An interesting day…

There’s not much Old Pulteney left in the bottle. It must have evaporated. Best finish it tonight in case the rest of it evaporates too. Good thing there are no warning pictures on the bottle or I might have to worry that drinking might be unsafe.

There are no warnings on this BrewDog Libertine Black Ale either. 7.2% ABV and a well-written label full of information. No ‘Please drink responsibly’, no ‘units’ and no image of a pregnant woman about to down a pint of wine. So none of it is legally required, I guess? Yet so many producers choose to defile their bottles with this nonsense and that has just encouraged the Puritans to take the matter further. Give these swines any hint of weakness and they will just keep on going.

BrewDog don’t play that game. If they are not required by law to deface their labels with a load of made-up crap, then they won’t do it. If every booze-maker followed the BrewDog example then we would not now be hearing about ludicrous proposals from the hate squad, determined to restrict and plain-package every single aspect of everyone’s life.

BrewDog also make wonderful beer. Costs a bit more than the commercially-produced fizz but well worth it.

I have earned a drink this evening. That storm should have blown itself out by the time it reached here but nope, it still had a kick. My tobacco plants were flattened (they are now tied to stakes) and the roof vent of my greenhouse ended up behind the compost. It was a good idea to opt for polycarbonate panels. Glass could never have survived that. The vent frame gave way at the joints so it was repairable.

I spent a good part of the afternoon bashing the aluminium frame back into shape, bolting it back together and fitting it back onto the greenhouse. Not much fun with that inexplicable wooly feeling all through my head. The frame isn’t perfect but there was something of a hurry since it was raining. I’ll look at it more closely when the weather returns to something like a summer. At the moment it’s so cold I finally gave in and closed the windows. In August!

On the good side, last night was the first time in a long time I have not had to iron and/or wash a uniform. Black uniform, hot weather, six (sometimes seven) days a week of work and… there was a uniform in the wash every night. I was only supplied with two. It is incredibly liberating to just leave the washing until the next day and then be able to leave it hanging to dry. If I do go back to just two days a week, that will be perfect. I didn’t realise just how much time that washing and ironing took up.

Now there is time again for model-making. I have another N gauge telephone box in brass to try. The last one I gave away because it wasn’t up to standard. One more attempt before I admit I can’t see in that scale any more. I was pleased with the paint colour. Paint the thing flat red and then overpaint with clear red and it comes out gloss but not too gloss. Unfortunately I then made a total pig’s breakfast of painting in the rubber seals. Next time, lay off the caffeine…

There is a drilled-out 1/200 submarine awaiting a decision on lighting – battery or chemical? Chemical would replace the light source each time so no worries about an LED burning out, but chemical allows no control. It’s on until the chemicals run out. On balance at the moment, I am leaning towards batteries. Those little chemical lights are easy to get now but might become hard to source in the future. Tiny batteries will be around as long as people want watches.

Well, that’s my first day of not being a janitor. I do miss the place but I have the option of a partial return and so far, the relaxation feels pretty good. Especially since I have one more full pay to come next Friday which includes all the extra hours from the last four weeks. Takes the urgency off the situation somewhat. I know September’s bills are covered and by the end of September, if things get tight, every business in town will be looking for Christmas staff.

Well that’s the relaxation done. Time to get some proper work moving.