Grandad turns 84

The infestation of builders continues. I caught him painting in my room before he'd even said good morning and Jof left early. There was much noise of destruction as the bad bit of ceiling was hacked away and we ran out of Dulux "Roasted Red" before the walls were finished. The builders said that's a lovely bath, mate, but how can we fit it without legs. Surprising that they were legless so early in the morning.

We were in the way so went and ordered a door and 6 sets of doorhandles (it's going to be one happy door) and I slipped over in exactly the same place the man hit me with the car door yesterday. I believe the pavement there is my nemesis. The people at B+Q said the bath legs should have been delivered with the bath and we just weren't looking hard enough.

Then we drove along the coast to Grandma and Grandads new place. The 16th century manor house is nice with automatic gates and some nice crenellated brickwork. All the fireplaces are big enough for all the Piddlers to stand up in and still have an argument about who gets to throw the next log on the fire. Their flat is full of cardboard boxes. I investigated the library (full size snooker table), the bar, third dining room and chess room: after lunch (I hogged it all, BensMum would have been proud) we helped them move their furniture around and I played Lego Heroes unmolested.

The grounds were large so we investigated. I liked the sunken garden of nettles, the formal gardens, swimming pool, giant bonfire in the middle of a field, fishpond and bluebell wood.

But because we asked the maintenance manager nicely, we got a free trip up one of the Elizabethan towers where it is rumoured the ladies-in-waiting waited on the benches for the roister-doistering menfolk to come back from the hunt, just like Racton Ruin the other side of Havant.

The original wooden spiral staircase is most impressive and creaky, and we weren't allowed on the parapet because of the lack of medieval safety fences. Just when we got to the bottom by the secret locked door and he was saying how hardly anybody gets to go up there, another kid heard him from Coffee Lounge 2 and by the time we'd made it round to the front, we could see them up the same tower. We got back too late for Thursday park but it was raining anyway.

After only an hours' searching in the loft, the second tin of roasted red paint was found in the garage and now my room looks really good.

***Speciality of the House*** Today we were again given some delights by the Hobbits. The haul includes:

Thors' Tenderizer, an aluminium steak hammer with spikes of different sizes

A box of lids

An immersion heater with giant spanner to fit it

2 kgs of Morrisons e-z-cook rice, one month left till it goes out of date