Weekly Flylady Thread 25th September 2017

ionafan

Rosie has just nearly given DH a heart attack. I was going to hear a friend speaking at the opening of her art exhibition in town, so knew I would be home later than usual after church, and asked DH totake Rosie out for a short walk along the lane at the back of the house. Got home to find front *and* back doors unlocked, and no sign of either DH or the dog, so assumed they'd be home shortly. Meanwhile (and this is the flying bit of the post) I cleared up the mess from a large indoor begonia that had fallen off the kitchen windowsill, and then started making soup for lunch. Looked out of the front window - and there was Rosie crying to be let in through the gate, with no lead and no sign of DH. Tried ringing DH on his mobile and got no answer. Locked doors, jumped into car, drove round the block and found DH 100 yards down the lane. He had taken the short lead instead of the extending one and let Rosie off, then walked ahead of her. Suddenly he realised that she wasn't behind him. She had reached the point where the lane runs close to the road and may have heard my car coming back; anyway, she ran home by herself.

I have to go away for a weekend in October and had not planned to put Rosie in kennels - leaving her with DH instead - but now I'm wondering if that would be safest

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Thank you everyone for being so kind and patient about my lodgery rant particularly you, Jojo for your very practical suggestions. It's all very much appreciated. I take people mostly pretty short-term but the actors amongst them can be a just a tad highly strung a few days before a new production opens. From the fact that I had four phone calls from this woman before she arrived I knew she'd be either a bit of a nightmare - or a complete nightmare. If anyone still has an attack of the vapours, she'd the one of them. She'll be leaving next Sunday so unlike you with your stinky permanent lodger, all I have to do is bite my lip - which as I get older and more assertive becomes very much harder.

We usually invite lodgers who are here on Sunday evening to join us for a roast (whoopsied beef rump tonight) but as you can imagine this week that won't be happening. I wish people who insist on pushing and overstepping boundaries realised that options disappear as a direct result.

There will be comments, and I've already told OH what two of them will be (he thinks I'm a witch when I do this). For what it's worth, we are primed for, 'Doesn't that look/smell delicious' and 'I really miss home cooking/my kitchen when I'm away.'

The hard work with lodgers and a high turnover isn't just keeping that area of the house in tiptop condition and the rest pretty smart, it's putting up with their delicate egos. I think I might just put the rates up another £20 for people who haven't stayed here before because I probably don't charge enough anyway, and that would more than cover the cost of the occasional load of washing and the concomitant hassle.

Considering we're both musicians, me with a heavy element of music and theatre tech work, and Himself grew up scuttling about West Country theatres as his father was almost constantly in/doing shows, I think there is no reason on earth to pander to prima donna types. They all have to get their **** together for rehearsals, run throughs, call times and suchlike or they wouldn't get work in the first place - and the response from the TD or tech crew if they started whining about however would they cope, they can't possibly manage, etc, would be pretty sharp.

Stinky ex lodger was a 'performer'. She always managed to get things sorted for shows, it was just the behaving as a decent human being offstage she didn't want to bother with. Whenever she got whiny, I developed selective deafness. And any references to food or cleaning clothes were met by a mild 'x pub does Sunday Dinners'/'there's two launderettes round the corner, y charges so much for a service wash or you'll need z pound coins and zy twenty pence pieces as you aren't going to be around to have a chance to take your stuff back out the one in the kitchen [strike]and if you leave it in there to go mouldy, I will dump it all soaking wet on your bed to sit there all weekend until you come back[/strike]'


We're going to take in short term (ie, a couple of nights) musicians, all prescreened by the friend who books them, at some point. Probably the point at which I can't smell the glitter encrusted leech's presence anymore.



Just remind yourself that they are not paying enough to be pandered to like they're international stars of stage and screen - they're paying something around twenty-odd quid a night for somewhere warm and clean to crash whilst they float around the local bars declaring grandly that they're doing Real Theatre like Ibsen or some such.

atypicalblonde

DH back in bed, kiddies playing nicely finally... s0d it, I'm having a glass of wine and we're having takeaway for tea. Tomorrow is a new day!

Big hugs to all, there's also a chilled glass of rose going if anyone wants one xx

Honey_Bear

Sorry about your OH's experience with Rosie off the lead Ionfan - my OH did exactly the same thing with Honey Bear while I was in America. I went ballistic when I found out. I hope you manage to impress on him just how fragile the new relationship is, and how long it takes to make sure recall is reliable. Fortunately Kelpie's so utterly hopeless it hasn't occurred to OH; Kelps simply doesn't understand why he should pay any attention whatsoever to who ever walks him.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Just remind yourself that they are not paying enough to be pandered to like they're international stars of stage and screen - they're paying something around twenty-odd quid a night for somewhere warm and clean to crash whilst they float around the local bars declaring grandly that they're doing Real Theatre like Ibsen or some such.

Mostly they're not prima donnas, they're lovely but oh how right you are! They went to the pub for lunch and they actually are doing Ibsen! But you're absolutely right, I shouldn't pander to them - tech week is always like this when we've got a narcissist in. My *slap* reflex is also getting harder to control as I get older, that's the real problem.

And I've just had a panto enquiry and told them the new rate, so I'm feeling much better. I don't really care whether I get the booking or not to be honest.

The minutes are done!!!!! Thank you all for bearing with me while I had a continuation of a meltdown that has been gathering pace for a couple of weeks. I'm spring cleaning my life again which always takes me by surprise but the end result makes it worthwhile.

Valli

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