Confined to Barracks...

 
I was really disappointed that the decoupage company that I ordered from had let me down.  It is Nicky's birthday tomorrow and I had planned what I was going to do good and early.  This glass vase is a great size and shape and could be used as a vase or a candle holder.  I had planned on the latter as I had bought a box of nice floating candles.  So the colour scheme in Nicky and Mark's lounge/dining area is predominantly black and white/cream and I had found some amazing decoupage papers with classic designs of cherubs and columns but as I said previously the Royal Mail in its infinite wisdom had sent my order to Los Angeles.  I ended up with the best I could find but the butterflies had a hint of blue to them and I am not sure that is a colour that 'goes' in 9b.

My next issue was that I could not find the wrapping paper I had put in that 'safe place' and as Nicky and Mark were coming round for drink later I wanted to get the gift wrapped and ready to go.  I actually ended up using some bubble-wrap and a large paper serviette but thought it looked ok.  I just hope she will like what is inside.

We were confined to barracks today because we were waiting for CYTA to come - they had tried yesterday but John had been out on his bike when they phoned.  They pitched up around lunch time - two guys, one of which had been here recently and the other one who appeared to be head honcho and spoke good English.  We were able to demonstrate what had been happening with our service because we had done speedtests during the course of the morning and screen captured the results.  1st test download around 19Mb, subsequent test download around 11Mb then third test download around 6Mb.  Not exactly stable.  Head Honcho was called Pavlos and he was great because he realised that we did know a little about our system.  He questioned why we had both the router and our Mesh system broadcasting Wi-Fi and I told him that I had turned the Wi-Fi broadcast from the router off to avoid any conflicts and then subsequently a visiting engineer had turned it back on.  The two of them did all sorts of test and replaced another cable and then decided that the router had to go.   That was a shame because it meant I had to go back in and set up the new one - if I could remember how.  Anyway eventually we did get it all set up and the system did seem better than it had been which was a bloody good job as John wanted to be able to watch the Mighty Blades playing Tottenham in the FA Cup this evening.  It didn't start until 10pm which was far to late for me so he was going to be on his own with that one and sleeping in the spare room afterwards so as not to disturb me.

John is concerned that Aliens came down and kidnapped his wife and replaced her with a Marie Kondo-a-like.  Marie Kondo is a world renowned tidying expert and I am a cupboard and drawer slut normally but today, whilst waiting for Cyta Engineers to do their stuff I decided to tackle the basket under the sink which houses my washing cloths.  Normally they spill out all over the shop when I want one but today no, no, no they are all folded and neatly stacked.

The alien wife replacement not only channels her inner Marie Kondo but also her inner Nigella Lawson and busied herself making a banana loaf with some very blackened bananas that had been 'loafing' in the fruit bowl.