Mondays ...

No chance of the boiler being fixx0red today.  Chap is snowed in himself, so hoping he got out eventually.  Other folk are in worse states than us though, so another day or so here won't be too much trouble.  Does feel weird though, living in my parents' house like it's our own.

So much freshly fallen snow today 

We had fun in the snow in the back garden with the dog though!  And now they all like the shower, sadly at the same time, but it was fun!

Am hearing via this weather site that there's a Siberian style cold snap going to hit over the course of the next couple of days.  Watch yer pipes! 

well well well

It's a hole in the ground, and I feel like I've fallen down one!

After digging and and scraping road yesterday for about 4 and a half hours, we finally managed to get the car out of our street. Came back into the house, and laid things on the radiator to dry, and discovered they were all cold.  Uh oh... boiler goosed! Handily my folks must have managed to get away so we were able to decamp to their house for the night or so. Getting there was fun, with Taede marshalling the boys with their suitcase, and a bag of toys and stuff and dragging Piper on a sled.  I followed bringing another suitcase for our stuff, and work clothes, and the casserole dish with partially cooked tea in it, and a box of provisions to get/keep us going when we got there. Also on a sledge....sledges, it would appear, don't drag too well on tarmac, who knew there was actually still tarmac under all that snow!?!

After navigating what can only be described as treacherous road conditions in my parents street, which has a nasty hill eitehr entrance, combined with a great old uphill dogleg turn, we got inside.  Heating was on ....ahhhh bliss.  So, kids in, stripped of wet clothing, Provisions put away, dinner on, rice for accompanying dinner on, upstairs, and beds (two single and one sofa bed) put to rights, sheets etc., Glasgow shower, into work clothes and wait for Taede returning with the pooch. All that in half an hour is no' bad!  He took forty minutes! Which made me late for picking up a chap from work to get him in for shift and pay! Eventually got to David and apologised profusely for freezing his ....feet off!

Got into work without much more incident.  Helped out with stocking up batteries (who said retail wasn't glamourous!) and then as the night went on, ended up taxi-ing more people home, or at least to a close approximation as main roads allowed! I got home myself and feeling like crap stepped into the shower with the intent of standing there for ages, but it doesn't drain away quickly enough! Never mind, settle Piper after she fretted and into bed.  Oh dear sweet slumber...oh how thee mock me! 

Eventually after a fairly ropey sleep, Piper woke at five-ish.  There was the roar of the mains, and I thought initially it was the heating, but then I begun to fear it was an outside tap.  On investigating it later, after no further snoozling, my worst fears were confirmed. The outside tap is completely shot from it's moorings, and water rushing everywhere!  The idea of our own home being without heat and in a similar situation fills me with equal amounts of fear and dread.  With us hosting all the immediate family of Taede at Christmas we don't need any further upheaval! Thankfully the ex managed to make a mercy dash to B&Q and after a little bit of hamfisted duck tape surgery most of the water exiting the burst pipe is now being fed into a drain.  So I can afford to wait for a plumber, and a few emergency calls here and there I can afford to pay for one too! At least until next month! :)

Thanks go to Shirley Campbell, for general all round good-eggness! David Harley, for being an understanding sweetheart, Kim Munro for being the best boss ever, Sigrid MacMillan for her excellent, and precognitive cake baking skills, Stevie Weir for winning gold medal in the B&Q dash, and Julie at Santander for being the best advisor on the phone by a country mile!

aaargh!

Yesterday as the snow shone, the icicles grew longer, the stalagmites taller, and the kids that little bit kookier, my other half got home at a very early time.  So I donned my wellies, double layered myself, put on my hi-viz jacket, fingerless gloves and roadkill fuzzy hat and set forth for a supermarket.  Taede has been very good, topping things up daily, but even though he received a list, he didn't buy it all which became very frustrating.  So working my bag-lady look, I made it to where I work, and got on with some serious shopping.  Asda was mobbed! Utterly bouncing with people buying grub like it was out of fashion! Seriously, who the feck needs 20 packs of babycorn?

