Battery low

It has now been almost 3 weeks since my sore throat/cold started. In that time I have probably had 2 good nights sleep, most nights I have given up trying to sleep in my nice warm comfy bed and made my way down stairs to sit upright on sofa. All this coughing and lack of sleep meant that I found myself at my desk on Friday struggling to stay awake. Being early January work was fairly slow and I had caught up on all the loose ends I had. Scratching around to find things to make it look as though I was busy it occurred to me that this was beyond stupid. Why on earth was I struggling to stay awake in order to try to find things to do. It was about 12.45pm when I made my way down the stairs to the ladies loo in the hope that stretching my legs might wake me up a bit.

I passed my manager on the stairs, she (out of habit) asked if I was all right? I told her I was absolutely shattered and asked if she would mind if I took a half day. (We finish at 4pm on Fridays and my lunch break was not until 1.30pm so it was hardly worth taking a half day). She agreed that I could take the rest of the day off but she would allow me a couple hours at another time to make up the half day. 🙂

I turned off my computer and tidied my desk (that was quicker than usual as not much on it any way) told my colleagues I was going home. I walked out with my friend Loopy who was off on an errand. When I got to my truck the key fob didn’t work I had to unlock the door manually. Ok it does this now and again, I have learnt to wait a few minutes then try again. After trying to turn the engine on a few times I realised that normally the engine turns over but the immobiliser won’t let it start, this time however it was doing nothing.

I phoned Owl to let him know the situation, I thought I would see if one of the guys from another office in our building could help. I had heavy duty jump leads in the back of the truck but wasn’t able to open up the back even using the key. Loopy returned from her errand and noticed I was still there so came over to see if I was ok.  Owl didn’t think it could be the battery as we had a new one only 6 months ago. I was convinced it had to be something to do with the battery but Owl disagreed due to it being a new battery.

Re-entering the building to find help we passed our manager again so she came to have a look (unlike me who knows a bit about most things she knows a lot about them). she climbed into the passenger seat, almost immediately she asked “what’s this?” oooopps that is what it was. The heater in our truck doesn’t work properly it needs a new matrix apparently. So we have a small plug in heater which throws out  a small amount of heat but more importantly helps to demist the windows. I don’t often use it but on this day I was running late and the windows had misted up.  On my arrival at work I had forgotten to unplug the heater which had continued to work even without the engine running. Hence the battery had run flat.

A brief charge with the jump leads and I was finally able to make my escape, only instead of a short dash home to bed it was a drive down the local A road for 10 miles and back to give the engine a recharge…..good thing it was a sunny afternoon.

It was 2.45pm by the time I stumbled through the door, had a cup of tea and a chicken wrap before falling on the bed to sleep for a couple of hours.

A small case of colour

Back in October (on holiday in Turkey …..big smiles) I dropped my phone just when I was about to take a photo. The result being a smashed screen.  I could have put in a claim for it to be repaired/replaced but I was due for an upgrade anyway. So (having insisted just months earlier that unlike the rest of the sheep in my family I didn’t want an iphone) I decided to give in  and upgrade to an iphone. Not one of the iphone 5’s that had just come out but an iphone 4s would be perfectly satisfactory for me. All the males in the family have got black ones so I opted for a smart white phone (much classier in my view).

Having spent getting on for an hour and half in the store I left with my new white iphone 4s. There was just one problem, I needed a cover for it. I had got a soft black flip cover for it but really that didn’t do it for me. I had a black cover on my HTC but could never find it easily in my handbag along with my black purse. A bit of colour was what I needed. Of course there is only one colour I could opt for. I tried to buy exactly the cover I wanted online but there was a slight glitch with the transaction. I gave the link to Statto in the hopes that he might come up with the goods before Christmas. Owl tried finding one in the local shopping precinct and market.

There are a fair few different patterns you can get. If you like the type of cover that just goes on the back of the phone there are endless different ones to choose from. I wanted a soft red cover but would make do with my black cover. Until 2 weeks before Christmas I was giving Skater a lift to the station when my mother called. Skater spoke to her then returned my phone to my handbag. When I got home my phone was nowhere to be found.  The only explanation I can find is that when Skater got out of the truck my phone in it’s soft black cover fell out into the road never to be found by me again.

