March
1
- Up before 7am . .walked. Cold but a pleasant
bit of sunshine. Sat around in BGdns lots . . TVd in the garage,
whiling away the hours . . around 11:20am the estate agent called
and said they'd had authorisation to release the keys and I could
come and get them. Minutes later the solicitor rang to confirm
completion . . walked (very quickly) down to the estate agent to
get the keys . .
blimey - yayyyyy - they left ALL the masses of garden furniture.
Seats and tables everywhere . . . Wow - they also left the PC
corner unit desk and even a small tatty typist type chair.
eventually called Mum to tell her to bring Sally down, as she'd suggested she would. Apparantly Sis1 had left a message that KM (her daughter/my neice) had given birth to a new daughter . . -//UNFINISHED//- busy, busy . . . meter readings . gas!!
trips in the car with the matress,
boxes and belongings. . Mum made pate sandwich . . . . . . the
grill on the fitted oven doesn't work. I guess the fact they left
a toaster was a bit of a clue. lol Oh well, can't complain. That
fridge freezer is bigger than the one I had.
borrowed a gas key from next door so I could read the meter. . .
barking dog. . couldn't resist, despite not yet having a TV
licence, and plugged in my big 28" TV and TVd for a bit,
feeling rather shell shocked and weird 'in someone elses' home. .
-//- warm fire . . new neighbor noises . . pastry slice and
crisps
to bed (matress on the floor next to
Sally) around 1am - undressing in the dark because I haven't any
curtains up yet! lol
-//Unfinished//-
2 - Woken
by Sally before 7am . .central heating. . .walked and on down to
town. . pottered in the kitchen. . drove with Sally to Mums to
make phone calls to sort out all the utilities - including a BT
phone line. Should be live by 4pm he said. . dashed round the
local store to buy a TV licence . . loaded up the car and drove
back down . Mum walked Sally down in the rain!!! . . . .
phone line was up and running around 5:20pm . . telemarketing
phone call within an hour of a live line!! Grrrr. . terrible
weather! Big wind and rain, and plenty through the front bay
windows making big pools on the cills!!! . drove to walk. As I
was heading for the car, a guy from down the lane appeared on a
noisy moto cross motorcycle and went up and down the lane! It
didn't bother me. He wasn't a yob (and I have a feeling someone
in the house wherever he came from, also has a big Ducati or
similar), just a bikey type. There's a BIG difference.
. . . ate a pastry slice and bowls of co-co pops . . showered
with the mixer taps shower head!! That works! :o) . . drank a mug
of red wine and TVd until early to bed.
3
- Woken by Sally a little after 6am . sat in
the garden and then on the front step in the rising sun . .
walked. Cleared up litter and debris and brought back three
towels (ggod enough for drying Sally) which I'd found laying
mudcovered in one of the the pill boxes! One actually had a
couple of clothes pegs still attached, so I guess the yobs stole
that from someones clothes line in the night! :o( . . moved a
bench in the front garden and put it in the sun beneath the bay
window and sat some more . . left Sally at home and drove to
Sainsburys to do a fairly major groceries shop (£71.45). .
gassed up on the way out (23.01ltrs @ £20). .ate half a chicken
and four pieces of bread and butter in the sauna like front room.
Wow - a bit of sun and those front rooms with all their windows
heat up like a greenhouse. That's gonna be interesting in hot
weather - and an issue for the TV in the living room bay! .
another telemarketing phone call!!! . . left Sally at home and
drove to Mums to pick up the main PC and a bunch of other stuff
from her spare room. Pretty much cleared it for her to attempt to
clean and get back to almost normal. . loaded the car up and then
drove back 'home' with Mum who hung around for a bit before
eventually walking back . . .tested the phone socket in the front
bedroom was working and then rigged up the PC in the computer
desk in the back bedroom. With a couple of phone extension leads
running out onto the landing and into the front bedroom, I proved
it was 'possible' to get on line. .lifted a bit of edges of
carpet here and there to temporarily hide part of the extension
leads and stop Sally and I tripping over them . . hmmm - someone
in the neighborhood has a drum kit - and is practicing! . a while
later I spotted some 'young people' (uggh) exiting a house down
the road and then all heading off into a house up the road which
I think was the one which has an elaborate, small house like
construction, where most people have garages. From the noise that
was then audible for the next couple of hours, I have a suspicion
it is a 'studio/practice room' for their band!! Kinda thrash
metal type stuff I think they were playing. The weirdest thing
was, it didn't particularly bother me.
A calm, mild, bright, big moon, pleasant
evening - except for the large group of drinkers in the gun
emplacements surrounded by rubbish, bottles and beer cans. :o( .
.walked. . brought in and wiped down some of the plastic garden
furniture so I have a table and chairs in the kitchen. lol :o) .
. touched base with PS for the first time in months. Felt 'able'
to, now that I have regained something of a life! . .TVd. . sat
on the front step around 10:30pm and attempted to take a snap or
two with the camcorder of the lunar eclipse. BB called in the
middle of me wrestling with the camera settings. Should have used
the tripod (wherever it is amongst all the boxes that are stacked
up all over the house) because by the time I figured out the best
manual light and zoom settings to use, it was so dark I couldn't
relocate the moon through the camera view finder/screen!! Called
BB back once I'd given up. . TVd/PCd until early. . ate a handful
of Ritz crackers covered in Philadelphia spread before bed around
2am.
4 - Woken
by the wind and rain battering the big bay window around 6:30am!
Yikes - that's nasty out there. :o( . . drove to walk. Uh oh - is
that a developing problem with the car alternator again? :o( .
cleared up half a dozen carrier bags of glass bottles and beer
cans from all over BGdns in the rain, and found 6p. . tried out
the toaster I'd been left and ate a couple of pieces of slightly
burned buttered toast. . . PCd a bit of this but I was too tired
to bother and also descended rapidly into a pretty major 'down'
mood. How the hell have I ended up here? How the hell am I going
to be able to survive financialy? Etc etc etc.
.opened up a few more of the boxes
still piled up all around the house. Why on earth have I still
got SO much 'stuff'? . . spent much of the day going back to the
windows to mop up the incoming rainwater. It's pretty bad! :o(
What I can't figure out is how the previous occupants managed to
put up with it like that, and not allow it to make 'too' much of
an impression on the internal decorations, etc.?? Could it be it
is only THAT bad when it is particularly windy like it has been
of late? Hope so. . . ate a fry-up of bacon, eggs, sausages, and
mushrooms with four pieces of bread and butter. First bit of
'cooking' for months. Pleasurable. :o) . . napped until around
5pm. .walked in the rain. Boy there's been a huge amount of rain
recently, and lots more forecast for the coming week! . did
dishwashing chores and even almost found some enjoyment in that!
lol That won't last. . .touched base with BB . . TVd and watched
the 'I Robot' film that was on. Pretty entertaining and amazing
effects. . ate corned beef and mayo sandwiches with crisps . .
