Diets, removals & neighbours

Friday didn’t turn out to be the easy day I had anticipated it would be. In fact it ended up with quite hard grafting. Phil grouted the hallway first thing and I got the job of scrubbing it and cleaning up. Shane was half an late reporting for work as he had to complete an early morning job application so Phil went and fetched the van without him. He came back to the OB to pick up Shane and the old bath to take to the Bleak Hall tip and then the pair of them went to collect some stuff from the GP house.

Not surprisingly, Ash our tenant was at home, I thought going in with unsupervised access was too good to be true and I was proved right. Phil was a little upset that someone had cut down his bamboo that he’d lovingly planted last year and a little miffed that the tenant wouldn’t let him take his all-singing-all-dancing gas BBQ. Other than that, he got all the things on the list bar the jet sprayer which is a shame because now we need to buy another one. Whilst the boys were out doing removals, I got busy with cleaning up the kitchen and getting up the lounge and landing carpets. Even though the kitchen is not yet completed, I think it is looking very sexy. It still needs the plinths fitted, a couple of handles on the cupboards, the blind needs putting up, the window frame needs tiling and we also need to buy a fridge/freezer and a washer dryer.

Our bad luck with washer/dryers continues. On Tuesday, Abdullah, our tenant at the Cranfield flat phoned Phil to say his machine wasn’t working. I called out Shenley Domestics and had an email late Wednesday to say that the problem was major and that really we needed to buy a replacement. I ordered a machine from Sainsbury’s and paid the extra money for installation and to take away the old machine. Phil went over on Thursday to disconnect the old machine only to find that someone had broken the tap so he couldn’t disconnect it. I ended up getting a local plumber round to fix the tap and get the old machine out of the kitchen. Phil phoned the tenant to say the new machine would be delivered early Friday morning and the tenant said he had to go to the university and wouldn’t be there. In the end I had to pay £19.99 to change the delivery from Friday to Saturday so hopefully it will arrive this morning and that will be that problem sorted.

When I arrived at the OB flat yesterday morning I was stunned to find that the council contractors had been the previous afternoon to cut down all the trees. Phil and I have been fighting this particular battle for 6 weeks and finally the council have acknowledged that, they are indeed, responsible for the upkeep of the entrance to the flats. Trouble is though, they have hacked down all the trees, it looks so severe and now I’m not sure which is worse, overgrown or barren?? Harriet and Shane are not happy, they think it looks awful. They are also not happy that we are getting the trees in the middle of the drive and the tree outside their entrance cut down next week. I agree it is a shame, but Phil wouldn’t fork out £180 without good reason. The tenant below no 10 won’t park in his space so we hope getting the trees down will persuade him and also the tree outside Harriet and Shanes is too close to the house and there is a strong possibility that it will interfere with our foundations. Jill from number 6 cornered me yesterday and asked if I was aware the council were coming to do the work. Apparently they blocked in her car and she couldn’t get her car out to go the gym. She thought we were all in the know and hadn’t informed her because yesterday afternoon mine and Phil’s cars plus Shanes were not there. I promised that I didn’t know they were coming; it was just a coincidence that we happened to all be at the NH house building up the units.

After a long morning, Phil and Shane took back the van and went for an early lunch at The Giffard. Shane went for the mixed grill and me and Phil went for the double steak and chicken with a Jack Daniels sauce. Phil was really good and opted for baked potato instead of the chips and I also said no to the chips and went for the salad. It was delicious and we ate every morsel on our plates. Phil is doing so well on his diet; I almost can’t believe how good he is doing. It helps that there is nothing much to eat in the fridge but even so, his self discipline is unbelievable. My diet plan, which is fruit in the morning, no complex carbs and cucumber and a few slices of cheese plus wine or G&T in the evening, seems to be working. Yesterday Phil weighed in at 16 stone 12 pounds which he was really chuffed about. I have lost half a stone but I don’t really want to loose any more, with all the manual work, I am beginning to look really scrawny and believe me, it’s not a good look.

Yesterday afternoon was spent at the NH house. Phil started work screwing in the units to the wall and Shane got to work on the wall cabinets. I got the bottle of Oven Pride out and got to work on the hob and the oven. I also got going on getting the weeds up from the patio, hard work but immensely satisfying. At 4pm I took Shane back to his house and picked up Phil’s hack saw from next door. I parked up outside our garage at the NH house and got talking to the guy from next door. I asked him if he had experienced any car vandalism and he said his wife had her passenger window smashed in. I asked him if he thought I’d upset any of the neighbours and he said it was probably kids passing by the redway. But he did know that I’d had a nasty note put on my car windscreen wiper when I’d parked my car on the grass on the first day we moved in, which was interesting. I guess me and Phil must be the talk of the cul-de-sac. No change there then!!!!!!!

Phil and I sat down last night and talked strategies. We have decided to stop work on the OB flat and concentrate on the NH kitchen. We are in a right pickle at the moment with units everywhere. I am up early this morning but I am hoping that Phil will sleep in as I don’t want him sawing before 9am which he is likely to do if he gets up now. He won’t be able to resist the urge especially as he was talking about the new kitchen in his sleep last night! Best he sleeps in, we don’t want to upset the neighbours anymore than we have done already!