Hard Work!

It's been a hard week.

Suffering the effects of the cold virus again, as always, I ploughed one uncomplaining, in spite of it all.

This morning I appeared in a better condition, though that may be because the coffee was too strong.  Anyway, I hobbled up to Sainsburys for the important bits, bread, milk, whisky, and healthy lettuce.

Having hobbled back, chomped on stale bread with chilli cheese I suddenly found myself with excess energy.  I will avoid that breakfast tomorrow.  

So, pushing aside the important Twitter news I rushed to hoover the condominium.   This is hard work.  Moving things, chasing spiders webs in awkward places, and foolishly looking under the bed, all adds up to make life hard.  Anyway, I then hoovered the stairs and the entrance hall.  The first time that has been done for years.  I will have to change that bag now.  

I then spent some time searching the web, I was looking for sites that provided women to do such work, and for nothing.  After all, that is what they were made for isn't it?  Anyway, I was beat.  The place may be clean but I was too knackered to notice.  

However, two books dropped through the letterbox to enable me to sit back and ponder how to get round to reading them.  If I could avoid doing all this maintenance stuff then I could get through more important books.  'Pytheas the Greek is one, and a collection of Scottish war stories, 'Distant Thunder,' is the other. 

Friday Workout

My new exercise machine has arrived!
Whereas the aged cheap imitation Hoover was noisy and simple to use my new one, which arrived via Royal Mail this morning, is very quiet, sucks powerfully and a quick hoover left me feeling like I had been through a workout!  It appears that to get fit I must hoover daily, I may wear the aged carpet out soon.  This reminded me of the time we bought my mother a new hoover some years ago.  Her old one was second hand and she had been using it for some time.  The new one, straight forward normal vacuum looked good.  She tried it in the lobby at first and we saw her shoot down the length of the lobby and crash against the main door!  It was more powerful than she expected!  That lasted a few years, I hope my expensive one last 20 years, though I doubt I will care much about such things by then. 

John came and grouted the tiles this morning.  I await his return, he has got two other jobs to do at the same time, and he will finish the seal around the kitchen and then all will be complete.  A leak or two and all this work resulted.  There again, had we not done it now it would have required doing sometime soon anyway.  

How lovely to see the West Indies Cricket Team doing well, at least when they are playing England. 
52 - 2 at lunch, good start but really more is required here.  It is only England, surely you can win this one?
Now it is lunchtime and the words flow.  When cricket stops the words begin.  These guys can talk for hours about a man's hand position.  Hos feet movement can fill many a rainy day, and the statistics re his recent games also give hours and hours of words, do they mean anything, really?

 
Boris does it well!
He 'visited' Scotland yesterday.  Note, 'visited,' as if it was a foreign country and not part of the UK! He at no time went close to Nicola Sturgeon the First Minister, he spoke to no politicians, he avoided the press, bar the lackeys.  Spouting nonsense he then toured the empty far reaches of Orkney.  Here, the small dwelling of 'Twatt' welcomed him.  They welcomed him with signs reading 'ONE TWATS ENOUGH!' He avoided them, stopped at an empty area for a press brief and ran away home again.  The Scotch Whisky people wished him to offer the help promised last time he spoke, none came, others, such as 'Baxters' the Soup people welcomed him, well known 'Tomb Tabards' they.  In short, his mission to encourage the Scots into the UK has led to many joining the SNP, support for independence growing, and another failure to add to his long list.
Stay in Britain Boris, Scotland does not want you.

Quiet Wednesday

I sit here almost content.
The place is remarkably quiet.  No workmen muttering from beneath the bunkers. No leaks to worry, no neighbours babies crying.  All is quiet contentment.  Food, such as it was, has been dealt with, dishes washed, all neat and sparkling, bar the washing machine that has been missed again.  The washing machine that works, and that without leaking anywhere!  How wonderful for all things to be in order, for the most part anyway.  Normality returns, joy, peace and blessings all around.
The quiet results from two weeks of hassle and mayhem.  Even work that still has to be done, grouting the tiles, will be little disruption.  All is peace and almost goodwill.
So, what is about to go wrong I ask...?

