A moving experience

They say that one of the most stressful things you can do is to move house.  I think more stressful is to arrange for someone else to move house - in my case moving my mother out of the family home into sheltered accommodation.  In a way the least of our problems has been the practical aspect of downsizing from a 5 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom flat - the hard part has been all the emotional "baggage" that is associated with every single belonging in that house.  My mother has veered from poring over photos and documents in great detail to flinging stuff aside saying it all has to go. 

We are fast approaching D day - or should I say M day - Friday.  Today seemed to involve emptying the loft into my car and then into my loft!  I'm a sucker for sentimentality - any hint that something was a one time treasured possession of either of my parents and I sneak it home.   The old eiderdown that was on my parents bed when I was a child - well I am just washing it and then it will move on.  The photos of my parents as young newly weds - I'll pop them in a drawer for now but will sort them out soon honest....

I'm knitting my son Tom a fair isle jumper.  It was at his request and although he is very enthusiastic about it - I have a sinking feeling that this jumper isn't ever going to be worn.  Not because he won't like it (he's not got a choice about that!) - but because it will take me so long to knit it'll be out of fashion by the time I finish.

Flat packed furniture should be banned!

Hubby and I have just spent a sunny Sunday having a fight to near death, wrestling with various sizes of veneered MDF board to construct a set of drawers for our bedroom.  You might ask why we chose a sunny Sunday to do this but we actually bought the stuff about 6 weeks ago and have been working up the strength ever since to tackle the task.  It's some years since our Ikea flat pack days and to be honest I'd forgotten the horror that was awaiting us.
We started off enthusiastically but it wasn't long before I had to shut the windows to save the neighbours from the raised voices and choice vocabulary that we sank to.  Eventually after 3 and a half hours (yes honestly) we could sit back and view our handy work.  A very pleasing result - if you don't think too much about the rather alarming number of nuts and bolts left over!!! 

Had a great conversation with a call centre adviser yesterday.  I was ringing to let them know that eldest son had graduated - was no longer a student - and therefore shouldn't be listed as this on the car insurance schedule.  After running through a vigorous set of security questions - the only thing they didn't seem to want to know was the length of my middle toe - I explained why I was calling - a kind friend had told me that if the schedule wasn't completely accurate then the insurance company might wriggle out of paying up if we needed to make a claim.

So the conversation went something like this:

Me: I need to tell you my son is no longer a student and please can you alter my insurance schedule

Him:  Oh so why's he not a student?

Me: well he graduated yesterday.

Him: Oh so what's he doing now?

Me: well he has a summer job working in a call centre at the moment.

Him (whilst sniggering loudly):  Oh really, is he still working part time as an IT consultant.

Me:  No - that was last year's summer job - he doesn't do that anymore.

Him:  Well what is he doing now part time?

Me: Nothing he is working full time in a call centre.

Him:  Oh so is he a student part time?

No: He graduated - no longer a student - just one full time job for the time being.

Him: Well I need to replace his part time job - hold on a minute.

Put on hold for a few minutes

Him: I'll put him down as a part time housekeeper.

Me: Why on earth would you do that?

Him: Well I need to put something down - don't worry housekeepers don't do anything.

Me: Well I don't know what any other housekeepers would be too pleased to hear that!!

By this time he had worn me down - so son is officially listed as a part time housekeeper - I'll remind him of that next time the washing up needs doing!!

From Saturday I will have the ability to pause live TV - or so the advert tells me. I must say I am quite excited. No more dashing to the loo during the ad break. No more shouting "it'll be for you" when the phone rings. (Ok perhaps it's not a miracle worker and I still won't want to get off the sofa. ) Just need to find some programmes I want to watch.

Favourite programme at the moment is "The Restaurant". I can't cook but I'd love to enter just to have Raymond Blanc say "I'm closing your Restaurant" in that lovely voice of his.

It's Father's Day - and the first one since my dear old dad died. So it's been particularly poignant. Just writing this made me think about Father's Days we have shared in the past and whilst I've always made a point of visiting him either on the day or that weekend I honestly can't recall any special times. In some respect this makes me feel a bit bad - but I think the reason is that we shared lots of good times together (what ever the day) - when we would laugh and joke about silly things - that one day a year wasn't so important.

