A mini meltdown

 We managed to buy all the last remaining things on our list - I think (hope) that's the spending done now.  I certainly hope so!

In the afternoon I had a bit of a panic attack.  I was upstairs in the big front bedroom (what was husband's bedroom).....it was all such a mess.  Husband collects pillows like other men collect socks (oh, and he's got tons of them too) - he claims he can never find a really comfortable pillow, so buys new ones every few months....only he never chucks out the old ones.  He changes his pillows several times a week, flipping between the 8 or 9 spare ones, whereas I've had the same 2 pillows (1 thin, 1 thick) for a couple of years.  There were pillows everywhere, along with a few king size duvets he'd got out of the loft the other day - all surplus to requirements.  Small piles of his clothes scattered around - he just leaves them lying around rather than putting them away in his chest of drawers.  Several boxes, some packed (by him, and nothing written on them), some half packed.  A few dustbin bags with stuff in....for the tip or the charity shop, although I didn't know which until I checked them (husband had thrown the stuff in them).  I just stood there thinking 'where do I start??'.  And then I heard husband laughing out in the garden - he was leaning on the fence having a good old laugh and chat with the neighbour, whilst I was having a mini meltdown trying to get stuff sorted.  I'm very conscious of the fact that we are MOVING HOUSE in less than two weeks' time!!  And there is still so much to do.  Husband, due to his cognitive impairment, has absolutely no sense of time or urgency, I have to stick a rocket up his backside to get him moving.

When he came in from the garden, I let him know how stressed and panicky I was feeling, because of all the things still to do.  To his credit, he did immediately come upstairs with me and together we got most of the room sorted.  We're going to the bungalow today, taking more things over - rugs and lampshades we bought yesterday, a small desk bought second hand for husband's computer, and a few packed boxes to empty and bring back.  I've told husband that Friday we will be making a couple of trips to the tip and charity shop, things to get rid of are beginning to pile up here and I need the space.  He also needs to burn a carrier bagful of stuff with personal details on.

I actually slept well last night (sheer exhaustion I think) although awake ridiculously early again, and feel ready to tackle everything again today.

No longer a home

 We're now at the stage where our current house no longer feels like a home - with half empty rooms, some of the curtains down, all the pictures missing, boxes everywhere, it's now like living in a warehouse.  And it's just as echoey!  Whereas the bungalow feels more and more like home every time we go over there, especially now all the curtains are up and the lounge and hallway carpeted.  It's becoming very much less echoey there!

Spent the morning there yesterday, unpacking another couple of boxes and putting my summer clothes away in the wardrobe, with Betty watching my every move, whilst the guys were laying the carpet.  They did a great job and we're so pleased with it.  Hannah the housing support lady called in to see us (checking we're still alive 😂), she comes every Tuesday.  We had a couple of minor queries for her, which she's going to sort out.  We got the heating working (now we've activated the elec meter key), it's very efficient and the rooms warmed up surprisingly quickly, considering the place has been empty for a couple of months.  Came home after lunch and I packed another 2 boxes, husband took the stairgate off the stairs - it's going to be used as an outside gate in the car port, so Betty can't run off into the road.  Not that there's much traffic - it's very quiet there.

Today we're going out to look for the last few things on our list of needs - a couple of light shades, rug for the kitchen, shelves, and a small desk for husband.

My cold has gone, thankfully it was a very shortlived one.  Husband hasn't caught it (well, he hasn't yet) so that's another blessing.

We still haven't heard back from our landlord, following my notice of leaving email to them a fortnight ago.  I know he's read it, as we bumped into the landlord's brother in the supermarket last week and he mentioned it, he said he assumed we'd get a reply very shortly.  Well, nothing as yet - how rude!!  I've sent another email requesting an urgent reply, our final rent payment is due this Friday and I need to know how much it will be for the last part month.  If I haven't heard from him by this afternoon (he's almost impossible to get hold of on the phone), then I'll just cancel the standing order, guesstimate the remaining balance and pay it in cash.

By contrast, our new landlords, the Housing Association, are super efficient, they've sent me loads of info about all sorts of things and the housing support lady, Hannah (she's employed by the Housing Association) is a font of knowledge and support.

EDIT

I've cancelled the rent standing order.

A couple of photos

 The new lounge carpet laid this morning:-

And curtains up in my bedroom:-

Betty photobombed the pics 😂

The electricity saga

 I must apologise for not responding to comments, or commenting on your blogs - as you know, I'm a bit busy right now!  I have been reading all your comments though, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and am so appreciative of how you all seem to be on this journey with us.  If you've asked (or want to ask) a question and I haven't yet answered it - do please shout at me and give me a reminder.  I'm still trying to write a blog post every day, as it helps to consolidate everything I've done so far and still need to do - and it'll no doubt be fun to look back at it when we're in and all the stress is over, laugh and wonder how we managed to do it all in such a short space of time.

Dc you asked if we've had any joy with the electric meter - yes, eventually, after a lot of hassle.  British Gas who are the providers of the current prepayment card meter, proved impossible to get hold of on the phone - 2 calls to them, both held in a queue, the first for about 35 mins, the second for over 40 mins - both times we then got cut off without even getting to speak to a real person. 😠  Meanwhile, the electricity credit on the meter was dwindling fast (we subsequently discovered 2 things left switched on by the decorators or cleaners unnecessarily) and the blimmin new key thing B/Gas had sent didn't work, 2 different shops both said the key wouldn't load credit when we tried - I eventually found out, by googling, the key had to be activated (by sticking it in the meter for about 2 minutes, until it bleeped) before it would register any credit top up.  It now works, thankfully, and we've topped the credit up temporarily with enough to tide us over until after Christmas.  Well, hopefully - seeing as we've never had this type of meter before and I understand the tariff for it costs more than a normal meter, who knows?!  Anyway, I've been in touch with our present supplier here (Octopus, who are very efficient, helpful and very friendly), their advice is to carry on with the B/Gas prepayment meter for the time being, as they cannot register us as new customers (despite us already being customers, albeit here at the old house and at our caravan) until we actually move in.  Once we've moved in, they will change the meter to a normal one, at no cost to us.  So that's that problem solved.

Both husband and I are finding that we can only work during the morning - by lunchtimes both of us are exhausted (neither of us is sleeping very well) and full of aches and pains.  In the afternoon husband has a snooze - I have to say I did too yesterday, although downstairs in the armchair, I didn't go to bed.  I generally sit and do another couple of change of addresses on the computer, tick off the list the jobs we've done that morning, make a new 'to do' list for the next day, and make any phone calls that need doing.  The carpet fitter rang yesterday afternoon, the fitting is back on for 10.30 am today, which is brilliant.  We'll be there about 9 am, taking more stuff over.  Betty is coming too, she and I will stay in my bedroom (she'll be wanting to 'help' the carpet fitters otherwise!) whilst the lounge carpet is being laid.  I've got clothes to put away in my wardrobe, and my curtains to put up, so that will keep me occupied.  If I take a hammer and some nails, I could put a few pictures up too (we are allowed to, before you think I'm a vandal! 😂).

Sue (ex-Smaller and Simpler Life) - I just want to say it's nice to still be hearing from you, I'm glad you've not disappeared from Blogland completely.  I hope you're all doing well.  I'm also hoping the other Sue who stopped blogging (Hard up Hester) is doing alright too, both of your blogs are missed.  There are a lot of Sue's around in Blogland aren't there - we're all obviously of the same vintage!

What day is it?

I had to check on my phone what day it is this morning, I've completely lost track of the days, they're all the same lately.....sorting, packing, tip run, take stuff over to bungalow, and repeat.

We nipped over to the bungalow yesterday morning, to take a few more boxes and some of husband's tools.  He put his tools in the shed, whilst I emptied the boxes ready to bring home.  Another job done.  On the way there, I had a phone call from the carpet fitter - his colleague has had an accident and is in hospital, so they've had to postpone the lounge carpet fitting that was to be done today.  No matter, it's not imperative it's done now, so long as it gets done before moving date.  The fitter promised to ring tomorrow, to give us an update.  It gives us more time to get more packing and tip/charity shop trips done anyway, so I'm actually quite pleased about that.

I got husband taking down pictures yesterday, giving them a clean and putting them in a box, whilst I did a bit of cooking.  I prepped the batter for the Yorkshire pudding and did the veggies, and made a big pot of vegetable soup for lunches for the next few days.  This morning I'm putting a chicken mince hotpot in the slow cooker, that'll be dinners for 2 or 3 days - we don't mind eating the same thing a few days running.  I'll quickly make some dumplings to go in it later, and again tomorrow, or we might have packet mash with it.  The hotpot will have loads of veggies in it, a mixture of fresh and frozen ones.  I don't mind eating chicken mince now and again, it's the only minced meat I will eat - beef or lamb tastes too fatty to me now, and I've totally gone off the taste of pork and even turkey mince, even the smell makes me feel nauseous.  

