“I once got ticked off by a friend for not dotting the ‘i’s. When I read back my letter, to see if it makes sense, for the 100th time, I miss out quite a few. Thank you Postal People” says the note on the back of the envelope. I wonder what I will find. Catherine is on her 26th Diary: where are we at‽
10 September 2020
Woken up at 7am by Tilly and Tinker, marching up and down the carpet and making strange noises (probably saying ‘Get up Lazy Bones, we’re hungry’!!). I went mad today. I have all day to do things, but for some reason I felt I had to do it all at once. Change the black sack food caddy bag, do recycling, feed and water the birds, clean cat trays and brushing the stairs down and then have breakfast. In between, Amanda phoned. She had had a bad dream; she dreamt she had a house party for a thousand people and couldn’t get rid of them, so resorted to pouring the alcohol down the sink. Gosh, what a waste! I’m now relaxing with Jeremy Vine; all that work is very tiring.
11 September 2020
Up early again. Cooker Repair Man coming. The slot I was given is 8.40am to 12.40pm. Panic this morning. I was snipping plants in the front garden, though I keep the front door open I always take the front door keys with me. I didn’t realise till I sat on the settee, after finishing the snipping, that I couldn’t find the keys. Flew outside and I found them on the lawn, heart was pounding with relief, obviously I hadn’t put them in my pocket properly.
11.40am: Repair Man arrived. New element required, tested the oven out and it heated up beautifully. When I opened the oven door, it heated the whole kitchen up. I’ve decided to just use it for baking cakes, as I can’t seem to get it right in my portable oven, and just use the portable one for day to day items.
12 September 2020
I must have been having a bad dream. I woke up at 1.45am and I thought I had a stone in my mouth, went to the bathroom and dropped it straight into the bin, went back to the bedroom and I realised I had no teeth in my mouth; the stone turned out to be my teeth! So I fished them out of the bin, cleaned them and restuck them with thick adhesive. Don’t know what I was dreaming about, bit nervous of going to sleep tonight.
On a more cheery note, Amanda, her friend Jennette, with Jennette’s mother and I went to ‘The Fox’ for lunch. All the tables were well apart, not many people there. We had a lovely meal and good company. It was great to go out. Now I am watching ‘The Last Night of The Proms’. It was brilliant and I didn’t miss the audience. I sang at the top of my voice, especially ‘Jerusalem’, and did stand up for ‘God Save The Queen’. Though I would have liked some company, when I started singing Tinker did a hasty retreat!!! All the London landmarks were lit up in red, white and blue. A sight to behold.
13 September 2020
Late afternoon, I decided to get the bucket out of the cupboard under the sink, ready for watering the garden, hot weather for two days. What greeted me was another leak, lots of water. It was dripping from the pipe which goes into the washing machine I don’t use. Mopped it up, as best I could. I got the ice bucket under it; it’s just the right height. I judged four hours before it needing changing again. I phoned Amanda and told her. Wade phoned back and asked about the speed of the drip. I said “not too bad, it can wait till tomorrow, see you then”. I went to bed at 11pm.
14 September 2020
Woke up at 3.10am, went and checked the water level. Got there just in time; water in ice bucket about to overflow. It filled my bucket halfway and the drips were getting faster. I did go back to bed but couldn’t sleep properly, kept getting up to check water levels. Wade and Amanda came around just after 8am. Wade did a ‘screwdriver job’ on the pipe and stopped the drip, hooray. Wade also repaired my light socket on the landing. Now I have a bright light. Looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight. At some point, I have a plumber coming.
On a more cheery note, Amanda bought with her four boxes of cat food, 44 sachets in each box. To accommodate all this cat food, Tinker and I decided we should change some furniture around and the living room looks tidier.
On an extra cheery note, the hedgehogs are back in the garden. Good night.
15 September 2020
A water drip-free night!! Tip for the week: to get any tannin out of mugs, cups and tea spoons, Steradent Tablets in water work a treat.
Tea Towel of Choice today is ‘Use Water Wisely’ since Catherine’s Diary has been about leaks and drips.
Virtual Tea Towel Museum 