GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by tvblazer78

I have two customers that are sawmills. But I am in east TN..

You never know.

Dennis could hook a trailer if the price was right.


Hell, we could make a trip out of it when I am over there again.


Went for a quick 2 mile walk on Monday.



How fresh do you like your asparagus



Mate Steve asked me what retirement would feel like.

His day.



Paving cleaned twice.



I am so bloody tired of cleaning paving, unfortunately my place has a lot to do.

One more section left to do, down at the garage. Needs some stuff to be moved though.



Grubby down there.





Had some “FREE TIME” from work today between training sessions.... sick and tired of this now.

Went to Sally’s place in the Galaxy and cleaned her patio, walkway and also the alley behind her place.





One more meeting 5.00 to 5.45 then close up shop till tomorrow morning.

Sally was awarded some beers at work for being employee of the week last week, I did get to share in her win.

Corona’d




.

[Grizz1963]

Pioneer woman statue, Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Friend Andy sent this very topical warning to all who pass it.

I have driven past it a few times before COVID 19.




In other news, Dennis delivered his 66 C10 NASCAR truck yesterday to the race Car prep shop, for the roll cage to be fully welded in.

Based on one of these.......





The guys were blown away of course, Dennis being who he is, had never told them he was building this mad thing.

The motor he has fitted was Dyno tested at 850bhp



Looking forward to this coming together.

[Grizz1963]

It’s full speed now for Dennis and his NASCAR truck build.

With the bedside panels and tailgate fitted, more fettling followed.

Tailgate fitted.



With the amount of power that’s going to be put through the rear end, Dennis decided to add the rear spoiler to add to downforce and also stability.



Adjustable supports to fine tune downforce to suit different race tracks.



Lovely



Smaller units above the closing chains.





Rear will get closed in for aerodynamics and also looks.





Next job up for today is to go buy some new plugs.

You may ask why would you need power inside the truck.

Maybe I will leave that for you guys to answer.........



Pretty obvious ehh.

.

[LT7A]

Hey Grizz, I enjoy your day-in-the-life-of posts. I have never been to the UK and it's cool to me to see the differences. And the similarities. Also, hearing about what you like about the US.

Where you live is beautiful. Thames, beach, fields, your home and garden. I can't quite get the layout in my head because there seem to be so many nooks and crannies but I like how you fix and maintain on it over time.

Sorry about the loss of Harley. Grew up with cats and have never been a huge fan but would have loved a cat like that.

A huge theme in your thread is the giving/sharing/finding things for others. Sometimes you snag something that I bet you would like to keep but you pass it along to someone who will like it even more -- outstanding.

I will now be following along. I forget to pop over here to the burban/blazer side very often, but will more now so that I can keep up.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Hey Grizz, I enjoy your day-in-the-life-of posts. I have never been to the UK and it's cool to me to see the differences. And the similarities. Also, hearing about what you like about the US.

Where you live is beautiful. Thames, beach, fields, your home and garden. I can't quite get the layout in my head because there seem to be so many nooks and crannies but I like how you fix and maintain on it over time.

Sorry about the loss of Harley. Grew up with cats and have never been a huge fan but would have loved a cat like that.

A huge theme in your thread is the giving/sharing/finding things for others. Sometimes you snag something that I bet you would like to keep but you pass it along to someone who will like it even more -- outstanding.

I will now be following along. I forget to pop over here to the burban/blazer side very often, but will more now so that I can keep up.

Thank you so very much for your response and words.

You are right.

I love to fix things, be it humans or material things.

My eyes are always open for passing good stuff on and some stuff is nice but as you say, someone else may need it more.

[Grizz1963]

Any carport builders out there ?

So for the clever engineering and applied geometry types out there.

I am sure this is not a difficult thing, and if you add in CAD then even easier.

Right....... I will try explain and hope it makes abstract sense to some of you.

Simply put, I want to build an approximately 5 meter Long by 6 meter Wide carport, in front of and to the right of my existing garage.

