Life goes on

I had not intended to neglect my blog for so long, but I simply have not had the time to get to it since I wrote my last post. In case any of you thought that my trip on February 13 was terminal - it was an inconvenience which left me feeling rather sorry for myself for a couple of weeks, but since then I have been fine. I am really not sure where the time has gone, but then I am always busy. We have just returned from a week in Ireland, which was enjoyable but a bit disappointing after last year's visit when we had glorious weather. To write about it  would make a rather boring post. Instead I thought that I would bring you up to date by posting about the events of the last few months.

A few years ago now, we had a leak through the ceiling of our study, which meant that it would need to be replastered. It was not due for redecoration so we put off doing anything about it until recently. We did get the leak sorted out at the time. So the second week in February found us starting to empty the study in preparation for having the ceiling replastered. My view was that everything needed to come out. Husband thought that we could get away with taking out as little as possible. In the time since the study was last decorated it had morphed into cross between Aladdin's cave and Steptoe's front room. The replastering of the ceiling was booked for the beginning of March and  it took us until then to empty the study. In the process we shredded reams of old papers, through out a stack of old magazines and all sorts of other things. For several weeks our paper recycling box was bulging to overflowing. We had donated the old study furniture to the local hospice for them to sell in their shop, but they could not collect it until after the ceiling was replastered.  It was a minor inconvenience, which we got around. We ended up with the various contents of the sudy secreted around the cottage - in the hall, in the conservatory, in bedroom 2 and in bedroom 3.

My aim was to get the contents back into the study as soon as possible. Once the ceiling had been replastered we had to wait a few a few days for it to dry out before we could decorate the study. Then the new carpeted could be fitted. I had worked out the time necessary for the decoration and booked the carpet fitting. Timing was tight, but we made it. The following day the first of the new furniture was delivered. The final piece of the jigsaw was for husband to put up new book shelves. Four months on and the cottage is still not straight. It is no surprise that we have been here eleven years now and the cottage is still not finished.The whole experience has been worse than moving house. Yesterday morning whilst husband was out I put back into the study, four boxes of books from bedroom 3 and some files from bedroom 2. I also had a go at tidying it up. Husband is determined to recreate the ambience of the study pre-decoration. it contains two printers, two computers, three laptops and a tablet computer. Why so many? Well he is trying to sell some of them, as they have been replaced and are now surplus to requirement.

In the middle of all this upheaval husband gave me two weeks notice that he was going to retire four months earlier than he had planned. I should have seen it coming. The writing was on the wall. I had expected  him to work until the end of August, but in the end I had no say in the matter and he retired at the end of April. Since then we have been concentrating, not very successfully, on getting the study back before making grand plans for our retirement. At the momemt I am taking things as they come and have not tried to impose any sort of routine on him. When it all gets to be too much I escape to the garden.