Bluehook's Diary

I started doing this diary in June. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

Up and about long before anyone else was stirring. I went into town and did the Saturday shopping, mainly just getting more organic fruit and veg in and the newspaper. I had a bit of time to read the paper and then went out with Lorna to get a trailerfull of wood. That was got together fairly quickly and easily and we took it up to Jan's house and backed it up a bank and left it there. We did stay for a cup of tea which was maybe pushing it a bit so it was late afternoon by the time we got back. The idea was to be having a sweat by about 10.00 pm. I knew this was unrealistic considering that the bender had still to be built including cutting poles for it, making the pit for the stones and covering it with blankets and tarps, the wood had to be sawn up, moved and a great big fire built, the stones had to be collected from somewhere else and all sorts of things like that.

In the meantime Hansi wanted a lift over to her friend's house and Lorna and Irene had to go off and build the bender so I took Hansi over and then came back and made up a very big salad. Then I had to fill the car up with various items including the salad, Lorna's guitar and drum, blankets and towels and things for doing the sweat and the hose pipe. Sounded easy enough and it was until I got to the hose pipe. There are two hose pipes here, one is on a reel and connected to the outdoor tap by a jubilee clip, the other is in the barn and has a domestic sink tap connector on it and that was the one I wanted to find because apart from having the right connector it would be not full of water and would not get everything all wet in the car. First problem was that the barn lights had both blown, I knew that the floodlight would work but the switch for that is half way across the barn and there is a rotivator and a wheelbarrow and several chopping blocks and a black and decker workmate in between the switch and the wall and it was pitch dark. I came back in and looked for a torch, and then gave up and did the stumbling around in the dark number, waving my prosthetic arm in front of me because I though if I hit something sharp with that I wouldn't hurt myself. Anyway I found the light but couldn't spot the hose pipe for ages until I was about to give up and spotted it under a sideboard which had piles of stuff in front and behind. I had to crawl over and under things to reach it and then started to pull. Much of it was tangled around 'tank girl' and one last loop seemed to be wedged solidly beneath something heavy but on further crawling around it turned out to be caught on a nail and I finally got it out where I could see it and tried to ravel it up tidily. That didn't work so I just draped myself in it and threw it in the boot of the car. Then I left.

Up and Jan's several women were gathered but staying indoors while Lorna and Irene were still building the bender outside. The sweat did happen around half past midnight and it was indeed cold but that's what the fires there for and it certainly wasn't cold inside the bender. Time went past without it registering and we must have spent a couple of hours in there and then came out and got into clothes very quickly as it was starting to rain big fat drops then and went indoors for a big bowlful of carrot soup. It was nearly 4.00 am by the time we wended our weary way home and into bed.


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