Nearly Friday

Bless - I remember the trouble you had with the plumber.  I'm glad it got sorted out.

Wean - I hear you.  When it all hits at once, you just do what you can to get through.

The next six months are going to trash our savings.  It's all stuff that actually needs to be done, but I'm wincing a little.  I'm really keen on getting the house rewired as it hasn't been done in over twenty years and it is probably not as good as it could be.  Light bulbs don't last long and every time there is an electrician involved there seems to be a sharp intake of breath.  The carpets are all older than bear.  Some of the carpets are older than bear's teachers.  I don't believe that carpets have sell-by dates, but the holes and bald patches are shameful.  Then I will need a car, and insurance, and all of that. 

It could be worse.  I remember when bear was around two or three.  For six months everything broke.  We didn't take out loans, but we did put stuff on credit cards and it has taken years to get straight. 

First of all we needed a new washer, which was a few hundred.  I insisted we got a new flat screen tv as bear was toddling and kept trying to pull the old, heavy, boxy tv towards him and it made me nervous.  We didn't go for the most expensive model, but it still wasn't cheap.  The gear box in the car went, which was an eye-watering bill, and the printer stopped working after a mouse got stuck in it.  I can't remember everything, but at the time it seemed like everything with a fuse gave up.  The fridge and freezer were okay but we needed a new vacuum cleaner, a new dvd player and I can't tell you what else.  The worst was the boiler.  It had been staggering inefficiently along for a while and the parts were apparently no longer made for it.  I suspect the British Gas Engineer because he put it on extra high to test it during its service and it blew a week later.  British Gas had been trying to get me to buy a new boiler from them for years.  It was £4000 for the new boiler, which we got from a local firm, and it was fitted at a time when there was snow on the ground and I was trying to keep bear warm.  All in all I believe we spent something like £10,000 over the six months and I was glad when things stopped breaking. 

Bear has been spending the day mostly on the recliner.  He has been upside down, right way up, sideways and in all sorts of contortions - completely normal for a young lad who has seemed around 80% leg.  I may have to save up for another one!