emchi.co.uk

One suspects I might be slightly crazy, not only did I go to Ikea specifically for the purpose of buying things the puppy would like, I spent quite a bit of money on her.

I bought something R has described as a Kangabunny… (don’t ask, I said it was a bunny and R said it was a kangaroo), and a big blue Loch Ness monster, that looks, well, deranged.  Seriously, deranged.  Anyway, we’re now proceeding to take it in turns to hug the toys and the blanket and the cushion.  Now that makes us deranged doesn’t it?  Apparently the puppy will need things that smell like us in order to familiarise herself with us. 

So, I’ve spent the afternoon puppy proofing the place, OK, so the kitchen, larder, utility area and bathroom.  I’m not doing the hall on my own.  It’s hard work this puppy business, and we haven’t even got the little monkey yet. 

Well it’s a cornucopia of things going on in Chez Emchi today.  Firstly I got woken up at about five with what I thought was heavy rain… nope, lots of sleet, still it was nice hearing it.  Then managed to get a lie in because the birds were getting rained on, HA karma’s a great thing!

When I finally did get out of bed (only 8:45 so not that late), there were two partridges in the back garden.  I’m rather surprised I recognised them tbh.  I knew we had pheasants wandering wild in the village, but I didn’t know there were partridges wandering around.

There’s a dog here with us today, and it’s taken umbrage to two of the tiles on the floor going into the kitchen, probably a dead body, but the dog is totally freaked out about it.  That said she’s slightly un-hinged anyway.

Then to top it all off, it’s gone from sleet, to rain, to blue skies and sunshine and then a blizzard.  All kinds of strange things going on.  The sky is currently very blue at the moment.

In a great mood at the moment, I think that putting right something that was wrong is good for the soul.  I didn’t realise just how cathartic apologising for my behaviour could be.  I’m just more grateful that the person accepted my apology, so as that person reads this, thank you again :o)

The saga of the decorator continues… the pre-pubescent idiot at the letting agent phoned yesterday and said “oh the decorator will be there starting work on the 17th”… err, no, he won’t.  To recount the conversation I’d had with the wet blanket two weeks previous.  The decorator is NOT coming back until we know specifically what he’s doing and when he’s doing it.  If he says it should take five days to finish, what exactly is he finishing?  Is that five days the rest of us work, or the four hours he works, if so he can do two and a half days FULL work, not five days.  Oh and I also said that I wasn’t permitting anyone to come and do decorating next week, we’ve got house guests, and the last thing I’m doing is entertaining in the kitchen because the workshy lazy fat painter has kicked us out our living room. 

To top that all off the bumfluff boy from the letting agents turns around and tries to get shirty with me.  I don’t bloody care if he’s the middle man, that’s what he’s paid to do.  God knows they’re not doing anything.  I’d rather converse directly with our landlord, I have WAY more respect for him than I do for someone who’s just left school.  This is our home for goodness sakes.

Now, do I chase the letting agents about their inability to do anything
close to communicating with us regarding what is happening on the  bird
in the chimney?  How long does it take a person to call up and say
“I’ve spoken with the landlord, he’s not going to do anything
until…”  How on earth do these people stay employed?

In other news I’ve noticed the trees are starting to blossom on the commute in.  Oh and having moved our new magnolia into the conservatory to get it out of the gales that might knock it flying, it’s started to flower.  I shall have to take some photos of it, it looks really pretty.  Gentle little white flowers.  Going to go and have a sniff tomorrow. 

Can I just say that I want a new pair of knees… they’re going to look pretty ugly by the end of the week, they are big and swollen, and OWCH! I am, officially, a muppet. To top that off I wacked my elbow and scraped my finger today.  Queen of the twat people I am.

Still the kitchen is relatively unpacked, I have a fully stocked larder.  It looks lovely, I’m rather impressed with myself.  I also treated myself to the new Delia cookbook today.  Some nice looking recipes in there I think I will have to try out.  Now I’ve got a nice kitchen to cook in :o)

I’ve just found out our conservatory has been granted planning permission so I’ll be onto the letting agents tomorrow to find out when they plan on finishing that off.  No doubt we’ll be off to Ikea again next month to buy more book cases.  So far our list goes as follows:

• Shelves for the kitchen pantry
• Butchers block for the kitchen
• Spare Bed
• Wardrobe
• Table and Chairs
• Book Cases
• Sofa

Right, I’m off to make something for dinner that apparently starts with an F ends in a A and has “ajit” in the middle of it… or so I’m told :o)

Well today involved going to Fairford then off to Ikea in Bristol.  Lets get beyond the traffic and complaints about how far away it is… and lets get onto how I tripped over my own feet and now have knees twice the size they were this morning.  Ouchy!!

