lizblog

Cooker saga

When I moved a little over 4 years ago I bought a new cooker. Here it is. It is a Belling gas cooker, by no means the bottom of the range, nice looking and apparently functional. This assumption turned out to be somewhat inaccurate. To begin with it didn't have the fully automatic timer I thought it had, so no sneaking out and leaving the oven to come on all by itself. Then it turned out that the "clever design" of the gas jets being positioned over the whole of the base of the oven, rather than the traditional placement of them at the back, was disastrous. Not only did it result in everything burning on the bottom and the crappest Yorkshire Puddings I have ever made in my entire life .... well other than the Yorkshire Biscuits I once produced in the USA ...... it turns out that it made the cooker unsafe as there was a high risk that it would actually set fire to the floor beneath it.

Belling realised this after a couple of years, but singularly failed to advise me of the fact and include me in the product recall. They did send me a letter a couple of months ago, but when I said it was standing on a concrete floor, they said it was fine.

However, I had taken out an extended warranty on it and when the top oven thermostat stopped working I decided to have it repaired, I mean ... I didn't actually really use the top oven as the only thing it would fit in was a pizza ... and then there was a good chance that the bottom would burn before the top was cooked, but it was free ... I felt I would at least be getting my money's worth.

The engineer duly came and promptly condemned the cooker and said it should have been replaced two years ago. He ordered us a nice new Stoves replacement. Here it is. It has a fully automatic oven, a lovely grill, the gas jets in the proper place and the best oven lights I have ever seen. The sterling test will be when I try it to cook Yorkshire Puddings on Sunday!!!

The bath man cometh .....

selecting, placing, drilling, screwing ......

All part of the amazing job of making a new panel for the side of the bath.

pre-wax and post-wax

and there we have it.

There are very definite advantages to Ed coming to see me other than the immediately obvious one of spending time with my favourite son. Today is a case in point. The morning was spent in taking a car loads of stuff to the tip. Rachel did comment that I should take photos of the car laden with Louise's bed, the bags of rubble from the damp men and some very archaic vacuum cleaners that were rusting away in the cellar. However, in the whole effort of getting it done I entirely forgot to do it. Der!

I then cooked a full English breakfast for the three of us in precisely 17 minutes .. very nice it was too. Then Ed and Rachel went off house hunting for a while.

When they returned in the afternoon, we made a quick trip to B&Q and £40 later arrived home with all the bits to make the bath panel.

It looks much nicer than the other one ........

before and after

Harry's story

Today at school the children were accessing a resource provided by Sainsburys, looking at shopping in the past. There were pictures of the first Sainsburys shop and details of what it was like to go shopping 50+ years ago.

The children could then print off a sheet to write their own story.

This 6 year old child wrote about what it would have been like to be a delivery boy.
This is what he wrote:

Every morning before breakfast, Harry washes his bike.
Then goes and collects the food for the people.
Then goes back to the shop for bangers and mash.

Now check out his work in the picture.

Brilliant.

In the buff.

It felt slightly naughty, but very, very nice. There we were, bubbling away in the jacuzzi, just the two of us .... nothing but the water and us, nothing at all.

The water was warm ... a little too warm for strenuous exercise, but very delicious to sink into from the cold wintery weather. It was deep enough to swim comfortably, but shallow enough to touch the bottom any time. There ... look, up there, a big jacuzzi. Comfy chairs, a bed-sized settee ... well, a bed really, dressed up like a settee, a shower, toilets, carpet, even a ceramic alligator, what more could you wish for .... oh yes, that's it, total, absolute, no-one else there privacy.

That was our experience today between the hours of 4 and 5 pm, all for the amazing cost of £12.

Are we going back next week? You bet we are .... and the week after that ... and the week after that .....
Staying in Huddersfield ain't that bad.

Refocussing

Having made the decision to stay in Huddersfield until the Summer I find that I have had to make an emotional adjustment. Der ... I hear some say.

The biggest adjustment for me has been work. I'd geared myself up to leaving. In fact, I was so geared up that I was compelled to resign for Easter, I just felt I'd had enough of saying I was going to leave and never actually doing it.

Fortunately, even though I'd written and sent a letter of resignation, my Head was more than happy to pretend that I hadn't and readmit me to the ranks of the employed. Also, fortunately, parents hadn't been told I was leaving and I hadn't booked my leaving do at ... yes, you've guessed it .... Arya. That will come later.
So now, here I am trying to get my head round teaching my class for another term and a half and feeling enthusiastic about school again.

This week we have been drawing pictures of pets to decorate the pretend veterinary surgery we have in the classroom. They made me smile.

We drew them using an art package called Dazzle and the children used it on the Interactive Whiteboard we have in the classroom, which meant they were able to draw the pictures just with their finger on the board.

As you look at the selection below, bear in mind that these children are 4 years old. They drew the pictures, chose the colours and animal with no help from me! I did help them to write the names of the animals though.

Moving on and moving up without moving at all ...... yet.

Well, we decided to relent and give you all more time to come down and go to Arya with us.
So now I am keeping my job until the summer, the Head was ecstatic. Which means, in real terms, that you now have much longer in which to book your visits to Huddersfield. We can accommodate 1 very comfortably, 2 reasonably but more than that at a time could be interesting and would involve floors and sleeping bags.
I do have a tent and a garden!

This takes the pressure off us. We now know that we'll be in Huddersfield for the next 4 or 5 months and we can make more of a life here together as well as having time to invite all the people we were intending to invite for meals. It also means that I have a regular income and payment until the end of the summer holidays.

I was pretty gutted yesterday, but I've come to terms with it now and can see the benefits of where we are at. So, here's to continued house and job hunting and getting on with life.

Bugger

You know all that stuff about selling houses and all ..... well ...... erm ......
The house sale, for the moment, is off. It sounded pretty definite when I spoke to the Estate Agents, but I have yet to see the damning surveyor's report, maybe something can be salvaged.

As it is, here I am. I was without job and with no home. Now I am without job but still with a home, sadly in the wrong place.
Anyone out there offering loans ... or houses!???

The bottom line ... I just feel confused and pretty gutted.

Do I know what to do?

Not really.

This one got away before we'd even got a whiff of it

The house hunt continued. We got details of this house only yesterday. We were very excited, it even had the desired Aga. We rang up and put in an offer, just like that. They wouldn't accept it, understandably, until we'd seen it. We tried to make arrangements to go and see it tomorrow. They took it off the market. Obviously too nice to sell, even to us.

It's getting to me.

Each time another house appears it seems to disappear as soon as we get near to it. I have applied for jobs and reaped just the one interview.
The stark reality is that in 5 weeks time I will have no job. I felt it was right to resign, I still feel it was right, but it is still worrying.

My house sale continues to go through without hitch. The purchasers will be coming round at some point soon to measure things, always a good sign.
Fiona and Andy's house seems to be stuck at the moment ... sold, but not sold, another worry.
I'm going to see the bank people next week about selling this house and buying another.
All of it plays with the emotions. I feel to be on a roller coaster .... I always did hate them .... tonight I am at the bottom.

I know it will get better, I know deep down I am doing the right thing for me, I just wish some beginnings would begin to compensate for all the endings ending.