A short week

[caddyman]

It is the solstice today, I believe. The shortest day of the year and the last working Monday of 2009, the way the bank holidays fall this year. It should be a reasonable three weeks coming up: a three-day week this week, a two day week next week and then a three day week after that. Thus we juggle our annual leave to try and get some kind of break with both Furtle and me in the same place.

As much as I like the cold weather, I could do with a thaw, just now. The gutter is leaking above and just to the left of the door to the Carpathia, so there is a permanent shower of water coming from it - presumably there is a plug of ice somewhere, causing melt water to back up and overflow. We have some impressive (for London) icicles and the terrace outside the door is like an ice rink. Thank God for dishwasher salt. There is a slick of ice down the wall where the water has run and frozen. I noticed this morning that the extractor fan in the bathroom has stopped working. I am wondering if it is iced shut; there is no obvious reason inside why it should have stopped working. I shall have to try and see if I can tell by looking from the outside.

In other news, I had a good night's sleep last night, though another hour or so would have been nice, so I feel reasonably perky this a.m.

Note to self: buy chicken tonight.

Comments

[mezzogiornouno.livejournal.com]

We, on the other hand, lost all power at 10.30 on Thursday evening, after almost 12" of snow, including 3' drifts, and didn't get it back until 4.30 Saturday afternoon. Despite the four of us being frozen practically solid (there being no heating as well as no lights etc), the fridge and freezer was apparently the place to be, as they warmed up to such an extent that the whole contents of both were spoiled and had to be thrown out. An unwanted expense just before Christmas replacing it all, but oh the unrestrained joy when we got heat and light back, and the kids could once more glue themselves to Nickelodeon. Happy days...