Ah yes, going wrong brings us to Boris.  Challenged on the Russian report he attacks 'Islingtonian Remainers,' for reasons that are unclear.  Possibly he has forgotten his trip to Moscow unattended by security, the £2 million donated recently by 4 oligarchs, the dozens of Russians given British nationality so they could donate to the Tory party Putins money, let alone the actual report that claims Cameron, May and he are at it with Russian backhanders.
All governments are corrupt, this one has gone beyond the most outlandish African tin pot dictator and will continue to act this way until someone stops them. 
  

One result of the work was the need for a decent hoover.  Today, via John Lewis no less, I ordered this one.  Hopefully, spending more will ensure a better result and a result that will last some years.
I remember my aunt having a hoover that caused us to wonder.  She bought it before the war (she worked in 'Jenners' no less and got it cheap) and was using it well into the 60s.  I expect it was never renewed and was there when she died.  I am now wondering where it went, had our side of the family cleared the house one of us would be using it still.
One day soon my floor will be cleared of dust...

This Sucks...

Walking barefoot across the floor I left a trail of footprints in the dust.  It crossed my mind that I must get a new hoover sometime soon. 
The one I have does work, at least through the hose bit, the rest burnt out a while back.  This means it takes time crossing the floor and I tend to let things lie, well dust, crumbs and those little white bits that appear from nowhere, usually after I have finished hoovering!  
So I started searching for prices etc and instead just got confused.
Pages of strange stick instruments telling me they were 'cordless' or 'pet care' and 'bagless' met me.  Online the screen was filled with the same offerings.  Nowhere did a 'Hoover' type hoover appear.  At last I found hoovers from 'Hoover,' and rejected them.  They were upright, as they ought to be, had bags, cords and tubes, however being 'Hoover' hoovers they were rubbish!  That anti EU man 'Dyson' had many strange grossly overpriced Malaysian made offerings on show, not for me Mr anti EU but live in Singapore or New York thanks.  If you wish Brexit live in the nation you give it to.
These strange skinny hoovers, where does the dust go?  'Bagless' I understand, I see how that works, and cordless, sounds great but this means plugging the thing into the electric for hours to charge up, how much does that cost you?  I prefer a cord here.   

I have not yet really got used to the prices.  The cheapest is around £129, some go up into the £500's!  Who needs to pay that for a hoover?  Are these folks mad or is it just show?  A vacuum to match the fancy car outside perhaps?  Either way I was not much in love with things of high price.  There is evidence that I was confused!  What to do?  
Maybe I ought to go for an expensive one that will last, 'Miele' perhaps.  That is a company with a decent reputation, or at least it had in the past.  A wander through the shops tomorrow is now on the cards.  Being Wednesday it will be busier and less chance of me accidentally buying something.  

This morning, in another attempt at fitness I walked down to the Post Office where the young girl smiles at me.  It appears to get further away each time I go there.  Not only did she ask for £3:50 for a packet containing a couple of books but she didn't smile either.  She did not offer a happy sight, she was upset at someone in the shop, I know not whom.  Disappointing as when I wandered back I continued to Sainsburys where the girl there offered a grumpy appearance to one and all, mind you I was using those 'self service' machines which are horrible.  I only went there as the Post Office did not have what I wanted and so I slogged all the way up the road.  After this, to enhance fitness, I exercised (though this would not be what an expert would call it) and now am totally exhausted!
Happily this stops me doing anything else...

 

Women's Work!

It's been a day of women's work!
From the off I was setting the washing machine in motion, then hoovering the floor with a broken Tesco hoover before attempting to clean the layers of putrescence that lay in the bathroom.  Just who uses a place in that state I ask?
When I had finished annoying the neighbours with noise, hopefully they were out but with the hoover and the washing machine I could not tell, I then went off to town to visit the 'Savers' shop which my sister informs me is cheapest for cleaning stuff.

