Taking a leaf out of Benedict's book

My first thought when I saw a blog post on Shrove Tuesday asking what I was going to give up for Lent was - my blog. That day my laptop had been impossible and trying to continue with my blog was looking to be a lost cause. Over the last few months I have given a considerable amount of thought to whether or not to continue with my blog and I have decided that I have done as much with it as I can. It is not a matter of poor health, although I have had a cold for the last few days. I do not intend to go into a monastery or even a nunnery, but shall be spending some time in our garden and I have other interests that I would like to devote more time to. Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day for me to pursue all of the interests that I would like to and recently I have been unable to spend as much time on my blog as I would like. At the moment I am not sure if this will be permanent or maybe just a sabbatical. Blogland has changed in the time that I have been blogging. Many of the bloggers that I cut my blogging teeth with, no longer blog. Sadly some are no longer with us. Blogging has  been an immensely enjoyable experience through which I have learned a lot from people, about people and about myself. I shall keep an eye on Blogland and may even leave the occasional comment but at the moment I have no plans to write posts.

And finally to borrow from Benedict's last address - Thank you for your friendship.

Ring ring

Always keen to get things sorted and move on, I spoke too soon about our telephone/broadband problems being sorted, when I published my previous post.

The afternoon, that the new master socket was  installed in the study, was very cold and wet. I had been to he hairdressers in the morning so was not keen to hang around outside looking at wiring or watching what the engineer was doing. He was in and out of the cottage and I was happy to leave him to it, as long as he shut the door, as the previous weekend we had had a mouse in the utility room. He did explain to me what he would be doing but deciphering telephone engineer tech speak is not my strong point.

The old master socket was in our bedroom. Don't ask why. A previous owner had it installed there.Then you have to take in account that our cottage was originally two cottages. It looks to us as if there were two telephone lines at some point in the past, but now all the telephone points, that we have, are on the one line. When they work we have a total of seven telephone points, but we have never used all of them. The cottage had five telephone points when we moved here and we have added another two in locations where we wanted them. Most of the time we have four phones around the house with only one set to ring. However, recently two, including the one set to ring, stopped working. It took us a bit of time to work this out. Both went out and I purchased a cheap replacement from Argos until we get around to sorting things out properly. At least it rings when it is plugged in. I have to admit that I unplug it when we go to bed and do not plug it it until after breakfast the next morning. That is the legacy of numerous unreasonably timed and unwanted calls. So I expect you are wondering what the problem is. Shortly after I had published the previous post I picked up the answerphone handset which is not set to ring, to answer a call only to find that the other phone continued to ring and I had to pick up the ringing phone to answer the call. This has happened before. So I did not think that it was too unusual. Shortly afterwards I tried to make a phone call from the answerphone handset, but there was no dialing tone. I thought that we had another broken phone. I mentioned this to husband when he came home. He soon worked out that the BT engineer had taken away the wiring from he old master socket and the point, that the answerphone is plugged into in our hall, is wired from the old master socket. Hence we now have three sockets that do not work and no messages on our answerphone!

Husband was not terribly surprised to discover this and it should be easier and more economical to ask our electrician to sort out the wiring. When we approached him about our broadband problems last December he could have come the following week, but it was not convenient with us. Now he is booked up for weeks and we are going to have to wait for him to find the time to fit us in. For the moment the answerphone is plugged in to one of the working telephone points which is not as conveniently located as the hall, so I have to remember to look at it from time to time.

Life in the doldrums

We rely so much on computers now. They have taken over our lives and now living without one has become difficult, restricting and at times tedious, but life has to go on regardless. Well, I have not actually been living without a computer for the last two months but our broadband speed had dropped so low that some days connecting to the Internet was impossible. That always seemed to happen on days when I really needed to use the computer. It would wouldn't it. Thankfully all that changed a week ago when the problem was fixed. I did not rush back to my blog straight away as the BT (British Telecom) engineer said that it might take a week or two for the broadband speed to stabilise and I wanted to be sure that there would be no further problems. So here I am with fingers crossed that there will be no further problems.

