The Dark Night

And so another week passes by and here we still are. It’s been a mixed bag really but once again the weather has got me down. On the plus side at least, unlike the young Fords, I am not having to sleep in a tent! I really hope the weather improves for the rest of their trip. Seriously, where is the summer, it feels so like autumn. Somehow Phil persuaded me on Tuesday afternoon to go and see the batman film (The Dark Knight) at the cinema. I couldn’t believe the queues which were almost down the escalator. The film wasn’t my cup of tea and I thought it was really quite violent in places, definitely a boys film. It was tipping it down with rain when we came out and we got soaked just walking to the car.

After the cinema, Phil dropped me off at home and went to the city centre to meet Mr Dutta at the CCF to collect the keys. Mr Dutta moved out before the end of his tenancy because of the leaks from the upstairs flat and was expecting Phil to refund all of his monies. Phil said that we would do a full inspection and only then would he hand over his money. We’ve learnt our lesson time and time over with checkouts and know, that whilst all may look reasonable on the surface, there is always some muck or dilapidation that you only find once you’ve given back the deposit. And then of course then it’s too late.

Anyway sure enough when we got to check the flat out on Wednesday morning the place was a real shit heap. Okay not the worst, but when you think that the tenants have only lived there for 2 months it really is not acceptable. I had to bring all of the bedding and towels home to wash and dry. We spent most of Wednesday just cleaning. It upsets me greatly when I get a flat back and Phil knows its best to just leave me alone to scrub and curse aloud to myself.

Phil went out to The Giffard with the Wednesday night crew and after he’d gone, I decided to have a walk and join him for a quick drink. Wednesday night is the quiz night and our boys very often come close to winning, I think they have won a couple of times. Here is George and Alfy concentrating, which must have been quite difficult because the pub was packed and everyone was talking at once. Everyone had a meal and I shared Phil’s fish and chips. Although I praise the cheap food at The Giffard, I do think the standard has gone down hill recently. You don’t really have a choice to deviate from the usual menu and I think you definitely pay for what you pay for. I got chatting to a group of residents from the old folks home in New Bradwell. They were very bright and fed me quite a few of their answers. What started out with the intention of just a couple of quick drinks turned out to be several and I stayed until the very end with Jim dropping me and Phil back at home. Thanks Jim!

Unfortunately we were both a bit the worse for wear the following morning which was not good as we had loads to do in the flat. We got to the flat just after 9 and I started painting the main bedroom because the dried curry on the walls wouldn’t shift, despite using every cleaning product I had in my cupboard. It makes me half crazy to think that this room was only decorated at the end of May. Phil has started a chain of correspondence with the council to try and claim back the losses we have incurred from the botched plumbing from the flat above, which I am sure will turn into legal proceedings very shortly. However in the meantime, Phil decided to get David our posh plumber round to get the electrics sorted. Luckily David was somewhere nearby and come out almost immediately to sort us out. Good old David.

We came back home for lunch and afterwards we hired a Rug Doctor machine from the dry cleaners in Giffard Park so we could clean the bedroom carpets at the CCF. Phil did a brilliant job and they looked like new when he’d finished. We downed tools mid afternoon and went to David Lloyd to get clean. Phil really wanted a work-out but I had no energy left. Last night was a quiet night in front of the telling and a very early night.

This morning we’ve had our usual Friday morning trip to Sainsbury’s and the market for some fruit and vedgtables. As I type, Phil is up the attic finishing off floor-boarding the loft. Because we’ve got the Rug Doctor machine on hire until 12pm today we’re going to give our hall carpet a clean before taking the machine back. Then we’re back to the CCF to hopefully finish off all the jobs. We are hoping, if we get stuck in, we can get all the work finished by the end of play today. This will be a good result to finish the week off and if achieved we can then get stuck into the weekend!