CHANEL N°5

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On my recent holiday, I treated myself to my first ever bottle of CHANEL N°5 eau de parfum.

Previously, I had always thought of it as an older woman’s perfume and so have tended to give it a wide berth. Thanks to Covid19 and Brexit, I am no longer able to purchase perfume from the small trusted perfumery in France and so I had to find an alternative and that is when I started to look at the famous CHANEL N°5

I am delighted with my purchase and so am going to stick with it.

However, my experience at the CHANEL counter in John Lewis wasn’t as delightful When we arrived at the counter, there were no other customer so we got the undivided attention of the salesperson who looked like as she had seen better days. Sadly, she looked unkempt and her black outfit was covered in dog hair! Unfortunately, her colleague didn’t look any better.

Maybe I was expecting them to look like Coco Chanel🤣 or am still stuck in the past where salespeople were well groomed and going into a departmental store to purchase a bottle of perfume used to be an experience in itself.

John Lewis Furniture Nightmare

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Somehow, I was a little slow in catching up with the “John Lewis furniture nightmare” scandal this week.

I still don’t know who said what. There are many in our own country who can’t afford to furnish their homes even with charity shop furniture let alone furniture from John Lewis which they would think as luxury.

It is sad when politicians are oblivious to how their fellow citizens live.

Recently I was listening to a programme on radio about a little boy from East London who was missing school a few times a week every week. Upon investigation by his teacher, it transpired that he was missing school because his family could only afford one pair of school shoes that he had to share with his sister. On the days he was absent from school, his sister was able to go to school!!!!! I found it very hard to believe that this was happening here in England because these are stories that you hear happening in third world countries!!!!

By the way, here in our Vicarage, almost all our furniture are hand me downs. I don’t know who they belonged to as the person wanted to be anonymous. They have been with us for years throughout our moves to the different Vicarages. Just very grateful to have a sofa to sit on!

Exasperated by Courier Companies!

On Tuesday, I was expecting the delivery of a parcel. It was to be delivered by DPD and the scheduled time was between 16.33 and 17.33. Unfortunately the delivery did not happen. I checked my delivery status and saw that DPD was not able to delivery my parcel as they didn’t have my contact name/number. How absurd!

I spent the next half hour trying to reschedule the delivery. I got a slot for the next day which was Wednesday and the schedule time was again between 16:33 to 17:33.

This time, I diligently sat infront of my computer to monitor the status. My delivery was number 99! The delivery driver was only on this 3rd delivery. I was also able to find out a bit more about the delivery driver which I thought was totally unnecessary like the fact that he was Polish and what his hobbies were!!!!

At about 17:25, my mobile rang. The delivery driver couldn’t find the Vicarage! This is the 4th time this week that delivery drivers had trouble finding the Vicarage!

Anyway, I got the Mhinisteir to give directions and finally I had the parcel in my hand.

Why can’t more companies use Royal Mail for delivery? Big companies like John Lewis too have started using alternative courier companies like Hermes for delivery. I know that the Royal Mail is more expensive but courier companies like DPD provide mediocre service! On this occasion I paid £4.95 for delivery. Very often, on top of the delivery charges, we have to spend hours on the phone/computer trying to locate the “lost” parcel!

I am so fedup that I am tempted to avoid buying from online companies that use alternative courier companies like DPD or Hermes for delivery. Easier said than done as most companies now use alternative courier companies.

Monday Blues

Like Garfield, I had Monday Blues.

I was furious ( over reaction on my part!!!) with the Milkman this morning.   In order to prevent the milk from turning bad in the summer heat,  I invested in a MilkandMore cool bag.  I have been leaving it out for the milkman to put the milk bottle in it to keep the milk cool. I don’t know what came over the milkman this morning but he did not do it! The milk bottle was left on the doorstep to sun itself!!! Maybe he had the Monday Blues too!

Then I read in the papers that a certain clergy person has confessed to an inappropriate relationship with the wife of a former Archbishop of Canterbury.  Not another Church of England scandal!!!

Things got back to normal when our new mattress topper from John Lewis arrived. We have an old mattress that is uncomfortable.  We can feel the springs.  We were struggling to find a suitable mattress.  It was during this time that I read somewhere that there is an inexpensive option.  To purchase a mattress topper at a fraction of the price of a good mattress.  I did more research and found one suitable on the John Lewis website.  Unfortunately it was out of stock.  I decided to wait until it was back in stock but that day never arrived.  In the meantime, we continued struggling with our mattress.

