Z is tetchy

It hasn't been a brilliant week really.  A member of the family of very good friends died the other day - I shall be playing the organ at her funeral, not at the church I usually play at and they want Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, not my favourite since it was played for forever at a wedding when the register was being signed, when I was fourteen (I think they chased and caught the goose and plucked a quill before shaping it and returning in triumph to the church and finally remembering there was a legal document to be signed), as an intro.  Then, I found several unheard messages on the answerphone, one of which was to say another elderly friend had died and the other was from the husband of an unwell friend, asking for a return call, from two days ago, so I jumped to the wrong conclusion, as it turned out - but I was quite upset to start with.

I've felt unsettled all day.  It all seems to have built up.  It doesn't help that the dishwasher has broken down - no big deal to do the washing up and I don't mind, but I am finding myself irritated that it doesn't occur to the Sage to lend a hand.  In those far-off days before we had a dishwasher, he was working full-time but still thought it perfectly reasonable to wash up if I'd cooked dinner.

At least, having been tetchy all day, I cooked a nice meal this evening.

I do hate the BT 1571 service and there doesn't seem to be a way to switch it off.  For those of you who don't live in this country, it serves as an answerphone and also as a voicemail, so if you're already on the phone it offers to take a message.  However, there is no indication of this to the householder, but just a two-tone dialling tone when next you pick up the phone to make a call.  So, after a phone call, you're supposed to pick up the damn phone to check whether anyone has left a message, which of course you don't think to do, so miss it until the next time you make a call.  Again however, if you've got a mobile phone contract that includes calls, you don't use the landline, so it might be days before you find a message.

It was by chance, as it happens, that I did.  The phone rang, I went to answer it and it was dead.  I went to the plugged-in phone - missed the caller, as by then the (non BT) answerphone had kicked in and they'd put the phone down rather than leave a message.  So I went to investigate and it turned out that the cordless phone had been switched off.  The Sage had plugged in his own mobile to be charged, but not noticed the other switch was off.  When I switched on, I discovered all these messages.

Anyway, as I say, I've been tetchy.  The Sage is being very careful.

Dilly, Al and the children are going on holiday tomorrow.  They've rented a cottage for a week in North Norfolk.  Dilly will have her birthday while she's away, so I've made up a bag of small presents - what I'd meant to get her, knowing she wanted it, her parents are getting so I've had to order other stuff at the last, so there are just little things for now.  She won't take it amiss, she knows us too well.  I also, on a whim, ordered a couple of DVDs for the children the other day and they arrived remarkably quickly so I can give them to take, in case of a day when they are rained in.  Or an evening when they want to veg.

I'll be really nice to the Sage later, I promise.  He's taken the point.  We haven't quarrelled, I assure you.  Ahem.  I just told him what he needed to know.