I'm leaving the country

That's it. I've had enough. I'm going.

On Monday morning I loaded up the washing machine and pressed the buttons to set it going. The lights came on, but it refused to work. This was all I needed as we are going away on Saturday and before we go there will be a fair amount of washing to do. Washing machine repair man No 1 said that he would be round on Monday afternoon but did not turn up. Repair man No 2 arranged to come on Tuesday afternoon and kept to his word.

Late Monday afternoon I had a phone call asking me to work on Tuesday to cover sick leave. 'Sorry' I said 'my car is going into the garage.' 'I am sure that we can pay for a taxi' the little voice on the other end of the phone said. 'I am not supposed to be working tomorrow. I've got a hair appointment and I have already had to cancel it twice.' I know how important these hair appointments are. I had a quick chat with husband and agreed to work a few hours to help out. About half an hour later both husband and I realise that there was more to Tuesday than a car and washing machine repair and that we have tied ourselves in knots. Never mind, we manage to work something out.

By Tuesday evening the driver's door window of my car was opening once again for an eye watering cost of £xy1.70 and the washing machine was repaired for about a quarter of the cost of the car repair.

Now we are just about all ready to go away and we shall be off to the Emerald Isle on Saturday morning.

Whilst I am away I shall leave you a photograph of this stunning dahlia which has just come out into flower in our garden. Hope it is still flowering when we get home.

Back in ten days.

The roller coaster ride continues

Life has once again got in the way of my blog. I started to write a post about two weeks ago, but at the time I was also busy getting ready for the gathering of my husband's family to celebrate his big zero birthday. Trying to clean the cottage from top to bottom in four days ready for the sergeant-major's (mother-in-law's) inspection, then prepare a cordon bleu meal for Saturday lunch. Everything was going to plan. We had just returned from the supermarket and unloaded several bags of shopping from the car, when the phone went at lunch time on the Friday, which was actually my husband's birthday. It was the residential home that mother is in phoning to say that she had collapsed and they had called for an ambulance. Could I go to A&E at the local hospital? My plans to spend the afternoon cooking and preparing for tomorrow's lunch were suddenly up in the air. We did not want to have to cancel the next day's meal as it had taken us four years to persuade my husband's family to visit us up here in Cheshire. Then there was the food. I quickly worked out that most of it could be frozen, otherwise it would have to be binned as we were due to go away for a few days on the Monday. The home kindly sent one of the carers to A&E with my mother and I phoned A&E to enquire about my mother when I estimated that they would have done a preliminary assessment of her. I was advised that she would be having X-rays and tests and to phone back in four hours time. Phew! My bacon was saved and I could spend the afternoon in the kitchen as planned. When I phoned back four hours later Mum had been admitted to the assessment unit. It was then a quick dash to the hospital to visit her. This was all new territory to us and I had heard a lot of complaints about parking at the hospital, so my husband took me with the idea that he would sus out the parking whilst I visited my mother. There are several small car parks in the hospital grounds. Once in the one of the car parks the only way out of it is by purchasing a token from a machine in the hospital. To exit the car park you drive up to the exit barrier, open the driver's door window and put the token in the machine and the barrier opens for you. Fine in my husband's car. Small problem in my car as the driver's door window stopped opening in some time ago and I have not got it fixed as I so rarely need to open it. By Sunday it looked as if Mum would be discharged back to the residential home on Monday so we went away as planned. On the Monday Mum was seen by the consultant who ordered more tests and on the Tuesday I realised that my mobile phone was no longer working. Could anything else go wrong?

Mum is now back in the residential home and I have bought myself a new mobile phone. The driver's door window on my car will be fixed next week. The family gathering for my husband's birthday went well and they were all impressed with the work that we have done on the cottage and the garden since their last visit back in 2004.

So again I am behind with my blog - posting, visiting and everything in general. Husband had planned a week at home from August 7, which is when I last posted. I decided to have some time at home with him and the week has now become a month. If there is anybody out there still reading my blog please take this Spread the Love award with my love.


It was kindly given to me by Akelamalu some time ago. I have not obeyed the rules attached to the award but I am hoping that she will understand. Please display it on your blog and pass it onto ten more bloggers.

Out of bounds

Summer, or should I say the better weather, is here in the UK and the neighbour's children are out in the garden attempting to hone their football skills.

