Random Witterings from Home(ish) (Series 2, Part 1)

We’d finished building Erica, been for our first trip and Lockdown2 had started. Much sitting around at home ensued, with the cool, grey weather making me disinclined to do anything outdoors, bar my daily exercise. The garden largely continued to be neglected and far too much of nothing was done, although I did stir myself to conduct several crumpet-making experiments:

Massive crumpets because until yesterday I didn’t have any ring moulds to make smaller ones

Then our nice leisurely lives became slightly disrupted, swiftly followed, in my case, by full-on manic. It all started with a phone call that informed us of a problem with Mick's mum's leg that had us sufficiently alarmed to throw belongings into bags and dash off to stay with her for an unknown period.  

Removing our lives to Halifax was of no great inconvenience. What was inconvenient was that Erica’s windscreen got fatally damaged en-route and the most expeditious way of getting it replaced involved taking it to a depot lying three-quarters of the way back towards home. As the replacement date approached, it was clear that Ma-in-Law wasn’t fit to be left, so I abandoned Mick without transport and tootled back off home for a couple of weeks.

Yes, the windscreen replacement was only going to take an hour, but with remarkably inconvenient timing, we had a rental house becoming vacant at the end of that week and, with the previous tenants having been in residence for 7.5 years, it was inevitable that work was going to be required before the new tenants moved in a week later.

With Mick out of action I was going to have my work cut out to get everything done. By good fortune, the tenants left early extending my window to 10 days … except that an appointment for which I have been waiting for months came through right slap in the middle of that period. It doesn’t rain but it pours, eh?

So, by the end of November, Mick was living with his mum in Halifax and I was living in an empty house in Wolverhampton (the foam from Erica’s sofa/bed being the only ‘furniture’ I had).

Not for the first time when working on a house, I forgot to pack a can opener, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Ten days later, having put in 100 hours of effort, I had done days’ worth of cleaning, painted every single wall (plus a couple of ceilings) in the house, replaced some taps and traps, dismantled and reinstated the toilet, fixed various other items and done a bit of fettling in the garden. I locked the front door behind me last Thursday evening, happy that it was in a fit state for new tenants.

Given the level of damage caused by the previous tenants’ leaking washing machine, I was particularly pleased with how much better I managed to make this corner look.

The left hand snap is 'during' not 'before'. I was impressed at how well it came up with a bit of scrubbing.

Friday was the day of my intended return to Halifax and I was within five minutes of leaving home when a snow-report from Mick had me decide that travelling on Saturday morning would be a much better idea.

View out of Ma-in-Law's window at 7am; by the time I was due to leave home at 1pm it still hadn’t stopped snowing and was getting heavier.

I’m here now and very much hope that nothing of any significance happens between now and Christmas!

From Sunday morning’s run. Taken just before we ascended to a level where there was still snow on the pavement, causing us to have to take to the road.