Spare cables galore

I am a bit of a neat freak. Some would say a bit more than a bit. Cable management is something that occupies one of my nerves. 

I find spare cables everywhere. Probably because Hubby doesn't throw anything away and keeps cables when the electrical equipment they belong to are thrown away 'because you never know when they will be needed.'  

I have heard this argument before. For example; Hubby has a number of jumpers - enough for 2 neat piles on a wardrobe shelf. Except......I have seen him wear a jumper only once in 9 years!  

So I distinctly recall opening a drawer a few months ago when cables jumped out like they belonged in a Jack in the Box. I sorted the ones we needed and threw away the ones we didn't such as mobile power cables with attachments that no longer fit our phones. 

I know this is a dangerous thing to do. Evidenced by Hubby asking where one of his caps was. Of course I had 'no idea (on the local refuse tip) because he hadn't worn it for years.'  

Dad bought a new TV a few weeks ago. He asked if we wanted his old one. There was no way I was turning do a 42" smart flat screen TV. Our old one is now in the spare bedroom as it is too big for our bedroom. I phoned Sky because it gives me an extra box to record the multitude of programmes I watch. All was well. 

The new viewing card arrived and I was primed to set up the new TV.....

......no power cable for the spare Sky box. After all, I wasn't keeping ugly cables with the box which was nearly stacked in a cupboard because it would have ruined the neat organisation. 

Not only that no scart lead either. Evidently I had thrown them away when organising the spare cable drawer. Hubby was smart enough not to ask what had happened to the originals when I bought replacements yesterday. 

On the plus side you can buy a new scart lead with gold sockets for only £3 in one supermarket - what a bargain! 

Lesson learned?  

Label the cables so I know what they belong to before they go into storage. That's not a 'bit OCD' as someone has just claimed. It good management...... 

Anyone else thrown something away they shouldn't have done? 

'Ribena? Are you okay?'

I don't know why I insist on responding to Hubby with 'Yes, I am fine' each time he gets out of bed and comes to check on me after I wake up early on a morning.  He will always ask and I will always respond with the same thing.  It doesn't annoy me; after all he is just worrying because he loves me and I am more than eternally grateful for that, I just am amazed that he continues to ask 8 years down the line.  I may worry that his worrying is going to cause a heart attack but that will more than likely be caused by his refusal to eat all things bad for him and no greens.

I am on leave this week, all of it using up excess hours worked rather than annual leave which is great if we don't worry about me not having time to take all of my annual leave before the new leave year starts.  I can see a 3 week break over Christmas and New Year on the horizon.

Beautiful B has officially moved out even if all of her junk hasn't.  Her promise to come and take all of the junk to the recycling plant didn't happen yesterday as 'she had worked 2 long days and deserved a lie-in' and so she 'promises' it will be removed on Tuesday.  

'It's not like I need to use the cupboards or the spare room' was the convenient reason she found for me not to comment on her unfulfilled promise; little does she know that today a desk and shelf unit are being delivered.  She more than likely knows I have lots of things to fill her wardrobes up with but assumes that can wait which is proof alone that she doesn't know her mother all that well because I have things lined up to fill them.

My OCDishness is itching to get the spare room sorted, especially the wardrobes because I want to have a tidy space for everything instead of cramming everything as neatly as possible in ever more stuffed wardrobes in my bedroom.  Things such as the box that holds all the spare extension cables and light bulbs can go to the back of the cupboards in the spare room as they will be needed very rarely instead of being in the cupboard downstairs that I use daily.  This all makes perfect sense to me (and to Rachel) but not to Beautiful B.

My house feels tidier, my kitchen isn't randomly filled with dirty mugs and dishes that Beautiful B has brought downstairs after they have lived in her room for more than a day, the back garden is always clean (though Hubby would probably argue I do not need to go out there armed with a little plastic bag every time one of the dogs ventures outdoors - I disagree), the bathroom isn't constantly in use and I now have more clean towels than I can shake a stick at.

Having said that, you will note that I haven't mentioned that I am missing her.  Probably because I get a lump in my chest if I think about how I miss hearing the (too loud) TV from her room, her requests for lifts in the car to places, her constant moan that there is nothing to eat in the house...etc.

I cannot argue that I am enjoying the peace in a large way and that I enjoy her visits when she comes to pick up the Fredster after she finishes her shift at work and that I laugh inside at having to make her go home when she picks him up because she would chat with me for hours and then have to go home far too late at night to be walking home even armed with a big(ish) dog.

But the house is quiet and while I love that I also miss the noise if you know what I mean.

I am loving the house being tidy, nice and clean though - it sings to my heart every time I walk into a room.

And.....after a couple of days my dining room will be restored because the spare room will be spare no more and will become my office and maybe then I won't miss the noise of a (too loud) TV coming from that room.

Love you baba....til all the stars fall out of the sky xxx

You know you are going to have a bad day when.....

