St Martins

It was pretty foggy last night when it was dark and I was pleased to see that it had gone when I woke up this morning.
It was still grey though and there was a stiff southerly breeze, set to increase throughout the day.
I had breakfast and headed down to the quay to see if any boats were heading up to St Martins.
I had a job up at Churchtown Farm again to do another 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
I was in luck, as I arrived the Lightning was just getting ready to leave.
So i hopped on with my tools and all and headed off into the choppy sea.
It was a fine trip up and I managed a couple of pics.
There is a Razorbill in one shot, you can just make out a blackish blob!
I got a lift up to the farm from Lowertown Quay and set straight to work.
I timed the day well, with it being Keith Lows' official retirement "do" at the farm and at 10.30 everyone stopped for coffee and cake and other nibbles.
It was lovely and there was speeches from Andrew Julian and Keith himself who was presented with an brand new outboard as a retirement gift.
He has been dedicated to his job and this is truly a worthy gift for a highly respected local man.
I had lots to do though so headed back to work and I had one room completed by lunch.
After lunch of a couple of sandwiches I knuckled down to work and finished off the other room and bathroom and was all done by 3.30.
So another successful day on St Martins.
There was a boat to catch back down at Lowertown at 4.10, so we got a lift down and when we got there the weather was pretty grim.
The tide was high making it difficult to berth the Lightning but skipper Paul Smith did a great job of bringing her in and although she was bobbing like a cork alongside the quay all the passengers and luggage were safely transferred.
The trip back was quite rough to start off with a by now very fresh wind probably a force 7 or so..
It was also nearly high tide which at the moment are spring tides and this made a difference to the sea state too.
When I arrived back at St Marys I had a few things to do and by now it was raining properly after being on and off spitting for most of the day.
It dried briefly letting me take a few pics from up at Buzza Hill and down at Holgates Green
From Holgates I spotted an old Bonwitco "With" boat that is pretty much what I am looking for by way of a new boat...so if any one sees one similar for sale let me know please?
They have brought out a new model now so may look a bit different but these boats are ideal for over here.
Well those and maybe a Pioner 15 or Viking for me.
I had the Pioner Maxi and we outgrew it as a family of 5!

Sunday,Monday,Tuesday and today.......in brief!

So after a really busy week and hopefully my last one like it for a long time.
It was great to wake up on Sunday morning to open the curtains on a beautiful day.
today was the last league match of the year and was being played just down the road on the primary school pitch.
We headed down a bit late with a picnic and watched the men play while also playing on the skate park.
It was great down there and we all had a good time, after the men had left we had a kick about before heading up to the Garrison to do a bit of Lasertagging.
This is like paint balling with the paintball guns.
You use laser guns instead that are very accurate..
You wear a baseball cap with a sensor front and rear.
We started off on the football pitch hiding behind camo windbreaks that well placed all over the field.
After that we headed off into the pine trees for a team game and then back to the field to do a last man standing game where it was every man for himself.

Now I'm not an aggressive person at all, but I have to admit I did get caught up in the game and took it all quite seriously, particularly i our final game that was adults only in the woods where my team took on another..and won!
The guys running the lasertag sessions were across from Penzance where they run a business over there where you can go along and play.
It was great fun and I think everyone should have a go...
After all the running around of lasertagging and lots of football I wasn't really up for much for the rest of the day, and didn't do much when we got home.
A good day off.
I woke up Monday morning determined that my busyness was over and I was going to have an easier time now.
This meant re arranging jobs and basically avoiding work for a few days.
The boys are off from school for the Easter holidays and I really struggle to go to work when the whole family is home having fun.
I think I finally went to work mid morning and did some work.
Can't remember exactly what now......
I certainly recall spending a long while on the phone to some men in India about my lack of internet but was assured several times that it was an exchange fault.

On Tuesday I was pinned down to finish off my last job for Island Properties.
A hall,stairs and landing at 2 Bayview Terrace.
I got this done in quite good time with my son Brandon helping me out.
I reckon he will be the one son that might well follow in my footsteps.....
At lunchtime I had another half an hour on the phone to Tiscali but had a bit more success managing to reset my router of which half of the setting were incorrect, but it still didn't work.
So I went back to work again.
When I got home after work the internet was back and I was a happy man.
No idea what happened in the end, why it went off or how it came back and I don't care really.....It just good to have it back!

