Get stuck in.

Just when you think you've almost got things under control, something else jumps up and bites you one the bum rear end.

Some of you may remember this blip. No reason why you should really, after all it was a rather uninspiring image and a bit of an obscure write up. However, the night was horrible for us and we will always have a whole lot of bad memories associated with it. You know, the kind of thing that really is best forgotten and not gone into any more than necessary?

What happened was too difficult to recount at the time. Basically, a piece of equipment provided by the council social work department failed and we had to call on the help of community alarm services. They were about as much use as a chocolate teapot (chocolate teapots melt if you try and use them to make tea) and after someone offered to try and put an air lift UNDER the bath (which is cast iron????) they gave up and decided to call in the fire brigade.

Half an hour later six burly firemen turned up in an engine complete with blue flashing lights etc. Curtains were twitching and as they lined up in the hall to see what needed done. Anyway, to cut a long story short they did the necessary and remaining true to form, the lad thanked them profusely. By the time he was back in bed he was laughing at the thought of having to get six men in to get him out of the bath.

Like so many other things we went through then, we also shrugged it off and tried to make light of it. We managed pretty well too. In fact until today we had almost laid that particular irritation to rest - until I opened the mail this morning.

We have been billed for the provision of the community alarm. Not only were we told that the system had been provided free of charge, the idea that we should have to pay at all when we only ever used the system to sort out a problem of the council's own making really p***es me off.

So the question is, do I pay the ten pounds and sweep the whole thing under the carpet, or do I get my teeth into it and give them a piece of my mind?

Anyway, spent part of the afternoon at least up the tree with the cats and one of the dogs (the bitch has always climbed trees and when she saw us having a "party" she decided she wasn't going to be left out). Now I wasn't being all that daft, I just wanted to see what the angle was like from up there.

So we sat there watching Beano do what only Beano can do; get his teeth into an old bit of fishing net with the same enthusiasm he had when he was a puppy over thirteen years ago.