One Year

I can't believe that it's a whole year since we moved into this house. Looking at the old photos, the inside is barely recognisable (apart from the bathroom and the upstairs; and there are still bits falling off the roof - but they'll get done eventually). However, the biggest transformation has been in the back garden. The flower beds are kind of bare, but we're in the process of getting rid of all the overgrown stuff and putting some sensible plants that we like (like the little osteospermum with pretty flowers that close up when they get cold - so cute!).

Back in March the veggie plot was a load of stones covering some very, very compacted mud. And now it looks like this:



What can't be seen in the picture is the tomatoes, cucumber and peppers in the Greenhouse (Mark II). There is also a couple of large bins of potatoes behind the greenhouse and a small patch with some spinach and rocket in. Any available space will be filled with more of the same and any unlabelled pockets are radishes, which are taking over the world. Those pots along side the greenhouse are our herb collection.

It all makes dinner time so exciting!

The Wife's Life

I've been working from home again today (although I did actually do some work today) and The Wife was doing her tax return. Since she is self employed and also in the last year has started renting out property it sounded as though it was getting a little heated. The upshot is, that the tax man owes her and it looks as though he will do next year as well. She is quite comfortable with this.

In celebration I took her to the walk-in clinic this afternoon. 25 days ago when the wife was working in the garden she'went over on her ankle' and it is still bruised and swollen (being the dutiful partner I am, at the time I tried for days to get her to have it seen but she can be a little bit stubborn). Anyway, they don't think it's broken but as it's over 2 weeks since the accident they can't x-ray it. (They said that if it was broken it would probably be more painful, it's probably a sprain). I don't think she told the nurse that her gardening boots have two inch heals!

Homeward Bound

As I type, the wife is heading home and I can't wait until she gets here (I'm 'working at home' so that I can tidy the place up welcome her home). She often tells me that I have a bit of an obsessive personality and that has been evident this week without her. Not checking taps are off or doors are locked multiple times, but watching videos. There has been nothing on the TV so I dug out my Bad Girls collection and started at the very beginning. By bed time last night I only had two episodes of series 2 left. And, because I remembered what happened at the end of the series, I stayed up and watched them. 23 episodes in three days (evenings only, I'm not quite sad enough not to find better things to fill my days with). I had forgotten just how good a programme it was back in the early days, before it got a bit too far fetched.

Anyway, back to reality. I just wish my wife would sometimes drive a little bit faster!

It's Oh So Quiet

The wife has gone away for a few days with her daughter and granddaughter leaving me and the dog home alone. All the dog has done for the last 24 hours is sit by the front door pining (and I'm feel like he looks - lonely). Apart from when I went to bed last night and then he sat at the foot of the bed looking at me as if to say "no, you can't go to sleep, the boss isn't here. What are you doing? Go and get her!"
It's the first time in our six year history that the wife has gone and left me at home and the place seems very, very quiet without her. I also don't really see the point in cooking just for one - why waste all that electricity on putting the oven/hob on for just myself when the takeaway down the road have theirs on anyway!

Dunched

Last week I got stuck in traffic on my way to work so got there too late to get parked in my usual little car park on campus. The only option was the large, council run car park near by (which costs twice as much per hour and where the ticket machines always reject at least half the coins I try to feed it). It being the first time I'd parked my new, bigger car in a proper car park I walked around it ensuring that I was within the white lines and checked the time on the ticket before heading into work. On getting back to the car later that day I spotted one of these:

Along side this was a scrap of paper onto which someone had scribbled the words "you were dunched by a Picasso" followed by a registration number. Slowly, it dawned on me that something had happened to my shiny new car and on walking round to the passenger side discovered exactly what. The door and front wing are no longer quite so shiny and are slightly bent and twisted. Since some kind person (I'm guessing not the driver involved) left the reg number I contacted the local police. One week later I'm still waiting to hear if they contacted the other driver and what he (I'm assuming it's a he, it makes me feel better) had to say and if he/his insurance company will pay for the repairs. Now I know it's not a serious incident, but it should be easy to sort - they have to speak to just one person and by doing so could save me a few hundred quid in repair bills.