TVd until bed around 12:30am. s
5 - 
Woke around 6:45am with much condensation on
the front bay windows. Come what may, I suspect I'm going to HAVE
to make having all those replaced with double glazed PVC, a
priority before next winter. That's gonna cost a fortune and will
probably take care of the last few £ks of my savings - and of
course will push me straight in to lots of decorating/building
work making-good afterwards. :o( . . walked. I think the
'utilitarian' once round BGdns and back, takes about an hour from
here. .left the back door open for Sally to explore the garden if
she wants, although apart from sniffing around a little here and
there, she seems remarkably uninterested. Given the chaos in our
lives of the last five months, I guess she imagines it's just
temporary and we'll soon be moving on again. Not if I can bloody
help it!!! . . .had a bit of a go at trying to see if I could
replace the front bedroom curtain tracks that have the hook/slide
pieces missing, with the brand new ones I found in the garage.
Turned out the easiest way of fixing a temporary solution was by
pushing the new tracks onto the old wall mounts! Only trouble
was, I didn't have a hacksaw to cut the two necessary pieces to
length, because I haven't brought my tools down from Mums garage
yet. . left Sally at home and drove to Mums to overload the car
with almost all my heavy tools and a few other bits and pieces.
Drove back and dumped everything in the garage. . got side
tracked into having a look at the unusable garage door, and
dismantled a couple of bits to relocate the dislodged side runner
in its track. Turned out that didn't help. :o( There's something
horribly wrong with the mountings on the lintel. Oh well - guess
I'll just have to continue parking the car next to the garage
under the three quarter length 'car port', as I have been. Can't
complain. It's just SUCH a joy to be able to park it off the
street and not have to worry about it being 'attacked' in the
night . . cut the curtain tracks and got them acceptably fixed,
and then discovered that the curtains from the 'box room' (awful
terracota like colour) actually just fit around the bay, if
pulled out straight. They actually fitted a lot better than the
ones from the living room window in Bristol, which I'd intended
to put up for the time being, so I switched them around and it
all worked out quite nicely. So - I can now actually pull the
curtains in the bedroom when I go to bed now, and not be in view
of half the town and have to sneak in with the lights off, and
then crawl along the floor in the morning!! lol :o) . . dug out
my electric plane and an extension lead and shaved off a bit of
the 'sun room' door, to try and stop it sticking and making so
much noise when I try to open it. Ended up having to dig out my
chisels as well, to recess the lock plate like it should have
been and wasn't. Eventually somewhat improved. . . ate four
chicken limbs with four pieces of bread and butter . . rammed a
couple of old flannels into a bizarre hollow recess in the
aluminium front door either side of the letter box opening, to
stop the wind making the backing plates go 'chink, chink chink'
all the time. It was driving me mad! Uh oh. A wet knee? The storm
the other night has driven rain in under/through the front door
as well as the windows, and the carpet/floorboards are wet there!
Hmmm - I wonder if a botch with a couple of tubes of mastic on
all those windows and the door, may do the trick as a temporary
improvement and delay having to have them all replaced?. . .
napped for an hour and a half until woken by the alarm at 6pm . .
. walked in the gale. . .TVd as the wind and rain battered the
house, but once again I was in a strange mood and eventually just
turned the thing off and sat next to a lit candle I'd found in
BGdns this morning! Free light AND heat. lol . . .pottered in the
PC/rear bedroom, experimenting with my portable TVs. No - no way
will they pick up a signal on their loop aerials. Reception down
this way is utterly atrocious. Can't understand how the
population has put up with it for so long. Even with a decent
rooftop aerial, you can't get Channel 5 (terrestrial) at
all!!!!!! . Oh well - probably just as well. I'm already running
rather a lot off that one thin extension lead (which I keep
reaching under the desk to touch to test for warmth!!)!! I am SO
itching to get this place rewired and have some 'proper'
electrics (ring) again, in which I'll
have some faith I won't be overloading a spur!! Two of the three
bedrooms have one SINGLE socket!! Ridiculous! How on earth did
the previous occupants live with it like this? Curioser and
curioser. . PCd this. .PCd/TVd/mopped the leaking window cills
until bed around 2am.
-//Unfinished//-
6 - Woke
before 7am . . waited around a bit before walking, so the shops
would be open by the time I reach town. . walked and carried on
down town and bought a couple of tubes of brown mastic in a small
DIY store . . Wow - the front of this house is like a greenhouse
when it's sunny!! That's gonna be a bit much in hot weather! . .
wheelie bins delivered by the council . . sorted out some of the
sacks of tools in the garage (and found my mastic gun). .
masticed the inside of the front bedroom windows. Bit of a mess
but not 'too' bad. Now I need another bad storm to see if it
works . . ate fried sausages, bacon, eggs and mushrooms with
bread and butter . . had a look up in the attic. Wow - big space
begging to be converted again. Everything in suprisingly good
condition compared to what I had before. All that expansion tank
and pipework business is new for me. That'll take some learning
about. Found a few Xmas decorations, a couple of pages of
newspapers from the seventies, some flat-pack clothes rail type
thing, a footstool incorporating a sewing box beneath the cushion
- and an old wedding dress!!!!! Eeeewwwww!!! . . . touched base
with Mum . . napped . . .walked as a big shower cloud rolled in.
Sheltered under the roof in BGdns and then managed to get back
without getting too wet in a break in the rain. Put the recycle
bin out . . TVd . .unpacked a few bits and pieces from one of my
boxes . . ate a bowl of muesli and biscuits in front the TV
before to bed shortly after midnight.
7 - Woken
in the night by an unremembered nightmare - again! . . up around
7am . . walked. A beautiful, still, sunny morning . . put in
phone calls to change my address on everything - again! . .
wrestled with signing up for Virgin broadband! . .Mum popped down
with some paperwork she'd got for signing on at the local doctors
surgery etc. .Poked around in the house here and there with Mum.
Climbed up in the attic and brought down the wedding dress for
her to look at. Probably a nice one in its day but stained and
old and fit for the bin now I think. Mum didn't want to miss her
'Neighbors' program so I sat her down in the living room to watch
it while I grabbed a quick ham and lettuce sandwich with crisps.
Mum eventually left . . messed around a little with the little PC
chair and using the vice in the garage and a couple of bits from
my nut and bolt collection, fixed the broken armrest . . spent a
good couple of hours messing around cutting up a past its best
overgrown hebe bush in the back garden. It's position, together
with another bush next to it, pretty much completely obscures
sight of the garden from the kitchen and sun room! Crazy place
for such a big bush. Much better without. Got blisters on both
hands using the secaters to cut it all up into small pieces so it
would crunch down to the minimum and fit in a plastic sack.
