5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

beachbaby_2

Frith, who is MrN? I'm intrigued.

CCP

Evening all.

Frith - I'm glad you're on the mend, although I know it can be difficult to be patient when you've been feeling lousy. Hope you're back to normal very soon.

sparrer -I'm glad to hear muttley's getting better. :drool: at your fish and chip supper - I must have some again sometime soon.

beachbaby - hugs to you, and I hope you had a better day today.

Ladyhawk - hope your car gets better soon, and not too expensively.

Kitchenbunny - I know exactly what you mean about washing your hair. My hairdresser advised me to wash it every other day at most, and I hate it - by the middle of the second day it looks greasy and limp, and I feel so ashamed of it. I think I'm going to have to go back to washing my hair every day - it's just not worth the embarrassment of having mucky hair.

I'm really not sure I can find 5 pleasures for today, which hasn't been a good day - I'm still not 100% over my illness and am feeling tired and cough-y, I'm struggling at work (definitely not helped by nearly two weeks off sick ), and a visit to Tesco at lunchtime left me even more stressed and furious at the staff's appalling rudeness (complaint time, I think! :mad:).

Anyway, I'll see what I can find:

1) A lovely cuddle from my puddy tat (although it's made typing this post very difficult ).

2) Found a very tasty recipe on a thread about pork cheeks - I'll have to find some now just to try the recipe.

3) Last of the gammon and last of my HG new potatoes for dinner.

And that's all I can think of. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure.

Have a nice evening, all.

Ladyhawk

Evening all,

hope you are all feeling better.

1) Having the courtesy car for another day which is particularly nice as I have to drive about 400miles this week and my car's tyres need replacing...

2) Chatting to my brother on the phone. He and his girlfriend have decided to get married in Cape Town at the end of next year! Woohoo!!!! A trip to Cape Town!

3) Organising to meet my brother for drinks on Thursday night

4) Getting through my presentation this afternoon which I was a little worried about and my boss texting me afterwards to say that well done and that it was an excellent presentation.

5) Getting home at 5pm!!!!!!!!!! Wow evening are long when you get home on time. Ok I did a bit of work when I got in but I have a whole evening to myself to do all the things that I am normally to exhausted to do.

Night night

L

zarazara

1, Hearing DS1 laugh , hes been having ex girlfriend problems but seems to be handling it all better now and much more his old self again,good.
2. the sun came out today
3. a short walk round the village was pleasant,lots of autumn colour esp. the viginnia creepers,really bright red this year
4. seeing my sheep, i do like them
5. seeing hope for the future and new ideas.ages since i've been this positive

Ps hugs (((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))) to all who need them, I havent read every post recently but I do know some people are hurting , its part of life now and then. Chin up everyone, you cant have a rainbow without rain.

beachbaby_2

Ooooh, another five for today. I am definitely feeling more positive.
1. A good morning at work.
2. My car windscreen steaming up when I got in only to show a smiley face that DD2 had 'drawn' on it!
3. Singing at the top of my voice to Gloria Gaynors 'I will survive' on the radio. - Very appropriate right now.
4. Lovely Spaghetti Bolognese for tea with some home grown courgettes in the sauce.
5. Coffee with my brother this evening.
More worried about tomorrow. The kids are staying with their dad for the first time tomorrow night. This will be the first time I have been on my own at night (No kids or husband) for over 17 years. I am working until 9pm so that will help, but I think I will feel so lost and alone.
Love to all. x

Primrose

1. Mild day so OH was able to get down to doing some much needed repointing on our patio.
2. Bank statement arrived and showed a higher balance than I had expected.
3. Watched a lovely and rather strange programme this evening about a South African couple
on a game reserve who rescued a baby hippo from birth and now have it as a pet. (think I'd rather have a cat jumping on my bed !!)

Struggling to find five today. Some days are like that.

sparrer

Just lost a long post because I didn't preview it periodically (which saves it) :mad: so will say goodnight an try again in the morning

sleep tight
S x

villagelife

Hugs to all those that need them.
beachbaby - will be thinking of you this evening.

My five are

1. Managing to finish my ironing pile - no last minute panicking this morning.

2. Finishing a pile of work at work which wasn't urgent but has been hanging around for a while to finish.

3. Lovely walk in the dry,

4. Picking a few flowers from the garden - there aren't many left.

5. A collegue being very helpful and doing more than she needs to for the first time that I can remember.

6. Cakes at work.

Frith

Hope your evening and night goes OK, Beachbaby. I left my husband 5 years ago and on the first weekends when the boys went to stay with their father, I would try and go away and stop with friends. Which isn't entirely practical on a Wednesday for you but I hope you find something nice to do. (MrN is my next door neighbour, btw).

5 for yesterday (Tuesday).

1) Ear slightly better.

2) Went to see my brother who was re-pointing so took his dog for a little walk.

3) Went to Sainsburys with no children so got chance to actually look at things!

4) Did enough housework for the house to look better.

5) MrN came round.

6) Watched a repeat of Russell Brand on his Ponderland programme. I know Russell gets a mixed press and its probably not the "done thing" to enjoy his programmes too much but I was nearly falling off the sofa laughing!

Caterina

CCP sorry to hear you are still under the weather and I agree that rude staff are a great downer, it takes so little to be courteous! If you feel the need to complain I think you should do it, sometimes it helps also the staff member as they would be trained better in customer service skills (one hopes!).

Here is my rant, it was a long time coming, I would really welcome some feedback on this.

