Last week was a busy one, not that I minded, it was good to
have a project. The project being the
little bungalow at Cranfield which had to be sorted as the new tenant moved out
on Tuesday and the new tenant moved in on Monday which only really gave me a
few days. Sue offered to help me so
after making sandwiches and packing up the car, I picked her up and we got to
the flat around 1pm. I wasn’t too sure
what to expect but I’d only redecorated 12 months ago so I didn’t expect the
flat to be too bad. How wrong was I, it
wasn’t really bad, I have experienced much worse but on close inspection, lots
of the walls were scuffed, the sofa was knackered, the flat was filthy dirty
and lots of stuff was missing. It never
fails to amaze what shit people live in and how lazy people can be. It made me
feel quite depressed and I wasn’t too sure where to start so it was a good job
that Sue was with me because she had to project manage.
We decided to start in the kitchen with the paint tray; Sue
cut in whilst I rollered. We hadn’t been
there long when mad Betty (aka Emily) appeared in the doorway. She decided to weed my borders, revive my hanging
basket and killed a wasp’s nest in my drain.
She does drive me nuts but she does have her uses. Actually, I shouldn’t be so mean; she is
harmless enough and is probably very lonely.
Together we all made good progress and by the afternoon, we’d painted
the kitchen, hallway and bathroom. I
even had time to make a start in the lounge, although this was a touch up job
rather than paint the room in its entirety.
I took the towels, the remainder of what was left of the bedding and the
shower curtain home with me to wash.
I was tempted to go and get on with the flat early on
Wednesday morning but Sue had an appointment on Wednesday morning from 10am
until 12pm and I also had an appointment at the doctors at 11.15am so it seemed
pointless to drive to Cranfield and then have to come back to MK and then go
back again so I decided not to go to the flat until after lunch. Instead I went to the gym for a quick work
out then popped into Asda and got a couple of bits for the flat. The quilt and
pillows were missing from the flat so these needed to be replaced. Luckily I had a spare king sized quilt in my
airing cupboard and also some bedding that I had ear marked for the caravan but
I did have to buy pillows, a toilet brush and a couple of other bits and
pieces.
After this I went to the doctors to get my blood test
done. And what a nightmare this turned
out to be. I don’t particularly enjoy
having blood taken mainly because I have very small veins and have had trouble
in the past. My appointment was with the
nurse and she was crap. She tried 5
times to get blood, twice in each arm and once in my hand. She managed to get in every time but once in,
my veins collapsed so she couldn’t get any blood. I said enough is enough after the attempt in
my hand and had to book another appointment.
Not only did the nurse hurt me but I felt a little sick afterwards. I guess the sight of all those needles.
I picked up Sue after the doctors and we went over to
Cranfield. Sue cleaned the bathroom and
all of the windows inside and out whilst I painted the lounge and touched up
various walls in the bedroom. We made up
the bed, cleaned the kitchen, put the furniture back and hoovered all
round. Sue & I tried to get the
knackered sofa out of the lounge but we got stuck in the lounge door way so we had
no choice but to give up. I had
scheduled the whole of the week to do the flat but with Sue’s help we managed
to get it finished at the end of play on Wednesday. I had to laugh because we were just packing
up our stuff when the professional cleaners, sent by the agent, turned up. Too late girls. They were happy because it was quite hot and
one of the cleaners was going on holiday the following day. At least if you clean yourself, you know it’s
been done properly. I know, I am so
anal.
It was supper at Sue’s followed by Ceroc dancing with Jan at
Woughton on Wednesday evening. It was a
hot and sweaty night and I have decided that Ceroc is not for me. I am too much
of a freestyle kind-of-girl plus it doesn’t help than I am absolutely useless
at it. I went and I tried but I don’t
think I am going to go back. It didn’t
help that Brian (Sue’s ex) turned up and has signed up for a course of
Ceroc. Of course it is a free country
but it kind of freaked me out and not in a good way.
Sue and I had planned to paint her son’s fence panels this
week but as we finished the Cranfield flat in 2 days and the weather forecast
was hot, we decided to do the fence panels last Thursday. Armed with 15 litres of paint, sandwiches,
dust sheets and other decorating paraphernalia, I guess we got to Matt’s house
just before 10 am. We had the first coat
of creosote on the panels by lunchtime but they were so dry, they needed a
second coat. Sue did this whilst I
started on the play house. This was a right
pain in the neck and Sue & I ended up giving it about 4 coats. It was so hot and we were knackered after 6
hours flat out of painting. Still we got
it all finished and it was a job well done.