There I discovered that indeed in many ways they were cheaper even if the one thing I really needed as opposed to buying because it saves doing so later was not available.  I did however get a look from the local gay boy that left me considering pouring a bottle of 49 pence thick bleach down his throat.  That look was in no way similar to the one offered by the badly paid not over keen lass at the till.  I considered smiling but I thought that might produce a case of hysterics as in her case it was not something she would be familiar with.  I produced my bag and she deliberately rang up the small items first, doesn't she realise you always put big things in first?  How do these folks get a job?  I know how, they accept jobs that pay low wages for a while and go back on the dole while moving from one low paid job to another.  If they have any talent they chance of showing it is hard to find and as I know only too well decent jobs are few and hard to find around here.  It would not surprise me if this woman has to use one of our two foodbanks.  Remember we are a Tory area and our MP is a junior minister on the make yet we have two such places!  He does not visit them.

My pitiful lunch was followed by my pitiful falling asleep, from overwork I think, which led on to ironing shirts for the week.  It was at this point I phoned the job centre and advertised for a wife.  
Just put a card up for me I said but received a somewhat strangulated reply from the feminist at the other end. When I suggested she came round and did my ironing for me, as that is what women were made for.  She rang off saying something I didn't quite catch.  Still the worst is over, bar the bits forgotten, just don't look at the sink, yet this will have to do as tomorrow is museum day and I am so looking forwards to seeing all the young ladies there and asking if they can spare ten minutes to do a small job for me...  

SKY NEWS

Once again we find ourselves in the dark re what is happening re Brexit.  May has called off the vote she would lose, MPs are annoyed, the country fed up with it all and the future still bleak.  She returns to the EU to beg for amendments she will not be given all this to save her job.  Her party squabbles are more important than the nations health.  No change there with Tories. 
I have spent some time today irritating Brexiteers on the local MPs facebook page by asking for a sensible comment re Brexit, such as 'Give one positive result.'  All I got was insults,nothing regarding an argument to persuade me Brexit will work.  The fact is people vote emotionally and the whole vote is based on a fantasy that people by into even if it will not work.  Facts are ignored while emotions are roused and all we here is 'It was a democratic vote.'  Actually it was far from that as foreign money was involved so it was illegal.  Now we sit and wait while the local MP desperately seeks which possible next PM he should keep in with.

 

Thursday Run Around

I spent much of this morning cleaning the hoover.  This fancy piece of Tesco cleaning technology requires cleaning itself once a month and I may have missed a month or two.  There was so much muck that I could not get it open. Once open the dust had solidified so it would not come out.  This is where the use of ageing chopsticks come into their own.  Every home requires a set of cheap chopsticks as one of these rammed up inside the blessed equipment eventually releases sufficient dust to require another hoovering of the whole house!  Once I had poked, brushed, shaken and thumped several parts of this almost totally plastic machine I put it to good use, clearing up the mess left by cleaning the brute.  It did make a difference mind, the thing almost stuck to the floor once I put it to use and soon the place was back to the normal standard of grime.  A whole morning spent on this!

About noon the weather chilled a wee bit and I wondered about turning on the heating.  There was a New Zealand soldier from the Great War I had to research and was surprised just how easily his information could be found.  The Aussies are similar regarding Great War men.  However I had to download 24 pages and this took over an hour.  Interesting stuff mind but it took time.  
As my fingers began to freeze an email from the museum that was somewhat confusing arrived. The effort of answering this meaningless communication (she is a woman) led me to consider it might be better to go there and talk to her. (When there it still took a few moments to get through and in the end I was not sure I knew what was what!)  Anyway as the museums heat was on off I went. After avoiding the hundred Victorian children running around learning about the past we discussed WW2 and the stuff I have been ignoring!  It looks like I have lots to do now, starting tomorrow.  

When there I took one or two not very good pictures of stuff in the shop in an effort to sell them to the locals online.  I was a bit rushed and will have to do it all again on Tuesday when it's quiet.  The pictures of the headscarves and cards came out just about workable but the others were a bit peely wally.  It is amazing what folks buy in a museum shop.  As we are linked to the silk mill museum down the way we have many cards based on their designs and women are always buying them, every day we sell cards for a variety of purposes, and before the cards shown (not from the silk mill) were on the shelf they were being bought.  Personally I want folks to buy books re the town history but money keeps the place open.  
A whole day in which only three things have been done!  I don't usually manage that many. 

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