Thursday 16 July.
It was out for a walk again this morning before breakfast. We went up round Bird Rd to Old Faith Rd then followed it all the way up to the P68 main road that comes up from the Durban Rd., fortunately the P68 wasn't too busy but we kept safe by walking close to the side on the small hard shoulder. It wasn't far to the turning into Ibis Rd and then straight back along it home. It was another good walk and every day Moira is getting stronger and stronger. It was about 45 minutes today again with some nice hills to negotiate.
I made the breakfast as soon as I got in while Moira had her shower. The truck from Stuttaford's arrived at 9 am as expected and the two men got straight into packing everything into their boxes. I had my shower while they were busy. When I finished and came through Steve had come round to see us about the truck parked in the driveway. Shiela, the evil bitch, opposite had phoned him in his capacity as Head of the Body Corporate to complain about it. We couldn't think what her problem was as there was plenty of room to get past if she wanted out. Steve seemed to be embarrassed about it but I thought he should have told that woman to get lost and if she had a problem to come to us herself. She seems to have everyone running to her beck and call but knows that if she had come to us to complain she would have been told in no uncertain terms where to go. They only took an hour to pack the boxes and load them into the truck so I don't know what her gripe was.
After they left we went out to the tile warehouse in Port Shepstone. I took part of a tile that I had lifted to find out if they still had them as the box of replacements we have only has about 10 in it. Unfortunately they were an obsolete company and style so we will have to hope the 'fix-a-floor' treatment that Alex is bringing down at the weekend works. While there we bought a bag of tile cement and a tool for cutting out the grouting between tiles. When we left there we went to the builder's merchants across the road. I had checked on the internet about getting tar to fill a couple of potholes in front of the garage. There was a article available called premixed Asphalt and I asked if they had this product. They called it 'cold tar' and I bought a bag, there will be more than enough in the bag to do the three small holes Moira is worried about.
When we got back I tried out the grout cutting tool on a tile in the lounge that had a large chip out of its corner. I ran the tool up and down the edges and it cleared the grouting very easily. As the last of it cleared the tile itself lifted in one piece. The tile next to it was one that was hollow underneath. I removed the grout around it and it lifted in one piece as well. If the tiles lift as easily as this I might be able to lift and reuse the ones that are giving the 'hollow' problem. I turned the TV on before lunch for the 2nd Ashes Test from Lords. Australia were batting and doing very well, just before the break they lost a stupid wicket but went in on 80/1, not bad. After lunch I spent spells throughout the afternoon chipping away at the hard adhesive. It seemed to be coming away a lot easier on these two spaces.
As soon as the cricket stopped for lunch I switched over for the cycling. The Tour was still in the mountains of the Pyrenees. It was a 195 km stage from Lannemezan to the Plateau de Beille. It was a series of climbs and descents, the three major ones were; Col de Portet 1069m, Col de la Core 1595m, and Port de Lors 1517m with a final climb of 18 km to another mountain top finish at 1780m on the Plateau de Beille. When the TV made its connection with the race there was about 100 km to go. There had been a large breakaway of 22 riders and even though they were 12 minutes ahead none of them were close enough in the GC to worry the main contenders. They were at that point climbing the Port de Lors and were beginning to split up as the ascent got tougher. Over the top there was a smaller break of three riders and they picked up a couple of minutes on the others. The peleton kept together and there weren't any challenges when they reached this hill. The weather now deteriorated with heavy rain and hailstones. It was so bad at times we lost transmission and I returned to chipping away the tile adhesive during these interludes. The trio that led over the top stayed ahead until the monster climb to the finish where they began to struggle. None of them were recognised climbers and Rodriguez of Katusha, a good climber, broke from the ones behind and soon caught and overtook the leaders to eventually win. Back in the peleton there were now plenty of challenges to Froome, in turn Contador, Nibali, Valverde and Quintana applied the pressure but each time Froome responded and stayed strong. The only one happy to just hang-in without threatening was the American, van Garderen who is second at the moment in the GC. In the end all the main contenders finished together 6 minutes down on the winner.
When the cycling was over I switched to the cricket again. England weren't doing well and hadn't taken any more wickets since the lunch break. Australia finished the day on 337/1. There was also the Open Golf Championship from St Andrews. I watched to that until the comedy 'Open All Hours' came on BBC. Later there was 'Call the Midwife' but it was the one we watched last Sunday. I read my book instead before getting to bed.
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