A couple of years ago, having decided that I want to give some hospitality back to the people of the world (in my youth I have received lots of it!), I enrolled in a couple of online hospitality websites, where people who travel abroad (or even in their own country) can ask local people to host them for free for a couple of days (I would like to stress that last sentence: FOR A COUPLE OF DAY!) so that I could offer hospitality to travellers, meet new people and possibly even make friends.

In the past we had one disappointment (a very rude Italian girl who thankfully did not stay), then a very good experience with a young German man, who stayed for a couple of nights and the whole experience was totally pleasant, he was unintrusive but we made time for socialisation, he baked us an amazing cheesecake and did not overstay his welcome, and so we decided that we could continue this interesting venture.

Last year I was contacted by a young man from Eastern Europe, who said he was coming to the UK for work and would spend some time in a hotel but who would also like to spend some time with locals in their home to make friends. He sounded really normal and reasonable. At that time, though I had flu so I turned him down but said that if he ever came back to the UK he could contact us again.

Last May he contacted us and asked if he could visit. When I said yes he asked if he could stay ONE WEEK (!!!). Reluctantly I agree (I know, fool old me, I am bringing this upon myself). He came, was fairly unintrusive, we took him around London, he did some of his own thing and overall it was not too bad to have him for such a long time - except for a memorable evening when he pinned us down to show us photos of his city on his computer, and I am not kidding, he showed us the same photos over and over again for the best part of 3 hours, at the end of which I had just about lost the will to live. Cue, a very insensitive young man who does not really understand boundaries - I should have known then. However, he went back home and sent us a thank you email, full of praise for his new friends and telling us how he had the best holiday ever etc etc...

When he departed I made sure not to invite him back but when he mentioned that he was coming back to London on other occasions for work I said something on the lines of meeting for a cup of tea (stupid politeness of mine....).

A few weeks ago he emailed explaining that he was coming to London for work and asked if he could spend one night here prior to his flight on the next day so we could catch up. I did not see much harm in spending only a few hours with him (overall we felt sort of "maternal" towards him, he is quite young, although not a kid, and quite innocent in a peculiar way) and crashing out on our sofa for one night did not seem to be the end of the world. So I agreed.

No sooner I had said yes, he fired back another email asking that actually he would like to stay for 3 days over the weekend so he could spend time in London.

Here is where I should have put my foot down, but I didn't (I hear the chorus of "Serves you right!") and replied that he could stay but that we could not look after him, I explained that I am now in work and very busy and that also I want to spend time with my family at the weekend. He did not take much of a cue because he replied that yes, during the day of course he can take care of himself but that we can spend the evenings together looking at the pictures from his trip. Oooooooppppppppssssss..... never mind I thought, I shall make excuses of tiredness and retire early, and so could DH and regarding the kids they do not interact much with our guests so they would do their thing anyway.

On Monday I was off work due to the tube strike and went shopping with my friend. Shortly after I sat down with her after the shopping to have a nice cup of tea and a chat, my mobile rang, it was DS telling me that I needed to come back home because "So and So" our guest had arrived and he (DS) was already late and could not stay.

I went home and was FUMING. I did not welcome the guy at all but almost shouted at him, saying that he was not expected until Thursday, that he had dragged me back from doing something else and that he could not stay because I was busy (sacrosanct truth). He was mortified, explained that because the hotel where he was going to stay did not take check in until 2pm that he had come to say hello. I explained that it is not the done thing to turn up unannounced and that we would see him in a few days.

He left and I thought with a degree of despair that I had made a great error to allow him to come back - he obviously had absolutely NO CLUE about his invasiveness.

Next day, I got an email from him, with heartfelt apologies....and a paragraph informing us that he had ordered a gadget for his mobile phone and could we please get the delivery for him and give it to him when he arrives - he gave the firm our home address AS HIS BILLING ADDRESS:eek: and MY MOBILE NUMBER:mad::mad::mad: as his phone number!

DH and I fired him back a strong reply saying that it was absolutely not on, that we wished that he had asked permission etc etc and that he should explain to the firm that this was not his address, not his number and that they should delete all our details from their database.

He did so and then sent me a further apologetic email saying that he is very sorry etc... here is the copy of the last email I got from him:

"I made a call to XXX store too. But in case if they will contact you anyway, please, just state that it is false delivery address.And accept my apologize for this issue too. Maybe there is too much of this for a single visit... I never expected it will be so. I'm really sorry and feel almost desperate.
Good relations based on mutual trust is most valuable for me.(My italics - C)

Have a nice day."

He is ALMOST desperate! Maybe there is TOO MUCH OF THIS for a single visit? What can I do to make him understand that his behaviour is totally unacceptable? DH and I are reluctant to turn him away tomorrow, as we genuinely believe that he is not a bad person, just an incredibly insensitive one, and we do not want him to be stranded in the middle of London with nowhere to go. I am dreading the coming weekend and this guy's inane conversation.

This is definitely the last time that I shall host anyone from anywhere, he has spoiled it for all potential nice, friendly future guests.

Although I understand that I totally brought this misadventure upon myself (and unfortunately on my family, too), I did it out of a genuine desire to help and to put back some of the generosity that I have received in my youth.

Comments (and perhaps if possible a bit of sympathy) would be very welcome - sorry for long rant but it is just bursting out of me, I can hardly sleep with the anger of it all!

Thank you for reading, sorry for the length of the rant! Later I shall try to find some pleasures in my life, but not now, unfortunately.