Pheeeeew! Last night was a scorcher and I spent a large part of it drinking iced water as I watched this years young fox cubs learning the skills they will need in adult life. One of the adult foxes had acquired a dead rat and after a little teasing dropped it on the garden path where three youngsters awaited dinner, the tussle that followed was comical as first one and then another of the youngsters grabbed the prize and then lost it to one of its brothers . For half an hour the battle raged and then all at once the vixen strolled casually amongst the scrappers and proceeded to eat the rat, the young protested, the vixen snarled and ran off in to the dark garden. I suppose that the lesson they leaned last not was not to play with their food. Oh well it kept me amused for a while.
Lunch time arrived and I had still received no word as to when my oven was to be repaired, I dashed of a quick e mail to our illustrious maintenance manager asking for an up-date and asking if the estate would be prepared to pay for our take away dinners as they had done nothing to fix the oven. I also asked that things be speeded up as I was aware that he was going on a fortnights holiday on Saturday. I should tell you that a friend reported to us that on hearing of our plight that we would have to eat take away for a week or two. This does suggest that he has no intention of sorting things out for some time.
I got rather a shirty reply , telling me that their contract electrician had been obliged to order a thermometer to check our oven temperature.....some electrician. He added that the date of his holiday was as yet undisclosed but that some one had been designated to function for him in his absence. I must tell you that the date of his holiday has been common knowledge on the estate for months and that all who have dealings with him are have been looking forward to his fortnight off every bit as much as he has, perhaps more!
Meanwhile we must manage as best we may, salads are fine at the moment but I need the oven in order to bake so they had better remove digit from orifice or there will be trouble, that I guarantee!
Of course we realised long ago that the estate would like us to leave our cottage and even entered in to discussion with some charity for disabled gardeners in order to try to get us out. We still have friends on the estate and we have ways of finding things out. The upshot seems to have been that at least until Pa reaches retiring age they can only get us out if they pay us a considerable amount of money and of course they have no intention of doing so. That is why we have been on the receiving end of so many dirty tricks but as I said yesterday I gave up letting bullies get the better of me when I was seven years old and I do not intend to begin again now.
So far we have won every battle and of course this has not exactly endeared us the the estate management...tough! They can jolly well lump it!
Thank heavens for the griddle on which I made lots of lovely pancakes for breakfast and upon which cooked an omelette for my son's dinner. Pa and had had salad Pa's with corned beef and I had mine with tinned crab, hardly cordon bleu but with some new potatoes and lots of olives it was quite nice. In the absence of any cake or cookies we had iced cream for afters. The trouble is that the longer this goes on the more difficult it becomes to vary what we eat. My son loves pasta ans will eat it every day, Pa dislikes it and eats it once a week under protest. Pa loves rice dishes, my son hates rice and refuses to eat it under any circumstances, as you see it can be tricky. Ho hum!
I have decided to make a stir fry tomorrow and any one who does not like it can lump it, I am the cook and I like stir fry so that as they say is that!
Although I confess that I like many others find the heat a bit of a trial it is lovely to see the sun so bright and I love the smell of summer heat,so evocative of childhood pleasures, I am tempted to put up the wigwam in the garden again and sleep outside. It is so much cooler in the garden at night and now that we have mosquito nets we would not be at the mercy of these merciless little devils. Mmmmmmmm! I think I shall sleep on that one .Good night all.
No comments:
Post a Comment