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I think I've finally got everything under control this weekend - the house is tidy, washing and ironing up-to-date, bread and oatcakes baked, some of the presents wrapped (enough so that the ones left will be Christmassy task rather than a chore). I've even managed to wrap Mouse's enormous whole-roll-of-wrapping-paper-it's-obvious-what-it-is-but-we're-pretending-it's-a-surprise present.

And we managed to get the tree defrosted enough to put it up and decorate it. It was a little more last minute than usual because we'd left it lying at the side of the garage, so it got thoroughly snowed upon, and as it was still tied up, there was ice all the way through it. Handsome left it standing in the garage all yesterday, and it had absolutely no effect, so this morning we brought it into the utility room and it dripped gently all day (onto newspaper).

Handsome went and collected Hairy (along with Hairy's godfather who has been visiting this weekend, along with his godmother) from Glasgow, and Mouse and myself decorated the tree - we have to exclude Hairy and Handsome because Hairy just throws everything at the tree because he has no taste, and Handsome thinks it's funny to make the tree tasteless. Mouse and myself have made it all red and gold and glittery. Godfather threaded baubles, and Casper chased things around the floor and reminded us about not hanging anything too close to the floor if it was breakable.

It's snowing again... it's looking good for a white Christmas.

It snowed overnight on Thursday, so everything was looking really pretty on Friday morning when I got up. I was just thinking to myself that it was a perfect day for sitting in the passenger seat of the car on the way to work, with my camera on my lap so that I could shout STOP at Handsome whenever there was a photographic opportunity, when I remembered that Handsome was not well and was planning on staying at home (because he'd coughed all night) and that I no longer have a working camera. I drowned it on the last very, very wet Duke of Edinburgh walk. I know it is drowned because a) water ran out of the battery case when I took it out of it's (supposedly not very waterproof) bag and b) all the photos I took on that particular walk are misted - it was only wet, not foggy too.

So I drove into work (very carefully as it was icy as well as snowy, and although I am quite capable of driving in the snow, I don't actually like it very much) and looked at the views as I went. They were really quite beautiful, and if Handsome had been there we would have probably been late for work because he would have had to stop so many times. But we could have always blamed it on the snow...

It remains very picturesque here - there were so many birds hanging off the garden feeders earlier today that they were knocking each other off, and our next-door-neighbour's doves (with big feathery feet) were pecking up the seed that the smaller birds knocked out. A symbiotic relationship that probably leads to big fat white doves! They sort of fade into the snow so that sometimes you can't quite work out how many are there.

And it's still snowing, gently and steadily.

I took Mouse for his swine flu jag this afternoon - finally - and I got mine done at the same time, even although I'm fairly convinced it's unnecessary for me. It certainly isn't unnecessary for Mouse, his peak flow is still way below what it should be, I'm convinced he's growing every time I turn my back which is why his peak flow's off, and Handsome's absolutely stuffed with the cold, so I'm also worried about Mouse picking that up and wheezing more.

I have to say that I'm feeling a little peeved, because I never, ever, ever react to jags - but my arm's really sore tonight, and I've got a diabolical headache starting. Mouse on the other hand, who is inclined to serious hypochondria, is leaping around happily with no signs of any bother.

That could just be excitement because it's snowing heavily. I'm reliably informed, via x-box live, that there's about four inches in Tarbrax (a place just on the borders of civilisation) which means that he stands a really good chance of no school bus in the morning. No school bus equals no school, because if they don't send a bus in the morning, they don't send one at night and he's stranded. Personally I think it's ridiculous that they turn the bus around just because it can't make the steep turn at Tarbrax, but there you go, that's how it is.

Eight sleeps 'til Christmas...

...and then apologised profusely, while I made extreme squeaky noises. What he did was lose his balance and stagger heavily backwards onto my foot. He had big boots on, I had delicate pumps. He was about six feet tall, I am five foot two (on a good day, rounding up).

It hurt.

The only good bit was that it got Handsome out of a please-take, so that he could bring me home early - now I have even colder feet than usual because I've been sitting with an ice-pack on them all evening.

Don't think I'm going climbing tomorrow.

