Finding the chase and cutting to it

Having got a decent bonus and no mortgage to shift, we have been buying furniture. We are living the good life! It’s also been BBQ season, with trips to see friends and have little company ourselves. Of course, when it is going so well, a little rain must fall and after 16 years with his […]

The reaction to our heat pump has been interesting. Many questions have been about how much more it is costing us? It’s not, actually, we’re saving about £3 a day on heating our water compared to the gas boiled at today’s prices. It’s summer, and for the past eight days, for 7kWh of energy we’ve […]

And I am not talking about slaying a Scottish King to seize the throne! We have had our heat pump going for three days! So, everyone should be thanking us for the more than clement weather we’ve been having. Little note to the manufacturer: in normal operation, it is perfectly reasonable to prevent the heating […]

We spotted our house in January 2013 on an estate agents web site. My husband was away, so I took our son over to have a look – he was anti-moving, but I was shattered with the commute and where we were based – anything we did needed the car or motorbike or a long […]

When you DIY a project, preparation is key. If someone is coming in for you, making sure the decks are clear saves valuable time. The heat pump is coming and the old boiler and water tank are disappearing. With luck, the old gas pipe too. How do we know which is the gas feed? Well, […]

I love politics, I love the philosophies, the study, the decisions people make and why they do so when it comes to putting their cross against a name. But I have never been canvased by anyone but our local liberal democratic party. Which is good. Being a stato, this year we not only were just […]

Whether it is nobler… What is this actually about, please? In 2012, my role at work required a great deal of travel, as did my husband’s. Which meant the weekends were spent having some fun but mostly recovering from the pace. We weren’t even that old! After coming home to a tip one evening, I […]

I like to be busy. It drives my son up the wall: but if I am sitting down and see a task that needs doing, I am on my feet and looking for the means of getting it done. This has some issues – I love my job but, if I’m not careful my “overly […]

“People who grinned themselves to death – smiled so much they failed to take a breadth” is the start of a chorus line to the song The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death by the House Martins, released in 1987. I’m not anti-monarchy, but this song always catches me on the thought that “there but […]

I’ve always liked this term. I’ve felt it relates to the fact that many of the fashions in the past were quite restrictive to women (and in places, men) and so to do anything like running required concious effort. It’s that pause, that hesitation before you realise that actually, there is little but yourselve holding […]