So today it's another tip run, and more stuff for the charity shop.  I've also made (yet another) list, this time of the things we still need to buy.....the haemorrhaging money is slowing down now, thankfully.  Moving home is certainly an expensive business, it's lucky I've spent the last year saving up for it.  I haven't even thought about Christmas yet, it's not on my radar.  Husband asked yesterday if I was intending to put up any decorations at the new place - the answer is I have no idea, depends how much we've unpacked and settled in and how I feel at that time, I guess.  I may put up the tree, but that'll be it probably.

I was going to leave all the curtains here and have new ones at the bungalow....I've decided to take the front door one and my bedroom curtains though, that'll save a chunk of money.  So they'll be coming down today so I can wash them - I have a blind up at my bedroom window as well as the curtains, so that'll be ok, I won't have to put the curtains back up again here.  I'm not taking the blind, that'll be staying here.

We are making definite and visible progress now, more and more space is appearing here and rooms are beginning to look emptier - and sound echoey!  (is that a word?  And is it spelt right?).

Feeling the cold

 By the time we got home from all the things we had to do in town yesterday, I was shattered.  After putting the shopping away, a coffee, sit down and bowl of soup I was ready to get going again though.  Packed some more stuff to take over today, husband sorted out some of his tools to take and put in the brick built shed there.  We're not staying there long today, just more or less dumping the boxes and coming back home - we'll have a car load so won't be able to take Betty.  I will quickly empty out a couple of the plastic lidded boxes to bring back here though, so they can be refilled with the next lot of stuff.

Cottage pie for dinner last night, something comforting and soft to slide down my sore throat easily.  We ate it on lap trays in the lounge, watching the new Dr Who and then Strictly, after which I went to bed.  

I'm having a go at making toad in the hole in the air fryer for dinner today - we've got rid of our big electric oven so it's all air fryer, Multichef, slow cooker and microwave cooking now.  Oh, and sandwich maker, toaster and one-ring electric hob plate.  Spoilt for choice really, especially when you think of what our parents and grandparents used for cooking years ago.

I'm really thankful for a warm house with good central heating - I never used to feel the cold much but as I get older I really do, especially at the moment when I'm not feeling 100%.  How those poor people in the war-torn countries cope when they've not even got a house or clothes, food or medical facilities I just cannot imagine.  They must be scared to death all the time.  

Nice neighbours

 Husband had met a couple of the new neighbours (well, it's us who are/will be the new neighbours) the other day, but couldn't remember their names.  I met them yesterday - the couple who live next door, and the older chap on his own living directly across from us.  All very nice, friendly and welcoming, they all said to give them a knock if we need to know anything.  I think we're going to enjoy living there.

And speaking of neighbours....several of them here have given us invitations to coffee and nibbles (they know neither of us is a drinker) before we go, which is nice.

We put up 3 more curtain rails and 2 pairs of curtains and a couple of lovely lightshades I bought for £4.50 in a charity shop the other day.  I put a load of coathangers in the wardrobes and hung up the clothes we'd taken over.  Put away some more kitchen stuff - although I think I may be rearranging everything once we're actually living there, to better suit how I like my kitchen organised.  It's gradually turning into a home - our home.  

Today we're doing another tip run, and probably a charity shop drop off as well, then I need to do some shopping for fresh stuff.  We'll most likely be going back to the bungalow tomorrow, to take some more stuff and give the floors a sweep and vacuum, prior to the carpet being laid on Monday.

The sore throat I woke up with yesterday wore off during the day - or rather I was just too busy to notice it.  It's now 04.00 am though and it's raging, really quite sore, so I'm downstairs with a hot honey and lemon.  I think it's just a plain old cold though, so it'll be fine.  I'll go back to bed in a bit.  I fancy porridge for breakfast - that's my body's way of telling me I need something filling and warming....I almost never eat breakfast!

Bouncing Betty

 I think we all have interchangeable husbands!  😂😂

The two 2nd hand furniture men turned up promptly at 08.30 yesterday morning - one of them was easily as old as husband, which made me think "good grief, I hope he doesn't have a heart attack shifting the huge wardrobe down the stairs!" 😨.  I asked if he was sure he could manage, he laughed it off and said he'd been doing furniture and house removals for 60 years and was well used to it.  He didn't have a heart attack, thank goodness, but there was a lot of groaning going on.  It's done now anyway, most of the excess furniture has gone and there are big spaces in the rooms.  Betty, who was shut in the lounge whilst all this was happening, was bouncing off the walls with excitement after they'd gone - the smells of other people who she could hear but not see, and then all the upheaval, filled her up with adrenaline.  Husband had to go out for a couple of hours straight afterwards, so there was peace and calm for a while....so she could let herself relax (she slept on my bed for an hour).

Speaking of beds/rooms....husband can sleep anywhere and in pretty much any conditions, whereas I can't.  His bedroom is like a teenage boy's - untidy with 'things' scattered everywhere - and is now filling up with packed boxes.  My room, by contrast, is tidy and quite minimalist, it's an oasis of calm and is just the way I like it.  Although my drawers etc have been mostly emptied and packed into boxes under the bed (except for one large plastic lidded box beside the bed), the room still looks tidy and calming, and I'm keeping it that way until just before we move.  I need it like that for my sanity to remain intact.  I hate living in a cluttered mess, it really irritates me, so having a calm, tidy and peaceful room to escape to is a necessity.

Today we're taking our summer clothes to the bungalow, to be put away in the fitted wardrobes.  Surplus bed linen and towels to go in the airing cupboard, which is big with plenty of shelving.  Two more curtain poles to put up, and a couple more packed boxes, mainly of kitchen stuff.  There's quite a lot of built-in storage spaces in the bungalow, certainly more than we have here, which is another big bonus.

I was supposed to go to the GP on Monday to have a 24-hour heart monitor fitted, following my anxiety-induced heart problems last month.  I've cancelled it though - I haven't got the time for that, and my heart rate will be all over the place at this moment in time anyway, so it won't exactly be a normal reading!  I'm not worried about it, I was thoroughly checked over during my night in the hospital emergency ward and subsequently at my GP's, had x-rays, several ECGs, lots of bloods taken and BP readings which all came back normal.  The only thing they could find was my apparently 'slower than normal' heart rate, which isn't in itself a problem.  (I'm pretty sure it's not slow right now 😂).  My annual diabetes review was also due the beginning of this month - but the surgery have a shortage of nurses at the moment and said they can't do my review until after Christmas.  By which time, of course, we'll be at the new place and will have had to change doctors anyway.  It'll be a shame to have to change from our current GP, all the staff there have been lovely, but the surgery we'll be changing to has a very good reputation and reviews.

I've woken up with a sore throat this morning 🥺

Husband's packing differs to mine!

 It was a day of physical stuff yesterday - dismantling and moving the surplus furniture the 2nd hand men are coming to collect at 08.30 this morning.  Husband had said he'd emptied his big old wardrobe, leaving just a few things for wearing over the next couple of weeks.  Had he heck!!  It was still nearly half full, unbeknown to me (I do really need to check anything he says he's done).  So I went through the remaining clothes, discarding a few, putting some in a bag to take over the new place tomorrow, and leaving about 3 changes of clothes for him for the next 2 or 3 weeks (there's a clothes rail in his bedroom he can use for the time being, along with his chest of drawers).  Some furniture we're keeping needed to be moved out of the way, in order to make space for the guys to be able to get the huge wardrobe and bed out of the bedroom and downstairs.

It's only really when you come to move house that you fully realise just how much furniture and general 'stuff' you've accumulated over the years.  Our current house is going to be half empty over the next week or so, as things get passed on or sold or taken to the tip.  And of course we're taking smaller things and packed boxes over to the new place.

One thing (amongst many!!) I'm finding particularly frustrating is to do with husband's disorderliness.  When I'm clearing an area, I put things to go with us into a bag or box, labelled - anything we're not keeping goes in a different bag or box for the tip.  Husband simply moves things from one place to another - quite often putting stuff somewhere I've just cleared.  Aaarrrgghhh!!  As I'm sitting here typing this, I've just noticed a small bookcase which we're keeping, and which I'd already cleared, is now FULL UP again with stuff (who knows what?!) out of his desk.  I suppose I'll have to go through that sometime today, he finds it almost impossible to throw anything away.

The last few days I have felt like putting my head in my hands and asking myself "What the hell are we doing this for at our ages?!".  But of course we're doing it because we need to, for our future.  I just have to keep plodding on, writing list after list and doing a job at a time, and tell myself it will all get done eventually, there are only 3 weeks to go (well less than that now, it was 3 weeks yesterday) and we'll be in, can relax a bit and do the rest of the unpacking at our leisure.  I'll say it again - roll on January when we can do nothing for a month!!

I had a surprise visit from my best friend yesterday afternoon, so that was a good pick me up, we had a lovely catch up.