Having in laws to visit is not all bad. Husband’s sister and his  brother in law (BIL) came on Boxing Day. During the day the conversation inevitably turned to the thorny subject of our broadband problem. BIL volunteered that their broadband problem had been solved by having BT move their master telephone socket into the study and he was even able to quote the price. The next day husband phoned up BT and arranged for our master socket to be moved. The only problem being that they could not do the work until the end of January. I had suggested this as being a better solution to our problem than having to take up floor boards and three carpets, but BIL’s advice obviously carries more weight than mine as my suggestion fell on deaf ears.

Entertaining over, on 27 December I took down our Christmas tree and decorations and on 29 December we joined the jet set and flew off to Valletta in Malta for New Year. Not the real ‘jet set’ I know but we flew with easyJet. Malta was warm and sunny and a definite improvement on a cold and wet Chester. We were staying in the old walled city of Valletta, a designated World Heritage Site. Our first day was spent exploring its' sights and enjoying the sun.

The second day which was New Year's Eve, we caught a bus with the intention of going to St Julian's but missed the stop and ended up at the small resort of Golden Bay on the other side of the island!

Luckily there was a restaurant there where we had a bite to eat. We did not have to wait long for a bus back to Valletta and by mid afternoon we were back there. Now we needed to book a table at a restaurant for our evening meal. By a stroke of luck we managed to find a restaurant that had just had a cancellation. It was New Year's Eve so the cost was astronomical and we had to pay a hefty deposit. Walking back to our hotel we noticed stalls being set up in preparation for the evening's festivities. We need not to have worried about going hungry that evening, as we could have feasted on hot dogs, pizzas and soft drinks from the stalls, for a fraction of the price that we were to pay for our meal. Then there was this stall of pastries which were very tempting.

Our three day break was over all too quickly and before we knew it we were back in damp England. It was a pleasant break and we shall probably do it again as we now have very few family ties and only have to suit ourselves.

So we were  back to the mundane and humdrum of life in January. Short, cold, grey days and the remnants of the January sales. Before being plunged into the full horrors of a freezing British January we were lucky enough to have a few mild days which allowed us to get out into the garden and finish off some of the  Autumn jobs that had not been done. Then we had a spell of very wet weather before the cold snap set in. And for a few days this was the view from the kitchen window.

It looks very pretty I know. It was also very cold. Thankfully it did not last very long. Because it rarely does go on for more than a week, we are really not geared up for it in this country. Now we are back to grey, wet and muddy. We are never happy with the weather that we get.

It is now a year since I retired and life has settled into a bit of a routine. Things have not gone to plan. They rarely do and I know that the routine will not last for long. This term's flower arranging class, which is run through the local adult education college, will be the last as the teacher has grown weary of the red tape which working through the college involves. Whilst working I relied on my trusty osteopath to keep my creaking back in working order and have continued to go to her on a less regular basis since I retired. Last month she calmly announced that she will be retiring at he end of this month. Recent visits have been a bit of a luxury so I shall try to manage without her, but I shall miss her. Then last week my hairdresser told me that she was leaving to go to a salon on the other side of Chester. A first I was dismayed, but now that I have given the matter some thought I plan to try one of the other hairdressers at the usual place, as it is convenient and I really do not want to have to travel across Chester. She may have even done me a favour as she has been at bit erratic recently. This week I had a letter from my dental surgery cancelling my next check up appointment - my hygienist is leaving, which is not so bad, but you do get used to people. As I said earlier, life has to go on. Most of us do not like change but sometimes it can be good for us. There will be a new flower arranging teacher and maybe a different hairdresser will be better than the last one.

Season's greetings!

