I set my alarm for eight this morning.

This is an ungodly hour but some lads were supposed to arrive today to do a job. “First thing Tuesday” I was told so I naturally assumed they they would either turn up at ten or not bother at all. But to be on the safe side I set the alarm.

As it happened I woke early which usually happens – my body clock is programmed to wake me up about an hour before the alarm. So I woke at seven and decided to get up anyway. It meant a three hour wait before the crew didn’t turn up, but I had a very nasty website problem to fix.

They arrived at eight!

I had started the process some months ago, contacting firms, getting quotes and trying to tie someone down to actually do the job at a price I could afford. All I wanted was a good strong steel boundary fence to replace an old wooden one that collapsed many years ago. I finally got a quote I was happy with but then had to wait for a few weeks/months until I could be booked in. I got the call last week, and seeing as this is Ireland I assumed something would go wrong.

So the two lads arrived at eight [when I originally planned to be woken by an alarm]. They were both foreign and one never said a word while the other sounded like he had lost his voice. I found his accent rather difficult too but we managed with simple sign language. I showed them the exact line of the fence and left them to it. I went back to wrestling with the stubborn website.

By twelve of the o’clock the website was fixed and the fencing lads had buggered off having done an excellent job.

That is what I call a good start to the day.

Part of the fence between the lane and the North Wood