Tuesday January 31st 2023

On Ebay Lois and I  order a slimline cabinet for the downstairs loo - hurrah! And it should arrive on Thursday or Friday. 

And our two IKEA bookcases should be arriving on Friday. So within a few days the "clutter hell" that has been our life for 3 months since we downsized to a new-build home, will soon be just a horrid dream!!!

  clutter hell, as experienced by writer Eve Schaub

There's some more progress to report today. The painter lad who came yesterday came again today at 9 am, and finished off the jobs he forgot to do yesterday. I think now that Persimmon the builders of our home have probably "signed us off" the "initial complaints" list, and we're now dependent on the general guarantee that our home carries for a couple of years, which is nice. This is progress of a sort.

To celebrate this "coming of age" we go for a walk on the lovely commons, with their stupendous views of the Malvern Hills.

we go for a walk on the so-called "common"

I celebrate while I can. Tomorrow is sure to be a bad day, especially  for me. We've got our 6-monthly check-up at our dentist in Cheltenham, and I've got to face whatever is in store for me: unfortunately I've got a couple of "wiggly-jiggly-joggly teeth". Damn!!!!

And "yikes !!!!!" also, may I add !!!!

21:00 We go to bed on a programme that brings back horrid memories from late February 2018. Just as we were preparing to drive to Birmingham Airport to fly over to our daughter Sarah in Australia for 2 months, Russia sent some really nasty weather to the UK. Not just to the UK but to Europe in general, even to places like Rome, where they never normally see snow, and where there was enough snow for people to throw snowballs at each other.

Meanwhile Lois and I had the prospect of a car journey to Birmingham Airport, not knowing whether our flight would be cancelled, and driving over roads intermittently impassable due to heavy snowfalls. 

Just our luck !!!!!

What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

As it turned out, we got to the airport and we caught our plane, and the plane took off, which was nice! And when we arrived in Perth, Australia, complete with our winter coats, scarfs and hats, we found that the temperature there was 95F / 35C. 

Phew, wotta scorcher!!!!

One of the first outings we made was way out of Perth to the north, to a little place called Lancelin. And I remember stopping at a convenience store, where the owner, hearing our accent, asked us if we were from "the mother country", which I thought was touching, and then it turned out he had heard all about "The Beast from the East" on the news over there.

flashback to 2018: the convenience store at Lancelin WA, where the owner

impressed us with his knowledge of the UK's "Beast from the East":

the signpost gives distances to the South Pole, to New York, and to other places,

which was good to know!

Flashback to March 2018: Sarah and Lois look out on the Indian Ocean at Lancelin WA

Happy days !!!!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!