Finally managed to extract the main stems and root by digging
around with a small hand trowel. I'm itching to get that other
plant out of the way too to open up the view, but that'll have to
wait until I can borrow the bow-saw and some of the gardening
type tools in Mums garage. . touched base with Sis1. . walked a
little early because I was SO ready for sleep already! . .PS
called . . touched base with LB for the first time in months.
Apparantly the new owners of my old house have painted the front
door blue! Funny priority. lol . . TVd with a half mug of red
wine. Where the hell are all my drinks/wine glasses? Surely I
didn't leave them ALL behind?! :o( . . ate slightly overcooked
pepperoni pizza. That fan oven sure is more efficient than my old
gas one, but does appear to mean I have to put stuff in for less
time than the instructions/guide on the pack. . TVd fighting to
stay awake until early to bed around 11:30pm.
8 - Woke
earlier then fitfully snoozed on until woken by Sally around
6:15am. Chilly . . walked in the sun, overheating in too many
layers . .PCd a bit of this . .drove to Mums and loaded up the
car with more boxes, and borrowed a couple of her garden tools.
Bought stamps for some of the 'change of address' (again) letters
I'm gonna have to send. . cut down the overgrown cotonasta in
front of the kitchen, dug out the roots and moved a plant pot or
two to open up the view of the garden from the house. That's MUCH
better. . trimmed the front hedge just enough so that people
won't get hurt walking into it on the sidewalk. Bleeding blisters
on both hnads by the time I'd chopped everything into small
pieces. Three sacks full despite the cutting it all into little
pieces! . . ate a ham sandwich with crisps . . . napped for an
hour only to wake feeling a bit yucky. I suspect after all these
months of just waiting and doing nothing, suddenly being all
'active' again was a bit of a shock to the system. .walked . . PS
called about coming down to visit for a day or two. . . cooked up
two sausages, bacon, mushrooms and half a can of beans with two
pieces of bread and butter . . .sat on the front step briefly
listening to the distant church bells . . .TVd/PCd until bed.
John Inman ("I am freeee") died this day.
9 - Woke
earlier, snoozed on then woken by BB calling around 7:15am . . .
walked and carried on down into town to return the two mugs the
estate agent had included in their 'completion carrier bag'.
Bought Sally a new flea collar because I think she is scratching
more since being here. Previous owner's cat fleas I suspect! . .
swapped the 'crunchy' light switch in the kitchen for a new one
I'd found amongst my tools. . wired up a piece of old phone
socket onto the cut off phone line extension cable I found tacked
to the skirting board in the living room. Plugged in my ansaphone
. . left Sally at home and drove to buy a handful of batteries
and then on to Mums to pick up a few more bits and pieces and the
other padded garden chair from the garage, so PS has something to
sit on when he comes . . unpacked a bit of a box or two and
succeeded in putting my back out a bit, lifting one o0f the heavy
ones!!! . . ate corned beef and salad sandwiches with crisps .
.napped but far too hot in the greenhouse-like bedroom with the
sun on all those windows behind the curtains, and woke feeling
very iffy. .at some point over the last day or so, unnoticed by
me, the estate agent's 'for-sale/sold' sign was removed from the
front garden where I'd laid it down . . walked . . sat in the
garden under the pergola for a bit. Pleasant but cold. I can see
me doing a lot of that on warmer evenings. TVd. . . touched base
with BB briefly . . TVd . . ate Ritz crackers with philadelphia,
some crisps, a banana and chocolate before bed around midnight. aa
10 - Woke
around 6:30am . . .sunny day, although still a little chilly in
the shade. Walked the woods and on down to the beach. Collected
up a bunch of beer cans and bottles on the beach, left there by
the kids last night, but couldn't face having to walk all the way
back carrying it, and just left the carrier bag there attached to
a metal post. Found almost a full pack of 20 cigarettes in
different packs here and there! . . dismantled my old clock radio
and emptied out all the sawdust and gave it a good wipe down
before setting it up in my bedroom on one of my unopened boxes of
clothes, used as a 'bedside table' . .ate two sausages, half a
tin of baked beans, eggs and mushrooms with two pieces of bread
and butter . . forced myself to PC a bit of this. Seems to be
more and more difficult finding the time and inclination to do
this at the moment. On top of that, I'm soon gonna have to make a
decision about just exactly what I'm gonna do about the website.
I'm oh SO sorely tempted to call it a day (although of course
I've threatened that more than once in the past, and still ended
up carrying on with it). Thing is - I'm not sure I can even
attempt to re-gain some peace of mind (which remains elusive),
and sense of 'relative' security, with it all still up there. Not
sure. No hurry. Can't do much PC wise until I have my broadband
installed. (I've somehow already run up a £14 bill on my phone,
just making a few calls and checking e-mails!!!!!!!!???). . .uh
oh! The phone is out!!?? Ran around trying them all, checking
that my modification yesterday hadn't done something negative,
but it was nothing to do with that. Then the phone rang! Turned
out to be a BT engineer doing whatever had to be done at the
exchange to accomodate my up and coming broadband service.
Bizarre. Didn't know they actually physically had to do anything!
. . started trying to sort out the huge mess of paperwork and
bills and things I've thrown in a heap in the PC/back bedroom,
but got diverted (any excuse will do!) into messing around
cleaning a couple of the solar garden lights. There are a whole
bunch of those lights all around the gardens. In the front garden
there are seven or eight which line either side of the path!
Makes the house stand out from all the rest with its noticeable
blue 'runway'! Weird, but I've left them all in situ for the time
being. It's a not unpleasant effect. Imagine how long they would
have lasted like that back in Bristol. One night? Maybe two -
before they were stolen/smashed by yobs in the night. . . Mum
popped by to drop off some of my mail and confirm what time I'll
be picking her up . . sorted out some of the paperwork and
whittled it down to piles, at least! Bad toothache! . . napped
for a couple of hours . .the police helicopter was visible across
town in the distance for quite a while. It was level with my
living room window! lol . . walked. .PCd this . .BB called . .PCd
more of this but feel oh SO tired again and gave up when I
started typing gibberish . . ate a corned beef and salad
sandwhich with crisps and some chocolate before setting the alarm
and early to bed just after 11pm. aa
11 - Woke
some time a little after 5am. Snoozed on then up after 6am.
Jeeze, my back is in bad shape. Very painfull straightening up!!
:o( .walked. . sucked annadin tablet and loaded the car up with a
few bits and pieces, food and water for Sally, and then drove
round the front of the house before picking up Sally. Crazy how
it isn't possible to fully lock up the place and exit out the
back (no outside handle/lock on the kitchen double glazed door!).
Means having to go all the way back round to the front, which is
actually quite a long way! . Drove to pick up Mum around 9:15am.
. headed for Bristol with a brief services stop on the way . .
drove through the neighborhood and past my old house, just to
have a peek. Felt yucky and threatening to me, to be up that way
again, although as Mum pointed out, if you didn't know, in
daylight in the sun, it looks like a nice neighborhood. I guess
it IS for everyone else - just not for me. :o( . yep, the front
door HAS been painted blue, and it now has a cat flap in it!!