Thank you for all the continued lovely comments.  I must apologise for not commenting on your blogs right now, lovely readers - I do try to read as many of your blogs as I can first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  

Roll on January!!

 Every time we go over to the new place, I love it a little bit more, I can hardly wait to move in now.  Betty was SO excited, she was charging around with her nose to the floor, running in and out of all the rooms numerous times.  We let her out into the back garden, she did the same out there (and christened it several times).  I think she'll be fine there.  I only just noticed yesterday morning that there's a nice rural hill view from the front of the bungalow - not far reaching field views front and rear like we have here, but still a nice countryside view.  I didn't take any photos as yet, because it was cloudy all day - I will do though, as soon as the weather is bright enough.

Husband met a couple of the neighbours yesterday when he took Betty out for a walk - he said they seem nice and friendly, although he couldn't remember their names of course.  I was busy emptying boxes and putting things away indoors, I expect I'll get to meet the neighbours soon enough.  Husband finished laying the hall carpet, I put up some curtains.  

We popped into Minehead to a carpet showroom there and have chosen a carpet remnant for the lounge - perfect size and colour and a lovely feel to the pile.  We're having it delivered next Monday.  Husband had said initially he would lay it himself - with my help.....I had a few misgivings about it, not because I think husband wouldn't do a good job, but because of our age and health problems.  Whilst the lounge is more or less a plain almost square room with no awkward bits, the carpet will be extremely heavy and difficult to move.  Overnight husband has changed his mind and said he'll get the carpet people to fit it, which I think is definitely best.  The carpet itself and having it fitted is costing a bit more than we really wanted to pay, but what we've paid on that we've saved in other areas, such as the curtains and rugs.  We may now have to wait a while (early next year I expect) to get carpets for the two bedrooms, but we have several rugs so we'll be fine.  

Today will be a day of dismantling furniture here, as the 2nd hand furniture shop man is coming to collect our excess furniture tomorrow.  That will leave big gaps here - which means plenty of space to put boxes as we pack them.  The next time we go over to the new place will be Friday, we'll be taking Betty again, the more often we take her, the more she'll become familiar with it and feel comfortable there.

Think I've put a bit of weight back on, I've taken my eye off the ball with the diet lately and carbs have crept back in.  Lunches have generally been sandwiches or something on toast (quick and easy in other words), dinners something veggie and home cooked out of the freezer but served with pasta, rice or a jacket spud.  I'm too busy to be concentrating on cooking low carb healthy meals, so that will have to take a back seat for now.  We're already thinking that January will be a month to rest and recuperate, we won't be doing anything much except pottering around in our new home, probably moving some things around to suit ourselves better, and I'll get back into making us nice healthy food then.

Moving house when you're older is certainly much harder work - we've moved house a few times during our marriage (not as many as Sue from A Smaller and Simpler Life though!).  It's always been fairly stressful, but at our ages and state of health it's definitely a lot harder, both physically and mentally, we're both feeling the strain.  Hopefully this will be our last ever move though, and we're focusing on the fact that we've been offered such a lovely place which ticks nearly all our boxes for the future.

Oh, and when we got to the new place yesterday, we were greeted with our first two New Home cards lying on the doormat, from family.  How lovely!

Pain in the neck day, more curtains and a rug

 Yesterday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right - well, it wasn't all bad, but more bad than good.  I won't bore you with all the details, suffice it to say that it was a downright irritating and frustrating day, with few things going to plan.  I was awake and downstairs for about 3 hours in the middle of the night, so that didn't help.  Oh, and because of being so tired, I think I inadvertently deleted some comments - I had a load of spam comments yesterday morning, and whilst deleting them all I accidentally deleted a few from my genuine lovely readers.....if your comment hasn't appeared, it's entirely my fault, sorry about that.

There were some good bits though during the day - I found another pair of curtains in a charity shop, brand new, still in the packet with price tag attached, perfect colour and size for one of the bedrooms.  Just £10, so of course I snapped them up.  And we were given a good quality large rug by one of our neighbours, think they changed their colour scheme and didn't want the rug anymore, they didn't want any money for it.  As we couldn't find suitable carpet remnants yesterday (either too small, way too big, or totally the wrong colour or pile), this rug will be perfect as a temporary measure for the smaller bedroom, until we can get the carpet.  And it will be easy to empty the smaller room to lay a carpet when we do get one.

By 3 pm yesterday I was really flagging, so gave up and sat down for the rest of the day and evening, my brain and body were in danger of shutting down completely.  Husband made himself a king prawn curry, using a jar of Thai green curry sauce....I was just too tired to eat it so had a slice of toast.  I went to bed early and slept like a log for about 4 hours, then Betty woke me up being sick on the landing.  She seemed ok, not unwell, and after we both had some warm milk (I give her my lactose-free milk) we went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours.

So this morning we're off to the new place again, taking some more stuff to unpack over there - and we're taking Betty this time.  Can't wait to see what she makes of it!  She's definitely a bit unsettled, she can obviously sense there's something going on (all the upheaval is a big clue!) and is shadowing me even more than usual. We're taking a bed, her favourite toy, water bowl, food and treats, so she'll have some familiar things over there.

I'm using up food from the freezer quite well, there are gaps appearing everywhere, it'll be nearly empty by the time we move I should think.

Boring admin stuff done, and a surprise pair of curtains!

 I did some of the change of address stuff online yesterday, it was all fairly painless (except for BT who for some unknown reason wouldn't allow me to do it online, saying I must ring them), just a bit long winded.  Also set up a Royal Mail redirection - wow, that's gone up in price since we last moved house 11 years ago, if I remember rightly we paid around £30 odd....it's now £87.  Which, considering we only get post delivered here about twice a week (they've been shortstaffed for months), is a bit of a cheek.  Oh well, has to be done.  It seems to be all paying out at the moment.  I haven't finished doing all the admin, but have done most of the important ones.

In the afternoon, I packed more stuff from the kitchen and utility room.  Having done a lot of sorting and decluttering in the kitchen, craft room, my bedroom and all the years old paperwork earlier on this year, it's making sorting and packing now much easier.

Husband got up in the loft to see what's up there - it still contains some boxes and bags that the previous tenant left behind (he also left furniture and a ton of junk and rubbish in the garage and utility room, lazy git).  Most of our stuff that's up there can go to the tip - if we haven't needed to use it for the past few years, then I'm sure we won't suddenly need it now.  There's not loads I don't think.  Husband did find a bag containing a pair of curtains - in very good condition and the right size and colour for our new lounge window, which is a big one.  I don't remember them at all, so whether they belonged to the previous tenant I don't know.  But they'll be just right so at least that's one thing we don't have to buy!

He also made a start on his big shed, sorting out a couple of bags of stuff for the tip, and some tools to take over to the new place tomorrow.  Considering he's not the most motivated man in the world, gets distracted (and bored!) easily and tires quickly, he's doing very well.  I do have to keep tabs on him and gently steer him back to what he should be doing, when he's forgotten or gone off course.

So as I said yesterday, it's into town this morning to choose and pay for more carpet, hopefully we'll be able to put the lounge carpet in the car to take over tomorrow.  I also want to get bedroom curtains and lampshades.  More packing this afternoon....although I might have to have a little nap, I've been awake since about 02.00 am.  I think once we've moved in, we'll both be sleeping for the first 48 hours to catch up!  😂😫

On the first day

 So we went over to the new place, found the keys in the key safe, let ourselves in and unloaded the car.  Put up all the net curtains.  Unpacked the kitchen equipment I'd taken over and put it away in cupboards (there are plenty of kitchen cupboards, very useful....although the design is not to my taste but we can't have everything - they're plentiful and serviceable so that's fine).  I've decided I don't like the colour of the kitchen vinyl flooring, so we'll get a rug to put over it temporarily, and lay some different vinyl in the new year.  I put up the new shower curtain and put toiletries in the bathroom.  Worked out where our furniture is going to go in the lounge and bedrooms.  There is space for a small table and 2 chairs in the kitchen, so I'm pleased about that.  Husband worked out where he's having the TV!

He then made a start on laying the hall carpet - he's laid carpets, vinyl flooring and laminate flooring loads of times over our 40 years of marriage, plus all the years of his previous one, so he knows what he's doing.  However, he's older and less fit now, so didn't find it as easy as in previous years, and it's fiddly with 4 doorways and frames to cut round.  He did half of it yesterday morning, which is fine, there's no rush.

There's a couple of minor problems we'll need to ask the lovely Housing Support officer about (Hannah, who showed us round), she comes over on Tuesdays to check on all 'her' residents in the cul de sac so we'll see her then.

