Midwinter calling, day 50

Whistling

I really shouldn't complain about working every day since it's hardly hard work compared to the average here, but sometime it just feel like I'm never truly taking a break. Ironically I'm not looking forward to the wedding feast because we will have guest for far too long time, and it just won't be what I call relaxing. But the main reason I do work a lot each day is because I want things finished, and a lot I just can't have anyone else do. Like the work on my mini toilet which I have been putting of for far too long. So many times I've been annoyed that the work isn't finished, and I've done a bit here and there, but well... it just haven't been finished. I've already stored all the plumbing and pipes and so on in the secret passage, and I have the sink, so today is the day it will be done. Since I will be working in the secret passage and using my bedrooms hidden access into the down to the secret passage and basement rooms, only Iselin and Alith is allowed to disturb me as I lock myself into my bedroom and start to work.

While digging through the boxes and crates in the workshop attic for a part I think I have, I discover I completely forgot to install the steam whistle for the boiler on the central heating system. Another thing I've forgotten to do. Since Iselin is right here, we decide to install it together. It's just good that the bedroom toilet work have a chance to dry and set a bit before I continue.

It's almost two hours before the steam whistle have been installed and connected, but now it is, and it's mounted on the outside wall beside my workshop's attic window, with a fairly discrete indoor valve with pull cord down beside the window. We've deliberately not told anyone what we have been doing in here and done maintenance as an excuse. For the first proper test without blocking the whistle, I let Iselin pull the cord. The sound surprise her and she quickly lets it go, before she pulls the cord for a longer second time.

Not the loudest whistle, probably because the pressure is so low, but there is decent steam volume behind that low pressure and there is a decently loud and nice low pitched tone. If it sounds this loud inside, it should be far higher on the outside, but there is rarely anyone in the greenhouse. It doesn't take many seconds before Alith and Hillevi yank open the door to the workshop and rush in with weapons drawn. They don't know what that was or if it's dangerous or something I did, but they're not taking any chances to make sure we're safe. Iselin and I try to act surprised, but Iselin can't hold her poker face and when they realise that we are guilty, I laughingly join Iselin. Alith and Hillevi doesn't look particularly happy, but after a few seconds they start to smile. This have hardly been the first time they react to some noise I've made.

They are pushed aside and out of the way by Jane. A very irritated Jane with light blue paint on her face, clothes and in her cleavage. Jane walks over and smacks me lightly on the shoulder and everyone starts laughing - especially Iselin. We didn't consider that Jane's and Iselin's rooms are right next to the steam whistle, but Iselin is in here and pulled the cord. She might have had her windows open too if she was painting. Oops. Although technically it's Iselin's fault that Jane has a 'blue period'.

I can't stop myself, so I point at her cleavage and ask: "Do you need help wiping up the paint?"

Jane bites her lips and gives me another smack on my shoulder, and she smears some paint on my cheek and nose before she leaves. Iselin shouts another offer of help, and is rewarded with two fingers in a very British gesture. Soon there is a bit of a crowd gathered outside the door, but both Iselin and I refuse to tell what we did and where the sound came from. Alith pointedly stays in the room and watches us like a hawk when we tidy up, and I prepare to go back to the toilet work. Just before we're finished, we agree to show Alith - as long as she doesn't tell anyone else - which of course she happily agrees too. Alith is after all my Captain of the guards.

So I show the discreet cord, and this time when I pull it, I vary it a little instead after the first pull and it makes a funny dull angst sounding whistle for a few seconds, before I let go. There is a muffled shout from Jane:

"Robert! You bloody bastard! Stop! Doing! That!"

The steam whistle is so worth the job even if it never gets used again. I probably shouldn't use it as a wake up call, because Jane will find it and sabotage it. Although I'm will put a steam whistle on the pressure relief valve down in the boiler room so we can hear if it trips even though, as far as we know, it has never done so. I have Alith follow along out to that greenhouse and point to the whistle. She is surprised that such a small thing can make such a sound.

When we get back into the workshop, there is a painting waiting on my workbench. A body painting in blue more precisely, where Jane pressed her upper body against a large sheet of paper. It's mostly abstract but we can clearly see the shape of her lips forming a kiss, breasts and nipples. She absolutely moved some paint around to make this. There is a text in English; 'Men whistle on women to get their attention...' and it is signed by Jane. It's actually really cool and I like it. I will frame it once it dries, and I can already visualise it hanging on a bedroom wall. It might annoy Jane. Probably best I move it somewhere else once she's seen it. Maybe the toilet wall?

I reassure the staff and others that the noise is something I did and it is nothing to worry about, but should they hear such a noise down from the boiler room, pump more cold water into the tank and maybe put out the fire.

Weaker radio output works fine with normal Norse to Borgarsandr, day or night, and the remote control works great day or night. Not just to call attention and get someone to the radio, but also to send a message. The guards think it's so damn magical that Kari can press a metal thing on a box in Borgarsandr and the radio here 'growl' and lights up blue, and I can't help but agree with them. It is almost magic. I can't tell if the remote system is more sensitive than pure Norse, but it's easier to react when it shines, and the buzzing sound makes it easier to use Norse. So a very good sign for future long distance signals. Skiringalr will be the next test with different power settings.

