Bella

What day is it? by an absent-minded retiree

Yesterday I woke up convinced it was Sunday .. I had to check on the laptop ... definitely losing it!

So - today IS the Archers - and therefore IS Sunday. I have my online tax return to fill in, so the Archers is (are?) obviously a deferring tactic.

Looking out on the surrounding building site, it would seem snow has flurried on one side of the house, but not on the other - within a space of 10 feet. Odd. I hate this iron cold - it freezes the breath in my lungs - and yet, when I went to the Antarctic and round some of the southern ocean islands, I actually managed to overheat a few times. I'm now hibernating and getting SAD - thank goodness the sun's out today, at least. I might just go for a walk. Might.

The prospective lodger

Well, not the Russian student (36 going on 70) - FAR too severe a young man for this rather relaxed, messy, easy going - and frequently 'familied' house .. he started off his interview by complaining about the (deaf, elderly) dog, the small visiting grandson (a destructive force of nature) and the dusty (unused) piano keyboard on the dining table .. all sources of noise ... then asked if the house was warm, and that his present radiator was twice the size of the one in my spare room ... then told me (alright, his English needed a bit of beefing up) he'd rather live somewhere where he could talk with a native English speaker (me), even if conditions were poor (!) ... I really don't think he'd have fitted in here, do you?

So it was never going to work! Oh, and he wanted to pay peanuts AND be fed ... what did he think I was - a LANDLAYDEE?

I fleece my lodgers - what else?

Oh dear - yet another extracted reply to a message

I, on the other hand, am rushing around (for me) virtually non-stop! If it isn't lunch with friends, it's going to be coffee and narrowboats this afternoon .. oh, the mad social whirl ...

And another thing I've managed to do quite a bit of this year is to NOT spend money .. so far this year, I havent bought two narrowboats, a new bath, an eye-watering Roman blind, a pair of expensive curtains (got an identical pair quarter the price though - ebay!), or too much food (diet) - so the economy new year is going pretty well so far!

Oh, and bugger the age bit - it doesn't stop me doing anything I take a (cheap/free) fancy to - so hooray for the OAP rail card - bugger being 'senior' too. FGS don't witter on about being farkin OLD (I don't think you do, do you?) - someone recently kept on banging on about it until I could have smacked his silly face.

Am I feeling a bit feisty these days? Well, why not .. nothing to lose, lots to gain ...

Oh, and I've blocked someone on this site for the first time! That made me feel very good. hehe

Susy x

PS Where do you live? West country? Lovely down there, though the flatlands round here are pretty stupendous in a bleak way. I'm off to talk to a bloke about narrowboats this afternoon .... I think I'd better sew up my pockets, or cut off my hands ..

S

extract from an email

I had a blind man here yesterday - he was late but I think that's cos he couldnt see where the house was ... oh dear, that's frightfully bad taste - it was a man about blinds for my bedroom .... oh ho ho ... anyway, the upshot was they weren't what I wanted - he said we all have to compromise (bollox to that about blinds ..) and was thinking of charging £225 for one blind. So I said no thanks, and we talked about chickens instead. I have another far far cheaper, slightly fiddly, but much better option now - I shall have to find some material now. Anyway, the thought of NOT spending that sort of money makes me very happy.

I'm on an economy drive this year - only buying reduced stuff in the supermarkets - well, HAVING to buy the reduced stuff, whether I want it or not :-) - and then freezing stuff, making things out of weird ingredients, you know the sort of thing.

I've also saved another heap of dosh by NOT buying a new bath - mainly because I couldnt find a bath with central taps to fit in my teeny bathroom. So - I shall get some bath enamel paint for the ding and get a shower put in (thermostatic) above it, and have the walls and floor tiled - oh and new taps for the bath and basin - all MUCH cheaper.

Anyway, on the financial downside but with no future regrets, the chap who did my conservatory is going to replace the front door and the window next to it, and the cloakroom window and the sittingroom window, and do out the end of the garage to make a proper utility room. And finish the odds and ends with the kitchen, and I've got a bit of electrical work. So that's an expense which will be well worth while. And he can start in a week or so - and it will make the place warmer and more useful. It looks as if the final structural stuff might be nearly over - so only maintenance and decorating as ongoing things. It's never ending really. I feel very spoilt in some ways - the staff have been clearing the garden for me - makes me very lazy...

Oh, and I might have found a dance partner! Now you're not to laugh, groan, or throw your hands in the air! I was approached a couple of days ago via a forum website (I can feel you cringing - grin) by a jolly sounding chap in Sweden - English, and soon to be returning here, end of Jan. Anyway, we were on msn so I asked if he'd like to go to dance classes and he said he would - well, what can I say? Finding someone to go dancing with, as a woman, is VERY difficult - hens have more chances of getting dentures - so I'm desperate here or else I shall have to a) dance with a woman, b) hope a spare bloke turns up at the class - fat chance, or c) wait like susy nomates for the teacher to have a space between other women. I was going to advertise in the post office - hahahaha - MAN WANTED! Maybe a card in a shop window is better? I dunno, but it's all rather amusing ....!

On the tooth front (thinking of hens) I've still got the bottom brace, and a gum shield on the top ones - buggers keep wanting to escape and go on voyages of their own round my mouth .... one of the women I met in China said why did no-one tell her teeth move all your life? Little beasts. Still, they're not too bad - I hope I'll be having the top two crowned/veneered soon, and frighten people with the glare every time I grin! I might have diamonds embedded just for fun.

Bella's slippers - I think lots of children want to wear their shoes/slippers/wellies in bed and everywhere else! I'd love to hear her speaking bellsperanto!

Christmas Day 2008

Extract from an email:

"Gosh you'd have loved to have been here for Christmas chez les W* en masse ... loud noisy crowded arguing shouting chattering adults tripping over children small and large losing the dog who went for a walk to escape the mayhem brightly coloured wrapping paper all over the floor exclamations over the super presents peanut butter for T*(son) mulled wine and champagne and beer and that was before we even started lunch ...."

And now (Boxing Day) I've been making enormous (bought, not home-made) chicken casseroles, salmon in cheese sauce, chicken soup, chicken stock, and leftover vegetables fried with home-made fried eggs, and now off to eat trifle for brunch!

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

Aaah . . Arent they cute

Whatever next . . .

Who let the dog in?

Im going to have to blog this

Did someone say lunch?

Stuffing the christmas chicken

Arsonist!!

The other day I decided to cook. We'd run out of suitable cooking oil, so I mixed walnut oil and sesame oil in the wok and turned the heat on.

And sort of drifted back to the laptop to order indoor fireworks for Christmas.

And looked up five minutes later to see flames reaching towards the little cupboard over the cooker ...

The irony isn't lost on me....

Contemplating the flames and a possible a solution, I decided against the smother with a teatowel trick as I didn't want to burn myself. This was just as well, as I'd forgotten the teatowel should be first soaked in water - flinging a dry cloth over flames ... dear oh dear...

Eventually, I carefully carried the blazing wok through the sitting room and out of the back door, coughing with the choking fumes from the pyrolising non-stick, but at least the flames were reducing pretty quickly. I dumped the wok upside down outside, and the last of the flames went out. I was reminded later that opening the back door could have fanned the flames back on to me... The whole of downstairs was full of gray smoke.

I have no heat or smoke alarm, no fire blanket and no extinguisher.

Although this ended ok - apart from cleaning the greasy blackened area behind the cooker, and the wall cupboards above - a ghastly, as-yet unfinished job which smears further and further as I try to scrub it - it's horribly easy to see how this can happen, and get out of hand.

Please don't try this at home.