Mole Up In The Hole..

That's what Vin says he feel like, a mole in the hole up in the loft all morning. He is doing sterling work up there, and has brought down yet more bags of sand and straw. I expect the straw was used for insulation years ago, and maybe the rags etc round the pipes for the same reason.
Good job he has our neighbours ladders, they are on a cruise ship up the norwegian Ffjords and will be away for ten days or so. Funny thing. the girl in our end terraced house knocked on our door this morning to as if she could borrow our big outside ladders because her step-dad was painting the outside of her house for her. She is still trying to sell it, it has been on the market for about five years now. I think it is overprices at £200.005 and that has been reduced by quite an amount. I suppose it will go one day eventually, they all do.
Vin brought down a magazine he found up in the loft, it was a copy of "Motor Cycle" weekly from 1955 obviously belonged to my brother who was very keen on motor bikmes, and used to go to the TTRaces on the Isle Of Man. It was priced at the princely sum of 8pence weekly, old money that is. There is an advert inside for a Robin Reliant Convertible!!! for around $435 three and sixpence !! I wonder what the three and sixpence was for?
Wimbledon finals have been sorted out today..Sharapova against a Czhech Republic girl I haven't heard of before. The men's will be sorted out tomorrow. the interesting match will be Andy Murray against Nadal.. not sure whether I shall watch that one, not a Murray fan at all.
Tonight we are having:
The remainder of the baby Jersey Royals

Something from our well stocked freezer
Carrots and green beans.

Out For Some Fresh Air...

Vin decided that he wanted to go out for a bit of fresh air today, which is only right since he has been stuck in the loft for the last two days. Well ormskirk is a good place for fresh air so we went over there. It is a pleasant 1/2 hour drive mainly through rural roads so it is quite a nice outing.
I wanted to take a shirt back that I had bought anyway, so didn't mind.It was quite breezy over there too being a fairly hilly place, and was fairly quiet today too. Changed my shirt for a top that will go with my blue jacket so well pleased with that. Had a good coffee in Morrisons , very cheap compared to the "proper" coffee shops and good value. needed a few things from there anyway to get the parking fee back, so went round quickly. Long queues at the checkouts so decided to use one of the self scanners. Mistake..what an irritating thing they are...
You put an item in front of the scanner..
"Please scan your bar code"
Please pack your item in a bag"
And so on ad infinitum until all your shopping had gone. i was saying shut up by the end... Horrible machines.
Our neighbour is moving on Saturday so the little cat will be going as well. What a shame it isn't its fault, well not anybody's actually, just circumstances. We were looking in the card shops for a moving home card and it is quite hard to find an appropriate one. most of them are for couples etc, but we did find a nice one in the end. Shame she is moving, we will miss them both her late husband and her..godd neighbours. Wonder who the next people will be.
Watching the Wimbledon while doing this, and rooting for Roger federer..a lovely man, but he lost to Wilfred Tsonga who came back from two sets down to win by three sets. Good tennis match.
Tonight we are having:
Pasta with a spinach and ricotta sauce
Green vegetable mix and asparagus
A bit of garlic bread.

Up, Up and Away!!

In our beautiful..not balloon but Loft. Vin has been doing some clearing out again up there. he has his blue overalls on and looks like a proper little workman. he has brought down another three bags of bits and pieces including straw!! lord knows how that got there, I'm pretty sure that my dad didn't put that up there so who knowshow long that has been there.
he did find a paper a Daily Mail from 1956 up there which was of course a broadsheet, and seemed to have local news in it as well as general news. There was a story of a mysterious happening in a store in Southport when the bedding/linen had black marks on them. Eventually a sharp eyed storegirl spotted a black and white cat coming through the skylight. it was Bimbo..the mystery solved, it was climbing through and leaving black marks on the bedding. Naughty little Bimbo!
There was also an advertisement for Redi-Cut Rug kits..i remember those, you got a wooden hohandled hooky type thing which you used to pull short lengths of ready cut woll through a canvas backing. You could get patterns and the wool came in hundreds of different colours. i wonder if you can still get them? I must have a google and see.
Very sunny here today, and a really pleasant day, watching a bit of tennis after lunch and it seems it is pouring down at Wimbledon. They have the roof over the centre court, and play is abandoned on the other courts. isn't it odd how two ends of the country can have such opposite weather conditions.
Vin has just come down from the roof and said it is getting too warm up there with the sun on the tiles etc. he's working very well my little handyman. He has just shown me a bag of damp sand which weighs a ton, it's a wonder the ceiling hasn't come down! We are on the coast, and I suppose that is years and years of accumulated sand blowing through the roof tiles. The newer houses which have been built on the sand dunes since the seventies will be absorbing most of that now, we don't seem to get as much these days.
Tonight we are having:
Sausage lattices
Small tin of something saucey.
A bubble and squeak rosti
Mushrooms.

Twas on a Monday morning....

