What`s going to happen next?

I noticed one evening the week before last that the light on my fridge freezer, which should be on, was flashing on and off. Something`s wrong, I thought. I tentatively opened the door, but everything felt cold alright. I rang a friend who`s husband is an electrician and does any electrical work that we need, but she said sorry, he doesn`t do fridges, but she gave me the name of another chap they knew who did.

So I rang him, and he was very helpful and suggested what to do that might cure it. (turn if off at the mains for a few minutes then turn it on). Fine. It worked and the light came on constant.
A few days later I saw that it was flashing again. I left it a day or two, the freezer seemed ok and everything was hard in there.

Then I realised that things in the freezer seemed to be getting too hard. I couldn`t even get a spoon in the icecream with two hands, to get it out of the tub! On going to the fridge to get some milk the next morning, I found that the milk wasn`t cold, nor was anything in the fridge part. Very odd - the freezer was too cold and the fridge wasn`t cold at all. So I rang the chap again. He came later that day, and thankfully was able to solve the problem.

That wasn`t the end of my problems though.

On Sunday after getting my Mum indoors here, I went to shut the front door as normal - but it seemed very awkward and needed a real shove to get it properly shut. Later in the day, I went to take her home, and again had to shut the front door, but this time it just refused to close properly and wouldn`t lock. The top part of the door seemed to close ok, but from three-quarters of the way down it wouldn`t go in right. Neither would the lock turn.

I tried shutting it gently.
Shutting it with a bang.
Shutting it from outside (almost impossible).
Shutting it from inside with all my weight against it, and my foot at the bottom corner - but all to no avail, I just couldn`t get it to shut completely.
So, at the moment it`s in as far as it will go and to all appearances from outside, unless you get close to it, it looks shut, but I`ve only got a security chain on in the inside and can`t lock it.

I tried all day yesterday ringing the company who installed it (only 9 years ago, so it should still be covered by the 10 year guarantee) but all I got was an answer phone on both their office number and mobile number. I`ve tried again today and the same result. I know they are still in business as I saw one of their vans only a couple of weeks ago. I guess perhaps they`ve closed for summer holidays.

But, I need my door to close and to lock, so talking to my boss at work, about it, I`ve rung a person he suggested who does jobs for them, and he`s going to ring me back this evening to let me know when he can come. I`m still waiting for the phone call!

They say, don`t they, that things go in threes? I daren`t think what might go wrong next!

Shopping Spree!

Well, my changing email addresses seems to have worked ok. I`m still here and able to get into my blog.

I decided that whilst I was changing Provider, I`d also treat myself to a new main computer as mine was getting so slow. So off I went to PC World at Norwich and with the assistance of a very helpful salesman chose a new one. I was very impressed by how neat and much smaller the new compact towers are, and chose one of them. I`d decided before I left home that I wouldn`t need a new monitor too, just the tower part.

Having chosen it, I then had to leave it with them to have the programmes installed and return the next day to collect it.

On getting home and looking at my monitor and thinking about the nice new ones I`d seen in the shop, I thought I`ll just have a look tomorrow and see how much they are, but really this one is ok.

So, yesterday (I had my mother with me for the day), after lunch, I got her in the car and off we went to collect my new computer. On getting to the store, she said she`d like to go in to have a look around too. So, out of the boot came the wheelchair and in mother got.

Inside the store, I said to her, I`m just going to have a look at the monitors and see how much they are, and headed off in that direction. Standing looking at all the various ones, (well, me standing, Mum sitting in the chair) she said "I`ll buy you one, which would you like". I protested, "No, I don`t bring you shopping to do that", but she insisted. So, I`ve come home with a nice new monitor to go with my new computer.

All Change.

Having had a letter from my Internet provider earlier this week announcing that they are putting the monthly price up, I decided to search around and see if their new price could be bettered as it seemed rather a lot.

I found that yes, it could be bettered by about £4.50 a month!, so having now spent quite a long while on the phone sorting it out, I should get a new Hub next Wednesday and make the change over.

Why am I boring you with all this?..... well, this blog is linked to my old providers email, which I guess I`ll lose as soon as I change over, so I`m now going to try and change the email address which this is linked to, so that I can still get into my blog.

But, if I "disappear into thin air" you`ll know why!

Is there anything else I ought to be aware of before things change over, I wonder?

[If this does mean the end to this Blog, I will start a new one, maybe a Shanny`s Day 2]

Why my garden??

I`ve just had a walk up my garden to see how my runner beans are progressing, and in doing so I found that all the neighbourhood cats seem to have been using the middle of my lawn for their toilet. Ughhhhhh. There wasn`t just one little pile of .......(you know what) there were 6 or 8 of them.

Why my garden?

Anyone any ideas how to stop them? Short of sitting out there with a shot-gun!

Alone

I`ve just realised that I`ve been living on my own now for just over a year.

Having lived in the same house I was brought into as a baby and always having my parents living here too, (until my Dad died), and then it was just Mum and I until last year when after a lot of problems I managed to get her to realise that I couldn`t cope with her here any longer and she went into a housing with care place, I`ve never lived on my own.

