How does she do it?

I have commented in an earlier post about my sister's ability to direct me to something that I cannot find. Either it is in a safe place, or I have put it down without thinking and am not able to find it. Well, today it was the cheque book's turn.

Why did I need my cheque book? I left my debit card at a friend's house and as I shall see her next week-end, there was no panic - or so I thought! There was enough petrol in Herbie for the journey home, but not much more, so I needed to use my old fashioned cheque book to withdraw some money.

After an hour's searching, I rang my sister and the second suggestion was the right one. How does she do it?

Now I need to sort out a safe place to keep the cheque book so that this does not happen again - well at least for some time!!

And another one hits the dust!

Thanks Queen - in fact I think I must use them as my music for the finishing touches that I make to the dining room tomorrow. I was right to decorate the kitchen first, it was a real pig, this room was almost a doddle in comparison.

Now there's only the porch and the sitting room to do. I think I am going to have the chimney breast plastered in the sitting room first, I really don't like the bare brick work that is there, besides which I would like to have a mantlepiece so that I can put things on it and hang the Christmas stockings from it. So, as well as sorting out the front door, I think I shall get the plastering done and then a wooden fire surround put around it. Does this sound busy enough? I would hate you out there to think that retiring from work is easy - believe me life is frantic!! (LOL!!)

Is it me?

Am I the only one who can't fix her fridge door?

The fridge sits inside a cupboard with the wooden door opening the fridge door. The wooden one has slipped and the door below (with the washing machine behind it) catches on it, so I have been trying to sort it. Well, I can raise it on one side and push the door out of line with the rest of the cupboard, but can I raise it and keep it in line - not flipping likely!! I even had to buy a new tool to work the screws, they are not philips or the straight line across the top type, they have little STARS(?) on the top. So off I went to the local store and bought one of those things that can change the top fitting.

Well bring on those star topped screws I can now deal with them.

So far, this redecorating has caused me to buy lots of new tools, I shall soon need a shed to house them all. Now if I were an Ozzie bloke, the government is thinking of buying one for all men, so I could just hang on and one would wing its way into the garden.( Oooh, do the Australian pigs fly in flocks too?) Apparently, a man with a shed is a happy man - now I wonder if women's lib will work on the shed front, 'cos I think I would like a shed.

Know Thyself!

Who actually said that? Well anyway, Tami asked why I only have two take aways a year. I am essentially someone who can get into bad habits and I love fish and chips. (Strangely, I can't eat many chips nowadays, but I still like them.) I know that if I get into the habit of buying them, then I will do just that. My weight is in the overweight category already, so more fried food would really make it difficult to lose the pounds. And can you imagine how much of a treat it is when I allow myself those two meals!! (Yes, sad person!)

That small total does not include eating out at restaurants, I feel I can choose other healthy options if I want to when I visit those - not that I always do of course. Where does chocolate pudding come in the healthy part of a diet?!

And Ted? He is the most wonderful neighbour. He's a retired chemist who has taken up wood turning in his retirement, and although I should be the one helping him and his wife, he is the one who helps me most. If I need a tool for any of my DIY things, he will have it, he makes all sorts of useful things and decorative things - a bowl from the walnut tree that blew down in the winter. If I don't know how to do a job, he will help. He has a garage that he has converted to a workshop, and now he is trying to convert mine. I am not sure about that, but sorting it out is on the list of jobs to do.

Meanwhile, the kitchen is almost back to normal, next it is going to be dining room that faces the paint brush. I need something easy after all those cupboards. (I hope that has not put a hex on it...)

The boy's toys done good!!

The holes are drilled, the electricity still works and the walls are painted. So far, so good. But oh it is so boring!! Tomorrow should see the kitchen sorted out, with just the island unit to be painted. SO, only three more rooms to do then!! (I HATE painting...)

Meals are rather pot luck when I paint - we live out of town so I can't just walk up the road for an easy take away meal and I have eaten this year's allowance of fish and chips. How is that? I have hardly been here - but the allowance is two take aways per year, so perhaps that is understandable. I decided to do an easy chilli and set it off cooking. Sadly the lid was not on the pan when I was painting just above it, so there was an extra special flavouring - best dulux paint!! ******!!

This evening's meal was a world first for the range in my sitting room. I have been lighting a fire in there each evening and this evening had one of those urges for some comfort food - a baked potato. So I wrapped a potato in foil and tried out the little oven - and it worked!! I know it is a world first for the oven as the fireplace had not been used before I had the chimney uncapped and lit the first fire a few years ago. But using the oven is new. Especially as the fireplace is really a cheap copy of the Ironbridge ranges which had real water heaters and air vents, this one has the handles but only an oven. But it works!! Now will it cook a rice pudding? That is the real test for comfort food.

After much examination of the window in the kitchen, Ted decided and I think I agree, that the builders put everything in inside out. All the glazing bars usually have the putty side on the outside, well on this window they face inwards. The windows open inwards too. Now do you see why we think the builders didn't always know what they were doing when they revived this estate? However, Ted is convinced this can be sorted and is going to make some new frames for the window next summer, the question is, do we also try to turn around the gothic arches that are at the top of the rectangular window frames as well? Now that I might chicken out of!!

