WARNING ... MOST BORING POST EVER !!!
When Lady Edith was jilted at the altar in Downton Abbey, she ran up the ornate staircase, threw herself onto the bed and weeped. Her Mother tried to reassure her, telling her that God was testing her ..... I am feeling a little like Lady Edith..... I am being tested. All of these things happened one after the other. First, my wedding ring finger was so swollen that it took a pot of Vaseline and half a bottle of washing up liquid to get it off..... it's been a week now and it's still swollen ! Never, in nearly fifty years has that ever happened !
Next, the Christmas tree was to be delivered. I have used the same place for years as they always have beautiful trees and they l guarantee a lovely shape. You can follow the progress of the tree and it will show a map & how long before it will be with you. I tracked it and it said it would be with me in 15 minutes ..... following it's progress I could see that it was going to the wrong address and, because the way things are now, you can't telephone the company or the driver . It was showing it would be with me in one minute for about 30 minutes but finally arrived after the driver realised his mistake. Brought the tree in and placed it in it's stand and cut the netting to reveal the most ugly tree I have ever seen. The central spire that you put the fairy/star on was missing and all of the branches had been cut to try and make it a better shape. It really wasn't nice .... I am not Mrs. Bouquet and know that a Christmas tree is a natural product and won't be Instagram perfect. I am also the sort of person who gives Uber drivers 5 stars even when they have nearly killed me so I hate to complain but , complain I did. After sending them photographs they offeed me a new tree to be delivered the next day ! The inevitable happened and the driver went to the wrong address again and then disappeared from the radar. I then got an email to say it would be delivered later that day ..... again he went to the wrong address but finally it got here and was better than the first tree !!!
STILL WITH ME ? Theres loads more I'm afraid .....
As most of you know, we had a new kitchen nearly 2 years ago. I opened the top oven and, to my suprise, the rubber seal around the oven had broken and was hanging down. Many phone calls, listening to Musak whilst being 890 in the queue and pretty much losing the will to live, they agreed it was still in warranty and they would replace it. A phone call from the guy who would fit it said he had ordered the part and would let me know when he gets it. Three weeks later I had heard nothing so more phone calls ensued, more listening to Musak and being 967 in the queue only to be told the part wasn't in yet. How long does it take to get a part ? I Googled it and found the part straight away and could be with me the next day !!! Christmas is upon us and I have to cook dinner for 10 and, what with turkey,parsnips, stuffing, pigs in blankets etc etc, the oven is quite important. Then, yesterday, without warning, there was a knock at the door and there he was ..... oven fixed in a mater of under one minute !
Wednesday is our bin day and Tuesday night I put out the wheelie bin and recycling boxes to be collected. Overnight was so windy and in the morning all of the boxes and bins had blown all over the place ..... bins and boxes were crashing into cars causing cars to stop and collect bins and rubbish and Tsunami loads of cardboard ..... most of the neighbours were chasing boxes down the road and lids were flying off to Kansas à la Wizard of Oz. Later I could see that the big wheelie bin had been emptied but not my recycling boxes. Looking down the road, every other persons recycling bins had been emptied apart from mine ! So, the procedure is to phone the council who inform you that it will all be collected within 48 hours. Had a look early afternoon and they still hadn't been emptied ! Rang the council who said they attempted to empty them but they were 3 inches from the boundary { which I did to protect them from flying away } so they wouldn't empty them !!! 😱 They won't collect them until after Christmas !
Our new kitchen is lovely but we did have a lot of issues, mainly the project manager and their attitude when things went wrong. My recycling bin in the kitchen was just one of many things that went wrong. They had to come back four times with different bins and even the last time it wasn't right but I couldn't be bothered anymore. Having to have to ring them to get the paperwork for the oven problem that I told you about, I asked if someone could come and have a look. They did and fixed it perfectly so thats another problem sorted.
AND FINALLY and probably worst of all .....
For a couple of weeks, our lights had been flickering and I thought, after Christmas I will get in touch with the electrician and get him to have a look. Then yesterday, the lights were flickering in all of the rooms ..... our fuse box etc is under the stairs. I checked nothing had tripped and heard something crackle. Rang the electrician who said he would try and come but he was really busy. About 5 minutes later I smelt burning ..... quite worrying. Rang the electrician again who finally came and, on inspection saw that the smart meter was the culprit. He isn't allowed to touch it so I had to ring E.On. I have to say that they were so efficent, an engineer arrived around seven o clock and did his bit. He then told me { even more boring than all of the above ! } that we only had a 30 amp fuse which should be 60/100 BUT he isn't allowed to touch that bit as it belongs to UK Power Network !!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT, again, credit where credit is due, they came this morning and now, fingers crossed, it's all been done.
More things have happened but I've bored you enough ..... I just hope nothing else is looming.
XXXX
