a couple of measures and to fit a carpet at Up Idas at Signal Row, this one was a carpet that I had measured in correctly and needed to order another piece of carpet..
The job was ready to go and didn't take too long to do.
With that done, I went off to do my measures.
On the way there was time to take a few pics.
St Martins is one of my favourite islands I think I could live on St Martins probably easier than any other off island although I do think that I could also give Bryher and maybe St Agnes a try too.
There are plenty of views to enjoy from higher town as it looks out over the Eastern Isles and St Marys in the distance.
Its always good to find a different perspective to view your home.
We are lucky here on Scilly as a short boat trip can change your perspective entirely and sometimes you can feel like you are a million miles from anywhere let alone your home that can never be far away over here!
The weather was a marked improvement on yesterdays mist and murk, I am very pleased as My youngest little chap had a mainland trip away today with DW and it was good to have them back this afternoon.
When it has been foggy you always have doubt that the helicopter could stop at any time....
Luckily they had no such problems today and managed to catch up with the mail, papers and freight that has been building up at Penzance heliport due to no heli flights for 3 days!

So the St Martins work was done and all that remained was a trip home on the Lightning.
This was a fairly tame ride home today as the wind was quite light for the time of year and I was home by 4.30.
Just in time to collect DW and son from the airport.
She brought home a great big cake that she bought in Iceland for Mikes' birthday..he is 11 today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!
So after tea we had the family around and shared the big cake 12 ways...it was lovely!
And that was Thursday 12th March!

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Busy day again

Yet another busy one, I will be soo glad when March is over!
Started off with a few errands to do in town for darling wifey.
With those done I went to the quay to pick up a carpet for the last bedroom in Beachfield House.
Then went around to flat 14 in Harbour Lights where there was yesterday job to finish off.
I did the lounge that I had prepared yesterday and realised that the hallway couldn't be completed until I had done flat 12 so I could use an off cut in it.
So I did the lounge and headed off to Beachfield.
I didn't realise that I needed underlay, so went home to fetch some.
On the way back I stopped off at the lower moors nature trail that has recently had some work done by the wildlife trust to clear it out and tidy the area up.
It is looking really good and is a great place to sit and relax if you ever have time the birds all around were singing and it felt very tranquil.
But back to reality and it was back to work!
I had the bedroom done by 1ish and loaded the car with old carpets and went to the dump.
Just as I was unloading the rubbish I had a call from DW saying that Brandon needed picking up from school as he was unwell.
Shame, so I went straight there and then took him home and got myself some lunch.
He wasn't too well and had a bad headaches, it wasn't long before he wa ill and then he felt much better.
Must have picked up a bug of some kind bless him...he is totally fine now thank goodness!
So then it was back to Beachfield to collect the last of the old carpets and stuff and dump them all.
Then a couple of calls to make and back to my mate Scots house to prepare the floor for tomorrows kitchen,dining room,utility and hall vinyl.
This is as big a job as it sounds and will take me all day tomorrow, he is moving back into his house on Thursday so I have to get it all done tomorrow.
I'm sure I will!
So after tea I headed out to play pool, where tonight we were playing the Odds from Old Town Inn.
They put up a good fight but my team won 6-3 after a few tight games.
I was lucky in my singles and very nearly lost to one of my neighbours who was unlucky not to quite sink the black and kind of left an easy shot for me to win.
Well you win some lose some.....
It was a good night as usual and better than normal as I had a couple of pints instead of not drinking due to being too lazy to walk home. I normally drive the mile home!
That's about it I guess.
Weather wise it was a very spring like day calm and mild with plenty of sun throughout the day.
Must have got 3 big loads of washing dry today!
These guys were picking flowers in the field right out of the front of my house.
Bloody hard work and there are presently more flowers to pick than there are pickers to pick them, so we are seeing field upon field of open flowers....

Monday 9 March 2009

A busy start to the week!

Well Monday has never been my favourite day, but at this time of the year one day seems much like any other.
Today I was determined to get as much done as possible before 4.30 when I needed to take my dad to the health centre.
I managed to fit 4 bedroom carpets,1 bathroom carpet and totally prepare a lounge carpet ready for tomorrow this included removing 3 rooms of their furniture and old carpets!
So really good progress today.
I was working at Beachfield House this morning doing 2 bedroom and the bathroom.
The view from one of the rooms I was working in looked out over sharks pit and the harbour.
From there I could see my mate Peter Hicks out kite surfing, I hoped he would stay out for a while but a rain shower came through and the you could see the wind just instantly dropped and wasn't really good enough for kite surfing so he packed up and went home.
After lunch he was back with a friend I think it was Matt Praegar, it seems that Matt maybe new to kite surfing having been an avid windsurfer for years.
He was good but seemed to lack the rhythm and fluidity of Peter.
It showed how tricky it must be, I certainly wouldn't have the first clue as what to do in order to keep going without killing myself trying!
So after a couple of pics I had an invite to attend a teddy bears picnic that was being held in the Playzone by our fantastic children's centre leader Meriel Williams.
She had made scones and there was jam and cream to put on them.
I couldn't say no once I was invited!
Although I was very busy so I scoffed my scones and headed back to work and on to a flat in Harbour Lights, Number 14...
I did 2 bedrooms and got the lounge ready for tomorrow here and then it was time to take dad for his appointment.
By the time we were done at the health centre it was tea time and that was about it for the day.
I am an avid facebook fan, and yesterday we discovered an UNO game that you can play online.
I had a few games with my wife and finally got around to catching up with some sky+ recordings that we did when we were away.
We watched 2 episodes of LOST and now are completely lost!
So tomorrow is yet another busy day and I'm sure lots will get done!

