Alarm bells

Last night, as I arrived home about 9.30 pm after working the grave yard shift at a local supermarket, I thought it sound as if one of the neighbours burglar alarms is going off. The next door neighbour's alarm goes off regularly about once a week. So I didn't think much of it. Getting out of the car I realised that it was, in fact, our burglar alarm. The alarm box on the side of the house was flashing like a demented fairground attraction. There are no street lights where we live and a minor panic set in as I wondered if it was wise for a single woman to try to enter the house, when there might be a burglar or even burglars inside. I decided that the police would not appreciate a hoax call for a burglar alarm going off when the was no evidence of a break in. So I went ahead and opened the front door, switched off the alarm and found that it had been set off by a faulty sensor in the conservatory. I then went out to my car, to get my bits and pieces out of it, and heard a voice from down our pitch black lane, calling out my name. I established which neighbour it was and as he came closer I noticed that he had with him a golf club. I am not sure what his handicap is or even if he plays golf but fortuneately there was no burglar to club. However, I was grateful for his concern. City neighbours would probably have not even heard the alarm going off.

Going south to be in the north

Today we made the two hour jouney from Chester to Northampton for lunch with my husband's family. Chester was cold but bright when we left this morning. Northampton had had snow over night and felt bitter by comparison with Chester and it sleeted whilst we were there. My husband's brother-in-law commented that Northampton must feel positively tropical by comparison with Chester. He was rather surprised when we informed him that we had not had snow in Chester and the temperature was several degrees warmer.

Watching paint dry

Another weekend and we're painting again. When we finished last year's decorating my husband said that he would throw away the old paint brushes and buy some more. Well he bought some new brushes but also kept the old ones. So I expect you can guess what has happened - he is using the new brushes and I am using the old brushes. He is painting the doors and I am painting the door frames and the skirting board. We did have two cans of paint so we each had a can. Now we are down to one can between the two of us we are having to take it in turns to paint.

Mother's Day duty in the south

It doesn't matter how old your mother is or how old you are, she is still your mother and you are still the child when Mother's Day comes round. So we have done our duty and been down south to see both of our mothers. Despite the miserable weather we drove down to Weybridge in record time and were rewarded with a tramp around Weybridge in the rain. Then it was off to see my mother-in-law to try to sort out a problem with the purchase of the retirement flat that she is buying. Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we were off to Sussex to see my mother. She too, should be thinking about moving but won't. We went out for a meal with her. I had to cut up both her starter and her main course as if I were the mother and she were the child. Looking at our mothers getting old is no fun, but my mother at least is blissfully unaware of what is going on. By Sunday our duty was done. Our reward was a walk around Wisley before we set off back to Chester.