Oh

Whoopsie. More later.

I Spy

Things on the side table next to me;

My two mobile phones, one attached to it's charger.
A glass of water in a limited edition Fuller London Pride glass.
My prescription dispensed two days ago.
A set of earphones
One of my two pairs of reading glasses in their case.
A small pile of assorted receipts.
A new Echo Dot which Google generously sent me for free.
A Box of Citalopram tablets.
My last two antibiotic tablets.
Two coasters.
Some blackcurrant Strepsils.
The Magnificent M's mobile phone, presently charging, but very slowly.
Some Anadin Extra Tablets
An unbranded glass of water.
Some dust.

Boiling Point

Well, not quite, but for the first time since the fire last year we have hot water in the kitchen sink. There is much excitement in the house. Well, from the female side anyway.

In other news I am coming to the UK for 5 days to help my ex who has just moved into a permanent home having spent 8 years in temporary accommodation. The news of my return there for 5 days has not been received particularly well by The Magnificent M.

Lucky me, to reach the first day of having hot water, only to find myself in it up to my neck!

It's not the cough.....

.....that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in. One of my mother's favourite little sayings that is!

However, I'm only at the cough stage this week.

I visited the UK at the end of last month for 48 hours and that was enough to catch the lurgi. I always catch something when I visit the UK. Makes no difference whether it is by car or plane, if I set foot in the UK I am going down with something. On this occasion it started within about 24 hours of getting back, and has kept going, and going. I saw the doctor last week and he gave me the favourite cough syrup of the French, cleverly named Sirop. I finished that today and although it ha stopped me coughing for a few hours at a time, the moment it wears off it starts up again. So tomorrow I return to see our doctor for the next step which will no doubt be antibiotics. I'm assuming that will kill it. I don't think I even had a chinese take-away when I was across so I don't think it will be coronavirus.

The only problem is that I have to visit the UK quickly again twice more this month. Double Pneumonia anyone?

Isle d'Amour

With the arrival of Rachel has come the arrival of Love Island to the house. I have managed to avoid even a seconds viewing of it before this series. You may well never have seen it and think it will be an utter load of drivel and a waste of time even watching a minute of it. You would be correct.

Despite announcing that it is just a laugh and you can't take it seriously, both Rachel and M are not beyond discussing the finer point of each relationship. If you can call the coupling up of young supposedly good looking couples a relationship.

From what I have seen it seems to be a bit of a guide to a target audience of 12 year olds in how to conduct a relationship. Sometimes they feel nothing for each other but then again there might be a spark. But if they do then they will almost definitely develop "feelings". They all develop feelings. Nothing but feelings. They keep heading off in couples to have a talk which involves explaining how you feel about things and how their behaviour makes the other feel. Everyone respects everyone else's point of view and the boys and the girls sit around in their same sex groups and discuss their feelings. It feels very plastic, somewhat like their faces. And they must have 50% of the world's cosmetics in there!

I don't think it will be on my watch list when I can avoid it but then again I guess I'm not their target audience. I guess I'm still in favour of meeting someone in a more natural environment than the set of a tv programme.

Two become Four

Our household has doubled with the arrival of The Magnificent M's middle daughter and husband to be, Rach and Josh. They are here for a year to see if they like the life out here and also if they want to take over the company in the next few years. Retirement beckons, well, it does for M, and I will absolutely be throwing myself on her mercy. Although I will carry on doing some work.

We wanted to get the top floor of the house ready for when they arrived but there is still the plaster boarding of the ceiling to do. So they have got stuck in. Pretty literally. Josh is "enthusiastic", and dyspraxic, which isn't necessarily the best mix when trying to do a ceiling with angled rafters. The ceiling now has plaster board, plaster, board joint tape and a coat of paint. Between those four materials most of the gaps, gouges and broken edges have been repaired  Now all we need to do is to put some coving or other trim round the wall.ceiling joint to get rid of those gaps and we they will have created the worlds first jigsaw ceiling.

It may be a little time before we let them loose on a client's house.

A New Begining

So here we are on the dawning of a new era. The Prime Minister has made a speech. People have waved flags and danced in the street. Flags have been both raised and lowered. Messages have been projected on to parliament, 10 Downing Street, The White Cliffs of Dover.

And not one of these instances had anything to do with the fact that this is day 1 of the 2020  Blogathon!