Boy Makes Coffee!

I know - not much of a title, or a photo. In fact this probably looks like a desperation Blip. But it's not. Quite the reverse.

This young man is the grandson of an old friend of mine. Back at the beginning of July he and his Grandma and her two dogs (Poppy the black lab and Daisy the black cocker spaniel) set off from this kitchen for a camping holiday in France.

Three days after they left the tumble drier went on fire during the night, and his brave mum had a very lucky escape, managing to get herself and her two dogs (Ruby the flat-coat retriever, and Dizzee the Golden Retriever) out of the house safely, before calling the Fire Brigade.

Her quick action saved the house from being completely destroyed, but this kitchen was trashed. The ceiling was absolutely black as coal, as were most of the walls. The kitchen units had begun to melt, and the smoke and soot went all through the house covering every surface and making it unliveable. The smell of smoke was unbelievably overpowering.

Young Ben came home to his mum after 3 weeks, but his Grandma had to stay in France until the house was fixed, so she has been living in a tent for 6 weeks now. And did I mention she fell and broke her arm?

Friends and family rallied round, and over the course of a few weeks this whole house had been cleaned from top to bottom. Ben's mum has worked all day in a hairdressing salon, weekends in a pub, and then come to the house in the evenings to do more cleaning and scrubbing and organising. And she has project-managed having the old kitchen ripped out and a new one fitted, the ceiling replaced, the walls re-plastered, the kitchen and dining room redecorated, and new flooring laid.

And now at last my friend has booked her trip back home: on Friday this week she will load her dogs into the car, pack up her tent (not easy with one arm in plaster) and drive from Brittany to the ferry bound for the south-coast of England, and then drive all the way up from Dover to Perth.

By the time she gets here all of these boxes will have been unpacked and her dishes will be laid away in the new cupboards. The newly dry-cleaned curtains will have been hung, the dogs beds will await them.

And this young man will be waiting to greet his Grandma with the best cup of coffee she will ever have tasted, in the comfort of her own new kitchen!