Bizarre! In the FRONT door! On reflection I can see why they had
to do that. All the doors at the back of the house are double
glazed glass and pretty impossible to put a flap in. . arrived at
Sis1s for the family get together to meet Sis1s daughter's new
baby at around midday. Sally was SO good as ever, and spent most
of the day penned in on Sis1s little decked veranda. . big roast
dinner . . all walked down the river after lunch . . back in the
car (damn - left Sally's spare plastic dog bowl behind) and
heading home a little after 6pm. Smooth run back sipping a can of
Red Bull. . dropped Mum off (damn, that trip has aggravated my
bad back!) and called at her next door neighbour to ask about the
two seat sofa they'd told her they were getting rid of, which I
may wish to have. Turned out to be a very nice green one with
removable/washable covers, but was the low backed type and that
really isn't my thing. I need head/kneck/back support!
Nevertheless, I guess beggars can't be choosers and I succumbed
and quickly said yes please/thank you. Only trouble is,
particularly with my bad back and all, how the hell do I
transport it? Maybe poor PS will be roped in to shifting
furniture when he comes? It's so close, it really would be almost
possible to walk it down the road! . turned out they had more
stuff to get rid of! They had another two seater in the garage
awaiting disposal. A dirty pink leather one!! PINK leather?!!
lololol (matters not to me. Whatever I get, old or new, it'll be
covered in my light coloured protective throws). Actually turned
out the leather one had somehow slightly higher cushions at the
back, and although low backed, was more comfortable than the
other when slumped in. Yes please. AND they said they had a
single bed of some sort somewhere I could have. Blimey. That'll
all sort me out for the time being! Agreed I'd probably be back
up to see them and at least temporarily move it all into Mums
garage, maybe tomorrow evening. . returned home and fed poor
starving Sally and encouraged her to make use of the garden lawn
to save me having to do yet another walk. touched base with Mum .
. BB called . DS called to touch base. .TVd with coffee and a
whole pack of Mum donated almond slices and watched the French
film with English subtitles 'Amelie' which was on again. Weird,
quirky, enjoyable film. . to bed around 1am. aaaa
12 - Woken
by Sally before 7am. My aching back isn't much better!! :o( . .
slow getting moving. Walked after 8am. Saw a miniature 'slow
worm' legless lizardy thing! (At least I don't 'think' it was a
snake). Cute. . dragged the vaccuum out for the first time since
I've been here (very overdue - big mess) and started having a go
at cleaning the place up a bit. Within ten minutes the vaccuum
burned out and stopped working!! Would you believe it!! :o( . .
drove to Mums intending to pick up the spare vaccuum from the
garage. Turned out THAT one wasn't working either!! Mum insisted
I take hers, because she has a new one in the cupboard not yet
being used. Not sure she meant it, but she insisted. .
successfully vacuumed a little. . sat in the garden for a coffee
and heard a weird rustling noise right near me. A short while
later only a foot or two away a beautiful little brown mouse
calmly walked off into the hedge. As long as they don't get in
the house (or come to Sally's attention!) - cool. :o) . . . made
another change of address phone call. Ten minutes on hold, got
through and then the phone handset battery died on me, and I had
to go through it all again!! No wonder my phone bill seems to be
rapidly escalating (although SO rapidly, I'm really worried about
it!). . PCd a bit of this . . waited around for PS to turn up but
by early afternoon I figured I'd got it all wrong and he was
going to come down later . . ate corned beef and mayo sandwiches
with crisps. .happened to look out of the living room window and
spotted PS in the street outside on his mobile some time after
1pm. Apparantly he was calling me - and had been, on and off for
the last couple of hours while he'd been down around the harbor!?
Huh? Checked my phone but it was fine. Turned out PS had written
down the wrong phone number. lol Even funnier when it turned out,
he'd actually written down the wrong address as well! Apparantly
he'd obtained a street map from the local tourist centre and had
been stood on the street somewhere looking at it all confused,
when a kind passer by asked if he was lost and offered their
assistance. They confirmed the address he was looking for didn't
exist, and suggested my road (even though the name of it didn't
really bear much resemblance at all to what he'd written down)!!
All in all, incredible he actually arrived! lolol . . brief
guided tour of the house and then unloaded PS overnight stuff and
the two different surplus satellite TV dishes and digiboxes he'd
said I could have to experiment with . . all walked the woods and
down to the beach and then back via BGdns. Bright and warm but
not 'quite' sunny. . coffee and chats until around 6pm and then
left Sally at home and drove with PS (who actually also has a
'twinge' in his back) to my Mums neighbour's house. . First up
was an attempt at moving the pink leather two seat sofa from his
garage. With the cushions off, it wasn't particularly heavy at
all, and with the smallest amount of persuading from the three of
us, it slipped in to the back of the fiesta without much trouble
at all. Yayyyyyyy. :o) Raced back home with the hatch left open
and with PS help, soon had it sat in the living room. . straight
back up and picked up the single bed frame and mattress and then
temporarily dropped that off in my front garden . . finally
returned again for the green two seater. That one was slightly
larger than the other, and took more persuading to go into the
car. By the time it was wedged in, at least three quarters of it
was still hanging out the back, but given how short a journey it
was, it was worth the risk just going for it. Painful on my back
getting that one in the house. .tried them both in the living
room, but that room is so small and awkward it was all far too
much, so the green one ended up out in the sun room, and actually
fitted in there rather well. So - there I go then. All I really
immediately needed to be relatively comfortable here, was a bed
and a comfy chair - and thanks to their generosity, and the
incredible good fortune of the coincedence of PS coming down
today to make moving it all possible, I've everything I need to
get me by. Nice one. :o) . . sat around on the sofa for a bit, to
recover with a coffee. Some awkward discussion about what we were
going to eat later. No way did I want to go out to eat as PS
suggested - my freezer supplies were limited - my culinary skills
even more limited - and my ability at being a 'generous host' non
existant - and somehow it was more or less agreed we'd stay in
and simply make do with what PS had brought!!!! . . Back in the
car to pop up the store for milk, and for PS to grab some crisps
and cans of beer for himself. . TVd and chats . . ate the corned
beef rolls PS daughter had sent him up with, with crisps . . TVd
and eventually both ate some of the large apple tart PS daughter
had cooked . . TVd until bed (in a 'real' bed!! First time in
around five months! Comfy. :o) ) well after 1am. saa
13 - Woken
by Sally and/or PS moving about, before 7am . . coffee and
annadin tablet (still a very bad back!) in the garden/TVd waiting
for PS to surface . . all walked and then carried on and walked
around the harbor and out along the breakwater. Beautiful warm
sunny morning. . . stopped at a cafe in town on the way back and
PS treated me to a cooked sausage, bacon, egg, beans, potatoes,
toast, coffee and juice breakfast at the outside tables. .
