Slash

Pleased to report I managed to wake up at about 5:10 this morning feeling reasonably fresh and I got myself bundled up, brushed my teeth and then jumped in the car to drive over to see S. It’s slash and burn time! It was dark when I left and I found myself hoping it would brighted as I drove across London.

I did have a small hiccup in that I left my work gloves and I thought to myself although S is very likely to have working gloves I know I have two pairs in reasonable condition and which fit me well so rather than getting all the way over there and then discovering my whole day of work is going to be hampered by not having this most basic piece of equipment why don’t I just make the three minute detour to go back to the house and pick mine up. Which I did.

That was the difference between being there at the 7:00am I had aimed for or the 7:10 when I actually got there, but when I turned down the lane I was pleased to see S in the middle of the lane with some tools and a little cary attached to a ride-on lawn mower doing some work to the front door. I pulled up and parked and we had a quick conversation and then he showed me what he wanted to do. In the first instance, removing the wisteria all around the fake front door to their house. It was probably the real front door at some point but now I think it opens up onto a lounge that they’ve closed off and made a more sort of private space.

The wisteria was substantial and rather than pecking at it we simply chopped at the bottom and then removed it wholesale. Including the wire mesh which had guided it across the wall. With that done I walked with some of the debris and he followed me with the cart around to the corner of the house where he’d built a huge bonfire.

I say huge, let me give you some context. The house is a good-sized house. I think it used to be two cottages that are now one larger home, and they have an extension and a new garage that they’ve built while they’ve been there. Like many home owners, busy about the work to make the place better and more suited to their needs. It has about half an acre, so it’s got a little bit of space and then it has access to more land which is owned by a charity and they can rent to then either grow on or just have as space.

S is a big fan of cars and has 8 to 10 of them dotted about the place. Some are parked outside and he needs to get them put away, two of them are inside dedicated air-conditioned tents inside one of the garages which is kind of cool. Some of the work we were about was to make more enclosed space.

I met a couple of his friends. One of them is a tree surgeon and so I became a tree surgeon’s assistant standing at the foot of the ladder, dragging away bits of timber, trying not to get cut up by bits of holly, the usual things I imagine tree surgeon’s assistants like to do. S has some excellent friends and it was a pleasure to see other people turning up to help out their buddy when he called.

I suppose I’m fortunate in the same way, I also have friends who are willing to stop by to help me. Thinking ahead I called a couple of people from my friendship group here and asked them if they could give me some time on one of the weekends in October so I know now I have two weekends coming up where I’ll have some friends to come round and help me out with those four-handed, two-person jobs which come up every now and again in the world of home improvement.

I’ve just started listening to some John le Carre spy novels and it’s really fun listening to those in the car, so on the way back I sort of settled in to the long slow drive, tootling along at about 60 miles an hour on the motorway while enjoying listening to the Spy Who Came in from the Cold, fabulously written book.