A bit of a week

All in all it’s been a bit of a week and I am not entirely unhappy that it has come to an end.   Whilst I had a day hibernating in the caravan on Monday, Phil had a very productive day at the GP flat.  He managed to get the entire wood chip off in the bedroom; he stripped the hall and even managed to get half of the lounge scraped off.  He was absolutely knackered when he got back to the caravan but very satisfied with his achievements.  Snake the plumber phoned on Monday evening to say that he couldn’t take do the work himself but said he was sending Blue to come to help. This was great except that it meant we both had to drive to the GP flat in separate cars.  I had already intended to work at the flat but Phil had other plans but he wanted to make sure that Blue was clear about what pipes were going there.

Not ones for making life easy for ourselves we have decided to change the layout in the kitchen and move the sink to underneath the kitchen window and we have also decided to rip out the kitchen wall where the electrics and gas pipes were originally.  This meant that Blue had to re-site the gas pipes and also do the first fix for the waste and water.  Blue was a little late arriving because he couldn’t find our flat but Phil went through everything with him and then made a dash back to the caravan.  Georgina is back from university for the summer and the pair of them were going to Melton to see mum and dad. 

Aside from a cup of tea break and a fish and chip lunch at Sue’s I pretty much worked all day in the flat.  Blue worked solid all day and did a good job with the re-piping in the kitchen.  He also managed to rip out the bath and get all the tiles around the bath off the wall.  I finished off scraping the wall paper in the lounge and all in all, it was a good day’s work.  I didn’t get back to the caravan until just before 5pm and I was surprised to see that Phil was already back.  Unfortunately he’d had a frustrating day; Georgina was late picking him up and then they got badly stuck in the traffic in town.  We hadn’t realised until it was too late that the Olympic torch was in Melton at midday on Tuesday.   They got stuck for ages and it was almost 1pm by the time they got to mum and dad’s bungalow.  It was a very short visit because unfortunately Georgina had a doctor’s appointment which meant she and Phil had to leave at 3pm.  It couldn’t be helped and I suppose at least G had a chance to see her grandma and granddad.

On Wednesday it was back again to MK in 2 cars. I left early and as I went the back way I stopped off at Sue’s for a cuppa.  Sadly she wasn’t feeling too good and she’d had a bad night.  It’s upsetting to see her in this way and frustrating because there is nothing anyone can do to help.  I stopped to chat and it was almost 10 by the time I got to the GP flat.  When I arrived, Phil had already knocked down half of the wall in the kitchen and what a mess he’d made.  I don’t cope very well with mess and chaos so straight I started sweeping up the rubble.  And then of course it was my job to put all of the plasterboard and buckets of rubble in my car and take them to the tip.  I couldn’t even lift the big bits of plasterboard so Phil had to get these down the steps and come to the tip with me.   We heated up chilli at Sue’s house and then dashed around the DIY shops to look at kitchens and tiles.

It was a really quick tour because we had to be back at the GP flat to meet Graham the surveyor. Phil had decided to get him round because we have got some quite big cracks in the lounge which we suspected might be due to subsidence.   Graham took a look inside and out and said there was nothing serious to worry about.  He thinks the cracks are just down to the age of the property and slight movement over the years.   This is good news, we will have to do some work to the lounge wall rather than just patch and paint over the cracks but that’s not a big deal.  After Graham left Phil got up in the loft and together we emptied the ex tenants rubbish into the bedroom.  God I’ve never seem so much crap; if I had a transit van I think I would have been tempted to drive to his new house and dump it on his drive.  We finished our day with a soak in the Jacuzzi at DW then it was back to Sue’s house.

Phil and the Wednesday night boys were out at the Thai restaurant in Stony and this Wednesday it was Phil’s turn to drive.  This was just as well really because he had to be up very early on Thursday morning.  Even though she wasn’t feeling great, Sue cooked us smoked haddock for supper and it was a quiet evening with the soaps on the telly.

