I kinda dropped off the planet for a while, sorry folks but as you all know real life has a nasty habit of bowling not just curved balls, but honking great ones at that... but armed with a brand new laptop and a newsgroup reader that works I AM BACK!
I've been living on my own now for 4 months, the flat is now ALL MINE and will be a millstone around my neck for the next 17 years with a brand new mortgage/re-mortgage so I could buy Paul out of his share. Wages coming in just about cover the bills, and this month the money is starting to seriously pinch. I had to go food shopping tonite, and usually I go to Waitrose... but no tonite I headed for Tesco's 'cos they are much cheaper... at this rate I'll be able to fit into all my old clothes again because I'll be eating so little that the weight will drop off (heck I can always hope!)
Paul moved back in with his brother about 20 miles away, and I see him on a regular basis, mainly because his brother has let the family home slide... no hot water, large hole in roof, no this, no that... so every
4-5 days or so he was coming bak home to use the washing machine and shower. Last week he finally got a plumber in and got a brand new washer-dryer plumbed in, but the shower and immersion is proving more tricky. However thats his problem, not mine. Some of my friends have said I am mad to let him keep coming round, but even tho he was the one that broke my heart by walking out on me after almost 17 years of marriage I haven't got the courage to tell him "no". BUT I have got my keys back off him, so he cannot come round when he feels like it, and especially not when I am not home, which is something at least.
He still has some stuff here, mainly stuff which is jointly owned and we haven't sorted out what to do with it all yet... but on the whole I've managed to keep virtually everything big here - including the car which at one stage was doubtful...
Me? well I'm lurching from one crisis to another, my kitchen ceiling started leaking but the roofers came today and patched it - however they reckon that the roof will only last this coming winter and will probably need completely replacing... my fire escape steps from my flat down into my garden need completely replacing and the two together run into several thousand pounds... this does get split between me and the owner of downstairs but I may still have to personally try and find around 2-3 thousand pounds... so if anyone has won the lottery recently please consider this a charity case!
I haven't quite lost my sense of humour but at times its very hard... I'm getting very lonely in the evenings especially now the nights are drawing in. I'm making some serious errors in judgement, one last week may have cost me dearly but I won't know for another few days exactly what the damage is... more on that later.
Quilting? haven't been able to face doing anything recently, but as its starting to get colder in the evenings I think I want to dig out the sampler quilt I was doing in Spain last year with Nikki Tinkler and carry on embroidering around it - at least I can curl up under it and keep warm whilst working on it! Have been doing a lot of scrapbooking though, and working hard at my craft shop part-time.
So - "hello" to everyone who has missed me, "hi there" to any brand new people who haven't yet had the pleasure and big hugs to everyone who needs them - in fact big hugs all round!