It’s been too long again since my last post. At least this time it wasn’t just laziness, I’ve been busy doing things around the house, managed to get a bug and my internet connection has been up the shoot again.

The new kitchen table and butchers block arrived last week. We bought raw pine so we could stain them the same colour as the kitchen cabinets…easier said than done, but decided in the end that different colours gave more character. That’s one of the great things about having a really old house, when “projects” don’t quite work you just call it rustic character. The next job was to strip the dark stain from the chair legs. Whoever did the stain did it really well because it took all day Saturday to do ONE chair.

We’d just decided to call it a day and have a glass of wine before cleaning up when the phone rang. “Hi, is that Andaloo? It’s SofP here.” My chin hit the floor! To say I was gob-smacked is an under statement. After eighteen months of writing to each other it was fantastic to actually talk to her. I love talking to people who keep you on your toes, when you never know where the conversation is going to go, and that was exactly how it was with Susan. WOW she’s sharp! I look forward to many more chats, eventually face to face.

I’ve been feeling a bit miserable lately. I’ve got some kind of bug which affects the ears and throat. They’ve announced on the radio that this bug is running through the area and not to go to the doctors but to get antibiotics from the pharmacy. I don’t like doing that so I’m sitting it out to see if it will sort itself out. Ughhh.

I’m doing the dance of the internet service provider yet again. My connection has been SO slow that sometimes there hasn’t even been enough go-go-juice to open a web page. I called them (Wanadoo) and they blamed Telefonica. I called Telefonica and they blamed the weather. They claim the rain has got into the control box at the bottom of the village and we just have to wait for it to dry out. I offered to go down there with a hairdryer but the irony was wasted.