Grime Busters

Where are Kim and Aggie when you need them?   I spent the whole weekend, along with some of my very good friends, washing and scrubbing and hoovering and wiping. 

On Saturday, Mechelle, came bringing with her a double duvet and various other wonderful and useful items. Angie came too and we tackled the living room and the kitchen.  By the time we'd finished it was ...well, maybe not sparkling, but certainly a whole lot cleaner.  Just being able to see out of the windows made a huge difference (Mechelle's handiwork)  We moved a lot of items of old furniture, etc. that I won't be needing into the "spare" room downstairs and shut the door on it.  That gave us room in the living room to rearrange the furniture so that it all faced the fireplace and looked nice and cosy.  The kitchen was completely cluttered with stuff so, again that needed clearing first.  The kitchen is somewhat dire to be honest with two floor standing cupboards that have come out of the ark.  No matter, I have no pots and pans to put in them yet anyway!  We couldn't face the cooker so left that for the next day. 

Sunday arrived along with Clair, another good friend.  Mechelle came again along with Angie who came bearing gifts from Tesco - a new hoover(!) a toaster, some cutlery. What is she like!  She even brought her own microwave out of her kitchen claiming that she'd been wanting a new one for ages and just needed an excuse to get rid of the old one!  I am truly humbled by my friends' generosity.

Clair, brave warrior that she is, tackled the bathroom and the cooker, only once having to run out of the door gagging at the hair she'd discovered blocking the plughole.  The cooker was attacked with a pack of Oven Pride but was so bad that it had to be left overnight to stew.

Me and Mechelle tidied up the bedrooms and Angie put up a curtain rod in the living room.  Can you believe that it took as long to hoover the walls and ceilings as it did the floors?  I've never seen so many cobwebs.

By the time we'd finished the place was transformed, maybe not into a palace, but at least into a habitable state.

Its feeling as though its mine now.  I popped in today to see how the cooker was getting on.  The shelves have cleaned up nicely but the interior of the oven ...well, I don't really want to go there.  The floor of the oven must be about an inch deep in black ...errm... stuff.  Yuk!  Another pack of Oven Pride is going to be needed.

One last hurdle to get over - that of Jasmine's disapproval.  I can only hope that she'll come round eventually.

Fingers crossed x

Moving On (non-horsey)

Things have been very ...errmm, shall we say, challenging, for me recently.  Having moved into my mum's bungalow in October I  have found things very difficult to cope with.  Jasmine stayed at home with her dad and Alex (my son) which is 15-20 minutes drive away.  I spent the winter driving over there in the morning to do the horses with Jasmine, then going to work, back to do the horses again and then back to mum's after dropping Jasmine at home.  Every time I dropped Jas off it tore another piece off my heart.  I  hated to see her walking away from me every day and I know she hated it too.  She punished me good and proper though with the full on teenager attitude.    I see my son once a week if I'm lucky.  They can't pop round for a cup of tea or a quick chat - its too far, and apart from that they can't relax here because its "grandma's house".  We could never spend a companionable evening eating dinner off trays on our laps and watching rubbish tv, that's just Not Done in grandma's house.

I was living with my mum but I felt so alone.  Even now, six months later I sit here in this room surrounded with boxes containing a few of my things because there is nowhere to put them.  I feel like a lodger.  I can't relax and feel very uncomfortable.  Mum doesn't make things any easier by making me feel I have to be in by a certain time and even told me off one day when I came in at 2am the previous night (I'm 51 years old for God's sake!)  She doesn't understand the distress I feel for having left my children behind, even though I see Jasmine every day.  She considers that they are old enough now to have their own lives so I should let them get on with it!!! (and what else, mum? forget about them?  is that what you're suggesting?)

I have traded one intolerable situation for another and I have to think of something else.  Now ... I knew that the farmer where we keep our horses had an empty house where a farm worker used to live.  Its been empty for many months and I was aware that they did not intend to let it out again.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I asked whether they would consider letting it to me.  After a week on tenterhooks, they came back to me and said yes.  Of course it is very run down and dirty with no central heating, but it is habitable.

I will therefore be spending my weekend with a couple of my good friends cleaning and scrubbing to make the place clean before moving in.  I can't wait.  I will of course have no money and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage but I can feel the pull of "freedom"

What else is there?  Oh yes, I will be able to see my horse from my bedroom window *sigh*