So, here I go again – off deserting hubby and the pussy cats and heading for the far side of the world. I shall be gone for the best part of two weeks and hope it’s a good trip. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to it very much apart from the flight – long flights play havoc with the metalwork. I know most people find they get a bit stiff sitting for all that time so just imagine how it feels if you’re pretty rigid to start with. Still, every time I think how much fun it is (not) I remind myself that before surgery it was agony due to the seat arm sticking in my side (or to be more precise my side sticking into the seat arm). Anyway, it should all be good fun!
Now, we’ve known I was going on this trip for ages and although the dates kept changing, they were all within a fairly small time frame so you wouldn’t really think it would have crept up on me- but in a way it has. I guess that’s why I’m packing today (or at least I should be if I wasn’t sitting here typing this (oops!)). Seriously, I have been very organised and prepared and packing has just been a case of chucking stuff on the bed and then into a bag or two. I even know that I am going to go over the weight limit but don’t care. Does it weigh too much? Yes! Do I need it? Yes! There, not worth worrying about, is it? As they say, its only money. Actually the people who say its only money are usually those who have it, but still, sometimes life’s just to short to get your knickers in a twist (I think this should be adopted as a new proverb, don’t you?).
So as you can see I am quite laid back and chilled about the whole trip. I was even calm when I went to pack my Mp3 player and discovered that that cat has eaten my ear buds (again!). I wouldn’t mind apart from the fact of the ‘again’ part – he loves them….I have no idea if he likes the long tangly cable or if he is just addicted to ear wax, but either way, he chomps his way through them if I don’t lock them away!
Have fun when I’m away….
..and this just says it all really.....
and just to prove that I am really addicted to LOLcats (and intelligent to boot) - check this out
So, I was talking to the BUF recently and we both agreed that it seems to have been a weird summer. I’ve asked a couple of other people too, and they all say the same and the words odd, strange and unusual have all slipped into the conversation. The really weird thing is that although we all agree that its been odd, we none of us have the same reasons – work issues, family, illness or pets – all these have been put forward as ideas of what made the summer strange for each person. Isn’t that, well…odd, that we all have different ideas about it? I have to tell you - it got me wondering....
My personal theory is that it’s all down to the weather. In this country we had the most wonderful April – hottest since blah de blah and (we were assured by the media) that this heralded the taste of the summer to come. Obviously global warming was having a major effect on April and we were all about to roast for the next 5 months right? Wrong!
Hubby and I went away in May for a week. It was nice – not blazing hot, but nice. We came home on the Saturday and on the Sunday it started to rain and rain and rain and then it rained some more. It carried on for weeks – half the country was flooded (including friends of ours, contributing to their own personal weird summer) and after the floods were over it started raining again.
Fast forward to September….
In September, it stopped raining (
yay!) and the people who think they know about such things (that would be the media again) said we would have an Indian summer (due to the amazing effects of global warming). So – we had some nice weather and now (we’re still in September right?) I’m looking out the window at the rain.
The evenings are getting dark because it’s so gloomy and cloudy all the time and not once have I sat out in the garden on one of those wonderful long hot summer evenings that seems to go on forever. (Those evenings when you sit outside with a glass of wine and some good company and hope you don’t disturb the neighbours by chatting until 2 in the morning.) Has there been a single afternoon when I’ve wanted to do nothing more than get home and make a nice glass of Pimms and sit out with hubby just enjoying the garden? Nope – hasn’t happened – it’s just been too wet!
I think summer has been stolen from us and that has had an enormous effect on us all. So many of life’s little ups and downs that we would normally take in our stride have been much bigger and scarier in the rain, than they ever would have been in the sun. What makes it worse to my mind as well is that we haven’t had a nice dose of sunshine to head into the winter with. If we all feel weird now – what are we going to be like by the time February rolls around?
Mind, if the earth has slipped on its axis, and no-one’s noticed*1, so really we have just had winter, then maybe we are about to have the hottest November on record …well, you never know!
*1Just like in The Hab Theory?