....everything starts to go wrong despite your best intentions to clean and get jobs done:

• Hubby decides he wants a lie in so you are already running late after driving him to work;
• You decide to fit the replacement mirror that some numpty knocked off your car a week ago except you can get the mirror into the attachment thingy but the attachment thingy can't be easily attached to the mirror holder thingy or;
• you can get the attachment thingy fitted to the mirror holder thingy but then can't get the mirror into the mirror attachment thingy because the fitting is so tight;
• You can hoover any carpets because the hoover is suddenly not working but apparently it was working the last time the daughter used it and has miraculously decided to stop working on its own after she finished with it;
• The wires look loose on the hoover plug so you wonder if the wires need attaching back to the plug properly except you can't do that because the screw is in so tight that you have knackered the screw head with the screw driver;
• Having noticed your daughter or her boyfriend have dropped what looks suspiciously like hot chocolate down the stair bannister you go to clean it off only to find other bits of spilt coffee on the wall;
• 
  
 This is where the post got to and it went in drafts after I went to bed exhausted and frustrated.  

 And then I promptly forgot about it.

And then I find it when scheduling another post I have just written and think.....'not again!'

And that is why I need to start listing everything I have to do every day.

 Because I forget.

And then I look, and feel, useless.

Having read this back I really was not having a good day was I?

 

 

 

Sunday is the new Wednesday

It is today anyway as I am having, what is lately, a rare moment of attempting organisation.  You see, on Wednesday I will be in Sheffield for a long day at work and then a long train journey home 

 

I may very well be putting off doing accounts again right now but I like to think that I am making sure I post at least more than once this week, unlike last week. 

 

This caption says what I may well be feeling like when I return home later this evening(see, now I have slipped into Wednesday speak).

 

 

Yes I am very well be making certain assumptions of what my mood may resemble 5 minutes after walking through the front door but if last Wednesday was anything to go by....you see, I came home to a house that appears to have stood still in time from the moment I left the house very early on Monday morning. 

 

Having had more than a mountain of packing to do because I am one of the worst examples of a woman who packs lightly I left the Sunday dinner pots for Hubby or Beautiful B to do; I know I was being optimistic.  On Monday morning they were still there but as I was already late setting off on my journey I left them safe in the knowledge that they would be done when I returned to the house on Wednesday. 

 

Yes, you guessed it folks...they weren't.  In fact, the pile had simply been added to and the left over spaghetti bolognaise which would have made a nice meal for 1 person had it just been frozen was still in the pan.  Seriously!  Seriously!

 

Now, I am not silly; I know that I am more than a little obsessive when it comes to cleaning, though little less so of late but this was beyond measure.  I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, threw the left over food away and went to bed.  I was a prime example of restraint when I did not mention it to Beautiful B or Hubby that night or the day after.  

 

I did, however, mention it in passing to Hubby on Friday to which his response was "I have hardly been in."  Oh that's okay then because it takes all of 5 minutes to wash pots and tidy the kitchen in what is obviously such a busy schedule.  I did not grace him with a response which is universal female speak (or lack thereof) for "If I speak now I am so going to regret it". 

 

Suffice to say if that happens again this week I will almost dare him to use the same excuse again but as he has never wished me to be the proverbial housewife he had better hope that he understood that my silence was more deadly than any words I could have chosen to say to him at that time.

 

That being said, I am more optimistic than not that Beautiful B and Hubby will not make the same mistake again.



When you begin to wonder if annual leave is a good thing

Yes, I know?!  Who would have thought I would ever think that?  If I am honest, I am not truly seriously thinking that because it would warrant people saying I am crazy for starters and I don't think I have much of a leg to stand on at this point.  

 

Yet I find myself, on the first day into my second week of annual leave ,wondering who will have gotten more out of this bout of annual leave - me or Beautiful B.  Yes, it is always great to be off work, it has to be only a workoholic that would say otherwise, but I was awake and fully dressed by 7am every morning last week because Beautiful B took my annual leave as an opportunity to have her room decorated.  Before you say it, yes I know I am usually up by that time anyway but it would have been nice to be lazy and not get dressed until later in the day.

 

While we all joke about how workmen have more breaks than they work, this one didn't.  He turned up here almost at the crack of dawn every day and worked almost solidly through the day and he has done an excellent job.  It has been difficult to relax though and it seemed a little unfair to be soaking up the sun in the garden while he worked so very hard. 

 

This morning I am sat at home waiting for the carpet fitter to arrive so I daren't go out into the back garden because I fear I may not hear the doorbell, which I should really take off the front door as people assume it works when in fact there is neither a ding nor a dong to be heard in the house when it is pressed.

 

So as I have been off work all week and I am the queen of clean, my house is spotless, right?  No, no, no....because I also worship the sun and so I have been torn.  To be fair to those of you who thought you might know me so well, had it been left entirely to me, yes the house would still be spotless but remember it is Monday which means Hubby has been at home all weekend. 

 

Yes, ALL weekend and no I didn't give him a week off overtime, work did.  The computer systems were having some maintenance completed so he spent all of the hottest weekend in at least 2 years at home with us.  Though, if he had said he needed a weekend off work I would have been more than happy for him to do so, honest!

 

Momentarily, back to the reason the house isn't spotless - would you believe that Hubby told me I was to do no cleaning and relax?!  Yes, well me too.  When I did attempt to paint the back gate on Sunday I was told once again to sit down in the sun and read a book. 