Today I'm going to sit with my laptop and do all the change of address/change of services stuff, which I'm not really looking forward to but it's got to be done, then I'll get on with more packing.  Tomorrow we'll nip into town to choose the rest of the carpets, hopefully - as near to matching the brilliant bargain hallway carpet as we can.....it's a sort of fairly common neutral stone colour, so should be relatively easy.  And at least the lounge and bedrooms are simple square shapes, making it easier for laying.  We'll have a look in a few charity shops too, for lampshades and curtains.

The whole place has been redecorated, painted magnolia throughout.  Which is absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned - it's a blank canvas for introducing colour with furnishings and pictures.  We have lots of pictures already, including some of my own artwork, and even some pictures that have never made it onto the walls of our house here.  We've been told we can put up pictures, shelves and coat hooks etc, we don't have to get permission.

Operation move in starts today

 Big news first - had the phone call from the Lettings Agent yesterday giving us all the final details - I was under the impression we had to go and meet the nice Support lady who showed us round the other day, to collect the keys.  But no - the keys are in a keysafe at the property, we've been given the number and can go and collect them whenever we like.  So that's today then!  We can't take Betty unfortunately, as we'll have the car packed to the gunnels with initial necessary stuff, but hopefully we can take her the next time (in a day or 2), she needs to see our new home!  

Forgot to say yesterday - I told Andy (the Man with Van) that we'll be taking packed boxes and any small items of furniture that will fit in the car over to the new place a few times a week, prior to moving day.  He said if we could do that it would be so helpful, as it's loading up all the small stuff into the van that takes the longest.  But of course we're doing it because it will help us - well, me - enormously to be able to do unpacking and putting our things in place a small bit at a time, over a period of 2 or 3 weeks, so it's not one big mad busy-busy rush on one single day, followed by weeks of trying to deal with a mountain of filled boxes afterwards, and not knowing where anything is.  I am very organised anyway (being a secretary/PA most of my working life has taught me that), but with my anxiety levels nowadays I need to minimise stress as much as possible.

I was starting to feel distinctly panicky about packing everything up, but realised that the best way to do it is by tackling one room at a time.  So yesterday I did the kitchen - I've packed everything except the barest minimum of things we'll need before we move.  Husband made a start on his garage and big shed - I'm afraid he's on his own doing that, they're both far too cobwebby for me (being an arachnophobe), I never venture into them.  I know he's now regretting being such a hoarder!

We had a word with the second hand furniture shop that Van Man Andy had told us about - he said he's very interested in our surplus furniture, I've just got to send him photos via email and he'll get back to us within a couple of hours with a price.  So that's another problem crossed off the list.  He also had a very nice quality single divan bed for sale, we'll need to have a single bed to replace the current double, as the bungalow has 1 double, 1 single bedroom.  And our friend has told us that the local Vicar's husband will collect furniture and household goods for a housing charity he supports, so I'll get in touch with him in the next few days, he might well take anything else off our hands.  It all seems to be coming together very nicely, which pleases me no end.

I'm still feeling somewhat panicky though - I'm typing this at 03.00 am as my mind is churning too much to sleep.

All now very real

 The Man & Van arrived exactly on time (reliable), a very pleasant and efficient young man, he loved Betty (has a Boxer dog himself) so that makes him ok in my eyes!  He asked lots of questions, took notes on his phone and took photos of all the furniture/goods we're taking with us, so he could work out a quote for us.  He emailed the quote a couple of hours later, it's a very competitive one and so we're going with him, the removal is booked - 9.45 am on 13th December (no it's not a Friday 13th and I'm not superstitious anyway 😂 ).  He also gave us the name and number of another firm he knows and has worked with, who will buy and take away our surplus furniture, so even better.

I'm having a phone call today from the Letting Agents, to finalise the last details for the bungalow and make arrangements for us to collect the keys.  We've then got to take Betty for her grooming session, postponed from Monday at the groomer's request, going into town afterwards to get a very small top up shop and do a couple of other things.

I packed a couple of boxes of kitchen equipment yesterday, initial stuff we'll need for our first day at the property - crockery & cutlery, kettle, tea towels, cleaning supplies, tea & coffee, packet of chocolate biscuits!!, etc and made a list of other things we'll take for that day - pair of steps, new hallway carpet, net curtains and rods, 2 dining chairs, small vacuum cleaner, whatever tools husband might need.  I'm not a fan of nets but decided to have them initially prior to moving in, to give us a bit of privacy whilst we're taking stuff over and working there.

Thank you for the comments and ideas regarding my mobile phone problem.  Having given it some thought, I've decided to keep my phone and contract - I really like my phone and it works just fine in most other places, including the caravan.  However, I will buy a 2nd phone, a cheaper version of my current phone and get a sim-only deal with O2, who have the best coverage at the new property.  I think it will be the easiest solution for me.

Gemma's Person, it's been exactly a year since we first went on the housing register, so although it seems like we've been waiting forever, it's not really that long, especially since we were told at the beginning that it could take up to 5 years!

Oh and today we're giving our current landlords our official leaving notice.  So as of today it all suddenly becomes very real indeed!  I've definitely got butterflies in my stomach now. 

Things are progressing

 We had a good, if busy and spendy, morning yesterday.  Went to town to buy a few essentials to take to the new place next week - kettle, washing up bowl and dish drainer, kitchen bin, doormats for front and back doors, etc.  We also went in a carpet showroom that we've used several times before, they have a huge range of room size remnants of both carpets and vinyl flooring at reasonable prices.  The kitchen and bathroom have had new vinyl flooring laid, but we'll need carpets or vinyl for the lounge, both bedrooms and the hallway.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the room measurements with me - I took a notebook with measurements written down, but it was the wrong notebook - the measurements were for the windows, the floor measurements were in a different notebook😒  Trust me!  The only floor measurement I could remember exactly was the hallway - amazingly, we found the perfect sized remnant, in the right colour and a good quality hardwearing weave, which they'd reduced to the incredibly cheap price of just £25 - we snapped it up, of course.  Brilliant.  We'll go back with the correct measurements next week.

From my point of view, there are only 2 things that aren't ideal with this bungalow - the electricity meter and mobile phone coverage.  The meter is a prepayment card key meter, which we have no knowledge of having never had one before.....Hannah the housing lady who showed us round said that it works by us going to a shop and purchasing credit which gets put on the key, the details automatically get transferred to the meter/account once we insert the key into the meter.  I'm not keen on that idea at all, but Hannah said we are perfectly at liberty to change service providers and ask for a standard meter to be installed, so I expect we'll do that.  I'd rather carry on paying by direct debit, as we've always done.

Both husband and I have the same mobile phone service provider - however, there is unfortunately no coverage whatsoever, phone signal or wifi, inside or outside the bungalow, for our provider - must be in a blackspot.  Husband's phone is PAYG and he hardly ever uses it anyway, so that's not a problem - however, I use my phone a lot and do everything on it, so I need to change providers.  And therein lies the problem - I have 18 months left on my 24 month sim only contract with them, and will have to pay a huge amount if I wish to leave the contract early.  I have no desire to carry on paying for a service I cannot use - well, not at home but I suppose I could still use it elsewhere, at the caravan e.g. - but nor do I particularly want to fork out a few hundred pounds to end it.  Both Hannah and the neighbour told us who the best mobile service provider is, so I guess we'll have to go with them.  Any ideas anyone?  When I spoke to our current mobile provider, they were less than sympathetic, more or less saying if I want out of the contract I've got to pay up, and that's that.  

Anyway, I won't dwell on that for the time being, we'll be having broadband and landline phone installed from our current provider - the signal over there is apparently much better than here (well, it could hardly be slower than the 0.5 mbps speed - well, snail's pace - we get here!).  

Yesterday I got the paperwork to pay the first month's rent - I actually paid up till the end of December.  Just the keys to collect now, which will be next Tuesday I think, and we can start moving in.  I have periods of calm where I feel relatively in control (lists, lists and more lists!), interspersed with moments of complete and utter panic.  And I felt like I haven't slept for a week!  So I took 2 amitriptyline last night (I've been avoiding taking them) and slept like a log.

Husband has been round and told virtually all the neighbours - he takes after his mother, it was a family joke that if we wanted everyone to know something, we told her and said it was a secret 😂😂.  But then I guess I've told all of you!  The neighbour who threw us the 40th wedding anniversary party back in May, said she'd like to give us a leaving party - we thanked her but gracefully declined - to be honest, I'd rather leave with as little fuss as possible, and a party would be a whole afternoon when I could be doing some more packing.  It's not like we'll never see them all again anyway - we're only moving 15 miles away, and we'll be coming back every 6 or 8 weeks - me for my haircut with my hairdresser neighbour, husband to go for brunch with his best mate neighbour.  So we'll be able to catch up with everyone then.  