Today Wednesday has been fairly straight forward with a bit of running around with the kids this morning and the guinea pigs to clean out, washing to hang out and some vinyl to fit in a bathroom.
After lunch I did another bathroom vinyl and prepared a room for more vinyl.
It was a fairly easy day, and tomorrow I am heading back up to St Martins and Churchtown Farm to do 2 more bedrooms and bathrooms in their staff accommodation...

St Martins

So going back to last Friday and it was quite a hectic day.
I had a whole load of work to do on St Martins, 5 bedrooms,hallway and lounge carpets to be done on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning before the guests arrived at lunchtime on Saturday.
Now I'm not normally this dis organised and usually manage to get my jobs done with time for the customer to get their places ready for their visitors.
But this one I had left a bit late and then was let down by the carpet manufacturers who took well over a week to get the carpets delivered.
This usually takes a few days...
The problem was compounded by the lack of the Gry Maritha and it was all down to my friends at the Carpet Warehouse in Penzance who managed to arrange to get the carpets on the Scillonian.
It was always going to be a bit of a rush.
The delivery went well and it everything arrived on time, more or less.
The Lightning took all of the carpets and underlay in one trip and I followed up on the next trip after having to wait a while until I could find the Gripper that was also on the Scillonian too.
It was found just in time by my mate Eldred on the quay who found it for me and I had about 3 minutes to spare before the Lightning left for St Martins.
So a mad hour there...
On arrival at St Martins I was presented with a mountain of carpet and underlay that all had to done in a short space of time.
We didn't hang about and set straight to work.
I managed to get 4 bedrooms and the hallway done by the time my boat home was due to leave at 6.50.
By now the weather had closed in and it was raining and blowing hard too.
But I was happy with my achievements for the day.
I was glad to get home for a good rest, but I would be up early the next day to head back up to finish off.







Saturday...

So it was an early start with a 8.10 boat.
It was a bright start and with just a bedroom and lounge to do and some doors to plane I had no real worries that the job would be completed in time.
I set about finishing off and got it all done by my lunchtime deadline.
the guests had arrived on an early boat but were happy to sit and wait in the garden sat out on chairs in the sun.
I took a few pics when I had finished and took a walk down to the quay before heading home on the Voyager.
On the quay it was really good to see Bee and Jeff from Bristol who had just arrived for a diving trip.
I'm glad the weather was good for their arrival.
While leaving on the Voyager the wind was offshore and the smell of the gorse that was in flower on Cruthers Hill was truly amazing.
Just a lovely scent.
I headed home when I got back St Marys for a well earned rest and settled down for a nice weekend...
Then I lost my internet connection!!!!!

I'm Back

Well kind of..
My internet died sometime on Saturday and after many calls to Tiscali it has returned at last!
I will get about to updating again now really soon.
But I have the last pool night tonight and have no recent pictures due to not having any internet.
So I'll do a quick one later on...
Thanks to those of you who are still looking in!

Just a quick line to say that I am still here and will be updating real soon.
my hardrive on my laptop is full and I need to copy off some photos and delete some files so that I can download my photos.
But I have been just too busy to have time.
Hopefully get it sorted tonight.
Cheers George.

Back to work.

Before I had time to enjoy my weekend it was already over!
I am getting in need of a break.
I have have had an issue with Mondays ever since I was a very young child and I think its fair to say that I was never the first child into the school grounds on a Monday morning.
This unfortunately has followed me into my adult years and unless there is a really cushy job to go and start the week with, then Mondays can be a real drag.
Today was a little different though as my dad was supposed to be going away on the helicopter on the first flight.
So I was up early at 7 to get some breakfast and head off to take my dad up to the airport.
On arrival it turned out that the helicopter had a technical problem and wasn't flying until further notice.
So I took dad home and awaited further information.
I then took the boys to school and somehow we ended up being late to school by a minute or so, not too sure why....
Then it was off to work and today's job was at the Bylet Guesthouse where I had to do a hallway,bedroom and toilet in carpet.
The job was to take me all day, with a few distractions such as ferrying my dad up to the airport once more to find out that they still weren't flying and take him home again ( we cancelled the whole thing after that)
And also I picked up one of my little skiffs that had been moved in yesterdays clean up of the slipway area at Old Town.
After finishing at the Bylet I had a couple of calls to make and then it was home for tea.
The day was a rather grey affair offering little in the way of photography, but I did spot a Gibsons photo on the wall at the Bylet that I photographed and had tried to replicate again today.
Old photo is copyrighted by Gibsons of Scilly and I thank you for the use of the image.
I think that the original must have been taken way back in the 1800's probably between 1860 and 1880 or so.
Not sure exactly but the quay is not at its full length so must have been along time ago...
The original is hard to replicate exactly as the position of the photographer in the 1800's was inaccessible to me today, with it being somebodies' garden now! Mrs Wilsons garden to be precise!
And that was Monday, tomorrow sees me returning to St Martins but only to do 2 bedrooms so I should be home for around lunchtime and be able to continue with my St Marys work.

