Blog awards - the one that got away

Life is just soooooo unnnnfaaaaairrrrrrr sometimes!!! <stamps feet><sulks a bit>

The UK Blog Awards 2016 took place last night down in that there London, where more than 600 guests had a wash, fuffed with their hair and donned their finest finery to hob-nob and glad-hand the night away and maybe win some gongs if they were lucky.

This is what winners look like
(pic @HillsBalfour)

You didn't know that, did you? Well, you learn something new every day, as they say.

That's exactly why Incubator More (that's us) was on a shortlist of 10 in the Education category, what with us being all brainy and stuff and being willing to teach our lovely readers how not to do things.
Your generous and irresponsible voting helped us along the way, of course, so ta for that.

To be perfectly honest I had forgotten all about it until yesterday afternoon, so later on I nipped on to the Twitter and followed #UKBA16 just before it all kicked off.

Judging by the pictures and tweets I think it was far too formal and networky for me (Dawn would have managed, mind, because during working hours she's a soulless corporate robot) and I was pleased that I was tucked up in bed with pizza rather than fighting with a clip-on a bow tie and gurning at strangers all night.

Maybe next year
(pic @MissUnderground)

Anyway, we didn't win. Not even a Highly Commended.

But we don't need to put on a brave face while secretly drowning our sorrows - I'd have been mortified if we'd won anything because the other nine worthy entrants on the shortlist were actually educators.

We're just a couple of nuggets who have somehow been lucky enough not to get electrocuted, flattened, exploded or otherwise generally deaded in the last year. Making the shortlist is more than enough for us.

So congratulations to Lee James and Grange Park Primary School in Shropshire who together actually teach things to tiny people which is far more than we'd ever be able to do. Here's the winning blog.

We might end up going for it again next year in a more relevant category, just because, so get exercising those voting fingers in preparation!

---

Back on with the job at hand

An Edison light bulb
This is a clue to what we bought today
for a paramedic-summoning
amount of money

Changing the subject completely, here's a list of all the jobs - in rough order - that currently need to be done in the Living Room now the plastering debacle is out of the way. We've decided to compromise on the skirting and architrave and buy it in (I had wanted to make it) in an attempt to make up a little bit of recent lost time.
I've left off jobs involving the actual oriel window itself because that's an ongoing discussion about a potentially-massive job and I have no idea where it'll end up.

The thought of some of these scares the life out of me (plumbing and electrics to name but two) but we'll get started on Monday morning and see how injured I am come the end of the list.
If I play my cards right I might end up with a Darwin Award after all...

(EDIT: I've decided to update the list as I go along so I can keep an eye on where I am and ground myself during moments of panic) 

• Buy oak skirting (acclimatise!)
• Buy oak architrave (ditto!)
• Buy radiators + feet
• Buy switches and sockets
• Buy light fittings
• Buy door knob

1. Sand ceiling (03.05.16)
2. Sand walls (esp around sockets etc) (04.05.16)
3. Scrape out chimney breast pointing
4. Brush down original exposed pointing in feature wall (13.05.16)
5. Sand beams above oriel window
6. Caulk ceiling edges to walls
7. Strip door frame reveal in to hall (06.05.16)
8. Fit oriel window wall light and chase electrics
9. Make oak window sills x2
10. Remove old radiator pipes from pantry
11. Install new copper pipes to repositioned Pantry radiator
12. Replace copper pipes to front radiator
13. Brick acid chimney breast brick faces
14. Brick acid feature wall brick faces for final time and stabilise
15. Patch delaminating sandstone window sill?
16. Fill missed areas in front window ceiling with lime putty
17. Putty-up Pantry wall where radiator pipes used to be
18. Fill all accidental holes from previous jobs with lime putty
19. Repoint chimney breast
20. Cut skirting and architrave to size ready for fitting
21. Re-sand mantelpiece
22. Repaint around edges of register plate
23. Decorate
24. Wax and finish door frame reveal (07.05.16)
25. Replace switches and sockets
26. Replace light fittings
27. Fit window sills x2
28. Restore floor
29. Fit skirting
30. Fit architrave
31. Fit radiators + feet
32. Fit refurbished door (07.05.16)
33. Fit door latch and knob
34. Rob bank to pay for new custom-made oriel window frame