Wasps, Rats & Bad Backs

Nothing much to report I’m afraid. In fact, since our weekend trip to the seaside to see the family, it’s all been a bit of an anti climax. Here is a photo of Phil with his Aunt Daphne taken in her bungalow in Lowestoft. Daphne is doing really well for her 85 years, bit tottery with her arthritis but otherwise sharp as a cucumber.

Sunday was a day lost at sea when we got back from Suffolk. After a 2 hour car journey home, my back was absolutely killing me. I am going to have to get it sorted. It is so painful that I don’t want to do anything but exercise does seem to ease it a little. We did manage to get to David Lloyd but only for a steam, Jacuzzi and a shower to get clean. Phil spent most of Monday finishing his TMA whilst I got on with the domestics, payback from being away for the weekend. First up was a trip to Sainsburys followed by lunch and then housework, washing and ironing, the usual boring stuff.

I didn’t feel very well when I woke up yesterday morning; nothing major, a sore throat, swollen glands and a general ‘crap’ feeling. I will be the first to admit that with my bad back as well, I was in a terribly grumpy mood. It wasn’t helped by the fact that we discovered a swarm of wasps hovering above the green wheelie bin and all in the tree by the back gate. The wasps were really bad in Suffolk and I am convinced they have an epidemic on the east coast. So this little discovery in my own back garden was not a good one and certainly didn’t help to improve my mood. I immediately went on the net and found a pest control company and booked them to come out immediately.

Meanwhile, Phil had a call from Staples to say that his laptop was repaired and ready for collection. He quickly got changed and went straight away to fetch it. He was gone awhile because he also had to go to Bicester to deliver his assignment to his tutor. When he eventually came home, he was laden down with all sorts of goodies. He’d stopped off at the butchers in Buckingham and bought a whole pack of mince and chicken breasts for the freezer. He’d also been to John Lewis on the way home and picked up one of those coffee makers with the plunger on the top and a bread maker. I didn’t mind because he has been wanted both these kitchen toys for ages but I had intended to get them for his birthday, never mind, he beat up. We’ve already had the coffee maker going but the bread maker is still in its virgin state but this is only because whilst he’d been out to get the flour, he’d forgot to get the most essential ingredient, the yeast!

Phil made lunch, a mice pie from the butchers in Buckingham with new potatoes, carrots and green beans. It was nice but it was so hot outside I’d of preferred to have chicken salad. In the afternoon I went to the hairdressers leaving Phil to wait in for the pest control man to arrive. He turned up at half past two and searched everywhere for a nest but couldn’t find one. He told Phil that the wasps were attracted to the sap from a broken branch in the tree. I’m not convinced but I will get someone to come and cut the branches cut and hopefully this will make the wasp buzzs off somewhere else. I forget, with my wasp phobia, just how horrible this time of year is for me. The next 6 weeks will be filled with fear, anxiety and sheer terror.

When the pest man finished at the NH house, Phil went with him to the flat in Oldbrook. Harriet has been complaining for ages that she had some kind of animal in the attic so I though I’d better get it checked out. The pest man got out his ladder and had a thorough look round but he couldn’t find any evidence of animals having been in the attic. He set a generic trap to catch mice, rats and squirrels and will come back again in 7 days. The pest man had a good look round outside to check for holes where animals could get access to the flat and there was only one hole under the stairs. Phil blocked this up with some stones and will go back at the end of the week to see if they have been disturbed. These little pests are sent to try us.