1st - 24th. November 2008

Well, once again I have to apologize for a late entry!
There was I thinking that now the Cricket Season is well and truly over, I'd have loads of time on my hands and it seems I have not.

I must say that a lot of this is due to making some radical changes to the background nitty gritty of the Website. Some pages haven't been touched for five years and with many alterations here and there, the coding has been going a tad skewy making pages longer to load and not very Search Engine friendly.
I'm thrilled to say that after about 15 hours work on it, I'm about a third of the way through.
With that and other thing's time has just flown by.

According to my Doc. it seems the shoulder is worse than originally thought and after five visits and two Steroid jabs I am being sent to the Consultant for a proper scan etc.
I must say, it's been giving me real jip of late and getting out of bed has become an art form!
I'm just hoping it isn't a case for any surgery and would put my Cricket work in jeapody, but strangely, it's the big jobs which don't hurt so much - just the shutting of a door etc.

Needs be that I have had no option but to start work at the big house opposite, but at least I'm getting Leo to help me out a bit there.
This week involves scrubbing a large wooden floor, clearing up the leaves, fixing a Fountain and starting painting Window 3 of 27!
I'm budgeting myself to no more than 15 hours a week though and pacing it as I go.
This should then see me through the Winter on a financial basis - but......???

Between times I've been able to get my garden in fairly good shape and cut the grass last week.
If I'm working in my Shed Office, I let the Chickens out at around 2pm which gives them about 2 hours before it get's dark.
In all the years of Chicken keeping, I've never known ten hen's so easy to round up and follow me back to the Hen House. I just go out the Office door, they run over, then shadow me up the Garden. Another good thing is they don't seem to venture down the lane like some other's have in the past. All is well - but one egg in the last ten days!

I enjoy working outside, especially if it's raining. Sitting in here is not dis-similar to being in a Tent and I enjoy smaller spaces. In fact the Shed is smaller than my Tent and I have a habit of, after about an hour, dozing off into oblivion!
I have a little 300W Oil filled Radiator in here neatly parked below the desk top and this throws the heat upwards and I'm gone.

The last two days have been a bit parky down here, so I've had both the Rayburn and the Sitting Room fires alight. But I only get them going at around 4pm to cut down costs. The rest of the time, if I'm indoors, is an extra jumper job.
Bedtime is rather like a documentary on the South West ascent of Everest - Camp 2! But - I don't get cold.

I shall probably have a visit from the Debt Collectors soon. I parked my car in the Bank Car Park back in July and the ticket fell off the window onto the passengers seat. The Warden didn't see this and gave me a Ticket.
I saw him and he apologised, but said he couldn't go back on it and I should write to the Company, which I did.
Then three weeks ago I got a Court Order and an extra fine totalling £240. I phoned them up and told them the situation and I'd sent them a photocopy of the Ticket, but they said I'd have to pay the fine, then appeal.
My reply to that was an extended version of  'No'. They argued and I said I would go to Court with the ticket, copies of my two letters to them and a staement from a Bank Employee who saw me cursing in the Car Park about having a ticket, but 'getting done'.
We'll see, but I'm certainly not paying that sort of money out because of a genuine mistake.

Sorting out Christmas this year is yet another logistical nightmare. The problem when you get on a bit, the family grows and there's so many people to try and please. In this respect I put my kids and their's as priority. It's hard not to sound like you're making everyone else 'second best', but that's how it is and with people going away as well, you have to fit it in somehow.
So, I shall be all on my ownsome Christmas Eve and Christmas Day up til about 7pm, when I shall pick Leo up from his Mum's and go to Southampton for two nights. At least we'll get all Boxing Day with the Grandchildren.

Until then, it's much work over the Lane and on the Website and maybe finding the time to feed the Cats between!

Life certainly is not boring, but hours and days are not long enough to squeeze all we want to into them. I think I will become a Time Lord