Back Baby!

Hello everyone. I hope that you are ok. We are a lot better than we have been in a while because Lo! We have returned! Last Thursday, we were told that we could return to our home, and we did.  At first, we thought we might just pack some bits and pieces and spend a few days transferring over but, once we got going, we decided to slam everything over into the back bedroom and stay at home. Everything is a bit ramshackle at the moment, but we were pleasantly surprised that we were not knee deep in dust or silverfish or whatever. Anyway, cue photo taken just as we were walking in for the first time in a feeble attempt to inject some drama into the situation. However, it was a very good day.

So, unfortunately, I didn't get around to blogging last week with all that going on and the cat sitting for our daughter. I'm not sure Riggi - for that is his name - was that bothered one way or the other. Every time we arrived, he would just sit there for fifteen minutes staring at us like in the photo as if to say, "And the point of you is?"

We don't have television at the moment - something to do with them not being able to get near the building to do any repairs for two months. The annoying thing about that is 

(a) It's really difficult to get to speak to a person. You just go round and round in a circle while an automated voice tells you that they are aware that there is a problem, and they are working on it

(b) It's only a week away from the beginning of the World Cup, and I have no idea if it will be fixed or not. 

We don't really watch very much telly to be honest, but no telly at all seems to be a lot less than not watching a lot of it if you know what I mean. A lot of people seem to think it is hilarious to keep saying, "You'll have to start talking to each other now!" Ha ha ha. Also, the Internet is struggling, so I hope this missive gets sent out into the world ok and I apologise in advance if your comments don't make it.

There's a lot of work still to be done (see photo of our garage with the current state of back propping), and the owners are dropping not-so-subtle hints about who should pay for it, but there are leaseholders in here who have acres of evidence that proves that the water ingress (which is at the root of this problem) has been reported multiple times and nothing has been done, so we shall see. 

I hope everyone coped with the heat while it was here. As you will all have worked out, Plymouth is right by the sea, so it remained fairly breezy even while it was really hot, so we got the shock of our lives when we had a little jaunt to Tavistock for the day. Good Grief, it was boiling. We had to take refuge in the Indoor Market for a while. If you haven't been to the Indoor Market at Tavistock, I can't really recommend it that much. I find it a bit odd. Lots of things they call "Vintage" but I'm not sure how much call there is for old ventriloquist dummies and 500 different glass bottles that have been dug up from various fields in Devon. It is probably just me because it won Market of the Year last year. I would be fascinated to see what the competition was like. Anyway, it's going to be ten degrees colder next week, which HOH is quite happy about, as he was stung by a jellyfish this week. He came back muttering about this not being the Caribbean or something. Neither of us was sure about what the cure was - I thought it might be something to do with having a wee-wee on the sting, but I told him, " You are on your own, mate". I am almost 100% certain that when Jesus advocated for going the extra mile and putting your brother first, etc., that was not what he had in mind. 

With the house stuff and work stuff, it has been a really stressful time over the last couple of months. Perhaps some of the most difficult times that I have known. I'll be totally honest, I haven't been scoring very highly on the faith-o-meter either. I've read stuff in my Bible and struggled to believe it. HOH has held the fort together by insisting on praying when I wasn't sure about it and quietly holding on to our faith. He has been very good. What has helped me is an interview I saw with Anne Lamott, who talked beautifully about how we are held by wave upon wave of love despite how we feel. She's also very good. 

I have been reading a lot over the past couple of weeks (no telly as I said). You may well think that, as I was in a spiritual blah place that something Biblical and uplifting would be the way to go, and you would be right to think this, but I have ignored that advice and read two out of three of these. The Mick Herron one - Clown town in the Slow Horses series is excellent. They are really well constructed and have you quite edgy all the way through - especially as he really doesn't care who he kills off - no one is safe. Also, I loved the Elizabeth Strout book. What a great writer she is. I haven't read Remarkably Bright Creatures yet. I don't know if any of you have read it, but I'm a bit worried that something awful happens to the octopus, and I am a bit mentally fragile at the moment and not sure that my constitution could take it. (Notice that I have no problems with Mick Herron slaughtering half the population of his book.) Priorities, eh? Have a good week.