Looby's last 7 days

Well I seem to have dried up this week but I think that's mainly due to me breaking my laptop! So here I am up in my loft room back on the old pc - oh what a chore it is! See how we're spoilt by technology! Anyway, I was using the lappy on the sofa in the living room a week ago and finished what I was doing. I was about to hand it to John who was sitting in the 'tv chair' but the lead got caught around my foot and the lappy went crashing to the floor. Well I say 'crashing'...it was only about 18 inches from the floor which is carpeted. John was immediately concerned; I just brushed it off and said 'oh it'll be ok', but it wasn't. The screen was completely gone; now all you could see was jagged lines which looked like the outline of a mountain range! OH BUGGER! I got the house insurance docs out and would have followed that course of action but then next I know, John is on the phone to Gateway (the manufacturer) explaining how the laptop was suddenly not working! I swear I saw his nose getting longer and longer as the conversation went on; actually it wasn't like he was telling lies as such, just withholding the truth! They were very helpful and agreed to have the laptop collected by UPS and fix it for us at no cost, bearing in mind that it was within the year's warranty. So it was collected last Friday and will hopefully be fixed within a week.

John's sister had arranged a fund raising music themed quiz night in May, which I'd worked tirelessly at getting all the questions ready for. A fews days before, I found out from John's sister in law that it was supposedy not going ahead, to which I quite annoyingly remarked 'Well no-one has told us'! John rang Jacqui who confirmed that was the case as somehow the info hadn't reach the people it was intended for. Thanks for telling us!!! She rescheduled the quiz for 8th Sept (last night). I again, ensured that everything was ready and put the final touches to the quiz this week. I asked John to ring his sister on Tueday to make sure it was still going ahead and guess what? Yes you've guessed it! Cancelled due to lack of interest. She apparently said to John that she had intended to call him the following day to let us know but I was fuming! I really cannot stand unreliability. It is one of my pet peeves as you may well have noted from one of my previous posts entitled 'ARRRRRGH' dated 5th July. What gets me just as much that no-one apologises to me for wasting my time - why do I bother?

Thurday night my parents returned home from Rome, which had been my Dad's 60th birthday present from my Mum. I went round Friday in my lunch hour to see them, expecting to hear what a good time they had. But no. All I got was negativity. I can't recall one thing that either of them liked about the place. It was too hot, too dirty, too crowded, the food was overrated or in some cases awful, nowhere to go to the loo, the queues were too long, the people were annoying, etc etc etc. Thank heaven, and I can't stress this enough, the hotel that I'd booked for them was fine. Despite looking like a complete tip from the outside, the inside was apparently very clean and moden. Phew! I wouldn't have heard the end of it otherwise. Last night, we'd invited them round for dinner. And off they went again with all the negative comments. I was drained. A certain person at work is being very negative, paranoid and finding fault with everything at the moment and you don't wanna have to listen to it at home as well. I think my Mum clicked that I was annoyed and I told her I was. I was thankful I hadn't paid for the holiday myself. They are very hard to please; I think Cornwall is more their thing.

Yesterday afternoon, John and I went to look for a carpet for our hall, stairs and landing. We're planning to redecorate on our week off in October. New everything - wallpaper, paint, skirting boards, dado rail, carpet, and maybe lights. I wanted a new bannister as well but it doesn't look as if our existing one can be detached. We'll just have to spruce it up the best we can. It's amazing how much choice you have with carpet but finding exactly the one you want is so hard. With the four cats, you don't want a mega expensive one that they'll ruin easily. We came away with a couple of possibles but there's more hunting around to be done. What's even more difficult is finding nice wallpaper. The DIY stores are so limited, yet the designs must be infinite.
We may go out again this afternoon to have a look if John gets back from go-karting at a reasonable hour.

Finally, happy anniversary to moi for yesterday, having completed 21 years of service at HSBC. How depressing! :-(