The clutter has to go!!!

Ok, time to bare my soul and be ruthless. I have a house full of clutter and it HAS TO GO!!!!!!

I waver between the resolute, sensible declutterer.....................I've not used this, need it, have no idea what it is......so it is going; to the sentimental, dreamy, it might come in useful one day..........what if I had to go an buy it........so let's keep it!!!!!

Decorating the bedroom has caused me to re-evaluate my clothing! Prime example is tights!!! I hate tights, detest them, won't wear them out of choice. I am a trousers girl and on the odd times that is might wear a skirt / dress, tights are not required. However, when I worked at Cliveden, they were a touch old fashioned (and had obviously never heard of sex discrimination laws), and my uniform involved a skirt, with which I was required to wear tights.

Anyway, heaving the furniture around the bedroom to decorate, I discover that I have a whole drawer just full of tights that I used to wear at Cliveden. I left Cliveden over six years ago, and those tights were washed and then put away in that drawer, where they have sat ever since. They are gone now.............what was the point in keeping them. I kept a couple of pairs on the very slim off chance that I may require a pair in the future and the rest went in the bin!!!

I have also done the same with my t-shirts. T-shirts long worn out, but kept for sentimental reasons (so and so brought that for me from.........), who have not seen the light of day for years, have gone.

Now, just to tackle the rest of the house!

Things have been busy!

Well, it has been getting on for a month since I last posted anything, but I have been a touch busy. The main thing that I have been busy with is redecorating our bedroom, which has been a work in progress as I have had to do this on days off.

This is what we have lived with for the last few years - well about 12. And underneath is / was a rather horrid tone of turquoise, which was not really an improvement on the wallpaper.

And below is the 'feature' wallpaper we have chosen, along with the new paint. You can also see the horrid turquoise to the right............got to take the curtain rail down to put the final piece of paper up. You can also see our lovely new bed and posh bedding (from John Lewis no less!)

The other thing that has occupied my time is that I have started running..........well staggering about giving my lungs the impression that I deposited them in a vacuum!!!! I am not a runner so I got one of these 'couch to 5K' training plans. The first session was run for a minute and then walk for two and repeat five times and I managed it just..........but running for a minute......OMG!!!!

Well, yesterday, after three weeks I ran non stop for 5 minutes. Not much you may say, but for me, a massive achievement. I could not have done that three weeks ago..........and I did it four times!!!

I also have to report a new experience, I have had to vote in a strike ballot. My union, UNISON is balloting all its members on strike action over the government attacks on our pensions. Now, we all know that the country is broke, and so we are in lean times. The press has been very vitriolic about the cost of public sector pensions, and how the public sector are going to have to pay more.

Now my pension is part of the Local Government Pension, which is self funding..........not going to cost the tax payer anything to bail it out, unlike some other public sector pension schemes! I pay 6.5% of my salary towards it (higher than the national average for private sector pensions). Now the government wants me to pay more.............ok, I don't have a problem with this, if I need to pay more to get a decent pension, so be it. But this extra money will not be going towards my pension...................no, the government are going to be taking it to bale themselves (and the country) out of the shit!

So, this extra that the government want us to pay is actually a TAX on public sector workers. The government won't talk to the unions about it, months of negotiation have got nowhere, so hence the strike ballet. Now I don't believe that the strike will actually achieve anything, other than piss of the public as a whole, but I'm pretty pissed off that the government won't even talk!

???

So, got the previous two posts to post.............finally!!

Don't ask me how, other than it was some roundabout way.

I am sure that this post will cause similar problems!!!

Still hate computers sometimes!!

Grrrrrr!

So, yesterdays post refuses to post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate computers sometimes.

Things are never as they seem

Well, my last post told of the immersion going pop, and us having to replace it...................well!!

Of course, life is never easy...............when hubby went to change the immersion, we discovered why it went pop in the first place................top of the tank was corroded. So, £200 plus later, we now have a new hot water tank.

And while we are on the subjects of why things are never as they seem, can someone please tell me why full to half full on the petrol tank is more than half full to empty. Today, I got in my car to come home, and part way home I noted that I had done 300 miles since I last filled up. When I filled up, the petrol gauge read 3/4 full. At the 300 mile mark, the petrol gauge was on 1/4 full. This was what is was on 13 miles later!!!!

How come 3/4 to 1/4 is 300 miles, and 1/4 to just above empty is 13 miles???