Ahh relax...

So after a busy week I was glad to not have to work today.
I almost did but managed to get out of one job and kind of ignore the other!
I was awake last night just at the time when the clocks went forward having fallen asleep on my comfy sofa.
So I was glad that Ben woke up at 8.30 this morning allowing a good bit of sleep, clever boy!!
We opened to curtains to reveal a stunning day outside the window.
It was unexpected as the forecast I had seen said something entirely different.
I took the opportunity to get my work clothes in the wash ad out on the line, before heading up to the Garrison to watch the final football match of the season.
It was a good match with it being only 8 a side,the score was 7-6 in the end with the half time score being 5-1 to the losers.
I can never remember what team wear what kit but the reds won today, so it was either the Woolpack Wanderers or the Garrison Gunners!
After the match finished we stayed up to have a kick about on the pitch and have a play in the play park.
I took a couple of pics on the way down the hill, before heading down to Old Town beach where the bay association of boat owners were setting about checking their moorings and replacing old chain where necessary.
It looked lovely down here, but by now a chilly westerly had started and if the sun went behind a cloud it was a bit chilly.
Whereas up on the garrison it was T-shirt weather while playing footie...
After the trip to the beach I decided that some well deserved relaxing time was called for so did very little for the rest of the day.
Only had to pop into town to get some milk for breakfast and pop into see my dad this evening.
so a nice relaxing day in the sunshine.
Ideal!!
And it looks as though the weather for the week is looking ACE!
Perfect, might get the boat in......

Saturday.

Saturday started well with a slightly later start of 9 o clock.
I went to the quay so see what the final Gry for a week had delivered, and I was happy that everything that I had ordered had arrived.
So I loaded up the car with the 10 rolls of underlay and dropped them into my garage.
Then it was off to do a hall stairs and landing at Treglesyn in Rams Valley.
This took most of the day and I had a few other calls to make and a site meeting at the Town Hall with my mate Mark from Wright Construction.
I will be doing lot of tiles in the old reception area which will now be office space.
After work I arrived home where we quickly made a decision that we could go out for tea.
We went up to the Scillonian Club and sat in the Lyonesse Bar overlooking the harbour.
It was a good honest bit of grub and the view was just lovely.
We sat and enjoyed our tea and watched the sun going down.
I can recommend a club burger!!
Some pics here from the Lyonesse bar, including a flock of Turnstones taken at dusk through the window.
All in all another good day with another job nearly completed.

Friday St Martins

So well it is all a bit of a blur now, but i'll try and catch up..
Friday started very early again with little Ben waking at 6.30 again.
It was ok though as today was going to be an early start anyway,as another day on St Martins was on the cards.
I needed to finish off what I started on Thursday, the rooms were so big that even a 5 metre wide carpet wasn't enough to do the width of the room in one go and I had to put in a join down one side
of the room.
Joins in this particular type of carpet are quite tricky and it took a while for me to do them.
When that was done I set about doing the 4 bathrooms.
I was quite lucky because the bathroom were clear of all bathroom fittings such as toilet and sinks,etc.
This makes life so much easier as then I only have to cut straight lines around the edges of the room.
So it wasn't too long before I had done all 4 and it left me time to finish off a job that I started weeks ago and just needed a small join finishing.
A very productive day on St Martins.
After the day of work I was very tired and was feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn't do anything at all after I got back to St Marys.

St Martins.

Had a good day up on St Martins today to do two very large rooms that are going to be used as staff accommodation at Churchtown Farm.
Going back tomorrow morning at 7.45 to finish off and do 2 bathrooms.
A busy day but not too different from any other at the moment really, i'll let the pics do the talking........

BUSY!

