Tuesday 25 December 2012

Miserable Monday...


I am running out of words to describe Monday - this week it is miserable Monday, last week it was mucky Monday - the start to the last couple of weeks has been grotty - it is much much wetter and colder this time of the year than it was for the same time last year and they talk about global warming!  We are so much better prepared this time than last fortunately but John absolutely hates the rain - he says he will cope with anything but he hates the rain because water can be so destructive.

It was a bad start to the morning all round as John had an emergency appointment at the dentist down in Polis after the exploding tooth incident.  There is, quite possibly, one thing that John hates more than rain and it is going to the Dentist.  After the major work I had done twenty odd years ago when I had my jaw broken on both sides, teeth removed, chin bone reduced and then teeth wired together (and not for cosmetic reasons I hasten to add) I think a simple filling is a piece of cake!!!

All the way down in the car John had some sort of hacking cough thing that I put down to nerves so it was a good job he didn't have to wait to be seen otherwise he might have lost his bottle!!!  

The verdict was that he needed to have a crown in order to fix the problem properly and that in the interim he would have a temporary one fitted just to see him over Christmas and then the permanent one fitted early January.  The dentist did a good quick job and it was a fairly painless process according to John so he is a better frame of mind about going back in January.  We are now €40 lighter and the crown proper is going to cost €300 - Merry Christmas to the Tooth Fairy is all I can say!


Our next stop was to the Farmer's Union in order to get some irrigation pipe.  Every time it rains our front garden floods and it pours into the conservatory and it is caused by a combination of things.  The garden and path slope towards the front door and as it opens inwards and has to be slightly raised off the ground there is a gap that any rain can find its way into.  The conservatory roof slopes down into the front garden and there is no guttering so when it rains heavily there is a deluge coming off the glass roof into the front garden and therefore under the door.  Finally, the water butt cannot cope with the amount of water coming off the bedroom roof because when it rains here it really really rains.  John's plan was to use the irrigation pipe to continuously empty the water butt to get rid of that problem and then to find a way of attaching some guttering to deal with the water coming off of the glass roof.

I had warned Sheila that I might be a little late getting to art because of the Dentist visit but John managed to get me there around 11.00am which was great because I wanted to give her and Klaus the gift of the jams, olive oil etc I had made for them as a thank you for all those wonderful Mondays I get to spend with them doing my art and eating Klaus's food. Today he had even made some little Christmas nibbles and Sheila had made some mince pies to start the morning off festively!

My latest picture progresses - slowly slowly - there is so much blending to do to get the background that shade of orange!  I have started to think about what I will do for my next one. I think it would be nice to create a picture which I could reproduce as our Christmas card for next year so I am looking for some inspiration!  At the moment Poinsettia is quite high on my list as I am sticking to the flower/leaf theme because that way I have a half chance of knowing what I am doing.  Sheila has now finished the study she was doing of the African Lady with her Child and has it framed and hanging on the wall and it is looking great - you can see the finished result on her blog http://sheilaknips.blogspot.com
 

The feral kittens are growing into good looking cats - obviously Klaus and Sheila are feeding them well as they look fit and healthy.  Sheila says if it were not for her dogs she might have them in the house - it would be easy enough as they are not overly timid.  They were all snuggled up on the outside wall today waiting (patiently to begin with) for their lunch but as time went on they became much more vocal about their impending meal.  Not all of the original litter of kittens have survived but that is nature - survival of the fittest.

John picked me up so that he could go to Badminton whilst I was at Greek.  He really seems to be enjoying going and at only €2 for two hours it is a bit of a bargain.

It was dry as I drove down to Sam's.  I have to pass by several orchards and at this time of the year the fruit trees are pretty laden.  The weather conditions must be good for grapefruit as they seem to be big and plentiful.

The dry weather didn't last and the heavens opened just as I was about to get out of the car - brilliant!  Today's lesson was concentrating on the weather - topical! and some irregular verbs which I have struggled with.  I have a break of several weeks now because of Christmas and the New Year so my homework in the interim is to try and do a full recap of what we have covered so far before we move on to new things. I am to do this by writing as much as I can about me and my life which includes words and verbs which I have learned.  I quite like doing the writing so I will probably enjoy doing this although I am not sure quite when I will have time to do it as the diary is looking pretty full for the next couple of weeks!


I am helping out with some cat feeding at the moment so John and I needed to stop off on the way back home to fill the bowls and do a head count - as we did so we could see the weather closing in on the horizon - that meant the storm was just about directly over Droushia - more rain = more flooding as John has only managed the water butt part of the exercise.

Towels are at the ready...

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