Day 6: Chipping Away

After a breakfast of cereal, rice milk, passion fruit, and Nutella on scrumptious bread, it was time to work. My first task was very demanding, mentally and physically: cleaning the keyboards on the computers around the house. Mac keyboards, all jokes aside, were not made very well 6 years ago, and collect dust like its their job.

When that was done, I began work on the bike. I first patched the tire I blew yesterday, and then tried to fix the front derailer. Though it's not yet fixed, I did learn a good deal about derailers. I'll try and fix in tomorrow.

When I was finished with the bike, it was time for the fun stuff. I climbed high on the ladder and began picking off the plaster from the ancient wall of Garth's house. It was like archeology; using a pick to reveal new layers of old architecture. They really knew how to build walls in the middle ages.

I took a break for lunch, my right arm tired from the work. After lunch (bread, cheese, salad, gnocchi) and a little break, I got back up on the ladder, higher this time. I was working directly above me, and got tons of plaster in my shirt, my hair, my ears, everywhere. It started to rain, and then pour. I stopped working when the rain plus the plaster was dirtying my goggles too much to see. I headed into the garage, and pasted brown paper to a box to be sent in the post, and then scraped plaster (notice a theme?) off the plastering tools, so they'll be fresh and new when we re-plaster the wall.

I took a wonderful shower, longer than most due to my almost dreaded hair, and then crawled into bed to read and nap. After a perfect nap, I got up, helped cook dinner, which we ate in one of the studios (the one in which the loft I sleep in is situated) by the Gowdin, a treasure of a French wood burner.

After dinner, we headed up to watch the finale of season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance. Wow. They can dance. We then had a photo sharing, which was really wonderful. I showed Garth a lot of my work, and he showed me selections from his latest trip east.

Now, after reading the comments on my blog (thanks guys! Keep them coming!) it's bed time.