Guest Blog by Sue

Hello folks, at long last I have got around to putting fingers to the keyboard to write the guest blog that Claire and Phil invited me to do. I’m sure that most of you that read the blog have heard of me, Sue, the one that has all of the crisis happen, widely reported in the weekly pages!!! Many of you will also know that Claire and Phil came to stay with me in January when they had to vacate the caravan at Overstone for a couple of months. When they first bought the van and knew that they would have to be out of it for a period of time I know that they originally hoped to have one of their extended periods of travel, but for one reason or the other this was just not possible and so I offered for them to come and stay with me. It made absolute sense to me as I was rattling around in a four bedroom house and thought it would be great to have the company, but a few people held their hands up in horror, forecasting fallouts and disaster! I was absolutely confident that as the house was big enough for us to each have our own space, including separate bathrooms and we would be able to cohabit with no problems. I did worry a little when Claire herself kept casting gloom and doom over the idea, saying that they would drive me mad and I wouldn’t be able to stand it and made me promise that I would tell her if it all became too much for me, but decided that this was just the ‘glass half full’ girl talking and that we would definitely be OK.

Well, D-Day arrived and they moved in lock, stock and barrel and suddenly I acquired housemates, although believe me housemates like these are few and far between. Claire took it upon herself to make sure that I always had a cooked meal and beat me to the shops on just about every occasion, cupboards were full as was the fridge and they both cleared up after themselves, my bathrooms were bleached within an inch of their life thanks to the Queen of Bleach!!!! And they were off to bed early evening so taking themselves out of my way (their words not mine). As time went on we slipped into a comfortable routine, early morning cups of tea with a debrief of any current crisis or situation and plans for the day. Lunch on the table at 12.35 precisely as Phil had taken a temporary contract in MK and that was his ETA, leaving at 12.50 and back home in time for Deal or No Deal. There were several projects on the go at this point and life became a whirl of paintbrushes and dashing around.

Now there was an interesting new part of my life. As a rule Alan and I hadn’t been that keen on watching much TV, but suddenly everything revolved around being ready for the start of Deal or No Deal, Come Dine with me, Coach Trip and Big Brother. My first thoughts were that these shows were a complete load of trash and sheer wonderment of how Phil could be talking so deeply about scientific subjects that completely went over my head one minute and yet the next he was entranced by numbskulls travelling around on a coach talking complete and absolute b********s, but I was gradually sucked in to this idealistic way of life. I have to admit that part of the intrigue was watching Claire and Phil become so hooked on the characters – particularly Big Brother – it was like having my own private reality show! I even have to own up to watching some of these now I am back on my own again, so I have extended my education in some sort of way.

We survived several house crisis along the way – two days after moving in I was on my way to the doctors when I had a panic phone call from Claire to say that there was water pouring out of the back of the upstairs loo and it had started to come through the ceiling. I couldn’t help much and could only suggest calling an emergency plumber out and drove home shortly afterwards expecting to find that the hall ceiling had come down and that I would be spending the rest of the afternoon phoning plumbers and insurance companies, but Phil had managed to find the stopcock and turn everything off. 


A neighbour who is a plumber (or bathroom and kitchen specialist as he prefers to be known!) answered my plea for help and came down to sort out the problem which turned out to be a pipe coming detached from the back of the toilet. Also various parts of the house have been redecorated by Claire, the floor in the conservatory, the rug in the lounge and the wall in the dining room but I’m not sure that I’m very keen on the red wine splash look so now I am converted to the wonderful restorative qualities of bleach! Then there was the little matter of chewing gum in the tumble drier and a plastic wing tip collar from a new shirt that wedged open a valve in the new washing machine so that it wouldn’t work at all. It took a pleading smile and two cups of coffee to persuade the engineer that came out that this really was a call he could put through under warranty instead of charging. But these were just small blips and were overcome without any damage to our friendship.

Talking of red wine I am completely in awe of Claire’s ability to consume a large quantity on a night when we were having a drink, enough so that she could barely find the stairs and then fell over in the toilet, but at 7.00 a.m. the next morning she would be up as bright as a button, making her to do lists, making me tea and sorting out e-mails without the slightest sign of any over consumption the night before. Phil, on the other hand, usually groans his way into the morning and struggles to catch up the whole of the next day. On Wednesday nights Claire and I would have an evening together when Phil went out with the guys, we usually ended up in the kitchen doing karaoke with wooden spoons and probably completely horrifying our neighbours by dancing extravagantly. Completely bonkers but such fun. 


One day I was surprised by the arrival of a parcel addressed to me from Amazon. Imagine my surprise when I opened it to find a Kindle, bought for me by Phil as a thank you for having them to stay – how incredibly generous. It made me feel very humbled, here I was thoroughly enjoying the company of my very best friend with sympathy, laughter, fun, and caring all on tap, together with a full life zipping out with the two of them for lunches, meals out and other outings and then Phil was doing something as thoughtful as that. What a lucky girl I was. 

Talking of outings I could tell you may tales of our nights out, most of which you already know some details of from reading the blog, but there were always extra happenings – like the fact that I will never, ever, ever go back into the Cannon pub in Newport, or the time we went for an Indian meal and it started to snow and we ordered a taxi to go home but a bus came along and they made me get on that instead, and I DO mean made me ( in my defense I have to say that this was because my boots had no grip, the snow was laying thicker by the minute and the bus stop is a bit of a walk away from the house, and I grumbled and whinged all the way home), or when I was feeling a bit down and Claire decided to take me to the pictures to cheer me up. Unfortunately in spite of research and believing it was a rom/com that we were going to, we ended up in the Point which was freezing, watching the latest George Clooney film where his wife lay in an incurable coma after an accident and he and his daughters were saying goodbye as they switched off the life support system!!! Not really the barrel of laughs that we had hoped for, but in a peverse kind of way it did cheer me up and we laughed together.

 I was also completely blown away by the surprise trip that we have just come back from. Claire had told me to keep my birthday weekend free as we would be doing something, but I never expected it to be a four day trip to Malta in a five star hotel as a combined thank you and birthday gift. What completely amazing friends and this really helped me to cope with my first birthday since Alan’s death and the worry of some current health problems. I had a fantastic time and was completely spoilt with a bottle of complimentary champagne, chocolates and delicacies sent to the room and chocolate cake presented to me at breakfast!!!

So now it’s over and Claire and Phil have moved out and back to Overstone, and I have a chance to look back over their time spent here. I was very pleased and touched with the present and weekend away but they were completely unnecessary and although much appreciated didn’t influence how I felt about their stay here. In spite of all of the warnings I was given, I absolutely ADORED having them both to stay and miss them like crazy. It was one of the best experiences of my life, coming at a time when I have experienced the very worst times of my life and I don’t regret my offer for them to stay for one moment. The last thing I have to add is........

COME BACK SOON GUYS, YOU ARE WELCOME ANYTIME FOR ANY LENGTH OF STAY. THESE WORDS ONLY TOUCH ON HOW MUCH I HAVE ENJOYED HAVING YOU TO STAY AND HOW MUCH I MISS YOU BOTH.

NB: such a brilliant blog Suzie Sue; very honest and you are a really good friend for putting us up or is that putting up with us, lol!  Such a good read, and I am sorry, but I may well just have to ask you to 'guest blog' again! xxx


Happy Easter everyone!