It is extremely apt at the moment for me, as I am up to my ears in junk that is being Marie Kondo-ed the heck out of! I look around our abode and wonder why we kept things, why we haven’t fixed things, and when we are going to get our act together.
You see, if things were cleared up/fixed up/extended slightly, this place would be our dream house.
We have a lovely garden, space to extend and it is in such a convenient location, close to town and work. Close to villages and farm life as well as being within easy reach of the city lights of London. It is a cul de sac, no through road, so there aren’t many cars speeding past and undesirables wandering around. We have the spiritual sanctity of the Gurdwara on our doorstep.
But… When we moved in, the kitchen was fitted rather shoddily. A fact that didn’t become apparent until much later, as it started to show that certain parts hadn’t been fixed correctly, one screw used where two should have been, cupboard doors coming loose, plugs messed up… all sorts.
The house had been freshly carpeted by the previous owners and painted and plastered. It looked wonderful.
Except the carpet was cream. And we had two kids.
So fast forward to know, it is kinda grubby grey in most areas, unless you look under longstanding items of furniture, where the brilliance of the original cream shines out!
And the walls: well they were plastered with something substandard, and corners hadn’t been fitted with the proper corner piece that they should have been, so there are gouges in the walls, and things like curtain poles that should stay up, decide to give up as the plaster doesn’t want to hold anything, and crumbles…
The bathrooms have awful ventilation so, despite windows being left open, bleaching and scrubbing happening regularly, the black grout mould has taken residence. And there appears to be a leak somewhere under the shower tray in the second bathroom, that has rotted the skirting boards, and most recently, the door frame, so much that the hinge has now come away, and splintered the wood…
So many issues.
Why are we still here?
Why haven’t we sorted them all out?
Because there are plans afoot.
The hope is to get someone in to quote on a possible extension and loft conversion.
It could mean larger rooms for the children, and a guest bedroom or suite.
I may even get my creative room, with desk space and lots of shelving and storage for my books and stationery!
All that and we’d still have the convenience of where we are.
That would be my dream home…
Of course, if it is going to cost way too much, or they can’t deliver, we’ll be looking to patch this place up as best we can, and start looking at a bigger home.
It’s Tuesday, and that means Colleen’s Tanka Challenge! Of course, just providing a couple of words would be far too simple, so we have two words, yes, but we can’t use them! Only synonyms allowed!
Today, my haiku will be more of a senryu with a backstory attached… (rant to follow the poem!)
A storm is brewing Reining in fierce reaction Someone's gonna pay! Ritu 2019
Right, so, if you read my Chai update yesterday, you’ll know that I had a rather trying week last week, and the hope was that this week be more of a relaxed affair.
Yeah right!
So, my car needed to go in for service and MOT and I used a company which I had a positive experience with last year, Servicing Stop.
They are a centralised company who manage bookings and get your car picked up and dropped off to a local garage, for a supposedly, respectable price, and the convenience is what sells it.
This year my reminder came up so I booked a day in, during the half term, so I had no need to be anywhere urgent. Perfect.
We walked to the dentist, came home, and I Marie Kondo-ed the heck out of my attic and called the company for an update.
I was told, after a few moments, that oils need flushing from the engine and new oils to replace it – that’s fine, usual things. Oh, and there was a fail on the MOT…
What?
Okay, so can they correct the fail (At my cost, obviously) and redo the MOT?)
No.
Apparently, a wheel locking nut was missing from the front tyre and you can only get that from Mercedes Benz.
Get the part and rebook so we can do a retest…
I was all afluster. I needed my car for the rest of the week. Lil Princess’s birthday plans rested on me being able to go places with her, in the car. And I had a whole load more stuff to get to the charity shops!
I called a garage here, who hadn’t got the parts and was directed to a Benz dealer who was about half an hour away.
“Yes, madam, we have the parts. that would be another £85… But why did they fail your MOT on this nut being missing? Having one of our ones is not a legal requirement? They could have replaced it with any nut and you could have got an official one later…”
Grrrrr!
So, my car now needed to go back somewhere, when it hadn’t actually needed to if anyone had used their noggin!
I called the company and relayed them what I had been told and he contacted the garage again and came back to me saying “Yes, I can see your frustration, but they have done the other stuff, and the car is actually on it’s way back to you now. Just get the wheel nuts and we can rebook you… Oh and while you’re on the phone, would you like to sign up to spend £15 with us monthly. It won’t lessen the cost of your next service, but will count towards any work and parts that may be needed next year?”
Er, no thanks, I am not giving you any more money than I have to. I just want my car sorted!
I paced around, getting antsy. Called the Mercedes dealer again to confirm that I don’t actually need their specific nuts, found out I could get cheaper replacement ones from Halfords and spoke to Hubby Dearest, who was also getting frustrated.
The car duly arrived and the lovely man who had picked it up came to hand me the keys, with a frown on his face.
