Delivery!

I think the new doorbell is my lucky charm.

Our new Aerobed finally arrived today by a friendly chap from UPS (listen to me, I'm already using terms like 'chap', 'cheerio', and 'tootle-pop!' and I've only been here two weeks).

It doesn't look like a king size when I'm standing next to it but I laid on it for 5 minutes and it was pretty spacious.

It's as simple as that.

So now Andrew's mum Pamela has somewhere to sleep for the few days she will be here with us.  We still have to sleep on the sofa bed so Andrew will have to put up with my snoring (rather loud apparently!) until we can have our new bed to ourselves.

Not much else exciting to report, it's dreary and a bit cold today, yesterday started off the same way but ended up nice and sunny, the day before that was glorious.

Tomorrow I thinking I'm taking Pam into Shaftesbury, it's the nearest town to where we live that has a supermarket.  In fact, it has two which I only discovered the other day.  Shaftesbury is one of the oldest towns in the UK (I think I read that somewhere) and most of the shops are lined along the "High Street" (as most of the main streets seem to be referred to here because that is where the majority of the retail shops are).

So what we refer to as the retail shops or shopping centres, the Brits refer to it as "high street" even though, geographically, it may not be the highest elevation point of the town the "high street" is in (ok, so now I'm just taking the piss out of the Brits - or to use the local terminology, "taking the mick").

Savvy?

What more do I have to do?

Yet another day when the Aerobed hasn't been delivered.

Oh yes, courier person was here alright.  But didn't deliver.

I put the note on the front door, as requested by the UPS customer service lady, saying that the courier could leave the parcel at the front door if nobody answers (but please knock LOUDLY).

Courier person wrote a message on my note that because MY note wasn't signed or dated, they couldn't leave the parcel.

F*******K!!!!!

And just to top it all off, Andrew was only about 50 metres away while this was happening, crossing a herd of cows over the laneway (that goes past our house).  He could hear Jack (the mental unfriendly dog next door) going off his head at someone and out of curiosity he left the cows and hurried up the lane, only to see the courier van reversing from the front of our place and take off.  So there's Andrew, running after the van, arms gesticulating wildly, calling out to the driver to stop.  Either the driver didn't see/hear him, or he possibly saw the lunatic chasing him up the road and put his foot down!

So Andrew came in after he'd finished work for the morning, rang UPS and told them what had happened, and demanded that they send the courier back ASAP.  But it is "company policy" *blah blah blah* that they don't return to the same address twice in the same day.

By the time I got home, the woman who'd called me yesterday called again to find out why the courier hadn't delivered and was very apologetic that she hadn't told me to sign and date the note.  Tomorrow we start afresh, she is despatching the parcel, I am going to be home ALL DAY and just to make sure I know when the courier person is here, I have installed a doorbell which I bought today, the ringer is above the loungeroom door leading into the kitchen so I will be able to hear it:

I think I've done everything I possibly can to make sure this bed gets delivered to me tomorrow.  I am not going anywhere, I'm staying put while Andrew is off to Swansea to pick up his mum so she can come and stay with us for a few days.  Hopefully there will be a bed for her to sleep on before she gets here!

At least most of my day went to plan.  I made it all the way to Nunney by myself to visit Grandma, although I did get a little bit side tracked along the way by going straight rather than turning right at one roundabout.  But I quickly realised that nothing looked familiar along the road so I turned around at the next available driveway and headed back.  I stayed with Grandma for an hour, went to the shop to buy her some fruit and popped into the post office to post a birthday card (sorry Susie, it's going to be late!  I should have sent it alot sooner, especially with the postal strike at the moment).

Then on the way home I called into Homebase hardware for the doorbell and Sainsbury's for some groceries.  And I'm proud to say, I didn't get lost once on my way home.  That's quite an achievement considering that I didn't have Andrew or a SatNav to guide me.

What a disaster!

Our new Aerobed still hasn't arrived.

Several phone calls later and it will be delivered today.  Only this time, I can leave a note stating that if nobody is home the courier can leave our package at the front door.

Why didn't they just do that earlier???  Ggrrrr.....

I have spent 5 days at home waiting for this bed to arrive.  Today I can't wait around for it as I'm heading to Frome to visit Grandma (Jones), I should have seen her three days ago but I've been stuck here waiting for the bed.

Even if it does arrive today, we will only be sleeping on it for one night, then Andrew's mum is coming to stay so we are relinquishing the bed to her for 3 nights and we are back on the sofabed.

Late night post

Today was the day of Gran Mary's funeral in Swansea, Wales.  It took almost 3hrs to get there and another 3hrs to come home.  If Andrew didn't have to work tomorrow we probably would have stayed in Swansea for the night.  Andrew gave a lovely eulogy for his Gran that got a few chuckles out of family & friends who attended, and alot of people complimented him on his eulogy after the chapel service and burial.