Sunday 8 March 2009

Carvery and porpoises.

It was a nice easy start to the day, we were in no rush to go and watch the footie as todays weather has been gale force 8 or more and heavy showers.
Some good breaks between some of the showers, but man you sure knew about them when they rattled through the islands at a rate of knots, very impressive!
We went out to lunch, not the Mermaid as planned, they were all full up, seems the deal was to good to miss.
However a drive into town revealed that the Bishop and Wolf were also doing a carvery and boy what a carvery it was!
There was a selection of meats, I had Sirloin beef,roast pork,roast beef,and roast lamb too.
Added to that all the veg you could want,carrots,parsnip,swede,roast potatoes and a yorkie pud with gravy to top it off, also a selection of freshly prepared sauces such as apple and mint sauce.
Wow I should have taken a picture because you wouldn't believe how much was on my plate!!Oh I had a couple of slices of each meat available I should add!
We knew that a big ,lunch was on the cards so we were suitably hungry and there was not much left when we had all finished, I can highly recommend it!
I think for the 5 of us including a drink each it was £33, so not too bad when you consider the amount of food consumed!
After lunch there was no doubt in my mind that we needed to stay out for a bit, but I think we were all feeling a bit full so we went for a drive.
We ended up at Deep Point, not really sure why but that's where we headed!
When we got there it was beautifully sunny and quite sheltered under the cliffs.
We could see plenty of Gannets about I counted 10 at first then noticed another group of 7 or so.
While watching a huge ship on the horizon and trying to get a pic the Gannets were constantly flying through my viewfinder.
On closer inspection and well spotted by Brandon, we noticed some more activity in the sea.
Just about where the Gannets were diving in right in front of us there was definitely something else in the water.
First thoughts turned to Dolphins, sure enough we had all seen a few fins here and there.
On closer inspection of my photographs and watching intently for nearly an hour I decided that these "Dolphins" were actually Porpoises because of their shy behaviour and size differences.
We saw at times 6 different porpoises clearly moving around a shoal of fish, the sea was turning oily in the area where the Porpoises were eating.
It was a great spectacle to watch, and we felt very privileged to witness the event.
The pics are OK but the Porpoises were very fast and only appeared briefly before disappearing for 5 minutes again!
After we had watched them for an hour we decided to carry on our drive and went down to the ducks , quickly feeding them before heading down to the Mermaid car park hoping to catch some waves going over the wall.
The tide wasn't really high enough for anything like that, but seeing the Cyclone leaving the quay presented a good photo opportunity and I followed her until she was out of sight you can get a great idea of the wave height by the amount she disappeared in the troughs between the swells.
After that we headed home to chill out for the rest of the day.
So a really good day off and now its time for bed again and the start of another busy week.

Blog Awards.


This is an idea that has come from a lady from America who does a blog all about muscle cars and her life too.
She awarded me this and I was top of her list of 5 favourite blogs.
On reading through it looks like a good idea to do this yourself if you are a "blogger".

So this is my list of my top 5 blogs that I follow..




1: Scillywebcam.com
Well this one has to be my top favourite as I have been posting photos on the website since 2001 and so it means alot to me.
2: Lifeattheendoftheroad.
Since stumbling across this blog just a few weeks ago I have been compelled to look in every day to see how Paul in getting on on Raasay. A great blog and well written that inspired me to start my own blog!
3: Arroundperranuthnoe.com
This is Sue Masons blog from perranuthnoe which is just outside Penzance, very good and highly interesting as she covers allot of things that are relevant to us here on Scilly.
4: West Cornwall Photos.
Keith manages to capture some fantastic images from all around the Penwith area quite often featuring places and things that are familiar to me therefore making it another daily visit for me.
5: Stithians Birding.
Now I'm not a twitcher or a birder, but the quality of images on this site are fantastic also most of the birds featured are present here on Scilly and sometimes it really helps my identification by seeing top quality pics of the unusual birds.
Thanks to everyone mentioned here for keeping their blogs going.
The work that goes into them is very much appreciated!

And another one!

Well I payed the price for a short lie in this morning and didn't start work until 10ish.
I was held up at work due to the carpets not being on site and also builders using the room I was supposed to be fitting the carpets in to cut tiles for the bathroom!
So I didn't finish until 6!
So no time for pics again and now I 'm really looking forward to tomorrow when its going to be a super Sunday.
We are heading up to watch the football in the rain in the morning and then down to the Mermaid pub for the Sunday carvery where you can get 2 courses for £10 and one child eats free for every adult paying...Bargain!
Looking forward to it now, and seeing as it is now 12.20! I am off to bed!
Cheers!