A few weeks ago I had opened the gate at the side of our house in the expectation of doing some gardening in our front garden after I had done some work in the back garden. I was working in the back of one of the side borders, hidden behind the lilac tree when for some reason I looked up and saw a figure, clad in black, striding down our garden. At first I thought that it was the wife from next door who I had earlier seen in their garden dressed in black. I wondered what she could be doing in our garden, then realised that the hair was the wrong colour. It was not her. It was Del Boy Junior, the neighbour's son, from the other side. I was dumb struck! What was he doing striding down our garden? Eventually my brain engaged my tongue and I managed to stutter out something about asking before walking into some one's garden. He said something about knocking on the door and getting no reply. With an unanswered front door and the gate wide open I would have thought that it was obvious that we were in the garden. He had kicked a ball over the hedge into our garden and wanted it back. This was just one of several incidents that we have had with Del Boy Junior and a football.

The day that Del Boy and family moved next door we had a taste of what was to come. It was November and it was dark and wet but that did not stop Del Boy Junior and friends from knocking a ball around in their new garden, as Dad had rigged up some flood lights so that they could play football when it was dark. It was early evening when we had a knock on the door and a request to look for a ball in our back garden, in the dark. Reluctantly my husband put on his anorak and went out with a torch for a rummage around. But before he managed to get out there one of the football players was already in our garden flailing amongst the plants. There are no lights in our back garden and they couldn't find the ball. At that point we did not have the side gate and I have to say that this incident put the requirement for a lockable side gate at the top of our to do list, otherwise we could see that our garden would become a free for all scavenging ground for balls when we were not there.

We had had experiences of stray footballs at our previous house. Initially the children, who lived in the house at the back of us used to politely ask for their ball back. However, they became bold and one gloomy wet evening I saw them climbing over the fence in an attempt to retrieve a ball. How did I manage to see them? Their white trainers glowed in the dark. The next thing that I remember happened when we returned from holiday. As I walked from the hall into the kitchen I thought something was different. Initially I could not work out what it was. Then I noticed that there was broken glass all over the kitchen floor and a large, round, football shaped hole in the kitchen window. This was before we had done any work on the house and it was an old single glazed window. It was obvious who the culprits were. We never had an apology and they never asked for another ball to be returned to them. By the time that we moved from that house, about six years later, we had a collection of half a dozen balls which I gave to a charity shop.

So now we have some rules relating to the return of stray balls which are that we will return one ball per day before 8 pm in the evening, in response to a polite request for the ball to be returned.

Four Birthdays and Two Funerals

I am afraid that I have been absent from Blogland yet again, but on this occasion it has not been due to problems with my laptop computer. Sunday of last week found us packing bags, yet again, for a brief visit down to Sussex, which involved a family reunion. It seems as if almost every weekend husband has either been getting bags out of the loft or putting bags away in the loft. My husband tends to be a throw everything in the suitcase at the last minute sort of person whereas I like to be organised and work from lists. So I dislike intensely having to pack at the last minute as I have to when husband does not get the bags out of the loft until shortly before we are due to leave. Although in some ways I have had to get used to it, but it does not stop me sitting in the passenger seat of the car and worrying about all the things that I might have forgotten and the constant need to be rummaging in bag which sits on the back seat of the car, to check that I have not actually forgotten anything. In the past we have between us managed to forget comb, hairbrush, toothbrush, glasses, sandals and shirts. Now that my navigational skills have been replaced by a satellite navigation system I need to keep the old grey cells active somehow and there was also the desperate need to take my mind off the tragic affair that we were to attend the following day.

So far this year we have been away six times for one or two nights. There was the lightening trip down to Sussex to collect my mother and bring her up to Cheshire. Then there have been two funerals. One for my aunt in East Yorkshire and the second last week for a child. It was the saddest thing that I have ever been to. Husand and I have been to three funerals in the last nine months, so I am hoping that as things are said to happen in threes that, that is now that. The other three trips away have been to celebrate three of the four 'big zero' birthdays that are happening this year in our family. The fourth is next month when my husband will be celebrating and for a change the family will be coming to us.



On the journey home from Sussex we stopped at RHS Wisley, for a quick walk around, where I photographed these lovely blue agapanthus which will always remind of the events of July 2009.