I have not forgotten about you all and I thought that I would take this opportunity to give you an up date on things. We are still waiting for an estimate for the work that needs to be done to sort out our broadband problem. Nothing seems to be moving very fast right now. So it will be sometime next year when we get things fixed.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Grinding to a halt

The last few days have been a bit grim. Last Friday our power was scheduled to be off from 9.00 am to 4.30 pm. In fact it went off about 9.30 am when the outside temperature was 3 degrees Centigrade (37 degrees Fahrenheit) and did not come on again until 6.30 pm by which time it was 2 degrees Centigrade and pitch black, there being no street lights where we live. When we received the notification of this power outage I did think to myself 'what bad planning'. Even if the power had come back on as scheduled, by 4.30 pm it would be starting to get  dark and the chances of the weather being mild on November 30 are slim. I amused myself, on Friday morning, by going to the supermarket to do the weekly shop then stopping off at a nearby garden centre where I had a walk around. It was stocked to the gunnels with Christmas decorations and paraphernalia. I can not imagine that they will sell it all. I took myself off out again in the afternoon, returning about 5.30 pm expecting the cottage to be lit and warm, but instead found it to be cold and dark. It was another hour before we were connected up. I spent that hour pottering around the cottage with my coat on!

On Saturday morning we had a visit scheduled from a BT engineer. This was about our fourth attempt at an appointment and this time an engineer did turn up. Over the last few weeks our broadband connection has been getting slower and slower and husband wanted our phone line checked. It turns out that the problem is in the cottage between the master socket and the study. It could be that the existing cable needs to be relaid, which will mean having floor boards and three carpets up. I do not think that the problem will be resolved in a hurry, given that Christmas and New Year are around the corner. At the moment navigating my way around blogs is a slow process as a result of the tortoise like broadband connection. Consequently I am going to have a break from blogging until this problem is sorted out. So for now I shall leave you with a photograph of a recent sunset taken from the back of the cottage.

The road to nowhere

A brown and muddy lane such as the one outside our cottage does not have quite the same ring to it as the yellow brick road. It does not lead to Oz and there is no rainbow anywhere around. We have the dairy farmer, turned arable farmer and the wet weather to thank for the state of it. Turn left out of our drive and the lane will take you into one of the farmer’s fields where he has been growing vegetables. Turn right and right again and you will come to one of the main roads out of the village.

 A team of men have been harvesting the crops in the field, which we were told would be potatoes and leeks, on and off since September. One of the fields can be accessed from the main road. So apart from the mud on the road when that field was harvested it did not interfere with our lives. But for several weeks now husband has been washing our cars every weekend only for them to get covered in mud within 24 hours. However, for the last two weeks the crop that was grown in the field at the top of our lane has been harvested. It is a long hard day for the team of predominantly Polish workmen. Husband has seen them arriving for work as he leaves home at around 6.45 am and I have seen them leaving at around 4.15 pm. Tractors and heavy farm machinery have been trundling and at times thundering up and down the lane from as early as 7.00 am until well after dark. There are no street lights around here and it must be pitch black in the field. And it is not just a Monday to Friday operation. They have been working weekends too. One evening I came home to find a farm vehicle of some description in the lane lit up with about six headlamp type lights. It was like the scene from ET. Thankfully they have now finished and life has returned to normal. If it is ever normal here, but not before a bit of drama.


A week ago I heard something heavy on the main road around mid-night. The following morning husband found his route along the road was blocked by wide farm machinery so had to make a detour around the village before he could effectively set off for work, making him late. Access to  our village is via two main roads one to the east of the village and another to the west. Last week the western road was closed going south for road works, which were scheduled to take two weeks. Then another sign went up in the village announcing that the access road to the eastern road was going to be closed this week for road works, leaving only one route in and out or the village. A concerned resident contacted the powers that be to point out that  delays caused by these road works could be a problem if emergency vehicles needed access to the village. Suddenly the two week closure became one week and the one week closure became one day!

Clothes horse or fashion victim?

Seasons like fashions come and go. Two weeks ago, here in the UK, saw the end of British Summer Time, as we put our clocks back one hour. Winter does not officially start until after the shortest day on December 21. Consequently, it must now be Autumn. Our first really cold day of this Autumn/Winter was two days before the clocks went back.  So I was rather surprised that afternoon,  to receive an e-mail offering me a preview of the Spring collection from a mail order catalogue whose clothes I sometimes purchase. Especially as earlier in the day a copy of their Winter catalogue had come through the letterbox. I know that fashion always has to work a season or two ahead but I have never bought my clothes much in advance of the current season. Now I find that I have to buy clothes earlier than I used to or I am left with very little choice. My initial reaction to viewing next Spring’s clothes was that I was not going to look. However, I did sneak a peek and even worse I saw some things that I liked, but I shall not be buying any Spring clothes until next year. We have Winter to get through before we even begin to think about next Spring.

