Unwell

 Not well.  Back soon.

More appointments done and dusted

 Hahaha!  Annabeth, that adult bib in the style of a bow tie/dinner jacket did make me laugh!  Especially as husband has never owned or worn a DJ in his life.

The electrician turned up at 08.45, just as well we're early risers.  The 4-5 hours we were told it would take was a bit optimistic - it was nearly 6 hours.  He was a very nice and conscientious young man, only just qualified (last week, apparently!) - which, although it meant he didn't have years of experience, did mean that he's bang up to date with all the current regs.  It wasn't so much changing over the old fuse box thingy to the new one that took the time - it was all the testing he had to do afterwards.  He tested, individually, every single socket, light fitting, electric smoke alarms (7 of them), the careline thing, electric fan vent things, in every single room, and the car port.  All that took the most time, although of course it's part of the job, particularly as it's sheltered housing - must make sure everything is in full working order.  And it obviously meant some of the furniture had to be moved - which he did.  He also went up into the loft space several times.

We went to Blue Anchor bay for a couple of hours, leaving him to get on with the job (husband was talking the guy's ears off, so it would have taken him even longer to finish if I hadn't got husband out of the way 😉).  Not sunny at all but not cold, quite humid in fact, despite being the seaside.  No wind at all, the sea was flat as a pancake - sadly, as I much prefer to see waves crashing onto the beach.  No chance of walking on the beach though, the tide was well and truly in and was lapping against the promenade wall.  Lots of fishermen along the promenade, none of them were having any luck though, not one caught a single fish whilst we were there - I assume they need a rougher sea to bring the fish in.  Once back home we had some lunch and sat in the garden.....sitting out there chatting with husband gave me the opportunity to have a good look round the garden and work out what needs doing now (lots of weeding, deadheading, pruning and tying in again) and planning for next year.  There are several rose bushes scattered around the garden, I think I'd like to dig them all up and relocate them to a dedicated rose bed.  They're all very neglected and in need of serious pruning at the end of the growing season, before putting in a new bed that we'll enrich with well rotted manure.  The previous tenant was clearly a plant lover before she became too unwell to do anything to the garden for the last couple of years before we moved in.  Some of the rose bushes we didn't even know were there when we moved here, as they were hidden behind overgrown large shrubs.

The window blind guy arrived more or less on time.  Window measured, vertical blind style and colour chosen, quote given - he confirmed the blinds will only take around 10 days to custom make.  He suggested he come back to measure up again once the new kitchen wall tiles are in place - as the tiles may be a marginally different size or thickness to the ones already here, he said it would be best to return for a more accurate measurement.  That was efficient of him to think of that, it wouldn't even have occurred to me.

I'm very tired now, had a lot going on so far this week and haven't slept well for the last couple of nights, a lot on my mind.  Hopefully, I'll sleep better tonight.

Got to nip into town for a couple of things for the home tomorrow.  We won't be going to the caravan for the weekend after all, we've decided to stay home and do a few jobs.

Husband's mouth has recovered, no pain and he can eat properly.

2 down, 2 to go (and messy bugger)

 Two appointments today done and dusted, two more tomorrow.  The man came this morning to fix the bathroom electric fan, I don't know what was wrong with it but he fixed it in about 5 minutes and it's now working as it should.  Because he came this morning (the fan fix was one of those annoying all day appointments, fortunately he came about 10.30), I was able to go with husband when he went for his dental appointment - his dentist is in Bridgwater, 45 mins away.  Husband didn't need me with him, but there's an Aldi in Bridgy (there isn't one near us) and I wanted a few things from there.  Husband was having a tooth out which has been giving him pain for several weeks - the last time he went to the dentist, the dentist said it didn't need taking out!  I think I would have been inclined to say "Well it's not in your mouth, it's in mine and it hurts like hell".  Whereas husband's had to have another visit, at another cost, to have the offending tooth extracted 😒.  The tooth had broken, apparently, as had the one next to it, so husband ended up having 2 out, and the gum stitched.  Ouch!  He won't be eating much this evening.....He took painkillers an hour before he went, and will have another 2 shortly.

Tomorrow we have another electrician coming to change our domestic fuse box for a new modern one (the one here is old) - it's a morning appointment, although no time given.  We also have the guy coming to measure up our kitchen window for the vertical blinds, and show us some samples, that's a 4 pm appointment.  I expect he'll be late, there's a very popular country show on a couple of miles away from us and everyone will be leaving round about then, so the roads will be rammed.  Doesn't matter if he is, no bother to us.