Tomorrow I am expecting the UPS delivery of our Aerobed, so I'll be calling the UPS head office in the morning to make sure that they know I am going to be home and this delivery guy has no excuses for not delivering.  What a farce this has become!  I can't wait to hear his reason for not knocking on our door yesterday.  I am going to buy a doorbell from Homebase hardware store for £10.99 so that all future deliveries can't be missed!

Pizza night

About once a month Andrew likes to have his friends over for a pizza night.  Last night we had 5 guests over, so I was busy the whole day preparing all the ingredients then at 6pm I put the pizzas together and by 8pm everyone had arrived so it didn't take long for the pizzas to cook in our new fan forced oven.

And as a welcome back/housewarming gift from Natalie I got a lovely Begonia plant which I immediately put on the big window ledge in the lounge room as that is where it will get the most sunlight:

Despite being a plant lover, I'm not usually very nice to indoor plants, I have a habit of forgetting to water them.  We've already got 6 varieties of plants dotted around the house and I have probably watered them once since I've been here.  I think I need to be a bit more attentive from now on.

The fireplace got its much-needed spruce up today.  I swept down as much soot as I could, then vacuumed it all up, gave the grate and guard a good scrub and put them back.  It's not perfect but it's a start.  For some strange reason there is black paint dripped over the guard - I scrubbed off as much as I could without damaging the brass.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to put a little bit of money aside to buy some red candles for the fireplace, as we won't be using it for wood burning.  Price's have the best quality candles and there is a store at Clarks Village in Street, so I'll be making a special trip over there to grab some soon.

Not... happy... Jan!!!

I am so so so cranky at the moment!

Andrew ordered a new Aerobed, a king size one at that, via the internet and we have been expecting delivery of it for the last three days.  The courier company being used is UPS.  The driver called by our house to deliver when we were out on Thursday, so to let us know that he'd been he left a UPS calling card with a unique reference number on it.

When we got home Andrew re-booked the delivery for Friday (yesterday).  We weren't given any indication of what time the bed would be delivered so I stayed home all day to make sure someone was here to receive it.  I kept checking the front door every time I walked past, and there was never anyone there.  By 4pm I was getting a bit agro so I went to the door and lo and behold, there was a calling card on the floor inside the door.  The courier had been again!  So I ran outside to the road, hoping that I might catch him driving away.  Then I looked at the card and it said he'd been at 3.15pm so I called the UPS customer service and told them to order the driver to come back, I've been waiting at home all day.  They said he couldn't come back til tomorrow (Saturday - today).

This morning before I did anything else, I wrote a nice big note and left it on the front door, asking the driver very kindly to knock loudly on the door, someone is definitely home to receive the parcel.  Andrew came home at about 10.30am for breakfast and didn't leave til almost 11.30am, he saw my big of paper sticking through the letter slot in the door so went out to see what the note was, then he came back in.

Fast forward to about 1pm and we get a phone call from UPS. "The driver says he has been to your door a 3rd time and nobody was home."

Andrew went to the front door while he was talking to the person from UPS and he checked to make sure my note was still there, he even read it out to the caller.  And, surprise surprise, there was NO calling card from the UPS driver!

We honestly don't believe that the driver had even been here a 3rd time.  Because he had to work on a Saturday, he probably got sick of doing his rounds and decided to knock off early so he made up lies to say he'd been here.

To say I am ultra furious is an understatement.  Our bed can't be delivered to us until Tuesday at the earliest now because we are going to Wales on Monday to attend Gran Mary's funeral and nobody will be here to sign the delivery docket for us.  So now I have to sleep on our sofa bed for another three nights and my back is starting to suffer for it.

I am ready to punch that dickhead driver!

Retail therapy

Andrew & I went into Bath today with our friend Daz, we had lunch at an all you can eat Chinese restaurant before going shopping.  The boys went one way (to their favourite comic book shop) and I went another (homewares shopping!).

I ended up buying a dishrack and a cutlery drainer (I know, very exciting isn't it) from Habitat for a bargain total of £10.50, then once I met up with the boys we went and bought a grapefruit knife and two grapefruit spoons for Andrew from a kitchen shop called Kitchen.  Very creative name.

We were standing outside the Kitchen store looking at the window display when Daz noticed a very nice ceramic baking dish that is specifically designed for making shortbread.

"Do you know how to make short bread?" Daz asked us.
"Yeah, you cut it's legs off," was Andrew's response.

