With Mel off for the week, I've also taken a bit of a holiday. Not that we haven't had plenty to do, but it has been nice to get some troublesome jobs put behind us. We emptied out a small shed a few months ago when we got a new (to us) lawnmower, and all the junk — a couple of old chairs, one of them clearly targeted by rats or mice for bedding, an old circular washing line, rusty gardening equipment, old paint pots, old plant posts, etc. — went down the side of the house into the space made by our previous run to the council rubbish tip.
There were some fairly substantial tree branches, some wood that has been there since we moved in, and various other bits of accumulated crap.
We also took the opportunity to empty a couple of boxes of electrical bits 'n' bobs that have sat in the living room, again for years... bits of old cable, an old razor, an old electric toothbrush, and other doodads no longer working. I had some old hard drives that had come out of old computers that might have had passwords or account details on them, so I spent a happy hour in the sun on Monday smashing them to bits with a crowbar, two screwdrivers and a hammer. Everyone tells you to be so-oo-ooo careful not to damaged a hard drive — it's almost as if the slightest breeze could wipe your information — but try to actually do them some damage and you soon realise how resilient the cases are. Four hard drives, fifteen minutes each just to wreck the circuit boards, break through the casing and damage the drive beyond repair.
It was a beautiful sunny day, so we managed to get out for a walk down to the river and a second walk around the local area like we used to during the Covid lockdown. We used to walk along the river most Sundays, but, for various reasons, that hasn't been possible over the past year or so. So we finally manage to get a nice walk in along the tow path and I would have snapped a picture to commemorate the day and celebrate the views but I forgot my camera.
So on Tuesday, we had arranged with a friend to load up his van and take all the rubbish to the dump. Nice sunny day? Not on your Nelly! It was tipping it down. We missed the very worst of the weather while we were loading, but it started raining quite heavily as we were driving towards the dump. I was thinking that I should have taken a photo of the junk before we loaded it all up, but I hadn't. Never mind, take one before we unload.
The unloading went smoothly. We could finally say goodbye to our old kettle and a toaster that, when you used it, there was a 50-50 chance it would trip out the power to the whole house. Farewell! We had twenty minutes to hump all the wood, the electrical junk, the household waste and toxic paint into various different skips, while everyone else ran around trying to do the same and not get too wet.
Wednesday was a bit more relaxing as it was my Mum's birthday this week, so we'd arranged for her to travel over and took her out for a meal. Did I take any pictures, readers? Yes... of the cat that lives at the pub who visited our table and sat on Mel's lap. Sorry, Mum. We did have a very nice bit of coffee and walnut birthday cake.
Thursday, we've had people around to repair the fence, clear out the gutters and put a cap on a pipe up on the roof, done the shopping, and I've started writing this... so a pretty easy day.
Not a bad week off. Very lazy. We watched Shardlake, which is like Wolf Hall with a murder mystery, and I've been watching House of the Dragon, which is a historical Succession with dragons. I've also been watching old episodes of Nero Wolfe, based on the Rex Stout detective character, which I have thoroughly enjoyed.
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