Phil left Sue’s before 6am on Thursday morning to drive down to Norwich for an appointment with the probate solicitor and the litigation solicitor.  He went via Lowestoft as he wanted to go to Daphne’s bungalow to pick up his post.  Phil got there only to find a big skip in the front drive and then discovered that the locks had been changed.  The FA and the arsehole friend Jim are not hanging around.   We weren’t surprised though; the various emails coming from Jim have been a combination of madness but mainly aggressive abuse and lies.   Phil wasn’t looking forward to his meeting with the probate officer because he’d had to invite Jim to attend.  Jim did attend but I don’t know why because he told the probate solicitor that he would not be doing probate with Phil and then went into a tirade of abuse aimed at Phil, so much so, that he had to be escorted off the premises.

The probate meeting couldn’t go ahead but Phil did get a chance to have a short meeting with the litigation solicitor.  We are not really getting anywhere with the FA case and the money for fees is flying out of the bank.  I really don’t know where or when this is going to end.   The probability is that it will end up court but whether we will win god only knows.  While Phil was driving down the A14 and seeing to all things legal I went to the flat.  I did 6 trips to the tip and finally managed to get rid of all of the attic stuff.  It was hard dirty work; 17 hard drives, 10 monitors and bags and bags of other useless rubbish. 

And of course you can’t just ‘dump’ stuff into the household rubbish you need to ‘recycle’.  It took me most of the morning.  My next job is to get onto the DVLA and get them to come and pick up the abandoned car in the back garden.  I have made friends with 2 of the neighbours.  Sandra who lives alone across the way; she’s a nice lady and is very happy that we are going to make good the flat because it does let the cul-de-sac down.  Phil and I have also had a chat with Morris who lives directly below our flat.  His garden is a right mess but he’s agreed that we can get quotes for both gardens and he will share the cost. 

There was a lot more work I could have done in the flat yesterday but after my rubbish tipping I was done in and went back to Sue’s for a shower.  Sue had a call from the Churchill hospital on Wednesday morning to say that they were going to admit her on either Thursday or Friday providing a bed was available.  Sue hadn’t heard anything so after lunch she decided to call the Churchill only to be told that they did have a bed for her and she was told to turn up anytime after 4pm.  I think we both thought that she probably would go in today rather than yesterday so it came as a bit of a shock.  But Sue, organised as ever already had her bag packed.  All she had to do was make a few phone calls to sort her dad out and then we were on the road by 3pm.

I drove via Buckingham rather than the M1 and we had a good run arriving at Oxford about quarter past four.  Sue had to go to the downstairs reception to have bloods and then it was up to the ward for admission.  She is in a small ward with 3 other ladies, all of them quite old and seemingly immobile so I don’t think she is going to be having a whale of a time over the weekend.  Still I suppose that’s not the reason she’s in.  The reason she has bee admitted is because the team want to give her some injections which will ease her symptoms and also stop her tumour from producing hormones that are damaging her heart valves.  Basically they are preparing her for surgery which if all goes well, will happen in a couple of weeks. 

I was reluctant to leave Sue but she was anxious about me getting stuck in the traffic so at half five I said goodbye.  Unfortunately I did get stuck in all the rush hour traffic and it took me 2 hours to get back to the caravan.  I was tired and weary but it was a warm evening and Phil poured me a large glass of red and we sat under the gazebo and caught up with both of our respective days.   I was ready to go to bed but Steve phoned to say he was popping round.  He’d been to The Manor for his monthly Mazda meeting.  We hadn’t seen him for months and so it was good to catch up face-to-face, although I fear the conversation was rather one sided.

I really struggle only posting twice a week.  Not that my life is so interesting but at the end of the week there always seems to be so much to say that I go on and on forever.  Apologies for that;  I think I may go back to posting mid week, that way I won’t forget stuff and won’t end up writing in a short essay at the end of the week like I have done today.  Today we were meant to be working at the flat but neither of us is in the mood.  It’s peeing down with rain and so we have decided to lock ourselves in the caravan and catch up with paperwork.  I can’t say that I am much in the mood for that so we may just close the blinds and have a duvet day.  Every girl needs one of these every now and again and as I say, its been a bit of a week.