“I’m not angry at you,” I said to him, “but, as you can see, there has been a bit of a palaver with my car today.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said, ” And what’s more annoying is that it could have been sorted, and I don’t know why it wasn’t.” And in addition to the failed item, there were two other items that needed replacing which hadn’t even been mentioned to me by this company… which could have been actioned, had they told me!
He said, ” If you had come through the garage directly, they would never have sent a car back like this. We are tied to a contract with this Servicing Stop, and can’t do additional work unless they tell us the customer has asked for it.”
I told him how livid I was, that it was my daughter’s birthday, and I didn’t know what I was going to do, and he asked me to leave it with him so he could find out more at the garage and he promised a call back within the hour.
The worst thing though, was when we both looked at my Wheel Lock Nut Key box, there was not only a key but spare nuts in there! All that needed doing really was them using one of those, passing the MOT and telling me that if I wanted a special Locking one, I’d need to order it! (FFS!)
In the meantime, I fired off an email expressing my extreme disappointment to the company, Servicing Stop. (DO NOT USE THEM, PLEASE!) Still waiting for a reply…
The garage man called back, and said (to fuel my already frustrated self) that when they had been called by the company, to get an update on what had been done, and what needed doing, they were able to give a basic breakdown, without a chance to give suggestions, and the person rung off, without hearing the full issue list, hence me not being able to authorise any extra work to be done!
He had arranged, via the garage direct, and not the company, to pick my car up AGAIN, today at 10am, get the parts replaced and a new nut into the wheel, and the car back by mid-afternoon. I’d have to pay for parts obviously, but they wanted to help me out.
I gratefully accepted the proposition and sat at home with a car I was legally unable to drive now. We needed to get to the in-law’s house as we had a visitor arriving.
Preparing to walk, with the kids, my father-in-law offered a lift, so off we went.
Hubby Dearest got there and announced that his cousin, who we were expecting, had broken down around 20 minutes from the house. ALL the electrics in his fancy car had failed! (What was it with cars and our family yesterday?) So he went off to rescue him and bring him back home.
It ended up being a fraught, but lovely evening catching up with someone we hadn’t seen in a couple of years, and then the idea was thrown around that they all come back to ours, and stay the night.
Our house is open to any of our friends and family to come whenever they want, but to be honest, when I am in the process of ‘sparking joy’ it wasn’t going to be looking pretty.
Added to that was the fact that due to no car, I hadn’t got many provisions in either…
Still, happy hostess that I am, we all came back home and ended up not sleeping until past midnight.
So last night I had two brothers-in-law sofa surfing, the kids wanting to take the mick and stay up way late, and a Hubby who was happy to have his family with him, but worried about a meeting he had in the morning!
I was up at the crack of dawn (because I forgot to switch my school alarm off) and unable to go anywhere as all rooms were occupied by sleepy heads. Time to read, at least!
Hubby Dearest finally surfaced and went to work, with his brother in tow, leaving his cousin with me and the kids. He has now been picked up to by his brother, so they can rescue his useless car, and get back home.
So, right now, I am still car-less, still shattered, unable to get anything done with Lil Princess, as per our birthday week plans, today at least, and trying to rest up… yeah right!
Once I get the car back, I will be making a formal complaint to Servicing Stop. It was because they didn’t listen to the garage correctly in the first place, that half the info wasn’t relayed to me, and has resulted in two days of mine being ruined!
Well hello, again Peeps! Have you got that drink ready? My chai is waiting!
If we were sipping chai together I’d sigh and possibly be looking for something stronger than a chai!
If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that it’s been another week of fun at school. A four day week for the kids meant that we had to squeeze in plenty, to make sure all was covered, and another bout of short staffing meant Wednesday in particular, was rather trying, but, again, we coped, and I am still here!
If we were sipping chai together I’d let you know that Thursday, aka Valentines Day, was memorable for several reasons. I got feedback from my writer friend for my manuscript, and though there was plenty there that I could work with, there were some items that I found a little hard to stomach… But, I got over it! Then I was informed that my Brother in Law feeling great, so he wasn’t able to go to the function we were meant to be attending at the weekend, which in turn impacted upon our plans to go to my parents as a family. Hubby Dearest doesn’t get to go often and I was so happy he was coming with me, as were Pops and Mum, but because of this turn of events, he would now have to drive his parents, meaning they would head back home, leaving me and the kids to go to Birmingham. Simple.
If we were sipping chai together I’d say I lied. Nothing is that simple, is it? On the same Valentines Day, Lil Man came home with a terrible headache and fever. This meant playing nurse to a teen who was even more grumpy than usual, and not agreeable to anything, trying to keep calm about our plans falling to pieces, and cooking a dinner to celebrate what should have been a romantic night… At least I got flowers!
If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you that Friday was a training day for me with the Brilliant Doctor of Happiness, Andy Cope, and it was another inspirational session (yes, I bought another book…) And there was more computer-based training in the afternoon for all staff, which I had already done, but needed to assist the older members of my team with. Then we were done !