Part of the 5 meter “depth” has to overhang the existing garage door without impairing its opening

Then........ I have a woodwork shed, built on a 200mm high plinth, and also slightly taller than average where the 5 meter side, away from the garage wall, needs to overhang the shed roof, while allowing a sloping drop off for rain and melting snow that tapers from the entrance side. It also faces into the majority of our wind and rain direction at that low end.

I want the 6 meter wide front end and entrance span to be as non intrusive as possible, so uprights need to be against the sides of the overall area.

Which means a potential upright support pillar at 4 meters against the garage front gable wall between the doors, leaving as much as a meter overhanging at about 2.6 meter or 8’6” off the floor and supported from an upright post with cantilevered support outward. Make any sense yet?

Right.

The rear post, next to the woodwork shed is near 5 meters from the garage rear corner, but needs to still overhang the shed to create the 6 meter width that I am looking to create.

Out at the front of the carport, the 4th upright pillar is going to be about where the brick red colour wall is at the moment, that wall plus the grey wall are all coming down and the wall is getting rebuilt about where the red wall is now, including post no 4 the front one, which is at 6 meters from the garage.

I am happy with a short lifespan roofing solution of ply and glued down felt roofing which one would hope will make 8 years before needing replacement.


So......

How do I address the weird geometry on two planes as well as ensuring the energy/mass transfer is done sensibly?


Amateur plan drawing.





Idea of where the posts would go, showing offset and set back.








Let the fun begin.

[Grizz1963]

There is an old traditional saying: “Never drink with a Russian unless you are a Russian”

Last night, through the wonders of Whatsapp and technology, I joined Vladimir and friends Oleg and Yelena in Olegs garage for a drink or two.

Vodka, Beer and Bacardi flowed for over an hour.

Between our broken Russian , English and Google Translate, we had a good visit.

As we know, if you have no photos, it did not happen.



Yelena was hostess, pouring vodka and matching the guys all the way.

Charming lady and mother of Olegs three daughters.



Following my previous visits with Vieux and guided tours of his shop and his neighbors shops, I would absolutely recommend you reach out to him via PM to exchange numbers and have a chat or text conversation.
Whatsapp is free after all.


это отличный способ поделиться нашими культурами и интересами.
спасибо владимир

[Grizz1963]

No photos as Photobucket messing around last 12 days and they do not reply to their Helpdesk.

But.....

First Covid-19 Boot-fair of the year.

Rain was forecast, soon;y 1/3 of field filled.

Still got lucky.

Needed a multi plug adapter to repair/replace one I drove over years ago......

£1.00 each or take the lot for £5.00 so I got 9 units.

Also bought 14 GU10 lightbulbs for £5.00

And a very nice garden rake for £2.00

Came home, had breakfast, now headed out to garage to mix some cement in @Johnnybravo ‘s mixer to lay some more high density blocks in the ‘compressor room” that my interfering friend @PaulY suggested I build Next to the woodwork shed while relocating the wall on the drive. Those blocks are heavy for sure.....

Good idea Paul.

.

[Grizz1963]

Taken two days off work.

Photophukit is “Back online” but now I need to figure how to actually upload and use it on iPad and App.

Grrrrrrr...../

Galaxy has been working, carrying loads of builder rubble unearthed while digging and moving soil in the garden.

Also ran a quick errand for @Johnnybravo whom I hope to make a cuppa for today, if he is not racing around, as he usually has to do when doing an extended pickup trip.

Carport and extended drive work continues.

Measured last night, and have gained 500mm of driveway space, door to wall is now 6.3 meter max, so should fit many American cars or big stuff.

Even parking the Blazer was always interesting with about 450mm space to the wall once parked up.

Chainsaw next, to remove the tree stump that started it all.

Later.

[Grizz1963]

Uploaded some photos. About 22.

Need to find time to sit, relax.... try use links and do a write up.

I have been busy and busy.

Bootfairs were one good, one a bust today.

[Grizz1963]

Right.

