Sorry

Yes, sorry it's been nearly a month since my last blog. It's been a busy few weeks. I should really detail everything here, there's plenty of material, but I haven't really been in the mood for blogging recently. I don't know why.

In short, I went to Maastricht with Al for a long weekend, which was pleasant. Then we held our much-delayed housewarming party, which was fun. Plenty of people (and dogs) came along and we sheltered in the barn from showers, finishing with an excellent bonfire that didn't quite set the barn on fire.

Unfortunately while I was clearing up the next day I got stung by something (a bee I think). Didn't think much of it at the time but my hand swelled up overnight so on Monday I looked as though I was wearing an inflated washing up glove. This took a trip to the doctor, some antihystamine and nearly a week to go down again. At one point I had my hand up in a sling to help the swelling go down, which garnered a lot of sympathy until people realised I hadn't actually broken my arm. It also curtailed typing somewhat, which is another excuse for not blogging.

I had to leave cleaning the house post-party until it had gone down, which drove me crazy. I can't stand living in a dirty house and this was really filthy - everyone had been in and out in muddy boots so I was dying to get the mop out. (Not that I minded for party purposes: I expected a certain level of mess. I just hoped I'd be able to clean it up quickly afterwards.) However, I did buy a carpet washer, which was a stroke of genius, as the stupid design of the cottage means everyone walks through all the carpeted rooms and there's a distrincly stained path wearing in. The carpet washer made a real difference.

But I have to say I'm getting fed up of the cottage. Yes, I love the location and the space and being able to walk out of the door and up the hill. But I'm not convinced this makes up for it being so cold, dark, damp and hard to keep clean. I'm sitting here writing this wearing my down jacket indoors to stay warm. And this is only September.

Not sure what to do about this, as it took us ages to find the place, nearly caused me a nervous breakdown getting moved in and Al adores it. Emailing the landlord about the growing damp patch and looking into getting a cleaner are my first thoughts. It would be a shame not to last much longer than the housewarming!