Trains, tarps, and lights

Hello! Happy 2nd Sunday of Advent. And we're in for a mild December..?

I got back home on Monday evening after a long day. Sleeping on a train was excellent except for maybe the thing which mattered most: sleeping. It was old and rickety, and unlike the rolling of a ferry it jerked like box on metal wheels. Breakfast wasn't much better, the driest collection of rye crackers and cheese that only the Dutch could manage.

Bleary eyed and delirious, I wandered around Brussels, drank coffee and went to a vibey underground spa. And arriving back onboard, I felt a sense of home which was lovely, and then I laughed at the Nickisms. A friend who visited a few weeks ago pointed them out; the partly messy building site, the camping in front of a fire. A work-in-progress.

But it was delightful to turn the taps on with full pressure, as I turn the water pump off when I'm away. Zero leaks or pressure drops, top-tier plumbing.

On Wednesday I re-sealed the chimney AGAIN, because the smoky goop kept coming. Good for 2 days, but then it dripped once more ffs. I think the reason is because the paint inside the collar has flaked (it's only coach enamel, not meant for chimneys), giving the sealant a hard time. I'm off to Denmark next week so I'll grind it back properly and give it a few days to cure.

Anyway I finally got rid of the old fridge, in my slow Christmas quest:

And removed the wood from up top, which had started to rot because the tarp disintegrated...

I still love the orange.

Oh well, I ordered extra anyway so I haven't wasted too much, and plus it makes good kindling. And with the roof clear, and having recently acquired 50m of fairy lights, I made it cute:

I should probably remove the masking tape...

Only half of them are lit because I tore a wire during the untangling, which I'll re-solder tomorrow.