New Photobucket, may be better, may not.

Possibly two weeks behind on pics, due to website relaunch.


Thought I would just post up some pics of Dennis’s world.

Firstly, Archer......

Puppy still cute, and follows Dennis everywhere.

Smooth criminal.



Wing and full,set of stabilisers now fitted.



Biggest problem will be not being able to sit on the tailgate, drinking beer and watching stuff happen at car shows or burnout competitions



Big problem with doing this body swap of 1966 onto 2015

Getting stuff like the steering fitted through the bulkhead.







Starting to look like a nasty race truck.







Guard dog or chain gang?







Front end waiting to be refitted.



Space.



More and more new panels seem to have found their way onto the 66.



Business end.





Stepping back



And to close this post off.

Next generation.....

Grandson, drawn to all things mechanical.



More later.

.

[Grizz1963]

Still trying to come to grips with the new Photobucket layout.

Not impressed

Have to use an app to pull the links.

Website seems to suck.



Prozac made a return to the valley, sans NASCAR stickers

Sally took the pic.



Also on FB was a reminder that a year ago we were watching races in the Blazer.



So, back to the restructure down at the garage.

Started by lifting the paving.



Helped of course.



Also got to prep for the first post by digging a 25 inch deep hole.

And making up the positioning board for the threaded studs









Poured





Made a small box to keep the paving and sand clear from the post mount until the post is shortened and ready.



Once that was done, I decided to build a single level wall to help keep the hedge under control in the long term.



Blocks are 19kg each.



New lodger is a welder, but likes a beer and to do some physical work after work.

Suits me.

So wall done.



I also decided to add little drains between every alternative block, in case the rain ever was a problem.

And a thick wedge of cement from behind to stop anything from unseating the blocks.



Once the concrete had gone off, I waited 24 hrs and then used PaulF’s compactor to do a final setting of the paving stones/








‘So after this I could start on the next job.....

This wall has a few cracks, so needed rebuilding and moving to improve overall usability



‘Red wall” also needed to go and be moved.



So made a start, removing loads of soil from behind the wall.



I moved 11 loads over the street to where trucks had greatest deep trench that the council will never repair, but where people like to par,.

And after all of that, Andy bought me a beer.




Later.

[Grizz1963]

And this is said treasure pile up at the farm.

Someone dumped two full, unused pallets of grey paving stones there a year or so ago.

The farm mixes all the rubble from time to time, but those with slight of hand skills can still score a few stones.....

Get my drift?



Speaking of....

I ultimately took 11 large wheelbarrow loads of paving cutoff and soil over the road to put in a trench a twin axle truck put there in winter, meaning nobody could park there safely, except for 4x4’s






@PaulY also offered to put a door on his Annexe as it was his bright idea to put the compressor outside.

Thanks mate, sure I can make it fit once I build and fit a crooked doorframe.



And the bootfair fig tree I bought three years ago, has 16 figs this year



In other news from the USA, Dennis’s new dog Archer had his first haircut, looks like a dog now.





Back to making more car space.

This was an interesting build, no plans, no levels, no straight lines and nature to contend with (I respected the plants first and built around them)

So a few curves where I avoided damaging the main roots of shrubs and trees.







Also carried on digging out all the rubble that had been deposited behind the wall by the paving contractor.





Also cleaned up every block I took down with bolster and lump hammer.

Crazy, but saving about £60.00 in recycling between Zoom nd Teams meetings and doing admin indoors was quite therapeutic too.





Andy, my new lodger loves working up a sweat too, and loved putting the 20 pound hammer to the wall, bringing it down bit by bit.

Really useful finding a good lodger.







So once the clearing was done, I could start to lay the blocks on the new line I had planned.

Pushing back the grey wall to where the red wall was before and joining PauY’s Annexe wall.





One of the biggest problems is actually getting the curve to look half decent.

So some recycled blocks were already halved, but the new, tighter curve meant some needed further cutting.

Always glad that I buy certain rare use tools, so much easier going into the back of the garage and digging them out.

