January

01 New Years Day at White Cottage, Hanging Langford. Stayed with Chris, Kirsty and family. Agnieszka and crew also came with us.

06 Starting work on the summerhouse. Registration pictures of the original structure in relation to neighbours' fences. Moved the gazebo away from the old structural base.

09 Vanessa stopped with us over the winter. First of the relatives from the south to visit me in the U.K.

15 The computer and network rack at Century Club, in its "dedicated room". That usually gets completely messed up because of people using it for a storage cupboard. Makes the network connections unreliable, as well as cutting off the power more than once!

17 Kasjusz as local threatening vampire-type person. From my viewpoint this didn't come off so well, but I guess a kitten or mouse would get really scared?

18 Feeding the swans and geese on the canal in Southall. Kasjusz and I often took a "walkie-talkie" along the bank, just to get out for a bit. Still traffic noise everywhere, though.

19 Home sweet workshop in the loft. Half the roof is finished, with 150 mm insulation and dampcourse over the plasterboard. The other half has bubble-wrap to act as dust barrier and insulation, quite effective. This is temporarily set-up until we can get the paperwork done to put in a proper flat roof or inset window. 18 mm hardwood plywood floor, with new fibreglas insulation to reduce noise and act as fire-retardant barrier. The room below needs to be redone, then we can put a spiral staircase in. I think a proper fire escape is the way to go, using a door opening to it from the extended set of windows, and exiting onto the kitchen roof. It makes a really nice "family" room..

24 Witold and Maciej with Witold's "new" VW Passat.

25 Another day, walking along the canal with Kasjusz and feeding the swans and geese. Sometimes there are ducks and coots as well.

27 Pictures at the RHC exercise workshop that Aleksandra runs to try and get better mobility and flexibility. A lot of the people there haven't been doing enough range of movement, and it affects the joints.

29 Snow in the back yard in Southall.

February

07 Agnieszka: pictures taken by Kasjusz. Pictures of Kasjusz with a PC game.

08 Kasjusz asleep. Kasjusz awake. Lots of pictures by Kasjusz.

10 Pictures at another RHC exercise class. New bathtub installed at Agnieszka and Kasjusz' flat.

13 Slightly blurry Paul, taken by Kasjusz. Seems to be like that anyway!

14 Pictures taken by Vanessa on a trip out west.

15 The Natural History Museum in South Kensington. Not taken by me!

March

05 Kasjusz crashed out on the armchair in the main bedroom, Southall.

16 Walk around Somers Town with Kasjusz and Agnieszka.

April

02 Dinner at POSC with Len and Reg, two of the Chelsea Pensioners who have somehow become special friends. Luz Dary and Aleksandra, and my empty chair.

09 Kasjusz taken by Paul. Paul taken by Kasjusz. Other furry friends taken by Kasjusz.

11 Barbeque with friends and family from Poland.

17 Agnieszka and Kasjusz in characteristic positions in our main bedroom in Southall. Somehow that place seems to make them sleepy!

May

04 Exercise session at RHC, hand and arm training.

06 Rebuild of our main server \\pacific into an industrial rack-mount case. This then goes into the rack at Branislav's place.

10 Taking a picture of Aleksandra in passport style. No chance of getting a smile!

16 Picture of Slawek for a bus pass.

17 Damaged rack-mount shelves from Mills Ltd. They replace them without hassle: just a bit disappointing that the time got wasted.

18 Videos only of the lads drinking in the back yard at Southall.

27 The main hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, featuring the duplicate Diplodocus.

31 Picture of cheerful, large, furry person: Paul.

June

01 More, blurry of the same ...

16 The Century Club. PC that choked to death. The roof garden.

July

13 Training outside at the RHC.

August

08 3-Cube before moving downstairs.

11 The Century Club: how not to organise the rack. Too many changes were done without the people having any idea of how it was supposed to be maintained. So the rack is now wide open and dirt gets into everything.

12 3-Cube before moving downstairs (again!).

17 Exercises outside at the RHC. Kasia and friends at the bar in Shepherds Bush.

24 Agnieszka in Poland: shots for the web sales brochure.

September  

01 Got caught by my heavy bag as I tripped on a sharp kerb at dusk. Splat! Kasjusz was fascinated by the coloured damage, and took pictures.

05 Kasjusz and Paul go "walkie-talkie" along the canal in Southall.

12 Final measurement and registration pictures, before we demolished the old foundation and floor, ready for the new summerhouse.

17 Trial shots of Agnieszka at the Century Club, to see whether we could come up with something suitable for the 3-Cube advertising campaign.

25 The server at UPG, finally mounted properly in its rack and tidied up.

29 The foundation is in place and cured (with steel in it!). The first few courses of the exterior leaf done in brick. Summerhouse is on its way! Pictures of the part-way refurbished back parlour at Southall, and the new fully-sealed kitchen window with 50 % more glass in the same hole in the wall. Literally tons of brick and blocks. I nearly wrecked the barrow: I just thought I was getting feeble in my old age, until Witold cracked up when I said I was moving only 70 kg of blocks and the handles were bending ... The blocks were actually twice as heavy as I thought they were, and I was dragging 130 kg at a time! The panels for the UFCH (Under-Floor Central Heating) were stacked by the old shed.

