Tuesday 22 December 2009

Christmas is just around the corner, now would probably be a good time to panic

I'll keep this week's BlackLOG short, or at least as brief as I can be. If your build up to Christmas is anything like ours, then you are going to have less time to read this rubbish than I’ve had to write it….

Our attempts to get a shed load of work done in time for Christmas is coming to a nail biting conclusion. It really is going down to the wire and with 5 guests due for a festive visit, the situation can be best described as interesting verging on critical. Regular readers may recall that we have been playing peacemakers between tribes of workmen who get very territorial once they come on site. A couple of potential flashpoints have only been avoided thanks to copious amounts of tea…

The tasks that were undertaken, not necessarily started or completed in the order below, in the last few weeks have been :-

  • Decorate our hall, stairs and landing, the living room and the back bedroom (previously my music and film room, the contents of which have been evicted by Mrs B). Rather than see the collection destitute and wandering the streets of Bishops Stortford, I have been forced to build them a new home in the loft. This in turn has seen me having to evict all the toot that we have collected over the past 10 years, plus loads of stuff that moved straight into the loft when we first moved in. It is amazing how tasks escalate, what seemed like a throw away line from Mrs B “Lets decorate before Christmas” has turned into weeks of D.I.Y and house rearranging…Ideally this would have been done after the work on the fireplace but even we could tell that that was never going to work.
  • Have the old fireplace removed and replaced with a wood burning stove – How hard can that be?  Well "very" apparently. Three weeks after having a hole ripped in the wall, our contractors “Fireplace consultants” rang to say that they were having difficulty with their granite suppliers and had switched to new ones. This put the work back to just a few days before Christmas.  With fresh snow on the ground I was not expecting great things but the workmen arrived and started to install the granite, sweet. Part way through the process of fitting the fire surround, one of them casually dropped into the conversation that the stove that we had been recommended and was on their van was not actually suitable without having major construction work done on our chimney. What is wrong with these people,?  We purchased it on their recommendation? Fortunately they had a suitable one still left in stock …So why did they not bring it with them? Aaargh – as long as the snow does not get any worse it should be with us and installed tomorrow…. 
  • New sofas – these have been on order since October, are supposedly on their way and we have been told that they will arrive on Wednesday.  I'm not sure that I have a great deal of faith as any contact with the sofa company has been less than impressive. When I called them at the end of November, I was helpfully told that we could expect delivery in December or possibly January, a nice small window to play with then. In order to make room for the new sofas we need to get rid of the old ones and thought we would do the decent thing and donate them to charity. The charity was due to pick up the sofa last Friday but a few meagre centimetres of snow put paid to that as a health and safety crisis arose, which resulted in the lorry drivers having to stay in bed in case they caught a cold or possibly slipped on their way to the bathroom . The only other chance for them to pick up the sofa is on Tuesday and with more snow falling over the weekend I suspect it isn’t going happen. This firmly puts us in a game I like to call sofa lottery.  Feel free to play along all you have to do is predict how many sets of sofas we will have on Christmas day:
  1. Zero – Hopefully unlikely - let's face it if the charity people can get to us and remove the old sofas then even hermits and the bed bound will be out and about.
  2. One – the ideal number but hopefully it will be the new sofas and not the old;
  3. Two – Our guests will have to enjoy scrambling over spare sofas;
  4. More than two – Hmm, something will have gone really wrong.  Our guests will not be able to sit on any sofas as other sofas will already be sitting on them. Since this is BlackLOG don’t count this option out…
Putting all this into perspective our friends lost their dog Saffy this week, she was only a year old and was run over. Really sad as she was a proper little character.


Saffy, gone before her time

Next week I will be publishing my photos of the year and you will get the chance to vote for your favourite BlackLOG. Despite the fact you will be in that busy time of celebration between Christmas and New Year you will be expected to attend and say which are your favourites…I’ll leave you with some photos of Newark from last weekend and McG and Mischief.  Have a great Christmas and New Year.


For those of you of a romantic nature, the bottom of these
very stairs is where I proposed to Miss C (You are probably
more likely to recognise her as Mrs B), during my speech
at my sisters wedding. For the record Mrs B burst into tears
and did not actually say yes, so I'm not sure our 14 year
marriage is technically legal



I guess this counts as a moonset...or is it a moonrise



Newark waking up...


You looking at me, punk?



I love the way that this picture gives the impression of
the crowding that this little fellow had to deal with...



Chrismas lights in Bath - If I hear one "They
sure are pretty" it will not go well for you



Main driveway leading to Newark Parks front door


Another dull sunrise,apparently it happens most
mornings, who would have guessed that?


The main entrence hall at Newark Park


The morning room -rather confusingly it
seems to get used at any time  of the day



High tea at Newark - Our friend Michael was only catering
for 60 friends and neighbours . I'm not sure we know that
many people....



McG - seems to have found heaven



Looks like Mischief is finding
life a bit hard in the run up to
Christmas. She's probably
wandering what Santa will
bring her...

See you next week

16 comments:

  1. Cool pics.

    That list sounds like too much stuff to do.

    Just forget about it until after the holidays.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those lights sure look pretty ;) **running away as fast I can**

    Poor Saffy...maybe you should give them one of your cats?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Niel, I am sending this message from Mauritius where it is 30 degrees and extremely hot and sunny, slight contrast to the weather in the UK!
    I enjoyed reading your blog but one certain bit made me cry. I haven't looked at a photo of Saffy yet and that was very hard. I miss her so much. She was such a lovely character and she has left a deep void in my life. Thanks for giving her a mention though, I was very touched.
    Hope you and Mrs B have a lovely xmas.
    Kirstyxxxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ed Adams

    Cool pics. Thank you

    That list sounds like too much stuff to do.

