Phew! That’s better.

I was blind and could not see.

I was weak and could not walk.

Some paraphrasing, poetic license and general hamming it up but it wasn’t fun whilst it lasted. I had eight days relying on two pairs of old glasses – one reading and the other bifocals both two years out of date and pretty useless, but better than nothing. The wrong one was always to hand which meant constant running up and down stairs or just frantically searching everywhere. Yesterday I collected the up- to-date pair and now am happy.

Over the week-end some strange bug laid me low - unable to eat, blog or do anything apart from lie in bed sipping water. I immediately moved into another room and MTL stayed well. All back to normal now – whatever normal is at this age- except I haven’t had a snifter in days, have lost a smidgeon of weight and am wondering if I should remain abstinent and lose a bit more – what with Christmas coming on and all.

Continuing with being uber green – recycling etc - I have found that I have to squeeze the tea bags and dry them on the Aga to avoid wet mess in the food waste bin. Am I over doing it I wonder? Talking of bins- as I probably told you we were left with a double set of everything. They always imagine two families live here. Last week MTL put out the two large bins and when I went to bring them in there was only one.

What a cheek I thought - taking one of our bins without as much as a by-your-leave.

Ignoring MTL’s advice I rang the Council and spoke to a pleasant man who said as there were only two of us (family visits don’t count) we were only entitled to one bin – I actually knew that - but he did allow that it would have been more courteous to have told us. Later on MTL said

“By the way Sheila couldn’t get her car out – the bins were in the way so she moved them and we still have two.”

Against MTL’s advice I again rang the council – I couldn’t have the men berated for something they didn’t do. The pleasant man had gone to lunch but the secretary promised to tender my apologies. Now I await events.

More good news – the Australians are coming over in June which inspires me to get the drawing room fully functional again – it is bigger than the family room with lots of comfy seating and all the children are old enough not to run riot amongst the precious breakables.

In the town the other day I became a member of Blockbuster’s so we can rent films. I asked about “A week with Marilyn” and “The Deep Blue Sea” but apparently new films take about 3/12 before they are available. I spotted “Black Swan” but resisted taking it when I realised it had to be returned the next day. Obviously a certain amount of planning is required. Making time to watch extra stuff isn’t easy.

I still haven’t decided about a Kindle – the price is more attractive – I’m getting far too many books which take up space and with a Kindle I wouldn’t have to wait for them to come by post. Decisions decisions! Have a great week-end.