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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!

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