But..... I love it!

It was something I`d longed for, for a long while, but I`m surprised in a way at how quickly I`ve adapted to it. It now feels as if I`ve always done it. I`m contented, relaxed, free.

Do I feel alone? No. I`m very content with my own company.

Do It and It`s Done

"Do it and it`s done"......

I don`t know where those words originate from - whether they`re a motto, a saying or what, but it`s something I`m now trying to practice.

I`ve found myself too much in the habit lately of "leaving things till later" - for instance, once I`ve opened my mail, instead of dealing with the items like receipts, bank statements, letters even, I tend to just put them aside and think I`ll file that away later or I`ll reply later. (Bills of course I do pay on time)

Same thing with having had something out to use, maybe from a different room or part of the house and instead of putting it straight back when finished with, I tend to think, I`ll do that later when I go upstairs, or wherever it came from. Yet, later never seems to come, and gradually the surfaces in the house all seem to have various things on them. And, the more they build up the less inclination there seems to be in me to sort them.* Yet, I don`t like my house looking untidy, I like nice clear uncluttered surfaces.

Different non-essential date related tasks too, tend to be left until the last minute deadline.
And all probably take longer to do than if I`d done them straight away. So, my motto at the moment is trying to live by "do it and it`s done!"


*(No, before you think my house is an absolute pig-sty, I must say, that I do have a good tidy up at least once a week, but yet, if I`d dealt with the item straight away I wouldn`t need to do that would I?!)

A stormy day

I`ve been dashing about between thunder storms today. I don`t mind them when I`m indoors but I don`t like having to be out in one.

A vivid flash of lightning woke me in the early hours of this morning, I got out of bed, wandered down stairs and unplugged the television aerial from its socket. (We`ve always done it, so I thought I`d better, but I don`t know if it really matters?) Do other people do it, I wondered as I made my way back upstairs. Pulling the duvet back over me, I dritfted back to sleep.

Getting ready for work this morning, I noticed the sky getting darker and darker, and spots of rain began to fall. Fortunately the heaviest of the rain held off and I got to my office without getting very wet. I`d not been there long when thunder could be heard, then the electric went off, luckily only for a minute or two, and repeated going off and on two or three more times. A bit later looking out of my window to the left the rain was pouring down and the sky was dark, but looking to the right, although it was raining, the sun was shining! How strange that seemed. I looked for a rainbow, but didn`t see one.

By the time I finished work two hours later, the sun was out and the rain had stopped. I went and purchased flowers I needed to do an arrangement at church this afternoon, I`d no sooner got into the car with the flowers and it poured with rain again.

I`ll have an early dinner I thought when I got home (rain had stopped again), so got the deep fry out and cooked my fish and chips, did the washing up, looked out of the window and clouds were blackning yet again. Quickly I loaded my bits and pieces into the car, got held up with a bit of traffic, then had to stop to post some letters, and by the time I got to the church it was chucking it down with rain. So there I sat outside the church waiting for it to ease.

The rain seemed to lessen a bit, so I grabbed some of my things, leaving the flowers in the car as I couldn`t carry everything at once. No sooner had I got inside the church door than it lightned and thundered and the rain fell down again. No way was I going outside in that to get the flowers in!

Going into the worship area of the building, the storm didn`t sound so bad. Infact there was somehow a comforting feeling about being in there with the storm raging outside. Lines of hymns about storms and God`s protection came to my mind as I stood there. Like "the storm may roar about me, ........ but God is round about me....." And I seemed to feel that protection as I stood there.

Eventually I managed to get my flowers in, did the arrangement, and... got home in the dry

And, here is the finished flower arrangement.

A summer scene

After a very busy few weeks, I now hope to get back to writing something on here more often - not sure about daily, but at least 3 or 4 times a week.

So, to start, I really must share with you a scene I witnessed from my office window yesterday, which just said to me it must be a typical English summer scene,

The sky was heavily overcast, black thundery clouds were filling the sky and rain was imminent, the wind was blowing, making the flags across the street flap and pull alarmingly at their fixings. And there walking along on the pavement on the opposite side of the road were three people - not young people by any means. They were each wearing a customary black pack-a-mac (thin plastic raincoat, seen so often at the seaside), and in their hands they each had an ice-cream which they were licking away at!

It just made me smile and think - it`s a case of "we`re at the seaside so we must have an ice-cream"

More Flowers

I wish I could share with you on here the wonderful perfume that meets you as you enter the door. In fact a visitor to the Festival yesterday said that they could smell the beautiful scent of lilies as the approached the building outside!

Instead, enjoy the view of these lilies

"There are always flowers for those who want to see them"

Floral Wisdom

I`ve been enjoying a Flower Festival this week. It was based on "Pearls of Wisdom" - wise sayings. Here are a few samples and pictures from it.

"Cut your coat according to your cloth"

"Consider the postage stamp,
its usefulness consists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there"