Something that struck me about the film I watched last weekend (Born Free) was the Adamson's garden. There they were, in the middle of the plains of Africa, yet they had a garden with mown lawns, flower beds and herbaceous borders. Taking a bit of Britain to Kenya. But then, as I have mentioned before (about the Kiwis), colonial ex-pats are sometimes more British than the British.

It also must have taken a certain state of mind to want to do that job - stuck out in the middle of nowhere for years at a time, with very little communication with the outside world. Even going to the local town was an overnight trip and it probably took three days to get back to Britain. Anything you wanted you had to pretty much make from scratch. But then you did have lions in your back garden which would have been pretty awesome.

CGF Sprog 3 wants to make herself look like a Christmas tree, and on Saturday it was suggested that an efficient division of labour would be for me to take her to the fabric shop while CGF went to the supermarket. I suggested that they were having a laugh as I know nothing about fabric, but they were deadly serious.

So off we trotted. I found out all sorts of useful information such as: the shop stocked two shades of green material; it cost £3 per metre; and the shop assistant knew even less about making Christmas tree costumes than I did.

Later we went for a short walk. The route took us through the Beverly Hills of Southampton. Houses with multiple reception rooms and numerous bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms. This prompted a discussion about house price economics:
CGF Sprog 3: "so if you were very frugal and spent only the bare minimum, after five years you could buy one of these houses?"
Barefootruby: "If I spent absolutely nothing for five years, I would still only be able to afford the deposit"
CGFS3: "How much is the deposit?"
BFR: "About 10%"
CGFS3: "oh".
Slight pause
CGFS3: "So who can afford these houses?"
BFR: "People such as footballers, film stars; company directors"
CGFS3: "But why are they so expensive"
BFR: "Because that's what people such as footballers, film stars and company directors are prepared to pay"
CFGS3: "But they don't need such a big house"
BFR: "No, but it is a good investment. Houses increase in value. If house prices increase by 10% and you have a £100k house, you make £10k. If you have a £1m house, you make £100k"

British Summer Time (daylight saving) ended at the weekend. This prompted me into action in a "I haven't done those jobs that I meant to do in the summer and soon it will be getting dark too early to do them" sort of way. I painted the final* panel of the fence; cut the grass (hopefully for the final time this season); laid a paving slab; and pressure-washed the patio.

*not including the panels that are behind the shed so difficult to get to.

For successful paving slab laying you need: a spade (to dig out the ground); a bag of sand (to provide a base); a YouTube clip on "how to lay a paving slab"; a 12-year old (whose feet are small enough, and body weight great enough to trample the sand down, and is young enough to be willing to do this); a CGF (to inspect the work in progress and advise (correctly) that there isn't enough sand); a car (to go to B&Q to buy more sand); and a paving slab (like many suburban gardens, there is a pile of unused paving slabs stacked up at the end of CGF's garden). I had all of these, so my paving slab laying was successful.