Z's kitchen countdown - 2

 I've emailed the chap at the kitchen company, who's back from holiday now, to clarify a few things, he's phoned back and I'll go in when he's got answers - I've assured him that I'm not anxious, just making sure that there are no issues later.  I've also phoned about getting the flooring fitted, which will be a fortnight after the kitchen units are started, but I am not sure if there might be a clash there, so I'll find out next week.  

I'm looking online at taps, which is fairly boring, might go over to the next town where there's a supplier of that sort of thing.

Yesterday, the lovely family who live in Glasgow called in for lunch - parents, two boys and the youngest child, their five year old daughter.  All delightful people and the children are so naturally polite and helpful.  You can never pick anything up without one of them offering to carry it.  They've very kindly invited me to stay when I go to Scotland - I'm happy to stay in a hotel, but they're so hospitable that they may insist.  I really hope I might manage to fit it in with everything else, but it's going to be a squeeze.

Fiona also recommended a tile company and I looked them up.  The tiles are lovely, but they're 150+ miles from here.  I'd really need to visit.  That's possible in a day, but it prompted me to look up a local firm and they look promising too.  So Wink and I will visit there on Monday and, if we don't like their offerings and there doesn't seem to be somewhere else nearby, then it's off to Wiltshire for a day trip.

I really want to get to Scotland next month.  That won't happen unless I focus on it and on everything else I need to do before I go.  It'll be a push.  But I'm good with a deadline.  I'm going to crack on with the work and believe I can do it.  Next week has some capacity, the week after doesn't.  From then on, I'm pretty busy up to the blog party.  So next week it is.  Apart from Tuesday and Friday.

Z's kitchen - Two month countdown - 1

 Tomorrow is always a flexible word.  I still haven't uploaded pictures.

However, I have got a date to install the new kitchen, so that's good.  It'll be started on 1st September.

I've texted the decorator/carpenter to ask him to sort out the doorway any time in the 2nd half of August.  I've also gently asked when he's starting the work on the outside of the house (not right now, it's far too hot).  I've also texted the joiner about the window - not heard back from either of them yet, but it's a working day and that's fine.

I've agreed with the water softener people about the approximate date for fitting that, I've said provisionally 3rd week in September.  The fitter can do the rest of the plumbing.  I have yet to choose a new tap, but I'm going to look for one with an extra pipe for the filtered water, rather than have a separate tank for drinking water.  I don't expect this to be a problem.

I've given no thought to the colour of the walls and I'm not worrying about the tiles yet.

I need to contact the flooring people to tell them when they can come and do that job.

I have bought a new upright freezer, which has to live in the porch for the next three months.  I'm turning out the smaller chest freezer into it, then I'll defrost the latter, then sort out what's in the bigger chest freezer and defrost that, ready to be moved into the workshop (If I can't do without it yet) or disposed of.  

In regard to the study, that will be knocked into from the kitchen, most of the books and bookcases have been removed.  This Thursday, Wince and I will move Tim's big tv and hifi equipment upstairs.  I have also decided that, instead of it being a part-time study, I'm moving all that stuff upstairs onto the landing.  Once the new (present) study floor is laid, the bookcase on the landing will come down into that room, to house cookery books and it'll be replaced by my desk and the stationery cupboard.  On the landing, I also have the cupboard where I keep bedlinen and I'm thinking where I could rehouse the linen, so that I'll have room for papers there.  Bobby the leopard also needs to find a new home, which may be in my bedroom or else in my dressing room, as it might spook guests in a spare bedroom.

I have started to move a lot of kitchen stuff into the further dining room.  It's all going to be quite a challenge for a while, but no matter.

I don't know what to call the ex-to-be-study.  Morning room or breakfast room both sound wildly pretentious, but that's effectively what it'll be.  Kitchen annexe?  3rd dining room?  Probably, I'll just call the entire space the kitchen.  Once all is sorted out, the new upright freezer will live there, I'll have a smaller  dining table and chairs and maybe an armchair or two.  I'm also toying with having the fridge in there, which I think would be quite convenient and keep the kitchen uncluttered (I will have plenty of stuff in there, I like having ingredients to hand in jars).

I have to move a lot of papers and general stuff from the study, I've been dumping stuff there as it's chaotic anyway.  Then I have to sort them out.

My tidying up deadline is the week before the blog party.  Then I'll have to shift the final stuff from the kitchen.

I sleep really well nowadays, better than I have for years.  It's surprising.  What is even more surprising is that I've turned from an owl to a lark.  This is a lot less welcome.  I miss late nights and I hate getting up early.  I don't mind waking up early but, if I get up then, I'm ready for a nap by 11am and that's just silly, especially as I don't have afternoon naps normally.  

