Three days to go…
Again, I should have put this on the “As seen on…” page, and once again, I couldn’t be bothered – so here’s today’s “Quote of the Day” from Goodreads, which makes a bit of a record! A daily quote that I actually like, two days in a row! I hope you all like it too…
“Why should you believe your eyes? You were given eyes to see with, not to believe with. Your eyes can see the mirage, the hallucination as easily as the actual scenery.” ― Ward Moore, “Bring the Jubilee”
The blurb reads: Ward Moore (born August 10, 1903) rarely wrote science fiction, but his 1953 novel “Bring the Jubilee” is considered one of the definitive works of alternate history. It tells the story of Hodge Backmaker, a historian (and time traveler) living in a world where the South won the American Civil War.
Well, I’ve started late this evening, so I’ll probably have to break tonight’s exciting blog episode into two parts – before and after dinner! (Winter hands around a plate laden with typewritten pages: “After-dinner blog, anyone?”) My favourite eldest daughter was over today, so of course we watched “stuff” on television this afternoon – the last three episodes of Season 2 of “The 100” (which I think is starting to get a little “Twin Peaks-ish” or something – it’s getting quite “strange”, in a weird sort of way…) and the first (pilot) episode of “Arrow”, which was a good “fun” watch 🙂
Today of course was the “Big Day” – going over to Stillwater for last-minute measurements and finding things out, like where the vacuum cleaner dust receptacle is (in the garage!) the exact size of the shower in the en-suite (it’s barely big enough for a shower stool – I’ll have to get a small one!) and how big the area under the laundry bench is, so that we know if the clothes dryer we were planning to get will fit there (I think it will!) We also had a closer look at the dishwasher – it’s not a Bosch, it’s a Blanco (er… I think!) and I really don’t like it at all! It’s “brushed steel”/stainless steel, which shows every single finger print, and has a cluttery basket, not a cutlery drawer – so I have a feeling that a new dishwasher will be on the menu… There’s also no insinkerator – we don’t use one often, but they are handy to have, if you don’t keep all your vegetable waste for compost (yet another job for “Super Clarke”! Installing an insinkerator!) I was surprised to see so many chips along the edges of the caesarstone island bench, too – and unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a way of repairing them… 
(though if anyone knows of a way, it’ll be Clarke!) The rest of the house was as we remembered it, only without furniture – just a lot of “weight dents” in the carpet where it had been. There was less damage to the walls than we expected, too, because they’d had a lot of very large wall-mounted televisions, so that was good… Julian has organised a lot of pallets for the shed floor – apparently there’s evidence of water ingress there, and as we’re (probably) going to be storing a lot of cardboard cartons in there (temporarily!) it’s probably a good idea to make sure that they’re raised above any possible flood level. The key for the back door of the garage (into the back yard) was missing, as was the remote control for the main garage door. We’re assured that they will be ready for us at settlement, on Friday. There was a big roll of leftover wallpaper sitting on one of the kitchen benches, and probably just as well, too, as the Vendors had managed to gouge quite a nasty gash in the hall wallpaper (disappointing, but apparently mendable) and Julian says there are a lot of spare tiles and paint in the shed, too – but hopefully they won’t be needed… I’m starting to think of ways of utilising the bath as a useful “non-bath” – why a bath is still considered a “selling point” in this day and age is beyond me – I don’t think I’ve sat in a bath since I was a child! We’ve always used showers – much more cleaner and hygienic! Anyway, to us, a bath tub is an enormous waste of space – this one is very nicely tiled and “built-in”, and I was wondering if it would be possible, or even feasible, to cover over the top of it with a cut-to-measure thin marble slab or thin sheet of caesarstone, and maybe mount shelves or cupboards on it? Depending on the placement of the taps and faucet of course, which – also of course – I forgot to take note of today! I’ll check it out again on Friday… 🙂
Now, I know that the Vendors only moved out this weekend, and today is only Tuesday so they’re probably very busy settling in to their new house – but I was very taken aback at just how… filthy… the place was! (OK, I was horrified! That’s simply not the way to leave a house for its new owners-to-be!) The stove-top had only been wiped over, the oven looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned in several years, the sink had some sort of greasy residue in the bottom of it, and the shelves and benches were grotty and finger-marked! It could be that they’ve arranged for cleaners to come in sometime between now and Friday – I’ll be very surprised if they haven’t – but if not, well, we’ll be having Clarke and workmen in for most of next week, and we’ll get the charismatic Carmen’s “Army” cleaners in when they’ve finished. …And that was pretty much our visit to Stillwater this morning! By the way – do any of you know if outside goldfish need to be fed by their humans, or if they gobble up small insects that get close enough for a small orange and white goldfish to grab? And also, the water seems to be very mucky and murkey with a lot of greenish algae – is that detrimental to a goldfish’s health? I know absolutely nothing about goldfish – but I’m thinking that it might be a good idea – as far as the fish are concerned, anyway – if we turn the small square “pool” surrounding the water-feature by the front door, into a proper fish pond, covered with wire netting so that birds can’t eat the goldfish… Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?
Weigh-in this morning. Well, I noticed today that my feet haven’t been as swollen, so that’s a good sign – but anyway, this morning I had to weigh myself three times to get the same result twice! I’ve gone down one point, from 79.8kg to 79.7kg. so at least it’s a start! And this is the first time in ten days that I haven’t swallowed one of those ‘orrible fluid retaining pills. I shall continue taking two of the anti-fluid pills per day until Thursday, when I shall revert to the original dosage of one per day, and hopefully we’ll see some sort of downward trend emerging soon-ish! 🙂
Tomorrow I think I have a “spare day” – Julian will be off doing banking thingies, and there’s really not much packing left to do! Julian says there’s only our plate cupboard left to pack! (and of course, all the day-to-day items that can’t really be packed up until the actual moving day) Then there’s the fact that there are two funerals on this week that we should go to but probably won’t be able to. Julian’s God Father had a series of strokes a couple of years ago and never really recovered. He was sent home, where he lingered for a long time, unable to communicate… he finally passed away two days ago. We don’t as yet know when the funeral will be, so we don’t know whether Julian will be able to fly over for it or not. And then last night, we both received an email from the son of an estranged friend of ours (it’s a very long story!) who passed away on Sunday – and we’ve been invited to his wake on Thursday afternoon. I feel terribly guilty – I have commitments that I really can’t break, so I won’t be able to go – but I feel guilty, because for personal reasons that I won’t go into, I don’t want to go, and those prior commitments have given me a legitimate reason for not going…
*sigh* I thought so… It’s that time again…
+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+
And now, by the miracle of modern time travel and computer magic, here I am back again, with scarcely a pause between before and after dinner! 🙂 Where was I? Oh yes, feeling guilty because I had a legitimate reason for not going to a wake I didn’t want to go to…
Thursday will entail more shopping and organisation for Stillwater, I fear… and then Friday’s the day! 🙂 So that’s about all I have for you this evening! 🙂 You now know what transpired at Stillwater this morning, what my favourite eldest daughter and I watched this afternoon, what my weight did, my feelings of guilt, and my rough plan for the rest of the week… but do call back again tomorrow night to find out if Julian got the bank cheques needed for Friday, and whether he managed to drop them off to our solicitor without incident; whether or not we’ve come to any decisions regarding shower stools, dishwashers and insinkerators, and if those wretched pills I’ve been taking are finally starting to make their way out of my system. There’ll be lots more news tomorrow night, so I’ll see you all then! In the meantime, do please try to bee good, remember that there are three constants in life – change, choice and principles… and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully… but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 