Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

Our house is a late Victorian example set over three floors. The stairs was one of the things that I loved about the house when we moved here 15 years ago. We made the top room, my study and from here we can access what are known as the eve cupboards or loft space.

My study is a mess. The huge filing and sorting project that I have been undertaking over recent months has been seriously hindered by my current Sciatica outbreak. I could cope with the mess. Then last week due to heavy, heavy rain I noticed a trickle of water down the wallpaper. I called hubby and we looked, there along the side of the sloping ceiling and wall was a definite trickle of water. Nothing apart from the wallpaper had been damage, thankfully.

We called the insurance company and the assessor came on Thursday. The leak is caused by some damage to the chimney of the house next door, which we are joined to. They assessor and contractor are coming back this week to run through the details of the repair.

As I am really the only one who sees this room we had originally decided to leave it to last. We needed to have some work done to the ceiling anyway, as someone has used a rather strange adhesive to the ceiling, but, now with the leak we will bring forward our plans. The good news is that we get the room done, the bad news is that I desperately need to get the filing and sorting complete and I am slightly immobilised. There is no option of hubby sorting through my books and genealogy materials. He simply does not completely understand the obsessions. Any more than I understand why he would choose to stand for hours and hours in the cold and wet fishing. Really, it is a mystery!

The painkillers for the back & leg are doing a good job. I am sleeping at almost every available opportunity. I just felt myself nodding off as I was typing the above paragraph or two! The effects of the painkillers means that one of the usual bodily functions is not functioning and as a result I am eating lots of liquorice, which I always remember my grandmother saying was effective. Rhubarb is also effective, but is sadly out of season.

Apart from the liquorice toffees, and these are delicious! I am eating rather a lot of tomato soup, either out of a tin by Heinz or if I order from the milkman the delicious Tomato and Basil soup that is made by the Covent Garden Soup Company and comes in those old cardboard cartons, rather like milk used to. Remember those?

Yesterday, I had a bit of a disaster with the soup and microwave. I managed to get the packet open and put the carton in the microwave and thought I would cook the whole carton rather than mess around with a microwave container. The post man then delivered the mail and I limped my way to the front door to see if I he had delivered the latest find I had purchased from the States for my Guildford and District Project. He had – hooray!

I then made it back to the microwave to find the carton had fallen over and tomato & basil soup was everywhere in the microwave. All over the round rotating tray and the sides and rear of the microwave. I cleaned up the mess and then had to open the second container of soup, thankful that I had ordered three from the milkman for delivery yesterday morning, so that I could have lunch. The side of the carton says the soup can heat in 3 minutes in the microwave. The clean up operation took much longer than that!

Lunch today, was much simpler, put off by the soup fiasco from yesterday. I have rediscovered Lemon yoghurt – Yum! I noticed these on the milk website when I ordered the soup, so I added these to my order. They come in a set of four – Lemon (my favourite!), Lemon and Lime, Pink Grapefruit & Orange with Nectarine.

Like the impatient individual that I am, I always consume the lemon one first and I might explore the Tesco webpage and see if they make a lemon yoghurt then I can order a few on the next shopping delivery.