Blowing up a bed was never so much fun

My experiment with the worryingly backstreet website Triway / Boutique TV has turned out Just Fine. Last Thursday, I clicked "send" on the page with my credit card details and wondered how long it would take until my account was cleaned out. Turns out old style sites that rely rather too heavily on "As seen on TV" to convince you of their merits can be trustworthy. This afternoon, a big fat box was delivered to my work and, one rather heavy walk home later, I unpacked my first ever Aerobed. So much fun. There's a super-powerful built-in motor so my king premier inflated in two shakes of a lamb's tail and I was able to spend a happy few minutes lolling around, lying on the edges to try (and fail) to make them squish and tip me off. Looks like my old school friend who's visiting in a couple of weeks will get a decent night's sleep after all. She'll never know just what a narrow escape she had from "snuggle up on the other side of my bed, darling, don't mind if I kick you".

Even better news, I'm a soup-free zone. Five of my workmates bravely trudged through the rain up to mine yesterday lunchtime and polished off the whole pot. Nice friendly little lunch. Oh, and my friendly Pole phoned yesterday. He apologised profusely for being late to send his quote but at least he's still in the picture, which is a relief. Here's hoping I get electricity before Christmas.

Soup

Mmmm. My lovely friends gave me a kickass blender and a shiny toaster (with toasted sandwich option - hurray) for my birthday/house-warming.
It's been kind of grey and chilly today so I figured it was time to overcome my illogical acclimatisation issues, at least for the blender, and make some soup. I have no idea why, but I very rarely use things right when I get them. Instead, I sit and look at them for a period that usually lasts several months, if not a year or so. No problem for me, but for people giving presents it can look like good old-fashioned "don't like it".
Seeing as I do like my presents, very much, I thought I'd make a special effort. I unpacked them after only three weeks and today, three months to the day after I received it, I put the blender through its paces. It's great.




I'll be checking the quantities more closely next time though. Smooth, velvety sweet potato and white bean soup is a good thing but that is a LOT of soup. I think I'll be inviting my colleagues round for lunch tomorrow....



And now, time to show a little respect for the blender and do the washing up. J fixed the kitchen light last night, working out that it had died because the connection was rusty then being a good trusting fellow and sticking a knife in to scrape it clean, so I have proper light for the first time in three weeks. Next step will be working out why my bedroom light is so skittish.

New chair, good news

Miserably busy at work at the moment, so lots of very late nights (regular 11pm finishes, getting home at 2am was the record) and general blues as I try to decide whether or not I can stay with the company and what I'd do if I left.

Fortunately, I got some Very Good News about the flat. I've been wondering where I'll find someone to do the plumbing and electricity work. The lovely Mr Kitten appears to have left his company. Every time I called to ask when I was likely to get his quote I'd receive an evasive response. Finally they just sent someone else. Still no news from him either. The other two companies did send their quotes, but one is very expensive and the other is expensive and goes way beyond what I want done and doesn't include some kind of important elements.

At that point, in steps a friend with the phone number of a Pole. Said Pole comes round later in the week (7.30am after the aforementioned 2am finish) and proceeds to wrap me round his little finger. He's a young bloke, late twenties I think, with the cool gelled hedgehog hair of the moment and a blue jacket with 'Daredevil' written across the back.

He won instant brownie points for being the first guy to ask me to turn on the tap so he can see where the leak is. Next thing, he was halfway under the bath, wrestling with the pipes. He emerged two minutes later with some plastic joints in his hands and said that, as he thought, the plastic pipes linking the plughole to the evacuation have sprung apart because the pipes were cut too short so there wasn't enough of an overlap to take the strain when the bath dropped. He was appalled when I said that everyone else had said I'd have to rip out all the plumbing and start again. Seeing as the quotes I'd received for doing that were around five thousand euros, and he was telling me I could fix the problem with a tenners' worth of plastic, it felt like winning the lottery. He then disappeared under the bath again and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to sort it out. He was clearly frustrated that the pipes had been cut so short that he couldn't completely fix it, but since his work, I've been emptying an eggcup of water after each shower instead of a fruit bowl, so I'm a happy customer. I haven't received his quote yet either but I'll definitely be going with him and his band of Polish plumbers and electricians and heating engineers if I can.

In honour of my newfound less-poorness, I went to the brocante at Chatou with some friends and bought a comfy chair. Little bit tricky getting it home on the RER and the train but I had boys to help. Nice chair, I think.