Archives: decorating

Meant to do some of the ol’ polyfilering
yesterday, but I broke my spatula thing (what do you call it?) On
Sunday’s effort. I have a putty knife, but it’s difficult to get a
smooth edge with that. Instead I spent the evening trawling for
comics/cartoon references of ‘the news’ as Pete on his bugpowder comics blog
had said that comics don’t seem very important at the moment. I am
seeing some very good editorial cartoons in the papers I read, so I
thought I’d try to prove a point by finding some. Bit problematic
though as it seems most newspapers do not deign to put their
cartoon/illustrative work on their websites. bah. Would like to
have seen Chris Riddelll there & so forth, but it was not to
be. I did find some content to put my counter to Pete’s statement,
but when I tried to post it, it would not go. A bit frustrating all
round.

Louise is getting warmer – incubating the
new baby perhaps? Heh. I’ve noticed that when we hug she is warm
& when I go for a shower she has turned up the temperature too
high for me to bear. The ‘lump’ is beginning to show a little now.
She has been wearing clothes that might disguise its presence, but
it is there… Other mothers who don’t know she is pregnant are
starting to give her quizzical looks. It’s not that she’s hiding,
we’re just not the sort to announce to all & sundry (&
here’s me typing away – heh).

‘The News’ was breaking as I was winding up at work yesterday… Oh, that sounds just too stupid… We tried to get some web cam footage from NY as all the news websites were timing out. The BBC eventually dropped ‘off the map’ under the strain. We managed to get some pictures just as I was leaving & it all looked worse than we thought.

It was, of course, much worse. Such platitudes are written worldwide at the moment.

When I got home, (when the kids were away in the garden playing) Louise & I turned on the TV & winced as they showed pictures of the event.

When the kids were in bed we looked again. News saturation does not suspend disbelief.

The NY skyline will never be the same. It will cease to be recognisable – just another city.

Paranoia about the future begins all over again. Media speculation is rife, & centres at the same hot point of speculation that was focused on after the Oklahoma bombing (we were actually in America then). Time may never tell. Truth may be lost in expedience.

I sat in my corner pollyfillering my wall.

Bleh

not a great night sleep. Had metaphorical dreams of clearing my chest – wiping data from a computer that I did not want – appropriate enough for my foolish computer addled brain. Tidied up our/to be the kids bedroom yesterday. Took all to hyuge boxes of books & records upstairs again. Was surprised that I could actually lift a couple of them! We weeded through a couple of boxes as well – disposing of books that we will never be reading, & do not really want gracing any shelves that we may have in the future. Three bags & a small box full to go to the ‘book bin’ at the recycling point in town (for Oxfam).

Anyway – all the shifting & opening of books generated the sort of dust that really gets to me, & thus I have ‘tight lungs’; just a bit of a phlegmy cough – the sort of thing that does not help sleep. Still, I don’t feel too bad this morning, that considered. I really must not stay up too late tonight or I will really start to turn into a zombie. Still a lot more sorting out to do! I rather hope that we can get some bookshelves for downstairs, it would be good to have the sort of thing again. The records tough… eep – what are we going to do with those long term? The do make excellent ballast for a bottom shelf (making a free standing unit very stable.

Jack was all keen to help, & Eve enjoyed pottering about, but I was left on my own in the end to tidy things up. Jack later burst into tears when he realised I’d done this as he was evidently been expecting to help. Louise went round ‘our/to be the kids’ room later & hoovered & so on, so it now looks… unnaturally tidy! Weird. I guess that’s what we are supposed to aspire to though. Perhaps when the walls are one uniform colour & not half wallpapered & half green washed old plaster with many patches of polyfiller… Be nice if we can stretch to a new carpet in there as well, but I feel that may be pushing it a bit.

Read James Kolchaka’s Diary strips the over the weekend. Finished it over my morning breakfast. It’s an intriguing thing. I’ve read a few diary comics (John Welding’s Goathland & Jim Cameron’s ‘ision’ series) but this is in the form of a 4 panel strip. It must have occurred to him at some point that this could be ‘sellable’ to a ‘daily’ paper. Having said that I may be being over cruel in my thinking on his motivation. It may have started with no real intention of being used in that way… Means must at times. Whatever, the whole concept intrigues me. I keep this text as a form of diary, & the limitations are frustrating, but they are usually due to my Lousy memory & inability to capture those tiny moments of life that are so interesting. It makes me think that drawing a 4 panel cartoon in this was would be a good discipline, but I have so little time to do what I want in the 1st place, that this seems a foolish ambition. It makes me think that I should at least try to illustrate, in whatever way, my daily ramblings.

