Men At Work

Wednesday 25 February 2009

As the old saying goes, I love work.  I could watch it for hours.  Gordon and Dan have been ‘playing’ with this patch of ground for weeks, demolishing the chalet/shed that had stood there for years and widening the driveway into the farm.  This has always been tricky for drivers of longer-than-average lorries as there’s a slight dogleg on the way out that’s resulted in the occasional prang on the gate post or on one occasion, the demolition of a stretch of fence along the right-hand side.  At the time the lorry driver reversed until his lorry was clear of the mess he’d made then drove off at speed, but we knew where he’d come from and phoned the company, who made recompense for the damage.

The boys have spent ages digging this hole, levelling the ground, putting in reinforcement and generally enjoying themselves.  They’re outside the kitchen window so I watched with interest as the ready-mix was delivered and they spread it around.

They’re doing a great job.  I could watch them for hours!

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Phew

I seem to have spent the week rushing around yet again, but on the plus side it looks like Spring’s making a bit of an effort.  There are crocuses, snowdrops and polyanthus in abundance.  Can’t wait!

We went to Cheltenham on Wednesday to see Alex who’s feeling very homesick.  We took her and her housemate Tanya out for lunch, had a great day catching up and wandering around the shops.  She’ll be home in a fortnight for Steph’s and Dad’s birthday, which is on the same day, conveniently over a weekend.

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Yes, I am that vegetable

Tuesday 17 February 2009

The cold weather has me huddling under a blanket or wrapped in many layers of clothes, reluctant to venture anywhere that might be colder than where I am.   Unfortunately, it also slows down my brain to the stage where everything seems like too much effort.  I have lots of good plans, but come the end of the day they’re still just plans.  The housework seriously needs doing but other parts of the house are cold, drafty and dark.  I debated whether to sort out my wardrobe today; something I’ve been giving a lot of thought to, but my thoughts include trying things on to see whether they (a) still fit me, (b) still suit me, (c) aren’t eaten away by moths and (d) aren’t so out-of-date that people might point at me in the street and laugh!  Needless to say it didn’t get done because it’s so cold upstairs.

Cold enough for snow(drops)!

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I Flied

Sunday 15 February 2009

I’m not sure if I’ve told you this before, but Gordon is an aspiring microlight pilot.  He doesn’t ‘aspire’ particularly hard, preferring to read the magazines, buy microlights and hang out in the clubhouse at Westonzoyland.  Daniel and I despair of him as he says he wants to learn but finds excuses not to seek out lessons.  His favourite excuse is that he doesn’t have the time even though we offer to do all his jobs for a couple of hours a week while he goes to the airfield.

Our brother-in-law Steve on the other hand is a seasoned pilot, learning originally in light aircraft and progressing to his own microlight.  He’s a regular at the airfield where the new clubhouse is warm when he’s not flying.  Yesterday Gordon decided he’d like to go to the club to pay his subscriptions.  There’s never a shortage of friends there who are willing to take him as a passenger in the hope that it’ll whet his appetite and encourage him to learn for himself.

To begin with he went up with his friend John, leaving me in the clubhouse with a cup of coffee.  He’d only been back a little while when he told me he was going up with Steve.  I must have made a face or something because he asked me if I’d like to go instead.  Although I normally suffer from travel sickness regardless of the vehicle and therefore avoid putting myself in a situation where I’m likely to be sick, I said that I would go.  Gordon bustled me out so quickly that I couldn’t even grab my camera, which is a shame.  Steve flew out from Westonzoyland to the farm where we circled around, commented on the amount of water in all the fields then went back again.  I quite enjoyed it and would have loved to have my camera with me.  If he offers to take me again I’m going to insist!

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Watching

Thursday 12 February 2009

I was glancing out the window this afternoon and spotted the perfect photo opportunity.  This crow is a regular visitor and quite happy to taunt the cats rather than fly away.  It usually appears when I throw meat scraps on to the lawn and I’ve even seen it catch a cat by the tail, drag it away from the meat, hop over its head and snatch a morsel.  We had a pied wagtail that used to flirt with the cats in a similar way, strutting about just out of reach until he had a momentary loss of concentration one day.  Unfortunately, that was the end of him.

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A Diet Update

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Those of you who drop into my world of blogness on a regular basis may remember I mentioned I was on a diet with Slimming World, something I thought I’d never find myself doing.  I’m not really a ‘joiner’ of groups.  Oddly enough and against all my prejudices, I’m really enjoying it.  The other people in my group are lovely, supportive and encouraging, and as a result I’m almost a stone and a half lighter than when I started.  The biggest shock though was my measurements which I took again yesterday.  I’ve lost of total of fourteen inches: four from my chest, six from my waist and four from my hips.  I knew I felt different but that surprised the heck out of me!

