19-Nov to 25-Nov 2011

Sat 19-Nov: At last finished decorating the dining room and the carpet was laid this afternoon. Ordered loads of swatches to find the right curtains... here's some idea what we're trying to match to. Tables, chairs and sideboard get delivered in February. In the meantime went straight on to the start of decorating one of the spare bedrooms for us to temporarily move in there after Christmas so I can decorate our bedroom. Oh, will be decorating the downstairs loo before Christmas as well. Linda thinks all her Christmases have arrive early!

Sun 20-Nov: Here's just one reason why I love wandering up to the allotment. All morning it had been grey and misty, though you could occasionally tell the sun was fighting to get through when the grey took on a golden tinge. Just as I approached the allotment site blue skies appeared at last and this image appeared. One allotment had a fire going and since there was hardly any wind, the smoke drifted lazily up towards the sun.

Mon 21-Nov: Here's a long email I received from Paige tonight. Set up hotmail accounts for each of the grandchildren a while ago and included their email addresses plus their mums and dads and me in each of their contact lists so they could email around each other when they were in the mood. Got a couple of short replies soon after, but this is the first serious one I've received. Beth texted about 18:30 to warn me Paige had been labouring over the content of an email to me for ages, and she says in the email it made her tired. Little sausage! Unfortunately the email didn't wrap well so some of the text is off to the left.

Tue 22-Nov: Spent all morning housebound while the plumber looked at our downstairs loo. Still not decorated since we had a new toilet and sink installed in March 2010 (I know, I know... it sounds bad when you say it like that, but lots of things got in the way). Just getting ready to start when we realised the toilet was slightly leaking. Hopefully we'll get a replacement free of charge. Now waiting for the replacement to arrive. While the plumber was working I grabbed the chance to complete some final decorating changes in the bathroom and simultaneously reconfigure the study to take out the old PC and replace it with my laptop. So ended up well on the way to sorting out three problems in one morning!

Wed 23-Nov: Both sons have a mission in life I admire and wholly endorse... to take any opportunity to save themselves effort. When playing pitch and putt that extends to flinging the pitching iron in the direction of the next tee when they finally land the ball on the green and only need to use the putter. Why expend unnecessary effort carrying it around when it's not needed until the next hole? Sometimes the fling gives unexpected results. It's not unusual for the club to arrive half way up a tree. John flings more often than anyone since it's an indication of a duff shot by him... to get a view of one of his acrobatic retrievals click here. Today David achieved the ultimate accolade... both clubs up a tree. Fortunately he was able to retrieve them using one of my clubs. No chance of David climbing... he's the ultimate effort saver!

Thu 24-Nov: Married 38 years today! So we had lunch at The Dolphin, overlooking St Ives bridge, thinking how unprepared we were on the day. Nowhere to live, hardly any savings and Becky on the way. Treated ourselves to a chocolate torte for seconds, could hardly finish it. Rather worrying that the music at The Dolphin, usually so far in the background you can only just hear it and generally easy listening, was much more supermarket-like today.

Fri 25-Nov: Grandson squash on a Friday? Sammy wasn't supposed to be available to play on Thursday, having been off school earlier in the week with a chesty cough. So he was near to tears yesterday when he arrived at my front door all excited that he'd persuaded his mum he was OK... only to be told it had been cancelled and Linda and me were heading round to Connor's house since he preferred playing a board game. So having rearranged the squash for today, what's with the black image? Written before about the pair's toilet antics, but this time it was me at the sharp end of their sense of humour. As I was relieving myself first the toilet light went out (the switch is outside the door), then the changing room lights. Took a bit of fumbling to complete the leak and find my way out in the pitch darkness