I sat here today at my PC and checked my RSS reader for new feeds…it said new LOLcats (always and yes, I do admit to being an addict) and then I suddenly realised that I have been very lax this week and not posted anything at all.Now of course, this may simply be that nothing exciting has happened in my life just now but that’s not strictly true since the BUF and her VNSO came down that the weekend. We chilled, drank wine and generally caught up. It’s been too long since we last did that sadly…We also watched large amounts of rugby since the World Cup is on at the moment and (I’m sure to the VNSO’s disgust when he gets to hear about it) I am now officially a Tonga supporter. Quite apart from the fact that they have the best shirts of anyone, they also look quite good under them too – and then they played a great match as well…yep – it’s Tonga all the way for me….
My car now has an alarm – OK, so it’s still in a box in the hall because we haven’t fitted it yet, but it at least owns one. On that subject, do you know how difficult it is to just buy a basic alarm? No? Well, most of them wire into the central locking (what’s that?) and then are designed to immobilise the engine once the thieves have broken in. What???? It’s OK to have them wreck the doors as long as they don’t drive it away? I think not – me I want something that screams loudly and keeps screaming (something like “get away from my F*****g car you moron!!!” would do nicely I think) until the said thieves run away (hopefully deaf). I had thought of just wiring it up to the mains but with hubby’s poor memory he’d probably forget to turn the switch off and I don’t want to be a young widow….
Anyway, as I said, nothing much has happened but still I thought I’d catch you all up. BTW, the FIL is home and doing well – he’s up to walking up and down the street at the moment so progress is being made all the time. I guess that’s some proper news for you so that you don’t wholly feel like you have just been peeking into the deranged ramblings of a mad woman’s mind!
I have to tell you about the reaction of the police to my car as I can't fault their indifference.
They came out (so hubby tells me) and looked at the car. They didn't take fingerprints or any details in particular - just gave him a crime reference number and told him that we would need that for the insurance claim.
Yesterday we got a letter including a leaflet from victim support. The letter said how sorry they were that we had been the victims of crime and that they promised that they would update us every month on our case.
Ah, now that would be to say - nothing done this month, then umm nothing next month either and the month after, well, that would be err nothing then??
It’s amazing the difference a few days can make, isn’t it?
I sit here, looking proudly out the window at my little car with no bandage on my foot (although my nail is a funny kind of yellow colour) and feel that life is returning to some kind of normality (whatever that is). I even have the news that the FIL is finally out of hospital and doing well and (even more amazing given the summer we have had) the sun is shining too…!
I have spent the last week on the phone (or so it seems) and have had very long involved discussions with the insurance company. They told me that with 2 bent doors that my car would almost certainly be a write off (in fact, they didn’t even want to see it to tell me that) and they would give me the market value (somewhere between £800 and £1500). At that point, if I wished to get the car repaired, I could buy the car back off them (for say somewhere between £500 and £1000) leaving me about £300 to get it fixed myself. However, the car would be registered on the insurers database as a write off and when it gets to 25 years old (next year) I would not be able to get either classic insurance or an agreed value – in fact the car would only ever be worth salvage value. Now, you can imagine I wasn’t best pleased with all this info, so I took it down my local garage for an estimate as he thinks he’s a bit of a wizard at bodywork.
“First thing we need to do”, P@GM said, “is to get it weatherproof. A gap you can put your arm through at the top of the door is bound to let in water..” “You leave it here and I’ll bend the doors back a bit and give you a proper estimate. Come back at 4 pm. That’ll be fine”.
So, since A&T (remember them?) were down for the weekend we went out for the day and at 4pm drove back to the garage. There was my little car and it looked pretty good. In fact, it looked better than pretty good – it looked just the right shape with the doors lining up and everything. Unusually for me I was lost for words and then saw P@GM …
“All fixed” says he. “Splutter, splutter” came out of my mouth. “How much??” I asked. “Well”, he said. “How does £160 sound?” “Amazing” says I, “that’s great!” “Ah bugger” says he “as I’m only going to charge you £30”. “£30” squeaks I. “Yep” he says, “when I got to work it went back easier than I thought – told you I was a magician, didn’t I?”
Magician he is for sure – I gave him a couple of bottles of wine too…and a kiss…..
