Too Hot to Handle

Sunday 30th May
I woke up, made a drink, showered and then walked up to the shop to get the paper while Robbie was still dead to the world. I wonder what he did in Ireland to make him so tired?

It was a nice day, and we just enjoyed the freedom to do as we liked, we didn't go far, just a quick trip to Tesco to buy Shampoo for Laura, she had forgotten hers and couldn't cope with an inferior brand for a week!

I enjoyed the day, there is something relaxing and therapeutic about being by the sea, listening to the gentle lapping of waves mingled with bird song. There are loads of very vocal blackbirds and if you listen carefully you can hear the skylark singing as it soars high above. There was no hint of the drama that would unfold later that day. Sam and Laura had already eaten and we were going to have chicken and bacon pasta bake. Robbie put the oven on and as usual he was flitting around with a tea towel in his hand, unfortunately he put the tea towel on the hob and it caught fire because Sam has accidentally left one of the burners on low. There was no real harm done, just a cremated tea towel and a serious scare, but it caused a panic and Robbie is still sulking a whole day later!

A Burning Issue!

Emily sent a text to Laura to say that she had set fire to the cheese grater because someone had left it in the oven. It didn't make sense, how could she set fire to a cheese grater? I was fairly dismissive thinking oh well it is only a cheese grater, it is over 20 years old, it is no big deal. I told Laura to tell her not to worry about it, but Emily kept mentioning it and seemed very upset by the experience.

I didn't speak to Emily until last night when I got the full story. The cheese grater was the tip of the iceberg so to speak, it was the only thing that actually caught fire, but it wasn't the only item in the oven. Apparently Emily had lit the oven to preheat before cooking a meal for herself and her boyfriend. Some time later they became aware of a horrible smell of burned plastic and when she opened the oven she saw the handle of the cheese grater burning and a number of other blackened items in the oven. Apparently there were plates and saucepans in there too. She asked quite reasonably who would use an oven as a cupboard? The answer wasn't hard to deduce - Robbie!! He had tucked them away so that he could leave all the cat and guinea pig food on the worktop ready for my mum. I was too busy packing the car to notice that the things were not in their usual places, I assumed that the oven was empty and newly cleaned, just as I left it. It and all it's unexpected contents are now black and burned, that will give me something to look forward to when I get home!

Taking Down the Decorations 06.01.01

Christmas is over and all the decorations have been taken down and packed away for another year. It is the part of Christmas that I like the least. When it is time to put up the decorations I have several willing volunteers, but taking the decorations down is a very different matter, suddenly everyone is very busy and I find that packing away the decorations is a lonely task.

I think Oreo will be very sad to find an empty space where the Christmas tree stood, he loved sleeping underneath it and when he felt energetic he would climb up and play with the decorations. At least he still has the fire, I took a lovely photo of him squashed as close as he could to the hearth so that he could soak up every bit of heat.

Dave the cat prefers a comfortable cushion, but he happily curls up with his mate Oreo, they have become good friends, not bad considering that Dave only joined our family in November.

Oreo is not too impressed with toys these days, but Dave had a squeaky mouse for Christmas and he loves chasing it all around the house before killing it with his four remaining teeth. I hope you like the photos.

The dead fridge freezer was taken away for a post mortem today. Bosch want to work out what caused the plug to burst into flames. I already have a written report from the tradesman who came out on Christmas Day, it was a wiring fault in the plug so it will be interesting to see how they try to put a positive spin on that. I have sent the plug back as requested, but as you can see from the photo there is not much left for them to examine. A new fridge freezer has been delivered to replace the one that spontaneously cremated itself. I insisted on a different model but I am still struggling to overcome the urge to turn off the electricity every time I go out, it has really frightened me.





Robbie was finally able to travel to Birmingham from Northampton today. The handover was not problem free, Robbie rang me with updates on delays and diversions but it is far too boring to detail here. I feel really sorry for Virgin, they must be wondering if things will ever get back to normal. I went to visit some relatives today and they enquired about the train problems and the impact they were having on Robbie. My sister in law said she had seen a rather charismatic man from Virgin being interviewed on TV. I don't know who it was, but I would hazard a guess that it was probably Chris Gibb. You certainly have to give them full marks for managing the media. When it comes to spin Virgin make the Labour party look like amateurs. Beware 'the Dark Side' are taking over the world!!

This article makes interesting reading. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/01/04/cnvirgin104.xml

Sparks Fly at Christmas! 27.12.07

Robbie has already written about his Christmas presents, but our Christmas was extremely eventful even by the standards of our rather unconventional household. We always spend the couple of days before Christmas with my mum and step father, then they come to us on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and my brother usually joins us as well. We'd had a lovely couple of days at my mums and we'd worked our socks off to have everything ready and just as we wanted it for Christmas Day. I went to bed just after midnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day which is fairly early when compared with past years, but I had to set my alarm for the morning to be sure that the huge turkey that my brother had brought was put into the oven early enough to be ready for lunch time.

In the morning with the turkey safely in the oven we all gathered in the lounge to watch the children open their presents. Sam holds the record for 'speed opening' but he seemed very pleased with his presents which included a telescope and a lamp in the style of a blue light from a police car. Laura was pretty speedy in the opening stakes too, her presents included clothes, perfume and an external hard drive for her computer. Emily's presents had a mixed theme, several useful things for university including a special textbook that was top of her Christmas list, she also had perfume, bags and various fun things. The children also had a Nintendo Wii as a joint present which has proved extremely popular. You already know about the contents of Robbie's stocking, and I had a bottle of my favourite perfume from Robbie and a lovely necklace from the children. It was a brilliant start to the day.

The day went down hill rapidly after that. Robbie decided that the shirt that he absolutely had to wear needed ironing, so I was installed in the kitchen with the ironing board while Robbie went to have a shave and shower. We had taken the decision to replace the fridge freezer because we had been worried that the old one may let us down over Christmas, so the shiny new Bosch fridge freezer that had only arrived the previous Thursday was now installed in place of the temperamental hotpoint. It looked really smart and I liked it because it wasn't quite as tall as the old one, so it was easier to reach the things in the fridge. I had finished one shirt and was part way through the Boxing Day shirt when without warning there was a crackle and the fridge socket burst into flames! The kitchen fire blanket was hanging close to the cooker and I grabbed it and beat the now fierce fire frantically with it. I yelled for Robbie who arrived just in time to see me put out the fire, I was so shaken that I didn't even moan about him not being dressed. The side of the fridge was burned, the sockets were charcoal, the wall tiles were cracked and the paper had been burned off the wall, the kitchen roll holder was burned and black and my CD player (which had been on top of the fridge) was a write off. So, it looked as if Christmas was cancelled!

The fridge freezer and its contents were lost, but we managed to get on with Christmas regardless. Thankfully I have home emergency insurance and I was able to get an electrician to come and make the wiring safe. He checked and said that the fault had been caused by faulty wiring in the fridge freezer's sealed plug, it was a relief to know it wasn't our wiring! He made everything safe, but the smell of burn still lingers and the shock really upset me. I can't help thinking what could have happened if we were in bed or if we had been out! The one good thing was that our smoke detectors worked perfectly!