returned home to find my broadband modem and phone line filters
had been delivered in the mail. :o) . . PS left shortly after
midday and I rushed straight up to the PC to set up the modem. I
'think' I got it all done ok, but then found out the 'go live'
date is actually sometime tomorrow, any time up until 8pm, so
I've got to wait. Hmmpph. . .with my back in the shape it is,
there isn't a great deal I can do at the moment other than sit
around hurting! . . napped . . .walked . . TVd . . ate corned
beef and salad sandwiches with crisps, some of PS apple tart and
then some chocolate. .BB called . . TVd until bed around
midnight. aaas
14 - Woke
earlier, snoozed on then up just before 7am. . . walked in the
sun . . left Sally at home and drove to the local petrol station
for petrol (22.49ltrs @ £20) and then on out to a DIY store, in
search of a rotary clothes line and to look generally at other
stuff I'm gonna need to go buy. Bit of a culture shock. Very
little choice in that store, and all of it seemed pretty
expensive compared to what I've been used to in the bigger
superstores around Bristol! They were even out of stock of rotary
clothes lines! Wasn't in the mood (I'm actually 'down' right
now!) and couldn't face driving around looking for others, so I
just headed back, stopping off at Sainsburys for a bit of bread
on the way. . stopped off at Mums and picked up the cheap
wire-frame clothes airer she'd offered to let me borrow . . tried
out the washing machine for the first time (now I have something
to hang the washing on) and did a little laundry. Despite no
instruction manual, the machine seemed to work quite nicely. .yay
- my broadband is up and running. PCd downloading the huge amount
of Windows updates. Hmmm - don't like what they've done with the
new Internet Explorer 7, and boy do I HATE that Media Player 7!!!
What the hell is that nonsense (which I CANNOT find a way to
remove) going on in the top of the List Pane, trying to make me
buy-online what I'm already listening to? They've ruined a
perfectly good thing with their pointless updates. Hmmph. . Mum
popped down to see the sofas etc. . . ate Mum donated sausage
rolls in front of the PC . . drove to the local store to buy a
clothes airer, picking Mum up on the way as I passed her
returning from town . . PCd . . walked . . BB called . .cooked
and ate two burgers with chips and mushrooms followed by
chocolate . .TVd until bed around 11:30pm. Gareth Hunt (Mike
Gambit from The New Avengers) died this day. aaaa
15 - Disturbed
sleep then up around 7am . . walked . . did paperwork and somehow
aggravated my bad back by leaning and turning in my dreadfully
uncomfortable computer chair!! :o( Difficult and very painful
straightening up. . walked with Sally in the sun, down to the
doctors surgery to hand in the registration forms. Usual
modern-day nonsense about not actually being able to register to
see any one particular doctor. I'm supposed to have a new patient
initial consultation I think, and frankly want (need!) to get
back on the fluoxetine, so attempted to see if I could make an
appointment (you normally have to ring up in the morning) to see
a doctor. As bad luck would have it, they DID have a slot
available, but in only five minutes time! Couldn't leave Sally
tied up outside for an indefinate period like that, so I had to
decline . . carried on down town and ended up buying a nasty
cheap loo brush and holder, and a cheap wire mesh bird feeder. On
down to the pet store for 2kg of pea nuts before heading back,
overheating in the sun. . filled the bird feeder with crushed
nuts and hung it up on the pergola . . PCd . . ate liver sausage
sandwiches, crisps and chocolate . . sat around TVing and feeling
really VERY down! . . napped until gone 7pm! Jeeze I'm in agony!
Worse than yesterday!!? :o( . .walked - reluctantly and slowly! .
. BB called . . PCd and did more paperwork/address changing, and
finally got round to completing and enveloping up my driving
licence update application. I'd been putting that off because of
the need for a photograph. Thought I needed a couple like with
the passport, until I finally read through all the small print
and discovered I only needed one. Still had one left over from my
passport application, so I guess that'll do the trick. .PCd this
until early . .ate Ritz crackers with Philadelphia cheese, a
banana and some chocolate before bed around 2am. aaaa
16 - The
disturbed/broken sleep night from hell, full of dreams/nightmares
and waking!? That 'Philadelphia' cheese perhaps? . .phoned up the
doctors surgery and predictably got the engaged tone a bunch of
times. The phone offered to do an automatic ring back thingy, so
I instructed it to go ahead. Fat lot of use that was! Kept on
ringing me back only to find an engaged tone on the line. (Only
later in a conversation with someone in the doctors waiting room
did I find out, that-ring back service costs around 50p a hit!!!
Yikes!! Won't be doing that again!) Eventually got through and
was able to make an appointment for 9:20am . . drove Sally for a
quick, slow/painful once round of BGdns . . left Sally at home
and walked down to the doctors . . .
-//unfinished//-
I positively cringed when he stuck to the doctor's text book script and asked that standard ridiculous question "Are you having thoughts of harming yourself?". For goodness sake. If he'd listened to what I'd been trying to say, and had actually given me a couple of minutes of proper attention, he may have known better than to ask! I've had suicidal ideation most days of my adult life - and I'm now 46 years old! What does that tell ya?
He eventually wrote out a prescription for paracetamol and codeine for the back pain, and a months supply of prozac
walked to the nearby chemist to get the prescription. Turned out because it was three items, it was three times the £6.65) NHS prescription fee!! :o( They suggested I at least buy some paracetamol over the counter since it would be cheaper. Still ended up spending £14.28, which in my current circumstances is a bunch (around my weekly food bill?)!!!!!!! :o(
ended up back at home feeling even more down and worthless than when I'd set out! A typical doctor visit then! . . PCd a bit, but that damn PC chair was just SO uncomfortable, I ended up surfing looking for a cost effective replacement. There seemed to be plenty of cheap ones (like the one I left behind in Bristol) to choose from, all with free delivery, but I really wanted to actually sit in them and try them for comfort (particularly lower back/'lumbar' support) before parting with my cash, so I ended up leaving Sally at home and heading off in the car for the local 'Staples' office supplies store. .they had three chairs on display around the sort of price I was prepared to pay (the cheapest of course), and I spent ages lurching backwards and forwards with my bad back from one to the other, trying to see which felt best. Eventually decided on the 'Gloucester'
-//unfinished//-
unpacked the huge cardboard box and pretty soon had the chair assembled. Really not bad for the money and oh boy, does it help with my back pain! Thank goodness. . . ate half a chicken with four pieces of bread and butter. Mum popped in briefly while I was eating. . . . . . napped but woken within the hour by a delivery? Huh? DS had said he was sending something, so I presumed it was from him.