After many hours of trying to find/replace my phone I received a new one four days later. Christmas was getting nearer and I knew that all my family knew what I wanted. I resisted the urge to just get one for myself. Christmas arrived and the pile of gifts under the tree was staggering. But as each gift was unwrapped there was still no sign of my red phone cover. So late last week I looked online. I found a pink flip cover, I found a purple flip cover. I decided that if this was as close as I was going to get then I would buy these. Oh now what have I found ….. a red flip cover, I’ll have that one too but really what I wanted wan’t a flip cover but one that opens up like a wallet. I had seen some in various designs but not the red one I wanted. After more searching I found a purple one just like I wanted.  Never mind these would do. But just as I was about to close down the page I scrolled a little further and there it was …my red wallet style phone cover.

Now I can colour co-ordinate not just my shoes, make-up, nails and costume jewellery but also my phone covers.

It must be Sunday

It is Sunday 6th January 2013 I started this blog in order to get back into writing. But what to write? I have been poorly since Christmas which has meant being stuck indoors. An ideal opportunity to get plenty of writing time. Yes but I might have had the time but being stuck indoors and not seeing anyone other than the other occupants of the house, it meant that same old problem. Nothing to inspire my imagination.

Today I am feeling better or at least better than I had been. Not having done a shop since before Christmas the cupboards are all but bare. The fridge has things in it though, half a jar of pickled onions, some potato salad and coleslaw left over from boxing day. (I must throw them out before they walk out of their own accord). Cheese, we have red leicester, mature cheddar, brie, cheese slices, triangles, soft cheese with sweet chilli, half a pack of bacon and a lone strawberry trifle. So today I made the decision that I must go shopping.

Owl was happy to go with me …..hmmm something is afoot, he doesn’t like shopping, he gets bored!. But first he wanted to off load the cardboard we had gained over the last week or so. Not all of it from Christmas but from finally reducing the number of boxes still requiring to be unpacked. Oh and my exercise bike which finally put in an appearance on Friday. (My Christmas present from Owl….he took so long getting around to ordering it before the big day I told him to wait until the sales).

So we loaded up the truck ….did I tell you that since meeting Owl I now drive an American Chevrolet Truck. I trundled through the town towards the amenity tip. As we neared the tip I knew that as soon as we rounded the last bend in the road we would know if the tip was busy.  Our local tip is only small and there is no room for cars to queue, other than on the road. There was already a long row of vehicles parked on the road past the entrance, the occupants walking their rubbish back to the tip. But the queue waiting to get in, tailed away into the distance, quickly we decided that it would be quicker and more fuel efficient (always something to consider with a V6 engine) to drive  15 miles to another (bigger) tip.

I had been hearing on the radio all week about the bypass having a lane closed so I was a little apprehensive about getting stuck in traffic but it was fine. Arriving at our destination I drove around to the mixed card and paper skip whilst Owl took the other bits over to the household rubbish area. We could only have been there for 5 minutes but as we were driving away we noticed the queue that had grown waiting to get into the tip in the few minutes we had been there. Good timing on our part I think.

Is there ever a Sunday in UK when there are no queues as amenity tips? What does this say about us as a nation?

 

Different decorations

      Last week we had a lunch date with Owl’s sister and brother in law. But first Owl gave them a quick tour of our house so they could see the changes we have made since their last visit. Neither of us had given it a thought but Sis(Chicken) noticed our unusual decorations in our bedroom. It was something Owl had done as a joke one day. We both decided that we liked it, (we do like to be a little different anyway). Besides being as short as I am, I am not able to take it down without getting a set of steps to stand on. Does anyone else have a pair of shoes decorating their doorway in this manner. This is a pair of red spangley high heeled shoes that I bought from ebay about 2.5 years ago. I was looking for some comfortable black court shoes to wear in the office but couldn’t resist buying these when I saw them. I think I have worn them out twice since then but they do make an unusual door decoration don’t you think.

