Gosh I am tired at the moment. The summer seems to have simply flown by and not quite sure where it went to. Am glad that I managed the domestic targets I set myself, ie painting my bedroom and having the flat re-carpeted but there were plenty of other things I wished to do and did not quite manage to tick them all off my list. Never mind, I will not repine.
I think I mentioned that we have set up a Resident's Association here in Brookside Close and despite my pleadings that somebody else be Chairman, nobody else was willilng. 'Oh, but Elaine you are so bossy good at organising' was the cry and though I genuinely did not want to add anything further to my schedule, it was no use and as somebody has to do it, well it is me. So I am in the throes of sorting out costs and budgets with the management company and though this will not come up until next spring, I have already identified where costs can be cut and the manager who I deal with is being extremely helpful, so we shall see. I am also dealing with a tree company as we need to have a silver birch, which has become perilously tall and weedy, cut back as it is a danger in high winds. Also organising cut back of some overhanging trees which have branches hovering over our TV aerial. So that is now in hand and, as we have encroaching woodland at the back of the flats, pushing against the wall in our car park and causing it to tip alarmingly, I asked the young man from the tree company to take a look as they do a lot of work with the Council and the land at the back is council property. He nearly had a fit when he saw it and told me in accents of doom 'What you have here is Japanese Knotweed'. 'Oh really' says I brightly 'How dreadful' and then 'What IS Japanese Knotweed?' I was then told it is Triffid like stuff that takes you over and that the Olympic site had to be cleared of this at the cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds before they could start to build.
Well, we are certainly not planning on having a Velodrome or Swimming pool at the back of Brookside Close but apparently the same measures have to be taken, ie it is sprayed and then it dies and then it is cut down and burned on site. This will probably have to be done a few times before it is totally eradicated. I was told in awful terms that 'nobody should attempt to cut it back and take it off site as this was a chargeable offence'. I hastened to assure him that such a thought had never crossed my mind (I mean do I sound like a woman who is going to take a machete to Japanese Knotweed and cart it up to the tip? I think not) and I have warned all the Residents just in case they fancied nipping out for a bit of slashing and burning. I gather another Man will come and Take a Look in a week or two and start the whole process off as I stressed that the wall was assuming the proportions of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and if it fell onto one or two of the cars parked there ructions would occur.
So a fun time ahead.
I was up in London this week taking care of the utterleygorgeousandbeautifulFlorence and to arrive, having Helen say Florence here is Grandma and to have this toddler run towards you with her arms outstretched and a big beam on her face, well, I am as mush in this child's hands. I took her out for a walk in the park and she decided she wanted to push the buggy. Well, it was crashed into trees, park benches and railings and if I tried to correct it and point it in the right direction I got a shriek of indignation and a glare that reminded me forcibly of my ex. Daunting I can tell you. I stayed overnight and also babysat so that daughter and husband could nip out to the posh new cinema at Westfield to see Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy which they both thought was marvellous. I have yet to meet anybody who disagrees with this opinion. Drove home the next day and was totally knackered when I got back and fell asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours and woke up with a stiff neck and cramp in my toes.
This weekend I am off with a neighbour to buy rose bushes to plant in the gardens, plant them and also put in the rest of the bulbs I have bought. 150 in so far and intend to double that. Then next week I have a book launch to go to and Bloomsbury's 25th birthday party and then I am driving off to Exmoor for a week yomping across the moors and exercising my butt off as I did last year. This time I will be more prepared, mentally if not physically, and feel I will get more out of it. I went into town this morning and bought two pairs of proper walking socks, last year I just used cheapie cotton ones which did not protect my feet very much with the resultant blisters and toe nails dropping off. They have only finished growing back so am damned if I am going to lose them again.
And finally, to end this Random Ramble, you may remember that I got stuck in the Congestion Zone back in July because of traffic diversions and I was fined for non-payment of my Congestion charge despite the fact I had not intended to venture that far into the city. My appeal was turned down in terms which intimated I was trying it on and the £60 was doubled even though it was under appeal. Well, all Random Readers will know that I was not going to put up with that so I shot off a letter to Transport for London and also wrote to Boris, the Mayor. As Boris Johnson is an eccentric to put it mildly, I tried to make the letter amusing and witty to appeal to his sense of humour. The other day I received a reply and lo and behold, a full apology and a refund of my fine. So that cheered me up no end.
Mark you, I still have the Inland Revenue to deal with. The tax I queried is payable and I now understand why, but as they have taken over two years to deal with my query and only after endless letters, abortive phone calls and the intervention of my MP, I have told them that though I will pay the tax (bang goes my trip to New Hampshire next year), I am buggered if I am going to pay them interest which they have had the cheek to levy. It also transpires that I might have an underpayment this year as well and I have to fill in a Return so have asked them to let me know what sort of sum because I am going to have to try and save that up. I will not bore you with the ins and outs of it all but the letter stated that the system had worked properly but 'it was unfortunate that it had left Miss Simpson-Long with unpaid tax'. I leave you to imagine what my response was to that...
I am trying to catch up with the backlog of reviews I have to write but with all that is going on feeling I cannot concentrate on anything so am doing what I always do when I am mentally and physically tired. I turn to Georgette Heyer....