 

So what did we do instead?  The garden furniture had arrived just in time for the sun because we have spent most of the weekend sat on it, soaking up the sun and drinking much more alcohol than a person should really be able and still stay sober (in Hubby's case).

 

Hubby had taught me to play Bezique on Saturday morning which I really enjoy even if I am rubbish at it.  The need to be able to recall what cards have previously been used in the game dictates that I will never get much better either because I have the memory of a goldfish.  

 

We played the card games Black Jack and Uno with Beautiful B on Saturday afternoon, the latter of which I was quite good at because it is very much like Snap and almost as easy.  A gorgeous BBQ in the evening finished of the day fantastically well. 

 

On Sunday, after picking up some fresh meat and being trapped in a car park for an hour in 30 degrees celcius Hubby and I spent the afternoon in the garden reading (in my case) and playing online golf (in Hubby's case) until Beautiful B and Ry arrived later that day.  Two hours of the board game Taboo later which Hubby and I lost thanks to my goldfish brain and we wrapped up another excellent day.

 

So....essentially I am saying that the house is a mess because I did very little. I have a great excuse to get some done today, once the carpet fitter has disappeared (he is currently hammering away upstairs as I type) becasue the sun hasn't burnt through what clouds there are yet.  

 

I wonder if I could whizz very quickly around the house while he is hammering and fitting away.....?  No point hoovering until he is gone as there will be bits of carpet flying everywhere but I could get some other jobs completed. 

 

The jobs don't end there though because Beautiful B has put a lot of the belongings she no longer wants in my car boot so that I can take them to the rubbish tip on the way to picking Hubby up from work because  because 'it is on the way to collecting him.'  In fact, it is past his workplace but there really is no point splitting hairs with her at this point, is there?  

 

After all, I don't have dinner to make tonight as Hubby and I are off to my mum and dad's as mum is lovingly making my favourite home cooked meal of all time - homemade meat and potato pie! 

 

Sunday is a day of rest

Okay, so following on from my post about what I do on a normal Saturday, here is what I do on a normal Sunday.  Sunday is a day of less work and more fun but I wouldn't necessarily say it was a complete day of rest so here is a typical Sunday:

• Woke up at silly o'clock because my body is incapable of a lie-in
• Did a blog post while Hubby snoozed upstairs
• Had a bit of a play on a different computer game than Saturday, ensuring I get a gold score on every level because I am far to OCDish for my own good
• Put the drying up away and cleaned up the kitchen as Beautiful B brought far too many pots downstairs
• Ate some toast, made lovingly by Hubby
• Watched two episodes of The Chase with Hubby
• Spent an hour with Mum and Dad and got told off for getting Dad a Fathers Day present
• Dropped Hubby off at home and went to pick up the replacement Vax Steamer and bought Emilia some clothes as I couldn't resist the top because it had a giraffe on it.  I'm also going to buy her a Hello Kitty bed too - .  Her Build a Bear Hello Kitty does not have her own bed adn little Emilia covets the bed every time she goes into the shop.  If I can't spoil my God-daugther then something is seriously wrong with the world. 
• Nipped to Tesco to buy Beautiful B some shopping and some lunch
• Had lunch with Hubby, watched another episode of The Chase
• Helped Hubby cover the garden furniture up to protect it from the rain and swept the garden
• Had a bit more of a play, replaying 3 levels until I got gold
• Updated this blog post
• Picked up Beautiful B from work and took her to her dad's grave so she could say hello on Father's Day
• Plucked eyebrows while in the car waiting for Beautiful B at the grave
• Played a different computer game for 2 levels; no gold scores on this one but I insisted on finding the 3 hidden shells before I finished the level
• Fed the fluff bags because I can't steam floors if they have chewed my feet off in hunger
• Swept the ground floor
• Put the new Vax Steamer together
• You will be glad to hear that it works wonders on a marble hearth
• It also works wonders on a white tile kitchen floor!  I am one very happy woman and all is right with the world at this precise moment....because I am sad
• Made tea
• Washed the pots up
• Ate tea and then washed the second load of pots up
• Watched two episodes of perception
• Washed the final round of pots and pans
• Played a level on a computer game; failed miserably
• Polished the furniture downstairs
• Sorted the post and filing
• Sat down to some good TV watching in bed with the fluff bags while Hubby watches the US Open golf

As you can see nowhere near as busy as yesterday!   And this post isn't in the slightest bit amusing so if you think some of my others are I apologise.....

A Saturday in the life of Ribena

This is likely to be boring for most, if not all of you, but I had a bright idea.  Unusual I know.

