Year End Review

2007 was not a good year for me. It was probably one of the worst years that I can remember. In the last year I have lost a cousin and an uncle and now my teenage nephew has cancer. From the point of view of the cottage the achievements of the year have been blighted by the problems that we have had with the living room carpet and floor. Overall not a year to remember.

Just another day

It felt like Christmas yesterday when we went out the pub with the neighbours, but today it doesn't feel like Christmas anymore. My mother's decision not to come, to us, for Christmas has left a hole in our plans. We've got plenty to do, we just aren't doing what we expected to be doing. So I made my weekly trip to the greenhouse to check on things. The inside of the greenhouse looked like a bomb had hit it. Pots were empty and there was compost everywhere. As a result I have spent quite a time today animal proofing the greenhouse, blocking up holes and covering as many pots as possible with mesh and stones gathered from around the garden, to try to prevent any further attacks. I have not had to do this before and it should not be necessary. After all it is Boxing Day. And yes I could box somebody!

The other half of the bed

The missing part from the bed has not been delivered so I have cancelled the order and requested a refund. It is just as well that my mother isn't coming for Christmas after all.

Christmas in limbo

My mother has declined the offer to come to us for Christmas even though I explained, or tried to, that she would have to spend Christmas on her own. I know that we are a long way from her but my brother and I had the travelling sorted out. Her reason for not wanting to come is because it means cancelling the milk and newspaper! So I am not sure what we are going to do for Christmas. It's too late now to arrange anything else and at the moment I don't really care as I've got some bug. Perhaps now is the time to look for good deal on a holiday for Christmas 2008. I quite fancy going away for Christmas and leaving the rest of the family to fight over who goes where.

Half a bed

We've ordered a new bed for my mother to sleep on when she comes to stay at Christmas. We had to sell the old bed, because it wouldn't go round the corner at the top of the stairs, when we moved here. So until now the third bedroom has been bed less. I saw this bed on the Internet, when the bed that we really wanted could not be delivered until after Christmas and we are not quite sure what we are getting. It was due for delivery today but we only received one part of two. The second part is promised for delivery before Christmas. The courier has managed to loose it overnight and it will now have to be re-ordered. How do you loose half a bed? I do sometimes wonder why this country has not ground to a halt.

Sparkling ice

We recently had to replace our 15 year old fridge freezer. I'm not sure if that is really old in fridge freezer terms, but anyway it became noisy and smelly and eventually thawed out. So we have replaced it. I carefully followed the instructions, that came with the news fridge freezer, of not switching the thing on for six hours after delivery. Cleaned it with sodium bicarbonate and turned it up high initially, but then forgot to turn it down when I put some food and drinks into it.

Tonight, unaware that it was frozen, I opened a bottle of sparkling water and it went everywhere in the kitchen. Once we had cleared up the mess I attempted to get some water out of the bottle and realised that the bottle contained a solid lump of ice.