I want to say a huge thank you for all the lovely comments and emails I've had, including plenty from people who rarely comment, and some who can't comment at all on the blog (something to do with Blogger I think, sorry I know nothing about that).  You're all so pleased for us and that makes me very happy, thanks so much. 💜  To the reader who asked - yes we are in credit with our utilities, I am arranging for refunds from one or two, and the others will be transferred, hopefully.  I shall be spending a couple of hours this weekend sitting and doing a load of admin stuff on the computer, change of address and utilities etc.  And Rambler, yes the garden is secure, it's enclosed with a stone wall on one side, fencing the rest.

IT'S OURS!!

 The viewing went very well....other than the fact that the weather didn't oblige us, it was dark and absolutely peeing down - again!  We all remember 1976 as being the year of the very hot summer....well I think 2023 will go down in history as the year of the perpetual rains!  😠

The rooms are, by and large, quite similar in size to our present house - one of the bedrooms is smaller, but at least it has a built-in wardrobe (the larger bedroom has 2) so that's a bonus.  The kitchen is a couple of feet bigger than my present kitchen and has much more work surface area and more cupboards, which I'm really pleased about.  There should hopefully be room for a small 2-seater table and chairs - if not there's probably room in the lounge.  The bedroom that will be mine definitely has room for my craft desk, I'm glad about that.  Wet room shower, so no more climbing in and out of the bath for a shower.  And no stairs!

The garden is pretty, about 1/3 smaller than our present one, and is very well maintained, with stone chip *beds* with paths in between (so low maintenance) and lots of large flower pots, with shrubs and roses in beds around the edges.  There's even what we think is an apple tree in the middle of the front lawn - how nice!

The carport is very big, plenty of room for the car and anything else we want to store, and much to husband's delight, behind the carport is a brick built, fully enclosed outbuilding that will be ideal as his shed.  Beyond that is a paved area behind a low wall, which currently has nothing in it and is crying out for a greenhouse.  It just gets better and better.

And....in the afternoon we had a phone call from the Letting Agent - the bungalow is ours if we want it!!  (of course we do).   And shortly after the call he emailed us the official offer letter 😁🎉🎈🎆

He's sending the tenancy agreement for us to sign electronically tomorrow, and will ring again on Friday to give final details, arrange our rental payment by bank transfer/direct debit and arrange key collection.  I'm so happy I could burst!  We're looking at moving in on or before the 15th Dec, so we'll be largely settled before Christmas.  I've arranged for the local Man & Van I spoke about to come and give us a quote for removal tomorrow.

Despite being so tired I could drop, I lay awake for a few hours last night, mentally working out where all the furniture is going.  

I am staggered by how suddenly this has happened - for the past year, up to a month ago we were putting bids on suitable properties nearly every week, with no success.  But now.....WE ARE MOVING!!

YES!!

 We've got it!  More tomorrow x

To be absolutely clear....

 I just need to make something clear about the bungalow viewing, as it may have been a bit ambiguous so far and I don't want to inadvertently give anyone the wrong idea.  We haven't actually been offered the bungalow - what we've been offered is a VIEWING.  It does mean we're the Housing Association's first choice to be offered the letting, but nothing is set in stone until we've seen it, indicated we'd like to have it, and then the Housing Association will conduct some background checks on us and get in touch with our current landlords for a reference.  Only then (assuming that all is well, and I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be) will we actually be offered the letting.  The H/A do these checks as they obviously don't want problem tenants, understandably.

Yesterday we cleared the small bedroom/my craft room of the accumulated junk, and packed away most of my craft stuff, it now looks like a proper bedroom again.  My small craft desk, which husband extended for me a couple of years back with some pine at the back and one side, may or may not be going with us if we move.  Like a lot of things, it depends on the available space - I won't have a dedicated craft room, but there may be room for it in my bedroom - it's painted white and could easily pass for/be used as a dressing table.

Today Betty is going to the groomer, and we're going to take a car load of stuff to the tip.  We're going to buy a new kettle to take to the new place, if we get it - as our intention will be to go there a few times a week before we actually move in, taking odd bits of furniture, boxes to unpack and curtains etc, we'll need to make coffees!  We have a spare fridge in the utility room, we'll take that too, along with crockery and cutlery - fortunately, I've got spares.  We'll also probably take a spare toaster and the air fryer.  But I'm getting ahead of myself again....we haven't got the place yet!  We are both getting quite excited now, and it's good to make plans.  Even though husband keeps coming up with ideas, and I have to bite my tongue and not say "Yes, we already discussed that yesterday".  I have noticed the past few days his short term memory has suddenly become a lot worse, which I guess is down to his brain currently being just as full of stuff as mine is.  I'm just glad he's as enthusiastic about this possible move as I am.

And I am enthusiastic about it - which has surprised me somewhat.  The location isn't ideal - it's in the opposite direction from where we'd prefer to be (nearer the caravan, it will add about 30 mins to our journey there).  Which is no big deal really.  And we'll still have to drive to get to the shops or GP, but the shops are nearer than here, the GP is a similar distance I think, and there's a small hospital fairly close too.  But it's a nice area, a village rather than a town, population around 850 and not heavily built up, and we both think it will suit our needs, now and in the future, very well.

Not panicking....yet

 I did a bit more sorting out upstairs yesterday - husband was having a tired day and went to bed, which was fine, I could get on with sorting without his questions every 5 minutes.  He's got no idea what we should keep or not, even if it's fairly obvious - well, obvious to me anyway - so I get asked all the time, which tends to slow things down a bit.  I'm going to finish sorting the small bedroom/crafting room this morning - I shall be packing all my crafting things away, realistically I'm not going to be doing any crafting of any kind this side of Christmas - I'll be too busy!  So I won't be making Christmas cards this year, if we send any they'll be bought ones....although I think I may have a few handmade leftover ones from last year.  With the price of postage going up and up, I'll soon be stopping sending any by post anyway.  Speaking of which, the postal service round here is atrocious, has been for months, we're lucky to get a delivery a couple of times a week.  Shortage of staff in the sorting office apparently, but they've been saying that practically all of this year.

For the next few weeks, we'll be eating out of the freezer every day - it's nearly full, what with doing a freezer shop a couple of weeks back and all the batch cooking and freezing I've done recently.  Obviously, we had no idea we might possibly be moving house so soon, and we can't move with a full freezer, so I must plan on eating up as much of the contents as possible.  I've got some fresh veggies to be used today, then it'll be all frozen veg from Monday onwards - there's loads in the freezer, along with all husband's meat and my fishy or veggie things.  So my shopping bill will be next to nothing for the next few weeks - great, more for the moving fund.  Husband rang our heating oil supplier on Friday, to find out how much credit we've got with them - nearly £300 apparently, and we've got more than half a tankful of oil, so won't need to buy any, so we'll be asking for that credit to be refunded.  Husband said he may try selling the oil to whoever wants to come and get it, some of the locals might be interested, most of us here have oil fired heating.  When we moved in here the tank was empty, so we have no obligation to leave it half full.

As some of you have suggested, I may try ringing a few local furniture charities or housing associations, to see if any of them wants to come and take some of our surplus furniture - that'll save me having to photograph and list things on the local FB selling pages.  I've got a number for a local Man & Van who has a Luton-sized box van - well, husband informed me that's what it's called, and the size will be suitable for our downsized amount of furniture, especially if we can manage to take a few items of furniture (such as a couple of armchairs, chests of drawers, packed boxes etc) over in the car in the days/couple of weeks leading up to moving day.  The Man has loads of very good reviews on FB, glowing recommendations actually, so we'll be ringing him as soon as we know for sure if we're moving.

It all seems to be coming together quite nicely and, whilst I've obviously got a brainful (and lots of lists) of things that need doing, I don't actually feel panicky or overwhelmed.  Amazingly.  But there's still time!!  And no doubt I will feel all that the nearer moving day gets.

What an idiot!

 The nice letting agent man who rang us on Thursday asked for 3 forms of ID for each of us, one of which had to include our photo - good job I have the Government Voter Certificate with photo I applied for last year, seeing as I don't have a driving licence or passport.  So I spent yesterday morning getting out all the relevant things, taking photos of them and then uploading them to my computer.  Anything like that takes blimmin ages to upload, seeing as our internet here deep in the country is sooooo slooooowww.  Having done it - eventually - and emailed everything to the letting agent, it ONLY THEN suddenly occurred to me that I could have simply sent the email and photos from my phone, bypassing the step of uploading them to my laptop!  Duhhh!!  Sometimes even I'm surprised at my blondeness (although I'm no longer blonde!). 😂😂😒.  And then just to illustrate how much of an idiot I am....we were having prawn cocktail on jacket spuds with salad for dinner, I mixed up the Marie Rose sauce in a bowl, then started adding the king prawns to it....before I'd cooked them (I bought them raw).  😱 OMG!!!  So I had to fish them out (thank goodness I hadn't thrown all of them in and hadn't started mixing them in with the sauce) and rinse them off under the tap.  What an idiot.  I can only blame my lack of sleep the night before, and brain overloaded with stuff to do.

