A delivery and getting lippy

I waited today for quite some while for the rudest delivery man I had ever met. He dropped off our new kitchen cupboard doors whi are splendiferous. Our old kitchen cupboards were not to my taste at all so a few summers ago, my sister and I painted some of the doors on the back lawn with some special silver cupboard paint. Unfortunately, it got dark before we had finished and eventually we gave up with the weather and remounted all the doors and would finish them later on. So for the last few years, we had a somewhat patchwork kitchen effect. Now, normally this would be a source of annoyance for most people but I wasn't too bothered as it soon became evident that the cupboard paint was about a robust as a chocolate teapot. The closeup of the handle is of a top cupboard so saw little wear and tear compared to the bottom cupboards, which were bashed by big dogs.






There were 29 boxes that were delivered - of that 29, the delivery man carried 7 on his sack trolley and I carried all the rest. And he refused to bring them into the house as there was one step - I was not best pleased.

But it has been one of those weeks, the women in my family have not faired well this week. Poor Thai had to have a stitch in her ear over the weekend. She then cut her foot in the garden and, as I cleaned and bandaged it, she nutted me and split my lip and gave me a blood blister.



When my sister rang to say that she had got the flowers that I had sent for her birthday, I fully expected her to tell me that she had accidently stabbed herself with them. She is suffering - she has an exam tomorrow and so much coursework on her plate that she has put off her birthday celebrations until next week, however she deigned to allow Mum and Dad to cook her pancakes tonight. We are putting off the pancake day in our house until John is home - no fun having pancakes on your own...

The shower trials

Well, having had such a bad week and a half, we decided J needed a day to recover. We had a luxurious lie in (excuse the alliteration) and watched some crappy daytime TV. We then investigated the computer and found that although it initially looked like the hard drive was screwed, it now seems that the hard drive is fine but the SATA controllers are screwed. So, new motherboard for me and, while we are at it a new case as trhe one I have is a bit awkward and we want to add a couple more hard drives etc.

We then went swimming as we can't use the shower and yesterday was the hottest day this year so we were both a little sweaty. This basically pooped us out - we staggered round the supermarket to get bread, shampoo and a coupole of other little bits and staggered home. We hadn't sat down to eat lunch before Mum and Dad rang to say they were coming tofix the bath and I had promised them the chicken pot pie from the night before for t. I also made bread and butter pud form the stale bread that morning. Dad fixed the bath very quickly, and we all sat in the lounge and nattered about google maps and switzerland etc. They headed home about 8, and after J cut my hair and I cut his, we watched Independance Day on our new DVD player, courtesy of J's dad. We haven't been able to watch it up to now as our latest DVD player didn't have multiregion and a large section of our DVD's, including Independance Day, are american.

We both LOVE this film - sure it is full of plot holes but it still ROCKS!

A bathing disaster and welcome homecoming

Saturday was a loooong day. I really needed to sleep as a bad back had kept me awake the night before so I took the monsters to bed with me as JJ is home tomorrow and he won't let the monsters sleep with us so I like to take the occasional opportunity to snuggle. Unfortunately, Thai had the wiggles and about 5 am Sherb trod on a toy that woofs christmas songs and then decided that it was a threat to the security of the world and stood and barked at it forEVER!

I had LOTS to do today so, having checked my email, I went to jump in the shower. Luckily, I looked down as I reached for the tap as the bath plug hole had dropped through the bath and the water would be dropping directly on the floor. The day before I had been using loo limescale remover to delimescale EVERYTHING! (It is much stronger than regular limescale remover so is done quicker) and there was a patch of limescale around the plug that was a bit stubborn so I popped some more on and promply forgot about it. It seems that who ever installed the waster did a bit of a hash job of it and in the end just stuck it in using mastic. The limescale remover ate straight through the mastic and the waste dropped out.

After about an hour wasted and then a sheepish call to my Dad who said he should be able to fix it without too much of a problem, I was finally able to get on with it. I got quite a lot donw but my whole day was basically one of waiting for the moment J came home. Just before leaving for the airport, I went to check the fight details on my computer. It was frozen. I restarted and nothing it, it didn't go in, it just impacted on the surface. I evetually had to admit defeat and dash to the airport, HOPING I remembered it right and he was landing at terminal one.

His flight landed about 16 minutes late but, as J put it, it parked at gate one million 7 hundred billion 6 thousand and 5, so getting back to the arrivals took forever. He did not have a good trip, to the point where he was in tears when I finally saw him and I think he was desperate to get home. When we got home the dogs, Sherb in particular, went completely doolally and, haing worn themselves out, collapsed and slept happily knowing their daddy was home. I had made him chicken pot pie as he had overdosed on cheese while in switzerland, but we weren't hungry so we sat and talked and watched the video that he took of the wildlife and Rambo, his dad's dog.

I don't think I have ever been so glad to get into bed and snuggle with my hubby - I swear he was away from years not days.

One of those weekends...

Well it has been one of those weekends. We were trying to get the house looking reasonable for the surveyor (we are remortaging with a new company for a better deal).

Neither of us has laid tiles before so we HUGELY underestimated the time it would take... I forgot to take a piccy of what it looked like before as in a fit of grrrrritude I had taken the lino up during the week , but saturday morning we basically had this:

So we set off, me applying the adehesive to the floor and John laying the tile behind me.

