Saturday December 10th 2022

09:00 Lois and I have been in our new-build home in Malvern for about 6 weeks now, but there are still lots of problems with the house that haven't been sorted out yet - one is that we have no blinds or curtains on the windows at the back of the house. The back of the house faces south, so at the moment, if it's sunny, the sun pours through these back windows and straight onto the screens of our two computers, the desktop in Bedroom 2 and the laptop in Bedroom 3.

The result is that these two computer screens are practically useless - I can hardly read a word on the screen and can't see the cursor either - what madness !!!!!

Fortunately this problem is due to be fixed on Tuesday, when the nice man from Hillary's Blinds will be visiting us, which will be a relief to put it mildly. 

This morning, however, we have a zoom call with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and our two 9-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica. It's a really cold but sunny day today, and unfortunately we struggle to see the screens while the zoom talk is on. Oh dear! 

See how the sun shines on the screen, making even taking photographs of the screen problematic. It's total madness !!!!

the twins showcase for us the presents they've brought for their dad

and their best friends and some of their current "arts and crafts" projects

unfortunately Lois and I can barely see them due to the sun - but how cute they are !!!!!

11:00 Christmas is coming up fast, but it just doesn't feel very Christmassy yet this year for Lois and me - the upheaval of downsizing and moving to a new town after 50 years in Cheltenham, and after 36 years in our previous house, was so traumatic for us that it continues to absorb our every waking thought - what madness !!!!!

We're hoping to spend three nights with our old friend Jen in Kennington, Oxford, before spending about a week over Christmas itself with our other daughter Alison, plus husband Ed, and their 3 children Josie (16), Rosalind (14) and Isaac (12) in Headley, Hampshire.

I know that Lois in particular doesn't like Christmas to take second place to other concerns and anxieties, and today she strikes back by determinedly putting up, and trimming, the very small Christmas tree that we brought with us to Malvern, actually the little tree that our daughter Sarah and her husband Francis left with us when they moved to Australia in 2015. 

When we lived in our big house in Cheltenham we used to put up a larger 5 ft (?)  tree year after year, but when the crunch came and our move was imminent, that old "monster" was deemed too big for our new smaller accommodation and so it got disposed of.

flashback to pre-pandemic December 2019 

and our old "larger" tree - now gone for ever, sob sob !!!!!

Poor larger tree !!!!!!

our new smaller tree that Lois puts up and trims this morning

14;00 We go upstairs for our self-indulgent afternoon shower and nap. All's well with the world again, which is nice!

There's been a slight air of tension beforehand, because we know some towel rails from Amazon are due to be delivered "some time before 8pm", but luckily the Hermes delivery woman rings the door bell before we get started, so that all ends happily, and we can relax.

Another of our problems about getting used to a smaller house is finding places to dry all the things that come out of the washing-machine, but I think we'll be all right now - we bought two of these packs of 2, so four towel rails in all to hang on radiators, comprising 16 bars altogether. 

It's towel-rail madness I tell you!

Problem solved, job done hopefully.