We'll be going out for a couple of hours whilst the electrician is here - we've been told the job will take 4 or 5 hours and the electricity will be switched off for that time, so we may as well take a picnic (and something for Betty) and go to our favourite beach - where we can also get a coffee.

Husband's table manners leave a lot to be desired (I blame his parents, no more to be said about that 😒) - let's just say he's a messy eater.  This morning he had crumpets for breakfast and dripped melted butter down the front of his polo shirt.  Conscious of the fact that he was going out to the dentist (if he'd been staying home he wouldn't have been bothered), he changed into a clean one.  He wanted a 'decent lunch' - his words, meaning a substantial one as he knew he wouldn't be up to eating much later - so cooked himself a triple decker bacon and 2 egg toasted sandwich.  And promptly dripped both fat and runny egg yolk all down his clean top 😒, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  He needs a bib!

He's just said he might be able to manage a bit of lukewarm fish pie later....I wonder where that'll end up, he'll run out of clean clothes at this rate 😂😂 (honestly, you have to have a sense of humour!).

Town becomes a no-go area for residents in summer

 I didn't post yesterday because there was nothing much to write about.....not much today either actually.  

We didn't have continual rain on Saturday, but there were a few heavy showers throughout the afternoon and evening, so we stayed indoors.  Yesterday was the first day of a new boot sale opening for the season - well, I say new, the boot sale has actually been going for a few years apparently, but yesterday was their opening date for this year.  As it wasn't raining (cloudy with sunny spells, bit windy, much less humid) we decided to go and have a look.  Well, there weren't many sellers there and it only took us a few minutes to walk round....I expect it'll get bigger as word spreads.  We didn't buy anything.  Other than that it was just a quiet day at home.  I cooked dinner - not a roast for a change....husband had spare ribs in bbq sauce, I had fresh salmon.  I roasted our homegrown carrots and courgettes and we had brown rice with seeds on the side.

Today I'm doing a salmon, veg and noodle stir fry - there were 2 pieces of salmon in the pack.  On a side note, hasn't the price of salmon gone up?  Along with everything else!  Unfortunate, as salmon is my favourite fish.

I need to go to the library today, my books are due back - I've already renewed them online once and have only just finished reading them, I don't do as much reading nowadays and I seem to read slower as well - and when I read in bed, which I've done for years before putting the light out, I now find I drop off after only a chapter or 2.  In years gone by, I'd been known to carry on reading for hours if it was a good book.

As I said before, we have a busy week with 4 appointments, they'll all be finished by Thursday afternoon and no more then until Tuesday of next week, so we could go to the caravan for the weekend.  I'll see how we feel and what the weather's like come the end of the week.  As the school summer holidays start this week, it may well be busier at the caravan park.  It'll certainly be a lot busier in the town here, we'll be doing shopping first thing in the morning and keeping out of the town during the days.  The beaches will be much busier too.  That's the downside of living in a tourist area, particularly one with a huge holiday camp and lots of holiday caravans and cottages.

The only time I wish for rain!

 It was unpleasantly hot and humid here yesterday, really sticky, both Betty and I suffered - she was moping around listlessly....well, so was I really, muggy weather just makes me feel ill.  Despite that, I still slept pretty well, although Betty was quite restless and woke me up a few times.  When I got up this morning it was sunny on and off, in between fast-moving clouds, there's a (very warm) breeze blowing.  It's still unpleasantly muggy, but heavy rain is forecast from about 11.00 this morning until mid evening, so I'm hopeful it'll get fresher.

I hope it's not going to be really hot when we're staying in the caravan whilst the kitchen is being done.  We've got 2 electric fans there and a gazebo for the garden, but when the outside temperature is around the 30 deg mark, it does get unpleasantly hot.  We'll just have to manage when the time comes, even if we have to go out somewhere to find a nice shady spot (in the middle of a wood, perhaps!  Or the beach if there's a breeze blowing, so long as we can find some shade).

We've got nothing on this weekend - not that we'd be going anywhere in heavy rain anyway.  Next week we have 4 appointments on the calendar - husband has the dentist for a tooth extraction (must remember to cook something soft that he doesn't have to chew - fish pie perhaps).  We also have an electrician coming to fit a new fuse box, and a different one the next day to fix the bathroom electric fan which has never worked.  Then the guy from the window blinds shop is coming to measure up the kitchen window and show us some samples.

