Linda has now finished work as well. She came home Friday and said “what the hell have we done?”, “well there’s no going back now.” After spending all day clearing things out and decorating, it’s really hitting home. The stuff you come across is beyond belief, we found a couple of boxes of photos in the loft, very hard not to spend a few hours going through them, although Linda did spend an hour or so “peeking” in the boxes. We have now made arrangements to borrow some loft space from other family members, some things you need to keep just in case, so the winter clothes are getting sealed in “vac bags” too stop them going “foisty”, and away they go. Not sure I’ve spelt “foisty” right, but I’m sure you know what I mean. Along with these will go the saucepan set we got for our wedding, and the odd electrical kitchen appliance that we have actually used, the deep fat fryer went to a car boot sale ages ago. One thing not being kept is the museum piece Amstrad “word processor”, yes, the ones that had black and white screens, anyone remember them? All told, the piles are getting smaller, and fewer. The half empty paint cans are now fewer in number too, it seems many of them were the same colour, they just got “lost” in the garage.
We’ve been clearing the kitchen cabinets too. Our booze is on the top shelf of one of these, with the glasses on the shelf underneath. Not having to worry too much about alarm clocks going off, we have been “using up” some of the half empty bottles. In the corner of the top shelf was an unopened bottle of Romanian brandy, which not wanting to open it, I decided to give this to the father in law. He came up for lunch today, and the brandy was placed on the kitchen worktop for him to take home. He’s eighty two by the way, and a true Yorkshire man, as in pay nowt. He prefers Ron Miel, but finding it around Alicante seems difficult, this may not be his favourite, but costing nowt, it would go in his coffee, no problem. Lunch was roast pork, with the vegetables all thrown in together with a good drizzle of olive oil, and left to roast. This emptied the olive oil bottle, which Linda duly washed out, and put on the worktop to be taken out for recycling. Time for Frank to go home, coat and cap on, “don’t forget the brandy”, “right” was the reply, and off he tottered down the hallway clutching a square green bottle for all his life was worth. Perhaps some of you have guessed where this is going; the brandy was in a round clear bottle. It seems in his haste to escape with the free brandy, he’d picked up the first bottle he came across, namely an empty olive oil bottle. It seems glasses are now in order as well as the hearing aids! And before you ask, I didn’t have the heart to let him take an “empty” home.