Charity bites back

The day started off spectacularly. Sunrise was glorious, and I leapt into the car early to go and take some photos and got out the drive before I realised that I could not see a thing for the frost on the windows. A fish slice works well when you are in a hurry. I was.

But the effort was worth it.

Today is Mum's birthday, and even though the house is still a diabolical mess, I think she had a good day. Well, I mean, what more could you ask for than to spend the morning (-1 degree early on) going to the clothing bank at Sainsbury's to drop off a car full of clothing and sundry other bits, followed by an exhilarating trip to the tip to drop off the things that no charity would look at? Excitement rules here at the Casa de la Rocking Chair.

About the charity biting back thingy........ the clothing banks are huge metal containers with pull down flaps for depositing your bags of clothing into, and they have handles to do this. I loaded a bag into the flap scoop thingy (there are a great number of "thingys" in this post I see) and let it shut, while holding the handle. Only, the lip of the flap had been bent, so it closed jamming my fingers between the handle and the container. Heavy flap. I think I have broken a finger. It looks rather odd, and it HURTS. 3 fingers are swollen, but the middle finger on my left hand is definitely wonky. Oops. I did phone the British Heart Foundation (who own the finger-eating contraption) to tell them it may need some adjusting.

And then I took my Mum out to lunch. That was good, and we had fun looking at all the Christmas decorations at our favourite Garden Centre. And the omelettes and salad were so huge that I did not have to cook tonight, so that was even better.

After going in to school to help the girls again, David and I moved a large oak chest of drawers upstairs to my room, which now looks like a furniture store, it has so much in it. Oh well.... I just use it to sleep in, so I can live with it for now. And did I mention that I painted the wall in the new studio before we went out on our exciting circuit of dumping grounds? My energy knows no bounds.

Friends popped in to see Mum, and I had to escort them through the chaos, wearing one shoe. I sort of lost the other one while I was heaving that chest up the stairs. My timing is not the best. For heaven's sake, I could have waited until AFTER Mum's birthday. Their faces sort of blanched at the amount still to do. Hmmm. They could have a point.

Anyway, there are now more bags waiting to be dropped at the finger-eating place. And there will be many more to follow. And the finger? I will see what it looks like tomorrow. More moving, more throwing out, more school, more meetings and to top it all, parents' evening at David's school. And now I am going to bed.