Loose rivets
18th Aug 2008, 21:43
As explained on a music thread. One is without spell check, and also without a bottle of wine. As in....An Irish friend used to hold up his glass of Scotch and say, "Can't wait to get myself outside this." So in the same way I'm saying I'm outside....Oh, never mind.
Anyway, this party.
Twas at his son's house, a big old between the wars, or even Victorian red-brick house in Colchester. Vast extension, everything white and modern set into the old structure. Stunning. Anyway, folks that I hadn't seen for years turn up and one bloke who had a tale to tell.
It seems that his former neighbour didn't like his extension, even before it was finished...so much so that he started to get stroppy about the building noise, or anything else he could think of to make life difficult. He recorded the building work noise and played it back at night. Then there was weeks of angst and stakes being raised daily. Car accros drive ended up being pushed down to the villiage, things being hurled and hose pipe into complaining neibour's kitchen window. While our man was getting some serious squirting done, said neibour throws a carving knife out of his window and into our man's house. The police were so tired of being called by now, that they didn't even bother to respond to a claim of attempted murder. Well, not for three days anyway. Never was either of them arrested. Odd that since a friend of mine recently spent 8 hours in a police cell in Clacton for a claimed pushing of his neibour. No charges were brought.
One gets very confused about British law.
Anyway, our man finally thinks it's time to ship out and build his dream home.
Ten years goes by, some of them in a pair of on-site caravans.
I'll need his permission to show the Google Earth pics, but what a stunning house. 7,000 square feet of it. He described tiling it with Welsh Slate. 30 odd tonnes of it. Every one laid by him. All the plumbing, wireing etc etc The structure was/ is truely monumental. with some 5cm rebar included in the n-hundred tonnes of steel. About all he didn't do was the face brickwork. I forget how many thousand of the reclaimed bricks he used, but he perchased a quarter million of them.
My mind went to my DIY projects. It's funny, but just when you think you've done something clever, someone like this turns up and makes you realize just how insignificant your life has been.
Just how much can one man do in a lifetime? Brunell comes to mind, or Christopher Wrenn. (He spent more time on anatomical learning and teaching than on building cathedrals.) Some people just seem to achieve impossible amounts of work.
Anyone else aquainted with such a person?
Anyway, this party.
Twas at his son's house, a big old between the wars, or even Victorian red-brick house in Colchester. Vast extension, everything white and modern set into the old structure. Stunning. Anyway, folks that I hadn't seen for years turn up and one bloke who had a tale to tell.
It seems that his former neighbour didn't like his extension, even before it was finished...so much so that he started to get stroppy about the building noise, or anything else he could think of to make life difficult. He recorded the building work noise and played it back at night. Then there was weeks of angst and stakes being raised daily. Car accros drive ended up being pushed down to the villiage, things being hurled and hose pipe into complaining neibour's kitchen window. While our man was getting some serious squirting done, said neibour throws a carving knife out of his window and into our man's house. The police were so tired of being called by now, that they didn't even bother to respond to a claim of attempted murder. Well, not for three days anyway. Never was either of them arrested. Odd that since a friend of mine recently spent 8 hours in a police cell in Clacton for a claimed pushing of his neibour. No charges were brought.
One gets very confused about British law.
Anyway, our man finally thinks it's time to ship out and build his dream home.
Ten years goes by, some of them in a pair of on-site caravans.
I'll need his permission to show the Google Earth pics, but what a stunning house. 7,000 square feet of it. He described tiling it with Welsh Slate. 30 odd tonnes of it. Every one laid by him. All the plumbing, wireing etc etc The structure was/ is truely monumental. with some 5cm rebar included in the n-hundred tonnes of steel. About all he didn't do was the face brickwork. I forget how many thousand of the reclaimed bricks he used, but he perchased a quarter million of them.
My mind went to my DIY projects. It's funny, but just when you think you've done something clever, someone like this turns up and makes you realize just how insignificant your life has been.
Just how much can one man do in a lifetime? Brunell comes to mind, or Christopher Wrenn. (He spent more time on anatomical learning and teaching than on building cathedrals.) Some people just seem to achieve impossible amounts of work.
Anyone else aquainted with such a person?
