So I clawed back some of my overtime again. I really needed a full week with weekends on either side to get over my exhaustion from the project I'd been working on. The week I took of recently didn't do the trick. I think if I hadn't taken the week off I'd probably have pushed on a bit further and ended up taking a long time off.
I'm back to work tomorrow and I'm feeling a lot better. So it worked, though it wasn't much of a rest. Because when I was working on the project I was working each evening until I dropped and then working at any point in the weekend I had free - essentially my 'life laundry' had built up.
I knew we had a gardener booked for the Thursday, but as it had been 3 weeks since he came things in the garden had got even worse. So I started by doing a few key bits of the garden to clear some space for him. The problem was that this filled our garden waste bin so I purchased some garden bags. 150l sounded big, but not big enough - so I purchased 5 x 150l bags.
Having worked on the garden I then tidied up my study which had become a bit of a mess and also re-ordered my son's passport. Goodness knows how he got accepted into Italy last year because he looked nothing like the 8 year old him! The 8 year old him didn't have whiskers for a start.
I also did a dump run, we're going to get the patio redone in about 6 weeks, we had so much stuff piled up ready for the skip there actually wouldn't have been enough room for any of the patio stuff.
At the dump I was stopped by one of the people who worked there who spotted I had some garden ornaments. Now these were not nice ornaments, they'd been left by the previous owners and I'd never got around to getting rid of them (for 14 years!). However, once we got rid of the rats I basically wanted to throw out absolutely anything that they may have gone near.
The people at the dump showed me an area to leave things like pots and ornaments - so they could sell them in the dump shop. Imagine my surprise when I went around there and there were amazing things - like an entire drum set!!!!!! I'm imagining a spouse saying 'it's me or the drums'. Anyway, I took a look at the shop before I went and basically it's going to be amazing next time I have a decoupage project - I need to look no further for canvases to paint over and furniture to upcycle etc. An amazing find.
The other thing that I organised at the start of the week was to get my car sorted. On the Friday I had gone to Lewes to pick up son who had been to London to see a Greek tragedy (my idea of hell) and had then gone out for pizza with friends.
Half way to Lewes I had to break hard and then horrors of horrors I lost 90% of the power in my breaks. There was nowhere to pull over and I had to get son. I managed to get to the pick up point to collect him and then we drove home very slowly to make sure I was not in a situation where I had to break hard. The really scary bit was as I got to the top of the hill about 2 miles from my house. I knew that I had a 2 mile downhill run. Everybody behind me was really loving the irritating woman driving in 3rd gear at 20 mph.
As soon as I got home (phew) I rang my usual garage, but they couldn't see my car for a week and a half. So I tried another garage. Fortunately they could see my car on the Monday. So on Sunday night very very late when there would be no other cars around I drove to the garage and parked up.
It turns out that the screws that held my breaks in place were all loose. It looks like my husband or one of my neighbours is trying to kill me! On a positive note, tightening the screws wasn't too expensive and I've also found a new garage I really like. Which is always a good thing. They could easily have told me I needed 4 new brake pads and I wouldn't have known better. So I now totally trust them.
Anyway, having pushed through my life laundry I was looking forward to having a break on the Thursday and Friday. I texted the gardener to ask him what time he'd arrive. Only to be told that he could no longer come. I was utterly furious. We'd waited 3 weeks and in that time I could easily have found somebody else.
I knew I was going back to work and so there was nothing I could do except roll up my sleeves and get the garden done. It took hours - literally - In the end I spent about 6 hours in the garden. I filled 3 of the 150l bags I'd purchased.
What's worse is that the garden really doesn't look that much better. When friends came around on Saturday I asked them if they though the garden looked better and they all said that they couldn't spot what I'd done as the garden still looked a mess.
Friends - who needs them huh.
Anyway, having saved us a considerable amount of money on the gardener I suggested to husband that perhaps on Friday we should go out for supper. I really fancied a Chinese and he came up with the idea of going to the Chinese we always used to go to when we lived in our first flat. Son decided he didn't want to join us so had his very first grown up evening alone. He even managed his own microwave meal. It's madness that he's moving so rapidly out of childhood (and more than a little bit sad).
So we drove over to the Chinese - only to discover that the restaurant no longer existed.
In the end we found a Japanese restaurant we hadn't been to before. It was really lovely actually and we'd both like to go back. Which is fortunate because when we came home son said he regretted not joining us. So that gives us a good excuse to go back again so he can try the food.
So lots of stuff has happened, nothing hugely exciting. I didn't really get the rest I needed, but just pottering around outside seems to have helped a lot. It helped that the weather wasn't too hot. Otherwise I'd not have been able to do most of what I got done.
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