Skip to main content

Roller coaster half term

Well, not quite the half term I was expecting to have, but what week off ever is?! We've had some lovely highlights with friends and family, but also some stresses to deal with as well.

The week kicked off with the boiler blowing out on Thursday only for us to realise we'd run out of oil. This was very unexpected - Glenn always keeps an eye on the levels, but sure enough, all gone. We managed to get Jared The Boiler Man in at short notice and he got us back up and running on some emergency supplies, only for it to go again. We got a full fuel top up sorted and the whole system repressurised and thought we were done only for me to go out for a walk to find a strong smell of oil at the bottom of the garden. Quick check and the tank is half empty! Turns out we had sprung a leak. We debated at length what to do but knew the right thing to do was report it so about 9:30 on Sunday evening we took a deep breath and rang the Environment Agency. Monday morning was all go - 2 specialist oil service teams turned up, one to work on damage limitation and the other to work on finding the leaked oil. We calculated we'd lost about 1500 litres in total and while some of it was clearly at the bottom of the garden there was no knowing where the rest was. After a week of investigation they think they've found most of it and tomorrow our block paving drive comes up along with the area under the tank (which has now been condemned although it wasn't the culprit) and they will dig down 1.5m to take out the contaminated soil. I keep telling myself it could be worse, it could have leaked under the house, but it's still been an emotional experience. To top it all we opened the door on Monday morning to find Jamie the Painter - in all the excitement we'd completely forgotten he was due to paint the girls bedrooms!

So despite this we have had a lovely week. We had a family get together at Westonbirt on Monday, where Freya was a perfect angel despite the 100s of dogs and kids she came across. I've walked for miles everyday, loving the fact that both dogs can get out for a long walk, even packing them into the car a few days and heading out to walks I don't often get the time to do. Izzy was brilliant company all week and Abi was riding of course so having a great time too. It was hard not to notice that although we all missed having the whole family together, it was certainly less argumentative only having one child in the house. By the end of the week however I was more than ready to have Abi home - arguments and all.

So back to school and work tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to going back to the early starts. It's been so lovely this week getting up at 7am. It's the bit of the work routine I like least - that and the commute. It's amazing how much better I felt this week for that extra 90 mins in bed every day. Just a few more months though before I'm officially working 'in the regions' again - at least that should mean the days start with a 6 not a 5.  Roll on May!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Decluttering

Girls buying baby clothes - this could get addictive! It's Easter weekend already and we still haven't completed!! However we have made some progress, most importantly with the paperwork which has not been Steve the Builder's forte throughout this process. Stags finally got their act together and got in touch with the planning office and got an update from the Planning Officer. Apparently she is broadly happy with the application, and is prepared to pass it with only a few minor modifications which we are completely comfortable with. The Building Control Officer also came and did all of what he needed to, which means the final certificate should be issued which allows the warranty to also be issued. On our side we finally tracked down the paperwork (or more correctly got the BC Officer to come out again and do a second assessment) for the outstanding BCC on our windows (which went in 6 years ago but due to an admin error were never registered) - nothing is straightforward i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...
Post a Comment
Read more