Woke this morning to a grey day. Don was up betimes to play a round of golf. I was up betimes to feed the kitties and make coffee – except our kettle has finally died after over 10 years service.

The kettle is one of the few remaining legacy items – so sad but pleased to see it go. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure that the replacement won’t last quite so long. This follows on the heels of the death of the legacy beaters – which we replaced with the same model. Amazing how the quality of the attachments had lessened since we bought the first one – we’d kept the original attachments, so now use those.

But I digress, Don had to leave before the saucepan of water boiled for coffee, so I took myself back to bed and snoozed.

At 9am (indolence!) I dragged myself out of bed and pottered about. Later in the morning the doorbell rang and it was the woman from 2 doors down who moved back into her haus this week after renting it out for a couple of years. We’ve been in touch on and off for various maintenance issues, but had never actually met.

She asked how we had fared during the hail. I explained the bailing and the frostbite and the leaks. She hadn’t got to the top balcony in time for bailing hail and her ceilings had fallen in!. She showed photos – it was horrific: ceilings on the furniture, light fittings hanging, carpets completely drenched. Bloody hell!

I thank TheUniverse that the whole thing happened when we were here and we were quick to act – else Bessie’s room would have suffered a similar fate. Honestly, the dodginess of this development really knows no bounds. No wonder the developer “went missing” after completion to avoid the law suits (of course we only found this out after we purchased).

Our poor plants took quite a beating in the hail and half the paint was torn off the facade and there is Bessie- but having your place become completely uninhabitable after being there three days rather puts things in perspective.

Also thank TheUniverse for wine!

<edited to add> just out talking to other neighbours and they copped it hard too – water pouring through light fittings, grand piano destroyed, no power. Yikes!