Rendering

A short video of the render going on:-

Tap the triangle to play the video. Then tap the open square in the bottom right of the video to watch full screen.

The render is then roughly flattened then scratch like so:-

Brick laying

I have never laid a brick in my life. How hard can it be?
This is approximately what I want to end up with:

First course:-

Second and third course

The best part of a 30kg bag of mortar to lay 27 bricks. At the moment I am not sure if those loose bricks on the top will be the finish or I will find some suitable coping stones.