Countdown To Cheltenham

Since the last episode the work in the house has continued at a decent pace, the old fireplace in the office is now breathing again and the walls and ceiling have been plastered.

Now we are waiting for the fireplace to be pointed and the new hearth fitted. In the meantime I can get cracking on the redecorating and I gave myself an ambitious target of getting the office sorted by the time the Cheltenham Festival begins.

Four weeks on Tuesday the 2017 Cheltenham Festival will be here, for those non-racing fans who may have somehow gone through life without becoming acquainted with it i'll explain. The Festival is where the best national hunt horses in the world turn up each year, the remarkable beasts do battle at the home of jump racing which is Prestbury Park, Cheltenham.

For four days the place will be packed to the rafters with enthusiastic supporters from both this side and the other side of the Irish Sea. The side match between the two nations will no doubt be closely fought with the English coming out on top as usual. Well I had to say that, to be fair we have 28 races and it would be a monumental feat if the Irish could win more than a dozen races this year in my humble opinion.

Anyway the plan is to paint two walls, wallpaper two others, paint the ceiling and skirting boards and also paint the radiator and door. We have chosen some nice 'victorian' style damask wallpaper, its quite light and will go on the wall opposite the only window, hopefully this will brighten up the room. We have gone from Green to Blue for the paint in the last week so it might be a bit early to confirm the final choice!

I'm still undecided about a mirror and if I have one where to put it. I imagined it was going to go above the fireplace but now i'm not sure I want it on the newly exposed brickwork. It's been covered up for god knows how many years and i'm struggling with the plan to hide it again so soon.

Once the room is done i'll be on the lookout for a new sofa, the one in there at the moment came with us from Leicester and is a) too big and b) ready for the tip. A 2-seater leather jobby is top of the wish list but that may not happen as it will be almost exclusively used by the Romanian so you have to weigh up everything, if you get my drift.

I've also squeezed in a bit of time on the website this last fortnight and I have also added some new locations. The site has grown from the initial 60 churches to at least double that figure which includes Buildings, Transport, Hotels and Sporting Venues.

The latest interesting snippet of useless information concerns the Smedly Hydro in Birkdale. A wonderful old building that is now home to the Passport Office. It was once a hydropathic spa and hotel and dates back to 1877. It was taken over by the government during the second World War and used as a registration centre for the British population and was never returned to its former use. The nearby Birkdale Palace Hotel was a big rival and that went on to serve holiday makers until the late 60's.

I've now completed about 16 pages of the site so only about another 100 to do, i'm in no rush, maybe Cheltenham 2018 for that goal!