Seen as I am convinced that I procrastinate and I know I do and so do the treasury accounts I thought I would document everything I did on a Saturday (well, except for the urgh bits because that would just be wrong but you get the idea) so I can prove to myself just how much I do.  A little experiment if you will.  I'm not putting times in because that would just be wrong, other than to say I woke up at 6.15am.  So here goes:

• Let the dogs out
• Put some washing in the washing machine
• Wrote a blog post and started another
• Wrote a shopping list
• Checked the leaking pipe with Hubby
• Updated shopping list based on Hubby's needs
• Asked Beth to clean the back garden before she goes to work; promptly told her I will do it myself.....
• Took Hubby to work
• Took Hubby's mum shopping
• Insisted on putting the huge, heavy bag of potting soil in the back garden on a chair so she did not have to bend when potting her plants instead of the kitchen floor as she suggested!
• Put the freezer goods away after shoo-ing all the fluff bags back in the house after they decided the front garden was a new play room when while I fetched the shopping bags in
• Updated a blog post I had started earlier this morning
• Decided to play a bit of a computer game before unpacking the rest of the shopping while simultaneously thinking that I might get more done if I deleted each and every game
• Decided this blog post might be a good idea and started it
• Went back to playing the computer game
• Unpacked the shopping
• Folded the washing and put away
• Put washing in the dryer
• Emptied the bins
• Took my pills, realising I hadn't taken them this morning, noticied my inhaler was empty explaining why I couldn't really taste it when I sucked on it last night.....
• Did the washing up
• Had a quick lie down (by quick I do mean 2 minutes) on Beautiful B's new mattress to see if it is as comfortable as mine (it's not) while the girlie fluffs took the opportunity to try and smother me with kisses
• Had another bit of a play on a computer game
• Hacked away at the triffid in the front garden so that it didn't take anyone's eye out when innocently walking past the garden
• Played tag with a wasp and wished that I had a hedge strimmer because surely it must be easier than using secateurs
• Noticed one of the dogs had thrown up some of the banana I fed them earlier; grateful it was outside and not in the house as per usual
• Danced about the house to P!nk because that is what you do!
• Moved the washing from the dryer, folded the drying and put it away
• Had a play on the computer resting the back in preparation for cleaning the stairs and landing
• Cleaned the back garden
• Pet magneted the stairs to get all the fluffer fluff off
• Re-evaluated how long it will take me to clean the stairs with the Vax because it has taken me an hour to do 5 stairs; maybe I am being too strigent in trying to get all of the water up back into the Vax
• Decided that I need to get a Vax because the colour of the water, even if I have also done the front door mat is just WRONG and I am seriously thinking I cannot live knowing that is in my carpets
• Seriously considered saving for new stairs and having wooden stair without carpet; at least I could clean it every two days and know it was clean!
• Cleaned the toilet properly;
• Cleaned another 5 stairs
• Had a bit of a play, filled the water bottle up for the Vax
• Give Cala a bit of a love because the Vax is freaking her out
• Finished the last 2 stairs and decided by comparison the landing and bedroom should be much easier!
• Filled the car up with petrol
• Picked Hubby up from work
• Told Lily off when I got home because she had been in my work bag and eaten a full pack of Cadbury's fingers, a packet of strawberry laces and most of the pistachio nought - waiting in anticipation for one of them to throw up on what will be a clean carpet
• Hoovered the bedroom and landing
• Vax'd half of the bedroom while Hubby made tea (bless him; he comes in from work and cooks for me 'because I have worked all day too' apparently)
• Ate tea
• Vax'ed rest of bedroom and landing
• Had a mini row with Beautiful B in the middle of the last Vax session, got annoyed
• Cleaned the Vax during which Hubby fetched me a strong vodka, lime and lemonade
• 5 hours after I started cleaning carpets.....and polish the bedroom. Hubby begs me to stop working.
• So I have a play and have my second vodka, lime and lemonade
• Ignore Hubby and find a job he won't really notice - break up a load of boxes and do some shredding - he did, told me I would hurt my hands!
• Comforted Beautiful B while she cried at her dad not being here for Fathers Day tomorrow as she apologised for shouting at me when she came home from work
• Shredded some more boxes
• Did the washing up
• Cleaned the dogs bowls
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Put the empty cans and bottles outside
• Rescued a cheddar biscuit from under the TV unit for Cala who was so grateful she kissed me
• Wrote a blog post for Father's day and had a third vodka, lime and lemonade
• Took myself to bed to watch Perception and Hubby brought me a fourth vodka, lime and lemonade
• Fell asleep not long into the second Perception episode

So that, folks, is a normal Saturday in my house; minus the carpet cleaning obviously but I normally find something equally time consuming to do such as scrubbing the grime out of the grooves in my wooden floors with a scrubbing brush because all sorts of things can collect there, I imagine. 

In conclusion; yes I do procrastinate!

A sleep later.....

It is now Sunday and I have been awake 20 minutes.  Hubby is still sleeping so I am taking the opportunity to write a blog or two.  Beautiful B has just come downstairs ready to go to work (smelling gorgeous; having asked the perfume is Flower, explaining why I love it because I introduced her to it) and has brought a pile of dirty pots from her room so the jobs start again - should that be another post?

 

Remember the steamer obsession?

A story of two parts:

Part 1

Those of you that read this blog regularly may recall an earlier post about my obsession with steamers and the need for cleanliness with the least requirement for any kind of exercise.

You may also recall my disappointment at the one my mum and dad were kind enough to buy me.  You remember; the one that left the floor wet and dried with streaks which called to my OCDishness in a bad way.

