Yesterday

Making room

I knew that there was a lot to do before I could even start prepping the dining area for its refurb. I needed somewhere to put the armchairs, which are quite bulky: I plan to put them in the shed.

Which meant that the shed needed a bit of a clear out.

The husband had already prepared a few large bags of things from his summer gardening – the tops of the fruit trees, the gorse clipped back harshly (it rather takes over), and other gardening debris. There was also a lot of useless wood in the shed. I wasn’t sure what he planned to keep (he promised to make me a cycle shed), so I only took the shoddiest pieces. After speaking with him, I could have taken more – however two full car loads to the skip was plenty in one day.

The shed really was a mess, so I bought some shelving from B&Q and have mad quite a bit more space in there – I felt like I’ve done a grand job! Although, I think we need one more shelving unit, and the one we have got needs tightening up.

“Tidy”

My husband likes to say that he’s tidy, but what he in fact does is hide things so they cannot be seen. It doesn’t bother him where things go, as long as they cannot be seen.

I grew up with a dad who was very much into his gadgets and tools and would always tell us to put things back properly. He’s the kind of guy who would have a silhouette of the tool on the peg board to make sure that it went back to its rightful place.

I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t find the right sized spanner to put make the shelving unit secure.

Bath time

Hubby had suggested that I spend one more night at the flat, since I’d be picking the dog up the next day and pets aren’t allowed. This was a capital idea!

I had a long, slow, relaxing soak in the bath. My muscles ached after all the unfamiliar labour of the day, but the ache was a good ache and felt somehow rewarding.

Afterwards, I wandered into town to find something to eat. Eventually, I settled upon a rather smart looking Indian restaurant/takeaway called Bombay Spice. It seemed to specialise on street food, which I particularly enjoy. I got a Samosa Chaat with Chole. Hmm. Delish!

Strictly because

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Sunday

Roofers

I was up about half-seven, intending to leave the flat at half-eight. I’d just had breakfast when the phone rang: it was the roofers – they were at the house already!

I quickly got showered, but on my Testavan. Dungarees are perfect with T-Gel because I can put the gel on my shoulders whilst still appearing “dressed”. That enabled me to drive over to the house while it dried.

They were just packing up when I arrived – and the good lads that they were, they unpacked the ladder and went back on the roof. Aside from the two cracked tiles, there were other problems up there. It seems that some cowboy roofer had just skimmed over the cement under the ridges and in the valleys, taken the cash, and run. The cement was in even worse state and a lot of it had come away. That’s a job for another day as rain was forecast.

Hopefully, at least the bug leaks are fixed now. With the weather as it is, I should find out soon!

Brother’s

I was with my brother and his family for an hour-and-a-half. Those gorgeous nephews made up for the boring drive over in the pouring rain. I ended up playing horsey with them. The eldest climbed on my back and I trotted around the room.

Then the youngest climbed on, but didn’t quite have the right grip and fell off – straight into a beanbag.

There is something fabulously liberating about rolling around on the floor with toddlers and giggling! I suppose, in some way, it has something innocent in common a bit like puppy play – as a puppy I can abort my human adult and become a dependent and playful – and naughty creature free from responsibility.

Dad’s

He was grumpy. The dog was a lot more like hard work than he’d anticipated. “You should have trained her better.” Yeah dad, right. She’s (mostly) fine with us. We’ve not done too badly with an untrainable beagle.

I took him round to the pub to say thankyou. I had this salad with haloumi skewers. Yum! He, of course, had a couple of pints. He only has a liquid lunch.

The conversation followed a fairly predictable route as he disparaged the other members of his club for being heavy drinkers and being dangerous. I actually said that, in my opinion, one drink is too many if you’re going to drive. He didn’t rise to it, which I suppose was good.

I do feel cross with myself for giving in when dad said that he would “help” by looking after the dog for a week: its meant two trips back to Bristol, two days of clean-up time wiped out, worrying about dad and the dog, and then listening to him grumbling about her.

He didn’t clean up her poos, so she ate them (beagles full of character and look delightful – but they are disgusting!), which gave her the runs (which he complained about), she also chewed some boots of his. I did say that he would need to keep things out of her way!

Suffice to say tat dad doesn’t want to doggysit again.

I am glad.