Just chill out today.....

Now of course it came to pass that she went off on treewood bent fine and early of the morning.

It would be fair to say that it has been a bit of a mad few days here. Between the various things I had to do in Uni and getting the place sorted to show to the viewees yesterday.

So a quiet day chillin, her with her trees and me lounging round the house, seemed good.

Now, what was that about mice and plans.....

First of all this morning and no internet, in fact no phone either....

So off I went on town bent phoned BT who god bless them spent but a little time finding the problem.

Then again when a cable snaps in high wind I suppose it is a bit obvious to anyone that the phone will not be working....

Having dealt with that I waltzed into the bank to admire our overbreeze and popped into the in a state agent for good measure.

Just as I was discussing the viewing yesterday I was very firmly "shhhhhhh"ed

Oh dear it was the viewees on the phone.

They wanted to know how quickly I could move out.

Hmm this sounded rather promising if you were someone who really wants to sell.

Of course in these last few weeks I had been having second third and fourth thoughts....

How soon could I move out?

"Ohhh soon" I said.

Thinking of course:

"Wherethheforkwouldwego..."

Fortunately, there are two houses that we could probably buy quickly.

But, a whirl was my mind in....

So I spent a day chilling by visiting estate agents, something I would normally rate as second choice after deep root filings or attending a conservative party rally.

R

Romancing the rover driver.

Now far be it for me to suggest anything, perish the thought no.

But today it was the kids parents evening in school, which is a few miles a way.

Naturally we had forgotten and the house was in enforced darkness as I rewired some lights in braille with the mains off.

This meant delay and in turn necessitated a rather brisk pace on the trip which took in the sort of winding roads beloved of rally drivers with which West Wales is strewn.

As she took us, in her most expert fashion of course, I mused about some of the cars we have owned.

How would you recognise one?

Well for a start they would be old, we never go in for new cars.

They would be wheezy and asthmatic, as if they had worked hard.

There would be other tell tales to hint that she had been driving.

The flattening of the passenger side carpets roughly where the the brake pedal should be with a few rents and rips, maybe even dents in the floor in the shape of a boot.

The dash board and grab handles baring the impacted imprint of hands, thats if the grab rails were not actually missing, torn off by someone in the throes of strong emotion.

Internal door handles scratched, could they have been gripped repeatedly by someone intent on jumping out at the next lights?

The seats, showing signs of regular dry cleaning with hand shaped chunks torn out of the sides.

Now, management, used to be a lay preacher and it would be quite uncalled for for me to suggest far more people have found god as passengers in her car than ever did on the pews of her chapel......


R

Romancing the rover.

Been a bit rushed off my little feet these last few weeks so lets play a pleasant little game of catch up.

It all started really during Xmas.

Now, I would point out that usually I am Mr Health and Safety when it comes to tools and things.
Many years in the St John Ambulance taught me that human beings and tools are things that can be a devastating mix, recipe for disaster, pain and of course, copious claret....

So just before the new year when I was making some bits of wood a bit smaller my normal approach would be to get all the gear out before I did so, but is was only a few bits and my gloves were in the van and I would just get the lethal little firefighters hand axe and split a few bits and

Whack Whack whack

"&*&&*())) &&&*(&&&^"

I said.

Claret everywhere and I had damn near removed the top of my thumb.

Naturally my two daughters were all sympathy. Phrases such as:

"Phoar that's a mess" and

"Bet (tee heeee) that hurts dad (teee heeee)" were much in evidence.

Eventually, figuring that it would probably hurt me - a lot.

Branwen, aka Sir Bruce, volunteered to help me rebuild the top of my thumb.

I recruited her in order to save our beleaguered NHS another job which i was quite capable of doing myself.

I also knew that any doctor worth his salt would wish to explore the wound and that was another phrase for PAIN. I didn't think to share this with the girl in question because of course she would immediately have spotted the possibility and insisted that:

a I should go to casualty

b She should attend to view the unexpected entertainment.

To finally tip that balance my eldest reminded me that I really should get a Tetanus booster.

Now I am a 6 foot one biker type, but me and needles really do not get on. I still remember the last time, Bethan spent days telling her mates, my mates and indeed any one who would listen how daddy had to lie down...

So anyway between us and a pack of steri strips we did a reasonable job of rebuilding my thumb though it was pretty obvious the nail was going to come off at some stage.

Then of course, the phone tintinabulated and it was the object of my love and passion, their beloved mother.

At least here was someone who showed concern, well, when she had finished laughing.

Should she rush home? No said Bethan it was only daddy, Brannie was sorting it and by the time mummy got home there would be nothing to see.

Such is the life of love and affection i lead here Chez Moi.....