October

01 First courses of the inner leaf, with blocks. Semi-rigid fibreglas insulation was put between the blocks and bricks, after thorough cleaning out of detritus down to the dampcourse, then stainless steel cross-ties every metre or so, then the next leaves were laid. The dampcourse is at the same level as the plastic sheet that goes on the sand infill under the concrete floor. On top that plastic sheet goes 100 mm high-density foam slabs, then the plastic panels for the UFCH.

02 The rubble fill was tamped as best we could, then levelled with 20 mm chip. This was trampled down during the course of the work, then a vibrator was used to tamp it before levelling with about 50 mm sand, also tamped. Note the two leaves of the wall are nearly completed to the first set of cross-ties.

03 Mushrooms were collected by the enthusiasts. Very tasty.

08 Pictures showing how the fibreglass insulation fits. This is one of the keys to the economical and very comfortable heating of the summerhouse. It also moderates the temperatures very well in the summer. The outer wall gets quite hot in the sun, but inside statys about the same temperature day and night.

15 I built a tarpaulin site cover, and Witold also ensured that water didn't get trapped in the walls. The mortar used the chromate cement, with additives. Very strong joints. The wall actually "rings" if you hit it.

22 Aleksandra ... somewhere ...

23 Our place in Prabuty in the autumn. Kasjusz running around in the back yard. Later we all go for a walk: Agnieszka, Kasjusz, Agnieszka, Marcin and Paul. We meet dogs. We meet horses.

November

12 More of the summerhouse. Brick and block wall from the house to the summerhouse makes a nearly rat-proof wall, turning the back yard into a secure courtyard. The piping for hot and cold water, central heating, sewage and the electric cable goes through a duct built adjoining the wall. All pipes were insulated with the preform jackets as normal, then enclosed with sheets of foam within the duct for extra insulation. Only a small portion of the piping next to the house was left uninsulated, deliberately to keep the toolshed slightly above the ambient temperature in winter, thus drying it out. Note the use of 22 mm copper pipes, to minimise the pressure drop. It cost twice as much, but better to do a proper job. Can't get HD alkathene, so couldn't use that.

13 There was an access made, with drainage in the middle of the pipes. The foam used was the special Clayshield type, which doesn't rot in the ground. The pipes enter the summerhouse above the floor level, in a duct. This is to ensure that there is no damage, and that when the slab is poured there are no weak spots.

14 More of the duct and piping. Not fragile. Pictures of Kasjusz in the main bedroom, learning how to make paper cutouts.

15 Pictures of part of a campaign by 3-Cube, marketing images for soccer fans.

20 Fitting the windows in the summerhouse. Also a view showing the insulated duct.

25 Tamping the floor, laying the dampcourse, then the foam and UFCH panels. Notice the central heating control equipment installation, and the cable inlet for the LAN (Local Area Network). The mains wiring was already done, during the building of the walls, so we had functioning lights and power. The heavy duty armoured underground cable went from the house all the way to the distribution board. This was used even though it is in a duct, to ensure full ACE (All Copper Earth) wiring back to the main board. An ELCB was installed on the sub-board.

28 Pouring the slab, with the heating running at a low level, to check for damage during the pour. The reinforcing was 6 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm mesh. The special oxygen-barrier piping is grey: it snaps into the panels on the floor. The slab was 65 mm above the mesh, making it a total of about 80 mm thick. This ensures that it does not fracture, and makes sure the pipes do not get damaged. Heating up and cooling down is a little bit slower because of the extra thermal intertia, but only by a few hours. You can also see the corrugated material around the edges of the slab, next to the wall. This allows for expansion, and adds a little more insulation between the slab and the walls. The minimum solid path is over 400 mm to the outside, though, going through the inner leaf of the wall, down to the foundation then across to the outer leaf. This low-level heat flow helps keep the insulation dry at the foot of the wall and frost-proofs it as well. The foundation concrete includes frost-inhibitors to waterproof it.

29 We took over three large skip loads of rubbish out of the fire path, then I put a lot of the gravel in to prevent muddy pools breeding mosquitos. We really need to get the whole path fixed, but that will take a bit of effort with the neighbours as well.

December

05 Picture of Kasjusz on the wall, in his school uniform.

12 At Hana and Piotr's new place.

15 The new temporary gym and physio department, while the old building gets demolished and the new one gets built.

18 Summerhouse gets its door, and the exterior carriage-lamp for illumination.

22 Aleksandra goes to a dinner at the RHC.

24 Dinner on Christmas Eve, with the whole family.

26 Kasjusz and I go feed the swans. Kasjusz jumps on some ice, to see what it does ...

29 Bathroom installation in progress in the summerhouse. Sheer luxury for the workers, full lighting, electricity and central heating that works.