Eventually (today) we managed to get hold of a plumber - Handsome had to stay home from work this morning so that he could let said plumber in and show him the relevant leaky bit. The plumber (wonderful people, plumbers) pulled at the leaky bit, and the whole pipe disintegrated. So, we now have a completely new pipe, a hole in the floor (currently covered up to prevent the mad cat from going exploring under the floorboards) and a worrying nagging feeling that perhaps we should check out the rest of the pipes too. Maybe after Christmas!

Now we just have to wait for the builders.

It was so cold in the climbing arena tonight that I had to talk Handsome out of going upstairs to Tisos and buying himself a hat, and then I wished that I'd let him buy a hat, because he headbutted a hold and grazed his scalp. Never mind, it took our minds off the kitchen floor!

Tonight when we got home from work (in a courtesy car, as ours is in the garage overnight because they booked it in on the wrong day) we moved the fridge and the dishwasher and peeled back the lino on the kitchen floor and had a look.

It's a bit of a mess, quite frankly.

The waste pipe under the kitchen sink is cracked, and obviously has been for quite some time, but because the water has drained through the floor it's not something we would have noticed. The floor is soaked through, and the plasterboard at the back of the sink and appliances is pretty wet too - the water must have been sucked up (I'm sure there's a technical or scientific term for that, like osmosis or something, but I can't be bothered to check). We can't really tell if there's damage to the floor, but bearing in mind that the fridge, freezer, dishwasher and oven all stand on that side of the kitchen, I think we'd better get it properly checked...

I had a humongous small panic when Handsome phoned the wrong insurance company (and of course they told us we weren't insured with them) but then we worked out that we'd changed companies last time we renewed, and phoned the right ones. They don't deal with non-emergencies outside working hours, so Handsome's going to have to call back tomorrow, and I'm still going to have to use the scullery to do the washing up.

It could be worse, I was talking to a colleague today whose bathroom has been out of commission for four weeks after a badly plumbed-in shower made a wall collapse...

Over the last week or so I have been aware of a smell in the kitchen and utility room area. I obsessively emptied bins, cleaned the filter in the dishwasher, checked cupboards and then got Handsome to check under cupboards. I didn't find anything, but the smell got gradually worse and worse. Last night Handsome bravely went where few have gone before, and looked beneath the kitchen floor (have I mentioned that the smell was definitely floorwards-focused) by way of the very small hatch in the cupboard where we keep the wine.

The wine is currently lined up down the hall, looking misplaced, forlorn and tempting.

He found rather a large pool of stagnant water underneath the area where the kitchen sink, dishwasher, fridge and freezer are located. So poor Handsome spent rather a lot of last night lugging sawdust down under the floor to start mopping up the water - the smell has improved at least.

Next we will have to move everything and find out what is leaking and how much damage has already been done. The worst case scenario is having to replace the floor, (Handsome seems to think that might be a possibility) and then we will probably have to contact the insurance company and find out how much of it they'll pay for, and in the meantime, I have to do the washing up in the utility room sink.

It's freezing in the utility room, there's no radiator in there. I think I'm going to rename it the scullery.

After a long, frustrating, tedious, dead-liney day at work, tonight's climbing session was just one of those perfect things. There are a whole load of new climbs up and I do enjoy working things out for the first time - I did a pink one a different way from Handsome, and a challenging blue had a difficult bit in the middle but once I'd got past that (by going sideways...) it was a breeze. And then, because there was a sudden invasion of teenagers, we moved over to a grey 5+ on the other side (with an overhang) which was not a new climb, but which we haven't done for a while because I got stuck and gave up. And it was suddenly easy!

I was on such a high by now that I attempted a 6a - and got brought back down to earth with a big bump, as I totally failed to get more than a third of the way up the wall, but by that point we were both freezing (the temperature in the quarry was definitely below zero, and I was belaying in gloves) so we came home for tea, before our fingers stuck to the walls.

Mouse only decided he wanted an advent calendar last night, so we dove into the supermarket to get him one - the remaining options were Ben 10 or Transformers... I bought him Optimus Prime. At least I had a better choice than the mother of a fifteen-year-old girl who was also raking through the boxes!

Top Gear is on just now in two separate rooms, at both ends of the house. It's in stereo. Neither viewer is willing to move.

Bah.