First of all, let me stress that I didn’t actually burn down the house, but I gave it a bloody good try. My home is small. It’s very small. Many years ago I had a friend on Yahoo 360 and she lived in a trailer. She posted some photos of her kitchen and her trailer, and also posted the size of her trailer. It was bigger than my house! We all posted photos of our kitchen and the clutter, or not, therein. I had to stand outside my kitchen to get it into the frame. People thought I was joking when I posted the photo, and were surprised at how small the kitchen is. I’ve since discovered that my cooker is almost 10cm smaller than the norm, and the gap left for a small fridge won’t take a tumble dryer. My fridge freezer is in the dining area as it won’t fit in the kitchen. The above, whilst ultimately fascinating ;) does go some way to explain the problem.

So, back to the kitchen: I was cooking a small roast, and when it was almost ready, I put some carrots on to steam and popped into the living/dining room to set the table. After a while I could smell something very bad and went to check on the carrots which were stone cold and not cooking. I’d switched on the wrong gas ring, and the smell was some oil in another pan that I occasionally use to fry things. The lid was on the pan, and it looked very hot. I quickly turned off the gas ring and left it well alone. Later, I dished up the dinner, and put the roasting pan for the potatoes on the back of the stove – there’s nowhere else to put things like that in my very small kitchen. We ate dinner which was very nice, and then I washed up. I picked up the roasting pan to wash it, and nearly burnt my hand. I’d put the pan on the gas ring after the carrots, and hadn’t turned it off, so yet again a pan with oil in it was very hot and close to catching fire. I really must get a fire blanket for the kitchen lol.

Whilst the above was going on, the washing machine, which is quite new, decided to leak over the kitchen floor, so it just added to the distraction and mayhem that is becoming dinner time. I’ve no idea why that’s started to leak and will probably have to call an engineer in, unless Mickey has any ideas? As we all know from his blogs, Mickey is the man in the know about such things.

On Saturday I worked the final of 3 overtime sessions. It was a lovely sunny day, and I was regretting that I’d agreed to do it, but the money will go toward a new stove. So teeth gritted I got on the bus. Summer – just kidding about the teeth! Most of the way there half the bus, including me, was gawping at our local river. It’s a tidal river and we’ve had something called a supertide due to a 20 year planet alignment and the moon apparently. I’ve lived in this area for over 8 years now, and have never seen the river so high. Once I got to town, the river looked worse, and I swear that another two feet of water, and we’d have been baling out the building! They’re building a load of apartments on the riverside, and if I’d seen the river that day, I would hesitate to buy any of them. By lunchtime the river had dropped about 8 feet, and I’ve never seen it so low and muddy. Strange…

I have today off (Monday) and plan to have a quiet day at home. Last time I only had the Sunday off, and by the following Thursday I was feeling the effects of too long a week, so Monday off will feel like a normal weekend.

Weather here was very wet and windy on Sunday, and today is forecast to be not much better with the threat of some snow for many. Take care out there, and have a good week.