Sunday
Of all the days for the cooker to decide to die, it had to pick a Sunday. There I was, doing my ‘master chef’ impersonation and everything on the hob was cooking nicely. Then I opened the oven door to check on the roast potatoes. The oven light and fan were working, but the potatoes were cold and raw.
Not to be deterred, for I never panic in the kitchen, I sliced and sautéed them and we ended up with a reasonable rendition of Sunday lunch.

Monday started just as brilliantly with bad news. The cooker cannot be fixed until next week. Apparently, if you can believe it, every repairman in Hampshire is on holiday at the moment. So great fun will be had by all, as we try to come up with alternative meals that do not involve the oven.
Lulu surprised us all today, by finally accepting us as friends and insisted on being fussed. She has come so far in just two weeks, and shows no sign of popping her clogs anytime soon. This is all the more surprising as trying to remove the matted fur from her coat cannot be pleasant, even though I am doing just a little every day.

Tuesday
This is not turning out to be my week at all. Climbed out of the shower, turning it off as I passed the taps, and nothing happened. Well, I say nothing happened, but the water did stop. The shower pump did not however, and sounded as though it would blow up any minute.
There followed a scene from a Monty Python film. Me, nearly wrapped in an inadequate towel, tearing about the house, looking for something that looked like a fuse switch, or anything that would shut it off.
No such luck, but after a frantic telephone call, someone turned up who knew what to do and I could stop panicking.
Makes me wonder what tomorrow will bring…

Wednesday
Just as I thought, today brought more of the same when I tried to renew my driving licence. Anita’s was easy, so I thought mine would be too. Wrong! I need to be certified as fit, and only for 3 years at a time. Well, I wasn’t about to go down that route. I only wanted it for identification purposes anyway. Maybe it would be easier to renew my passport?
Turns out it to be very easy, so I could be jetting off to somewhere interesting any day now.

Thursday
I was so determined that nothing would go wrong today, I played safe and concentrated on routine tasks. Things that could not possibly go pear-shaped. Pretty boring really, and by the afternoon I was more than ready for something a little more risky.
I looked at Lulu, our ancient rescuee, then went and fetched a brush and some scissors. Some of that matted coat had to go. It wouldn’t be easy or much fun for her, but the only alternative was the vets and an anaesthetic, if she wasn’t already too old for that.
It was the most scary thing I did all day, but one that didn’t end in disaster, just one large matt down and several more to go. I hated putting her through it, but you can never be sure if a badly matted coat was uncomfortable or even painful, so it was something I had to do.

Friday
Started to come up with some ideas for the Magic Oxygen short story competition. All I need is 4.000 interesting words in the form of a story. See http://www.magicoxygen.co.uk/
Anita has already entered, so I thought I would too. There is a risk, I suppose, that our writing partnership could turn into quite a competition of its own, but that can only be food for our ambition, don’t you think?

God Bless…
Jaye