. . PCd a bit of this . . walked . .
constructed the flat packed ornate metal bird bath DS had sent
and set it up in the garden not far from the bird feeder. . ate
pasties . . TVd/PCd until bed around 1am. aa[pcml]sp
17 - Woken
by Sally around 7am . . .a couple of paracetamol for breakfast
and then a handful more throughout the day. . walked . . spent an
absurd amount of time removing the parcel tape from loads of
cardboard boxes before tearing them up and trying to reduce them
down to as little as possible for the recycling bin collection.
Filled the bin up and also a large box I'll have to put out next
to it! The stringent rules about throwing away your rubbish down
here, make getting rid of anything a real pain. I seem to need at
least three different bins in the kitchen, and I don't have the
space for one!. . dismantled my broken vacuum and actually
discovered a blown soldered in fuse inside. Gotta be worth trying
to replace that, just in case that's all that's wrong? . Mum
popped in briefly with a 'food parcel' and a weekend newspaper
again! . .managed to solder in a new fuse to the vacuum and
gingerly had a go at turning it on, while still all dismantled.
Yayy it starts - uh oh, it's smoking!! That'll be fit for the bin
then. :o( Tied all the parts up in carrier bags ('hid' them!) and
crammed them in my general refuse bin. Not sure if you're
'allowed' to throw stuff like that in there. . ate the Mum
donated pastie and sausage roll with crisps and some chocolate
biscuits . . .napped . . walked . . TVd/PCd. . ate liver sausage
and lettuce sandwiches . . TVd/PCd until bed in the early hours
and then tossed and turned, presumably a little wired by the
prozac? Saw 4am come and go! [pcml]p
18 - Woken
by insistant Sally before 7am after only around three hours
sleep!! . . walked. A biting cold wind this morning, with a hint
of drizzle on the way back. Bit of a shock after all the recent,
summer like weather. . popped up Mums (poorly timed and got wet
in a shower) and dropped off the mothers day cards and chocolates
I'd got her, and returned her borrowed clothes airer . . PCd just
a bit of this but soon stopped. I feel tired and pretty awful .
.lay back down to sleep but couldn't and got back up and ate
several bowls of co-co pops before having another go. . slept for
only a couple of hours until around 3pm . .ate a banana and then
had a couple of paracetamol and todays prozac tablet. I think I
need to be taking it in the mornings rather than at night. . TVd
all head/back achey and devoid of energy. I really am awfully
down right now. :o( . . .walked in the rain . . sat around. Took
a herculean effort to do - well - anything really! Did dish
washing chores . . Mum called to say Sis1 had been down to see
her with the new guy in her life. . cooked up a couple of burgers
while the oven cooked some oven chips. Misjudged the timing and
ended up sitting down to eat the burgers first, with the chips
still cooking. Halfway through eating, all of a sudden all the
power/lights went off!!!! The fuse box trip had been triggered!
Reset it and then confirmed that the oven was broken and no
longer working. :o( I think that kinda sums up this house.
EVERYTHING has pretty much reached the end of its life and
requires updating. I really haven't got it in me to deal with it
all, and actually pretty much feel the same about me! . . ate the
chips and then called BB back who'd called in the middle of
things . . TVd until early to bed around 11pm. [pcml]p
19 - Woken
by Sally making some noise or other around 5am! Tried to snooze
on but failed. . walked in the wind and rain . . PCd looking up
ovens. :o( . . PCd a bit of this. I'm SO tired. So, SO tired of
things. . had a bit of a look at th oven and unscrewed the facia
- and the plastic indicator light housing promptly fell to pieces
(having been much cooked and made brittle). Didn't take long to
reach the conclusion that it really isn't worth attempting to get
repaired. It WAS a very good one in its day, but that day has
LONG since passed. :o( . never having had a fitted oven before, I
used the internet to look up and figure out how it mounts in the
cabinet, and found out how easily I can remove and replace it.
They have basic brand new ones 'off the shelf' of various
electrical stores for less than £150, so I guess I'll probably
go that route eventually, just to see me through the near future.
I'll do without for a bit. I'm just not up to running around
doing such things right now, bad back, down mood and all. .turned
out to be a REALLY bad day, moodwise. (I wonder? Is this maybe my
first experience of having increased 'ideation' as a result of
actually starting on an anti depressant?). . sat around just
trying to hang on for the ride . . ate a pastie and crisps . .
TVd . lay down to nap but couldn't, so just lay there and
pretended. Feels freezing! . . walked in the biting wind, and boy
did I not want to . . .TVd . touched base with BB . . ate tuna,
onion, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps followed by
biscuits and chocolate . . TVd until bed at midnight. [pcml]p
20 - Woke
earlier then up around 6:45am . seem to have aggravated my back
in my sleep somehow. It was less painful than this yesterday! . .
strong cold wind but sunny. Walked the woods. They've been doing
forestry down there! A whole bunch of the trees have been cut
down. :o( . . received my first (astronomical for just a couple
of weeks!) phone bill in the mail, together with a notification
that they'd received an order to transfer all my calls to another
telephone company as from 30th March!!???? Huh? . spent 30
minutes on the phone on hold and eventually through to an advisor
trying to sort it all out. Turned out to be a totally bogus order
initiated by NTL apparantly!!!??? How on earth can they do things
like that? Outrageous! . . Mum called to touch base . .PCd a bit
of this . .Mum popped in . . .ate a pastie with crisps . . napped
most of the afternoon despite a lot of noise of hammering and
sawing from next door . . . cooked and ate Mum donated bacon in
sandwiches . . .walked. On the way to BGdns, someone clearly
disressed, pulled up in a car and asked if I'd seen a dog running
loose. I hadn't and eventually carried on my way. A while later
whilst climbing back up the steep hill in BGdns in the fading
light, a small black dog appeared up ahead, was unnerved by Sally
and ran off out of sight. Pretty likely it was that womans lost
dog! Ended up going round the whole place again, but I saw no
further trace of it. Pulled at the heart strings that. It's
forecast to be a real cold night. I don't think I could cope with
such a thing if that ever happened to me. I'd be out all night
walking and looking, in a very distressed state. Poor dog - poor
woman! :o(. . . TVd . . called BB briefly . . ate chocolate
raisins and then some muesli. .TVd/PCd until bed around 2am. [pcml]p
21 - Woken
by Sally around 6:30am . . . walked. Clear blue sky morning. . .
my back feels quite a bit better this morning (although it could
be as a result of my paracetamol/prozac breakfast). . dug out the
lawnmowers from the shed (one of them looks a bit dodgy), and
used the best looking one to have a go at mowing the lawn. Went
ok, so carried it through the house and did the front lawn as
well. Warm working in the sun, almost like a summer day. .
couldn't resist any longer and had a go at cutting down the
overgrown fir trees from right in front of the living room
window. They just HAVE to go. I want to be able to sit out there
in the morning after walking Sally, and actually get a bit of sun
rather than be hidden behind the undergrowth. They are also
obscuring any sort of view of the garden from the living room. .
managed to cut one down without any trouble and even 'relatively'
easily dug out the roots and removed the trunk completely. The
other larger one was much more trouble. Took a lot of sawing and
cutting, but eventually I had it all cut away just leaving the
thick trunk still stuck there. No way am I going to be able to
dig that out! :o( Think it'll have to just be excavated a bit and
then somehow hacked off just below ground level, if I can.