To be honest he was always the sort of dad who was quite suprised to find out it was "his day" - not one to follow the adverts for cheesey CD's and the such like.

We went out for lunch today for my hubbie - a indian buffet which is his favourite. My dad would have loved it too - so that was fitting.

Why ....

do people get off a train / escalator / out of a lift and just stand there blocking every-one else's way?


is it that I can wear a black skirt all day and spill nothing down it, but put on a white one and I throw my breakfast all over it?


do I meet no-one I know when I go out looking pretty damn smart (IMO) yet bump into loads of people when I nip out looking a real mess?


do I always seem to have to stop at the pedestrian crossing lights some joker has set off and then walked away from?


can I sleep like a baby when eldest son is at University but as soon as he comes home and goes out in the evening I'm up all night in a state of high anxiety until he's tucked up safely?

do all the members of my family always want to use the computer when I want to?

I have always had a bit of a thing about bags - and now a whole new outlet has opened up to me - the eco friendly bag for life. I have so many of the things that I am in danger of creating my own personal environmental disaster.

I have an impressive stock of supermarket plastic bags for life - mainly due to the fact that everytime I go to the shops I leave them in the boot of my car - so then have to buy a few more as I don't want to be seen with those evil normal carriers.

But my main problem is the canvas / cotton bags. If I see a new design I can't resist getting it. I was at work the other day when some-one came in with one from their local co-op. Not a store that was local to me but at lunch time off I went (in my car - never mind the carbon footprint) on the pretence of buying a sandwich. Another one to add to the collection.

I queued, in the rain, for ten minutes for a bag that was being given away at my local shopping centre. I bought a very special one for a friend's birthday and I had to speak severely to myself to give it to her as I was so keen on keeping it for myself.

Today I saw the bag of bags - canvas - not advertising anything - decorated with green flowers - I couldn't quite pluck up the courage to ask the owner where she got it from - but one thing's for sure - I WANT THAT BAG.

The men folk are watching a film about robots. They tried to tell me what was happening but it was all too confusing and anyway the whole film seemed to be in the dark and I couldn't see what was going on. They assured me there was some love interest (my key criteria for sticking with a film) but then let slip it was man with robot who only lives for 4 years - or some such nonsense.

Thursday night TV is poor. I usually get by because Wednesday is extra good and the video has been working overtime. But yesterday was silly champions league football so that messed things up. Football is going to mess up next Wednesday's telly too. Got to remember to watch the Apprentice on Tuesday instead. That will really throw the routine.

The Apprentice is best thing on telly at the moment. What I do find baffling - with this and other programmes - is that they don't seem to have watched the series before. For example - yesterday they were making an advert - previous series they were doing a similar thing and I seem to remember that the ones before fell foul of making an ad where no-one knew what was being advertised. Another programme - How To Look Good Naked - at the end of the programme Gok gets them walking down a catwalk in some shopping centre - and taking off their clothes. What a shocker - er no - that's precisely what they did in the last series.

Anyway - I'm putting a 50p bet on Lucinda to win. She'll probably get fired next week now I said that.

Ever the sucker for a new weight loss / body toning idea (apart from actually eating less that is), I ordered myself a pair of "toning flip flops".


This footwear was going to have a radical effect on the shape of my legs, as well as help burn loads of calories - just by walking around in them. Couldn't be easier.


I was so excited when they arrived - but slightly alarmed by the warning label saying not to wear for too long on the first outing due to their dramatic effects.


So off I went on a short walk to run them in. I hobbled home 15 minutes later having rubbed the most enormous blisters on both feet. This was not the dramatic effect I was expecting.


They are now sitting across the room looking at me - another white elephant in a long line I fear...

The lift at work is very small - it claims to fit 9 people - but frankly I wouldn't want to be stuck in there with more than 4 others. And I speak from experience having spent an hour stuck there this afternoon.

It all started off like a really good idea. A group of people were visiting the office for the first time. We'd had a good meeting and I said I'd take them upstairs to see the other office before they went off to catch their train. There was a short debate about whether they had time to do this - but decided they had - little knowing that the quick trip up the lift was going to take up the rest of the afternoon.

