Month: June 2022

I put a hole in the roof of the garden shed. It happened when I was working on the shed, replacing the old felt. Distracted, I stepped on an area of rotted wood between two beams. My foot went right through it.

With felt already laid on half of the roof and without any material available to fix the damage, I carried on despite the sour mood, pretending that the hole wasn’t there. The rest of the job was easy, as I had the brilliant idea, albeit a late one, of using a large board to support my weight. Had I thought of that before, the repair would not be bodged. And I would be confident that the roof will keep out the rain that is forecast for this week.

After this experience, felt and bitumen annoy me. The felt dug into the skin as I knelt to hammer nails, and the bitumen was difficult to spread, smelled foul, and stained body and clothes. Because I don’t want to handle them again, which I will have to if I replace the roof boards, I plan to instead cover the shed with a large tarpaulin. Tarp blows noisily in the wind and doesn’t look pretty, but it will make an easier repair, will keep out water better, and will last longer.

I am reminded by Facebook of my time at 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. I was there to deploy a software that my employer had sold to FIFA. The plan was for me to be in Johannesburg for five days, but technical difficulties forced me to extend my stay to two weeks.

Having to get the system running before the opening ceremony, I worked day and night. This meant room service dinners at midnight and power naps in the hotel room, followed by countless hours in the FIFA administration block in Sandton. It also meant missing the World Cup opening ceremony, Shakira’s concert and football matches to which I had courtesy tickets.

Eventually, the death march ended, and the system was operational. I could now return home, but before leaving, I managed to see the Group G match between Brazil and North Korea.

We made a short trip to Bordeaux. On the first day and the second day, we had to shelter indoors from the heatwave. With the temperature reaching 42 degrees Celcius, walking and carrying a heavy DSLR under the harsh midday sun was going to be unpleasant. So we took our promenades in the evenings, when it was cooler, and used our mobile phones for snapshots. Here are pictures of things and places we liked.