Bristol weekend
02/08/14
We stayed two nights in Bristol on the way back from Devon. Eija was visiting and Emma took us all to Redfest, a small festival in the St George park.
The kids watched a couple of shows, practiced some circus skills and witnessed a bizarre & hilarious performance by Bramble FM.
Perhaps this inspired their own performance later at Great Mama’s house.
Devon
01/08/14
We had a nice week in Devon with my mum & dad and Caroline’s mum.
John, Paula & Olivia joined us for the first weekend.
- Pasties consumed: 3 (vegetarian)
- Jellyfish spotted: 1
- Tiny crabs found: ∞ (approx)
- Cream teas consumed: 0
I’m not sure how we managed to not have any cream teas – it certainly wasn’t intentional…
Megacycle: London to Bristol
20/07/14
I rode from London to Bristol with some friends. We met up at Highbury Corner on Friday and cycled down to Waterloo, from where we got a train to Staines to avoid the heaving roads of west London.
The first day was lovely sunny weather. We weren’t in a hurry but a few punctures meant that we were going to miss dinner at our hotel in Froxfield, so we stopped at a pub in Hungerford for dinner before a short night-ride to the Pelican Inn.
The next day Louis & Ed arrived on the train to join us, which made us 9 altogether. There were more punctures on day two, and a torrential rainstorm which luckily started just as we stopped for a pub lunch in Devizes.
We got very muddy cycling on the tow-paths the rest of the way to Bath but we washed off in the river and arrived in Bristol in time for a drink at the Hole in the Wall. Our arrival coincided with the Bristol Harbour Festival which meant the streets were lively and traffic-free.
Here’s the route:
The battery on my bike computer ran out before we got to Bath – the total distance was about 135 miles.
Glasto morning
14/07/14
We have moved (the website)
11/07/14
You may have already noticed that ontoronto.net has now moved to onlondon.net, but as today is the first anniversary of our moving back to the UK it seems a suitable occasion to officially announce it.
Yes, we no longer live in Toronto!
I had considered untoronto and some other variations but I was so surprised that the domain onlondon.net was actually available that I registered it and started working on the new header graphic immediately. Hope you like it!
Dusty days
04/07/14
The builders made some progress while Caroline and me were in Glastonbury. We’ve got our shower room and office / temporary lounge back again which has made things a bit less chaotic upstairs. Downstairs the new kitchen space is starting to take shape.
They’ve also done more in the cellar, removing some of the dodgy old supporting structure and adding new, sturdier supports to the underside of the main staircase. Won’t be long now..!
Open house
23/06/14
The big steel is in! We were asked to stay out of the house for the day in case there were any structural problems but we did pop back around midday and saw it in place.
The incredible shrinking house
19/06/14
Our living space has shrunk again: last week we vacated the office & today the builders put supporting steels through both the office and shower room walls to support the big steel (700kg / 1540lb) that’s going in sometime in the next few days. They also took out the dining room window.
The new kitchen wall is looking great – the first few rows needed to be engineering bricks but the rest are reclaimed from the old wall.
The plumber helpfully relocated the shower-room toilet so that we can still use it. The only minor problem is that the door won’t close, but the ventilation has definitely improved!
A common sight outside our house
18/06/14
More building photos – ho hum
15/06/14
Some extra photos I took and forgot to post up here – these show the first section of the concrete slab and the outer skin of the wall. The builders have also done a lot of work to fix some of the structural problems in the cellar.