Anyone who knows me knows that I like my shoes.

Looking back

Trudging the two minute walk from home to the local corner shop (it may have taken me nearer to 5 minutes) on this first day of January my mind started wandering.

So this is the start of 2013 but what has happened in my life in 2012. I won’t say it was either a good or bad year overall, it was more like a roller coaster. There were some very good bits and a few not so good.

January 2012

New Year was spent with Owl ( our relationship was still in it’s early days). Then in early January his elderly mother was taken into hospital where she later died. I supported Owl and his family through this difficult time. The amount of time we spent together because of this brought us closer together.

February 2012

Things at work were very hectic, our Company took on the order book and products of our sister Company which went into Administration. With most of the management at the other end of the country and my departmental Manager on compassionate leave those of us left in the office were working long hours trying to tread water.

March 2012

Management returned but work was still everything was hectic. But with more staff it was becoming more manageable.

April 2012

Both Owl and I celebrated our birthdays (3 days apart). Because it was one of those monumental birthdays for me ……yeah thats right 21 ….as if! my mother, my four sons (plus 2 girlfriends) together with Owl’s sister and brother in law gathered for a family lunch at the local pub. It was so nice to have everyone together even if it did take until November to extract the photos from Prodigal.

The following day Owl proposed and I accepted. We began the search for a family home to share with my younger boys but big enough for his children to visit also.

I lost my aged grandmother (93) on the way home from the funeral I had a call from Prodigal’s better half (Bella) saying that he was very ill in hospital in Brighton. We visited him the next day after he had an emergency operation to remove his appendix.

May 2012

Owl moved in with me and my boys temporarily between selling his mother’s house a moving into our new home. (what should have been 3 weeks became nearer 2 months). During this time Owl collapsed at his mother’s house where we had gone to clear out the last of her belongings. He was taken to A & E when his very high temperature resulted in a fit.  Something that was over in a matter of seconds has had an adverse effect since then as he was made to surrender his licence. I don’t mind being the only driver in the family but it does make life more complicated. Hopefully he will get his licence back in the next few weeks.

June 2012

Not much happened in June except for countless trips to the local household amenity tip.

July 2012

WE MOVED INTO OUR BEAUTIFUL HOUSE. 6 months down the line and we still have boxes to be unpacked/store (as big as this house is it still isn’t easy condensing the contents of 3 homes into 1)

August 2012

We were enjoying putting our stamp on our new home, we had several family bbq’s sitting on the decking enjoying the evening sunshine. Then our thoughts turned to booking a holiday.

September 2012

Skater began his new life of college which he seems to be doing well at.

We undertook the long day trip to Norwich and back to take Pug to University and the start of his new life. We did manage to squeeze in a lovely lunch with family friends.

October 2012

Owl and I took our first holiday together, a week in Turkey (my first ever holiday in a hot country). It was a lovely hotel or at least it was once we finally got the right room (it only took three attempts to get us the room we had paid for).

Oh and on our return we made the decision to invest in a small holiday home not far from our actual home.

November 2012

I can’t think of anything particularly memorable about November except that the weather was not as cold as it usually is. Plans for Christmas were being put into place.

December 2012

We had all my family with us for Christmas and spoke to Owl’s children on skype. We also had a lovely lunch with Owl’s sis & brother in law. Then the rest of the month went down hill along with our health. We have not left the house since except for a quick stock up on supplies on Saturday and my morning trek for more tissues, energy drinks and paper today.

Living with Owl for the past 7 months has not been plain sailing, we do have the odd problems here and there and there have been 2 minor crisis but our relationship is strong enough to see us through these, helped by a lot of talking things through. In my minds eye I can only see things getting better, we love each other and neither of us have any doubts about this any more. We share a huge amount of laughs. Our sense of humour is very important to both of us. We have both found in each other a level of affection that we have not experienced before in previous relationships. We trust each other implicitly…….I know I know pass the bucket ….but we really are that happy together.

For this reason I now look forward to what 2013 has in store for us.