This week, we have been busy preparing the front room in time for the new radiator to be fitted (this evening) and the new carpet to go down on Friday…
We have now painted all the walls which are a colour called “Whistler” which is an off white, perhaps with a bit of a purple tinge depending on the light! It looks nice and I’m pleased with our choice 😊
Pete has been busy putting new skirting boards up and getting used to his latest new tool – a Mitre Box which allows him to cut the skirting at the right angle… he’s done a pretty good job so far and it looks great. There’s only been one particularly tricky bit, where the corner in question was an “outy” rather than an “inny” one, where there was a slight risk of something being broken in frustration! In fairness, it took us both quite some time to work out what the problem was and why the cut corners were not matching up… of course, it wasn’t Pete’s sawing abilities but due to the wall not being a right-angle! Blumming obvious once you know! 🤣 Ha Ha Ha 🤣 – they say you learn by trial and error and they definitely got that right!
It’s definitely coming along and should, hopefully, all be done by this coming weekend… 🤞
Walls now painted and skirting currently in progress –
the radiator should get reattached this evening
and then we await the new carpet at the end of this week – whoopee!
I completed my first shadow shifts last week for the local home care service in the village… I worked 6.5 hours which was OK although I felt like a spare part for most of it, watching others do all the work. That said, it’s been a long time since I have done any hands-on care, so I guess I need to start from scratch. They reckon I should shadow for around 4 weeks and then I might be ready to go it alone… that will depend on how I feel about it and, more importantly, the assessment of my colleagues & whether they think I’m ready to be let loose! I am sure I will be OK as it’s now week 2 and I’m already starting to feel more confident in myself!
The only thing that might take a bit of getting used to is that, if I’m working in the morning, I need to be ready to start at 7am… it’s been quite a while since I have had to actually be up and active at that time of day! Of course, as soon as I know I have to be up around 6-ish, I spend half the night worrying about oversleeping! Ho hum!
This morning, I completed my third shift and feel like I’m getting more in the swing of things… I am quite enjoying it! My first shift was literally next door so it took me about 20 seconds to get to work! 🤣🤣🤣 How cool is that?!
Last week, we also had to get the Nissan to the garage after the “turbo” broke… we set off from our house for the 10 mile journey to England where the nearest garage is but, just as we left the village, smoke started to pour out of the exhaust! We had to pull up and wait for the AA to come and either do a roadside fix (which we knew was unlikely) or tow us to the garage…
We had to wait about 1.5 hours so it was lucky we were not too far from home and Pete was there in the Mini (as he was going to bring me back from the garage…) – it meant I could pop back to use the facilities… something I’m sure most women of a similar age will understand!
When the AA man arrived, he decided pretty quickly that a tow would be in order and it was at that point we realised we had no wheel nut lock for the blumming car – grrrr 👿. We then had to wait for a proper tow truck… another hour at least. Fortunately, being so close to home, we were able to sneak back and wait there until the tow-truck guy called to say he was 10 minutes away. At least we were able to sit in the warm and have a coffee!
The car has been in the garage for just under a week now and Pete found out yesterday that the repairs are going to be fairly significant financially – boo! But you know, we need that car for our upcoming road trip around Spain so it’s gotta be right! The next job will be to make sure that we get a blumming wheel nut lock!
Like many, the weather last week was great but gave false expectations that Spring had arrived! Today, it’s about 10 degrees colder than it was last week and lashing it down with rain… what’s worse, they say we might have snow tomorrow!
When it was nice, I managed to get some blurry pics of the birds in the garden…
Ain’t no party like a S-iskin Party!
Birds on the feeder in the garden end of last week
And the daffs / flowers…
Enjoying time in the garden with the Daffodils, Japonica &
Siskins silhouetted against the sun!
Honestly, I cannot count the number of birds we have in the garden at any one time… even on a crap day like today, there must be well over 30 birds around the feeders – mainly Siskin and Chaffinch. Other frequent visitors include Sparrows, Wren, Blackbird, Robin, Starlings, Greenfinch & the occasional Collared-Dove… there’s plenty of Rooks and Jackdaws around the village too but they don’t tend to come in the garden… yet!
Just one of the two/three bird feeders in our garden –
so many birds even when it’s torrential rain (taken from the safety of our little sunroom – hence the blurry images through the rain-streaked window!) – if you turn the sound up, you can hear the rain battering the roof!
I have also been to see Mum to celebrate a late Mother’s Day with her… fortunately, no broken down cars on her way home this time thank goodness. She was in really good spirits yesterday although I think she needs a bit of sun as she’s looking a bit pasty! 🤣
Me & Mum celebrating Mother’s Day…
she seemed to like imitating the faces on the vase I got her – 🤣🤣 –
yep, she’s still reassuringly Bonkers!
What else? Oh yeh, Trump is still a knob… 😞 but I don’t suppose many need me to point that out… grrrrrr 😡
Despite the craziness of the world right now, keep reminding yourselves that there’s still plenty of good in the world… It’s sometimes a bit hard to find, but it’s there somewhere – you just gotta look for the positives through all the gloom! Oh, and maybe stop watching the news! 🤣
TTFN x❤️x
All the gubbins… 
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