What has James achieved in his comic? Well, I would recommend it as a comic to another comic creator, but I have misgivings as to how Joe Public would approach such an item. James snatches little moments in time, & they range across many little facets of life… love frustration & the occasional bit of crabby joy. Reading an individual strip would only make you feel as though nothing was happening, but a collection like this, or a daily drip feed, I think would soon have people hooked (even a great many of Joe Public). People, I guess are inherently nosey, & this, you could amply theorise, is just another block in the ‘Big Brother’ syndrome (as we is all big brother now). It’s kinda sweet, & I like the way he draws – always have.

More pollyfillering of walls last night.  Felt a bit exhausted
on going to bed… Odd really as I was not later than I would
normally be, & pollyfillering is not exactly a strenuous
activity – maybe a little stretching here & there, but that’s
yer lot!  Quipped, when done for the evening that I’d not be
doing this tomorrow, & Louise retorted, “Why?”.  I’m
wanting to do some ZUM! work & suchlike.  Louise is right
to be concerned that time is slipping by though.  She is 5
months pregnant & overall, I cannot really claim to feel we are
making that much progress.  In reality, it is progressing, but
I’m all to aware that it seems too little, & perhaps resent
being reminded of that.  I’ve kind of resolved to see how a
period of alternating nights between the computer & the
decorating goes.
There is just never enough time.
I have been asked to work Saturday morning again, due to there
being no one else to cover that shift.  When I say ‘asked’ I
really mean I have been marked down as in for that shift without
having been consulted.  Like anyone I would prefer to know
when things are changing.  In this instance it is rather
inconvenient as we have still to do a shopping expedition to get
clothes for Jack’s imminent school start.  This was planned
for Saturday…
My brain would like to stop now, it is feeling weighted by
tired.  Commuter zombee mode start…

Was a good boy yesterday. I did not prat about on my computer all
night… I did not touch it even. From the kids going to sleep I
slapped polyfiller of our (to be the kids) bedroom. Attempting to
make the walls smoother before an application of lining paper.
There are also a few dodgy bits of plastering old & new) that
need smoothing out. While going over the new plastered area it
struck me that the previous owners of the house were happy to put
up with really slipshod work. Terrible plastering – no finish to it
at all. Our newly plastered attic room has lovely smooth plaster –
really nice, & I will eventually get around to decorating it
how we want – essentially just varnishing the plaster. Louise
thinks I’m too fussy with all this pollyfillering, & should
speed it all up. Not really in my nature to skimp on this bit &
I am making progresses at last. Just have to remain focussed n
getting it sorted as we don’t want the same situation as Jack’s
room which was not finished until well after he was born.
“focussss paaauuulllll”
“oooh pretty thing on the computer!”
“fo.o.o.cs………”
“Now then, what was I doing? Ah yes, I’ll just go & prat about
looking for something pointless on the Internet”
“doh”
The kids have been playing well together these last few days,
Louise reports. They have been in generally good moods while they have
been around as well. None of that pettiness that they can get up to
like snatching & brawling. When I got home yesterday Jack had
been decorating. He’d used old birthday/Xmas card & put them up
with pegs anywhere he could. The ones on the stair banister looked
particularly fetching.

