Travelling On

Karmacat

Thank you lovelies Yep, I'm persuaded about the one-off clean, thats brilliant. Prices sound a lot better than I expected - my sister had her house cleaned between her husband's death and his funeral - all those people!  she couldn't hack it any other way - and it cost megabucks, ten years ago.  They don't really need to do the kitchen either, since it was only installed last year - the floor would need a good go, actually - in some places, its the walls as well.  Bleurgh!  I'm also going to do what I think Cheery did, and replace the glass units of some double glazing, while keeping the upvc frames, and I'm considering losing the big slatted venetian blind in my bedroom - I'd like to open the window there overnight occasionally, but I can't do it with the blind in place because I need to use an insect screen -   round here, it would be impossible for me to sleep without a window screen, it might as well be deepest countryside for everything that crawls or flies about the house. 

Today, I swear, I'm going to pay attention to the French accounts.  I *will* also need to buy some frozen food: I can combine that with dropping off stuff to the cs and then going to Iceland.  And the wm is on: the weather for Fri and Sat is **appalling**.

I'm getting excited now!

greenbee

I have a cleaner (although she's going at the end of this month as she's got a full-time job elsewhere). The difference she has made over time has been phenomenal (I think she now struggles to find enough to do, although TBH if she looked a bit harder she'd find plenty!). When she first started I'd just finished some building work, and she was a godsend in dealing with the dust. When I had further building work done, she did extra hours cleaning up after the builders as well as deep cleaning the parts of the house that they weren't in. In theory, now I have the robots, and given how much I'm away, I should be able to manage without her, but dust keeps falling when I'm not here... (the stove doesn't help with that, but I do love having a fire). 
I'd suggest a deep clean of the areas that you can get tidy (even if that means shoving lots of stuff into a room they don't do), then maybe a second deep clean of the areas that weren't accessible the first time (and I let my cleaner into my bedroom - it's really important to me that this is tidy(ish) and clean, and having someone cleaning it means I keep it tidy...). You could then consider whether you could budget for a fortnightly or monthly 'top-up' where they wash the floors and do the kitchen/bathrooms more thoroughly that you could and maybe move furniture to hoover and deweb/dust behind (which is something that isn't easy to do on your own). Obviously it depends on cost, and how much it means to you in terms of quality of life. I find living in mess depressing, but when it gets to dirt I really can't cope. 
Also venetian blinds are a PTA for dust. I've replaced mine with either light-filtering 'magic' privacy blinds downstairs (a godsend in hot weather as they keep the rooms cool but still let in light) or thermal or blackout blinds upstairs. The south-facing bedroom has a privacy blind as it needs light filtering during the day in summer, and already has thermal-lined curtains, and my ensuite has a privacy blind underneath the thermal lined roman blind. I'm a great believer in layering at windows! My bedroom has a thermal blind, then muslin curtains, and finally the ordinary curtains (which will be replaced with thermal lined ones before winter!).

Karmacat

Hi greenbee - deep cleaning, while moving stuff to an area they don't clean, like you say, is the way to go, I'm absolutely sure now.  I won't have one regularly, I'd find that too stressful, actually - I've always known that about myself, but my experience while the cleaner comes in at my nephew's maisonette in London on my catsitting gig, that absolutely confirms it.  

I'm **very** interested to hear about your magic privacy blinds On that window I'm thinking of, I have lovely curtains backed with blackout curtains, then the venetians, which were here when I moved in.  And I agree, layering is great.  I have some see through "curtains", not nets, a modern Wilko set, that I really like, and I have some muslin that I love but that would be like patchwork.  Can you do a linkie to your magic ones?  They sound interesting.   My window faces east, and so do I, so the sun will smack me one at 4 or 5 in the morning in summer, but being able to open one window sometimes will be really worth it, and the better seal on the windows will be worth it in winter.

greenbee

Here you go  https://www.blinds-2go.co.uk/roller-blinds/refine/pf-27
I got a couple to try, and have since got a lot more of them as they're really useful. I don't want to sit in the dark in the daytime (or rot the curtain linings!), but in the summer it can get far too hot with everything open, particularly if I'm out and the windows are closed.
I'm envious of your east-facing bedroom. Mine is west facing, so i have a tendency to oversleep! 

Karmacat

Thanks for that, greenbee!  Thats a very interesting link, particularly the 2 in 1.  In my bedroom, I want the voile curtains I already have (I'd have to fiddle about with the tops) but seeing options like that, I'm a lot happier about getting rid of the blind downstairs too, the 2 in 1 would be perfect.  I'm quite visible from the road where my armchair is, but its the best place for it, and the 2 in 1 gives me great optionns. I notice they have paypal as an option,  so I could divert my SB points to paypal vouchers to pay for it, that would feel better.

I'm not going to Egyptology today - by the time it starts (in that coronavirus hotspot!) wind gusts of 59mph are forecast, and bearing in mind my experiences there in January, nearly getting blown in front of a taxi, I'll give it a miss.  Its not particularly wonderful - its about Victorian illustrators.  So, locally, I *really* need a frozen food shop, and my sister and I have been doing a bit of holiday plotting, so I have to get my act together with half-done jobs.  A ta-da list later.

greenbee

I’m a wimp and simply don’t go out when the weather has s bad if I can avoid it -it’s one f the benefits of working from home! What I must do is get better and doing some of the stuff on my lists (home and work...).

Karmacat

Oh!  Oh how wonderful!  Thank you!  For the cartoon, obvs, but also the reassurance - I do feel slightly wimpish about it, but there's landslips and tunnel blockages to take into account also, this line is known for it.  0931 right now, I'll give it till 0940 and make tracks  

Suffolk_lass

I'm hoping to stay in today. Complete wimp in bad weather. I have got some home-frozen food out, ready to make into something lovely for supper

Karmacat

Thats good to hear too, SL - today is still only a yellow warning, whereas tomorrow is amber, but yellow's good enough, after all.  0937 now ... time to start getting my act together.  First job - hunt out my annual travel insurance details, then close the computer down and go buy that frozen food quick!

xxx

Karmacat

Oh boy, I am *so* glad I didn't go to Egyptology, with this weather.  The computer tripped its shutdown button, so I actually got to the supermarket when I said I would, frozen veg restocked.    I popped down to see our local flood and its gone, temporarily - I'm sure by Monday it will be high again. 

When I got back, though, my sister wanted to make the holiday booking we'd been talking about: she reasons (correctly, I think) that our original plan of booking on Monday might be too late.  Thinking is that lots of people are stuck at home wtih the bad weather and they might well be going to book holidays!  So we got ours in, and I hunted out passport, insurance and exact description of my dietary needs.  And we've done it - the tiniest cruise ship you've ever heard of with 800 passengers.  Various ports on the Canaries, Madeira, Tenerife, Arecife and Lisbon too.  We hardly talked about it but we both like the idea.  Another one with humongous reductions, same prices per day as the one we took almost 2 years ago, so thats fine.  And it's an outside cabin, the scenery will be a lot better than the Baltic in October