Since retiring I have found deciding what to wear to be a bit of a headache. When I was working I had a ‘uniform’ of blouses, jumpers, cardigans and trousers that I wore for work. Those clothes were not usually worn when I was not at work. At home I would invariably be gardening, decorating or doing housework which meant wearing old clothes, that did not matter if they got dirty. Looking at my wardrobe, a year ago, I probably had more old clothes than anything else. I soon realised that I needed to smarten myself up. I noticed that many of those in my flower arranging class dressed themselves better than I did. It was not that I did not know how, it was more that I had got out of the habit. I have always had an interest in fashion and the challenge now is to dress fashionably without looking like mutton dressed as lamb. When I was a student my dress sense could be quite Bohemian and I could get away with anything such as purple velvet loons, home made smocks and a multi-coloured waistcoat made from oddments of wool.  Those days are now long gone and even if the clothes fit, they are better on someone else.

Fashion today is a mine field. There are so many different styles and looks, whereas in years gone by there would only be one.  When we were on holiday in Bordeaux, a few weeks ago, I noticed the young French women  wearing anything from shorts with boots to  scarves with  flip flops. So how does the mature woman dress herself? I am not sure that I know the answer. However, I do know that I am not yet ready to embrace polyester blouses, crimplene trousers and elasticated waist bands. I try to avoid anything that is too tight, too thin, too short or too cheap. Even if it does fit, it will not look good for long. I do buy a few bits and pieces from Primark, but I would never buy anything overtly trendy from there. The chances of seeing the item walking around on another are too great.  My aim is to buy well made and fashionable clothes at a reasonable price. Recently I have started to buy some of my clothes via the Internet. This actually came about when I needed some clothes to take on holiday and did not have the time to go shopping. It is easier than I thought, but I have to say that returning items that are unsuitable is a hassle, but then so is returning unwanted clothes to a shop. I do not end up cold and wet, hot and bothered, or worn out from walking around endless shops. I can do it all from the comfort of my own home. I understand that the Duchess of Cambridge is a fan of Internet shopping, but I suspect that she has a more generous clothing allowance than I do. I like to see what is in the shops and I do not think that you can beat feeling the quality and seeing the width. I am sure that most women get a buzz from shopping and we all have that impulse buy in the wardrobe that we never wear.

Years ago I was colour analysed. The concept of colour analysis was developed in the US.  At that time the colour palette was divided into the four seasons. Winter and Summer for the cool colours. Autumn and Spring for the warm colours. The concept of colour analysis has been further refined and is now categorised slightly differently, but the original principals must still apply. The analysis is based on skin tone and hair and eye colour. As it happened I was already wearing the colours from the correct season, but it is another aspect of fashion that we need to be aware of when we go shopping for clothes, as the wrong colours can be as bad as clothes that do not fit or a style that does not suit.

Then there is the thorny issue of make up. I am amazed by the number of women who do not wear any. The woman who looks good bare faced, has not been born. I need a bit of help to feel human. Hair is another dilemma, which is as much in the lap of the gods, and your hairdresser, as anything. It is a matter of what you are given and you have to make the best of it. However, we owe it to ourselves to look our best at all times.

I believe that some of you know that I have been having problems with my laptop, especially after I have been blogging. I wrote this post a week ago. I had intended to put the finishing touches to it and publish it last Friday but my laptop had other ideas and would not to work. Husband kindly sorted out my laptop and in doing so lost most of my settings which meant that I was unable to access my blog. It has taken a bit of time to find it and complete the post. I wonder if the laptop is trying to tell me something, but for now I will soldier on and hope that things work as they should.