So anyway the days passed and eventually, very eventually it stopped raining.

In fact it was quite exquisite in that clear mid winter day sort of way that is a true delight of living in the country.

Taking this as our excuse out we went to do lunch at a local hostelry where we very often go when we cannot think of a suitable excuse to stay home, like being broke or needing firewood.

A nice lunch ensued and the day progressed well.

Time for home and we thought it might be fun to drive along the bottom of the valley rather than home over the mountain.

This is where it all started to unravel.

Clearly, the valley had experienced rather a lot of excess water and , as we rounded a bend there were floods.

So anyway it wasn't deep but of course she doesn't do water and with me at the wheel our rover entered a not particularly deep stream.

This of course was "her" car , a rather ancient but sprightly and thrifty Rover 220 powered by diesel.

Now, when they designed the Rover they got all through the design process then someone remembered they had not included any means of getting air inside the engine.

This is endemic in modern cars, styling, stereo, sunroof, these are all things deemed more important than making a car move these days.

So of course some genius came up with the idea of sticking the air inlet under the front bumper.

Of course as I drove into the floods it took in a great gobful of water........

Now water and engines are not a good mix.

When water goes into an engine it can do lots of cataclysmic type things.

Make that engine a diesel that's running and things often get really interesting with big bits of engine deciding to get out and walk and through the side of the engine at that too.....

By a mixture of luck and errrrrrh luck we avoided total catastrophe and a push out of the water, where having decided to wear biker boots seemed to have been far wiser than her decision to wear trainers later, off I went to get the cavalry.

Well OK not quite the cavalry, my IVECO and a hefty rope.

Dragged the car home, and dry everything out.

This being a modern car it is blessed with electronics and these of course took this as their excuse to have a very thorough sulk.

4 days it took to dry out enough to agree to that it was not in fact being stolen, interfered with or otherwise molested.

Ahh the delights of modern cars.

Give me a 1955 green goddess every day....

R

Happy new year

Blwyddyn newydd dda.

Happy new year from the wildest westest of wales.

In 17something, when they changed over to the current calendar it meant that 13 days had to be lost.

People went to bed, it was the end of December woke up and half January was gone.

Here in North Pembs they thought that 2 weeks had been pinched off their lives.

So ever since they have continued, in defiance of the rest of the world, to mark the original new years day.

Yesterday (had to be yesterday with today being the sabbath and all) we had a huge party to welcome in the new year.

The pub stayed open all night and everyone had a good time.

All day yesterday the children toured the local farms singing traditional carols.

They could not have walked away with more cash without firearms....

So Happy new year to you all.

Goes to show though that even time is a relative construct.

R

Thats was the weeks that was....

Well the holidays draw in.

This has been a very difficult one for both of us, this flu thing really knocks the stuffing out of you.

But we have survived and the kids go back to school very soon.

There have been few dramas to write home about and really much of that is because we have done nothing for there to be dramas.

Even my beloved step daughter, who I would emphasise I love dearly, (loving her cheap never having been an option ) has declined to produce drama.

Well, nearly, I will admit that news years eve dawned bright and early, this being an evening when many people go off on pleasure bent, not that i am about to make any suggestions in that respect.

Management had cunningly contrived to be absent when, who should arrive but the Serene one.

Now to be fair, with the new boyfriend on the scene, once she had collected her grans Xmas money and gone, we had enjoyed relative peace recently.

However, you see young serenity had a problem.

The tax disk on the Citroen MPV expired on the very morrow and Serenity desperately needed to re tax the car. This is exactly the sort of reason she has the interest free loan account at the united bank of step dad. Serenity needed to make a withdrawal to cover taxing her car.

Now, woe was Serenity, like Northern Rock, the united bank of step dad was facing a bit of a cash flow crisis. The pay check was running out but the holiday was showing no sign of doing so.

Woe was her, how could she possibly be expected to drive to work in a vehicles with no tax, she absolutely had to have a CASH advance and that before the new years eve.

Fortunately of course we live in modern times. I offered to help Serenity out anyway, I could simply log on to the DVLA website and add her tax to my massively burdened VISA card. The tax disk itself would arrive a few days hence.

I am not sure why but this was not an acceptable method, she needed the cash so she could go and get the tax disk there and then.

Maybe, I offered, I should check and see how much the tax would be, all I needed was her registration number and I could check that on the DVLA computer that very moment.

The effect on serenity was quite extraordinary, one thing she was not at all keen to do was look on the DVLA computer. I cannot think why.

Still, it has been peaceful, we have not seen her since.

Normally, I lend her money then I don't see her for weeks, maybe things have changed, now, I don't lend her money and don't see her for.....

R