Spring

Last week end was Easter so no surprises that it was cold wet and windy. What else would it Be? It was a bank holiday weekend! We didn't do a great deal over the weekend only snagging jobs on the shower room. Monday was Step Sister in Laws birthday. So we drove over to Tixover House Care home to visit her. She's just slowly deteriorating and now doesn't recognise us. Last year she was more alert and the cooks had mad e her a birthday cake that she managed a small mouthful before chocking and giving up. We spent an hour with her making inane onesided conversation that we know she couldn't hear before heading back home.

There are some new arrivals at Tixover. This neat, fox proof hen house complete with occupants has taken found a home in front of the residents lounge window. Several new benches and coffee tables have been located under the trees in the drive overlooking the countryside. The field in front is full of sheep with their newborn offspring. They had escaped to the other side of the field when I took the photo.

Spring has really emerged from the winter doldrums. This week has been really pleasant with warm sunshine and blue skies. In the garden my little peach tree is covered with pink blossom, now I need the bees and insects to pollinate and hopefully by the end of summer there will be juicy peaches to be picked.

These shy little unusual white violets Have seeded themselves in different parts of my garden. I thought I had lost them as they were no where to be seen in their usual patch. Then they appeared in other locations, thankfully.

The frogs have been sadly missing since the grass snake took up residence. We also had two winters when the spawn was destroyed by late frosts so when Dave spotted a couple of frogs courting and frolicking in the pond one night he decided to give their offspring a better fighting chance . The jelly spawn was duly transported into a redundant fish tank where they quickly hatched and are growing at an amazingly rapid pace.

To Pay or not to Pay?

The posh new shower room is finished. Hurrah! We've done all the snagging jobs now, (notice the word WE, and not the Bathroom company), except for the window catches that needing a spruce up with a can of car spray paint. It's such bliss having a shower now. No struggling to get the water temperature right. No cold water shocks if some one turns the kitchen tap on. No cold flappy shower curtain wrapping itself on your body. Just a refreshing deluge of water pouring over you.

The Show room guy turned up the other evening to collect the redundant and useless Wet Wall panels. Only after I had rang him to come and remove them. I noticed he had an invoice in his hands which I carefully ignored. When he had the panels in his van I commented that I presumed they would be removed from the bill. The invoice was hastily stuffed in his pocket. He said 'Yes all the unused and unpacked ones. So I reminded him that the others were of no use to me, not fit for purpose and the fault was not mine. The room hadn't had a proper survey before work started. After a bit of blustering he said

'Well come down to the showroom and we'll see what we can do.'

I then casually told him that I'd already paid all the tradesman their portion of the Bill. Whoops. That upset him.

'What did you pay them" he asked.

'The amount you'd invoiced me for their work' I said.

'But I have to take 17.5% VAT off that' he blustered 'I'll have to get it back off them'

'Why' I retorted 'They are not VAT registered I reminded him'.

'But I am' He said.

'But they're not and I've paid them, so, where's the problem.'

'Come to the showroom and we'll sort this out' he replied.

I'd already sussed out that his bill to me had VAT on all goods supplied and all work carried out on the job. If I had paid the whole invoice he then would deduct VAT on the portion he paid to the tradesman.

Something didn't gell right. I'm effectively paying double the VAT on jobs that are not VAT registered. I asked a friend who's a retired accountant. He agreed with me and thought I was right.

After a word with No 3 son about the whole job his reply was. Mum don't push your blood pressure up any more over this, he's had the money for the good supplied he's made his profit on them. The trades men have been paid. You're happy with the finish shower room. Enjoy it. The goods you haven't paid for were not suitable for the job. Some he'll resell, so let him write the rest off as a tax loss. Companies do this all the time. Don't go to him or communicate with him. Shove the paperwork in a draw and forget about it and enjoy the shower. The small amount of money the paper work shows he's owed should be your compensation for all the stress you've had. He's not going to pursue you for that. It's not worth his while and even if he does he can't hassle you only take you to the Small Claims court and he wouldn't win

After yet another trip to the surgery this morning, where my blood pressure is still not behaving and there's also small blip with an ECG recording I decided to take No. 3 Sons advice and chill out. Mind you loosing weight would probably have the same effect!

Easter Monday

Well Easter 2010 has flown past almost unnoticed. The weather's been unremarkable. Cloud, sun, rain and a cold wind.

The 'egg eater in the high chair' (see facebook) came to see us yesterday to collect his Grand Children's eggs along with his grown up daughter who insisted that see wasn't too old for chocolate eggs! She did get her mini eggs after all, so she went home happy.

We went over to Tixover Care home this afternoon to see Sheila. It's her 80th Birthday today. The care in that Home must be good as She's still surviving three years after her devastating stroke. Especially after the PCT refused to fund any rehabilitation. Her deterioration is heart breaking to follow. I don't think she even recognise us now. I had such high hopes that the life in home would stimulate her and improve her condition but she seemed determined not to participate or cooperate and has slowly slipped into the vegetative state we see her in now days. I'm afraid I've been so tied up with my own life lately that I haven't been able to visit her as often as I use to.

Other new breaking. Gordon Brown will see the Queen in the morning to dissolve Parliament and the General Election will be May 6th. Great, so a month of political wrangling, backbiting and general 'political' churlish bad behaviour on the TV to look forward to. The Country's been subjected to months of the MP expenses scandal filling the newspapers and the television news casts that people are just so fed up with politicians in general and have no trust in them any more.

I've just watched the last Inspector Frost case. Probably about time 'cos I've been saying for the last year, he's too old to be a Copper. In fact all the characters in the Denton station are passed Police pension age by 10 to 15 years. Too old to be believable any more. At least he doesn't get killed off as the rumours said. Some one dies buy not the indestructible Jack Frost

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone.

It's a cold but sunny day there on the edge of the Fens. The rain has managed to hold off since early morning despite threatening dark clouds scudding across the sky. We've had allot of rain this week interspersed with sunny intervals. The sun and rain has urged spring to try and play catch up even though we've had cold winds. The Hornbeam trees lining the foot path behind our house have got tiny bright leaf buds just showing when the sun catches them. Usually they are the second tree behind the Willow to leaf up in the spring and they would normally be in full leaf by now.

The self seeded pale yellow wild Primroses are in full bloom across my garden as well as along the road side banks.

A little chilly for the spring lambs I fear. Their coats are not as warm and shaggy as Mama.

The new shower room was finished by Tony the Plumber on Friday April 1st, all Fools Day! (How appropriate!) Just one month after it was started on March 1st. He had finally managed to get the handles for my cabinets from the showroom people and came to fix them on. We've just gloss painted the inside of the door white as the brown door would look naff. Sometime in the future we're going to replace the internal doors with a more modern style. I now need to ring the suppliers to get them to remove the redundant Wet Wall panels from the bedrooms so I can get in to spring clean and remove all the plaster dust. Then it will finally be finished. Well, except for haggling about the final payment for it all.

I must say I'm eventually pleased with the final results. It's not all turned out to the style I had planned . Mainly due to the products the showroom ordered. It's a little annoying especially when I had specific plans and pictures of the type of products I wanted. The layout is right, just the basin isn't quite what I wanted but by the time all the other annoyances of the project had been sorted I gave up and settled for what I could get. Still having a shower now is bliss.