Grinder, diamond blade, action.

Build



Walls headed in the right direction

Also made some vents for the compressor room from the same fire wood and added them in.

They will get cat proof mesh from an old freezer later.








Gained 500mm to make the space between garage door and wall 6.3 meters.

This is only for a small section as there will be a solid galvanised post about 40mm to the right of PaulY’s Annexe wall corner that will be on the drive.

Still, very pleased that so much work has resulted in so little gain



A while ago Sally and I went over to Kevin and Teresa’s in Maidstone for a fully distanced garden patio lunch, and I saw that he had thrown out for recycling, a pair of bulkhead lights.

Guess where they are now.



Used some white oak skirting boards from the fire wood pile to make recess boxes to add into the wall later.



Bitumen all sides to protect the wood.



Poor Sally was not having much company here with me using all the bits of time I could find inbetween work an various other things, so she went for long walks with her new graduate lodger, to show him the area.

Sharing a bit with me.

She wins



Long days and lonely nights.....

[Grizz1963]

Another quick early morning job before showering and starting the days Zoom meetings etc.

Mixed fine kiln dried sand and cement in a crazy strong ratio and painted the wall to seal the pores for paint later, just to make the room lighter.



Also found while breaking down more of the wall, just how deep I had planted the tree that caused a lot of this, so unearthed more of it and fetched the chainsaw out, again early morning at -8.05 so neighbours could just shut up.



Cut.

Drilled a bunch of holes in It and filled them with pure Roundup, that should sort it.



Took two days leave along with Sally when it was so very hot, spent them not with her..... oooopps.

But Mickey had a lead on some storage units being emptied of the scrap left in there.

Galaxy, gloves, trailer, CHECK !



Got some industrial shelving to go in the carport.

These are not cheap.





About 45 litres of white paint, 5 litres of PVA glue, 2.5 litres of indoor satin varnish, some tools, including a new pick axe and various other bits.

Next day we went back to fetch a load of plastic decking flooring, and a new sheet of ply, a load of plastic storage boxes and various other free treasures.

Mickey had been in there days before me and found three Dewalt power skill saws, random hand tools, drills, and some chargers plus a load of scrap copper that he weighed in along with aluminium for about £70.00





Happy guy.



While out a few weeks ago in the Galaxy, I clocked a jumbo bag on a sidewalk where paving had been redone.

On one of our return trips from the storage units with Mickey, we detoured along the country lane it was on, and I stopped to see what was in it......

JACKPOT....!

I went to knock on the front door, but nobody answered, so we drove off.

Next day I was dressed a bit neater and went back to knock again and asked if I could remove some contents.

Yes, no problem, the bag is getting collected later today.

Lucky me.

So, I hear you ask, what was in this skip bag?

Remember that with moving the wall on that curve, I now needed more paving stones to cover the area, and add to that the fact that the curve has a load of cut bricks, and you have a significant deficit.

I had been looking for matching block paving, as I had originally selected a mixed colour, rather than red and grey as many people do.

The stones in this bag are also thicker than what I have on my drive, possibly a commercial grade.

So when I lift a large section of the paving to repair the sinking in caused by American cars and trucks reversing up and down the drive in from]not of the garage, the new heavy duty -avers will go in there, and the under ones go into the new, low traffic sections.

Adding up the value of the pavement find, again I came up to a conservative value of £50.00 found for free.

Would you pick up £50.00 off the pavement?/

Sure you would.



Amazingly, 100 exactly, dug from the bag and a load of 3/4 cut ones too, just in case I need them.



Pressure cleaned one of them to see how they clean up.

Happy.




Free cash means money in the kitty for other frivolous pursuits like a Toyota Deliboy.


https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...toyota-deliboy

I like it a lot, despite 270 miles to go look.

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[Grizz1963]

Seems bootfairs are a bust so far this year.

Loads of Pink Sh!t as @JohnnyBravo would say.

Not much technical or bargainous

Today was no change.

