Only one day left of the mammoth summer holidays and so I went out on the bike for a long run, I really didn’t have the energy but I headed out anyway. I didn’t fuel up well yesterday and I knew it would be difficult.

My legs were beginning to complain after only half hour and at every turn I’m thinking I should just go home, however I persevered and stopped at my local café for coffee and cake and was surprised to see that I nearly covered 40km, but it wasn’t easy.

I had nothing in the fridge to eat so the only option was pizza and I know the rule I’ve set for myself but I thought “I’m still on holiday”, so pizza it was.

The last two weeks have been fairly hectic. Next door asked me to help with the repairs on their the outside landing and stairs and I’ve been knocking a wall down.

I’ve had all this time off and everything has been crammed into the past fortnight. I had the electrician and the Data guy moving points and then I removed the interior wall adjoining the living room and bedroom, it makes such a difference.

Removing the gyprock is messy, dust everywhere. The next challenge was the four hardwood studs, the old reciprocal saw went through one blade but did the job. I discovered a metal brace across the studs and luckily had a small precision grinder that dealt with that. When I finally got round to cleaning the place up and moving the furniture I’m very pleased with the results and can’t understand why I didn’t do it 20 years ago.

I still need to add architraves at some point

It’s been hot, and having the room opened up now the air conditioning seems to distribute the air more effectively, before this adjacent room would have been closed off getting hot and the cool air just circulated in the living room but now it is so much better.

Having the larger space feels so much better, not claustrophobic. This summer I have spent many hours inside because it’s been too hot and now it’s so much better.

I still have to tidy up downstairs, there are cables and things to fix. A bit more moving of furniture, some of it fairly heavy and so the next few weeks will no doubt fly.

Tomorrow I’ll go back to help Mick with the stairs, I’ll get there about 7:30 and try to finish before noon.