For it has been a busy, very grubby making couple of days. At nine o'clock on Friday morning an engineer from EDF energy came to replace a very old electricity meter with a new Smart Meter. She said "you just haven't got a hope in hell of getting that to work down here, there's no signal in the boiler room" and sure enough, he couldn't.
So off he went and in came Wizard. Dear Wizard, she thanks him every time she climbs up in to bed for he fixed the frame upon which the bed sits, it is now safe and secure and it doesn't threaten to collapse onto her trunks.
Lots of work for him to do: change hinges on two extremely heavy cupboard doors, take down an old curtain track plank, saw it in half and fit one half to make a frame for her bedroom window. Move a set of wall shelf tracks that hold her porcelain treasures and several other small jobs that required either cunning or brute strength!
He left at about four o'clock and she finished her working day by brushing out and then vacuuming the secret place where the gas engineer has to work.
Soon, thank goodness, it was time for an early supper and bedtime with a book and half an eye on television. Me.. well I was plumb tuckered out by all the excitement of having another person to talk to and, Dear Readers, he had the most entrancing thing.
I believe it is called an electric screwdriver but it was such a wondrous toy! It had lights so that you could see what you are doing in dark cupboards, which must be very useful, but the noise! Brilliant and it had an extra special sort of high pitch whine when he gave it a bit of 'welly'!
Why hasn't she got one of these? We've got everything else in this flat! But we will have less very soon, as Wizard refused to be paid, so she tricked him by giving him a multitude of things that, honestly we do not or have not used but that he would.
Like the NEW pasta making machine which is the same model as the one his mama uses to make her pasta! (Wizard is Italian). And several other gadgets that he was thrilled to receive. He will have to come back with his car another day to collect this swag but she was SO happy knowing that all these items are going to a good home.
Today it was time for her to finish clearing and tiding the bedroom, she's going to ask the guys to start in this room. They only have to fit the new radiator to the wall and take the two pipes through the wall to connect up with the pipes that will connect to and feed the hall radiator.
If they do this room, which requires the least amount of work, on the first day, then at least she has a quiet clean place to retreat to when they're pulling all the pipes and cables about. Poor sitting room which, normally, is a charming room is in a dreadful state as absolutely EVERYTHING is piled on top of everything else and when she sent a photo of this hideous mess to Tereza, the response was "Oh mon Dieux, as some people say. Courage is what you need and tons of it!"
So now you see why she needs a calm place whilst all this is going on around us! She stripped the bed down including the mattress cover, this went off to be washed with the sheets, pulled out a spare one, put the old comforter out in the hall to take to the laundry on Monday plus the lightweight banket, pulled out a clean comforter with its' matching bedlinens and two dark blue Vellux blankets.
Yes, we have spares of everything! Why do you think she has three trunks that 'live' underneath the bed, if you store things with lavender bags or cedar sachets, they're fresh and ready to use. Winter weight blankets, bed valance, summer quilt, etc.
But back to the list of chores that she did and that I watched the doing of..
And made the bed with pretty Wamsutta sheets, using extremely neat and tight hospital corners with the blankets and shook the comforter to get it fluffed up. She found an old, quite wide wooden shelf in the store room and yippee, it fitted into the tight space and so that makes the perfect bottom shelf of the new shelf unit.
Her treasures have been packed away into boxes, a box for each shelf means that the displays of 'whatever' will be the same without her having to remember "did the Spill vase go with that or this?" Then it was out with the big step ladder and up on to the top rungs to do cleaning work on the top of the cupboards.
She 'mucked' me out, taking away the old paper and dragged the vacuum up into the air to suck up all the old seed shells and shredded paper, I am a mucky 'pup' and this was a really big clear-up job! That done, she got one wet microfibre cloth, two dry ones and polished the mirrored cupboard doors, these cupboards form a lobby into the bedroom and it is on top of these that I spend most of my day.