My aunty Joan

My mum's youngest sister, Joan passed away after a short battle with lung cancer on 18th October 2009.  She was just 61 years old.

http://www.heavenaddress.com/funeral-notice/Joan-Brain/84375/obituary.aspx

** I spoke to my family on the evening after Joan's funeral, they reported that it was a very moving and beautiful tribute for her.  Many people who knew Joan in her community attended the service, as well as my family **

Leek & Potato Soup with Chicken, Bacon and Sage

Our little kitchen is going to be cooking up a storm over the next few months.  It is cold enough now that Andrew & I are keen for soups and stews so I've found a yummy sounding recipe for Leek & Potato Soup but this has a nice hearty twist to it.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

50g butter
1 onion, chopped
75g smoked streaky bacon, chopped
1 tbsp chopped sage or 1 tsp dried sage
450g potatoes, peeled and sliced
450g leeks, sliced finely
2 litres chicken stock *
200g - 300g cooked shredded chicken *
salt and pepper

* a few chicken thighs can be poached with the stock - using the liquid to make the soup and mixing the cooked chicken in at the end.

Instructions

1. In a large pan place the chopped onion and sweat in the butter along with the bacon and sage for about 10 minutes, without browning. Add the leeks and potatoes and stir well.

2. Add enough stock to cover the vegetables, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes… until the vegetables are tender. Take a few cups of the soup and puree in a food processor before returning to the soup pan. Mix together. This should bring the soup together.

3. Add the chicken and season. More stock or a dash of cream can be added to make your soup the required consistency.

I will let you know how it turns out!

And so to bed!

We have had to camp out in our lounge room because Andrew put a hole in the Aerobed upstairs - well, he says the bed got a split in it along one of its seams when he sat on it to put his socks on.  He has ordered a new bed which should be delivered in a few days, and that will make do until we have saved some money to buy a proper king size bed and base in a couple of months.

So this is our sleeping arrangement until the new Aerobed arrives, it's not the most comfortable but it is warm and I am just grateful to have somewhere to sleep every night.

The red throw is something I brought from Australia just to add a little homely touch.

This is the view from one of our bedroom windows upstairs.  That tower is the remains of a 15th Century church.

The pathway that leads to our front door.  You can just see the roof of our car on the right.  The hedges either side of the pathway are some kind of scrambling rose, it is covered in rosehips which you should just be able to make out in the bottom left.  I am keen to get hold of a hedge trimmer and tidy it all up but I suppose that isn't a priority at the moment.

Skype

We have installed Skype on our computer so if you have it, please add us.  If you want to know our name, leave me a comment with your email address (I won't publish the comment, so nobody will be able to see it) and I will get back to you.

In other news, yesterday and today have been gloriously sunny, and it has been all the more enjoyable now that I have sparklingly clean windows to view it from!  It had been a while since anyone had given the cottage a spit and polish, and as there isn't much else to do while Andrew is working on the farm, I guess that makes me Johnny on the spot!  I can't stop staring at the windows, I've done such a beautiful job.  Now I just want someone else to come and admire my work *hint hint cough cough I'm expecting friends to come and visit but not until we have furniture delivered so you will have an actual bed to sleep in*

I do have some sad news though.  My aunty Joan who had been battling cancer for a few months passed away in Sydney today, and Andrew's grandma in Swansea, Wales also passed away after a battle with dementia.  They died within hours of each other.  So it is a bit of a sad day for both Andrew & I.  I won't be able to attend Joan's funeral in Australia but I will be going to Gran Mary's funeral in Swansea.

Home at last

It is such a relief to finally be back in the UK.  I've recovered fairly quickly from jetlag although still feeling quite tired by the evening so I'll have an early night tonight.

Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary and while we didn't give each other a gift, we were able to spend the day together and went out in the afternoon to see Andrew's gran in Nunney.

I've been busy doing housework, just some cleaning - bathroom, kitchen, vacuuming downstairs.  Nothing exciting really.  I have taken some more photos of the house, which I have posted below.

I showed Andrew a photo of the bathroom organiser that I was coveting, he thought it looked interesting so I ended up buying it from Sainsbury's for 19.95.

Front door of our cottage.  Plants could do with pruning back.

The hallway looking in from the front door.

View from our front door looking across our neighbour's yard.

Our kitchen with new downlights installed because Andrew kept smacking his head on the crystal light shade that used to be in the centre of the room.

Our new Belling 'Enfield' cooker, plus new kettle, toaster and microwave.

The new Hotpoint combined washer/dryer near the back door.  We don't have a separate laundry so the washer/dryer had to be installed in the kitchen.

My greenhouse!  I am really excited about having a greenhouse, I am looking forward to growing lots of plants, fruit & veg.

Changi airport

It puts Sydney International to shame really.  Not just in terms of its size, but the standard of services available.  There are so many free access points to fast broadband internet that it's overwhelming.

I had a good flight, there were lots of empty seats and I was seated at a window, so I had the middle and aisle seat to put my feet up on and have a snooze.  I probably only slept a couple of hours but it was relatively comfortable because I had so much space to myself.  I think I have the same again on the next flight, I know I have the same seat number and I'm pretty sure when I reserved the seat there were no other bookings next to me.

