Monday Morning Moans

Last week was a very expensive week for us.  On Monday afternoon Shaun from Red Hot Heating popped round with the bill for the new boiler for our one bed flat down the road.  We expected a big bill but £1,600 was little higher than we were expecting.   On Tuesday we went into Curry’s to order a new fridge freezer because the one in the TMA flat had stopped working.  Phil brought this second hand from the market a few months ago, I told him it was a bad idea at the time, but would he listen?? No.  We ordered the cheapest fridge freezer we could find but even that came out at 280 quid.   Phil took the Freelander into Stratstones on Friday for a winter service.  We had a flyer through the door to say that they were offering £199 for service, MOT, valet and lots of other free things.   Phil hasn’t found the service at Stratstones very good in the past and they are incredibly expensive but this deal was good so we thought we’d go for it.   Anyway, Phil went to pick up the Land Rover and the bill came to 500 quid!  Phil queried this and it turns out they had charged him for a puncture repair which should have been done for free.  He got home and re-examined the bill only to find that they’d also charged him for the MOT.  I also discovered on Saturday morning that they hadn’t cleaned the car either.  What a shower of sh*t!  Phil has to go and sort the bill out today and I’ve told him to sit and wait whilst they clean the Freelander.   We won’t be returning to Stratstones any time in a hurry.    All in all, it was a very expensive week.

Our weekend was fairly peaceful and relaxed.  I managed a couple of brief gym visits but Phil opted out using his cold (which has gone) as an excuse.   My hamstring is much better but my back pain is still niggling and is refusing to go away. I have made the decision this week to lay off all weight and core training and just stick to cardio with some Pilates stretches at the end.  I’m also going to make an appointment for the sports therapist because I know from the past if I don’t sort it, it will only get worse.

I was in the middle of ironing late on Saturday afternoon and stopped to answer a knock on the door; it was Kevin from across the road, who once again, had forgotten his key.  He settled himself on the sofa and waited for his mum to come home.   I think there was some kind of football match on the telly, don’t ask me who was playing, but there was no chance as Phil wanted to watch ‘Homes under the Hammer’.  Kevin, bless him, was polite and didn’t make any complaint.   A few hours later I spotted Sandy’s car in the drive and informed Kevin that his mum was home but he didn’t move, he wanted to watch the end of Homes Under the Hammer programme.  The rest of Saturday night was X-factor and a reasonably early night.

Phil was up at around 4am on Sunday morning.  Harriet woke me an hour earlier when she returned home from nightclubbing.  I did manage to go back to sleep but when I got up around 8am I felt knackered.   Phil had got up to watch the Korean Grand Prix, although I don’t know quite why, because Jim was coming round with Shirley specifically to watch it.  I went for a quick gym session leaving Phil to prepare chilli, rice and nibbles.  Shirley & Jimmy arrived around 2pm and the boys settled in front of the plasma with their bottles of beer while Shirley and me chatted in the kitchen.   I was surprised that Phil gave Jimmy the prime seat on the sofa; he never does this for anybody!  Seeing the pair of them reclined out, well they are two peas in a pod.  Harriet chatted to Shirley and we waited until the agent and the people who were viewing the house at 3.30pm before we ate a late lunch.   They arrived on time and there were about 10 of them.  They didn’t stay long so I don’t expect any positive feedback today.  Phil did cheesy nachos for nibbles and we had chilli and rice, baked spuds, salad and a pasta dish that Shirley had made. It was very nice and for once the chilli was at a temperature that you could eat without it setting your mouth on fire.  A nice afternoon, so thanks guys for coming round.

I have been up for ages but am slightly out of routine this morning.  Harriet has gone to work, Phil is still in bed and I can’t go to the gym because I am waiting for John Lewis to deliver my Christmas tree.  Yes I know this is way premature, but when I spotted this tree on Emma’s Facebook page, I just had to order it.  It’s not a traditional Christmas tree, more of a contemporary array of twigs with integrated lights.   It sounds naff, Phil says it sounds naff, but believe me when it goes up in the lounge in 6 weeks time, it will look fabulous!

If I get all my jobs done this morning, this afternoon I’m going to start on the redecoration of our bedroom.  I went to B&Q to pick up wall paper samples on Saturday but none of these are right and instead, I’ve decided to get rid of the magnolia and red feature wall and repaint it all white.  The feature wall is currently deep red (my favourite colour) so it’s going to take many coats to cover it.   My decision to go white is based on a wonderful white high gloss unit that I spotted in Dwell also on Saturday afternoon.  It was in the clearance bargain bucket corner and had been reduced from £399 to £100.  I just had to have it and I am going to collect it this afternoon.  It needs a little modification and I need to visit Ikea to get some feet for it because I don’t want it to be flush to the floor.   And then all I need to do is to find some new cheap, white gloss bedside cabinets and it will be job done!   Much to do, so times to sign off this short and sweet posting and get going!