You may also recall that I was seriously thinking about asking a friends wife if I could come and see how good her VAX steamer is.  Well, yes I didn't do that but not because it may have been considered strange and more because I am a bit of a lazy mare.

Anyhoo, after much deliberation I bit the bullet and bought the said VAX steamer.  An unknown, at the time bonus, was that you can get some detergent for it and so of course I bought that because I love it when my house smells clean and fresh.  Hey!  Don't knock it, so would you if you had 4 dogs.  A nice fragrance of 'citrus burst' goes very well with the sunny hot weather we are having of late.

Speaking of which, my insistence to Hubby last night that "I do NOT burn" was slightly wrong because the top of my arms are feeling slightly delicate this morning and have a slight pinkish tinge; damn this aging thing where your skin gets fairer as your hair gets grayer.  I do miss being asked frequently if I have 'spanish' in my blood line.

Today I unwrapped the bad boy of a steamer and it was fantastic.  It cleaned my floors while leaving them almost dry immediately afterwards.  I have to say the 'citrus burst' wasn't very strong but then again I am a lover of being able to smell just how clean things are which is probably much stronger than people who aren't a bit mental.

That was what happened for the first half of my cleaning spree.  For the second half the floor was drenched and the steamer wasn't steaming.  Not good!  I did wonder if I had broken it, or at the least exhausted it, because I had used almost a continuous burst of steam (and isn't that the point after all) so I switched it off and tried the next day.

Same problem, so after failing spectacularly to pull it's parts apart to repack in the box I tucked the box under my arm and put the steamer, complete, in the car and took it back to the shop having had a Facebook conversation with a friend who has a steamer and her determining that I may have 'bought a lemon.'  I can pick the new one up on Sunday.

Part 2

It is Sunday morning and I have received a text to say the Vax Steamer is ready to collect.  Killing two birds with one stone I collect it at the same time as picking some shopping up for Beautiful B - isn't multi tasking wonderful.

After melting on the way home because the sun is out in force at 23 degrees today, I get home and unpack the steamer.  Hubby is having a snooze before the final day of the US Open Golf tournament starts so I may as well steam while he is upstairs. 

It's a good start when it actually starts steaming, but them the first one did.  I do have, in the back of my mind that I broke the first one by keeping the steam trigger down.  Or maybe, it has a mechanism to shut off steaming when the mop head is completely wet; in which case the original wasn't broken, I was just being impatient.  As you can see my mind does strange things when allowed to run away with itself.  Of course the original was broken because it didn't steam the second time I tried it.

Anyhoo, the new steamer has merrily steamed its way round the ground floor of the house, well; not on it's own because a) that would be fantastic but we would have teleported to 2050 or something.  It has done a great job on the fire's marble hearth saving me quite a bit of elbow grease and done a faboulous job of my white tile kitchen floor.  So yes, I am sold.

Beautiful B came rushing in from seeing nanny and grampa asking if it was working.  I informed her yes and that she would find it easier than using the mop when she decides to get back to doing the household chores assigned to her on a regular basis.

The floors are clean, streak and dust free and I am one happy girl.  I am off to polish to woodwork now.  Toodleloos!






 

Steamer Obsession

Recently my mum and dad treated me to a new steamer.  SHUT UP!  Just because you may not consider it a treat.  What you are failing to remember is that a) I am weird and b) when asked what I wanted for Christmas one year I asked for money as I wanted to buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner and got all excited when I first used it.

Now that I have defended myself, possibly unnecessarily (especially in Rachel's case); I'm either not using this steamer correctly because I haven't bothered to check whether I can split one of the attachments or it is not that good.

I am stupid enough to have 4 dogs, one of which thinks it is a good idea to piddle right outside the back door and one of which is a male giraffe that has to scent over every girlie piddle in case a stray dog can vault over 6 foot fences in search of his girlies.  I am sensible enough to have wooden floors and these need cleaning regularly to stop the nasties getting in the house and breeding.

The whole point of a steamer is to clean, I get that but quite frankly if I wanted to leave my wooden floor wet I would have bought a mop and saved my mum and dad £90.  A wet floor results in 3 things; 1. fluffer paw prints 2. human shoe prints 3. streaks - the latter of which drive me insane..... Well, they all drive me nuts okay!  but the third one the most...just.

I sit in a chair opposite the window so when the light shines through the door just wrong right I can see every print and streak.  Being a freak I cannot just sit there because I find my foot or leg jiggling as I try to ignore the need to get a spray bottle and cloth and wipe the streak away.

So yeah, I'm a bit annoyed.  It is good on the upper landing carpet though which is good as the fluff bags think that is their bed instead of the cute fluffy ones downstairs and lie up there a lot.  In fact, Cala who would be have been a sickly baby were she human feels the need to rush up there and throw her guts up in a corner frequently.  So yeah, it's good for that.

But surely, other steamers would be too.  You know the ones I mean - the ones that don't leave streaks on my wooden floor; the ones that advertise that they don't.  Mind you, didn't the advert claim the same thing about my current steamer? Yes, so maybe it is me.  Maybe I should go home and check whether one of my attachments is actually two.