That'll have to wait - as will the multiple trips to the tip
it'll take to get rid of all the cut branches. Half the front
garden is now covered in all the debris! . found a brass sundial
mounted on a broken stone upright, buried in the debris beneath
the tree. . exhausted (although strangely not particularly
troubled by my bad back after all the work) and stopped for a
tuna, mayo, onion and lettuce sandwich with crisps early
afternoon . .napped but only managed an hour or so before being
woken by next door using a hedge trimmer. Feel a bit unwell and
achey of course. Walked . .cooked and ate bacon, eggs and chips .
. TVd. Lot of noise from what I suspect was a gathering of
'boisterous' youths next door, until gone 10:30pm!! Misery . :o(
. . early to bed around 11pm. [pcml]p
22 - Woken
by Sally around 6am . . BB called . .my back is not suprisingly
more achey this morning, but not too bad considering . walked in
the rain . . something seems to have had a go at the bird feeder
in the garden, but whatever it was, it had somehow removed the
plastic top of the feeder and dumped it on the ground below!!? .
.PCd this as magpies appeared to be collecting up bits of twigs
and earth from the garden! Looks like muddy 'footprints' on the
sides of the bird bath too. lol . . feeling really very down.
.tried as hard as I could to get on and do something despite, and
actually lifted up my first floorboard in the small bedroom, to
get a feel for how the place is put together and how I'm going to
tackle re-wiring and putting in new power sockets in various
walls. Very different construction to what I've been used to. .
couldn't shake my mood or muster the energy to get on with
anything and ended up just sitting around feeling down
tried to nap but couldn't, and became more and more conscious of seemingly constant noises from next door! :o(
ended up being a really bad day,
moodwise. Really bad! Near as low as I go. . .walked. . sat
around in front of the TV. .ended up seemingly spending half the
evening answering the phone, only to have nothing on the other
end. early to bed [pcml]p
23 - Up
around 6am . . . walked under the grey sky. Feel a bit better
than yesterday - but then I couldn't get much worse. Wow that was
a bad day! . . filled the car up with some of the cut fir tree
branches in the front garden, left Sally at home and drove to the
council tip. Apart from a succession of roadworks all along the
route, causing lots of stationary queuing, the actual unloading
at the tip was pretty painless. . spent the whole morning running
backwards and forwards and did another two trips and succeeded in
getting rid of all of it. Stopped off at Sainsburys on the final
trip and bought a couple of ready cooked chickens for £6 and
just a couple of other bits and pieces. . . ate half a chicken
with four pieces of bread and butter. . . . a door to door double
glazing salesman turned up at some point offering free estimates.
Since he was offering I thought why not, just to get a more
accurate idea about what it would cost, so he arranged for a
surveyor guy to turn up later. . pottered in the front garden a
little before deciding to have an exploratory dig around the base
of the cut down tree trunk. To cut a long story short, it wasn't
as bad as it might have been, and after a lot of digging down
around the roots, much of it with a hand trowel, I'd excavated
enough to see that it 'may' come out. Carried on digging and
hacking at roots with a small hand axe, and with a good five or
more feet of trunk deliberately left in place to use as leverage,
eventually had the thing out. Yayyyy. Big lump of wood! Only
'just' able to lift it!! Dumped it out of the way under the hedge
at the bottom of the garden for the time being before filling the
hole back in with all the earth. That is SO much better out of
the way - but now it IS out of the way, it leaves two much
smaller little trees all half grown and brown and dead on one
side, that really do need to come out as well! In fact - if the
whole top end of the garden was cleared right back, it would be
real neat to have a little ornate railing type affair, across the
patio in front of the bay window. Nice little 'full sun' sitting
area for early mornings. Breakfast table perhaps? There really is
a lot of scope to mess around like that with this house - if only
I had the money!! :o( . . eventually the window guy turned up. I
was brutally honest about simply wanting an estimate because his
colleague had knocked at the door, and wasn't planning to do
anything at the moment - and that seemed to put him off a bit and
kinda gave him the attitude that he couldn't care less! He DID
confirm that those big bay windows in the front of the house ARE
treated as FIVE windows each!! So - to do the whole house, that'd
be fifteen windows, one door, one pair of french doors - ballpark
figure of around £7k !!!!!!!!!!! Yikes!!!! Bye then. That's even
more than I'd bargained for, using up all the remainder of my
money!! :o( . .lay down to nap but couldn't!?. . walked . .
touched base with BB . . ate a banana and then bowls of
cornflakes. . .TVd until early to bed around 11pm. p
24 - Woken
by Sally coming into the bedroom and throwing herself to the
floor before 6am . . nice clear blue sky morning. So - how am I
gonna be feeling today I wonder? 'Ok' I think. . put laundry on
and then walked the woods. Even more trees been cleared down
there - and red spots on others presumably marking them out for
the chop. Shame . . ate a bowl of muesli and then sat in the sun
in the front garden for a while with a coffee and cigarette . .
.PCd a bit of this. Saw one of the neighbours all go out - and
when they do, their dog barks - lots! :o( . .felt all 'heady'
(that's what comes of me eating 'breakfast') and had to go lay
down for a bit. May have even snoozed for a while until Sally's
barking woke me. Mum popped in to see the clearance of the front
garden patio area, and ended up sitting out there in the sun with
me (like a right couple of 'old fogies') for what turned into a
couple of hours!!. .touched base with BB . . ate chicken
sandwiches . .napped. ..walked . . TVd . . ate four sausages in
bread rolls . . TVd until bed around 11pm. p
25 - Up
around 6am but the clocks changed last night so I guess that's
around 7am . . walked in a slight hint of drizzle . . pottered
around tidying up and vacuuming just a little and then put in the
hours to sort out paperwork and balance my accounts. Took ages -
well into the afternoon! Damn! That 'NTL' thing where they were
changing over my phone calls - well, it turns out that WAS Virgin
and part of my broadband deal! And I've gone and screwed it up by
phoning BT and putting a block on it (which BT say they cannot
undo!!) . .sat around/TVd . . ate napped. walked ate TVD until
bed. Blah blah blah. p
26 - Up
around 6:30am . . walked . . called Virgin trying to sort out the
mess I've got in with my phone thing. I 'think' they are simply
going to re-submit the change-over, after the end of the month
when hopefully it WILL go through. . left Sally at home and
walked down to the building society to deposit the last PSB wins
I've had laying around for ages and to withdrawl some cash . .
