A week in a life of a Housewife

I think Phil & Harriet may have a slight problem with me being the only member of the household not having a paid job.  I maybe being slightly over sensitive but I think not, you can sense things by their tone of voice and not a day goes by with out one of them asking me “what did you find to do to fill your day”?  This grates me just a tadge, I am rarely idle and I certainly don’t spend my days with my feet up watching the telly.  Well, if I do watch the telly, it’s only when I’m doing the ironing.  I don’t think they realise that most of my time is spent looking after the house and their well being. 

Since Phil has been in his contract, I’m up at 6am when the alarm goes off and downstairs making his tea and sandwiches for lunch.  Once he leaves I very rarely go back to bed.  Being an early morning girlie, I love this quiet time which I spend in front of my laptop sipping varying teas and vinegar potions.   I wake Harriet up at 8 o’clock and when she leaves for work I start on the domestics.  I make the beds, empty the bins, scrub the sinks and loos and load the dishwasher.  I then empty the laundry bins and get the washing machine going, always at least 1 load per day but usually more.   The washing is dried, ironed and put away in drawers before Harriet & Phil get back from work.  Although I’m not crazy about food shopping, I like to keep the fridge stocked with their favourite snacks and drinks.  I go to the market at least twice a week to ensure they always have their five a day. 

Every Friday morning I strip beds and wash the towels in readiness for the weekend.  It’s no secret that I hate our shower and will do anything to avoid using it, but at least once a week I strip naked and get in the tardis to give it a good clean because both Harriet & Phil refuse to take the bottle of cif bathroom foam in the shower with them.   I’m also happy to do special requests which can be anything from internet research, banking cheques, booking appointments and collecting urine sample vessels.  Of course all of the above benefits me as well as them but the bottom line is when you have your house on the market you have to keep it clean all the time.   I do of course visit the gym every day which I suppose counts as leisure time and not a chore but it feels like a chore because it’s something that’s got to be done.  I’m not really sure they appreciate all my efforts in my role as domestic goddess, maybe they’d prefer me to share out the household jobs and bring in some income?   Well, their wishes may just come true.  Today I have applied for a job, and so my fellow housemates, very soon you may be doing your own washing and ironing!

Enough of my moans, in fairness I have had it fairly easy this week. On Tuesday I met up with Jan for coffee and on Wednesday afternoon I got my hair cut.   It turned out okay BTW, it’s shorter than normal but Carmello wasn’t on top form and the style is a bit of a mish mash, half crop, and half inverted bob.  It will grow, in time.  On Wednesday evening I went over to Vanessa’s for wine and a catch-up. I hadn’t seen her for ages and she hasn’t had time to update her blog so it was good to hear some Ford news.  Vanessa is off on her Kilimanjaro climb on the 27^th August, two weeks today.  She’s excited and nervous at the same time but I’m sure she’ll rise to the challenge.  GOOD LUCK VANESSA!

The weather has been very depressing.  I worked out that we have had rain and clouds every since we returned from Turkey.  Yesterday was particularly grim.  I was meant to meet Christine for an early evening walk with her dogs but it was bucketing it down so I cancelled half an hour before hand.  As luck would have it, it did brighten up but it was too late to change plans so I drove round to her house in the car.  We chatted over supper and a bottle or red wine but I was feeling weary after 3 nights out in the row so it wasn’t a late night.  

It would have been lovely to have a lie-in this morning but this was not to be.  Harriet had a flight to Jersey this morning and her dad was picking her up at quarter to seven.  She is notorious for ignoring her alarm so Phil set our alarm for the normal wake up time of 6am.  Phil surprised me by getting up and dressed straight away but I really struggled.   He made me an egg sandwich and a cup of tea which made a nice change.   Phil had some paperwork to sort and I left him to it and went to the market for supplies.  I decided not to go the gym today and do some domestics instead.  We have Jill & Tony coming tomorrow so I wanted to be ready.  Also, we have another house viewing at 10am so it will be another early start although hopefully not 6am!

Jane drove over from Ampthill and we went to Robinsons for lunch today; it was sort of a girlie catch up lunch and a late celebration of my birthday in July.   Jane has a busy life with the girls and the business and we don’t meet up that often.   We had the 2 course special for £9.90 and the food was as good as it always is at Robbies.  Jane had I choose the same courses, fish cakes to start followed by corn fed chicken with asparagus and posh mash.  Naturally we polished this off with a decent bottle of red and finished with coffee. Three hours later and I am now back at home.  I felt a bit guilty because I arranged lunch with Jane before I knew that Phil could get today off.  He did have a bowl of chilli and rice that he could have had for lunch which I prepared yesterday but he fancied fish & chips instead which is fine. I’m late posting a blog today; I was hoping that Phil would step in and talk about his new job but I think he had too much else on his mind.   Perhaps tomorrow Phil?