2024-11 Spain Escape

I did some final house repairs, it got cold this month and the first winter snow-storm came, I got sent to Spain, I tidied the garage

Gravel Apron

I finished placing the last of the insulation and gravel around the house, just before the snow hits. I had to dig out some old bushes by the house. It was tricky balancing the rush of effort versus the risk of re-injuring my back but I felt a lot better and eased off if my back ever felt like it was aching. I also paid for a little help from the local gardening company to move the last of the gravel pile before the snow came.

Basement Repairs

I wanted to investigate and repair some historic parts of the basement wall where the wind comes in during storms. Doing a vertical repair is tricky and I couldn’t use a “form” as it was right up against the ceiling. Getting a quickset concrete was pretty difficult but in the end it went fine. I had to turn it into a peanut-butter like consistency and then pile handfuls on top of each other. It was complicated because there is an outer insulation layer, outer concrete layer, insulation, and then an inner concrete wall. So I had to make two repairs up against all the weird bits of debris.

Afterwards it looked fine. there are some photos in the gallery if you like looking at wall repairs 🙂

Spain

It’s our crunch-time of year at work and with the later snow arrival October and November have just been dark. I’ve been working all day so not getting much sunlight. Winter darkness this far north can be really rough on people and I didn’t take it seriously enough this year.

Luckily work required me to go to a client job in Spain which was awesome. The first thing I did was sit in a chair in the sun, and then got some decent sleep. Each day got a little better. The client task was really exciting but we are under an NDA so I cant write about it.

Returning back after a week was good, plus the snow had arrived which made things a bit lighter.

Since coming back I’ve been trying to make sure I do more physical activity outside during daylight hours, especially on the weekend, and moved some plants and growlights into my home office.

“Om krisen eller kriget kommer”

With the increasing tensions with Russia, the authorities delivered a copy of the Swedish war civil preparedness leaflet to all homes. The Swedish defence forces are well respected and have high moral however some civil preparedness got a bit lax at the end of the cold war and is now being renewed.

It’s quite a big change to the older leaflet that they’ve had for many decades in that it talks about general crisis preparedness instead of a focus purely on war. There is an English translation here:

https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf

We are quite well prepared compared to other homes but could do with fixing a few things that the leaflet mentions.

Catchup

I went out of my comfort zone and reached out to various old friends via email. For some reason I find it absolutely terrifying. Some have been great and I feel a bit of a wally that I didn’t contact them sooner. One mountain bike friend I’m actively worried about because they’ve recently changed behaviour and isolated from everyone.

One friend reminded me of mountain bike trips we’d been on and their memories of me helping them. It always makes me sit up and think on the rare occasion someone mentions being inspired by me because I suddenly realise I should check over what I am doing and start acting like the positive influence they remember. This got me thinking about my mountain bike in the garage and the set of ice tyres ready to go on. I spent a weekend with the stereo blasting, clearing everything up and making a space and then fitting the tyres.

Sadly I completely perforated the inner tube putting the ice tyres on due to using the wrong method, and then used up every single puncture repair patch I had to try and fix it. I then had to wait for some replacement tubes before I can go out. Also I need a louder stereo. The new tubes arrived just in time for the weekend and I got to have my first ice ride before the end of November.

Innebandy

I had my first winter game of Innebandy at the end of this month and even scored a goal. I think all the Swedish players find it funny when I score because I am the worst player there. It feels like all the others have been playing it since school and I am pretty old and slow compared to the younger players. It is good fun though. I’m going to see if I can take some pictures for next time.

December Preparation

After talking to my ski-instructor neighbour, I’ve purchased my first pair of skis which should arrive in December. I have never been skiing before so it will be interesting. The skis are shorter and designed for exploring forests and similar which is what I’d like to use them for.