New Coca Cola rugby ball for CraigRK and his collection £1.00
12 skull bottles £1.00
Used Real bristle brush 50P
Spanner to use as door hand;e on compressor room £1.00
Name plate 50p



Contemplating not going to bootfairs anymore, but suspect it’s an addiction.......

[Grizz1963]

Well, sometimes it pays to be kind.

I don’t do it for any other reason, than it not affecting me, if one or two or three people eat dinner.

So my new welder lodger has settled in well, he and Sally get on well, take the pee with me etc.

I cook most nights as I work from home with Covid-19 and Sally who gets up at 4.15 for work, eats here, so when Andy moved in three weeks ago, it was no skin off my nose to offer him dinner when we eat, he likes spicy food, we doo, so no wasted food as shops often pack and sell in odd numbers as they know it forces double up buying so you can get an even number of portions, vegetables are cheap too.....
Tossing laundry in the machine works the same way even though these things are not included in the lodging cost, makes no difference to me.

Anyway, this weekend he went home to see his wife and son and also his parents.

Monday night he came in from work bearing gifts, these were stashed in his dads garage from various previous contracts over the years where he gets issued with new tools per contract, that then never get used as the ones he has in use are perfectly fine. So he just stashes the spares or used ones and at the end of contract stuff gets skipped.

In fact, when he moved in here as contract manager and backup welder to the current contract a week before it started, he borrowed two 1/2 inch drives and a few sockets from me as there was stuff to be done but no tools on site, again, not really a problem when stuff comes back.

So now I have a brand new 1.0 meter breaker bar (was needed when I tore down the C10 and Blazer) and a 38mm socket plus some files and a small square (mine was stolen a long time ago)

Chuffed.





Karma?





And another random happening from this week.

I do love it when people pop in unannounced when I am at home, this working from home thing sucks and is a bit lonely at times.

So the doorbell rings and it is Charlie, the local farmer who historically used to call me to see if I or Nicola my ex wanted to go drive the combine harvester in the back field when harvesting (thing drives itself really)

“Got time to boil the kettle?”

So a quick coffee and a risk and he is off to fill up his tractor and get back to work.

When your company car does not fit on the drive.....





More later.

[Grizz1963]

Well, it is Saturday morning.

Slow start.

Honeysuckle is gathering speed, growing up the big pine tree.





In Siberia life goes on, some random pics from Stas.





Greetings from the man.



Katya had her 35th birthday recently.

Still the best looking honorary member on here.



In the mean time, Covid-19 is screwing up their lives too.

This week I also cut two freezer baskets down and created some bird proofing fo ether vent holes.

Plus adding some of the discarded USPS boxes on the shelves.




Plus removing the spacer board for the post mounting points.



Cleaned up.



And ready to be paved around until the posts are cut down to the right height and welded back together by pro welder Andy with his special machine.



Had some rain this week, and even half an hour after it stopped, two long puddles show that the paving needs lifting up, and re-laying to get it all level.





All of the highlighted paving must be lifted, relaid and also new added where there was none before.

One of today’s jobs.



Mate Fil from Cambridge came down yesterday to collect and drop off stuff.

He also collected a load of the postal boxes to be redistributed nationally to those needing some storage solutions.

More in there than it seems.
‘


Score of the day on FB Marketplace to be collected after 3.00pm.

£10.00 each, lodger Andy can do a full industrial weld on them to create a useable length.



Total length will work on structure.



And lastly, same sunset, 40 minutes apart.





Later.


.


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[Grizz1963]

Sunset last night.....

I was still contemplating giving the bootfairs a miss after the last few weeks.



Woke at 04.00 and dozed till 05.40 then got up, made Sally a coffee as she stayed over after dinner and a glass of wine......

Then headed out by 06.10

First blood went to Craig who is away camping with the family at the coast.

£3.00 and the seller would not budge.

Seems it is a bit rare, I certainly never saw one before.







Next up was this, like new, balance bike for Sally’s grandson.

At £2.00 it has to be a bit of a bargain.



