• Leeds-based, mercury-prizewinners English Teacher sung “I am the worlds biggest paving slab. But no one can walk over me”. Apart from the mention of Paving Slabs, it is in no way related to what follows, the world’s boringest weeknotes about paving slabs:
• The Baddlands have been swinging between excitement/dull boredom for a few days this week as we had 3 paving slabs delivered by crane to our kerbside early one morning.
• The paving slabs were on order to provide stepping stones to our shed. The mention of which excited the 4-year-old and made the 8-year-old roll her eyes and look at me with that “dad-this-is-not-as-exciting-as-you-think-it-is” look.
• Why you need a full crane and pallet to deliver 3 paving slabs is beyond me, like bringing a metaphor for a big weapon to a metaphor for a small fight amirite!? Then, obviously, the place I ordered from usually don't deliver in batches of 3. And the appearance of a crane makes the £50 delivery charge seem reasonable.
• Everyone was thinking “Why didn't you order one more slab in the case that one cracks on install?” But everyone politely refrained from saying it.*
• Liz’s parents were staying the weekend and her dad helped me install the slabs in our mostly-mud, global-warming-moistened lawn. The eldest kid learning how to level slabs, the youngest learning her boundaries with earthworms. Both “big guys” civilly making a single person job into a two-adult, two-child job.
• The paving slabs are now in and getting the bikes into and out of the shed is a doddle. I’m now writing a Linkedin post titled “I fitted 3 paving slabs as stepping stones to my lawn and here’s what it taught me about Product Leadership”
• • …and obviously I cracked a paving slab by hitting it too hard.