SAL Wednesday 24/15: It Never Rains ...

Old English Tarot

... but it pours. Let me share with you the list of things that have broken in the last week:

1. Mini Diva's laptop charger. For some who-knows-what reason, they required us to also drop off her laptop for the technicians to look at.

2. Mini Diva's behavior. She hits new pubertal lows. As a result Destructo Boy wants to move out. I do too, but I don't say so out loud.

3. The fridge section of the fridge-freezer that came with the house. I phone the landlady who tells me it's nothing to do with her. I book a repair man for it.

4. The shower. Water comes out fine, but at Arctic temperatures. Landlady agrees to send a repair man. Repair man replaces it.

5. Washing machine packs up. We fix this ourselves - a blocked filter and drain hose. Next time we get a short-haired dog that doesn't moult.

6. Freezer section of fridge-freezer packs up. Oh well, at least we've already got a call in for the repair man. Repair man comes and writes off fridge-freezer, a manufacturing fault, reckons it is about 4 to 7 years old. I use Titch's credit card to buy a new fridge-freezer for next day delivery. Thank you, Titch and thank you AO.com.

We have not yet decided what to do about the old fridge-freezer that the landlady wanted nothing to do with although it's hers. It's on the inventory. As a Zanussi when it is a Hotpoint. If you have advice about this, please share in the comments section.

After all this plus normal chores, I decide to reward myself for my ace survival skillz by finally getting out the sewing machine Titch bought me last year as an early Xmas present when it was on sale in May. I plug it in, I RTFM, I switch it on, I do some straight stitching. I turn the stitch selector dial - and it comes off in my hand, there's a crack in the part that grips the spindle.

I could have wept. And maybe I hid my face in the airing cupboard and did.

So this is what I did after lunch yesterday:

That is the pattern page for Sweet Dreams from The Best of Terry Kimbrough Baby Afghans, a 5.5mm hook, a new ball of King Cole Comfort Baby DK in pale yellow, a COLD gin and tonic, and a handsome gorgeous Sebastian. Note the weather - there's a reason I live here, the driest sunniest part of the British Isles.

If you have made it this far, you too have ace survival skillz, and I salute you. Pop off to Life & Yarn for people with unbroken things ...

Blog Hub Swap: Day 6

Victorian Romantic

Once again I managed to control myself until at least one child was in school, and the lovely men from Anglian Water had arrived to replace whatever it was that broke last week. Here is the package labelled 'Day 6':

And the part we really want to see:

A 1oz and 1 1/2oz liquor measure. I used the English equivalent, both optics and measures, throughout my previous career, starting with 1/6 and 1/3 gill and moving to 25ml and 35ml when everything went metric.Except the Great British Pint. Which is thankfully, still a pint - the politicos don't want a revolution.

And to go with it ?

A recipe book ! But not for boring food - it's for cocktails ! That's what we call a win ...

I think the Cranberry Cobbler is definitely a Must Try - doesn't it look inviting ? Well, 11:35am is almost lunchtime, isn't it ? Close enough to count ? Please ?

And the back page:

And the card that accompanied today's gift explains everything:

Well, I'm definitely getting a much clearer idea of which of my blog topics tend to stick in Denise's mind !

Gin at Noon

Well, it sounds so much more acceptable and ... poetic ... than gin at 10:33 a.m, don't you think ? I've been helping someone out this week, doing some cleaning in their house, and had everything done by yesterday. It also involved having the carpets cleaned professionally. The chap did a great job, the carpets look almost new again.

Do you sense it? The forboding?

Can you see it ? Yes, that is the silhouette of trouble on the horizon.

I needed to use the vacuum cleaner to do the upstairs. In order to do that, I needed to empty the canister. The model looks something like this:


I figured it worked much like any other canister/cylinder vacuum, so I confidently detached the cylinder from the base, and then pushed the swizzly bit at the top from the 'lock' to 'unlock' position. There I stood for a couple of moments, trying to work out why the lid would not come off. It was only a couple of moments. That was because it took a couple of moments for the total filthy contents of the full cylinder to drop all over my feet - and all over the newly-cleaned and still damp carpet. A sailor would have been ashamed to use the words I used as I comprehensively cursed the (no-doubt) male designer.

Having bought a Halti for Sebastian, since my aging elbow joints in particular were complaining in a way that OTC ibuprofen couldn't pacify because of his pulling (mere untrained bad manners)


I had to return it to the store yesterday after only two days and 4 walks, as he had managed to snap both the Halti and his new lead. I'm happy to report that the customer service at Viking Aquatics was impeccable: no quibbles, an instant replacement of both items, in spite of me having lost the receipt.

Then an in-law called to tell me they were visiting today. It was someone I like, and whom we don't see at all often; so I quelled my screams and ran round like a nutter cleaning up my own house, which had been pretty much abandoned this week (see helping out someone else above) - so much so that what I thought was a new carpet was in fact a layer of Alsatian fur.




At least it wasn't mold - it's too cold right now. My mood having scared even the children into helping me, a record time later the house was again something we don't have to feel ashamed of. Which is when the in-law called to say that they weren't coming after all because of the road conditions. Then Destructo Boy knocked over his juice onto my newly-washed floor. Followed in short order by his hot chocolate.



No need for dilution. It's the reason he's still alive.