If we were sipping chai together I’d let you know that Lil Man was still not well, so he’d been off school that day with his grandparents. I arrived home to find him on the sofa, not having eaten anything major all day, still burning up, and still suffering headaches. I was a little scared. He’d mentioned one of the lads hitting him on the back of the head a couple of days before (bants, they call it – I’m not sure if it was more being picked on…) And with his history of concussion, I was worried. At the course that day, another teacher had been talking about her son’s 14-year-old friend who got hit on the head, then lost the ability to walk for a while… We made the decision, with me getting rather emotional, that we wouldn’t go anywhere on the weekend, and if the headaches lasted until the next day, we would go to the hospital.
If we were sipping chai together I’d confess I was so upset on Friday night I cried. It really hit me this week, how far I am from my parents, and that they aren’t getting younger. Pops had an investigative procedure on Sunday, and it seems to have been okay, but still, I wanted to see him and had been hoping to, before ill health had struck the household again. As I rang Mum to tell her of the change in plans, she was so calm and kept saying “Don’t worry, God willing, we will see each other soon.” That made me feel even worse… what if God had other plans…? Pops and Mum are also addressing the issue of advancing years by seriously considering downsizing their property, meaning a whole load of #KonMarie type sorting out happening there, and them looking at flats and bungalows…
If we were sipping chai together I’d let you know I had to see Hubby Dearest off on Saturday morning, then checked up on the patient, whose fever seemed to have subsided, thank goodness. We spent a calm day watching films and when the kids were settled doing their own things, I started in earnest, to go through the wardrobes of the house, and I did really good! 15 bags of clothes cleansed from our cupboards! I spent around 3 hours doing that, and then got read of 14 of them on Sunday morning! There is one bag which was filled with Indian outfits that mum-in-law is taking to India, but the rest… gone! I need to get three large bags out from the attic to sort them out too, then it’ll all be done, clothes wise. There is still so much more to do though!
If we were sipping chai together I’d tell you we had a chilled out Sunday too. After a leisurely lunch we popped into Bluewater Shopping Centre and had a wander around, picking up bits and pieces for Lil Princess’s birthday that is coming up, and my Father-in-Law’s too.
If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d breathe a sigh of relief and say “Thank Goodness it’s Half Term!” A week off. But it’ll still be busy! Today I’ll be carless, as my car goes in for service (hopefully it won’t cost a bomb!) and we have dentist appointments. There will be hair and nail appointments, as well as get-togethers this week, to celebrate when that Lil Princess of mine turns 11 too… I’ll be wrapping presents soon!
If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d tell you that I am also excited as I have spoiled myself with an All-New Kindle Paperwhite which should arrive later today, and I can start transferring my TBR list onto there, then wiping my old one clean to give to Lil Princess, so she can start her own collection!
If we were sipping that chai together, and possibly reaching for cake or cookies I’d add that I’ll need to be on hand to help the in-laws back as the next time I speak to you over a cuppa, they will have flown to the Motherland for 6 weeks!
Have a wonderful week Peeps! Let me know how your week went!
The intention is to give a little motivation each day and have opportunities to share our ups and downs with each other.
A suggestion was made that we could do something like a collective creation within the group, and so Just One Line was born!
The third challenge went out on Friday, and here is the little story that came out of it!
Upon
getting closer to the house, Sarah realised it wasn’t the warm glow of the
lights, but flames licking through her home.
She smiled and relaxed; at last Derek had started decorating the living room with Dulux’s vibrant ‘post-apocalypse’ emulsion that promised ‘Armageddon from your armchair’
It had been a mistake to help out her friend’s daughter with her new online interior design business; now the taupe walls had to go.
Standing
back and looking at the first coat she decided to reserve judgement until later.
On reflection, she realised none of it was important as the house was engulfed in flames, where was her mobile
Derek
sat on the lawn in the front garden, head in hands, “I only wanted a quick
smoke; It’s not my fault the lighter fell into the turps…”
The
fire engine arrived …too late.
Too
late even to stop the flames spreading to neighbouring houses.
It
was a total nightmare, like something out of a disaster movie.
Was
this real or a dream?
The look on the fire chief’s face said it was real.
Frozen,
she looked at the firestorm developing around her.
Derek
sheepishly appeared before her, “I’m sorry dear, I know it was your
mother’s house…”
Well, actually dear she had secretly left it in the will to you!
A
sneer touched her lips air blew from her nostrils while slowly nodding her head.
That’d
teach him, having that eyesore to deal with.
“Now
see if I care, Mother” with fists clenched she shook them towards the sky
and roared.
Don’t
think that your affair with my husband passed me by!!
Dumbfounded,
Derek slumped to the lawn and trembled.
OMG, he thought she knew all that time she bloody knew.
So
many thoughts raced through his mind and he looked for a place to escape.
With
no place to escape obvious, he begged for forgiveness, pleaded on bended knee
She
hesitated, so many memories flooding her mind, should she accept his apology?
No! How could she? He was not to be trusted.
Another fun set of entries to the story prompt! Thank you all!
If you want to be a part of it all, make sure you join, then you can add your own slants to the Just One Line story of the week!
But I Smile Anyway... 