The day on which Our Lady Ascended to Heaven

(apologies to purists for lack of certified contemporary witness statements or other substantiating documentary evidence).
I was picked up in the works van at 07:15 outside the Italian church of St Frances Cabrini by my young colleague with Italian ancestry. His Grandpa on one side left Italy to work for the London Brick Company in Bedford, and his Great Grandpa on the other side worked on a farm not too far away. I suspect that means that Great Grand-Daddy was a PoW, but I wasn't going to dig into that.
Much later in the day I learned that my colleague is only 1/3rd my age. I hadn't guessed the difference was quite that dramatic and chose not to highlight it once diagnosed.
On site the other two lads were already waiting for us to arrive, my driver being the senior member of the team.
The scaffolding contractor arrived and we walked around the perimeter of the building together discussing which standard of scaffolding would be required on each facade of the building while roofing works were in progress. I understood some terminology, but not all, so had a quick whisper later asking about all the bits I hadn't understood.
And then it was our turn to climb the ladder onto the first roof.
In my main image, my guide is pointing, the scaffolder is wearing blue and the other two lads are taking core samples.
In my first extra I show a core-sample being closed. This is utterly horrible work. A patch of approximately 20cm x 20cm has to be melted so that a square of about 10cm x 10cm can be cut all the way down through the roofing material to establish what it is made of and what condition it is in. Once that is recorded it has to be re-filled, patched over and made good. There were 22 core-samples requested on this morning's job. Normally it's about 4 or 6. Normally it's not 31 degrees. Blow-torch, bitumen, 31 degrees, no shade, I really did not envy these lads one little bit.
Meanwhile, my young Italian was responsible for accurately measuring the size and location of every roof light, rainwater outlet, soil vent pipe & other significant penetration, he was quite glad to find that I can help with a measured survey (second extra), though not so happy to find that we had got so far ahead of the lads that he felt obliged to take the final two core samples from the upper roof himself, which was in truly horrible condition.
The roof belongs to a school for emotionally challenged teenage boys. There are hens, an art room, a music room and I believe that wonderful work is done here, but just like any school, kids love to lob stuff up onto the roof. I found cutlery, footwear, toys, a stapler, a golf-ball – any of which can block up poorly designed drainage.
That tiny Carex dental tape dispenser in extra 3 may well be responsible for the majority of dilapidations of the entire school.
I've an awful feeling that in the next few days it will be my job to completely redesign how this roof works, and that might impact on the current contentment of the hens.