poliphilo

Peter is here. The joiners are here. The window boys are here. The plumber is here. We're waiting for Khalid.

Peter is a tartar for health and safety. He's been telling the joiners off for leaving rubbish in the back yard and having boards lying around with nails in them pointing skywards. He's a dragon, but he's our dragon. We give him coffee and Ailz chats to him about this,that and the other in her elder-sisterly way.

I've been watching the plumber at work. He's older than I am. He was holding a square of some soft stuff in his naked hand and warming it with a blowtorch. "That's moleskin," he says. "Really moleskin?" asks Josh the apprentice. "Yes, really moleskin. I haven't used it in twenty years. Let's see if I still know how". As far as I can make out the moleskin is a wadding he's using to pack the sawn off pipes before he puts a cap on them.