Chapter 43: Tuesday 18 October
After working until 6:15am on Friday morning, I was pretty much a waste of food for the rest of the day. I went straight to bed, of course. But I didn’t get up again until around 1pm. I only had a couple of jobs to do, but they could all be moved to Monday this week, so I wagged it for the rest of the day. We went to do the weekly shopping, and that was it.
The weekend
The weekend was very much a proper weekend off. Neither of us was working and we didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to see. And that meant we could do stuff around the house instead.
On Saturday, I asked the poet to put a new bulb in the porch light as I couldn’t reach it (and he likes to do things like that anyway), and it turned out the bulb had not only blown but also melted almost through the plastic lampshade it had fallen against. And when he took the lampshade off, the fitting was actually a bit suss too (for electrics). So we went out to get a new light.
While we were at it, he thought he may as well also get a new switch for the floodlights at the back of the house, which had corroded or burned away too and resulted in neither of the floodlights working. When he was in ScrewFix buying these essential items, a leaf blower/sucker accidentally fell into his basket as well. (Note: He didn’t have a basket…) Then we carried on to B&Q, where we bought a new fire for the living room.
When we got home, he started playing with lights and things while I went to gather in the conference pears from our tree. I’m not a massive fan of conference pears, but they are good culinary pears. Plus, we can always give some away. Well, there were bowls and bowls of pears, so I guess I’ll be making pear crumble for the next few weeks, and freezing pear crumble and portions of stewed pears so we have some in stock for when the pears are out of season.
By the end of the day, he got the porch light working but the floodlights at the back of the house still weren’t working, and only one at the front was working. So on Sunday, we went out to buy a single new floodlight to see if that completed the circuit, or to find out if there was another reason they weren’t working. He couldn’t get the same kind of floodlight, though, so he bought an LED one and got that working instead.
When we tested it on Sunday evening, we decided that we didn’t really need 2 lights at the back, so he’s going to disconnect the other one and maybe replace it when we have more time. Right now, I now have light in the back garden for when the cat and the dog are refusing to come in at night.
While he was doing that, I made a start on those awkward curtains. I shortened one of the pairs we bought but only tacked up the hem in case my idea doesn’t work and we end up needing the curtains for a different window. When the poet finished outside, he came in and fitted all of the curtain wires so that at least they’re there in case I get the urge again. We fitted the first pair and… they worked!
I still need to cut a curtain in half to fit the 2 side panels on that window, and then I have the door curtains to shorten. But then the final window is a blind that needs cutting down to fit.
So we have a fire in the lounge, outside light front and back, and we have privacy in the kitchen. But there’s still a long way to go yet. Oh yes, and we have a pile of pears as I didn’t do any baking on Sunday. However, I did feel like Widow Twankey with the amount of washing (laundry) I got through.
We’re feeling more at home in this house after less than 2 months than we ever did at the other house in 2 years.
Monday
Monday morning saw publication of Book 52 in my 52 books in 52 weeks challenge (in case you hadn’t already noticed).
Once I did the flyers and the publicity for that, I had a bad case of the feeling-smugs and I spent much of the day wallowing in my own glory.
I did also write yesterday’s blog post, though, and I started today’s.
I did some competitions but not a full day’s stint as a lot had built up over the weekend and I didn’t want to spend more than my allocated time on them – not when I had 52 books to be smug about in any case. Then I did some ghostwriting and a bit of editing.
Today
Today’s jobs include more ghostwriting, more editing, and some short story writing of my own.
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