Joyful Giovedi, tomorrow's Friday!

Another day has flown by - for me at least, I think Helen's days feel a lot longer than mine currently (often, in fact), but we'll iron that out eventually as part of the grand plan.

I started my day with a late breakfast, largely due to having fallen back to sleep this morning and missed taking my thyroxine tablet (which must be taken at least an hour before food), so while I bided my time I caught up on social media and emails before heading outside to tidy up a bit.

I think Helen has spent too many mornings on the turbo trainer staring at the pile of rubbish I created long before Christmas, and this morning she asked if I would dispose of it. I did have slightly different plans for my day, but she rarely asks me to do anything specific and generally leaves me to my own devices most of the time, so I knew that it must be annoying her. I therefore wilfully loaded the car and made my first of three trips to the bins. Today being Thursday meant that the small shipping container was at the bin site for disposal of large items, so after dumping the original pile of offensive detritus I took it upon myself to have a go at smashing up and dumping the three large cementitious containers that we uncovered on the drive last summer after a session of strimming.

I collected a dust mask, a pair of gloves and my lump hammer (or 'Thor' as it was affectionately named by my friend Dodge back in Abingdon due to its generous size) and set about demolishing them. An hour and a half and two further trips to the bins later, I'd disposed of the lot, thus not only returning most of the parking area to its tidier state, but pushing the whole thing forward a little - progress!

When I got home, lunch was waiting for me in the shape of a chunky egg mayo sandwich, in return for which I made a hot mug of cocoa and took it into the office for Helen to thaw her icy fingers.

After lunch, it was time to attempt to fill the gaps in the worktop (after putting in some more screws to secure it). I'd done some tests yesterday on the offcuts with both concrete (the original choice) and a coloured mortar. Yup, you read it right, my plan (which I think I may have built up a little too much on a previous post) was basically to grout the joints with concrete. Sorry if you're all disappointed with that, it's in homage to a beautiful table top I'd seen on Reddit.com (photo below).

My inspiration.

Now, while I'd have loved to make a worktop just like it, I had neither the required cherry slabwood nor the time involved in producing such a beautiful work of art. Nevertheless, I put what materials I did have to good use, so while our own worktop is a poor and distant relation, it cost less than €20, and as long as the joints stand the test of time, I'm very pleased with it. Time will tell if it stays that way, but it makes a huge difference to the working space in the kitchen for now and is another small step in the right direction.

After clearing up, collecting the cats from outside and putting our feathered friends to bed, we took Reggie into Pescia for his usual riverside walk before returning home to light the fire and think about dinner. Tomorrow is Friday already, and although the week is flying by we'll be glad to get to the end of the first week back at work. We've been invited for lunch at Alex and Donatella's on Saturday for a belated Christmas catch up, the snow having scuppered our last plans before new year so we're looking forward to that, it's been a while since the four of us sat down to chew the fat.