Friday November 25th 2022

How small-minded Lois and I have become since we moved into our new-build home in Malvern 3 and a half weeks ago! It took us by surprise that we have to set so many basic things up ourselves - we thought that Persimmon, the builders, would do a lot of this work for us. They don't, of course - why would they? It was sheer madness on our part to think otherwise!

In fact life in November has seemed like nothing more than a huge battle between us and the world: in particular between us and the builders, and between us and everybody who promises to do things but doesn't - that kind of thing.

Eventually - maybe after Christmas? - we can get back to our normal lives, but we're not there yet: my goodness me we're not!!!!!

Having said that, today has really been a red-letter day.

1. Our new Panasonic twin-phones from Amazon have been delivered by Royal Mail: and I only ordered them yesterday afternoon. It's a miracle! You know, they're the "old people's phones" I've been talking about, with the extra loud volume and the easy-to-read numbers on the keypad haha!

our shiny new Panasonic twin phones for the elderly arrive from Amazon - hurrah!

2. At 8 am, I decide to try and find somebody to assemble our IKEA Billy bookcase for us, now that TaskRabbit have failed to deliver. I discover Jim from WeFlatPacks in Worcester and hey presto he's here by 11:30 am and does the whole thing in just over half an hour. Hurrah: at last we can start tidying up some of our so-called "book mountains"!

flashback to a few days ago: I highlight the

growing problem of "book mountains" in this house

and deliver a timely warning: "These must go!"

And go those "book-mountains" do - or at least we make a start on them this afternoon, after Jim puts the bookcase together for us. 

we make a start on clearing some of our "book mountains"

3. Neil, the building-site's customer care manager - known as "the human face of Persimmon" comes by and stops our washing-machine connecting hose from leaking. So we can put all the cleaning bottles and stuff back in the cupboard under the sink.

4. Neil says he's agreed with the site's turfing contractor for him to do our back garden next Friday. And after that we won't have to look at a sea of sticky mud every time we look out of the back windows of the house. 

Won't that be nice!