Boy'sToys

Oh yes, I've been playing with them - a little drill thing like a gremlin, which can sand, drill,saw etc. Good fun, and quite useful for sorting out my pesky window frames, but today I played with one of those things that shouts at you when you place it over a source of electrical power. So now one wall in the kitchen is marked with painted blocks which tell me where I may not place several kitchen 'things' that I want to hang up on that wall. The rack to hang utensils from, a knife magnetic strip thingy and then there is the magnetic spice rack. At the moment I am having problems fitting that in, the toy bleeps exactly where I don't want it to.

The painting is progressing slowly, but thanks to the plank and the steps at least it is safer. I have started on the units and the difference is really quite marked, even though the colour is supposed to be the same! My goodness, at this rate I shall still be painting this one room next Friday. I hate this job!! (Think I need another holiday!! LOL)

You can't have too many...

stepladders when you live in a small house which has gothic pretensions - gothic arches, over the window and at the bottom of the stairs, all five of them. Why the step ladders? Well, I am in the middle of a grand decision to decorate the house, down stairs has been done but I am now on the kitchen.

On? In? the kitchen? First job was to dismantle the window's secondary glazing, the glass was firmly stuck into its frame. Normal for most houses, but this one was not well made so its always annoying when something is really well stuck into position and you want to move it. However, I managed without breaking the glass - quite important when it arch shaped so expensive to replace. The whole frame needed clearing of the dark paint so that more light came into the room. OK, good decision.... but oh so boring to do. I hate decorating! I sent a message to DLG to ask her why I wasn't like her and able to get someone in to do all the work. But I'm not, sadly.

So, the step ladders in order of height are at the bottom of the stairs (tallest) at the top of the stairs (shortest) joined by a scaffolding board (note, must remember that when I go to bed!) and in the kitchen as a moveable feast (middle sized). The ceiling has had its first coat, the cupboards have been washed down, the window frame has been cleaned of all the dark staining, putty put in the windows where it is missing and plans to turn the frames around the correct way in the spring. Yes, the windows were installed inside out, so that any driving rain will drip into the house. Ted has promised to help me in the spring with this - it won't be difficult he said!

Tomorrow should see the ceiling finished, the stair wall painted and the windows cleaned with the arched glass replaced.

Should.

Wish me luck!

PS I haven't fogotten the pink flowers - the photo is taken but I can't find the connector. Everything is upside down...

Autumnal colours etc.

How is pink for an autumnal colour? Never mind the reds, oranges and browns - bright barbie pink!! The nerines in my garden have actually flowered this year and they look gorgeous. What's that? You want a photo - well it poured with rain today so I WILL take a photo tomorrow and post it.

So, yes, autumnal colours. The leaves are falling from the sycamore trees and waiting for me to brush them up. They are going to make the leaf mould for the garden in about three years time. Meanwhile, I have a lot of brushing to do, the kitchen (and a few other rooms) to redecorate and the garden to sort out. Just when did I have time to work?

OK, I know - its ages since I blogged.

Today has been quite a special one and that is something for a woman in her mid fifties to say. Last year I went white water rafting and visited my home from 50 years previously. What was so special about today? Well - this is a wimp's confession!

I am terrified of going to the dentist and last week whilst enjoying the French Pyrenees, I chewed on something rather hard in the French muesli and heard a crack. Yes, it was a broken tooth. It wasn't too painful, but I sent a text message to my daughter and asked her to make an appointment with our dentist. Message came back - appointment with The Critch at 12 on Monday. Great - soft food between Thursady and Monday, but OK that was possible. Well, I turned up today and for the first time he looked at the damage and did that thing that plumbers usually do - suck the air in between their teeth and say that it doesn't look too good. He pulled out the broken part of the tooth, then dug out the old filling and did some more plumbing sound effects. Our relationship goes back about 25 years or more, he knows I am terrified, but also that I hate not knowing the truth. So I said, "Out?"
"Oh, yes."
"Bugger!"
His assistant was very new and did not speak English as her first language, so the next part of our conversation must have been bewildering! I told him he was supposed to care for me and not turn me into a toothless old hag. Sympathy was what was needed. All I got was a Monty Python re-enactement and then we laughed hysterically. Poor girl, she didn't understand the jokes. However, two injections later, a little drilling and then he tugged the remains of the tooth out. That was easily understood! What I didn't tell either of them was that this was the first time I had been to the dentist to have a tooth taken out on my own. The last time was as a child in Treharris, when I ran out of the surgery and down the street. The idea crossed my mind today, but somehow I felt it was not the answer today. Perhaps I have started to grow up!

The other new experience was that of cooking mussels. I have never cooked them before (late starter again!) but these came from the Norfolk coast when we walking there this week-end. I followed the recipe and hey presto they were delicious! For me that is a very new experience, cooking fish (yes, I know, they are crustaceans) has never been something I have ever done. But today was a success. Wow! I shall try them again and see if it was a one off, or if it will work again.

The other experience was realising how incredibly lucky I am. My sister talked about her husband's cousin from New Orleans who is dying from Cancer, a man in his early thirties who has fought the effects of the flooding of that city, but is losing the fight against this awful illness. His wife has had to grow up so quickly - to learn how to run a business, nurse a man with bowel cancer and also face the fact that after he dies whe may well have nowhere to live.

So, my thoughts go out to all those fighting an illness. I wish you all success and some healthy life to come.