What to do though if I am right and the steamer is a bit rubbish?  There is another certain little sexy steamer that has caught my eye and I know someone who has one and has commented on FB how good it is and how it leaves your floors almost perfectly dry.......

Would she think me strange if I asked whether I could bob round for a demonstration before I decide that the family should eat less next month so I can introduce one to a new home.

So go on...what would you do (especially you Rachel - and don't tell me buy a mop..x)

You buy a steam cleaner and it is never good enough

Years ago, in fact, when Hubby and I first started dating I had a steam cleaner and it was fabulous.  It made short work of my laminated floors and dried almost before I had chance to blink.  When it broke, I grieved deeply because having insufficient funds I was unable to buy a brother or sister for the demised steam cleaner.  Instead a spray bottle and mop type thing made do.  Hubby would argue that for a while the spray bottle was attached to my hand, once sitting me down and explaining that so much cleaning was impossible and bordered on insanity.

Over time, I have learned to relax somewhat with the cleaning for the sake of Hubby and Beautiful B's mental state, even if it does grate on my nerves when it isn't as clean as I would like and even when I am unable to concentrate on one thing because my eye is being drawn to the fluff on the carpet that should really have been hoovered up or the thin layer of dust that has settled on the black shiny TV stand since it was polished an hour before.  

It would appear that steam cleaner manufacturers have also relaxed somewhat since the demise of my last steam cleaner.  I am very much like my dad, in fact, especially in terms of cleaning as he moulded me in that regard and it became apparent a few months ago that Dad had been watching the same infomercial about a steam cleaner that I had.  It looked very much like my old one but with an updated snazzy and yellow colourful body.  Later that day I received a text from my dad to tell me he had bought himself one and had also treated me to one too.

I sat in anticipation waiting for it's arrival and was truly like a child at Christmas opening the box when it did arrive.  I lovingly put all it's nice, new, shiny parts together and switched it on only......to be disappointed.  

Yes it billowed steam out but so much that it leaves the laminated floor wet.  Yet it cleans it so what is the problem I hear you say.  Well, I will tell you!  Besides the obvious excess water on a laminated floor, it takes ages to dry which gives plenty of time for the 4 fluff bags to walk on it.  Again, what is the issue you say!

My big brown comfy chair is opposite the patio doors and the sun shines through those doors so when I am happily sat in the chair watching TV my eye is drawn to the floor where the water has dried and left little fluff foot prints or even worse smudges and shapes where the excess water has dried (imagine one eyeball on the floor and another on the layer of dust/dog fluff settling on the TV stand AGAIN).  All of this means I do not concentrate on the TV, or relax and eventually get up from the chair to polish the floor with a cloth to get rid of the smudges.

This leaves a question; I can keep the steam cleaner because it has lots of fandangled attachments and bits you can pull apart to clean things such as grubby corners, tile grout, round taps, in the oven etc etc but what do I do about the floor?  I could try another steam cleaner I have taken a fancy to on TV, which besides appealing to my cuteness nature because it looks kind of space age yet cute, appears to keep the floor dryer when cleaning.  The argument there though, is that the first one dried the floor well on TV - blast that CGI stuff! 

Alternatively I could go back to my trusty spray bottle and mop thing that isn't a mop as it uses single use clothes that are thrown away after use because there is NOTHING worse than using a mop over and over again...just imagine the bacteria even if you clean it....oh and the bacteria.

I'm signing off now as I am feeling a bit creepy around the shoulders thinking about bacteria on multi-use mops but what would you do; new steam cleaner, or one use mop thingy?  Or would you put me in a mental institute because clearly I am so much fun to live with? 

Relaxing…..or not!

Yesterday I mentioned that I blitzed the house this weekend.  Well I did that plus a lot of other chores that needed doing.  As Beautiful B was away on a short holiday and Hubby was spending Saturday with my brother and staying at his house overnight it was an ideal time to sit and relax by myself with a good book or catch up on the Sky planner which was screaming out to be watched with only had 18% of free space.  The only problem is that I cannot sit and relax when I decide a lot of jobs need completing. 

Beautiful B was on a long weekend away with Ry and his family.  Having dropped Hubby off to spend the day watching the horse racing and Grand National and win us a fortune I formed a plan of attack.

My plan was:

Saturday Morning:                 Blitz the house

Saturday Afternoon:              Do more accounts (I have been doing these for days)

Saturday Night:                    Catch up on the planner with a cross-stitch and the fluff bags

That didn’t work out – what actually happened:

Saturday                             cleaning, scrubbing and throwing stuff away

Saturday night                     less than an hour in front of the TV

Sunday                                more cleaning, scrubbing and throwing away of stuff with bit                                     of accounts thrown in

So what on earth did I do I hear you ask?

Friday

On Thursday night I had thrown some old clothes in a big bag ready for the recycling centre on Friday. 