After Friday’s final fling of being held to ransom by my tum, it
seems I finally have shaken this bug. Although still cautious in
what I eat, I have had no real return to pain. Louise is still
suffering a bit – yesterday even say another bout of discomfort for
her, but hopefully she will also be better too… phew! She is
worried that the kids may have/get it, but it is really difficult
to say. Eve for instance was off her food, doing more poohs &
slightly more irrational yesterday – but whether she has this
stomach bug or what is impossible to say. She was off food etc
about 5 days before I came down ill as well. She being only 21
months, it’s hard to be definitive about anything she might be
feeling. She has started bad habits though. Biting her fingernails
& picking/biting her toe nails. It’s when she’s exited &
being read to, & there’s no other outlet for this energy that
she has to get out (supposition). She & Jack have also started
what can only be described as brawling. Hitting in general is
instigated by her, but usually at aggravation at having something
she is playing with taken from her or Jack crowding in too close.
She stands up & bats hi on the head. Reasonably harmless most
of the time, but enough excuse for Jack to retaliate if he is also
feeling aggrieved. She will also do it when she has something in
her hand as well – which can actually hurt him. He might respond
by, well, basically flopping over her & pinning her to the
floor, tickling her or some such… which she giggled about. Hardly
a recipe for stopping her doing that… Hey ho. There is also a
crawl over Eve game he like to play. Again flopping/crawling over
her. Yesterday evening they both decided to be cats saying (Eve
Shouting as her volume control is not subtle) “Meeow”. Both on
hands & knees crawling along, except Jack crawls over the top
of her. It can then develop into a rough & tumble. To be honest
there seems little that you can do especially when both are
laughing, except try to voice our displeasure/annoyance at this
sort of activity. Sigh… it’s all part of growing up. Being the
younger brother in my family it’s something that niggles if I think
about it too much.
Miserable rainy day yesterday. I did not get out, but curiously I
did end up doing the decorating in our (to be the kids) room. The
kids were there as well, & apart from the ‘no, don’t touch
that’ factor Jack was very very good with the whole experience.
Wanted to help, but managed to restrain himself from ‘helping’. Eve
rumpled some pasted wallpaper that was to be hanged as she passed
the pasting table. She had no idea that that would be/was any
problem, & I was just thankful that she got no paste on
herself. Looking at my handiwork later I was not that impressed.
Looked like I managed to miss a fair few air bubbles, but on the
whole, it’s a damn site better than some of the wallpapering we
inherited with the house & if I’m lucky a lot of it will calm
down when it’s dried properly. Still got more walls to do & we
really do need to get the room sorted, so I will have to buckle
down & not worry about every blemish an the wall that needs
smoothing. Just make sure it’s sound & get it finished!
My – it is nice to feel normal again. I did not get what I would
consider to be my full sleep last night, but I still feel better
than I have for a good long time.

Really feeling shite this morning.
Would rather be doing nothing, but on the way to work as usual – sucker!
Anyone else would be on a sicky. Blasted work ethic.
Got gut rot yesterday evening, which has proved a little, more persistent than your usual. Sleep early, which was as well as it was broken over the night. Feeling a general lack of enthusiasm for anything. Bah.
Saturday was a good day. Got a lot done even pushed myself into doing some wallpapering in the evening. Only 2 stripes over the polystyrene – but a good start on that wall. Needs to be done to stop the kids marking up the polystyrene that’s there.
Train starting – an old boneshaker – so I’m stopping.

Here’s me trying to remember what we did Saturday…?
Ah, that was it… not much :)
A bit of moving things up from the front bedroom to the attic. I was planing a haircut, but we did not get the kids marshalled until too late in the day for that.
Sunday was going to be a big decorating day for me… Try to get some progress on the front bedroom. Louise’s mum was going to come over & they were going to go off & leave me alone in the house to get on with things & concentrate. Louise’s mum was late though, & just when we were giving up, she arrived… with the news that the trains were not running… So, That scuppered the plans that they should go off somewhere. Past the initial frustration & the repeated explanations & incredulity from Louise’s mum (justifying & over justifying the situation) we did settle into a routine that let me do some decorating. Did not get as much as we would have liked done, but this is the nature of things, especially when Jack insists he wants to help (when he hinders, so he cannot) & gets upset that it is not possible. He is interesting in that respect. He is not good at accepting no as an answer & will continue to ask & plead when something is out of the question, & then get upset. It’s a common kiddie tactic, which parents can generally be worn down with until they concede something. It actually rarely works for Jack (with me) as I will either yes or no. Louise will compromise or distract on some extreme occasions (as in reality I may do). On the whole though, this tactic does not work, yet he still persists…
Anyway – I got the polystyrene wallpaper covering the outer wall (reason required: a couple of cold spots that attract condensation probably caused by ‘joining stones’). I had intended to start papering over some of the polystyrene paper put up earlier with lining paper, & might have managed it if I had not mixed the paste so badly it was as lumpy as porridge. Had to dash out to buy some more.
Papered round the window & radiator too. That polystyrene stuff is easy to put up… I doubt that the lining paper will be so easy. Then having taken the manky curtains down, I put some more respectable ones up. Had taken down the manky plastic curtain rail too, & needed to replace that with one from another room (downstairs back – wooden venetian planned there). Had to go & scrounge a drill off my neighbour, Andy (Hamish daddy) as having literally searched high & low in my house for my drill, I found nothing. Moving things about so much is perhaps going to make things seemingly disappear until you straighten yourself out properly again.
Upshot: Well, it’s really weird how much more neat a room can look with a uniform wall and a good pair of curtains. By no means finished, but the transformation is quite satisfying. I have to try to transform this satisfaction into something more akin to momentum to actually finishing the job. i’ll never get anywhere if I do not.
At least I managed to get ZUM! #10 archived onto the ZUM! site (albeit in what you might call a ‘beta’ stage – so no real links yet). Still a goodly amount of work to do, but a good start.

