The Pool, Karate, Beth's Playdate, School Reports
So as previously mentioned, the pool's in the ground. It was a very, very stressful 48 hours though I can tell you. Monty our pool guy arrived on Wednesday night, the night before, to just double check everything. Turns out double chek everything was ask a lot of questions about where the pump shed is going, what height the pool needs to be installed at and a few other things. Most of which we didn't know the answer to because that was the realm of our landscaper. We thought the two had been in contact and sorted a few of these things out, especially because Monty'd had a copy of the plans for the last 2-3 months, but it turns out that wasn't the case. So there were a few very frantic phonecalls to our landscaper who, thankfully stepped out and said "Don't panic we'll sort it out" and said she'd come on site on Thursday morning to smooth everything over. So heading off to bed it was a bit stressful, not at all made any easier by Beth having a very high temp and a suspected UTI. We rang up healthline about 10:40pm and managed to get someone on the line about 11pm who asked a bunch of questions and said just give her Pamol and she how she goes. At 3:30am she woke up again very upset so we gave her more medicine and she slept through until 6am or so.
Thursday morning arrived an so did Monty, and diggers. I was knackered from being up half the night with Beth, and she still wasn't well at all so it was day off school for her. I biked Theo up to school while Sarah took Beth to the A&E. Of course the A&E was mentally chockers so it took about 3 hours for them to get seen, not helped by the fact the Doctor missed seeing them while Beth was in the toilet giving a urine sample. Argh. Meanwhile back at home it was all happening, my man from the Iwi Chad had arrived, the digger had arrived etc. Charlottoe our landscaper had arrived and sorted out heights and pump shed locations etc before heading off again quickly.
All morning the pool team worked out there under what had turned out to be a super duper hot day. With every dig I was paranoid they were going to dig up some electrical cable or water pipe that I wasn't aware of. And sure enough about an hour in they did dig up an electrical cable, but it was one I was aware of. Not quite in the location I thought it was going to be in which was annoying, but nevermind it was already dead and so I pulled it out of the ground for them (none of them wanted to touch it)
I took a timelapse of the digging starting, you can see I stuffed up where I thought the pool was going to be vs where it was. I didn't correctly power the phone I was using for the timelapse though so its battery ran out while the digging was in progress - it was originally my intention to do an all-day timelapse but nevermind. I got the start of the dig which is still pretty interesting.
Eventually Sarah and Beth made it back, Sarah and I made sandwiches for everyone and took them out. Most people were too busy working/digging/measuring it seems to want to eat, though Chad was happy to have some food.
In the afternoon as the hole had been dug, Chad came over and said he was going to go now. They'd found no bones or things of significance and he was happy. Thanks Chad, here's your $900. Once the hole was fully dug Monty started to get annoyed at the water table, it's very high in Jervoistown and the sides of the pool kept collapsing in because the water would soften it up. He got a pump and kept pumping out the water while the crane arrived to pickup the pool off the back section and swing it over into the hole. I'd spend 30 minutes stuffing around with my Pixel phone to get the thing charged up and working, I really wanted to get a timelapse of the pool going into the hole. And sure enough I managed to capture that, the pool rising up over the trees and slowly being swung into place. It then got put in and pulled out about 3 times while adjustments were made and the hole was dig a bit more here, a bit more there etc. Sarah picked Theo up from school and he arrived just in time to see it being swung around in the air again before being put into the hole. Eventually it was in its final resting place and the crane driver was told he could go now. Seeya crane. Then the work of filling the pool up began, the water truck Monty's organised didn't show up and then the one that he managed to get here in a panic only spat out half its water before it broke down. Monty had to get so much water in it though so that it didn't "float up" during the night due to the ground water. So once Monty'd called it a night we kept our hose in it for 3-4 hours to slowly but surely fill it up a bit more.
By Thursday night it was there, it was in the ground, all the stress and panic and consents and problems and bullshit was over and it was in the ground, with some water in it. Nowhere near ready to swim in, mind you, but it was there. The only casulties were the pipework that feeds the outdoor taps, it'd just managed to get caught up in the dig line and thus was poked and doesn't work anymore. So that's something else that's going to need fixing in the coming months. Le Sigh.
Friday morning I caught up with Monty who didn't need me for anything, got the kids ready and biked off to work as normal. Beth had slept through the night, so I'd slept through the night and didn't feel like a Zombie. It was a mostly uneventful day, one thing Monty didn't know that we had to have a quick flap and talk to our landscaper again, but otherwise all good. At the end of Friday all the huge dirt piles were gone. Temporary fencing was up. Oh Beth was home all day because she still hadn't felt well that morning. I left work early and biked to school to pickup Theo, it was school report day!
Both kids got the best school report they could have got, "working above" in all sections and "A" for effort in everything. Good work kiddies.
Saturday Monty came over again and they worked all day pouring the concrete for the pool shed, doing more stuff that I don't understand but soil and digging related. Patched the fence down the back they'd had to bust up to get the crane/digger in. I took the kids to swimming, then Sarah went and did some shopping, I went and bought the dog more food etc. Boring stuff. Sunday Beth's friend Grace came over to play, they had a great time. I got crabby with our house water pump - it's got a trigger on it so it turns off when the taps in the house shut off. But something's not working with the trigger because the pump is staying on all the time. Why do these things always break at Christmas time? Fucking annoying is what that is. Anyway I've got Chris the pump guy coming sometime this week to look at it.
Monday afternoon was Theo's grading (they call it a "Belt Test") at Karate and he passed. He's no longer a white belt he's now an Orange Belt. He was so proud of himself when they called his name, had a massive grin on his face. Good on him, it's the one sport he's really dedicated to thus far, he focuses and pays attention to everything he's told to do etc. Good on ya buddy.
That'll do, back to work.
Tim