Even by our own low standards it has not been the best Xmas for Mrs W and I.
Plans to see my own frail parents in Essex thoroughly Boris’ed but my wife had to go to Birmingham 6am Xmas morning to see her very elderly Dad who had phoned us unwell. She is still there.
So no day at home together for us and my parents alone with their carers and a frozen turkey dinner.
…and then the boiler broke down Xmas afternoon.
Oh well, light the log burners, cold water wash and there is always next year. Looks like her Dad is OK for now anyway, and the plumber comes Monday.
In the context of this year not the worst that can happen
Gosh that sounds terrible. But you were lucky you had some logs to burn. One year on a Christmas morning we found our coal shed was empty. We ended up having to put all our presents and grandads wooden leg on the fire.
Back then we never had a boiler, we had to put a hot iron that had been sat above the fire into a big tin water bucket.
Best wishes.
We had our usual last minute rush putting the tree up and wrapping presents.
We’re generally both working/chaotic at this time of year anyway and leave things until the last minute - utterly disorganised in fact.
The mistake this year was getting a fresh tree a fortnight ago from a fir tree farm in the pouring rain, we left it outside and as I was working last weekend could not do it then.
Had planned to get the tree up on Wednesday when we were both off but torrential rain soaked the tree (which we brought in to dry out on some tarpaulin overnight) and a blocked gutter needed attention to deflect water bypassing the downpipe which I assume filled with moss the day before when neighbour’s window cleaner was fiddling up there.
In addition on the Wedesday, at the bottom of the garden water was pooling and getting into the garage under the door and I tried in vain to clear a blocked drain and got utterly soaked and muddy.
We were both working Thursday and in the evening the task of cutting the tree stump down to size to fit the holder became apparent - several hours of sawing and trimming - it was eventually up at 11.53pm on Christmas Eve, the kids stayed up to decorate it, and I crashed out on the sofa at 4am leaving Mrs AC to continue present wrapping.
When we’re having ‘that’ sort of day, I’ve been known to say ‘well, one day this will be two years ago and at least we’ll have an amusing story to tell’.
Whilst I’m very sympathetic to the tales of woe, I hope you don’t mind if I’m honest and say they made me smile in a ‘we’ve all been there’ way. Thank you for providing proof for my claims.
