Valet

I had to take the van in for a valet - it needed cleaning and the boss told me to get it sorted. I took it to a place in Deritend/Digbeth. I ran all the way back. Didn't really, I took a taxi.

I used to know the area well, I used to work round there. I knew Digbeth High Street, Sherlock Street and Alcester Street. This was about 30 years ago and it's all changed. The place was one side of the main road but it's dual carriageway and I didn't know which direction I had to approach from. I took the bus back to the office. My bus pass is valid for anywhere in Birmingham.

Tortoise

Our tortoise's eye looked like it had some kind of infection so we took it to the vet where we used to live, where we used to take the dog. The vet had a look and picked something out which looked like a bit of straw. They can easily get seeds and stuff in their eye. The vet used a saline solution to wash eye with.

It's my sons tortoise. We thought it would ruin weekend if it died, with this happening on friday evening. It cost us £12. We noticed when the tortoise was in it's run in the back garden if you can call it a 'run'. He can actually get up to quite a speed really.

Driveway

It's a good job I went home at lunchtime yesterday to check on our new driveway. The builders had taped it off but one of the local kids still managed to ride his bike over the narrow strip between the start of the concrete and the tape.

I phoned their office and in 10-15 minutes someone came round and sorted it out.
The kid claimed he swerved to avoid a wasp.

We've now got a double width driveway. There used to be a round manhole in the iddle of the grass but it's now in drive area. They've also got rid of the ridge in the drive which used to collect water when it rained. They've cut expansion lines according to some formula. There are 2 lines making a cross shape. They are going to come back to fill it with the black stuff.

The driveway is thick concrete - nearly 2 inches with hardcore below that.

New Drive

We're having our drive re-done. They've already put down the hardcore. I'm going home at lunchtime so I can see what they're doing.

They are going to pour concrete over to make it nice and flat. Currently the manhole cover is raised at end of driveway near garage. There is the metal 'frame' on top of hole with the cover on it. There's also a round manhole to one side - this used to be in the middle of the lawn but it's going to be all concrete there too.

The manhole cover catches on the bottom of the car if it's fully loaded eg. when coming back from holiday. It scrapes, not damaging car though.

Our old neighbour had drive done a few years ago. Whoever did it put flags over drive which raised the level up to where the damp proof course was. They probably thought because it was an old woman living on her own they could get away with a shoddy job. Her husband might have been alive at the time actually. The new owners ripped up the drive so no there's no problem now. They've put the lawn there. The bloke living there has a van. I think he's a gas engineer or something.

Gone Welsh

I think our company has gone welsh. They are bringing in the no smoking rule on april 1st. England isn't enforcing the no smoking in public til later this year. Making no smoking signs will be a boom business.

Herman the German

We went to a garden centre last week. It was one of those ones which have a pets section. My son bought himself a tortoise. It's a type known as a Herman. He's shaped a bit like a german helmet so I called him Herman the German.

He's quite large, any over 10cm have to be microchipped so he already had one fitted when we got him. We've built a pen for him. If you put him down he'll will run off quite quickly, surprising for a tortoise.
They don't hibernate til they're about 4 or 5 years old so we're going to keep him inside at the moment. He seems to be doing ok, demolishing the plants in the garden whenever he's out.