Ikea in Bristol is strange, I’m used to Ikea at Lakeside, laid out logically and easy to access.  Not this place.  Anyway, ended up spending more than I’d anticipated, typical me really.  Well the shelves are put up in the pantry now and all I’ve got to do is prey I’ve got enough shelves for the amount of stuff I’ve got.  Yeah, likely I know.  So tomorrow will be unpacking the boxes and putting stuff away.  Fun!  Still the kitchen already looks better. 

Also on the list of things to do tomorrow will be buying mastic for the shower surround which is leaking like a mother bleeper.  I’ve yet to find anything in this place that’s been done well.  So hopefully by tomorrow evening I’ll have an un-packed kitchen, a shower that no longer leaks, and I’m going to do a bit of cooking.  Make up some stuff for lunch next week, well that’s all hoping my knees don’t suddenly decide they’ve had enough and give up the ghost.

Right, I’ve still got to go down the shop and buy milk, and lets not get started on dinner for tonight!! gah!

Well the saga of the hot water (now fixed) has been replaced by useless decorators that take five days to finish painting one room and forcing us into our living room.  They turn up at 10 and leave at four after a two hour lunch break.  Is it any wonder it’s taken them five days to paint our kitchen (even though they’ve told us twice it was finished).  Yesterday they said they wouldn’t be back today and guess what!! they’re back today!! I spent two hours cleaning the dust off of things that they’d covered with dust because they said they weren’t coming back today.  I am now SERIOUSLY fed up with them being there.  Their ability to paint things is less than adequate, they don’t listen to basic communications of “FINISH A BLOODY ROOM BEFORE YOU START ANOTHER ONE”… I swear I attract idiots that can’t follow basic commands.

In other news, I was very amused this morning to find in the terms and conditions for my bank account benefits “You may need further software if you wish to use Smartphones and PDAs, especially Microsoft OS-based”.  Are they possibly saying that Microsoft OS based phones are less than adequate?

It’s only 9:30 and I’ve already made several observations about things this morning…

1. It’s much easier on my feet if I put my sheepskin boots on to go to the bathroom at 5:15 in the morning when the heating isn’t on.
2. I’ve never seen a tangerine sky before, well until about 6:45 this morning, and trust me it was tangerine, not red and not quitte orange.  It was bizarre, but very pretty.
3. I’m going to make the life of the woman at the letting agents pretty miserable this morning, after yet ANOTHER cold shower.
4. The kitchen looks much bigger with a lot less stuff on the work tops

I’m sure I’ll make more observations before the day is out. 

*Cough* and indeed *cough* there is now so much dust floating around you need a dust mask to enter the kitchen.  Still we now have a pantry devoid of shelves and a promise to fill in the drafty gaps around the windows and re-plaster the death zone.  Hopefully sometime in the next week we may have a finished kitchen.  Then there’s just the hall, the living room, the conservatory, the stairs, the bathroom and the garden… Small steps.

Feeling a lot less squiffy which is always a good thing.

Ok so that’s a slight exageration.  I’ve got a few cuts on my hands, but that was from last week, honest!! We have the spareroom of doom packed now.  Well I say packed, the only thing left to do are the books (wibble, the thought of it makes my back hurt), clear the bed off and take the junk down the tip.

The kitchen and our room are getting done tomorrow.  Then I need to find the cash next week, with any luck we’ll be moving in a week’s time.  Well I hope we’ll be moving in a week’s time. 

Things feel so much better after a jolly good night’s sleep.  Looking forward to another good night’s sleep tonight.  Feeling a little less frayed today. 

Oh how boring has my life gotten when all I’ve got to blog about is packing boxes to move house.  Shoot me, shoot me now!!

Once opperation relocation (oooh look, that rhymes), has been completed successfully, I am hoping to start using my blog as a writers notebook.  I aim to write more interesting things this year.

Well not exactly tell jokes but wise crack… So I was in the kitchen with a new work colleague (or should I say I’m the noobie, having started yet another job). When I commented on his salad looking nice… conversation continued quite considerably until he cursed that there were no forks on our floor. He then made the mistake of saying the following:

“Why are there never any forks on this floor?”

Yes… wait for it… I said:

“I guess they must have forked off”

I know it was utterly appalling but you know it just called for it. I really really really should not be allowed to pull wise cracks at all…