    Just forget about it until after the holidays.

    Sounds like a plan, but have you met Mrs B when she has "A Plan"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nikki
    Those lights sure look pretty ;) **running away as fast I can** I'm almost impressed at the speed of your exit, have you been in training

    Poor Saffy...maybe you should give them one of your cats? And You a pet owner, shame on you. I might be prepared to loan them Mrs B for the odd day.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kirsty
    Hi Niel, I am sending this message from Mauritius where it is 30 degrees and extremely hot and sunny, slight contrast to the weather in the UK! Tell me about it, took me three hour to drive the normal 40 minuet trip to meet Mrs B last night. A bit of a cold snap and it's like the UK has washed it's roads and simply can't do a thing with them...

    I enjoyed reading your blog but one certain bit made me cry. I haven't looked at a photo of Saffy yet and that was very hard. I miss her so much. She was such a lovely character and she has left a deep void in my life. Thanks for giving her a mention though, I was very touched.Sorry if it made you cry that was not the plan. She had a good if short life.

    Hope you and Mrs B have a lovely xmas.
    Kirstyxxxxxxx

    And you guys. Mischief and McG are looking forward to seeing you on Boxing Day

    ReplyDelete
  7. We recently had our fireplace replaced with a stove and boy your not joking about the mess,noise and general time consuming-ness of it :) Merry Crimbo! I hope you get the new sofas on time and get rid of the old too :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your photography is outstanding!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Smileyfreak
    We recently had our fireplace replaced with a stove and boy your not joking about the mess,noise and general time consuming-ness of it :) Merry Crimbo! I hope you get the new sofas on time and get rid of the old too :)

    Quick update on progress towards Christmas completion

    1) Fireplace failed - it's a bit more complicated than supplied the wrong stove but that's essentially what they have done, watch future Blogs for the full story.

    2) Remove old Sofa's - Failed, they came while I was out dropping Mrs B at the station - How come they failed to come when the weather was moderately bad but made it when it was much worse, Grrr - well they can go F themselves I would not give it to them now if they paid me...

    So not going all that well

    Have a great Christmas yourself

    ReplyDelete
  10. Secretia
    Your photography is outstanding!
    Thank you and thanks for signing up as No.35

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm assuming you still have your old sofas and that the new ones didn't arrive, so at least your guests won't be sitting on the floor...

    Poor Saffy, what a horrible thing to go through any time of year, let alone the holidays.

    So where are the before and after pics of your own home, hmm? *taps foot*

    ReplyDelete
  12. Really sorry to hear about the lack of your wood burning stove. We had one installed about 3 years ago now, and they had to bend the flu bit between two floors, up the side of a cupboard, through the corner of our bedroom before it burst out through the roof. All Mr Imo had to do was box in a couple of bits in the cupboard and it was all done in a day. (decides to keep quiet about the fact the bit in the corner of the bedroom is still waiting to be covered up, cough cough).

    I thought the lights of Bath looked a bit pathetic - it's a posh place they could do so much better.

    It's heartbreaking when you lose an animal, however long you've had them for, so have some internet hugs from me. That's Saffy's owners not you Blacklog!

    Lastly you should have kept quiet about where the interior shots were taken - you could have impressed people with your palatial homestead.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gingerella
    I'm assuming you still have your old sofas and that the new ones didn't arrive, so at least your guests won't be sitting on the floor...

    No we have Sofa on Sofa action….

    Poor Saffy, what a horrible thing to go through any time of year, let alone the holidays.
    They had to fly away on Holiday the next day, absolute torture….

    So where are the before and after pics of your own home, hmm? *taps foot*
    Pictures when it is all complete (that might be some time away). It’s like being in kindergarten at times

    ReplyDelete
  14. Imo
    Really sorry to hear about the lack of your wood burning stove. We had one installed about 3 years ago now, and they had to bend the flu bit between two floors, up the side of a cupboard, through the corner of our bedroom before it burst out through the roof. All Mr Imo had to do was box in a couple of bits in the cupboard and it was all done in a day. (decides to keep quiet about the fact the bit in the corner of the bedroom is still waiting to be covered up, cough cough). The joys of D.I.Y I can understand why Mr IMO is reluctant

    I thought the lights of Bath looked a bit pathetic - it's a posh place they could do so much better.That's how the posh stay rich, they don't spend much money

    It's heartbreaking when you lose an animal, however long you've had them for, so have some internet hugs from me. That's Saffy's owners not you Blacklog!

    Lastly you should have kept quiet about where the interior shots were taken - you could have impressed people with your palatial homestead.
    As soon as people know I'm living in Bishops Stortford they would know that I am not living in a place like Newark Park....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely photos.....super-adorable one of that poor, sweet little doggy.

    My bet is on the couches sitting on top of couches. I know that's not the optimal holiday situation, but it would make for a hilarious photo for US to see....(um, sorry.)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Kathryn
    Lovely photos.....super-adorable one of that poor, sweet little doggy.

    My bet is on the couches sitting on top of couches. I know that's not the optimal holiday situation, but it would make for a hilarious photo for US to see....(um, sorry.)


    I can probably do you a photo of the pitiful attempts to get the new sofa into the house...

    ReplyDelete

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