Z really doesn't like Blogger, but sorting out the old one is still beyond me

 When I try to do anything on Blogger, I'm reminded of why I abandoned it.  I haven't got the photos of the digital version of the kitchen on the computer, so I wanted to upload them from my phone, but I've been going to and fro for some time without success.  I'm too tired now,

If you've been here, you'll know that my kitchen is quite dark.  Two small windows either side of the Aga, a slightly bigger one behind the sink and a hatchway through to the study opposite the sink,There are doorways to the passage, the dining room, the broom cupboard, the back stairs and the lobby to the larder, back door and laundry room leading to the annexe.  At least the doorways are all at one end.  Then there is a big old central beam across the room and beams down the length of the room.  With no explanation, Russell refused to let me have any light above the Aga and there are fluorescent light strips hidden behind the beams near each side of the room.  A few years ago, I had spotlights put above the Aga, so I can finally see what I'm cooking (Russell had many good qualities, but few people could have remained married to him).  We have fairly light oak units and a boring laminate wood effect floor (all we could afford at the time) and quite a dark floral wallpaper - I couldn't do anything about the darkness, so I emphasised it.

Now, I'm going completely the other way.  It's all about light and openness.  I'll sort out photos tomorrow.  I'm having the units from Magnet and I'm having Corian worktops and sink, with light oak-esque vinyl tiles on the floor, which will be carried through to the study, to which I'm opening up the hatchway to a doorway again - it used to be the back door and we half-filled it in because I needed cupboard space.  

Descriptions and pictures tomorrow, I'm too tired to see, let alone think.  I'm going to take out my contact lens and go straight to bed.  Indeed, the lens has gone in the bin because it's nearly a new month and I won't need to put one in for the next couple of days.

Good news is that the fitter is coming round tomorrow afternoon to size up the job and I hope he'll give me a date soon for the kitchen to be done.  As long as it's not during the blog party, it's fine.  Actually, I don't care.  Whatever he suggests.  I'll always have the Aga.

Which reminds me, I've bought new Aga saucepans.  Z doesn't do extravagance by halves. 

Z's wall of books is dead. Long live Z's wall of books.

 I seem to have bought another piece of Lowestoft china, but I part swapped it for two others that aren't Lowestoft.  Lucky I'm not normally extravagant in other ways, notwithstanding the expensive kitchen etc.

Today, Wince and I manoeuvred the bookcases up to Ronan's bedroom, where they take up most of a wall, and it's a big room.  They look great.  A wall of books is a wonderful thing.  I haven't yet started putting the books on the shelves, that's for another day.

I ordered a freezer.  A big upright one - at present, I have two chest freezers, plus a freezer compartment, not a tiny one, on top of one of the fridges.  The thing is, I want to come down to one chest and one upright, but when one has been moved, you have to leave it to settle before plugging it in.  So what is one to do with the contents of the old freezer in the meantime?  I can tell you, darlings.  You have three for a while.  What I have to guard against is having three forever.  I'm a bit anxious about that - mission creep and all that.

The plan is that I have the new freezer put into the big porch (this is an actual room, the corresponding room above used to be a double bedroom, though now it has a lot of wardrobes and a big bookcase in it).  I put in everything I can from the smaller chest freezer, then move that sideways, as soon as I can, then empty the bigger chest freezer, then move that beside the smaller one.  Once it's settled, put back what wouldn't fit in the other two (having kept them with ice blocks in coolboxes) and work on running down what's in them all.  Once I have done all that and have a spare freezer, I'll order a new fridge and pay to have whatever I don't need taken away.  

I'm also getting a new water softener organised.  

What I haven't mentioned, because I promised to be upbeat last time, was the awful thing that happened a few days ago.  I was working in the house and heard a bit of squawking, though nothing much, but three bantams didn't come home.  And they haven't ever since.  I'm pretty sure that a vixen was teaching her cubs to hunt, because one fox couldn't have grabbed three agile chickens so quickly - it really didn't sound a panicked cry, I thought it was a minor squabble.  They were Millie, because she loved mealworms, Mary, because she was an only chick, of Polly Garter, who loved her very much and fed her so much that she became the biggest bantam, and Plank, the white one who foolishly slept out for several nights, a few years ago and was thick as.  I don't name all the chickens, but these three were pets and I'm desperately upset.  One loses a chicken every so often, but three in daylight - early afternoon - in one fell swoop, as Shakespeare put it, is rough.  I haven't risked letting the rest of them out since and they're not happy with me.

