Stuff and nonsense.

As I was running here and there today I was thinking a whole headload of random thoughts, as a special treat I thought I would share some of them with you ( if I can remember them)

It would seem that the holiday has cured my insomnia, and then some. Since we got back I have slept, on average NINE hours a night, like a regular person, if it weren't for school and church I think I would wake up around 11am. No kidding my body seems to have rediscovered sleep and it LIKES it. I noticed that when we were away my head and body was willing to stop, every night at an unheard of hour ( 8pm one night EIGHT O'CLOCK???) also, when you're away and you don't have all the comforts and conveniences of home, what can you do at 2am? No laptop ( H had his but none of my favourites were on it so no blogs and what not) I couldn't watch too much TV because I couldn't work the Telly and had no idea what channels were available, so may as well curl up in bed and read a good bo..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Every night! I think I broke my habit of staying up most of the night and then still waking up at 7am.
H has to wake me in the mornings, he is such a gentle man. If I wake somebody up I turn on the light and say "WAKEY WAKEY! " Mean cow.
H creeps in and kneels next to me and just strokes my arm while whispering the time. What is his reward for such gentleness? A big old gobfull of rancid morning breath as I sigh "OH NO...PLEASE not yet." I get up and as I make the bed I promise it that I will be back, as soon as the boys are at school, I'll be back because I'm not finished yet. Of course I take the boys to school and then I have to go somewhere or do something and then I come back here and there is always something to do ( although scrubbing and cleaning and getting the house ready to hand back? NOT A BIT OF IT! In fact I cooked the boys oven chips tonight for dinner and didn't put foil under them, just out them on a pizza tray and let those babies drip all over the stove because I DON'T HAVE TO CLEAN IT! If I cooked chips and baked every day until we leave that cooker is still going to be 37 times cleaner than when we moved in, I wept at that stove for 5 days while I scrubbed and scraped and steamed and soaked.
My tenancy ( which landlady is insistent we must stick to) quite clearly states that we must hand back the property in the same state in which we received it, allowing for normal wear and tear of course.
I will do my best.
I just called my brother in law and told him that should he need any lovely crunchy gravel we have £120 worth right outside our house, he is a landscape gardener, he is welcome to it. I will be so happy to give it away but not leave it here.
We have to sell the trampoline, which makes me a bit sad but if I can sell it in the next week or two that will help towards the £400 we are short on the deposit ( because greedy and stupid landlady is keeping ours, but not for ever, oh no, we will get it back and a lot more)
I plan on taking up the lovely lino in the bathroom and baring the rotting floor, for 2 reasons, the lino is mine and I doubt very much if she will fork out money to replace it, let that floor be visible so that any buyers or, heaven forbid, renters come along they will see what they are taking on.
It is terribly difficult NOT to be malicious, I could so easily really make life hard and the wicked and unchristian part of me REALLY wants to drop something heavy in the beautiful new white sink we put in the bathroom, or just take it with us and leave the old one sitting unplumbed on the bathroom floor. I want to do all manner of mean and spiteful things but the gracious and christian part of me knows that all that would do is bring me down to her level, it would make me a lesser person and actually, wouldn't even bother her too much because she just doesn't care, she'd just paint over it, cover it up and pass it onto some other unsuspecting dimwit. There are so many of us around.
I would love to carry out my furniture and leave dirty floors but I know that he pride instilled in me and the integrity passed down to me will win through and I will allow myself to walk away from here with my head held high ( and a stack of pictures to prove how marvellous I am and how lowdown and stupid landlady is) I am not cleaning that bloody oven though. No, I am not.

I went into the agency today and asked how things are going, Landlady isn't providing a reference ( what a surprise, I imagine she thinks that that will scupper our chances and we will be stuck here handing over £750 a month, not even if I have to find a caravan to stay in!!)
The agency said that they have called the referencing people and told them that THEY will be our reference, that they accept us without her saying a word. Marvellous. Now I imagine they are contacting the lovely Annie, who is our guarantor and it'll be all systems go. Oh please!
Tomorrow, I am headed to the Citizens advice bureau, they are the people with all the know who will help me go through the county court procedure to sue landlady for the deposit x 3, the hassle etc. I hope that I can report some progress tomorrow.

Oh a funny, the gas company keep sending someone to check the boiler ( very important, we are glad to have this done) the thing is, they keep coming and just putting a card through the door, we have been IN the last 2 times they have been but they don't ring the bell, so we don't know they are here.
I called and got some hopeless twit on the other end, who said he couldn't help me without the reference number, the man leaving the cards just wrote 4 numbers down...not enough,not the correct number I MUST HAVE THE CORRECT NUMBER. So, I emailed because their website said I could an someone would give me an appointment, all would be fine. This is the exact email ( except I took off my address and phone numbers, I am sensible in some things, if not all)


I have had 2 cards through my door, telling me that a safety check person has been and missed me, both times I was actually at home, but for some bizarre reason your safety check person did not ring the bell, so I called your number and quoted the ref number written on the card by the non bell ringing safety check person, who, it would seem ,got bored when writing the reference number and only wrote 8500, when on the phone I was told that this was not long enough! It is WRONG...well,perhaps it is but it's the only number I have ( we have a key meter so no bills) I wonder, if I email a convenient time and my address would we get a man who rings bells and writes full numbers and is able to check that the gas boiler in my horrible rented home is safe?

We're moving out in 2 1/2 weeks, we would like to know before we go that we have been living with a boiler not liable to explode, everything else in this house is condemned,the lights turn themselves on and off, the roof leaks, the bathroom floor is falling in, yet we still have to pay £750 to live here, we would feel a little mollified if at least the boiler isn't slowly killing us. Our landlady frequently forgets things like safety checks and tenancy agreements, maybe she forgot that this gas boiler is unsafe?

My address is, Here but not for much longer HOORAH!.
Telephone, either the one in the house or the one in my handbag.


There is always someone in during the afternoon, if your safety meter man rings the bell, we will let him in and even be friendly and courteous, in fact we will be so pleased to see him we may even embarrass ourselves in our enthusiastic welcome. So, any afternoon is great, even mornings, if we KNOW you are calling, we'll wait in especially, just tell us when and what time and we will be here.
You just have to ring the bell because otherwise we won't know you are there, outside in this inclement weather and we will be forced to tut and sigh and mutter about finding another card saying you have been when WE WERE HERE!
Thankyou, in anticipation. Helen


Random thoughts.
I had a wonderful experience today. I went to the supermarket, and I remembered to hand in my prescription BEFORE I did my shopping and THEN, I remembered to collect it when I had finished, this is HUGE for me.
I'll help you understand.
I just had a lovely bath, better shave my legs.....HA! Obviously for the last 2 or 3 times I have shaved my legs I shaved the right one and then got sidetracked ( How? In the bath? in between lathering up, shaving and rinsing one leg, what could possibly happen to make me forget to do the other one? You tell me! ) so the fact that I remembered to drop off, shop, then collect the prescription is a big deal indeed!

I forget what the other thoughts were....see? Hopeless.