My last purchase, a vintage Red bulkhead light was a bit of a bargain at 50p

Really like it.



Then some rubber and fabric gloves at 50p/pair.

Got 12 pairs for £5.00

And my winner for the day.

A guy selling everything in lots of £1.00 per item......

A plastic box with 12 nylon trolley castor wheels..... half of them braked, half fee running, and also in the box an air driven drill chuck with chuck key, perfect for tungsten carbide tipped bits to use when filing down welds or reaming holes.




So after wanting to walk away from bootfairs, they redeemed themselves again today.

Now back to block paving.

[Grizz1963]

Thought I would check the price of the little balance bike.

Ouch !!

[Grizz1963]

So Sunday Bootfair delivered very well, depending on what you needed.

Facebook Marketplace also came up with these two chunks of steel.



£20.00 for the two.

Having an industrial welder for a lodger...... priceless.

Galaxy doing it’s thing.



So back to the job in hand.

When paving with different thickness stones, it adds to the magic.



Started on one end.

I never wear hats or caps, but the sun was hot.





Takes time



The sun, and not sleeping well and many other excuses, eventually caught up with me and I sat down to rest, just when Sally came back from her home.

So I started again, but she could see I was losing the will to live, and starting to hurt.

So she said that if I levelled the sand and told her what to do, she would pack the now thicker blocks for me.....

She can also fold in half while standing straight up, unlike me, who has to go on my knees as my back is so knackered



We called it a day by 5.15 and closed shop and cleaned up.

Went indoors where I had a few beers to rehidrate and she left to go cook her uncles meals for the week, and prepare for Monday getting back to work.

After she left, I went down to the garage again and started to fit in the small cut triangular sections down the side by the hedge.

Not easy sitting still by 7.00pm, way too early.




Much better


.


Also got offered an 8 year old cat looking for a home.

Called Kitty....... I thought many other names would be more descriptive



Tempting.

I asked a few questions.

Got some answers.



Also realised, the cat was there long before the dog.

WHY do people dump animals when they get bored or a newer one comes in.

Tempted, but the road outside is a fast, dangerous road.

We got lucky with all our three rescue cats surviving to full ages ranging between 17.5 and 16 years.

Sweet dumb Dukey, got caught twice when we tried to capture a terrorising feral cat that came indoors to create havoc.



No introduction needed.

Missed many days, she would have loved all this building work.



And Granny Tabitha who made 17.5 years.



So the question is, would Lucifer survive here, would she/he be happy here (I think so)

Would it screw up my life more than I want it to be.


.

[Grizz1963]

So Monday I actually took an hours “lunch break” and went to carryon for a bit moreof the cutting in.

Amazing how little you get done in an hour.





Then after work by 5.00pm I was out there again.

Loads of small complex cuts, trimming etc to do saw me progressing.

Hated the job by this point.



Had already unloaded the compacter from its wheelbarrow earlier so started it up. First pull it fired up. What a pleasure.



Some serious compacting to get it all blended and the stones set before sanding the joints.





One spot I knew would be a bit different was the recycled pavers.

Different textures and colour but they will blend in.



After pressure cleaning them all it looks as good as it will get.

Happy with that.



Its a lot of work to have gotten two post foundations in and to move a wall 500mm but the rewards should be worth it once the posts and roof go up.

I noticed the little orphan side garden is really coming into its own too.



Later.

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[Grizz1963]

I know most of you dont like food, so thought opening with a bit of food made sense.

On Wednesday after work I cooked some ribs and oven chips for myself and Andy the lodger, Sally had stuff to deal with at home, so skipped dinner.

2kg of ribs became this after 70 minutes at 180’C
30 minutes on the bone side, and 40 minutes on the meaty side.

Serve and enjoy.





Back to the carport job.

Went up to the farm to drop off some more unused hardcore on their pile.

Walked around the pile and saw this marble lintel that’s been there for years.

