I’ve never in my life known such a cold November! We thought before it got any colder that we should replace our back door that was literally falling apart. Why do we always leave these things till the last minute? Why didn’t we happily have a day in summer with no door on? That’s just us I suppose, so once Chris finally got the door to fit, I was outside with my hat and gloves on painting it before it rained!……
More or less at the same time we had our Rayburn’s annual service. We’ve always had it done by O’brien’s in Frome and have been very impressed by the service. However it was someone different this time and either he was lazy or hadn’t had proper training, but he didn’t do half the stuff that was normally done and I feel ripped off by the company. As I have several Rayburn-owning readers, I thought it was worth a mention. When I phoned to complain he offered me 20% off the next one, but I might look elsewhere next year.
So, we swept the chimney and lit up the Rayburn and all was going swimmingly until the pump for the central heating wouldn’t start. I wasn’t sure if this was covered by our British Gas homecare service, but I phoned and after three quarters of an hour on hold the lady I spoke to said she’d send someone out. This is the second time they’ve sent people out to us for things we aren’t covered for. It’s a waste of everyone’s time so they really should train the telephone staff better. Oh dear, I’m sounding a bit moany this month. Well, we were flipping freezing! On the plus side, we booked a local heating engineer, DP Heating Ltd, who came out on the same day; changed the pump and charged a reasonable rate. Oh what a delight it is to find a person you can trust for these sorts of jobs! No doubt we’ll be calling on his services again!
Blogfest16
I had a big event this month (well; big for me!) as I had a day-trip to London for Blogfest – a jam-packed day full of seminars and speeches about blogging and vlogging. Highlights were seeing Louise Pentland from Sprinkle of Glitter in real life, and Davina’s inspiring key-note speech about being thankful. The blog about it all is here.
Saturday was a busy day for me – I went to Glastonbury Frost Fayre to have a look around. It’s such a great atmosphere; like a mini Glastonbury Festival! I filmed it and will appear in a Vlogmas You Tube video in
Glastonbury Frost Fayre
December. Then Chris joined me and we did a quick Weekly Wardrobe photo-shoot. After that Jude and I went up to Gloucestershire to Westonbirt Arboretum for their Enchanted Christmas, which was absolutely magical – I wrote about it in this blog post.
Apart from those little adventures, it’s been a fairly boring month of sorting out; chucking out; tidying up and cleaning, ready to have a stress-free December. The plan has helped, but not been entirely successful as there’s still more to do. Well in this house, there’s always more to do, but there are essentials that need dealing with before guests come to stay over Christmas.
Highlights of the month:
* Going to see Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them. It was brilliant! (Review here.)
Blogfest.
* Our choir, Village Voices, sounded the best yet (I think) singing at the advent service on Sunday.
* Feeling very enchanted indeed at the Westonbirt Arboretum and enjoying the time with Jude.
Things I’m grateful for this month:
* The robin who kept me company while I was painting the outside of the back door.
* The kind lady who gave Jude a pound as the bus fare had gone up and she didn’t have enough.
* The kind person at the reception desk of Access to Music centre in Birmingham who did all they could to help Jude when the people running the open day for the university course messed up and wasted her whole day.
* The fact that we have no street lights here. On that night the moon was at its biggest, even though we couldn’t see it, I was able to walk home without using my torch because it was still bright enough through the clouds. Then the other day, again walking home in the dark, although I did need my torch some of the time, the stars were so bright and completely covered the sky. I’m surprised I didn’t fall over, walking along with my head up to the sky! If we had street lights, I couldn’t have enjoyed that so much.
There have been lots of new blog posts this month, and three You Tube videos. Don’t forget I’m going to be vlogging every day in December, so please subscribe if you haven’t already.
This one is of Jude’s eighteenth birthday party – it was such a wonderful day.
This one is just if you’d like a nosey at the contents of the Blogfest goody bag!
And lastly it’s a haul and try-on of 1950’s style dresses.
I hope you all have an excellent December and enjoy your Christmas or whatever seasonal celebrations you’re having! Knowing that I’ll be busy with Vlogmas, I’ve got some blog posts pre-prepared, but please forgive me if it slips a little – particularly when it comes to the days when I have family staying. I’ll do my best though!
(Today I’m actually going to be posting two videos on You Tube, but they aren’t part of Vlogmas or my usual videos – they’re just me holding up a load of vintage clothes and costumes I’m selling on e-bay.)
