I took D-Girl out in the car to help me with a couple of chores:

• get some more blocks for the retaining wall
  
• buy home brew beer supplies

I needed more retaining blocks, because, well, despite having made a number of trips to the hardware store, I kept winding up with less than what I needed. Because I don’t count so good.

I needed 10 more blocks to finish a job that was meant to be finished months ago.

I got 10 blocks.

It turns out that after those 10 blocks were laid, I was still short by 5, but there’s no way in hell I’m going back to the shop yet again again again again again again again .

Instead I have utilised a combination of Kiwi ingenuity and Vulcan mind tricks.

In other words, I’ve hidden my mistake behind a big-ass hanging plant.

We’re planning to sell up and move next year anyway, so D-Missus will probably stop going on about the missing blocks once we have new house.

Anyway …. the beer.

I needed some extra supplies to try and rectify the Great Beer Making Disaster of 2006.

D-girl was very excited when I told her we would be stopping to pick up beer. She didn’t stop going on about it the whole time.

I was so proud and imagined her one day inheriting my basement brewing empire.

So we went to the brew shop.

But after we got the beer, she was still excitedly asking when we were going to buy the beer.

Huh?

It turns out… yes, that’s right, you could see where this was going … it turns out she thought I was going to buy her a polar bear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh deer.

How stink did I feel?

She had to instead settle for going home and looking at some photos of a polar bear I snapped while hunting Eskimos in Alaska.

Anyway, on a positive note, I manage to successfully get the Pilsner to the fermentation stage this time. I decided to play it safe and not drink whilst brewing. So it would seem that sobriety does have some advantages after all.

Go figure.