Spring Cleaning

Over the past few days I have been spring cleaning. I thought it would only take me a day but I wanted to clean every cupboard and surface, including ceilings  and it turns out that there is more surface area than I had anticipated. Our previous house was a huge victorian terrace with very high ceilings, 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms and two bathrooms so a proper spring clean took me at least two weeks.

At least the ceilings on the boat are within easy reach and I am glad to say that having thrown every damp solution at the wardrobes they are now dry and all the musty smells have disappeared. It was amazing how dirty the fire had made the boat with many sooty deposits coming off the ceilings particularly and the curtains came out of the wash a much lighter shade of cream than when they went in! Hopefully we won't need to use the fire so much in the coming months.

I burnt some oils in the bedroom earlier and the whole boat is now smelling lovely. My usual aromatherapy combination is Rose and Geranium, which gives a lovely fresh smell. Sometimes I mix Neroli, Lavender or Orange oil together, but today I tried a new combination - Cedarwood and Frankincense, which is really lovely, I can recommend it.

Tomorrow T and I are going to dig our allotment ready for planting. The weather for the Easter weekend is not looking good which is a shame, as Phil and I were hoping to go for a long walk, but there are still lots of chores to do so maybe it is a good thing that we are not distracted.

Son number two is due to finish his degree next term and is applying for jobs further afield so we have decided to sell his little boat and get him a flat locally until he finds work, but there is still some work to do on the boat before we sell it. My push bike needs to come out of hibernation and have a good overhaul before I start riding it in earnest now that the good weather is arriving. Also a number of friends have put aside wood for us that they have accumulated which we need to collect and put in  our store. A friend has offered us a trailer for the car at a very good price, so now we can collect wood without making a mess of the interior of the car. They are all jobs which I love, but which take up time and I only have a week off before I am back at work.

Next term is quite heavy. I was asked to go to South Africa to work for a month at the end of April, but I had to turn it down as I have so many commitments here. I am fine with the week in Portugal because I can shift things around that, but a month is a big commitment. I am suddenly in the position where I am going to have to make some serious decisions about future work. I may have to give up more regular work in the UK so that I don't miss out on overseas opportunities in the future - we will see.

Al