Just an ordinary Thursday

Here I am, idling away a couple of hours again. Actually I 'idle' quite a lot but at this time of the afternoon my idling is usually accompanied by earth shattering, chimney tottering, timbers shivering rumbles. And that's just the dog!

We had a lovely 'clear the fridge' supper yesterday. A couple of skinless chicken breasts (that Keith brought home from the factory where he works) went into a dish with half an onion (sliced), half a red pepper (chopped up), a few mushrooms that wouldn't have survived the night and a bit of frozen sweetcorn from the freezer. You know, the last little bit in the bag and hardly worth saving? A tin of leek and potato soup - whoever invented that should get a Nobel Prize or something - was mixed with a tin of Weightwatchers bacon and lentil soup and the whole lot poured on, covered with foil and thrown in the oven for 50 minutes on Gas Mark 5. A few new potatoes for Keith - et voila fast food fit for a king! There isn't a picture of course because I didn't know it would be that good so my camera wasn't to hand.

The Great Flooring Project is done!

The living room

And again

The hall from the vantage point of the loo. There are 2 surplus boxes of tongue-and-groove he didn't need waiting to go back to the shop for refund. I bet they're still there in a fortnight!

A close-up of that door at the end of the hall showing what a brilliant painter Keith isn't! He slops it everywhere and then you have to scrape it off the glass.

Anyway, it's home again the the dog no longer thinks she's in imminent danger of being thrown out with the rubbish!

Now the next project has taken root in his head. He's raising the level of the floor in the conservatory so it's just about on a level with the doors into it and out of it. Then he will raise the level of the outside patio by the strategic and extremely attactive use of decking, the whole idea being that me and my wheelchair can get in and out of the house at will. That will be so nice. At the moment I have to be 'taken' out and I hate that, having to go when and where someone else thinks you should.

I have a dear friend called Linda who was finally diagnosed a couple of years ago with bowel cancer for which surgery and chemo followed but tumours were found in her lungs. So further chemo and now she has a tumour on her brain for which she has suffered a week of radiotherapy and is now in our local hospice, mainly as a little respite for her husband while he gathers himself up and takes stock of the situation before she comes home again. Please will you remember Linda and John in prayer? They just don't deserve all this.

The kennels where our Sally goes when we're away is advertising Doggie Day Care! Whatever next. The idea is you buy however many days you want to and then call them off as required. Sounds like a good idea to me. I've never heard of it before, have you?

I'm tinkering away here on the keyboard waiting for the gas man to call. The heating works perfectly but yesterday afternoon the hot water packed up. We don't have a water tank - it's a combi boiler so the water heats up when you turn on the tap. Embarrassingly the hot water started working again this morning (well it would!) but I didn't cancel the call-out as something must have caused the outage in the first place.

Well, the freezing fog took some time to shift this morning but the sun won the fight and it's a lovely bright sunny day. From in here you would think it was summer. The turf that Keith laid over what was his little veggie patch has suddenly started sprouting crocuses! How on earth they got there your guess is as good as mine, but he never planted them. They're pretty though. Prettier than taters!