In the afternoon we tackled the two large bedrooms - mine was mostly done anyway several months ago, so not many clothes to bag up for the charity shop.  However, I did manage to condense a few things - I have 3 tall narrow antique pine chests of drawers, each of which had one mostly empty drawer.  I did a bit of rearranging and condensed the clothes into 2 of them, leaving one chest empty.  Depending on the space available in the bungalow, I may keep it, or get rid of it.  Husband's room was much more complicated - he hadn't sorted out his clothes back when I did mine - or only a few anyway.  His big wardrobe was stuffed to the gills, mostly with clothes he hasn't worn for ages or no longer fit him.  He mostly wears polo or rugby shirts - he had at least a dozen polo shirts hanging up in his wardrobe, none of which he'd worn for months and months (he generally wears the same 3 or 4 ones which never actually make it into his wardrobe, being simply left in a pile on his bedroom chair).  The ones in the wardrobe included 3 brand new ones, never worn, that he bought probably back in the early Spring.  He is such a hoarder, simply because it never occurs to him to sort anything out.  We got it done eventually, his wardrobe - which we will be selling as it's much too big for the bungalow - is now almost empty, the clothes he's keeping have gone into his chest of drawers (having drastically condensed the contents) and a large lidded plastic box.  We now have another 2 bin bags of clothes to go to the charity shop, and a couple of bags of of stuff to go to the tip - holey socks (why does he keep them?!), baggy shapeless boxers (ditto), some old toiletries, broken bits and pieces.  

Husband suggested that he start sleeping in the small bedroom - my craft room but it does have a single bed in it - so we can dismantle his double bed and that will make room to store packed boxes.  That's actually a good idea.  I'd decluttered my craft stuff ages ago, but the room has gradually become a dumping ground again over the past few months, so that will be the next room for us to get stuck into today.

He did make me laugh yesterday.....we'd been discussing what to get rid of and where we could potentially put things in the bungalow - depending on the size of the rooms, of course.  Husband then said, in all seriousness, that we shall need to work out where we're going to put the TV (it's up on the wall in our current house).  So we know where his priorities lie!! 😂😂

More good news

 The other good news to start with:-

Our neighbours arrived home from hospital yesterday evening - with their baby girl.  We've not had chance to speak to them yet, think it's best to leave them to settle for a couple of days following their no doubt traumatic experiences in hospital following the birth.  We're just happy that mother and baby are ok and home.

Thank you all for the lovely comments.  I'm typing this at 03.10 in the morning - predictably, my mind's in a whirl and I've been lying awake for the past hour or two, I'll try going back to bed in a bit.  If we like the bungalow when we go to view it next Tuesday, I'm now thinking it may be best to try and move some time in December, before Christmas.  My brother and family moved house from Surrey to Cornwall a week before Christmas some years ago - if they could do that, I'm sure we can manage to move just 15 miles fairly quickly!  I expect it may be difficult to get a removal firm (or more likely a local Man and Van - well, 2 men) around the Christmas/New Year period, so the earlier we are ready to move in December, the better.

So, assuming we say yes to the place - and I see no real reason why we'd turn it down - it's going to be a massive flurry of planning and activity for the next few weeks.  I shall have to start listing our excess furniture on the local FB selling pages - I've already told husband we'll be selling it cheap, much to his disgust.....but he did understand when I told him we need it gone ASAP, and won't manage that if we advertise it for the sort of prices he'd like.  The stark reality is that we will be downsizing, there'll be 2 or possibly even 3 rooms less in the bungalow, so we cannot take excess furniture - we'll have nowhere to put it and won't need it anyway.  And whatever money we get for the stuff will all add to the moving fund - we've got enough savings for the first couple of months rent and the removal firm costs, but we'll probably need new carpets or rugs, and curtains, possibly the curtain rails and things like lampshades.  We'll need to get a small dining table set as well, our heavy oak one with matching 4 chairs will be far too big. I've already started making a list of excess furniture that can go.  Fortunately, when I had that decluttering spree earlier on in the year, I got rid of all my excess kitchen equipment, so at least that's one room which won't take long to clear.  And we've already got a load of boxes, currently flatpacked behind husband's wardrobe, and a big roll of bubble wrap, so can get cracking on packing stuff straight away.

Husband said yesterday that we'll have to start making several trips to the tip - erm yes dear, I've been telling you that for months!!  And we'll be starting this weekend!

Right, having had a mug of Horlicks, I'm now going back to bed.  I'm now very glad I did all that batch cooking and freezing, it'll be such a help, I won't have to spend ages preparing and cooking dinners every day so it will free up time for me to get on with more important things.

Gobsmacked!!

 One of the two bungalows I put bids on last week had 255 bids at close of business on Sunday night, and our bid was ranked at no. 53 on the list, meaning there were 52 people with more priority in front of us - so no chance, in reality.  Or so I thought!  This morning I noticed that our ranking had suddenly changed to......No. 1.  Yes, first on the list.  Must be a glitch in the system, I immediately thought - how can they suddenly discount 52 people in the space of just a few days?  Of course it's entirely possible that several people have dropped out - but not all of them.   I put it out of my mind, which was fairly easy as I was very busy in the kitchen, and was sure it was a mistake anyway.

But then at lunchtime we had a phone call from the Housing Association - saying we were indeed now first on the list and offering us a viewing!  I was almost rendered speechless with amazement.  We're going next Tuesday morning - how exciting!

It's a small detached 2 bedroom bungalow, with an attached car port and drive.  It has an open plan front garden, and secure walled and fenced back garden.  It's air source pump heating - which I know very little about, having not had it before.  It also has solar panels on the roof, which should make the electricity a lot cheaper.  And there's a wet room bathroom, so no more having to climb in and out of the bath to have a shower.  The property is currently being decorated, hence why we can't go until next week, and will apparently be ready for occupation from the 20th November!!!  Assuming we like the place, however, we shan't be moving in then - there's no way we'd be ready to move in less than a fortnight, the very thought of that brings me out in a cold sweat.  

It's in a small cul de sac of all bungalows, so a retirement community (there's a community centre with resident warden nearby, she takes care of any worries the residents might have).  It's in a village about 15 miles from here, near to Minehead - so although shops and GP aren't in walking distance, they're closer than we are here.  And there's a bus service through the village.  All in all it sounds just right, but we're reserving judgement until after we've seen it next week.

Making life easier

 Having had the boiler serviced yesterday morning, I decided we'd go shopping straight after lunch, as that now gives me 2 clear days to do batch cooking and baking.  I've got the fortnightly shop down to a fine art now and was very pleased with the cost - less than I was expecting.  And I didn't even write a list this time - but did the shopping mindfully and only bought what I knew we needed (although husband did sneak a packet of chocolate oaty biscuits into the trolley, not that I objected!).  I was going to buy a couple of packs of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, but told myself off for being so lazy!  It's so easy to make pastry after all, although I do buy puff pastry - even the TV chefs rarely make their own.  I want to make some sausage rolls and mince pies and freeze them for Christmas, within the next week or two, if I don't get time to do them today or tomorrow, or run out of energy.

Speaking of Christmas, husband's decided he wants a large gammon joint, so he'll have plenty of leftovers for cold cuts, or fried with egg and chips, and I'll probably make him a couple of pasta bakes or risotto with diced bits as well.  And of course there'll be lots of lovely stock for soups, and I use it for cooking cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or cabbage in.  I'm going to make the mock turkey thing from Carolyn's wartime recipe blog for me - you may remember I made it a few weeks ago and it's delicious.  I'll put chopped apricots in it and glaze the top with cranberry sauce, just to make it more Christmassy.  Here's the link if anybody wants it - I highly recommend it whether you're vegetarian or not - use veggie sausages if you are, regular meat ones if not.  Incidentally, I didn't bother with the parsnips for turkey legs, and I cooked it in a loaf tin rather than freeform on a baking tray.

So the oven is going to be working overtime today and tomorrow, I shall be baking around a dozen potatoes and a big trayful of Mediterranean style veggies.  2 kgs of chicken thighs (Betty eats them, deboned of course, as well as husband, and even I have a bit of chicken very occasionally, in a stew or pasta thing).  20 sausages and a trayful of back bacon.  Husband has been asking for cake again recently, specifically ginger cake - I'll make him a dozen ginger muffins instead of a large cake I think.  I'll do a trayful of individual Yorkie puds as well.  All of this will be portioned up and frozen for easy meals over the next few weeks and much less cooking for me.  I'm becoming less and less keen on cooking every day - it's as much the decisions about what to cook, as well as the actual cooking, I just don't enjoy it as much as I used to.  Having a stock of ready or partly cooked things in the freezer will make life so much easier, and it'll mean that I don't have to actually cook a meal every day.

