In Our Easter Bonnets ...err Hats

Hello my friends,

Nathan and Daniel took part in the Easter Parade at pre-school yesterday. All the parents had to make bonnets or hats for the children.  It was not a contest - every child that took part received an Easter Egg.

Becky took some lovely photos of the parade which, of course, I cannot share with you here because of the privacy of other children and parents.

They came over to see us yesterday so we could actually see them wearing their creations.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The fence is broken on the above picture, that is because Nathan grabbed it to pick it up and a piece snapped off.  I think Becky and Dean did a great job on these Easter creations as it is much harder to make things like that for boys whereas with girls you can use lots of ribbons, flowers etc.

Well, what has been happening in our lives.  I never had the decency of a reply from AOL (my previous entry) which just goes to show that even when you contact head office and the chief of complaints they show a could-not-care-less attitude.  I did not expect to receive a reply which has confirmed my opinion as to their standard of service.  Several people have now told me that they are leaving AOL - they are just totally fed up with the poor service. I had not only written about my treatment at the hands of their help line but also about the fact that I have reported several times that although I am on Broadband silver and have been since last November, they are still charging me for Broadband Platinum!  If they continue to do so despite my telephone complaints and now in actual writing, I shall seek professional advice.  Taking money they are not entitled to is tantamount to theft.

My situation with the bank has been cleared up.  Someone had been fraudulently using my bank account so I had to deal with the fraud department.  They were very helpful and we traced back fraudulent transactions and the bank repayed me in full.  Only problem is that they repaid me twice!!  Good job I am honest and reported it.  They were full of apologies but you do not expect mistakes to be made by the actual fraud department.  So I was, for a while, much better off than I  had been before - that is until the Bank took it back again!  Anyway, that all seems sorted out now.

Last Friday morning we were sitting reading the newspapers when this terrible chemical smell filled the entire house.  It was choking, made our eyes stream and gave us a headache.  Mike traced it to our freezer which had malfunctioned.  It was the old type that are banned now.  He unplugged it and threw it into the garden. We had previously opened all the doors and windows.  We did contact the fire brigade for their advice and were told we had done exactly the correct thing and as we had provided good ventilation, we would suffer no lasting harm.  We also contacted the local council who refused to take it away because it had leaked.  Makes me wonder why we pay community charge.

They told us we would have to drain it out first.  Mike was not going to touch it.  So I ended up phoning Essex County Council and spoke to a very helpful gentleman.  He was appalled at our local council for refusing to take it.  He said that when they have to clean up fly-tipping, there is often hazardous material but they have to take it regardless.

He told us to leave it for two days then it would be perfectly safe to take down to the local tip.  We have our main freezer in the garage, this smaller one was only kept in the kitchen for convenience - we would bring up what we needed for the next couple of days.  So we had the small freezer and a fridge below it.  The fridge was the original one that was here when we came.  When Mike moved it to get at the freezer a load of rust fell off the bottom.  We decided that had to go as well.

On Sunday Dean came over (he has a bigger car) and both items were taken to the local dump.

We now have a new all in one - fridge/freezer which is quite big enough for the needs of two of us.  The food we lost was minimal so we are not claiming on the insurance especially as the age of the two items would go against us.

It was scary at the time though and it took hours before the smell of ammonia gas disappeared completely from the house.

So far this year has been nothing but hassle, maybe only little things but coming one after the other.  We are hoping things will quieten down now and we can enjoy the rest of the year once I get my looming medical appointments out of the way.  I have to see the oncologist in May and have not yet received a date for my mammogram.  I am going to be very nervous when that arrives as you can imagine.

This is a very quiet area so we were quite surprised last week when a house in the next road was raided by the police.  It turned out that the whole place, every room, was filled with Cannabis plants!  The house was unoccupied but neighbours said they had seen four well-dressed men going in and out.  Someone tipped off the police and apparently they detected a heat source coming from this empty property (according to the papers) so broke in and found "the stash".  We have not heard anything farther as to whether there have been any arrests.  Justs goes to show that you never know what goes on behind closed doors.

I cannot believe itis Easter already, seems such a short time since Christmas.  They have said it will be bitterly cold and have even forecast snow showers although I am not sure whether they will come as far south as us.

Well, this is turning into a book and lunchtime is looming.

I would like to wish each an every one of you a happy and blessed Easter.  May life be good to you and may the Lord smile upon you.

Love