Working downwards, she dusted the bedside tables, window ledge, watered the orchids, brushed the bedside light lampshades to get them dust free, (fabrics HATE dust) and wiped the bedside light bulbs with a dry cloth.
Next it was the turn of carpet to get extra special treatment in the form of an old fashioned scrubbing brush, with which she brushed carpet on her hands and knees.. eureka, old bashed knee didn't moan or squeak with pain, it is still bruised but no longer paindul. Phew.
Working backwards towards the door, she used the vacuum in conjunction to suck up all of the quite considerable amount of dust that this excellent hand brush was clearing out of the carpet, it's not a pleasant job but it gets carpets clean, brushes the pile up properly AND it what you should use on any old rug, vacuums are not good for antiques rugs.
We didn't stop for lunch.. so by seven o'clock.. she was bushed! She'd drunk lots of glasses of water but our tumtums said "Hello, remember us", so she finished the last rug, put every tool back into its' rightful place, put the step ladder into the hall and we went to YumYum HQ.
Steamed vegetables with the last scrappings of Goaty Curd was our treat! I also demolished a raw sweet corn cob and chucked that about a fair bit, I could tell she was tired as she just looked at me but said nothing. (You all know that look when mothers are too tired to make a fuss!)
But when all was done and we walked back into the bedroom.. it was all worth it. For the room is tidy, immaculately clean, her bed is divine with fresh sheets and snug with another blanket as the nights are cooler.
So maybe we don't need to run away to join the circus yet.. but watch this space as Wizard and she discovered that the cold water supply in the kitchen is NOT running off the mains supply.. oh dear!
But tomorrow, guess what today is Dear Readers? Do you count your Sundays? We do and this Sunday it's that special one for Selina's Malaysian Dumpling with Goaty Mum at the Marylebone Farmer's Market.
Oh yes! And with minced garlic, some soya sauce and eye wateringly hot hot chillies and perhaps a morsel of Goaty curd and maybe some small, sweet yellow beetroots from Edwin, oh, today is our happy Sunday! For yeah, it's Dumpling Day.. and if you're in Europe.. we hope you remembered to 'Fall' back in time? Yes, the clocks went back an hour last night.
GeeGee Parrot.
October 25th, 2015.
So off he went and in came Wizard. Dear Wizard, she thanks him every time she climbs up in to bed for he fixed the frame upon which the bed sits, it is now safe and secure and it doesn't threaten to collapse onto her trunks.
Lots of work for him to do: change hinges on two extremely heavy cupboard doors, take down an old curtain track plank, saw it in half and fit one half to make a frame for her bedroom window. Move a set of wall shelf tracks that hold her porcelain treasures and several other small jobs that required either cunning or brute strength!
He left at about four o'clock and she finished her working day by brushing out and then vacuuming the secret place where the gas engineer has to work.
Soon, thank goodness, it was time for an early supper and bedtime with a book and half an eye on television. Me.. well I was plumb tuckered out by all the excitement of having another person to talk to and, Dear Readers, he had the most entrancing thing.
I believe it is called an electric screwdriver but it was such a wondrous toy! It had lights so that you could see what you are doing in dark cupboards, which must be very useful, but the noise! Brilliant and it had an extra special sort of high pitch whine when he gave it a bit of 'welly'!
Why hasn't she got one of these? We've got everything else in this flat! But we will have less very soon, as Wizard refused to be paid, so she tricked him by giving him a multitude of things that, honestly we do not or have not used but that he would.
Like the NEW pasta making machine which is the same model as the one his mama uses to make her pasta! (Wizard is Italian). And several other gadgets that he was thrilled to receive. He will have to come back with his car another day to collect this swag but she was SO happy knowing that all these items are going to a good home.
Today it was time for her to finish clearing and tiding the bedroom, she's going to ask the guys to start in this room. They only have to fit the new radiator to the wall and take the two pipes through the wall to connect up with the pipes that will connect to and feed the hall radiator.