Overpriced Christmas stuff (what a surprise)

 I really enjoyed the lunch and garden centre visit.  I had a brie, cranberry and rocket ciabatta with twice-cooked chips, husband had a Coronation chicken bloomer sandwich with chips.  Lovely coffees too.  Although it was busy (Tuesdays is obviously pensioner outing day, there were loads of them - and no I'm not a pensioner....yet!!), we got served very quickly by smiling cheerful staff, and the food/drinks were steaming hot.  Some reviews I'd seen online complained about long waits and cold food, but that certainly wasn't our experience.  It was fun browsing around the shop afterwards - I didn't buy anything!  Not that there was nothing I wanted, on the contrary, I saw loads of things I'd happily give house room to, but I no longer buy things just because I like them - they must be needed.  Especially when we're downsizing.  There were a staggering amount of Christmas decorations, even more than in previous years, I think.  Some of them I thought were ridiculously overpriced - what's the point of paying vast amounts for something you put out on show for such a short time?  There was a large toy retriever dog, life size, it had a moving head and tail and was displayed lying on a decorated fire hearth - I dread to think how much that was, I didn't dare look.  It looked very lifelike, I wonder what Betty would have made of it?  I can't really imagine why anyone would actually want to buy something like that for Christmas - waste of money as far as I'm concerned, but each to their own I guess.  I do like Nutcracker soldiers, and those gonk-type gnomes - there were literally dozens of both, in all sizes from tree-hanging small ones to ones several feet tall.  You'd have to have a very big house to display some of the Christmas things - and a garden size to match, if you wanted some of the massive light-up outdoor reindeer, snowmen, etc.  A lot of it struck me as being really OTT gaudy.  But I suppose some people like that!

Our neighbour has had their baby girl, early Monday morning.  Unfortunately, there were complications, compounded by a shortage of staff in the maternity unit, and the baby is very ill with sepsis.  We can only hope that the little one will pull through.  The husband came home to have a quick shower and tell us the news, then went straight back to the hospital.  Very worrying for them. 

This morning we're having the boiler serviced, then tomorrow we're going to do our fortnightly Sainsbury's shop.  And that's the sum of the excitement for this week!

Having not coloured my hair now for months and months, it's now almost completely grey.  I didn't really make a conscious decision to stop colouring it (I've done it myself for about 50 years, with the odd salon visit for colouring here and there), I just couldn't be bothered anymore in the end, it didn't feature high on my list of things to do.  Actually, rather than grey it's more of a soft silver colour - and amazingly I quite like it....so I don't think I'll bother dyeing it anymore.  Saves me a job!  My Mum's hair never really went grey, it just sort of faded over the years, so in the end hers was a sort of soft light silver colour too, much as mine is.  So every time I see myself in the mirror now, I see my Mother looking back at me - which is no bad thing.

The weather is back to strong blustery winds and rain - it seems to be our default setting lately.  Thank goodness we're not going anywhere today - and that includes Betty, she's not even keen on going in the garden to do her business when the weather's like this.

 

Delayed birthday treat

 Thank you for all the birthday comments and emails.  Although we couldn't go out (the windscreen bloke arrived about 3.30 pm), it was still quite a nice day.  I told husband I wasn't doing any washing up - I generally do all the washing up throughout the day, he washes up after dinner in the evening (although frequently leaves some of it 'to soak overnight' and then 'forgets' to do it the next morning).  I also said as it was my birthday I would like a TV-free day!  I had the radio on tuned to my favourite Greatest Hits station (Ken Bruce!  The way they go on about him....I do like him by the way....you'd think he was the only presenter on there).  Husband managed to resist putting the TV on until about 4 pm, by which time I relented and said he could, as he was moping around bored.  I didn't get any cards through the post - our post here is terrible, there's been a staff shortage for months and months and we only get post about once a week, we've not had any at all since early last week.

The king prawn cocktail was scrumptious, I had a croissant with it....can't remember the last time I had one of those.  The smoked haddock chowder I made for dinner was gorgeous too, even husband said it was really nice and I could make it again.  Even though it's a main course soup, he doesn't really consider soup to be substantial enough for dinner, but made an exception for this one.  There's enough left for dinner tonight, we're going out for lunch today.

We're going to a big garden centre which has a large restaurant, recently (well, a year or so ago) redone.  After we've had lunch, I shall enjoy browsing around, they have a big clothes section, loads of books, homewares, gifts, a large pet section.  And no doubt some Christmas displays too.  If husband gets bored - which I'm sure he will - he can go and sit in the car and doze off whilst 'listening' to the radio....for once I'm not going to be guilt-tripped into hurrying up just so he can get out of there!

It was chucking it down yet again through the night and when I got up....it's stopping now and the sun seems to be (very weakly) trying to come out.  The fields are still bogs and the lane full of mud, it feels like this year has been mostly rain....although we did have a bit of a heatwave in June I think.  But at least it's really green and lush everywhere.

Feeling ancient!

 Well, I'm 64 today and I feel every one of those years.  But I'm thankful that I've actually reached that age - and that it means I now only have 2 years to wait until I get my State pension! (that's assuming the government doesn't move the goal posts).

Husband had been told to ring the windscreen replacement firm after 4 pm yesterday, to be given a time for the appointment.  He was held in a queue for AN HOUR, constantly being told by the recording that he could access live chat on the website instead.  Except.....their website was down for maintenance the whole time, so was inaccessible!  He gave up and tried again early evening - another 30 minute wait, so he gave up again.  He tried again just before he went up to bed (the phone line is 24/7 apparently) and finally got through, they're coming around 2.30 pm today.  So in theory we could go out for lunch still, but I don't really want to feel we have to rush through it and get back in time, so will still put it off to another day.

The inconsiderate neighbour didn't let any fireworks off in the end, thankfully - although why he let one off at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning is beyond me.  We could hear the odd few in the distance yesterday evening, Betty lifted her head up and listened intently each time, but didn't get upset.  We had the calming plug-in thing on, and I'd given her a few drops of CBD oil (our vet says it's fine and he has in fact used it himself on his own pets) early in the evening, that seemed to do the trick of keeping her calm.

I've decided that the next time we go shopping, I'm going to get a bagful of baking potatoes, another bagful of chicken thighs, 2 or 3 packs of sausages and some packs of bacon.  Also a load of root veg and Mediterranean type veg.  I'll have an oven day and cook them all up at once, freezing them in portions once cool.  That way there'll always be plenty of stuff available in the freezer for quick easy meals for both husband and I - I generally have packs of lemon sole (Aldi's is my favourite one), fish fingers or those lightly dusted fish cakes, and tins of tuna and salmon, so my meals are easy anyway - just add some veggies.  I am finding that the older I get, the less time I want to spend cooking....my enthusiasm for cooking is waning a bit.  For lunches nowadays I generally have cheese, a couple of rye crispbreads and an apple, husband has sandwiches or something on toast.  I don't, or at least very rarely, have breakfast, husband gets his own, cereal or toast, although he does sometimes do himself a cooked breakfast.  Cooking just doesn't hold the same interest for me as it used to.  I like plain simple meals now.

I really must sew the crochet flowers onto the baby blanket - I just can't seem to get the oomph.  The neighbours are away on an anniversary break, it's their 1st year anniversary - hope she doesn't go into labour whilst they're away!  She's not actually due for a couple of weeks yet, but that doesn't really mean anything does it?

Irresponsible neighbours, and finally feeling better

 Thank you Marlene for giving the Carnival link - I didn't think I'd be able to watch it as our wifi here is so terribly slow (just 0.5 mbps at its worst, only just over 1 mbps at best).  I did manage to watch some of it though....it seemed to me that there were less entries than in previous years when we actually went to see it, I guess because of the cost!  What I saw was good though.

There were a few fireworks going off in the area last night, not many thank goodness.  As it's a very rural farming area, there haven't tended to be many fireworks in previous years, people showing respect for the livestock, and certainly none here in our little hamlet.  However, last NYE the family 3 doors away from us (they have 3 children aged between 4 and 14) had a very noisy party with lots of fireworks at midnight.  They didn't invite any of us neighbours, and told no-one about the party, although we did realise they were having one when a few carloads of people arrived during the evening.  We were in bed at midnight, and both of us and Betty were woken up by the loud bang of fireworks - the neighbour seemed to have picked the noisiest ones he could find.  Betty was terrified, she tried to hide under the bed, was whimpering with fear and didn't settle for at least an hour afterwards.  I was so annoyed at how irresponsible and uncaring the neighbour was, we did have words with him and asked why he didn't at least let us know in advance, so that we could have taken precautions to keep Betty calm.  He shrugged and gave a half-hearted apology, but it was clear he didn't really care.  Well, it appears he may be having fireworks tonight - not that he's told any of us, not a word to anyone, but he let a banger off around 8 o'clock this morning!  Irresponsible twat.  I assume he won't be having the fireworks late, as it's a school day tomorrow, we'll make sure we have the TV up fairly loud and have the calming plug-in thing switched on.  