Friday was furniture removal day. Phil said get the man with the van on the job
but Sue offered her car, so to save money and hassle we decided to do it
ourselves. Sue turned up in her 4 x 4 just before 10am and Phil and I got the 2
seater leather sofa out of the flat and down the stairs. It nearly killed us and I regretted not
hiring help. I had forgotten just how heavy reclining sofas are. With Sue’s help we got it in her car. Phil
went with Sue to the flat and I drove in my car.
The first job was to get the old knackered sofa out of the
flat which turned out not to be straight forward. Is anything in my life??? We tried several times and in the end we
took off the feet, which is perhaps what we should have done in the first
place. I wished I had of taken a video of the whole saga because it was quite
comical. At one point I said to Phil I
don’t remember it being difficult to get this sofa INTO the flat but then we realised
that since then, we have completed revamped the kitchen. Eventually with mad Betty’s help, we squeezed
the old sofa out and managed to squeeze it into Sue’s car, although only
just. It wasn’t too difficult to get the
reclining sofa into the flat because the back came off. The last job was to sort out the television
and 2 hours later we were finished. Phil went with Sue back to Newport,
stopping off at the tip to dump the old sofa, leaving me to sort out the
electric. Another long story and I
thought I would have to go to Bedford to get a new EDF key but I tried the
co-op at Marston Mortaine and was able to get a new key and credit.
The flat looked quite bare without the 2 seater sofa so
after lunch we decided to drive to the caravan to pick up the 1 seated
reclining chair, we had to collect post from The Manor so it made sense to kill
two birds with one stone. Not sure if
that is an old saying or whether I am making it up. It wasn’t difficult to the get one seater sofa out
of the van and into the Peugeot but not so easy getting it up our stairs and into
the flat. I tell you blood, sweat and
tears were shed on Friday but at the end of the day it was mission
accomplished. Not without pain I might
add, Phil, Sue and me now are suffering with bad backs.
It was my turn to go to Melton to visit mum and I was on the
road just after half seven on Saturday morning.
I figured it was going to be less traffic (certainly less lorries) with
it being a Saturday and it was a smooth ride until I got to junction 15. There had been an accident and there were
flashing signs warning that traffic was queuing from junction 15 and then
another flashing sign to say that the motorway was closed between 15a and
junction 16. With no sat nav, no mobile
and not much petrol I decided to get off at junction 15 and drive to Melton via
Overstone. I eventually arrived at
Melton some 2 hours later.
Mum was ready and waiting for me, she had arranged for me to
take her to see 2 of her friends in the morning so there was just time for me
to have a wee, gulp a cup of tea before we were out of the door. Talk about no rest for the wicked. First stop
was Tesco so Bet could buy a couple of plants for her friends and for me to buy
some petrol. The first friends we went
to see was a couple called Eve and Stan.
I had never met them before but they were very welcoming. Poor Eve is awaiting a hip operation, she could
hardly walk and it was obvious she was in pain.
And her husband Stan was as deaf as a door post which made conversation
both difficult and interesting!
Our second stop was a visit to mum’s friends Phoebe (love
that name) and Charlie. It was Phoebe’s
90th birthday so mum wanted to take her a plant and a card. Charlie didn’t seem to be too bad, a bit
tottery but he had all his faculties, but Phoebe, bless her was very unstable
on her feet and kept repeating herself.
I’m guessing that would be a bit of dementia; Phoebe was also a little
blind and a little bit deaf. We didn’t
stay too long as they were expecting family.
I guess we stayed for half an hour and that for me was long enough. God, I really don’t want to get old and decrepit.
It was midday by the time we got back to the bungalow and lunch
was a little late. Phil’s mum did fish which I didn’t really enjoy. She baked it in the oven and I am not sure if
it was cooked plus it was really bony. I
ate as much as I could. In the afternoon
we watched Celebrity Big Brother and I left Melton just after 3pm. Whilst I was at Melton Phil had gone to
Maidstone to see a detective. He had done
quite a lot of preparation for his meeting, but naturally was a little
nervous. Unfortunately his appointment
was not until 2.15pm. The meeting went
on almost 4 hours and it was 8pm by the time he got home. Phil said the detective was nice and he felt
he believed him but he didn’t have any financial knowledge. And why should he? Anyway, I will let Phil tell you the ins and
outs as I don’t know too much. What I do
know, is that this is last chance saloon and if nothing comes as a result of this
meeting, there is nowhere else to go.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day. I did make it to the gym but that was as far
as I ventured. Phil wanted to watch the
Italian Grand Prix live so I did the roast for when it finished. Harriet came round for lunch as Billy was
working. A Sunday roast at home always
seems like a good idea but I sometimes whether it’s worth it. You go buy the stuff, it takes hours to cook,
you eat it in 10 minutes and then it takes forever to clean up, even if you do
have a dish washer.
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