Gordon and I went to a funeral today; my second one this year.  It was for an old friend we’d lost touch with years ago, but when we were informed of his death we decided we’d like to go and pay our last respects.

Stephanie is having a good time in Prague according to her text messages, although she’s ‘misplaced’ some money.  It isn’t a huge amount but enough to concern me about the welfare of the remaining amount.  Still, she’s with lecturers who will look after her and no doubt feed her if she can’t afford to buy her own lunches!  Her ‘sensible’ coat has inside pockets (with zips) but it’s upstairs on a hook!  I’m working on the ‘learning by experience’ theory now anyway.  What else can I do?  I have to let go sometime!

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Prague

Tuesday 10 February 2009

I’m at a loose end today.  The cross-stitch I was doing for Jolly Red was finally finished yesterday afternoon and eventually, when I could find an open Post Office (I ended up in Burnham in the rain) it was sent by Special Delivery which guarantees delivery by 1.00 pm on the following day.  That would be today.  Kelly rang me mid-afternoon today to ask whether I’d posted it.  Oh!  She did explain that the roads were slightly flooded where she was, but she’d made it from home and assumed the postal delivery would too.  It didn’t.  At the bottom of the receipt is a clause which offers a money back guarantee for delay, so if it hasn’t arrived tomorrow we shall be making use of that.  Special delivery is expensive, but if the service is no better than first-class there wasn’t a lot of point in paying the extra.

Stephanie went off with the College to Prague this morning.  We were both awake very early as we’ve been worrying for a week or so about how we’d get there in snow.  Fortunately the rain yesterday meant the snow didn’t settle during the night.  Despite my best efforts she refused to take her sensible coat although she did agree to a hat and gloves.  The hat was an expensive one from Accessorize so it was fashionable enough to wear.  She said her sensible coat was frumpy and she’d be fine.  At least her back was covered by the coat she did agree to take, which is more than can be said for several of the girls I saw getting into the minibus.  I wonder if their mothers tried to get them into sensible coats as well and lost the battle.  Gordon says she’ll learn the hard way, but I hope it’s not too cold in Prague.

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Hello

This is the back of the house this morning in the snow and sunlight.  It looks nice, doesn’t it?  This is the first proper snow we’ve had here for years.  On the left you can see our ‘pool house’ where the hot tub lives and the fish are under ice on the right.  The screening is to keep out the herons which attacked not long after our fish were moved in, taking all but three large ones and the babies.  Luckily there were hundreds of babies which have now balanced out to a manageable number.

After breakfast Daniel and Stephanie, who was home because she was told the buses weren’t running today, decided to make a snowman each.  They were outside collecting up as much snow as they could, but still only managed little ones.  They had fun though.

I can see from my blog stats that some of you have been visiting even though I’ve been away for nearly a week.  I could feel guilty but I don’t because I’ve been off doing other things and it’s not like I haven’t just been talking to you – I haven’t been talking to anyone!  The computer hasn’t been turned on for several days.  I’ve been sewing, cross stitching the picture for Kelly at Jolly Red.  I’m not saying I thought it would be quick, but I hoped it might be quicker than this.  I should have remembered that the poor old Mermaid of the Pearls has been on the go for about two years.  I just don’t seem to have as much spare time as I used to.

You’ll be pleased to know that the fridge arrived on Friday – late on Friday.  If you’ve ever stayed in waiting for a delivery you’ll know what it’s like when you come to the realisation that it’s late now and they aren’t going to turn up.  About ten minutes after I’d reached that conclusion the phone rang and it was them saying they were a couple of minutes away.  I checked to make sure they knew exactly where they were going and they assured me that yes, they knew.  To be on the safe side, I ran through directions for them.  “Yes”, they said.  “We know”. Ten minutes after that they rang again.  I could hear their reversing beep in the background and told them “ok, I can hear you reversing, but oddly enough I don’t see you, so I assume you’re not in the right place?”  Rather sheepishly they admitted that they were a little …. um … disorientated.

When they did arrive they looked at the front door and made that noise – you know, the sucking of air through teeth, usually accompanied by head-shaking that men do when confronted with the supposed stupidity of women (garage mechanics have it down to a fine art) and said something along the lines of “well, the doors will have to come off”.  Rather anxiously I asked them which doors, to which they replied “all of them”!  Several minutes later the fridge was outside (devoid of doors) and they’d unhinged my outer and inner front door.  Gordon had arrived by this time (following a pleading phone call on my part) and took over the ‘up-a-bit, down-a-bit’ part that got it in.  Once in place they reattached the doors and left.  It’s a nice fridge.  We’ve been using it and everything!

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