An alarming evening

Got a phone call from Lorraine while I was at work yesterday afternoon, saying that there was a problem with the house alarm which was causing it to beep incessantly. It had done this before and eventually stopped, however this time when I got home it was still going.

We ended up having to phone an engineer, who came out and diagnosed the problem - a flat battery. The battery was replaced and before you could say "I'm skint this month", I was writing out a cheque for £105. Ouch. These things happen, just part of life. The timing could be better though (isn't that always the case?).

Haven't mentioned it here yet - we've got a new car. It is a Vauxhall Agila, not the most heralded of cars (to say the least) but the price was too good to ignore. It is compact but it does the job for us, I just hope it will be reliable. There's a small part of me which is worried that we got too good a deal (if that makes sense). It is three years old, had 15k on it (when we bought it) and is silver. At the moment it might almost tempt me into the weekend car washing community.

A fun few hours

As it has been a while it is probably about time that I update you on the latest goings on in my life.

First things first, we've had an extension to the family. No, not the pitter-patter of tiny feet, but the pitter-patter of tiny paws. Yes, we have a dog. His name is Cookie, he is a cross-Collie and we were given him by our friends Stuart and Gillian. They loved him to bits, but unfortunately their infant daughter Abigail was allergic to him so Cookie needed to find a new home. As we've looked after him before we were given first refusal, and he's pretty hard to turn down.

Unfortunately it isn't the best time of year to get him. Fireworks are going off just about every night, and like most dogs he isn't too keen on them. Last Saturday night was spent at home, trying to keep him calm. It wasn't easy, but at least the weather was rotten, which meant that the fireworks didn't go on for as long as most years, so that was a small mercy.

There were a few more fireworks last night, which made Cookie a bit scared again. So much for the fun night I was looking forward to having - instead I was looking after a frightened dog and wasting my time in a fruitless search for an MOT certificate (we're trading in our old car this Wednesday).

Also last night Lorraine was out with her friend Lucy. They went to Wetherspoon's in Motherwell, and in the course of their time there had some Nachos with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. I'm not sure which part of that made Lorraine unwell, but she was sick numerous times before her stomach calmed down and allowed her back to sleep at about 2am. Not good times. So much for my fun night in!

Mind you, my own sleep has hardly been peaceful of late. I've had a few nightmares lately, and while I don't really wish to retell the tales they were pretty vivid and wholly believable incidents. Not funny at all.

On the whole though life hasn't been too bad lately. Lorraine and I have stayed largely healthy, we're picking up a second hand car with not too many miles on it for a good price, and Christmas isn't too far away, so there's plenty to look forward to. And if we can't raise a smile between us at least we've got Cookie to amuse us.