The plumber came to call...Well the afternoon really. When Vin rang him up yesterday he said he could be there aftert two and he was, arriving about half past. he had a look up in the loft, and diagnosed a faulty ball cock, so he went off to get one, and came back in a very short while to fit it. What is better, is that he only charged £35!!!! which considering the horror stories you hear on theTV shows like Watchdog is a baby miracle.Vin said he got a lot of free advice while he was up in the loft too so well done Mr Plumber. And, well done the lady in the shop who recommended him.
We were awake early this morning and for once the cats weren't stomping all over us..I think the sun streaming through our not very thick curtains was the problem. We really will have to get some thicker ones sometime.
So, we went to Sainsburys for our weekly veg and stuff, 1/2 an hour free parking, and you can just about get round if the checkout queues aren't too long which they usually aren't. Home to wait for the plumber.
Vin got up into the loft before he came and came down with about three bin bags of assorted rubbish including newspapers from 1955!!!Buy your wife a new vacuum cleaner for only 99shillings and sixpence!! That was quite dear then it seems to me.
Watched a bit of the tennis at lunchtime, Serena Williams went out to a french girl bertolli..sounds more like an Italian pasta sauce, and Andy Murray won his match in three sets. I do feel for anyone who plays against him, they have to play the crowd as well. Prince William and Kate were there looking as if they were enjoying it, his mother was a big tennis fan and was often seen in the Royal Box. Unbelievably she would have been 50 on the 1st of July. I bet she would have loved her son's choice opf bride.

Tonight we are having:
broccoli amd cheese escalope
baby jersey Royals (can't be many more of those yet?)
Mixed vegetables and hollandaise sauce.

Leaks....

When Vin came into the bedroom last night he said what's that damp patch on the wall over the chimney breast? Well i can't see any damp patch, but given the state of my dodgy eyes, that's not surprising. Anyway he started investigating, which meant a lok up in the loft which wasn't easy because our ladders aren't high enough to enable him to get up there. So, he debated what it could be, and came up with a number of possibilities such as the thermostat which had gone wrong causing an overflow etc. He eventually settled down and started again in the morning. He borrowed some better ladders from a neighbour two doors down and had a look again. Still not sure, but he asked the lady in the shop down the road if she could recommend a plumber which she did. You hear such terrible tales about plumbers these days, but this man is local, and he is coming to have a look tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile my nice laura Ashley wallpaper which has been on the bedroom wall for years Vin reckns has had it now. So we will have to do that later as a project.
Jane sent me an email of her in a mexican hat... She is growing up nicely..



Very odd day weatherwise, sunny, dull, sunny, dull, a bit of a drizzle, sunny then dull..Vin hang the washing out but had to bring it in again twice. real Pain. At the moment it is dazzling bright sunshine..you just don't know where you are.
Tonight we are having:
Pizza with portobello mushrooms courgettes peppers and pineapple.
Egg and potato salad
Potato salad for moi and rice salad for VT.

Deliveries...

Yesterday it was a beautiful vase of flowers left on the doorstep on next doors house, so Vin brought them in in case they disappeared, and she collected them after work when she got home. Today he got up for his shave, looked out of the window and there was a postman delicvering us a parcel.quite a big parcel for a small Bobbi brown eyeshadow compact that I had ordered. Then he was going out to get the paper and the courier man was looking for someone to take in a big box for next door. that was leaking too at the bottom. Vin said it must have been tipped up in the van. It is a M&S flower ddelivery..so I guess it it her birthday. must be quite hard the first birthday without her husband. Notice her daughter has arrived up from London which is nice..they seem to be really good kids those. They have been out all day, probably gone to her new flat. The little ginger cat has been at the back of the house a lot today, and we gave her some chicken when ours had theirs at lunchtime, it really enjoyed that.
Watching a bit of tennis this afternoon, a couple of good matches, serena williams won hers, and Federer and Nadal both won theirs fairly easily. Nice to see Serena Williams back after her surgery and looking good. Do like federer, would love to see him win once more. They did an interview with Andy Murray..the problem with him is that he is so unlikeable.He does need a bit of a personality implant. Vin was quite interested in the Sharapova match..I wonder why???
Tonight we are having:
Chinese quorn dippers
Stir fry vegetables
Plum and ginger sauce
1/2 a packet of fried rice between us.

The Lure Of Tescaw...

We did it again! Despite my essential feelings against the power of tescaw..we went there this morning. Why? simply because they tempted us with a £4 off £40 bill coupon which was a good deal. So we gave in, and went there. Pain in the neck actually because it isn't a store we are familiar with so we spent a lot of unnecessary time going round just looking for things. Couldn't find the Avocados so had to ask, then couldn't find the courgettes etc., etc., But, we got there in the end. Vin also had a five pound card from there as well, so we got quite a lot of money off in the end, and home in plenty of time for a nice cheap cup of coffee.
We watched an old Miss marple which we recorded at Christmas last night..simply because we couldn't find anything interesting to watch. We recognised some of the locations, as being around mapledurham, and the village, and watermill. We stayed in a beautiful cottage there on their estate quite a number of years ago when jane was very small about four I think. The cottage we stayed in was called "Step Cottage" and had apparently been used in a number of films and television programmes. it was the "Spy Lady's Cottage" in The eagle Has Landed, so we had to buy the video of that afterwards. We needn't have bothered since it has been on television countless times since. The village,,the big hall/Manor House has been in Midsommer murders a number of times too. It must be a favourite location.
This is Step Cottage..which can be rented for around £600 a week now.

It is quite near reading and with good access to London, so was a good centre to stay. The village is extremely unspoilt though so I suppose that is why it is popular for location work.
Vin is quite bereft now the skip has gone..nothing to watch at the frontanymore. it really was a source of enjoyment on the whole, especially with the bike that kept appearing and disappearing. i wonder who has that now?
He saw our neighbour this morning and suggested that she put a card in the shop window about the cat, she said that was a god idea so he offered to do that. So there is now a card in the window for the poor little thing. it really wants to be around this area since it has always been round here, and it seems to love this area. It was in our back garden last night with our two and they weren't having any trouble, but we couldn't have another one, two is fine in our house. I do feel so sorry for it though, hope someone will take her in.

Tonight we are having:
Crispy Quorn Fillet
Chips 200grms
Mushy peas for Vin and green beans for moi.