Wood pickup, more plumbing, and lots of rehearsal

Yesterday morning Bryan and I did another wood pickup with the trailer, and filled up the cellar here with another 1,8 stère (cubic metres / face cords) of firewood.  The weather was really god-awful; I think it is clear that whatever potential diety or dieties oversee the operation of the weather here in Belgium (maybe Taranis or Toutatis?), he/she/it/they do not want us to collect this wood.  Of the half-dozen trips we have made already, only the very first one happened in good weather; the rest seem coincidentally to have been scheduled on the very worst days of winter.  We made it back in time for lunch here at the house, but decided not to go running as Lawrence had some conference calls to make, so we'll try again tomorrow in the Foret des Soignes.

The plumbers came yesterday afternoon to replace the electrical boiler under the sink, and change out the leaky drain plug system in the bathtub.  Now we have reliable independently heated hot water on demand in both the kitchen and the bathroom, and a drain plug that allows Maggie to take a bath as long as she wants without having to continuously refill the tub.

I think that's about it for the necessary worker visits; now it's down to me to get going on the renovations.  But I am not really sure how far I will get before the end of May, when I get back from Canada.  With all the stuff that has needed doing I am experiencing quite a bit of decision fatigue!  That's what happens when you buy an 80 year old house.

There is some possibility that I can at least install one layer of rockwool insulation in the roof before I go, but that is not certain; if you read my last post you will see that I have a very busy schedule coming and have to do a lot of rehearsing within the next week or two to get ready for it.  The last thing I need is a bunch of dust and insulation fibres in my throat.

I heard some news today that makes me even more motivated to rehearse and prepare: the King and Queen will be coming to hear our concert in the Rubens church of Sint Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp on the 26th of March!

As I reported back in March of 2016, because of the terror attacks in Brussels, the planned Royal concert did not happen, so it's very exciting that we'll have another chance to play and sing for King Philippe and Queen Matilde.  Here's the facebook announcement...