Friday November 18th 2022

These are strange days indeed that Lois and I are living through - nobody told us there'd be days like these: living in the middle of a building site, surrounded by unfinished new houses, and not having half the things in our own house that we consider basic to civilised living - oh dear! Our normal ways of filling our days have all gone completely out of the window, that's for sure. When will the normal days come back? HELP !!!!!!!!

Today was a day that started with us seemingly beset by a lot of problems in prospect for the coming weekend.

We are expecting our daughter Alison and our 14-year-old granddaughter Rosalind, arriving tomorrow mid-morning and leaving on Sunday afternoon. Of course we're very much looking forward to the visit, but there seem to be a lot of problems to worry about.

1. The street outside is full of holes as builders struggle to fix a lot of underground pipes and connections - we don't really understand what that's all about, but the worries are: will we be able to drive anywhere? and will Alison be able to get to us? - at the start of today there is a big 4 foot deep hole in front of our parking space, which doesn't bode well for the weekend.

flashback to Wednesday: the street outside our house

2. Our house is full of flattened cardboard boxes from our move 2 and a half weeks ago. The movers are supposed to be coming to take them away today, but they haven't confirmed. And will they even be able to get to the house, because of all the underground pipe work and holes in the road?

3. Alison and Rosalind are arriving mid-morning tomorrow, but our other daughter, Sarah, who lives in Australia, wants Lois and me to view a house-for-sale, which she and her husband Francis are interested in putting an offer on - and it turns out that the only appointment time available is 10 am.

4. IKEA are supposed to be delivering a Billy Bookcase in flat pack form tomorrow, but we haven't had confirmation so we only have a 12-hour time slot - 7 am till 7pm. What good is that?

We start the day with all these anxieties, but magically, as the day wears on, all the problems go away, however, which is weird, and it leaves us feeling quite weak.

1. A guy from the removal firm arrives at 7:45 am - we're only just up and around, but he willingly takes away all our flattened moving boxes, even though he has to park up the street and round the corner. He doesn't mind, he says!

And after he goes, it's so comforting to be in a house without flattened boxes everywhere we look, which is nice. Suddenly our living-room begins to look spacious - what madness !!!!

the living-room starts to look spacious, but to the observant eye

there's a glimpse of one of our many "picture mountains" leaning up against 

the side of the bureau - oh dear!

...and on the right of the picture there's one

of our many "picture mountains" under the radiator..

but we're still pleased: it almost looks like a normal living-room

- good grief !!!!!!!

2. Work on the road outside continues but by going-home time, it's all been put to rights, so there won't be a problem for Ali or for us, if we want to drive anywhere over the weekend.

3. Ali and Rosalind will try to get here early if they can, so they can also come and look round the house that Sarah and Francis are interested in.

4. I ring IKEA late afternoon, and they tell me they are definitely delivering the 6' 6" tall Billy Bookcase to us tomorrow, at some time between 11:30 am and 3:30 pm, so that's all good. Maybe in the next week or so we can reduce some of our "book mountains".

Things are definitely looking up!