Now I'm no lover of confined spaces so when the lift jolted and ground to a halt I was about to lose it -until one of the others in there with me said she was scared - so I decided to keep calm and let her lose it instead. I rang the alarm - three times - then got through to a dialing tone and guess what - hold music. A disengaged voice told me I was third in the queue. Not quite the reassuring words I wanted to hear to be honest. Finally a human answered.

"We're stuck in the lift" I said. "Stuck in a lift" they said, amazed. It was as if I'd been put through to a wrong number. Eventually, after being passed onto some else they took the details down and said they would get an engineer to come. I asked them how long this would take and was told to call back in 5 minutes. We couldn't get through to them again.

Fortunately, one of my fellow captives had a mobile on her. So we rang our colleagues and they called the fire brigade. After about 30 minutes of captivity we could hear the sirens wailing. They were marvellous. Fortunately we were almost on a floor so they prised open the outside doors and managed to open the main doors enough to pass through cups of water and reassuring words. One chirpy fellow asked if we could squeeze through the two inch gap. Not at the moment, we said, but leave us here for a couple of weeks and we'll try.

By this time, 45 minutes into the ordeal, we were sensing freedom in sight and started to get hysterical. Photo's were taken - I took a good one of fellow captives, one took an interesting shot of partly opened lift doors.

Then in the way many things end, things had to get worse before they could get better. The lift engineer turned up, assured us all would be fine - then made the ceiling fall down. We later found out he had to stand on the lift to press some button or other. We did a bit of hysterical screaming, lift door opened and nice fireman lifted us to safety.

It's the stairs for me in future..

What a let down..

When I opened the post this morning I'd got a catalogue for Letterbox - a lovely company that sells all kinds of things for babies and young children. Not the sort of thing I am interested in with two teenage children, but I thought that with all this target marketing companies do, perhaps I am not as old as I feel.

So off I go to work with an extra spring in my step.

I took the catalogue with me as some of the people I work with do have young families. So there I am boasting that at least the marketing department of this particular company think there's life in the old girl yet, when one dear colleague points out that perhaps they thought I'd be interested for my grandchildren!!

I've made a new best friend.

We have just got a new computer and it's down to me to set it up. Things got off to a shaky start when I thought they hadn't supplied the right cable to link the old monitor with the new base unit. A bit of rummaging in the box and I found it.

Then had to link up broadband. Sounds easy - what happened to plug and play?

First call to the ISP helpline told me I needed a new disc to set up my modem. This would be sent to me. Three days (and some very annoyed members of my family) later it arrived and I was sent off to set it up. It didn't work. So I rang the helpline again. Got a very nice man on the other end of the phone who patiently talked me through the process. I say patiently - it took 45 minutes to sort out. But finally all was working - hurrah!

Silly old me thinks that if it works once it will work again. Wrong. On phone again - and after pressing about 38 buttons to get the right option I get the same nice man again. Oh said me I think I spoke to you yesterday. I could hear him sigh - yes I think you did. He tried to palm me off onto the internet help options but I had none of it!

Think he may be booking leave for the rest of the week...

Stop the pigeon

Can't believe I haven't posted since October but that's another story.

This weekend the RSPB are asking people to take part in a survey of garden birds. The task is to count how many birds visit your garden in one hour. Obviously to count them you need to know what you are looking at - but as the daughter and sister of keen bird watchers I thought I had a better than average chance of doing some spotting.

Approaching this in the same way as any new venture, I thought I would start off with a shopping trip - so went to the local garden centre to stock up on bird food / seed stuff to attract loads of birds. I put this out in hanging feeder things, left it for an hour for the attracting part to start work and then sat down in the conservatory for the big count. Decided against the binoculars (garden only 10 feet long) and rare bird identifier book - could write down descriptions and search for identity later.

In the space of an hour I saw three birds - a black one, a robin and a pigeon...

I've just got through the first week since eldest son went off to University.


I felt very anxious in the run up to him going - and hearing the stories of my friends crying when they left their children, I was really dreading it. I'm the one who cries at adverts - so I couldn't see how I wasn't going to make a complete fool of myself. But I held it together - not too hard really when we saw the lovely room he had - and he seemed to be happy and looking forward to it all. He's taken half the house so he must feel at home!

