Morning!

Morning!  I'm back from my sickbed, thank goodness.  I had a fortnight of feeling absolutely rubbish - mainly a sore throat and cough and then of course no sleep because coughs always get so much worse at night, why is that?  I had to have Easter Saturday off work because I got conjunctivitus too.  Luckily the shop was closed on Easter Sunday and I only had to do 4 hours on the Monday and then nothing until Thursday, so it gave me a bit of time to recover.  I still have a bit of a throat, but it's on its way out.  Oh, a chunk fell off a back tooth on Easter Monday as well to add to my misery!

So, I haven't been doing much in the way of 'housework' (as in the building type not the dusting type, mind you, I haven't done much of that either!).  I did do major freezer-filling cooking though - 8 x chilli, 12 x chicken pie, 6 x sausage and mushroom plait, 1 x pastry flan case, so time wasn't wasted.  It's such a good feeling to have a freezer full of homemade 'ready meals'.

Bob has been doing major housework though . . . . . . wait for it  . . . . . . he's started the STAIRS!!!!!!!!!  First is the oakwork - a sole plate (on the floor) with the newel post coming up off it and a post next to the wall which is really only decorative.  The bit between the oak posts will be plasterboarded and on the cooker side there will be tiles like the wall behind the cooker.  The work surface will go around the cooker (not the front of course) and will come this way a bit to make a useful little surface.  Where Bob is will be an understairs cupboard (so useful for hiding junk) with a door on a slight diagonal to the edge of the fireplace.  It will only be half-height because above that the stairs will turn to meet the landing.  Not quite sure what will happen with the underneath of the stairs there - I think we will finish them as though we'll see them and then we have the option to leave them visible or hide them.  Can't plan this bit ahead, it'll be one of our 'decide when we get there' bits.



So now when we go up the ladder there is a post sticking

up in the middle of the bit where you get off, just to make

things more interesting! We've got used to that now though

and it doesn't really cause a problem.

Those flippin' rabbits have been at it again!  We thought the roses we planted by the kitchen door would be safe because they were covered in thorns and have actually been sat there in pots since October without being touched.  But within a couple of days of being planted they'd been 'rabbitted'.  So now they look lovely with emergency rabbit-proofing in place.  So, we now have two jointed rabbits in the freezer!


At long last M&S have made a decision about jobs and have offered me a permanent post.  That is good news and actually quite a relief, but I couldn't help thinking it sounded a bit depressing - a permanent fixture, part of the furniture, I'll be there for the rest of my life!  That said, I'm hoping that the things that wind me up about it were all related to being temporary, the way they dealt with that and the uncertainty it caused and that now I'm permanent everything will be lovely.  I'm contracted to do 22.5 hours a week over three days with a strong possibility of extra shifts if I want them and I'll get every other Sunday off.  I did try to get one whole weekend a month off instead, but they wouldn't go for that.  So, I'm going to think positive and get on with that and enjoy getting on with house things on my four days off a week.

Just had to go out in the pouring rain as Bob spotted a rat going into the lean-to.  That's the very first rat we've seen since we've been here which is absolutely amazing I think.  It hid behind the tumble dryer and Bob tried to get the air rifle to it, but it scurried off too quickly.  So, we've blocked up all the holes round the door and checked the whole of the lean-to.  No sign that it's been in there much which is good.  Hopefully we won't see it again, but maybe we'll get a bait trap just in case. 

Right, I've got to get going.  I'm doing decorating today which is really exciting.  I'm going to start on the end bedroom and it's actually going to be a colour instead of the cream we've used everywhere else.  Our local decorators merchants managed to track down the recipe for and mix a colour we used to have in our bedroom at our old house and which has been discontinued - Natural Saffron.  Ooooo, so exciting, I'm itching to get going so that's all for now.  Bye.