Soaking it all up

Today's the sun shone down all day.  Luckily G was off for the weekend. He was supposed to be working his horrible new shift pattern 6pm until 4am but it was Don's 60th birthday party on Saturday night and he didn't want to miss it also he hates working weekends especially on that shift pattern so he took the weekend off.

It was such a beautiful day we thought it would be a good idea to try not to do any work and be relaxed.  It was a slow start as we had been down Kim's beach hut the night before and back home via the pub.  We went for coffee down the cafe and then a stroll down the beach to chat to the lifeguards.  It was such a beautiful day on the beach we came up with lots of ideas to for the afternoon, biking to widemouth for lunch at the new cafe out there or walking to Sandy mouth along the beach for lunch.

By the time we got back home is was lunch time - so I suggested that I made us a lunch and then we carried on with our holiday plans.  G said that while I was preparing lunch he would just have a quick look at a job out the front that we had been meaning to do for a while.

The down drainpipe in the front of the house does not go anywhere.  So when it rains it goes straight into the ground and we have noticed a damp patch in the front wall of the house where the water is soaking in.  G thought while I was making lunch he would lift one of the front slabs and investigate what needed doing.

When I came out to tell him lunch was ready this is what I saw....

G 'investigating'

I guess it did take me a while to make lunch (45 mins) as Harry skyped half way through and sang me the alphabet beautifully and also I went on face book to post some photos for Dad but I was still amazed when I opened the door and saw what he had done. 

The trench was dug to lay the waste pipe that would join to a drain under the down pipe.  The pit at the end that he is standing in was to be filled with rubble to create the soak away.  The next photo shows the soak away pit and the water in the bottom shows how close we are to the water table.  I find that quite worrying.

The soak away pit

So after lunch instead of the bike ride of the beach walk it made sense to finish the job.  So the pipe was laid and the drain fitted.  The soak away was filled with rubble and all the soil was filled back in and the slabs relaid on top. 

The down pipe leading into the new drainage pipe

It was good to get the job down and we also spent a little time gardening planting some new plants in pots and trimming the hedge.    

In the afternoon I went down to the pub to decorate for Don's birthday with Sue and Jane.  It was funny hanging up the glittery 60 decorations with some of the men trying to watch the football with their pints.  It looked great when we finished.

I do worry that we may never manage to finish all the jobs that need doing and totally relax at the weekend.  G finds it hard not to do jobs and I quite enjoy doing them too.  Certainly todays job digging the soak away was easy and it meant that we were outside.  I guess neither of us are good at sitting still but maybe one weekend we may get out on the bikes!

After all our jobs were done we headed off in the sunshine to the sea pool on our bikes.  We had a mammoth swim session and managed 12 lengths (we normally do 6).  It was idyllic down there and we biked home to a hot tub and G&T and spaghetti bolognese before heading off for Don's 60th Birthday party at the pub.  The theme was 'Titfers & Tiara's'.  Titfer being 'Titfer Tat'  that is cockney rhyming slang for hat.  G wore a Trilby hat and I wore a tiara.  There were some great hats around and the theme worked really well. We had a great night and came home exhausted.