21 May 2023

Sunday

Up the ladder and on to the scaffolding at ten fifteen. Another lovely, summery day. Again I slapped the sun cream on and donned my stylish but sun-faded hat that I bought in Malta in 2012.

Things always seem to take longer than you expect. I spent a lot of time masking off the gutters and the brickwork I did not wish to spoil on the side of the house after more or less finishing the front. And with painting pebble dash rendering there's always more dabbing to do as you try to achieve the best coverage possible. I find that the glare of sunlight tends to hide flaws but when the sun nips behind a scudding cloud for two minutes, small unpainted crevices  shout out.

I was up there for six hours today. For the first time in ages, Shirley made the Sunday dinner in time for Phoebe's arrival with her parents in tow. Frances is looking pregnant now even though  many weeks will need to pass before Phoebe's sibling arrives.

I was miffed when Frances laughed at me after I had descended from the scaffold: "You are supposed to be painting the house, not yourself!"

Shirley had done a fine job with the Sunday dinner. Not long afterwards I cleaned my painting equipment and got ready to go up to "The Hammer and Pincers" for the regular Sunday night  quiz.

Once again we were the overall winners - gaining a score of twenty three points out of twenty five and winning a pot of £18 and four beer tokens. Here are three of the questions we answered correctly:-

5. ANAGRAM  Unravel OLD BELLY ANGLE to give the name of a film.

14. BUSINESS: In which country are the headquarters of the electronics company Samsung?

20. THE HUMAN BODY: The term "pulmonary" relates to which organs in the human body?

And so that was Sunday. Once again I neglected to go to church and I pray that Almighty God will forgive me in his merciful wisdom. I won't be there next week either. In fact, when I come to think of it, I haven't attended a Sunday church service since 1967 when I finally resigned as a choirboy.

Monday morning looms and I know that I must mount the scaffold tomorrow. It's exactly what condemned men and women thought as they languished in their cells in The Bastille.

32 comments:

  1. Your new roof and fresh paint is going to look good, you can stand on the street and look at it all with pride.

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    1. It needed doing so while the scaffolding was up for the roof, it made sense to paint the rendering.

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  2. Likening your forthcoming ascension of the ladder to the poor souls in the Bastille reminded of the glee with which Himself announced "And I will never have to pick up a bloody paintbrush again" as he finished this place. I do not understand those who profess to love the task.
    Well done on the quiz night. I got the second two straight away but need to ponder the anagram.

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    1. No need to ponder more madam... it's "Legally Blonde"

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  3. Have I missed before shots of the painting project? Are you changing the color? I am no good at anagrams but I do know the answers to the other two.

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    1. It's "Legally Blonde". The colour remains white.

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  4. Frances very nearly got a job with such a comment. My kids would be telling me to stay off the ladder. I don't tell them when I have to climb ladders.

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    1. And don't tell them about the sky diving and the cage fighting!

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  5. You appear to have been in a rather dramatic (verging on the hysteric) mood when you compared your "plight" with that of condemned inmates of the Bastille. But anyway, congratulations on getting on with such a major job, AND of course on the pub quiz win!
    I am too lazy to think about the anagram, and am not sure about the 2nd question (South Korea?). The third is easy: the lungs.
    Pleased to report that my "boys" came out 2nd after a tie-question with the other highest-ranking team at the pub quiz last Tuesday. They did me proud! I could not be there in person, as you know, but I was certainly with them in spirit.

    Did Phoebe recognize her freshly painted granddad?

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    1. How far to go with the COVID? I hope you are okay.

      Phoebe did recognise her Grandpa and I invited her to climb up to the scaffolding to see me but her over-protective parents would not allow this.

      There was a scaffold at The Bastille... for executions.

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  6. I remember Sunday Dinners, I haven't cooked one in years, there doesn't seem to be any point to it when there is just me now.
    Quiz questions! 1-no idea 2- Sweden 3- heart and lungs
    How did I do?
    Will we see pictures of the newly painted house?

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    1. In response to your last quiz question I say... yes! Before too long.

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  7. Don't forget, now that you have finished your wall, our bell tower still needs a coat of paint. When can you start?

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    1. You haven't approved my outrageous estimate yet JayCee!

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  8. For a moment I thought you'd volunteered to paint the Bastille, once you've finished with your place!
    You're doing a grand job YP, and by now the end must be in sight.
    Your Sunday dinner (and the pints afterwards) must taste so much better after all that hard work on the scaffold.

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    1. The Bastille was demolished just after The French Revolution of 1789 - so I won't be painting it!

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    2. I'll bet you're glad about that!

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    3. I suspect the following is apocryphal. My mother told it to me:
      Tourist to Parisian: "Can you tell me the way to the Bastille?"
      Parisian: "Monsieur/[Madame], you are two hundred years too late."

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  9. Do you fancy a working painting holiday in the South West of Ireland? Free food and lager and you can sleep in the polytunnel for free?

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    1. Sorry Dave. I am all booked up for the summer.

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  10. I could get two out of the three questions.

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  11. The plant pulmonaria is also called lungwort, so is that the third answer, the lungs. South Korea came to mind for the second and I went and checked..... Don't like making wheels of anagrams though. Don't get too confident up that ladder, that is when accidents happen.

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    1. I am being very careful getting up and down that ladder. Accidents do indeed happen - to people who are not expecting accidents.

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  12. You know we are going to need pictures of your accomplishments.

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  13. Please be careful, young man. I imaging with all your knowledge about the world and people that it would be very difficult to beat you at trivia. I got three out of three.

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  14. Just don't lose your head! I think I know the second two questions but that anagram has me stumped. (I'm terrible at those.)

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    1. I'm surprised that the anagram stumped you Steve as it's one of your favourite films of all time... "Legally Blonde"!

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  15. Hooray for me! It took me awhile but I figured out the quiz answers. I'm probably not quick enough for your group, tho! Do you shout out the answers or do you write them all down and see which group has the most correct?
    Good job on the painting! You will be glad to have that finished. How many years will it last?

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  16. Fresh in from a long day outside doing manually labor, I had no mentally energy to untangle the anagram but I knew the other two.

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