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Monday, Monday...

Up bright and early this morning to run my dad to pick up a minibus - him and my mum and some assorted randoms are off to London for three days - which means I get to borrow his car, and also am in charge of the chickens. Scary thought. I also have 3 cats, 4 rabbits, a zebra finch, two terrapins, a hamster, two tanks and a pond full of fish to look after. Which is good, but mans I must remember to bob home from the house between 5 and 6 to do feeding rounds.
After dropping my dad off, I shot up the motorway to Irlam, to pick up Himself who is have new front and rear axle bushes fitted to his car. As the house is still powerless, we decided instead to take advantage of the lull in house things, and the availability of an extra pair of hands to go and sort out my classroom.
When we got there, we found that Ralphy, my incredibly lovely caretaker, had already humped most of the things back into the classroom, so that left us free to back some display boards. Eight boards and a spot of lunch later and I'd trapped something in my neck, so decided enough was enough for one day.
We then went to B&Q (again!!) for more tester pots for the living room walls. Dining room is going to be a pale blue above the dado, and a sandy brown underneath, with white paintwork. Living room is chocolate brown on the chimney breast, we just need to find the right creamy shade for the walls and paintwork, as one current choice looks too clinically white, and strangely, the other looks pink..
We went back to Irlam for the car, and the nice guys at Awesome relieved Chris of a substantial wad of cash, for a car that was driving 1000 times better. So worth it.

Then it was back to the parents' to feed the chickens (and Chris got to get a still warm eggy out of the nest box and feed some greedy biddies by hand) and the cats, before nipping off to the house to paint some more tester patches, which we can have a look at tomorrow.

I've also realised that as I'm struggling to catch up with these posts and write about all that has happened, I have missed out the delight that was the bin, that occurred sometime over the past three days, so I shall share it now.
When the house has been quickly tarted up to be sold (new and badly fitted rush jobs in the kitchen and bathroom, everything that stayed still being walloped with magnolia emulsion paint) the builders oh so helpfully left all their rubbish behind in the yard, along with a bike, the old broken kitchen window (which may be in part related to the missing cooker in the kitchen) meaning that the bin was absolutely loaded and too heavy to be moved. We'd been told by the council that if we wanted rid of the rubbish we could either take it to the tip ourselves, or pay for the privilege of the bin men coming for it. Either way, all the crap needed to be bagged up.
Chris took it upon himself to tackle this particular task, which started fairly painlessly with him smashing up old rotten bits of wood and the old window frame to get them in a sack. Other broken glass and general yard mess was bagged up, and dumped in the Death Trap Garage (TM) to be out of the way, and then he turned on the bin. Upon opening it and tipping it up, Chris found that as well as a tonne of old tiles and concrete, because the bin had been overfilled and the lid left half open it was filled with five months worth of stinking, stagnant water, rotting cardboard and polystyrene that had turned black. I was cleaning the living room, and rushed to the back door when I heard the loud crash of the bin hitting the floor, and Chris retching uncontrollably. I wish I hadn't to be honest, because the bin smelt like Satan's arse crack and a whole heap of dead things. I cannot possibly convey through the medium of text how utterly vile and gut-wrenching the stink was.
We shut the door to try and keep the stench out, but while I was in the front bedroom cleaning the window I could smell it seeping in through the vent. People were walking past on the main road clutching their noses, and a car full of people from up the road stopped at the junction and were looking for an overflowing drain. Eventually Chris managed to get all the fetid filth into rubble sacks, and shut it in the garage before sluicing down the yard. I don't know how he managed it.
The bin men will earn every penny of their fee when they come to get the bags out of our garage - none of that shit is going anywhere near the back of my car!