Day 39 - Sunday 26th April


Like every day, I spend the morning alone while the boys sleep. It's a surprising lonely existence considering my situation. Too much time to think. As usual, I escape into busyness and today's challenge is email maintenance - my business mailbox is out of control and I need to tame it so that I can focus more clearly. It's quite a mission, but it's satisfying when I complete it.

There's a bit of tension in the air today. A couple of weeks ago while descaling the shower hose hubby closed the flip plug on my basin and it stuck. We've been trying to release it ever since but it's not budging and after dismantling the trap beneath it's really not clear how it can be removed and replaced with a new one. Hubby now seems to think it's my job to try and find a solution. Given that he spends all morning in bed while I'm applying for jobs and trying to keep my online business afloat, I think it's a bit cheeky to expect me to solve the problem he created but I get the wrench out and have a go. I don't have the expertise or the strength to get any further so I think it's plumber we need; I'll leave that battle for another day.

I post again on Facebook to see if I can find a bread maker to buy - all the stores are sold out so I can't get one delivered and we're out of fresh bread again. We have flour and yeast, but I can't knead because arthritis makes it painful to put pressure on my thumb. I treat myself to a G&T in the late afternoon sun and negotiate price and collection for a second hand one that looks identical to my broken one while hubby wages war against the weeds. We have different views on the lawn - I'm happy with anything vaguely green, he wants it football-pitch perfect.

A Mexican feast for dinner, utilising some sad ingredients and leftovers to stuff soft tortilla boats, accompanied by home-made guacamole. Then an escape room game, appropriately entitled Virus - although, to be honest, there wasn't really any relevance other than a few test-tube images and periodic table. We smashed it in less than 50 minutes. Then the final two episodes of After Life - so poignant, and perhaps too thought-provoking as I struggle to quiet my mind enough to sleep.

Today I am grateful for Gossip Girls.

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