Has the global IT problem affected you?  It's not really been a problem for us, except that husband couldn't contact the GP surgery yesterday, he was supposed to ring for an update on whether they'd been able to get hold of one of his heart meds (there's an ongoing supply problem) - all their computer systems were down.  And this morning when we popped out, I noticed I had no internet on my phone, although it's fine here at home (it connects to our home wifi, which seems to be unaffected).  Other than that, no problem - our online banking is fine, as are our internet and TV.  I don't understand exactly what the problem is, other than apparently it's something to do with a security update, but it's a bit scary that it can affect so many things and have widespread global impact.  It does make you think about how much we rely on the internet nowadays - however did we manage years ago?!

I'm pleased to say my sister's more or less recovered from her bout of Covid, just in time for their 40th anniversary tomorrow.  They're having some friends round for a BBQ, I shall have a video chat with her in the morning.

Yuck and luck!

 Yesterday late morning I went out in the garden to do some pruning and dead-heading, but didn't stay out there very long.  Not because it was too hot - it was pretty warm and humid, but there was a gentle warm breeze to temper the heat.  No, what sent me scuttling back indoors was the flying ants - hordes of them, including some quite big ones, several landed on me - YUCK!!  I have no idea if they bite, but didn't want them crawling all over me regardless, I often have bad reactions to bites so wasn't going to take any chances.  

Sue, you said our bungalow keeps getting better and better - it certainly does, and I still keep thinking it's all a dream and I'll be waking up soon!  Our previous house used to get stiflingly hot during the summer, especially upstairs - the coolest part of the house was underneath the stairs (which is where Betty's cage bed was, no wonder she liked it in there).  Here though, the place stays cool all the time, even on the (rare, odd) days when it's been pretty hot outside.

The contract gardeners were round yesterday, cutting all the front lawns - they're very conscientious and tidy, sometimes they collect the grass mowings, sometimes they leave them as mulch.  Once they've finished mowing and strimming, they come round with leaf blowers to clear all our paths.  They also trim hedges and clear up after themselves.  I know we pay a monthly service charge which includes an amount for the gardeners, but we're very pleased to have this service included - saves us a lot of work.  There are so many benefits to living here, I've said it before and will say it again - we really appreciate how lucky we are.

K, I meant to say re your suggestion (jokingly, I know!) that I open a restaurant - not blimmin likely, owning or even working in a professional kitchen must be one of the most stressful jobs going (just look at Gordon Ramsay!!).  And your 'jobs fairy' comment really made me laugh - I think I might use that in future when husband grumbles when I ask him to do something....."Sorry dear, the jobs fairy is on strike" 😂😂😜

Jane, I didn't even know I could draw until 4 or 5 years ago - I'd never done any drawing since art classes at school, and I don't recall being very good at it then.  Or even liking it much.  My mum was quite a talented water colour artist (something we didn't know until late in her life) and my sister is very artistic and creative - she makes soft furnishings and fabulous collages.  I think everyone has at least one talent - yours is obviously embroidery and darning!!  Now, I hate sewing of any kind, even sewing on a button is a huge chore for me and I seem to be continually stabbing my fingers 😂

Emptying out the cupboards

 Husband's at the gym this morning, he's got 3 or 4 weeks left of his GP-referral 20 week course.  He says he wants to carry on going on a pay-as-you-go basis once the course is finished, which I think is a good idea, he can go when he likes/when it's convenient then.  At the moment it's a fixed day and appointment time each week, which doesn't always work out as we have so many other appointments and commitments to fit in, and trips to the caravan of course.

I've put washing on the line and made some bread dough, I imagine it will prove very quickly in this hot weather.  I'm going to start emptying the kitchen cupboards this morning, packing away all the stuff that isn't regularly used.  Most of it is in the double corner cupboard and below the sink drainer - these two cupboards have always had a musty/mouldy smell, hence why I only keep rarely-used crockery etc in there, and if I do use anything out of those cupboards, it gets washed first - don't want to ingest any mould spores!  There isn't any mould visible at the back of the cupboard below the sink, although I can't really see in the back of the deep corner cupboard, it's too awkward to get to.  Obviously I'll wash and dry anything I take out of those cupboards, before I pack the stuff in the plastic boxes.

I mentioned the mouldy/musty smell to the kitchen fitting manager who came last week, he said it's a common problem and the fitters will get it sorted if there is a leak or mould problems found when they take out the units.  They come equipped for mould but if there's a leak or other problem, they'll get the appropriate person in to deal with it before the new units go in.

I've got pruning and dead-heading to do in the garden as well, it'll probably be sensible to do that now before it gets too hot this afternoon, then I'll do the cupboard sorting later on - luckily, this bungalow stays cool indoors.

Rosemary - I keep a bag of art supplies in the caravan, just in case I feel the urge!  Last year I drew my Christmas cards there, during our last month or so of the season.