I had asked Charlie the farmer about it before and he had said yes I could have it, only problem is a 5 foot long lump of granite weighs a fair amount.

Now with the current progress and changes here, I thought it is time to try get it here again.



Also found a birdbath stand or who knows what you want to put on it......



As always there is still stuff to do,

I need to band the paving at the edge, and also recast a bit of the driveway that I broke out.



While I started mixing the banding cement, Andy carried on with the rather large RSJ cleanup and weld.





What a pleasure watching a pro weld......

Once he strikes an arc, it just goes on till the rod runs out, or he gets to the end of the run.







Joined up, welded all sides.



Then added some more bracing.

Totally over engineered without doubt.





And finally some galvanising spray over all the grinds and welds.



And cement and concrete work done and cleaned up.



Chicago Town Stuffed Crust Cola Pizza and nice seasoned fries as a quick n easy dinner.

Along with maybe more beers and most of a litre of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey.

No regrets.





Weekend soon.....

[Grizz1963]

Bestest £2.00 ever spent on a little guy.

Loves it.

To him it is a challenge and a toy, not £2.00 vs £119.99



Seems he was on it all afternoon.



Andy the lodger bought Chinese take away last night, pub over the road looking very smart.



Clearing up time at garage to make space for working later.

BBQ Tonight.

T-Bone steaks and some Kofte Kebabs

[Grizz1963]

Bootfair sucked to a large extent.

Got a pack of 10 pairs of red, rubberised grip, fabric backed gloves for £2.00 that I gave to Mickey as he will always share if he gets stuff, and I know he is mostly out of gloves recently.

Also a bobbing head dog for £1.00

Home by 7.30

[Grizz1963]

So this week I have been kinda held back a bit.....

By what I assume is a bacterial skin infection on my nose and one eye.

Possibly from the sand and cement work, wiping my nose when there were Thunderbugs about, and with a grain of sand cutting my skin microscopically.

Started off on the tip of my nose, feeling like a pimple developing, red, sensitive.

Eye scratchy, maybe a sty ?

Ignored it but by Tuesday things were turning nasty and the tip of my nose looking like Pinocchio was a relative, and seemed like cellulitis, eye sore enough to go get eye drops.

Thursdays I actually felt quite rubbish, and by 10.00am on Friday I called in sick, also called my GP surgery that was closed down by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) on the 24th June for posing a threat to patients.

So I got a telephonic consultation at 4.45 booked with a covering Locum.

It took all of 6 minutes to have antibiotics prescribed and some eye ointment that I am clearly allergic to, based on one photo I had sent to the practice.



It looked and felt worse by Saturday but I am hoping the antibiotics work.

So my building type work has been scaled down a bit for a few days, and I am wearing shaded safety glasses outside, as it helps with the glare of the sun.



As is known by now, randomness here is often just to share some of the treasures on your dooorsteps, or to even broaden your horizons.


Saturday morning 08.00 Sally and I ran down to Chatham High street in the Galaxy to buy some stuff at our two favourite Turkish food shops.

Prices are better, and the selection is great.

I also love being able to select and order my cut of meat in a real butcher.

So a BBQ for us and Andy the welder/lodger was on the cards.

T-Bones ordered, slightly thinner than we usually order because we had other stuff to add.





Sally got some treats for the girls at work, including amazing Baclava, then off to shop no 2



Andy had asked for some bottled Jalapeño peppers. Cheap there.



Some interesting spices, its also where I get my Cajun and mixed Spices.











Now for our European pallets some of this stuff may seem weird or just wrong, but you may find if you tried it, it was good.

Anyway....... As kids, we certainly ate chicken feet, heads, gizzards etc, because growing up poor, meant making the best of a bad situation.

Bulk butcher.





Seafood, really cheap too.






What rice did you want?



Also an amazing selection of cheap, fresh fruit and vegetables.







£1.00 pack, Bargain city.




Then back home to do some smaller tasks, and take paving stones in the Galaxy over to Sallys place with Andy who got in early from work and was helping.


The day was going to get better.