• On Friday morning I ordered some clothes for our forthcoming long weekend at Centerparcs; seen as I am not fitting in a lot of my clothes; a result of being more than content in my marriage and having a preference for snuggling with Hubby instead of going to the gym
• Systematically emptied every bin in the house to take to the recycling centre with the old clothes and then took off to the recycling centre after work
• Played at being a Treasurer of the Football Club for a while paying for the annual memberships and collecting cash to balance and bank for last 3 weeks having a sneaky non-alcoholic drink in the process
• Rang 2 banks to discuss documentation needed for my name change on the 2 Treasury Accounts I do – what a pain!  It is such a good job he is worth it.
• Issued duplicate invoices to 2 of the snooker clubs
• Admitted to apparently being a professional person on a passport application for one of Beautiful B’s friends
• Collected mum to do the weekly shop
• Having delivered mum safely home, I picked Hubby up from work, made a quick stop at home to collect Cala and took her to the vet as she has a worrying lump near one of her legs –given the all clear thankfully though Cala deciding to leave the vet a very special present was mortifying! REALLY Cala really!!!!.
• Picked up and filled enough medication to make me rattle like a maraca.
• Took the car to the beauty salon, otherwise known as Halfords for some new eyelashes windscreen wipers and rear lights including those for the number plate – how I hadn’t already been stopped by the police I do not know (shame though; men in uniform are usually worth stopping for).
• After ½ hour of fiddling the nice Halfords man had fitted the lights (badly I was to find out) and I visited the pet shop to pick up some food for the girlie fluffs.  Despite instructions to the contrary I returned home with no only the required dog food but 2 essential fluffy squeaky dog toys because they do not have enough, they don’t, they don’t, they don’t – their toy box is just too small.
• I noticed the car sounded like it was on speed when using the indicator – great!  Less than 5 minutes out of the beauty parlour and already she was sulking.
• Drove the car to the nice doctor man at our usual garage who, after telling me off for taking her to a quack, fixed her lights up good as new so she could flash her lights at random strangers who dared to stare at her behind.
• I left vowing to never treat the car badly by providing inferior plastic surgery in the future.
• Having been out of the house for over 2 hours to do one simple job I decided to treat myself Hubby to McD’s – while the cat’s away the mice will play eat fast food.
• Snuggled with Hubby watching our daily quiz show together, bit of a play on computer games to quiet the brain and bed.

Almost forgot - fit a 7.5 hour day in at work around all of the above.

So far so good……and other than a couple of additional things, all of the above is the norm for me.

Saturday

Having been woken up at 4.30am by the fluff bags I made an early start on the dining room:

• Emptied the entire wall unit to determine what was needed and what wasn’t, splitting the items we didn’t need into recyling and the charity shop
• Removed all overflow items from the top of the wall unit as they drive me mental (I mean what must people think when they walk past the house and nosy through the window!) determined to store at least half in the cupboard space freed up by my ruthlessness
• Started in on the storage held in the bay window, throwing accountancy monthlies in recycling (Yes I have read them )
• Separated books to be flown to Spain and lovingly handed over to my Aunty S who loves reading the same thriller/crime/serial murder books as me
• Wrote a letter to include in said box to Aunty Sylvia
• Transferred pop to fridge for Hubby; I am sure he would put them in the freezer if they didn’t explode when defrosting!
• Removed loving verse from the frame given to me by my gorgeous mum over 10 years ago. 
• Hung framed photos on the wall
• Polished and swept the room 
• During this time I washed and dried two loads of washing
• Hubby woke up so I made him some breakfast and put more washing on
• While catching up with Hubby, or rather Hubby being bombarded with a blow by blow account of my dreams while he had no choice but to listen because I had made him breakfast and it would just be rude, I sorted this weeks pills into neat little piles and popped them in an organiser to make sure I a) remembered to take them and b) didn’t overdose on them.
• Following Hubby out to the car ½ hour later with a handful of bags for the charity shop, recyling and a bottle of windscreen washer fluid tucked under one arm I insisted on filling the water bottle first while convincing him what a fantastic idea it was to stop at the recycling plant before I dropped him off at my brothers - after all 2 people are quicker than one, aren’t they?
• Dropped Hubby off at my brothers with a kiss and a cuddle and drove the car directly to the garage for her annual check up desperately hoping I wasn’t going to be told she needed to be put out to pasture
• Potentially scaring the man half to death with a look of total disbelief I informed him I would not take him up on his offer of waiting around for 45 minutes when I could be home completing a job on my ‘must do today list’
• Returned home to remove everything stored in the storage area under our bed.  Abi jumped in to help investigate sniffing around the Christmas wrapping I had stored under there.  She soon jumped out when I started throwing stuff out over my shoulder for speed
• An hour in and I received a phone call to say my little car had passed it’s MOT with no repairs (hurrah).  After negotiating a later pick up I decided to throw away half of our spare bedding along with various other ex-necessities
• Returned to pick up the little car and treated her to a beauty session the car wash.  After being scrubbed and polished to show off all her bumps we took off to the shop to treat the dogs to new dog beds – after all, I had money to spare now that the little car had taken good care of herself this year
• 3 dogs beds, printer ink and an extension cable later (which by the way I think I have broken already) I surprised Fred with a dog bed big enough for him to stretch out on; ignoring the fact that it takes up half of the floor space in the living room
• Another load of washing and I returned upstairs to sort out the wardrobes – all 3 stretch 12 foot across the bedroom.  After an hour I felt much better as all clothes were now stored in colour and type order (not that I have Organised Cleaning Disorder or anything)
• I had found a pair of my shoes I could throw away and impressed myself by throwing away at least 5 handbags – none of them Radley though – oh no, they can stay in my house until they are falling apart!
• Next to be stripped bare was my bedside cabinet drawer; after a ½ hour that was cleaned and organised into nice neat compartments courtesy of Lakeland Plastics drawer dividers.
• All bedroom drawers were next on the list and two of them are now wonderfully neat and organised with more dividers (Hubby looked more perplexed at my excitement at the organisation of the drawers than impressed on Sunday when I showed him).
• Another 3 bin bags later for recycling and I was ready to polish and hoover that room after changing the bedding and deciding all this work is not good for my back complaint.  Something to do with the fact that it had started screaming in despair at what I was putting it through
• Having blitzed the two rooms it could be in I did a quick search of the living room cupboards and resigned myself to having thrown my Kindle and Season 7 of Supernatural away during a mad cleaning session on return from our honeymoon – no point crying over spilt milk; it won’t fetch them back.
• Next on the list was the ordering of Hubby’s 40^th birthday present and it was probably the quickest job I did all day long.
• After clipping the dogs nails, a quick sweep up downstairs and I was ready to play some more computer games to relax.
• An hour later and another load of washing later I was in Tesco buying a new Kindle!
• Half way through the first programme I sit down to relax too a phone call from A had me out of the house in a rush to see her and pick up Hubby who decided not stay overnight at my brothers after all.

