It’s been about 5 weeks since our move, and we’re settling nicely; finding shops, a vet, GP and dental services.

We have a new shower which is great, and we’re managing to work the old boiler (not me) at the house too. The rooms, especially upstairs, have ridiculously high ceilings, and I had hoped it would keep the bedrooms cooler, but no. Average night time temps here are 24C, even with the windows open, and my son’s room is even hotter as he has the room on the sunny side of the house. Speaking of high ceilings, we’re dreading if a light bulb goes as I’m not sure we’ll reach them with our kitchen steps, and may need a step ladder.

We’ve been playing a ‘fun’ game called spot the post box. They’re really hard to find here! The agent had to call in to check the meters, presumably because we’re switching provider, and he showed me, on his phone, where the closest post box is. It’s only slightly closer than the one in the town’s post office, and according to his app, there are only 3 post boxes in the immediate vicinity. Good grief.

I’m guessing this is because we’re close to the town centre, which also has its down sides, the main one being, I suspect workers are parking in our street rather than pay car park charges. Overnight, we have very few cars in our street, but come rush hour, it’s chock a block with parked cars. Now, either most of my neighbours are shift workers, or town centre workers are parking here. If I go out too early in the car, I can’t park in my street for hours, until they’ve gone home again. It isn’t illegal, but it is a royal pain. If I stay home until around 10am, then go out, it’s not an issue.

So, service providers. Despite calling them (couldn’t get an answer) and filling in online forms, and writing more than 2 weeks ago, the only missive we’ve had from E-On is a circular stating that prices are going up next month. I got on the phone and called our old provider, who answered within 3 minutes, and have sorted out taking on my gas and electric accounts again. Eat your heart out E-On! This could all have been sorted before I even moved if the unhelpful person at the agents had answered my queries re our move. Thankfully, we don’t have to deal with her anymore and have a wonderful, helpful woman and her colleague as our contacts now.

Am I the only one now sick of this weather? We haven’t had a decent rainfall in the area for more than 7 weeks now (according to my son). We had one short, sharp shower recently, but it didn’t last long and certainly didn’t do much good for the plants and trees. Green grass is not to be seen, and I’m watering the fruit bushes every few days or so. It’s too hot to sleep, too hot to do anything, and too sunny to be out for too long. My son suffers from Raynaud’s and even he’s finding the heat intolerable. Bring on the rain please, and hopefully cooler temps.

Has anyone else using Win10 had ‘issues’ following a massive update recently? The update took ages, the restart took longer, and within a week, I’d had the ‘blue screen of death’ on a laptop that’s barely a year old. Man, I’m impressed with Win 10. Not! Details have been sent to Microsoft, but I doubt anything will be done. My son put a large dent in my credit card to buy a new PC (he’s already paid me for it) and he’ll pass on his ‘old’ PC to me. It’s running Win8 and is much faster than my laptop which frankly gets on my nerves. I seem to have the use of a lot of second-hand goods (TV, vacuum, some knives, pans… the cooker and fridge at the new house, and now a PC soon).

Finally; funeral arrangements are in hand, and hopefully I’ll have a date soon of when I need to go back to Wales, hopefully without an overnight stay being involved. Mum was so poorly, for so long, I’m not sure it’s even sunk in properly yet though the funeral will of course bring closure. Thank you for your kind messages, and private messages too; it’s appreciated so much.