Day 88: Stepping out

.

Bob and Pete finished the roof on Tuesday which is a relief as the weather turned wild and wet yesterday. We were listening to the wind howl last night, wondering the roof was still there - honestly, I thought we would wake up in Oz! However apart from a spare bit of insulation that had blown down the street, everything was in place when we dropped by this morning. Stos has been put to work on his days off - Bob has been building the stairs for the deck and they are made of very solid and heavy timber, so knowing that Stos was home, he was pressed into service to help put the stairs to the upper deck into place. Today it was my turn; after getting home from the gym, I was informed that my help would be required to help put the lower set of stairs in place ready for fixing. It was quite awkward with Stos and I holding to one end and gradually sliding and lowering the stairs to the edge of the southside walkway so that Bob could grab them from below and manoevre them into place to be bolted to the deck. This was complicated by the amount of water and mud around, but was done fairly quickly. Other tasks were plugging and unplugging various power tools and fetching and handing over the four inch screws used to lock in the stairs. I felt like a theatre nurse! As you can see, the steps are very sturdy and they aren't as steep as we thought they would be.  Using these to check out the top level will much far preferable to scampering up and down the ladder.

As a diversion, I thought I'd add in a couple of film recommendations. I haven't seen many films this year and until this week, those that I have seen haven't grabbed me. But I saw "Love, Lust and Lies" on Sunday and "Exit through the Gift Shop" night and loved them both. Love, Lust and Lies is the latest installment of Gillian Armstrong's series which began in 1976 and tracks the lives of three girls from working class families in Adelaide. It's got some commonality with Michael Apted's "Seven Up" series, but it is a lot more intimate as the focus is only on the three girls. I've seen all but the first in the series but a newcomer could easily pick this up as quite a lot of the film is dedicated to the back story. There are some twists that are revealed in the latest film and it is interesting to see where the childred of these women have got to as well. Exit through the Gift Shop is a film by the UK street artist Banksy and is an entertaining look into the world of street artists that leaves you wondering if this really is a documentary or a p__take. It includes some very funny moments and Banksy has a wry sense of humour. This is only showing at ACMI for two weeks and I was glad I booked in advance because it was sold out, as have been other sessions (good tip from L). Well worth seeing if you like films that are a bit different.  David and Margaret liked them too; check out their reviews from a few weeks ago.