I am finally feeling a lot better, I no longer feel feverish and am feeling 'normal' again.  For my birthday lunch tomorrow I've decided to have prawn cocktail, using the lovely giant raw king prawns I bought a couple of weeks ago.  And instead of the prawn stirfry for dinner, I'm going to make a smoked fish chowder - because I love it and that's what I really fancy.  Nice as it is going out for the occasional meal (it's a rare treat nowadays), I often feel I could make better food myself at home, and certainly cheaper.  The one good thing about having a meal out is that someone else has cooked it for me, and there's no washing up.  We'll still go out for lunch later on in the week, once the car windscreen has been changed.

I must roast a trayful of Mediterranean style veggies today, they need using up before they go off, I've done virtually no cooking for the past week whilst feeling ill and it wouldn't have occurred to husband.  Once cooked they'll keep in the fridge for a couple of days, I'll make a rice or pasta dish with them on Tuesday.

HH, I hope you and your husband feel better very soon, it'll be a shame to have to cancel your jabs.

Still negative, Betty's 'friend', Carnival

 I've done another test this morning, it's still negative.  Still not feeling well though, I was feverish, hot one minute, cold and shivering the next, again last night.  It's been almost a week now, I feel reasonably ok during the day, but come late afternoon/early evening it changes to feeling like crap again.  Husband is ok, thankfully, he doesn't seem to have caught it.  My appetite has been reduced over the past week and I haven't felt like cooking my usual healthy meals, so it's been a mixture of ready cooked things out of the freezer, the sausage stew I made which did us for 2 days, and things on toast.  Not big meals at all, but a bit too carby so it's not been doing my guts and aching joints much good.

Husband came home from town yesterday with a big bunch of roses for me, 2 dozen red, pink and cream ones, they're beautiful.  Pity they don't have any smell though (I'm guessing they're foreign, probably hot house grown) - native seasonal British roses smell gorgeous, it's one of my favourite smells.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Betty a very large stuffed toy dog (did I mention it before?), it's almost as big as she is, I got it in a charity shop.  I thought, fondly if wrongly, that it could be a sort of friend for her.  Nope, no way.  She's got a very strong prey drive and treats all soft toys the same - as prey, she shakes them in her mouth and generally throws them around.  Eventually of course she rips them and at that stage they get thrown away.  As this one is so big, it's lasting longer than usual, husband had to cut off one of the ears this morning as she'd ripped it.  We allow her to play with it for just 10 minutes at a time, once or twice a day.  When we take it away from her (she's often a bit reluctant to give it up, but does so fairly readily) we give her a little chew treat.  The toy gives her a bit of stimulation (we play with her whilst she's got it) and subsequently wears her out for a short while!  She doesn't get as many walks and certainly not long ones during the bad weather we've been having for what seems like ages, if it's raining quite hard she simply refuses to go outside.  So she needs a bit of extra stimulation and play.

Speaking of the weather, it's a mixture of (brief) spells of sunshine and rain again today, the fields around us are bogs, the little local lanes have turned into shallow muddy streams.  The ditches and gullies beside the lanes, supposed to take the run-off of rainwater from the fields, are full and overflowing.  A couple of the neighbours have gardens which are underwater in places, our front path disappears underwater which soon goes, but we are very fortunate that none of us here have had water invade our houses.  It must be absolutely devastating to have your home flooded out, destroying your home and possessions, and knowing you won't be able to move back into it for months and months.

As we now can't go out for my birthday lunch on Monday, I've decided to cook a king prawn dish as my birthday treat.....I do love king prawns.  It'll probably be a stirfry in sweet chilli sauce, with coconut rice and a swirl of sour cream on top.  I dare say husband would cook it if I asked him to, but he'll only be asking me questions (How many prawns shall I use?  How do you want the vegetables cut?  How long should I cook it for?  What should I cook first?....etc etc) every 2 minutes, which will irritate the life out of me, so I'd rather do it myself.  I think I'll make some lemon & raisin pancakes and we've got a tub of chocolate & orange ice cream in the freezer, that'll make a nice pud - I rarely eat puddings but will make an exception on my birthday.

It's the Bridgwater Carnival tonight, we've been several times over the years and I'd love to go again sometime.  It was raining quite hard one year, which wasn't pleasant, and of course it's generally cold, but the heat blasting off the 1000s of lightbulbs used on all the carts (they're called carts here, not floats) keeps you warm.  It is a fantastic spectacle, well worth seeing.  However, you have to get into town by 6 pm as they close the roads then, and don't open them up again until around 1 am, so it's a long time, certainly longer than we're happy to leave Betty home alone.  Also, as it's always held around Bonfire Night, there are usually fireworks going off in most areas, although not so many where we live.  But Betty hates fireworks so we wouldn't want to leave her home alone at this time of year - we haven't done ever since we've had her.

I hope it's not...

 Mid morning yesterday it started hammering down with horizontal rain, being blown sideways in the really strong wind gusts.  I was so glad to be indoors.  We have noticed, however, that the new double glazed windows installed by the landlord a few months ago are actually nowhere near as efficient at keeping out cold and noise as the old ones.  The glass must be really thin - we can hear noises outside clearly, it feels very cold standing in front of the windows and there are cold draughts coming through the opening windows.  The landlords clearly went for the cheapest option.  The old windows, whilst some no longer fitted properly, having dropped over the years (they were around 25 years old), certainly cut out noise better and felt warmer.  Still, we didn't pay for the new windows so can't complain.  Although the rent increase this year was around 5x as much as in previous years, so I guess we are actually paying for them in a small way!

I'm a bit perturbed to read that a couple of you/or relatives had tested positive for Covid having had symptoms similar to mine.  As I mentioned in reply to Dc yesterday, I tested negative, but I'll do another test tomorrow probably.  Best to be cautious, I suppose.  If it is Covid, I must say it's not a particularly serious strain - I'd liken it to a fairly mild dose of flu.  Hopefully, our Covid jabs will prevent it being any more serious.  Even so, if it does turn out to be Covid, I hope husband doesn't get it, it might be a bit more problematical for him.  I'm keeping my distance from him, just in case.  And I'm feeling a lot better today, although come the evening I seem to feel worse again.

I've finished crocheting the little flowers to go on the baby blanket, it's just a case of sewing them all on now.  Sewing added bits on or weaving in ends is always the job I hate the most....I know I should really weave in ends as I go along, but it's such a chore I just put it off.  At least I can get it all done in one go.

Husband's going out for his monthly breakfast with his mate this morning, and then to town to get 2 new tyres fitted, so I've got a couple of hours on my own, bliss.

A bit better, the storm and car problems

 I've felt decidedly unwell the last couple of days - feverish, feeling cold and shivery one minute, then hot and sweaty the next.  Splitting headache that kept coming on quite suddenly, then going again.  Aching muscles and joints.  Also explosive diarrhoea a few times (sorry!).  I spent most of the past 2 days upstairs in my recliner chair, with my fur blanket over me.  Some sort of virus or bug I suppose, it seems to be wearing off now although I'm still not feeling right.  Fortunately, I'd made a big pan of leek & potato soup when I first started to feel a bit unwell, and there were pizzas and ready meals in the freezer, so I didn't have to do any cooking and husband could cope with it.  I've put a sausage casserole in the slow cooker this morning, that will do us for today and tomorrow, with leftovers to freeze, in case I'm not feeling brilliant later, I seem to feel worse come late afternoon/evening.

We're well into Storm Ciaran, we had torrential rain and strong winds through the night which kept me awake (hence why I was up early putting the sausage casserole together), and it's still continuing.  I wonder why they're classifying it as a storm and not a hurricane?  Fortunately, we don't seem to have suffered any damage.  Dog walking may be a problem - Betty wouldn't even go out in the garden for a wee when I opened the door, she took one look then turned and scarpered back into the lounge.  She'll obviously have to go and do her business, but it'll be in the garden only today.  Husband had a phone call yesterday offering him his first (and long-awaited) physio appointment, a cancellation, for this afternoon, he's taken it but I think he's bonkers, especially with the big split in the windscreen (see below).....he says it's fine, it's only the outer skin of the screen, not the inside.  I shan't be going with him, so I hope he'll be ok. 

A stone thrown up by a passing vehicle hit the car windscreen a couple of days ago, it very quickly developed a split 3 or 4" long right in husband's eye line....by the next day it had doubled in length.  He phoned his insurers to arrange for a replacement screen - he made the appointment for next Monday.  Which is my birthday, and we're supposed to be going out for lunch - he'd totally forgotten, the date didn't even register on his consciousness (we've only been married 40 years 😒).  Still, I suppose getting the windscreen done is the important thing - I was a bit irritated that it didn't even occur to husband that that day was my birthday, but I guess we can go for lunch another day, it doesn't really matter.  My fault for not putting it on the calendar - didn't think it was necessary!

Stay safe and indoors if you can.