For the first row we cut all the edge bits, but soon decided that took too long so would lay all of the complete tiles and then go back and fill in the gaps.

Mid-afternoonish we had something that was beginning to look floor like and were very proud of ourselves.

Then began the long and arduous task of cutting all the bits, mostly done by JJ I will admit.

About 6ish John popped to sainsburys to get us something for tea, however he sat at the traffic lights and watched the aftermath of an accident that had obviously just occured and, when the lights turned green, pulled away. However, a guy coming the other way that was also staring at the accident, didn't notice the lights had changed and went through them at speed and JJ adn he had a "coming together". There isn't a huge amount of damage to the volvo (the other guys car was trashed) but we think, as the volvo is so old, it is likely that the insurance company will write it off, which is exactly what we don't need right now but never mind. Both men were unhurt except John sprained his thumb getting it caught in the steering wheel as it span round on impact.


By about 10pm Saturday night we had finished laying all of the whole tiles and had cut all of the off cuts (the off cuts being a swearing fiesta in itself!). I had blisters on the tips of all the fingers on my right hand and a couple on the palm. JJ began planning the ultimate bank job so to take advantage of the fact that I had now completely worn away my finger prints. He couldn't have helped in the hiest however as he had done in his back and leg muscles.

Sunday was fathers day and, when he rang to let us know his plans for the day, he then stupidly allowed himself to be suckered into helping us for the day instead! Mum and Dad appeared about lunch time - we had just finished gluing down the last of the cut off tiles and re gluing two of the tiles which were loose - and after a quick breakie of KFC (hmmmmmm) we got to it.

However, Dad insisted on doing the floor properly (Dads are so bad annoying sometimes) and leaving the floor to dry completely before grouting - I was going to grout the whole tiles and leave the rest til later. (What is more the whole "quick drying" adehsive ("ready to grout in 3 hours") wasn't so even the whole tiles weren't quite dry yet. Instead, we blitz tidied the rest of the house and Mum and I attemped to get in the door of my study and clean it. All in all, we got loads done and it made life a whole lot easier (thanks Mum and Dad!)

The next day Mum and JJ threw a sickie and Mum popped over to fold washing and do washing up while I grouted and JJ went to Oxford (where I was supposed to be) and was generally helpful. We finally finished grouting at around 7.30pm and we are really pleased with the effect.

So all in all, despite the fact that it took WAY longer than we had hoped and resulted in writing off the car, I am a happy bunny, as are the dogs who have been either shut in the garden or the lounge for the last 3 days and have been extreamely put out, as you can see:

JJ's disgrace...

I am SO very angry at JJ, he was so MEAN last night (in my dream) that I woke up FURIOUS at him and I can't shake it!

Basically I dreamt we were still living in our house but we were both back at University. JJ was studying in the US and I was studying somewhere round here. It was the summer holidays and, although he was housesitting in the US, he decided he needed something here so flew over and turned up on our doorstep. We spent a pleasant day together and then his dad and his german uncle (whom I have never met) turned up and after an hour or two, they headed off as John had to get to the aiport. However, by this time he was back in bed and refused to get up until the last minute. Add in the fact that the sat nav we were using was going haywire and he missed his plane. After discussing it, JJ said seeing his Dad had made him homesick and he wold go to Germany for a few days and see his Dad and his German family and then fly back here and then on to the US. I was a bit annoyed as we couldn't afford it but agreed, after all it is his Dad. I dropped him at a hotel for the night, slightly miffed but not too annoyed.

Next morning he turns up in a stretch mercedes in a white tuxedo. What is more the car is full of beautiful women and one giant of a man that sat with his head out of the roof. I was more than a little miffed now but JJ talked me round, convincing me that they were just friends. Until, that is, he told me that he had decided that, rather than see his Dad, him and the girls were going on a tour of Germany, staying in five star hotels etc. I was FURIOUS! THERE WAS NO WAY we coud afford that, but JJ couldn't seem to see anything wrong with it and just left. I decided that I was going to fly to the carribean for a two week holiday to spite him. However, in my dream I never got to enjoy that bit as, before i knew it JJ was back from his tour and, annoyed that I wasn't there to greet him, went on a murderous rampage across London, killing everyone in sight.

And I woke up to find myself on my side, looking directly at JJ and still feeling absolutely FURIOUS with him! It is still lingering too - how werid is that?

Anyway, yesterday we went out to buy tiles for the floor in the kitchen - Sherb ripped up the lino years ago and we have put off replacing it, trying to decide if he is out of that stage, but every now and again he would do it again. However, we have a mortgage surveyor coming this week so want the house to look as good as possible. We made sure that we didn't leave the dogs any water overnight (cruel I know but one night won't hurt them) so that they couldn't spill it everywhere and stop us being able to lay the flooring. So of course this morning I get up and Thai has peed on the floor! ARGH! She hasn't done that in MONTHS and today is the day she decides to get to it?! It is SO frustrating but still we will have to start at the other end of the kitchen and hope it is dried by the time we get there. If not, we will have to finish the floor off tomorrow. I shall take piccies to show our progress...