Quilting

Earlier in the year I decided to make a patchwork quilt. I'm not an expert quilter - previous experience making a cushion cover when I was at school - but I decided that I wanted to create a family heirloom.



Progress has been slow - it took me about a month to choose the fabric I wanted. I read up on different techniques, took advice from friends and then decided to do my own thing. I probably would have been more sensible to either start with a smaller project or to go for a squares design. I went for a king size bedspread made from small hexagons.


I've now made 8 "templates" - not sure how many more to go - but it must be lots! I'm a bit worried that it might not match in with my room decor - but frankly by the time I finish it who knows what colour my bedroom will be.



I'm taking a break from it to complete another heirloom - a patchwork quilted memory cushion which is going to feature a picture of my parents on their wedding day. It's my dad's birthday soon and I thought it would be a nice present for him. I'll post a picture of it when I'm finished!

I went on a trip to Slough today. I've never been before so my impression of the place was based the Slough of Despond (I know it's nothing to do with the place but hey!) and what I'd seen in The Office.


Trusty sat nav got me there - but as soon as we approached the town centre it started ordering me to turn round at the next available opportunity. It obviously wasn't happy that I had reached my destination.


I found the office I was visiting, tried to cross the road to reach it but nearly got run over by two red BMW's doing a bit of boy racing. On my way out I got mixed up - fortunately not literally - with two policemen trying to bundle a suspect into the back of a police van.


I was glad to get back to my car - although I was stopped in the car park by a man asking for my unexpired parking ticket - a request I didn't feel able to refuse. This was followed by a close encounter with a traffic warden so I ended up the one making a quick getaway!


On the way home sat nav decided on a scenic route which took me past a sign for a community orchard. What is a community orchard, because I'd like my community to have one.

I've deleted this post so many times that blogger will be wondering what's going on. He'll need to buy a new eraser. Was going to blog about my lovely holiday in Cornwall, but whilst it was so very lovely it was also wrapped up in the trauma I am going through with my poor Dad who has been unwell and is now in a nursing home.

I then started a post on guilt - linked to the Dad situation. Hubby read it and said I need to have a stiff gin. Good idea but it is only 5.30 in the afternoon and too early even for me.

So I'll tell you about my day. It's bank holiday and we have had a lovely day. Went for a walk from Stamford to Easton on The Hill. A circular route that was supposed to include a pub lunch. I messed that one up - marched us all out of one pub as I thought the other one in the village would be better - only to find the other one had actually closed down. Third pub didn't serve food, so we went hungry - not that it mattered.

On holiday I had great idea for a website. Decided on a good name and could hardly wait to get home to register it and get started. How spooky to find that MY name has been registered by some-one - whilst we were away on holiday. Now think my holiday cottage must have been bugged. Not that I'm paranoid or anything...

I've just seen on Yahoo news that over excited Harry Potter fans are going to skip to the end of the new book to find out what happens. I'm no fan of the famous wizard so I'll probably join them to save having to read the whole book. Then I can taunt people who are struggling through the x hundred pages to get to the end.

A friend of mine - who will remain nameless but she knows who she is - always reads the end of a book first - to check out if the ending is worth the read I suppose.

I remember years ago my father was ill, lying in bed reading an Agatha Christie novel. My brother walked in and said "Oh, that's a good book - the Doctor did it didn't he?"

My father chucked the book at him and didn't read another word of it. Some years later my brother confessed that he had since read the book himself and the Doctor didn't do it!



I've added a link to a blog I 've just heard about. It's letters written during World War 1, published on the blog exactly 90 years after they were written. Makes fascinating reading. And you'll have to wait to find out the end...

Slight hitch in my search for literary fame and fortune.

I wrote the first chapter of my novel and although I say it myself, it was pretty damn good. A punchy, witty start to what is clearly going to be a best seller - ha ha!

The children were curious to know what I was writing about and so feeling a bit coy I decided to password protect the document. Very busy for the next couple of weeks so no chance to get any more writing done. Last night I sit down to start chapter 2, and I can't remember the password! I've tried practically every word in the english language - and a fair few that aren't.

So if there is a method of breaking a password on a word document please please tell me...