Lawks – I knew I would be neglecting making daily notes, but I’ve not been writing much at all. I have been using the eMate for writing, but I have managed to install a bit of new software that allow it to read an ATA flash card (with PCMCIA adapter) – so that I now have 4Mb of storage – wooo! Some teething things like it causing the eMate to ‘reboot’. Normally you can just open the lid of the eMate & start typing – it stays in ‘sleep mode’ while not in use, awaiting use. Don’t see a logical pattern to the reboots, but as the software is still in the Alpha testing (not even Beta testing before release) then it’s not really unexpected. The fact that it works is wonderful in itself… must get round to writing a thank you to the s/ware author…
Decorators did the ceiling. Took 2 days – one for the papering, & one for the painting & putting up of the border. All very pleasing & looking good. I say it took 2 days, but the man hours were considerably less – they didn’t hang about. The colour we ended up choosing for the ceiling was a little spur of the moment is a little more intense that we would have chosen. Yellow Ochre nearly. Bit lighter, naturally. Nice & warming, but leaves us with a quandry over what colour to do the walls. I had initially envisaged a light apricot colour – twixt ping & orange, however this is too ‘sherbet’ for Louise’s tastes. She seems to be leaning more to a linen colour – which is a bit too … ‘gray’ for me… sigh… As the ceiling is leaning more to an orange yellow that we initially realised, we may get some form of warm light yellow. Still at the ‘looking at samples’ stage.
I’m supposed to be decorating as well this ‘holiday’. Not had a lot of a chance thus far. Perhaps I will… at some stage. I’ve ‘primed’ the wall to which I am going to put some of that polystyrene wallpaper as an insulating under thing. We’ve decided that this is most likely what we need to cure the ‘cold spot’ on (presently our, but to be the kids) bedroom wall. Oh I did manage to tidy the kitchen ceiling a little as well & do a spot of ‘once in a blue moon’ tidying up while Jack was at school the other day.
Jack had ‘sports day’ on Friday -so I had to go to that! He did very well… all his class did because there was an awful lot of hanging around between races. We’ve just put a film in to be developed, so we’ve bought a new film… so I took a few pictures. Nice aspect – chaos of a few kids running at the camera. The sports day was held in the local park, so there’s the trees going up the hill at the back of the park in the background hopefully.

A few moment before bathtime.
The kids are playing on bikes on the back street one more.
Eve has just passed by on Amber’s tricycle saying, “Hiya dadi, hiya dadi, hiya dadi”. Amber is Hamish’s younger sister. She is a couple of months older than Eve – can’t remember how many. She had foolishly left her tricycle in our yard, & Eve has not removed her bottom from it in about an hour. Heh – she is now telling off Jack for sitting on the wall at the top of the street.
Our excursion to Bradford yesterday was exhausting. We walked many miles in search of a border, & miraculously we found one in the end. At the noted tacky home improvement emporium; Fads. A terracotta coloured border textured, with a spiraling yellow stitch motif. It should work well. Not over decorative, not twee, & hopefully the right sort of colour so that it doesn’t make the rest of the paintwork seem grubby. Phew.
Today I started off inexplicably tetchy. No real reason. Still, got on with getting Eve breakfast & Jack on the Internet while Louise had her shower. Slobbed it a bit when Louise came downstairs, & then Louise got tetchy & started fretting about the fact that we needed to get the back room cleared as the decorators are due this week, so we had to move some things upstairs, but to do that we needed to move some of the things that are in the bedroom at the moment (that used to be in the attic) back up to the attic, but the floor has not been completely cleaned in the attic as yet – so not that much can go back up…
Kids are bathed & bed.
Frayed nerves are I guess understandable. I got on with moving some boxes. Louise started tidying & sorting in the back room, Jack wet off to watch & help Caroline, our very good next door neighbour do some planting in her garden & Eve – well – she pottered about amusing herself. It’s amazing that she manages that… Jack used to demand your attention, but then I guess, he being the 1st, we indulged him in that.