Salt was limited per customer, and so was bread. Not just bought in bread either, like Hovis or Kingsmill, but their own baked goods, such as rolls and crusty bread!  I couldn't believe it.  Of course, as my hair was greasy and my bag lady look so complete in it's authentic glory, I met everyone I knew!  At least I finally managed to pay my lottery money to the syndicate! Thanks Lorna for the funny of the day....she eyes my brown fake fur hat (it's like a tuke ... eh? ;) ) and says, ''I like what you've done with your hair....!'' B!tch! :D

On the way home I was wondering if I'd get parked on the top road again.  The space was there, but before I got to it, travelling very much uphill, despite the fact he saw me and my lights navigating the single lane made by the plough, a taxi pulled out and played chicken.  Full of ire and faith in my reversing I backed down (quite literally) until another car, turned around the corner behind me!  Checkmate!  I plundered someone's driveway to let the tube in the taxi past.  When I did reach my point of origin, I couldn't park in it, because pedestrians decided it's perfectly safe to swipe the sides of my car while I attempt to move it on ten inches of snow!  Least I have a clean bar on my (Taede's) car now.  I called Taede to say, and he told me to just come home and park it in the drive.  So one out of two's no' bad is it? Another farking pedestrian with a deathwish started walking up the hill towards me. So I had to stop. And didn't have enough momentum to clear the slight incline of pavement! Taede despaired, but couldn't move it so we're now blocking our neighbour's driveway as well....how does it feel ya numpty?! :)

I don't know what we're going to do when winter comes! ;)  

 

Selfish

I know it is terribly selfish of me, but I'd really, really like my sewing machine now please and thankyou mister delivery man.  I know it's at my 'local' depot...what is with that anyway, they say local like Bellshill was somewhere other than a good hours drive away, or Motherwell, or some other arrisend of the world...

I wants to make me a door stop ... well actually I want to make Tan Grey a doorstop...and I have a plan to make one in the shape of a Scotty dog....but as usual will probably feck it up at least once ... 

Thank you for travelling with Air Seatofyourpants .... do fly again!

well ...

...that was interesting!

And when I say interesting, I mean exciting and momentarily scary.

I've been out in the snow, clearing the driveway, I figure if I prepare now I won't be so bad off when it comes to us actually needing out.  So I work my way up to the car to discover our neighbour has cleared her car and driveway on to ours, and the space between our cars, where the drivers door is, natch, is piled up to the roof with snow.  No biggie, I'm strong enough, and Steve (the ex) has come up to visit with the boys (Ewan and Stuart) and they and their little sister (Piper) have an adult watching over them.  I say an adult, but we all know what midlife crisis does to the average male eh? *winks*

So there I am, leaning on the snow shovel (don't get jealous, it's the neighbour's, ours mysteriously disappeared!) and talking to said neighbour, when the loud low pitched (this far away) moan starts up.  Her car is running, so it's difficult to tell, and we were talking.  She freezes, and looks at me, I look at her, infused by her panic and we both shout 'BP' at the top of our lungs and dash into the house.  A quick check of the int0rweb reveals it's a siren test ...I've already dialled Taede (current OH - he's Dutch! - and a postie!) as he's delivering in Polmont, today, as he does every other day! By the time he's answered I can confirm to him it's a test, and laconic as ever, he says, ''thought so.'' Fecker!

Back out to clear the remaining snow, and try to get into the car to clear it.  There's  no room for any more snow so the idea was to move it back towards the road, but still in the driveway so I could clear it.  No joy, because of the volume of white stuff on the other side of the car, the car is slithering close to the house.  And as it's my mother's car and not mine I ain't risking it spotwelding itself to the roughcast!

So that was my afternoon.... Of course, in the middle of all this it started snowing again, and more looks to be on its way, so I wonder if it is all worth it.  

No word from my parents yet, they're supposed to be en route to Southhampton or somesuch to board the Queen Elizabeth for a two week cruise to the Canaries....  I'm assuming 'no news is good news' ... Or they're back home and in the huff, one of the two!  

Sigrid is coming over, braving the snaw!  It's amazing what we'll do for a bit o' vino some nibbles and a damn good bitching session, isn't it?  

Bounce!

As a result of enjoying being a narcissist on a beading forum I frequent (frequently), I've taken the plunge and have entered the world of bloggage.... hmm, sounds like a bit of a push, if you ask me!

 

As it may, or may not be where you are, the snow here as we perch on the south wall of the Ochils dominated Forth Valley, is pretty damned deep.  Now I'm a shortarse, I make no bones about it, but even being so dumpy of frame, I'm gabberflasted the snow is up to my hip in places....places it seems the dog wishes to drag me!  During the meanderings and musings throughout this blog, you will learn more about my past, my family, my workmates ...sorry, colleagues(!) and what makes me tick.

Be assured that my opinion is not everyone's, that life really isn't a dress rehearsal, and bring yer tenalady!