So, that was Saturday concluded and I will admit I was grateful for my bed that night.

Sunday

For the third day in a row the fluff bags woke me up at stupid o’clock 4am so in retaliation I systematically brushed every single dog until the girlies looked like teddy bears and Freddy had at least started shredding hair quite as much.

Having woke up to an empty space Hubby came downstairs to see if I was okay; like he does every weekend; I am still unsure what he expects to find. I am always okay and have been for the past 6 years that he has lived with us.

After making Hubby coffee and crumpets we got dressed while the fluff bags danced around our ankles somehow knowing we were going to take them for a carefree run around a nearby field.

An hour and half later, I realised what a mistake it was to take the fluff bags out before 8am as the dew had assisted in the collection of enough mud on the fluff bags to turn their legs and underbellies a dark brown instead of white.  Like a little old woman I twittered about what a waste of time it was to brush them not 3 hours earlier.

Returning home I sorted through nearly 100 books to find the ones I had read so that mum and dad could take them to my Aunty S when the visit Spain. 

When visiting mum and dad and the attempt to pass secret messages about birthday presents and deliveries between mum and I without Sean noticing began.  If only he was so much easier to buy birthday presents for.  This year the whole family is clubbing together to buy him a huge present and the working together as a family will mean as much, if not more, as the present itself.

The need for heavy medication was called for to cope with the back pain as I was still insistent that I had more chores to do but today I had Hubby to help – hurrah.  He does not recall offering to power wash the garden in his drunken state the night before so after a negotiation I began power washing the garden while Hubby hovered the stairs for me.

After attempting to put the hose back on the power washer without turning the water off, the power washer switched itself off in disgust at my laziness and so far has refused to help me again.  Not to be outdone and prove to it that I could cope without its help I finished the garden with the good old hose and a brush.

As Beautiful B is insistent that she wants to move in with her boyfriend later in the year I have started to save household items for her.  As a result, I could next be found under her bed trying to store an ironing board and iron for her.

Next on the list was the need to clean the extractor fan and replace the filter.  The steamer is a great help in this area and does a much better job than simple elbow grease.  Already working near the oven dictated to my cleaning mode that it was time to clean the trays in the oven while I was there.

After sweeping up Hubby took advantage of the steamer insisting I was in too much pain to clean the floors.  I retaliated by negotiated polishing the house instead.

Hubby then banned me from doing more cleaning after noticing that I was walking around the house very gently and grimacing once I was more than half way up the stairs – blasted face, it hides nothing!

So I found jobs I could do that did not involve manual handing;

• ordering Sean’s birthday card which took an age!  Wanting to put my own verse inside requires the need to use one of the stupid card sites on the internet and trying to find an appropriate card takes far too long for my liking.
• Ordering the Apple iPad cleaner for my dad (mum and I are still in a debate as to whether I will accept the money for it from them – I insist not!)
• Completed forms for the car’s log book and my driving licence to change them to my married name
• Start yet more accounting – I am beginning to wonder if it will ever end

Since then my job has been to manage the resulting back pain which isn’t going too well, especially after a day of trying to cope with the side effects of such strong painkillers.  Even I have put off any cleaning chores and have concentrated on accounts instead.

So you see, while there aren’t a tremendous amount of chores there, some of them took ages and clearly my initial timetable of blitzing the house in ½ a day was a tad optimistic.  It’s a good job I am better at judging the time required to do tasks at work!