About time too …
It’s been over a month. My last post was the Cat’s letter on Christmas Eve – a blooming long time ago, noting that when I started this is July 2014 (yes, almost 10 years ago), I posted every day for a couple of years, and then down to twice a week. It’s fair to say that I miss those halcyon days, when we were young and carefree! Anyhow, we are where we are and that new place is still a perfectly acceptable place.
So it’s about time I updated you on what’s been going on with us Ladleys.
Well … pretty much business as usual. I have started full time work. And that’s been much more digestible than I thought it might be. It’s tough. There are long days and some pretty tricky decisions to make. But the people are lovely, working from home (pretty much 4 days a week) makes a considerable difference and, thus far, I haven’t longed to do something different. I guess having had 9 years of mostly pottering, writing and the odd consultancy session, has ticked all of the gap-year boxes and, just now, using my brain, bringing people on and trying to make a difference has been a nice fillup. And I am now getting paid, which is a nice surprise for the pair of us.
To get to somewhere where we can operate separately, at Christmas we bought a 2014 Peugeot 107, the smallest car in Christendom. With 55,000 miles on the clock, one lady owner and FSH it is immaculate. And I can get in it! Originally it was going to be my ‘commuting to Cirencester’ car but, perhaps inevitably, C loves it and we often fight for the keys. The silver Focus continues to do its job admirably.
I’m quite pleased with this …Doris has thrown the odd surprise. First I eventually found a second-hand roof light dome for the badly cracked (and now disintegrating) one above our bed. I had to drive to LIverpool to pick it up, but it only cost me a case of red wine (as opposed to £170 for a new one which would need fitting) and it took nothing to fit it. Second, the damp in the driver’s side window has come back with a vengeance. I spotted it because we had mushrooms growing where they shouldn’t, which was a surprise. It looked like a tough job as I had no idea how far the damp had spread.
all’s well in the end …In the end all I had to do was reseal the window (which I had done before, but hadn’t kept up my checking), dig out some rotting wood, dry it out, harden it and then replace the wood (most of Doris is a aluminium, marine ply and insulation sandwich, but not by this window). Which I did. And, do you know what? Whilst it’s not pretty, it’s as dry as a bone.
but ….And I replaced the radio with a decent Blaupunkt which the kids had given me for Christmas. In doing so I broke the alarm and the reversing camera. Do one job, create two more. But, I fixed both with a bit of nous and wire tracking, and all is now well. The radio is fab and it was worth the effort.
Since Christmas we have seen Mary (4 days), met up with pals Nick and Chris, Al and Annie and Richard and Caroline. Seen Jen and James. Went to see Kaleb (the young farmer from Clarkson’s Farm) in Cheltenham with Peter and Karen – which was interesting … and generally we’ve been pottering about, avoiding the storms and still doing our best to run every second day. And, after having really rubbish colds over Christmas, we are both feeling better.
we met some peopleC’s fine. She’s got a ‘woman’s op’ at the end of Feb which should sort out some down below pain which has been dragging her down. Between now and then we’re off to Sharm El-Sheikh next Friday for a week, meeting up with Bex, Steven and Henry for their half term. We’re going ‘all inclusive’ to a pretty posh hotel. Bex and Steven tried it last HT and had a fab time. We have a ‘swim-in’ room and all mod cons. As I haven’t had a proper day off since June last year, I am looking forward to it.
Finally I’m selling a few books. You may remember that I employed a woman to do this for me in September for a couple of months. She gave up early doors as she couldn’t really make it work. In January I carried on the motion at £2-a-day scheme with Facebook. And, whilst I’m not yet making £2 in return, I’m certainly getting half my money back. Maybe if someone gets into the series (and I have at least one example of that) this might just work. Anyhow, I’m on it. Fingers crossed.
… and have tried to keep running I hope you are well and keeping safe. The average sea temperatures are off the charts at the moment which is giving the whole weather system more energy than it needs – hence the storms. It does worry me. Hey-ho! Stay safe.