As for the £30 parking fine, I've appealed (assuming that the jolt of the collision caused the ticket to slide down the dash and out of view) and all I have to do now is send them the ticket to prove that there were 20 mins between the penalty notice being issued and the ticket expiring. Oh and I've also lost the cost of the theatre ticket for the show I missed while I was waiting for the police. Did I mention that one week on I (and my insurance company) am still waiting to hear back from the police.

One week after getting the car, this has, quite literally, taken the shine off it.

Eurovision

We don't get out much and perhaps that explains why we are actually looking forward to the Eurovision Song Contest. It looks like it's going to actually be fun - Eurovision is not supposed to take itself seriously. I don't hold out much hope for Scooch but it's not the winning that's important, it's the being camp that counts.

Free Kicks

I have just realised that the football season finished last weekend (the Black Cats being promoted to the premiership as champions = one happy Wife = one happy blogger)! This means that where by 3pm each Saturday afternoon for the last however many months we have had to be near a radio, I now have at least a few weeks of weekends where I have the Wife all to myself. I'm now racking my brains trying to think of something fun to spend a cold, wet Saturday afternoon doing!

"Am I Bovvered"

The other afternoon I got a phone call at work from the Wife saying that the dog had escaped. He followed her into the front garden and jumped the wall without her noticing and it was about two hours before she realised. By then we both thought that he would have been squashed - although the roads around here are fairly quiet it's not far to a couple of major routes in and out of the city. After phoning around various vets and the police station there had been no reports so there was still hope he would a) come home or b) be found. So while the Wife waited I went for a drive around. The trouble is that there are so many side streets and back lanes in the area that at the time it felt like an impossible task. After checking around the old house I decided to head home the long way and by chance spotted him out of the corner of my eye, trotting down the middle of a side street. When I reached him he just looked at me as if to say "what are you doing here?" and then proceeded to jump all over my shiney new car as I drove him home. As soon as he walked through the door he was after his dinner then slept for the rest of the evening. I'm amazed that he survived five hours out there (indeed as I picked him up a woman told me that he had just narrowly avoided being run over) and I don't think he would have made it home on his own. He of course must have found it to be just one big adventure and is oblivious to the trouble he caused. At the time I was saying that if he does make it home alive I would quite happily murder him but he really is a big part of the family.

Introducing...

Dr Me!

The graduation ceremony was held the other day making it official. I managed not to fall down the steps or trip over the gown and the only daft hat was for the official photograph (which will not make it onto this blog, for two reasons: 1) to retain some degree of anonymity and 2) it hanging in my mothers living room will be embarrassment enough)! Needless to say my mum enjoyed it more than I did and the highlight for my brother was getting drunk with the wife that evening. As for me, it marks the end of my 20 years of education (although I hope that I will never stop learning). And two fingers to my sixth form biology teacher who told my parents not to expect me to get any A-levels!

Vroom

Time flies when you're having fun!

So much of the time I was spending on the computer is now spent in the garden and various other projects have been keeping us busy. Including new cars. Back in February I decided it was time to get rid of my old one as things were starting to go wrong but (as with the tale of the houses last year) it takes me a while to make decisions. In the mean time the wife decided her car also needed replacing and it was her deciding to change and finding a car within a week that spurned me on. So last night I picked up my shiny new car and this morning we collected the wifes sparkly new bubble. The only problem is that a couple of days ago the wife tripped in the garden and can barely walk let alone drive so not only did I have the ordeal of driving my own new car but I had to drive hers home as well (and for that reason I cancelled my BP check at the doctors this morning)!

My old car (which was my first and therefore has a special place in my heart) was just about the smallest you can get so I'm freaking out a bit about parking the Astra - I have been known to get into spaces then have to wait for the other cars to go before retriving it. But, I can fit more than just a wee bag in the back which will save much effort squeezing and squashing the weekly shop. Although I doubt that the wife will stop reminding me to mind the eggs!

And on that note, normal blogging service has resumed.