At least I have my health

Following on from cheesy dreams and toothache, I found myself on Monday suffering with stomach ache. And when a stomach the size of mine aches, that's a BIG ache!

There's a gastro- bug going around at the moment and I seem to have got a version. It seemed in my case to only exhibit cramps rather than resolving into anything messier. All the same, I was in bed shivering like a jelly by 9.30 and though I went to work yesterday feeling only a little sore, I decided to take today off to chase off the very last of the bug.

Update on the seagulls: Three of us were looking out the window at the puzzling seagulls on Monday when a small brown blob of fluff on webbed feet scuttled across the roof tiles! The pair evidently have at least one chick, possibly two. Yesterday the parents spent quite a long time away but came back in the late afternoon. I suppose they were out shopping.

But there is always the bathroom to finish

Overdue tax returns notwithstanding, I attacked the bathroom with a dodgy mastic gun and a bottle of sealant on Sunday morning. Anything to avoid doing the dreaded online return, I suppose. We had a bit of an accident involving a large boot and a toilet a long while ago. The replacement throne was inserted into the throne-shaped gap in the tiled floor and left to prove itself awhile before I went to the trouble of sealing and tiling around it again. The "proving period" turned out to be more months than I care to remember at the moment. But considering an almost entire tube of sealant had to be used to bring the cavity around it up to the floor level of the tiles will probably hint at why I was loathe to approach it. Once cured, I will put some nice dainty likkle tiles around it, daisy-petal like, as it was before the boot and bog accident. 'Tis hard on the knees though.

All over bar the grouting

The fiddly half-tiles take the longest to stick on the wall. It's best to have a new cutter, even if the job is more than half-way through, because the blunt nature of the older tool is a false economy by this stage. You've worn it out on learning how not to break tiles. Like most other jobs, the skill levels increase the nearer one is to concluding.

Last night I mixed some tile grout and got to work with a makeshift spreader (I'm told it's used to de-ice the freezer, but it looks like a cake icer to me). I have a nice spongy-based grouting trowel someplace, but can't put my hands on it. The result is a square meter of finished tiles which stand out wonderfully from their ungrouted fellows. Today I hope to finish off the entire section. Some mastic joints and we can start thinking of boxing in the fridge and carrying on with the rest of the kitchen.

This morning I've been amusing myself with cataloguing the Search Terms used by people who found the Blog by Search Engine. The majority are passing through in search of other sites and subjects. Putting the whole lot into Google comes up with a negative result, oddly enough. The past 100 visitors had among their number the following search terms:

lost propertynote writing
flat head syndrome
tallaght ford
"wav file" "i did it my way"
cavity tv antenne coca
photos cine women
lyrics to hr puffinstuff
excusemewhileikissthisguy
hr puffinstuff wav
motor tax dunlaoghaire
tallaght 99 fm
b&q
hr puffinstuff song wav
exposition writing piece
firhouse#
firhouse
old bawn gymnastics

Has HR Pufnstuf become a new cultural hero or are my fellow 40-somethings on a nostalgia trip? I notice that all Puffy fans in the searches are from the USA, by the way.

[Pic of Pufnstuf courtesy of cannabisculture.com. Interesting article on the drugs references in the show.]