What a difference a week makes

The weather is warmer, possibly heatwave stuff here, meaning I can almost be too hot when I have so much to do. Not a thing I'm used to saying.

Anyway, I now have a sink and some worktops. The main kitchen is still a work in progress but I can cook a reasonable meal now and it even looks half like a kitchen! I've also ordered a dishwasher as my hands have lost the battle between me and the all invading plaster dust, gloves don't help as it's everywhere, not just when you get wet, so after half a century on this planet, I get to enjoy what other people take for granted: my own dishwasher. I can't wait until Tuesday when it comes.

The rest of the house looks almost respectable except for the bathrooms. One is currently a store room and the other a disabled shower room but it's usable and with my super homemade temporary net curtains (amazing what you can do with 4 nails, a stapler and a length of net) and a few hooks screwed into odd holes in the wall it's quite functional too.

The depressed painter rang to see what progress had been made in the hall and was told not a lot. "Oh, still waiting for the plasterer are we?" Well no, actually we didn't even get that far, we still have no hall ceiling and WH is being somewhat tardy getting it put up. Maybe it was something to do with the garage fire door, he started that on Sunday night, abandoned it having lost his temper because the brickwork wasn't true and hasn't looked at it since, feeling an urgent need to do jobs for everyone else every evening so far this week. So no change there then.

The other bit of good news is that I finally have a tenant. The old house has been spring cleaned, the kitchen and one bedroom re-painted, new blinds and lights fitted, smoke detectors purchased and the garden manicured to perfection. Result 4 viewings in 3 days and one successful applicant. They move in next month and my bank account will be looking slightly healthier.

Tonight I can't move, 3 long evenings this week of gardening in the wilderness we call the back garden has given me aches in places I didn't know I had. We can see the whole garden now and the cats love it. I have a huge pile of cut down shrubs and stuff and it's been so hot it might be dry enough to burn over the weekend, otherwise I'll have to load it into the jalopy and take it to the local tip. Hand-weeding most of the original borders has unearthed some gems, seedling broom bushes, 2 Rosa glauca bushes, an Acanthus, which one I don't know, and a load of other stuff. Next week I can start making some flower beds.

As the painter said when he surveyed a large hole I had dug in the kitchen floor where an old pillar had to be removed, insulated and cemented over, "You couldn't have done this twelve months ago." No I couldn't, but now it seems the more I do the more I can. Great isn't it?

Normal service may be resumed.....

next week sometime.

After an exhausting telephone marathon yesterday with my ISP and BT I think maybe I got some answers. BT especially were a hard nut to crack, particularly, and I don't want to sound racist here, as the call person was from the Indian sub-continent and I could barely understand a word she said. She wasn't able to understand me either and eventually got quite irate when I asked to speak to the engineers or whatever that service is called these days. After a protracted discussion about why I couldn't speak with 'the ingenious man' I suddenly realised that it was actually the engineers I was not able to speak to. I DID understand that BT were not able to help and were not even able to provide someone I could talk to who understood exactly what the problem was, due not to a difficult technical problem but more a question of semantics and pronunciation.

Having friends from several ethnic backgrounds and normally considering myself as pretty tolerant I begin to get rather annoyed when a previous corner stone of our society is being run from another country entirely. I spent 17 minutes on the phone when in fact the call should have taken no longer than 5.

That settled I then tried the ISP, their centre I think is in Dublin and certainly all the, again protracted, automated system messages are in a heavy Irish accent. I finally pressed my 8th choice of options and was connected to an African with a very heavy accent. He was kind polite and helpful was easier to talk to than the uptight Asian I had earlier. Whether or not his information was correct remains to be seen, either way it wouldn't be his fault.

In Brief

The move went OK. The phone line was moved but not the broadband and we won't have it for at least another 3 weeks. Dial up is like wading through treacle, very slow and a right pain so my time here will be very limited and mostly confined to reading.

Steg, I'm following in your footsteps!

All packed up and ready to go

Well not quite but getting there. It's amazing how much stuff I have accumulated over the last 23 years. Considering I was half packed last October, this week I have moved an incredible amount of boxes, most of it single handed ad therefore rather slowly. WH of course has most pressing work elsewhere even to the point of doing a favour for someone last night and working until 10pm. This did not go down too well with me as you might guess. With no kitchen, not even a temporary one as yet, and no proper bathroom, we have a lot to do before Friday.

At least the office is all set up and reasonably shipshape. All I have to do is move the pc and connect to the internet when the phone line is switched on Friday. It sounds simple but I bet it won't be. Meanwhile I have a couple of new bookcases to assemble and a tv stand. Of course you can do them I was told, you did the last lot. OK, OK but that was 26 years ago.

So tomorow my lovely helper Ms T is coming again for some serious kitchen packing and the we get to move it all down the road and annoy the depressed painter whilst we unpack it all again in the new place. Getting it all to fit will be no mean feat as only half the place is habitable as yet. The rest as they say is still a work is progress.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and guess what?

Don Wayne Reno signed it. Just for me.

Watch him here at Holmfirth the following night. Just as well we didn't get to see Dale Reno in his undies at Mansfield on Saturday, might have made me blush!

Reality check - pinch me if I'm dreaming

We finally cleared the new house of tools and rubbish last night prior to the carpet fitter arriving this morning. We now have painted bedrooms, all the light fittings and curtain rails. I am just about to load my car with all the stuff I need to clean windows, wipe down doors and paintwork and hang curtains. After 16 months it barely seems real. My stallwort friend and lifesaver T is arriving later to help. What I would have done this last twelve months without her support I do not know. OK she started as the 'hired help' but as in all the best stories she's now a part of the family and a great friend to boot.

My other 'dream' scenario is my energy level. Over the weekend I moved a lot of bricks and some builders sand which I was sick of seeing. Since then I have cleaned as though my life depended on it. I keep waiting for the crash and it doesn't come. Even 6 months ago I could not have done all this, so now I am testing myself daily to see how much more I can do. The results are amazing not just me but everyone around. For this I have to thank my Lovely Lyme Doc and his faith in my treatment.

And just to put the icing on the cake of this upbeat post, the nightingale has arrived and is singing not 20 metres from my window. What a joy.