Well it was another start with little Ben waking up at 6.30 again.
I'm not really what you might call a morning person, well at least not until I have had my Frosties!
After that I'm not too bad..but 6.30 is about an hour and half to early for me!
The second morning in a row certainly wasn't welcome particularly as I was into bed late last night after the pool night..
It worked out OK though as today was always going to be a long day.
I was fully booked today, but was persuaded to fit in another job as well.
So I left the house at 8.15 and went off to work.
First job was a kitchen vinyl,through and hallway and into a WC in one piece.
If that sounds complicated then you will be glad to know that it was!
This job took nearly all morning and just about left enough time for a quick job in 1 Golden Bay where I needed to put down a metal door bar.
Then I was off to 4 Well Cross to do a bedroom carpet.
With that done I had to pop back to 1 Golden Bay to stick down the bathroom vinyl that I fitted last week, and finish the job off.
By now it was 3ish and time to head down to the pitch for footie practise.
It was a fine sunny afternoon and very pleasant conditions for football.
We had a good hour session that finished with the usual match.
I think everyone had a good time today, the weather certainly helps as does the pitch that has finally dried out after all of Januaries rain!
After footie we needed to go to town and get something for tea.
After tea I still had more work to do in 4 Well Cross, a hallway had to be done as I will be on St Martins for the next 2 days.
It took me about 2 hours to do and I finally finished just after 9.
So in all I'm pretty tired now, I have taken not even one picture today as I just seemed to be chasing myself all day today!
Definitely have pics tomorrow............

A productive day

Today started early after being woken at 6.30 a.m by our youngest son who clearly thought that we should all be awake if he was.
We will be buying a blackout blind for him VERY soon!
I used the extra hour or so to lie in bed and listen to Steve Watts ramblings on Radio Scilly, the first time I have had it on when the programme " Scilly Sunrise" started!
a needed to go to school to ask the teacher or someone a question so took a couple of pics on the way.
The usual suspects of Old Town Bay were present, a Little Egret and a Greenshank.
The Heron was about but I didn't spot him while I was walking.
After school drop off I went straight off up to Mincarlo to do the landing carpet.
It was fairly straight forward but took a while and I didn't really get done until nearly lunchtime.
It did look good though..
Then I took a trip down the quay to see if my 2 missing rolls of underlay were there and there they were.
I picked them up and headed for Wingletang Guest House to do a bedroom carpet.
There floor was a bit ropey and needed some attention before putting down the carpet.
I set about fixing the floor and left some special rapid hardening leveling compound to dry and went to lunch.
By the time I had had lunch and got back to work, the leveling was more or less dry so I could get on with the job.
I had it all done by 3ish and headed off to 3 Well Cross to do a bedroom and hallway.
This was fairly straight forward but not a straight wall in sight so took a while to get fitted.
I finished just about 6ish.
A long time spent on my knees today and lots more to come...
I have decided that once all my holiday lets and B&Bs' are done that I am definitely taking a few days off.
Probably to try and get my boat in.
Something to look forward to!
Tonight was pool night and we played at home in the Atlantic Inn.
We played the Mermaid "B" team and won 7-2.
It was a good evening as usual and as always nice to get out with my mates for a drink.
Tomorrow brings a mixed bag of work and football practise too..

On the countdown.

Well I reckon I have now less than 2 weeks until this madness is over.
I am still flat out at work doing holiday lets and bed and breakfast places.
Today saw a real panic when a I realised that I hadn't ordered the carpets for a job that must be done next week.
Normally a week is enough time to get a carpet here, but this particular company takes a bit longer.
So ok it was going to be arriving a bit later,no problem.
Then we realised that the Gry Maritha will be out of action next week for her annual service and general check up.
Which means that the Scillonian 3 will be providing cover.
Only as it is the Scillonian all deliveries have to be at the quay at 8.a.m or you don't get your stuff.
Not easy trying to get that sorted out, but my friends at the Carpet Warehouse in Penzance have managed to sort it all out and it will all be fine.
The day itself was fairly straight forward with a dining room to do at the Bylet guesthouse and after lunch a flight of stairs to do at Mincarlo guesthouse.
No pics from today other than a couple of a Linnet that I have had in my garden since I moved in over 2 years ago.
He's a happy but timid little chap that likes to feed on tiny bits of what the sparrow,thrushes and blackbirds leave behind.
I hadn't really noticed Linnets generally since I lived here.
They are pretty little brown birds and at present we have 2 in the garden, so I am assuming they are a couple as they follow one another around.
Hope you enjoy the pics, I certainly enjoy watching the birds.

Sunday Lunch

We went out for lunch on Sunday at the Bishop and Wolf to celebrate Mothers Day.
12 of the family all went along and we all had a great time.
The food again was top notch and this time we even had dessert!
Here are a few pics from lunch..
After lunch we went down to Carn Gwarvel pitch and played some football and mucked about on the skate park in the sunshine.
It was a lovely day and after the skate park we all settled down to watch Liverpool thrash Aston Villa 5-0!
So a good day again on the whole and was over all too soon, now I'm back to work for what will be my penultimate busy busy week! Yippee!!