Sheds and Blues and other things

Toni's parents were up this weekend once again helping us out. This time Toni's dad (Don) - with a little help from Unskilled Labourer #1 - was finishing off levelling the back of the garden and putting up Toni's workshop. Friday afternoon was rained off within 20 minutes of getting out there, but Saturday was a glorious day and while Toni and her mum (Jan) did a lot of hard work painting the underside of the workshop's floor, arranging all the panels in the garden and then digging in said garden, Don and I got to work on the workshop proper. We finished levelling the ground, put the slabs in place and then built the floor and the walls before we finished in time for Doctor Who (7/10 - much better than last week's episode).

Blues in the meantime grabbed a point in a 0-0 draw at Everton where we didn't furnish a single shot on target. Portsmouth - as predicted - beat Sunderland 2-1 and while the media laps up Harry Redknapp's "Great Escape" (steady on lads, there's still two games to go, plus Pompey have already benefited from three teams fielding weakened sides, never mind the fact Liverpool will do them the same favour on the last day) we are now two points from safety.

Back to the workshop. Despite the predictions of a "few showers", Sunday was wet most of the day. It cleared up sufficiently in the afternoon for us to put the roof up during a light drizzle, and then the clouds thoughtfully emptied themselves while Don nailed the roofing felt into place while I watched on trying to offer what little support I could. Once the last tack was in place, the rain stopped and hasn't been back since. Champion.

So a good weekend for the workshop - we need to wait for the floor to dry and then sweep it out and apply the coat of preserver we'd have applied in retrospect on Saturday evening if we'd known what the weather was going to do. I also need to shift some sand into place where the reshaped path will lead to the workshop, plus we need to apply the first coat of paint to the outside walls. Oh, and I've got one cover feature, one tutorial and two Q&A columns to write too.

To summarise: workshop good, weather mixed, Blues mixed, Dr Who better.