The maids just see the radio as pure magic, and there is comments that the 'gasping' blue light is like the wooden box is trying to warn to not get close, and the 'growling' sound doesn't help. Several seem fairly convinced that I have trapped some spirit in the boxes to make them work, and that the wind turbine and lead battery containers somehow capture nourishment for the spirit from the wind, which in a way is amusingly close to the truth. Jalida and Ima refuse to even clean near the radio because it might attack them or something, but it's better that the guards handle it anyway, and for the moment it's not wrong that the staff perceive it as magic. Also good that Krosp doesn't like the sound.

Jane has admitted to the others that she have no idea how radio works. She can't read electrical schematics and that's sejd for her too. She believes that Iselin is the second best in Alfheimr at understanding this. Jane only knows that it works because radio in various forms is very common in Midgård, and as she watch the radio blink says I'm probably one in ten thousand or even rarer who can build something like that, especially by taking something else apart and 'improvising' here on Alfheimr. She knew it was difficult, but it is so much more difficult and complicated than she imagined, and she would never have succeeded even if she had been given a lifetime. Her comment raises me a little more in the others eyes, even though I think that quota is lower. And I cheated with ready-made electrical schematics I adapted. I know I could have built radios without that help, but easier and more efficient with something to base it on.

Over voice on the radio Kari gives high praise to the B-mansion upgrades. They have got the cold water system and the kitchen completely finished, as well as several of the chimneys for the rooms. They are working on the toilet / bathroom / wash room extension, and the trench for the pipe into the well is being made by some hired men.

Bodil has carved three wooden raven figures, and the eye on each is a small piece of glass fitted from the back, just like I asked her to. Really good work. So I quickly attach a resistor and a red SMD LED behind each, and two LEDs are taken from the MicroSD readers because red is danger and it feels better than other colours. We attach the ravens above the inside of the outside doors in the wing and main entrances, and we connect it to the alarm sensor. If the eye of the raven lights up, there is someone outside the door when it is locked, regardless of the alarm. We showing everyone currently in the mansion and inform what to do if they see this, and it's pretty funny how magical they think the ravens are, although I shouldn't be surprised by that because that is my intention, so I enjoy hearing a comment about Odin's ravens watching over the mansion.

Through the window we see Unn arriving, and after saying 'hello' she wonders if we also heard a strange sound a while ago and if I was responsible. It's kind of funny that nowadays a lot seems to assume that I'm the cause when something happens that they've never experienced before. Unn was on the other side of the strait and it sounded like an unearthly being was suffering and was angry. She couldn't locate the sound that faintly echoed over the water and bounced on the mountains. So I just calm her that it was something I did although I won't say what. Not my problem that it doesn't completely calm Unn. I realize that the steam whistle can work as an alarm signal, so I ask her and Hrappr to spread the word that if anyone hear repeating sounds like that, like five or more times in a row, something bad has happened and it's an alarm signal. Be prepared to defend their homes and, if they can, come to help us in the mansion.

Frankly, I should make something really loud. Like a big horn several meters long and wide opening, with a compressed air tank and metal diaphragm. A huge air horn and point it towards Lysesund. Sure it could be used for alarm, but then it couldn't be used for anything else, and I will want to use that thing. So totally unnecessary but would be fun. I do have a couple of gas tanks that I can pump compressed air into...

I've returned to working on my toilet when Iselin picks me up for supper, but I go back to work right after. The wardrobe can remain in here because there will be no moisture and no smell either, but in the future I'll make it a built-in wardrobe in the wall which is accessible from the bedroom. The shelf has hardly been used so it is no loss. It's late when Iselin shows up looking sexy in a teddy and whispers:

"It is late and I wants to go to bed with my fiance. I hope you're not too tired."

I'm about to grant her wish, but she have noticed the secret passageway she's never been allowed to use before, which distracts us a bit and I show the latch on the underside of the attic stairs outside. Lean down, push up on the right spot on the underside and the door latch clicks and springs out. Iselin thoroughly investigate the mechanism and likes the solution, because who checks the underside of a low step? You literally have to lie on the floor to even see, and it is still hard to see that there is something there.

Iselin amuses herself by exploring the secret library and b-room in the semi-darkness with a flashlight, while I finish the last of my bedroom toilet installation. I now have a working semi-toilet in my bedroom with a sink and bidet, and tomorrow the sink and bidet in the b-room will be installed, and I just need to wait for everything to dry. For safety's sake. I make sure to tidy up and plan tomorrows work. It's time to go back up to the bedroom, but Iselin just hugs me and with a dangerous playful glint in her eye whispers:

"I think it's time you show me the b-room."

It's an hour or so later when we close the door to the b-room and climb back up. Iselin liked our simpler session, but it is not something we will do very often. The whole secretive aspect was more alluring to Iselin - and having sex somewhere new - and she also tried to control me, which was a bit more to her taste and quite fun for me, but it's something she'd rather do in my big bed. The b-room will continue to be Kari's, which Kari probably prefers. But Iselin wants us to have sex in all secret and hidden places in the future, and there is also the usual basement, and the hidden bunker underneath the pavilion that have not been 'inaugurated', and parts of the attic. And there are new buildings in the village. Iselin climbing ahead up the ladder to my bedroom gives me an interesting view, and Iselin climbs slowly and seductively.

When we eventually go to sleep, I glance at the clock and see that it has passed midnight. We're both exhausted and in a damn good mood. Soon I'll have the honour and pleasure to call this lovely goddess my wife.