stopped off at the local Job Centre on the way home intending to
see if there is ANYTHING in the way of benefits I am eligable
for. The upshot of it was (because I currently still have some
savings) - no. I'm not eligable for a damn thing! Not even a
reduction in perscription charges!! So - back to plan 1. Live off
my savings until they are all gone. :o( . . sat around feeling
desperately worthless. . ate a corned beef sandwich . . . spent
much of the rest of the day in bed. Suffice it to say, I am
having a real hard time of things at the moment, moodwise. Seems
as though everything has finally caught up with me. Yes, I should
be getting on with doing some work on the house and making it
mine and feeling happy about stuff - but I can't. I just don't
feel that way about any of it. All I feel is how I'm on borrowed
time in a borrowed house that for some reason (money mostly) I
have no right to stay in. Psychologically I'm in a worse mess
than I've ever been! I can't help it. I can't sort it out. I need
'help' and there isn't any. What a mess. What a hopeless mess . .
walked . . ate cornflakes and Mum donated Battenburg cake . . TVd
(despite nothing worth watching) until bed around midnight. ps
27 - Up
before 6am . . .walked . . PCd a bit of this, but I really just
can't be bothered with it. I've nothing to say to anyone. . .did
dishwashing/laundry chores . . cooked and ate cold chicken and
chips . . Mum popped down briefly with some mail and food
donations . .napped for an hour or so . . .walked slightly
earlier than usual and did the woods . . . ate Mum donated
sausage rolls with crisps . . BB called . . TVd with coffee and
biscuits until bed around 1am. p
28 - Up
around 7am . . .walked . .switched matresses on my single bed
(the one that came with the bed seems to be a couple of inches
narrower than a proper single, and the fitted sheets don't fit
properly) and dug out a different duvet and some of my sheets etc
. . left Sally at home and drove to a local store and bought two
single and two double electrical socket boxes (£8.93), in a
futile attempt to encourage me to get on with starting work on
some rewiring. Drove on to the local store and bought the cheap
and nasty rotary clothes line they had in there. (The one(s) I
left behind in Bristol were SO much better/more expensive! :o( )
Poorly fitted it into the parasol base at the top end of the
garden. It'll do . . put laundry on and then hung it all out in
the sun. . . dug out the small, half dead tree in the front
garden right in front of the patio, irritatingly obscuring a free
view of the lawn. (Gave the 'goth' style studded wristband I'd
once found in BGdns to the young girl next door, who I saw
dressed in that manner a few days ago. She seemed happy to have
it.) Tried to save the tree for temporarily relocating, but it
wasn't gonna have it and ended up being dumped below the hedge at
the bottom of the garden for some time removal to the tip.
Incredibly warm in the sun after a bit of digging. Actually felt
too hot to sit in it! . .Mum popped down briefly with some mail
and food . . . ate the Mum donated pastie with crisps . . BB
called. Actually makes a change to get a phone call for me!! I
seem to be constantly inundated with calls (from India call
centres) for a 'Mrs Newbie'. Bloody annoying, and ALWAYS at the
most innapropriate times - like right in the middle of de-boning
the chicken yesterday. . cut my hair/beard . . TVd/sat/PCd the
day away. Some time during the day something had pulled the bird
feeder off its hook and dumped it and the nut contents all over
the floor! . .didn't nap and regretted it. By the time it was too
late to do so, I felt headachey and utterly exhausted. . walked .
. TVd . . ate corned beef, philadelphia, and lettuce sandwiches
and some mum donated chocolate . .TVd until bed around 11:30pm. p
29 - Woken
by Sally earlier then up around 7:15am. Hmmm - I have a horrible
feeling that matress isn't as comfy as the other one. Kneck ache!
. . walked and caught in a hail shower on the way home . . PCd a
bit of this . . .sat around debating what I ought to be doing,
and really not having the energy or inclination to do any of it.
Headachey. Somehow ended up in the box room stripping off some of
the wallpaper, eager to see what the walls would be like beneath.
Usual nonsense of woodchip over layers of older paper which
wouldn't come off! Didn't do much. Actually, the walls aren't in
'that' bad a shape, compared to what I've been used to. Certainly
NOT paintable, but not 'that' bad given a few packs of filler. .
. ate corned beef and philadelphia sandwiches with crisps . .
napped. . . walked . .TVd . ate bowls of cornflakes a banana and
some battenburg cake . . to bed before 11pm. [pcml]ps
30 - Woke
earlier then up around 7:15am again. Frost on the cars and
condensation on the windows. .walked. Stopped to sit on a seat
for a cigarette like usual, but when I got back to my feet I
found I'd somehow 'put my back out' again and could hardly
straighten up or move!!? For goodness sake! It seems to be a
certain (unidentified) way of moving which somehow traps a nerve,
and has nothing much at all to do with lifting anything . .
ambled back home to take a couple of paracetamol :o( . . .loaded
the car up with the big heavy tree trunk/stump and the smaller
tree, left Sally at home and drove to the tip. Turned out to be
the journey from hell. Stuck in traffic queues by the roadworks -
stuck stationary with the engine off, in a queue into the tip -
stuck in a queue a couple of miles long just heading for the
stores!! Arrgggh! . . bought dog food (17kg PAL Complete £17.99.
Winalot x 24 £8.64. Chewy treats £6.48) and then toured a
couple of the superstores looking at ovens and DIY stuff. Don't
understand the DIY stores down here - they don't seem to actually
stock much of anything. All the stuff I'm so used to just popping
into Wickes and picking up (PVA, Wood glue, plaster, conduit, etc
etc), doesn't seem to be readily available anywhere down here -
and everywhere I go there is a traffic jam!!! . . eventually gave
up and returned home with none of the stuff I'd been intending to
get to enable me to start work on rewiring the box room! Actually
returned home feeling terribly down, fed up and 'out of my
element'. . . cooked and ate four beef burgers with the last of
the philadelphia . . lay down to nap but couldn't . . . TVd . .
drove Sally to walk in the drizzle. . . TVd . . Mum called to
touch base . . BB called . . ate bacon sandwiches . . TVd until
bed around 11:30pm. [pcml]p
31 - Woken
around 6:30am by the fridge freezer making a nasty noise!! . . .
walked in the cold wind and cleared up a carrier bag of beer
cans, bottles and debris from around BGdns. . . PCd this and
surfing around looking at ovens and the like some more. Hmmm -
the nearest Wickes store is in Exeter or Plymouth. . briefly
dabbled with shaving off a bit of the box room door and
relocating the latch plate, so I could shut it properly . . .
left Sally at home and drove to Mums to pick up some more of the
junk I've still got littering her garage. Helped her move the
sofa out of the living room back into the spare bedroom, so now
in the house she is back to normal like before I descended upon
her. . .ate Mum donated sausage rolls . . .napped . . TVd . .
walked . . drank a mug of wine. . . touched base with BB . . ate
ham sandwiches. . TVd until bed around midnight. [pcml]p
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