I'm also pretty agitated about the Pam and Peter situation, but I'll leave that for another time.  Today, I'll finish with positives.  The porch where the new freezer will go has been cleared, Kenny's shed has been tidied up and I've room to store things there, the bookcase, as I said, is in place and I can fill it gradually, I've returned my library books on time and I cooked a really nice cauliflower cheese for dinner.  I can also tell you - from last night - that a strawberry Zaiquiri (named after Zac, the lovely new husband of Miriam) made with fresh strawberries is totally divine.

Miriam's mother discovered a love for strawberry daiquiris in Mexico but, after a few days, she asked if she'd got it wrong, as she'd been asking for Zaiquiris. I said, technically yes but it was brilliant and that was their official name from then on, and told everyone in our What'sApp group.  It has completely taken off.

Zoë is busy and purposeful (yeah, right)

 I promised to be upbeat.  So a progress report.  

Of arrangements for the kitchen, I've got the units, work surfaces, floor, window, door and fitter sorted out and am waiting for the fitter to get in touch to tell me when the job can be done, which will inform the ordering of everything else - deposits have been paid.  Weeza thinks I should have tiles behind the Aga, which is fair enough, but I haven't found anything suitable yet.  I haven't given any thought to the colour of the walls.  I've ordered a new, big upright freezer, which is arriving on Saturday.  The reason I'm getting it now is that I need to empty the big chest freezer in order to move it.  Ultimately, I'd like to just have my slightly smaller chest freezer and the upright, but I'll have to juggle between the three for a while first.  I'll get a new tall fridge after the kitchen is installed, to replace the two I have now.  The new freezer will go in the porch to start with, but the tortoise run will have to be moved first, the tots being outside all the time for the next few months.

I moved the lovely oak dresser into the dining room some weeks ago and I've put mostly blue and white china on it - some Lowestoft, also old Delft tiles and some other random china, I don't want it to look too tidy, of course.

A great many books have been moved upstairs, to a room with a very good floor (you know how heavy books are) and the bookcases had to be cut in half to get them into the room - that will be done on Thursday, when Wince is here.  He'll put them together and then the books will go back.  I've set aside a few hundred to dispose of, so far.  

Wink is away for a week and I'm being very busy in her absence.  I'm emptying the kitchen cupboards and taking a lot of things out of the larder, which I use for storage rather than for food.  I'm putting pots and casseroles and plates and so on into the big dining room - unfortunately, I wanted a tablecloth today out of the chest that a lot of heavy stuff is on, so that ain't happening.  I'll just have to wash a tablecloth, dry it and put it back on the table.

I have a lot of papers to sort out.  That's a job for tomorrow.  The start of it, anyway.  There will be a lot I can get rid of and the rest will be properly filed - I always used to keep up with that, but it slipped a while ago and, once that happens, it's very hard to get back under control.

I've got a very big wine rack, a metre wide and I know where it will go in the end but, so far, I'm not sure where it'll be in the meantime.  I want to declutter the kitchen completely in the next few weeks, though it'll make the rest of the house crowded.  I also need to empty the study, so it can't go in there.  

Within the next few weeks, I should hear from the listed building people about my application to alter the drawing room fireplace.  They may need the chap from the council to come round - I don't mind what they tell me to do, as long as I'm allowed to do it.  I really don't want to have to reinstate the bricks that will have to come out to get the old fireplace and chimney liner in, but surely they'll prefer me to have a stove than an open fire.  It's going to make a huge difference to the warmth of the house in winter and be easier and safer - much as I love an open fire - and less polluting too.  I don't have central heating and it really isn't feasible to put it in.

The house will be at sixes and sevens for the blog party, but it really doesn't matter.  It's the company that counts.  And the food.  

Age is more than just a number and we shouldn't pretend

 Various things have been ticked off the list, but it still gets longer.  However, I feel generally optimistic about a lot of them.  And my next post will be a cheerful one about the progress I'm making.

What is less cheering is the matter of the problems facing Pam and Peter, in part because they can't accept how grave these are.  It's nearly 4 months since Peter had his stroke and, though he's a lot better than he was then, he has no movement at all in his right arm or leg, he still needs a small amount of thickener in drinks and not much texture to chew in food, or else he might choke.  He still believes he will recover, but he does little to help that to happen.  He has some simple exercises to do - basically, to lift his bad arm with his good arm, to exercise them both.  He's supposed to do 10 repetitions of 4 exercises, 3 times a day and he doesn't.  I'm not confident he does any of them.  Nor does he do the cycling exercise, where the good leg powers the cycle machine, but it moves the other leg too.  I think he believes he will heal spontaneously, like a cut or a fracture does, but he's not making progress in his physiotherapy sessions either any more, and complains that they hurt him when they move him - it's really that he's not trying very hard, so they have to push and pull him more.  They have made it clear that he has to do the work and ask to be taken to the cycling machine, it's his effort and mental attitude that count.  He's a lovely man, but will relax as long as he can, it is always Pam who's been the driving force.