Once I arrived at Changi I found the Ambassador lounge where for $30 Sing you have 5 hours of access to the guest lounge where there is a snack bar, plus access to hot showers. 

I feel really refreshed but so ready for a nap but I'm almost too afraid to do it in case I miss my flight.  For some reason they don't do boarding announcements, so it's up to the passengers to keep an eye on the clock and be at the gate early.

Come fly with me

The last week or so has just flown by as I knew it would and there isn't enough time to get everything done.  The weather hasn't been on my side to paint the wardrobe or the armchairs, but I do have two days free before I go so fingers crossed for good weather.

I've had a bit of a problem with packing as there is so much I want to take with me but I can't afford the excess baggage fees.  I may have found a solution but if you know of a cheap but reliable way that I can send another suitcase to the UK please let me know.

See you on the other side xoxo

Sydney

Back on the plane tomorrow morning, I've got just 8 full days left to tidy up loose ends, catch up with friends and say goodbye before I jet away to start the next leg of my journey, spending a year in the UK.  I feel like I've been lost in limbo for the last year & living out of a suitcase for most of that time.  It will be nice to finally put down my roots for a while and start afresh.

Bring on 2010

Parra lost the grand final, I'm sad for them but they put in a great fight all the way.  It was fun decorating the house for my brother anyway, he got quite a surprise when he got home today.

Sing with me!

Traditional theme song

You'll hear a tremendous roar go up as Parra takes the field
Just look at the blue and gold of the Mighty Eels
They're running out the victors strong & kicking up their heels
If you want to see how football's played then go and see the Eels!

Flick goes the ball from man to man
They're strong in the tackle and sure with their hands
They play it hard and fast that's the only way to win
And when they post a try you should hear the crowd all sing!

Good on ya Parra you're brave and bold
You're mighty fit and True Blue and worth your weight in gold
And when we see the other side slow start to yield
We raise our voices to the sky and glorify the Eels!

Today's finds

Marks & Spencer stainless steel under sink storage

I really really really love this because it has good hanging space for hand towels, room to store lotions below, plus our bathroom sink is pretty much identical to the one pictured!  Don't believe me?  Check this out:

See?  I think this storage idea would be perfect as we don't seem to have any shelf space apart from the glass shelf above the sink.  I'm also trying to find something a little more suitable to hang on the door rather than Andrew's travel toiletry bag.


This one below is from Sainsbury's, not quite as "pretty" as the M&S design but it has twice as much shelf space.

PARRA-phenalia

Sunday is the day of the big NRL Grand Final between Parramatta Eels and Melbourne Storm.

I've got 50 blue and yellow balloons to blow up before then.  Thankfully I was able to buy a special balloon pump too. 

There's also heaps of streamers to put up, and at my brother's insistence, I've also got blue and yellow hairspray and face paint.  Not for me but for him!!  Oh, okay....  I might get a bit of face paint but I draw the line at the hair spray....  well, I'll make my final ref's decision about that on the day.

Not sure how I'll use the balloons, I was thinking of getting a tank of helium so I can have the balloons bunched together with string, then have some more balloons just filled with O2 so they can be scattered around the house.  Naturally, I'll need to decorate the letterbox and front door with a few too.

My brother has some idea of what I'm up to but it will be a surprise when he is back from Port Macquarie on Sunday afternoon in time for the big game :D

I've been a little bit naughty...

First of all I just want to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Pam for meeting up today and being so generous to shout me for lunch at The Coffee Club.  We met on an internet health and fitness forum & we've "known" each other for at least 1.5yrs wouldn't you say Pam?  But we only met each other in person for the first time today.  Pam has been a wonderful support to me during some very difficult times and I am very grateful for her friendship.

After we parted from our long lunch I decided to do a bit of "window" shopping.  Bad.  Bad mistake.  Naughty Belinda.

I found a gorgeous little oil burner on sale at Howard's Storage World and had to have it

With a little jar & lid to match

And also this cute soap holder.

The complete set.

Even though they are supposed to go in the bathroom, I will actually put them on the dressing table in our bedroom so I can burn the oil in there.  The other two pieces just complete the look but I will also find a use for them too :)

Then I was walking past a bag and accessories shop and saw this cute little neck roll on display out the front.  I love owls so this caught my eye.  I actually want a U-shaped neck roll in the same design but they didn't have it and I didn't have the heart to put this back on the shelf.  This will be perfect for naps on my trip to London.

Katies is having a 30% off sale at the moment, so I grabbed this nice vest which was originally priced at $49.95, then marked down for sale at $14.95, so the 30% discount brought it down to $10.46!  Bargain! Will be great to wear when i get to the UK as it is the middle of autumn now.

This soft flowy top was on display at the front window of the Katies store so I just had to try it on didn't I....  and I got 30% off so the discount basically paid for the vest!