It was overcast and raining so we spent the day indoors with the fire on.
The rain cleared in the morning so I took the Motley into the country to dump the black water.
I had received some more Self-containment Inspector test papers to mark so I got into that. I also did the oral test for the one person who was available on the phone.
The new OS for the iBook arrived in the post so I spent the afternoon backing everything up and upgrading to Tiger (OS10.4). It all went OK and the new features are all working well and looking pretty useful.
Jean was worried that the chickens she had won at the club wouldn't last for long even though I had found room in the Motley fridge so I roasted one in the electric stove in the house. To my amazement, it was well cooked despite the odd arrangement of the temperature control and the unknown performance of the oven. It was quite tasty and we enjoyed our unusual meal.
It was wet and cold again so we spent the day indoors. We had to do some laundry so the new airing rack and the new convector heater got a workout.
In the morning, the local heavy machinery guy called to check out what would be involved in the removal of the old rain water tanks.
At about lunch time, the firewood man turned up unexpectedly. He had said he wouldn't be able to get to us until the end of the week but he delivered a load to us instead of another customer who had not run out because he knew we were nearly out of wood.
In the afternoon the local plumber called to measure up for a quote for the installation of the gas bottles and the associated plumbing.
The day started out sunny but quickly deteriorated to drizzly rain. The washing will have to wait for better weather.
We went to Tamworth to do some more purchasing of the stuff we need to make the house habitable.
As we were leaving our first stop in Tamworth, we had a very flat tire. Happily the rain had stopped and I was able to change the wheel in a short time. We found the Beaurepaires depot and had the tyre repaired.
Since the furniture will be ready for delivery soon, we need to get the floor covering in place. The original plan to do the floors in original Edwardian style with big Persian mats surrounded by black japan floorboards has been changed to fitted carpet in the three rooms and in the hall. We visited the one carpet shop we hadn't been to before and found a carpet we both thought would go well in the house. It can be in place in a couple of weeks.
We visited the Flight Centre and booked Jean's flights to and from San Francisco. She has to fly from Sydney to get a direct flight. I think I will take the Motley to Sydney and spend the time Jean is away visiting friends.
Over lunch, I was able to upload this web site, thanks to some cogent advice from Jeremy who had been able to work out what I had done wrong from 12,000 km away. The problem with sending emails wirelessly hasn't been resolved so I have to use My Mail with prepared text cut and pasted into manually addressed emails. At least I'm back in the cyber world.
We had a quiet day in just doing some laundry and a few chores.
I visited the Samins to get some advice from John about the footing for the tank and to send an email.
With the sun shining, I did some laundry. Then I decided to try and fix the fireplace in the sitting room which was leaking hot flue gas onto the back of the mantlepiece. I eventually found the fixing but the some of the plaster work on the chimney breast had been damaged. I suspect the original work was a bit light on. The mantlepiece is new and it may have been a case if "wallpapering over the cracks". I guess I can make good. We had decided to repaint the room anyway.