Yesterday, he was very upset, because he had been told that he won't be likely to drive again and that the DVLA should be given his licence back.  He asked Pam if she thinks he's fit to drive and she said no.  He said, she had really disappointed him by saying this, as a quite hurtful criticism.  Yet he cannot sit up properly, unsupported.  He can't, for example, sit on the edge of the bed and move to a wheelchair.  He needs a hoist and two people to be moved.  He does nothing to help dress himself or really do anything else.  The OT woman used the fact that, though he can see on his left side, he is unobservant as a result of the stroke and it would not be safe for him to drive.  She kindly didn't point out that he can't even get into the driver's seat.  With a paralysed left leg, he could not move from a chair to a car seat on the driver's side, even if he could then operate the controls.  Which he couldn't.  He's totally in denial, but if he truly faced the situation, he might give up hope.

A social care woman came to talk to them while I was there and I stayed, with permission.  She gave options and their likely costs, which shocked them - as well it might.  Peter is determined to go home and not into a care home, but he has no comprehension - this is not a lack of intelligence or mental ability, but an inability to face up to it - of how disabled he is.  Even Pam, who is facing it more, thinks that, once he's home, she'll get him to do his exercises and it'll transform his abilities.  This is unlikely to happen.  They need various adaptations to the house - mostly, the ground floor is all right, but there are no suitable washing or toilet facilities.  He thinks that the bathroom would be usable, but it wouldn't, the shower is a good size but there's a step to get in it and it's not wide enough for a wheelchair and a carer.  Besides, he hasn't given any thought to how he'd get upstairs.  He wouldn't be safe on a stair lift and the staircase isn't suitable anyway as it has a half landing and the wall is on the wrong side (the staircase splits to left and right at the half landing and the bathroom is on the banister side).  A lift would take up half the landing and half the study and a hoist would then be needed in both the living room downstairs and the bedroom upstairs.  He needs a wet room downstairs instead.  Rather than give up the study, however, he wants to use part of the garage and access it via the utility room.  But the wheelchair doesn't have room to manoeuvre around to that, it would need two tight turns, and a lot of building work would be needed.  Comparatively easy would be conversion of the study to a wet room (the small downstairs toilet is next to it) and I suggested to Pam, on the way home, that she asks her plumber to come round, look at it and give an opinion and say how soon he could do it - they want him to move out in the next few weeks.  She said, he's very helpful, he even kindly offered to drive her over to see Peter if she needs help.  I explained that creating a whole new bathroom is a bit more time consuming than two hours to help her visit her husband, which hadn't occurred to her.  

I'm so sorry for them and I'm doing what I can, whilst not getting emotional about it, which wouldn't help.  The social care person is visiting their house next Thursday and I've offered to be there.  I'll take notes and help to explain.  She said she appreciated my input, when I asked if I was a nuisance when I chipped in and I think she meant it.  

It makes me annoyed when people say 'oh, but age is just a number."  Really, it isn't.  Fine if you're in good health, but even then being 80 is not the same as being 40.  Your attitude and approach to life makes a huge difference, but age counts.  We are all in denial.  I am, I'm not pretending I'm not.  But at least I know it.

Zoë''s busy but excellent day

 It's been a better day than I'd expected.  First I went to Rose's place, to drop of some suitcases as she's moving house tomorrow,  Always lovely to see her, of course.  Then, Wink and I went into Norwich and had a straightforward lunch in the cafe at the Forum, of bread and soup. We went our separate ways after that, as we both had some shopping to do before my optician's appointment.

It became a bit amusing because the chap who did the sight test didn't ask me to remove my contact lens and we mutually apologised, when my eye test make so much little sense.  But even after that was sorted out, my sight has improved, oddly.  I need new glasses and new contact lens, because - excuse me while I speak up - MY EYESIGHT HAS IMPROVED, markedly.

I'm not complacent, just grateful.  I can still read without glasses.  I'm 71.  My sight isn't far from perfect and I have no idea how I've come to be so lucky,  If it all goes tits up in a year or two, you absolutely can remind me that I appreciated it while I had it

I wasn't right about the separate ways at that time, because we both went to the market after lunch, I bought local peas, potatoes, cucumber, raspberries, tomatoes and a few other less local things.  So delicious that I ate most of them raw, rather than waiting for the local crab that was meant to be the main course.

Now, I'm so tired that I've had to edit almost every word in the last paragraph.  Tomorrow, darlings.  I've got a whole lot of library books and, if I have any more energy (spoiler: I haven't) I'll just read.