If they do this room, which requires the least amount of work, on the first day, then at least she has a quiet clean place to retreat to when they're pulling all the pipes and cables about. Poor sitting room which, normally, is a charming room is in a dreadful state as absolutely EVERYTHING is piled on top of everything else and when she sent a photo of this hideous mess to Tereza, the response was "Oh mon Dieux, as some people say. Courage is what you need and tons of it!"
So now you see why she needs a calm place whilst all this is going on around us! She stripped the bed down including the mattress cover, this went off to be washed with the sheets, pulled out a spare one, put the old comforter out in the hall to take to the laundry on Monday plus the lightweight banket, pulled out a clean comforter with its' matching bedlinens and two dark blue Vellux blankets.
Yes, we have spares of everything! Why do you think she has three trunks that 'live' underneath the bed, if you store things with lavender bags or cedar sachets, they're fresh and ready to use. Winter weight blankets, bed valance, summer quilt, etc.
But back to the list of chores that she did and that I watched the doing of..
And made the bed with pretty Wamsutta sheets, using extremely neat and tight hospital corners with the blankets and shook the comforter to get it fluffed up. She found an old, quite wide wooden shelf in the store room and yippee, it fitted into the tight space and so that makes the perfect bottom shelf of the new shelf unit.
Her treasures have been packed away into boxes, a box for each shelf means that the displays of 'whatever' will be the same without her having to remember "did the Spill vase go with that or this?" Then it was out with the big step ladder and up on to the top rungs to do cleaning work on the top of the cupboards.
She 'mucked' me out, taking away the old paper and dragged the vacuum up into the air to suck up all the old seed shells and shredded paper, I am a mucky 'pup' and this was a really big clear-up job! That done, she got one wet microfibre cloth, two dry ones and polished the mirrored cupboard doors, these cupboards form a lobby into the bedroom and it is on top of these that I spend most of my day.
Working downwards, she dusted the bedside tables, window ledge, watered the orchids, brushed the bedside light lampshades to get them dust free, (fabrics HATE dust) and wiped the bedside light bulbs with a dry cloth.
Next it was the turn of carpet to get extra special treatment in the form of an old fashioned scrubbing brush, with which she brushed carpet on her hands and knees.. eureka, old bashed knee didn't moan or squeak with pain, it is still bruised but no longer paindul. Phew.
Working backwards towards the door, she used the vacuum in conjunction to suck up all of the quite considerable amount of dust that this excellent hand brush was clearing out of the carpet, it's not a pleasant job but it gets carpets clean, brushes the pile up properly AND it what you should use on any old rug, vacuums are not good for antiques rugs.
We didn't stop for lunch.. so by seven o'clock.. she was bushed! She'd drunk lots of glasses of water but our tumtums said "Hello, remember us", so she finished the last rug, put every tool back into its' rightful place, put the step ladder into the hall and we went to YumYum HQ.
Steamed vegetables with the last scrappings of Goaty Curd was our treat! I also demolished a raw sweet corn cob and chucked that about a fair bit, I could tell she was tired as she just looked at me but said nothing. (You all know that look when mothers are too tired to make a fuss!)
But when all was done and we walked back into the bedroom.. it was all worth it. For the room is tidy, immaculately clean, her bed is divine with fresh sheets and snug with another blanket as the nights are cooler.
So maybe we don't need to run away to join the circus yet.. but watch this space as Wizard and she discovered that the cold water supply in the kitchen is NOT running off the mains supply.. oh dear!
But tomorrow, guess what today is Dear Readers? Do you count your Sundays? We do and this Sunday it's that special one for Selina's Malaysian Dumpling with Goaty Mum at the Marylebone Farmer's Market.
Oh yes! And with minced garlic, some soya sauce and eye wateringly hot hot chillies and perhaps a morsel of Goaty curd and maybe some small, sweet yellow beetroots from Edwin, oh, today is our happy Sunday! For yeah, it's Dumpling Day.. and if you're in Europe.. we hope you remembered to 'Fall' back in time? Yes, the clocks went back an hour last night.
GeeGee Parrot.
October 25th, 2015.
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