Bird Poo in the BBQ?

Me and the boys stood waiting for the school bus this morning (I think I wanted to make sure that Smallest definitely went!!!). As he was getting on the bus, I saw his feet stop and the driver talk to him, he wasn't moving and I thought what now? Then Smallest appeared at the side of the bus and said "my drink is leaking!". I ran over the road, emptied his bag and said to the driver "just take him and I'll bring his bag later!". I had to get a different bag and refill his drinks container and then drove to school and asked a kind teacher to pass it to him!

I then got ready to go out for a long walk in the forest with Mrs Royal, Mrs Guinness and Mrs Guiness' friend. We walked for just over an hour. It was beautiful apart from the Mosquitos. We chatted as we walked and looked at all the wild flowers. There was a lot of chatter about the Jubilee concert. We watched a bit last night.

I came home and Skyped the "Elderflower Meadows". It was so lovely to catch up them. I haven't seen them for ages. We are going to keep in touch more regularly now.

I miss them soooo much.

Lunch was had and then I decided to cut the grass before the storm started. It took ages but I managed to cut the whole of the back garden. I parked it, turned it off so I could open the front gates and went to start it again. But it wouldn't start. I wondered if it had overheated or ran out of petrol. The petrol was fine and it didn't seem hot, so I left it and went to Home Depot with a list of things to get!

On the way I noticed the CN Tower in the distance. Not sure you can see it but if you zoom in you can. I was in the car but there was nothing around me so I stopped to take it. I am quite responsible you know!

I drove about 30 mins away. My first stop was to find a hose clamp. I asked a nice man in there to help me. It was for the water butt. Firstly they didn't know what a water butt was. A water barrel? A water collector? I think he understood eventually. Anyway they didn't sell clamps on their own so he gave me one. Then he said "do you have the part this goes with?". No that's why I'm here! And he took it off me and said I couldn't have it! Did I say he was a nice man? I explained what I needed it for (the water butt) and he said "I'll take you to plumbing". We went to plumbing and spoke to a man about taps, faucets, hoses etc! He said "if you have a water collector without anything on the end and the water just pours out, how do you collect water?". EXACTLY THAT IS WHY I AM HERE!!!!!!!!

He sent me away with instructions to measure the bit on the water butt that needs an end and told me to take a photo! Next stop, Slab and bricks (to raise the water butt to enable a watering can to be placed under the butt to collect the water!). One slab purchased. No bricks. They do not sell bricks! Next stop, stakes to make our dry hedge. I was directed to the bamboo stakes! NO NOT THOSE SOMETHING MORE SUBSTANTIAL! "ahhhh you need lumber" - over the other side of the shop! In lumber I asked a man "have you any stakes?". "yes I have, if you follow me, follow me and I will take you there, follow me and I will take you to heaven, do you want to go to heaven?". NOT PARTICULARLY, I JUST WANT MY STAKES!!!!! He was still waffling about heaven when he got to the stakes. Little stumpy pine ones, not treated, not really adequate for the job! "have you any treated ones I can put in the garden?". "ooooh, ahhhhh, wel!!! No not really!". He gave up on me, either he thought I wouldn't be allowed in Heaven or he guessed that Heaven wasn't anywhere I had EVER planned to go to! Either way he got bored and left me wallowing with their useless stakes. There I was in this huge store that looks just like B&Q pushing a huge flat trolley with one little slab on it!!!

So I came away from Home Depot with one very heavy slab! Great! I phoned Huffle who had had a very bad day but still listened to me moaning about hoses, Taps, bricks, stakes. He decided to leave work early and visit Canadian Tire and see if he could do any better. Of course, he did! He came back with bricks, hose, hose end, oil for the mower and pipe for the oil to be filtered out! Clever Huffle. Don't send a hormonal woman to do a man's job!!!

I came home disheartened and moaned to Mrs Royal. She gave me a number for a woman in the Hamlet who does swimming lessons. A number for a doctor taking new patients in our local town. A loan of a wasp catcher to catch the flies. In exchange, when the boys got off the bus, they weeded out some forget-me-nots out of her garden. We used reverse psychology and said we didn't think they were old enough to pull the plants out!, yay!

Their friend came to play and the three boys played on the wii. It started to thunder and I was worried we were going to get horrendous rain storms so I pushed (yes pushed) the mower into the barn all by myself. It was very heavy and I struggled up the hilly bit and also steering it whilst pushing. Phew!

The boys played nicely until Small started shouting at Smallest and I went and took the wii remotes off them and sent their friend home (it was actually the time he was due home anyway). The boys and I walked him home and then they played outside. They had their dinner and Huffle arrived home with all the bits he set out to get. See, I knew I wasted my time. Do I send him out to buy clothes for me and the boys? No! Or things to make the house look pretty? no.

Huffle mended the water butt (I helped a bit, he might say I hindered, but I didn't!!). HB skyped us. She has finished school now and just has the end of her exams to do which she is busily revising for. She wanted to check how we were doing and how Smallest was. I chatted to her for a while and then I left her talking to Smallest on their own. Hopefully it will do some good. It was lovely to see her and speak to her. She may be only 18 but she talks a lot of sense! Smallest read a book to HB and then came back to talk to me. HB said that he said he was going to try and not take his anger out on people and try not to get so angry. Among other things!

Huffle also went into the barn and turned the key on the mower and guess what? It worked. Oh, I forgot to press the clutch down! Silly Billy. Oh well at least I haven't broken it.

We had dinner and watched the end of the Jubilee Concert. We were disappointed that they cut Grace Jones out with her crazy hula hooping. We thought Elton wasn't as good as everyone said he was. Paul McCartney should give up singing. Cliff should never have started! We did like Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder. Wil.i.am seemed to have had a bottom incident, ie he walked like he had soiled himself. Kylie was average. Robbie has always been a prat as far I am concerned and damaged his voice with his drink and drug taking a while back. We didn't see Cheryl Cole but heard it wasn't good. I do like a bit a Gary Barlow though so am disappointed I missed him! Apparently he was responsible for putting the concert together. Ahhh, what a lovely man. However, all in all a forgettable three hours, thank god for fast forwarding! We did like Charles' speech at the end especially his hip hip hipping. (Huffle and I like him even if no one else does!)

Smallest had an 'accident' in the night. Is it connected to his rage the day before? We don't know, but we didn't make a fuss. We got up, remade his bed and kissed him goodnight. It was 3am. That dreadful hour when you are in a lovely deep sleep and can't quite open your eyes properly!

Huffle is always on the lookout for interesting pieces of furniture. There is something called Kijiji here which is similar to eBay except the price isn't bidded on. We saw a lovely antique hall stand and tried to buy it but missed it by one minute! Anyway, this evening Huffle saw a BBQ for sale. This is the advert for it:-

I am giving away my BBQ. It works perfectly. However it has seen better days:



- Bird built a nest inside the bbq

- Outside is rusted

- Some bird poop on the back

- Temperature gauge fell off.

How funny is that?

P.s. we are NOT buying it!