Friday, July 20

Just mundane slog, mumble mumble.

No drama, disaster or anything much.

Thank goodness, the painter has been & done our ceilings very neatly, & efficiently. A man of pride in his work. He told me he was 'Not a messy painter.' And he was right. He told me he came from Serbia originally.

I was amazed to see he drove a Mercedes Benz, & had his ladder, & general paraphenalia in the back seat, and his painting equipment, & drop sheets in the boot When I mentioned it was a fancy car to carry painting gear, he shrugged & smiled & told me it would only sit in the garage otherwise. I thought, what a good attitude!

And now, my 'sewing room' is no more. We have packed most of it away, so I feel a little naked without my clutter about me. Bare bookshelves, & the machine all folded away. GOM carted all my books downstairs. The room down there looks like a bomb has exploded.

The dogs have had an anxious day. Very concerned when the painter came, so GOM took Leo into our room, & I had Honey in here with me.

My arm is very sore. I have used that spray on bandage, which is amazing. It is even water proof. Leo didnt mean to do the damage, he was struggling to get free while I was brushing him, a task which he does not like much. Just an unlucky strike with his claw.

There has been no more sign of the mouse, so we are hoping he has eaten his fill & gone off to seek water, which is supposedly how the bait works.

It is darkly gloomy with clouds & a cold wind, so a day inside has been my choice. We have had the Airconditioner going to warm the cold rooms.

Reading over at Stomper's about lovely linens, has reminded me of how much I miss having flanellette sheets. GOM claims he cant abide them, they irritate him, & so we are 'not allowed' to have them. I could never survive without my electric blanket! If we have to have cold cotton at least it needs to be warmed up before I get into bed.

I was reminded of a wedding present we received when we first got married. They were 2 sets of horrible white sheets, whose giver shall remain nameless. Let's just say it was not from my side of the family. ( Yes that is a little nasty! heh!) About the 3rd time we used them our feet plunged through the very fabric! ( And no comments about newly weds vigourously ripping them, need to be made here!)

I think they must have been so old they had just about rotted away in their packages! I am sure they were a recycled gift, & they were supposedly twill cotton. I was happy to toss them out!

As I have aged, I have got much braver about such things too. When we first married, I agonised over some chairs we were given. They had been gifted to GOM for his first marriage. I am sure most of you could relate to how much I detested those chairs! I couldnt wait to get rid of them. And to add insult to injury, one had a hole in it! And a canteen of cultery, that my MIL had given the first 'happy couple' as a wedding present. I was apalled. I never used them, & preferred my cheap collection of odds & ends, from my single days. At least they were mine, & had no sad history.

It never seemed to bother GOM, I suppose because they had been gifts from his mother, but I felt it in bloody poor taste to inflict them on me. Sure we were paupers when we married. Had about 25 pounds between us, but we were happy, & both worked, so we could save, & get things gradually.

Well tomorrow is another day. Let us hope it is a bit warmer.


Shane Nicholson, Keep It Together.

17 comments:

meggie said...

I had trouble getting this posted. Now I see I have spelt cutlery, as cultery... Fool!

velcro said...

Ahh unthinking wedding presents... we got married when I was 7 months pregnant with the FB so most of our presents were baby related but we did get a truly hideous glass vase and a completely a very peculiar lamp

Angie said...

Your painter has a WONDERFUL attitude!! Why am I saving all of this fabric?? Same as his Mercedes. We need to use and enjoy these 'things'. :D Some of the 'things' really do just need to be tossed...if we had known 'then' what we know now, we could have just tossed stuff and never mentioned it to the GOM or the DH! LOL

Meggie, poor Leo told me he really didn't mean to cut your arm. I've never tried the spray-on bandage. So glad to know they work! I do hope that doesn't get infected!!

Ragged Roses said...

Your painter sounds great! Hope your arm is getting better, it looks awful. Don't mention presents from the other side of the family to me - it's a touchy subject! Have a good weekend
Kim x

Joni said...

Oh we got a vaccum cleaner for our wedding gift. I hated that thing. It was so darn heavy. It was a popular brand and everyone thought I was so lucky. Needless to say it is long gone!

Tanya Brown said...

I'm glad the arm is better. LOL at the Mercedes-driving painter!


This resonated with me: "Had about 25 pounds between us, but we were happy, & both worked, so we could save, & get things gradually." Yes. Whatever happened to that attitude of people working, saving and getting things gradually instead of expecting the world and going into massive debt for it? People would be so much better off if they could rediscover that attitude.

Life and happiness aren't - or shouldn't be - all about things.

Tanya said...

Oh dear. I'm back reading your blog posts. Your arm looks terrible. I hope it will heal quickly. I've had a cat do that to me and was forever leary about picking him up again. I don't know if cutting the claws makes the rascals more dangerous or less dangerous.

riseoutofme said...

Ah, unwanted wedding presents ....

How's a sh**ey brass coal scuttle .. or a set of placemats that looked like your NZ set when new?

Hang in there Meggie ... we all need fallow periods ... they usually happen in the winter ...

Funny, the weather here is suspiciously fallow period inducing ....

ancient one said...

I can remember the cold of winter even as we are having an extremely hot day. And now the skys are becoming cloudy so we know the storms are on their way. I will take summer over winter any day!!

Glad your arm is better. Your painter has the right idea. I hate having a new car that has to sit in the garage for special times. Those special times are too few and far between.

My grandmother would pack her nice things back. When she died there were so many things she had never even opened. Not me. I use everything immediately. Although I've been told that I need to get a new dishrag and not use it so when I die I will have a new dishrag to display. (long story..LOL)~ann

Aunty Evil said...

I'm with GOM about the flanny sheets, I can't abide by them!!

With you on the electric blanket though!

Hope your arm is better soon. Don't let it get septic and fall off, otherwise you won't be able to blog!

Catalyst said...

I hadn't thought of this story until today on reading the other comments.

Some years ago, SWMBO was sleeping soundly when our next door neighbor fired off a gun in the middle of the night. (Just for the noise, no evil intent.) Our cat, which had been sleeping on the bed, made a mad dash right across SWMBO's face, slashing open her lower lip. I had to take her to the hospital where it was stitched up, once the medicos had stopped laughing at the story.

~Bren~ said...

I was thinking that you and GOM would have been misusing those sheets!

Princess Banter said...

My word, I was terribly surprised too when I found out that the guy who collected our garbage before owned a luxury SUV! Made me think twice about my career choice!

Alison said...

Ah memories of being paupers when I was first married.
You have reminded me of the giveaways that came along at this time. Some were pretty good but others.....
Life seemed a lot more simpler or was it because I didn't know any better.

Anonymous said...

Do take care with the arm Meggie. It looks very painful.
I think most of us have had the same experience with wedding presents. We had some which looked like they had been stored up from before the first world war!
Glad to hear that you are getting the house sorted out. You won't know yourself by the time the carpet is down and you get the dreaded tooth out!
BTW, Your coaster of Franz Josef is just like the glaicer it self, sadly, disapearing! We were there in Novemeber last year. Fabulous place all the same.
Keep on blogging, I love your stories.
Jenny

dragonflyfilly said...

one should never agonize over a chair with a hole in it. I might be inclined to hang on to it and burn it when i run out of firewood!

It's nice to know that somewhere in the world there are tradesmen who take pride in their work...

I enjoyed reading your Blog this rainy Saturday morning.

come over and see me at "Flamingo's Hideaway"
cheers for now,
pj

Mrs. Goodneedle said...

Wishing you a speedy healing and warmer days ahead.