Last week, when we got some John Lewis vouchers in the post, I decided to go ahead and finally order a mattress topper.

Here’s to a good night’s sleep!!!!

 

 

 

 

Second Freezer

In Scotland, We always had two freezers.  You NEED a large freezer If you live in rural/remote areas, you can’t nip to the shops as and when you please since they are miles away.   Furthermore since we can’t get takeaways, it is always good to have some ready meals in the freezer when we don’t feel like cooking.

We have been meaning to buy a second freezer for ages but never got round to it.   Ours is a fridge freezer that was given to us.  The freezer is fairly small so we are desperately needing more freezer space.   The good news is that we are finally on the hunt for a freezer.  The bad news is that at the moment, John Lewis are only able to leave the freezer (if we bought one from them) at the doorstep which is no use at all.  Who is going to carry it into the house??? We really hope we will be able to not only buy a second freezer but get it delivered to the utility room where it will live!!!!!

Lockdown at the Vicarage

Yesterday afternoon, we heard that the Church of England has suspended all public worship making an exception for weddings and funerals (but with very strict guidelines). With ours being a multi parish benefice, the Mhinisteir has been inundated with all sorts of questions for Church wardens and parishioners alike. He has been very busy since yesterday trying to answer all these questions and trying to have a system in place.

Thankfully, so far we have been spared from the flu like symptoms. We even managed to go to our local Waitrose yesterday. I say our local but it is about an hour’s drive away! Our main reason for going to the Waitrose was to get a Fenjal Bath Oil and a tin of luxury hot chocolate for the Mhinisteir. The drive did us both a world of good. A lot of the shelves were empty and loo rolls were poking out of every other trolley!

This morning, we got our usual weekly Tesco delivery. Unfortunately, a lot of items were not available but I know we will not starve. The substitutes came no where close so I had to decline. Thankfully, the supplies that I had bought for the food bank were unaffected. There is apparently a huge shortage at the food bank.

With the lockdown, life in the vicarage feels a lot calmer. Long may it continue! Not the lockdown but the calmness.

Yet another delivery woe!

What is wrong with delivery companies and why do they lie so much?????

I had ordered something from John Lewis and the item was supposed to be delivered today between 1pm and 3pm by Hermes. I waited and waited and the delivery person didn’t turn up. Upon checking or rather the Mhinisteir checking it turns out that Hermes tried to deliver at 1.30pm but they couldn’t! It is absolutely impossible because we were both at home!!!!!

Strangely Hermes was able to deliver my Le Creuset baking tin yesterday but somehow they couldn’t find the house today? Honestly!!!! There was no miss call or text to say that they were struggling to deliver.

I was pretty annoyed with John Lewis too. For a reputable company like John Lewis why on earth can they not use Royal Mail????

Back to Baking at last!

I baked for the first time today in our Vicarage! We moved here more than a year ago and I have never baked! Why? Because our movers lost my entire box of baking tins etc. These were items that I collected over the years. I was so disappointed but I had to accept that they were lost for good. I used to bake a lot, at least once a week but usually more. Good baking tins are not cheap and I just couldn’t bare the thought of having to start buying them all over again!

I came back from my holiday rejuvenated and so was eager to restart baking. I had to take my health into consideration and so planned to bake something easy.

However, I still needed to buy the necessary baking tins. Just last week, I got some gift vouchers in the post and so decided to use them to buy a Le Creuset Loaf tin and it arrived yesterday which meant I could finally bake. The cake turned out very well and the Mhinisteir couldn’t wait until tea time!!! It was a gluten and dairy free banana cake.

Our New Corby Trouser Press

The Mhinisteir was needing a new trouser press and so we bought one from John Lewis. Our new Corby Trouser Press was delivered to us just after the new year. As we opened the box that contained the new trouser press, I commented to the Mhinisteir that a Millenial will probably not know what a trouser press is!!! In the olden days, good hotels always had a trouser press but these days they are almost extinct.

The trouser press required simple assembly before we could start using it. The Mhinisteir is not good with his hands at all so he struggled to assemble the trouser press and decided that he will assemble it at a later date!

I on the other hand am good with my hands but the Mhinisteir wasn’t allowing me to assemble it as he was afraid that I might tire myself given my health condition.

Anyway, one week had past and the trouser press was still in our dining room waiting to be assembled. I was getting impatient and decided to take matters into my own hands. Yesterday was an exceptionally busy day for the Mhinisteir and because he was out the whole day, I managed to assemble the trouser press! I was pretty chuffed with myself even though I needed a lie down after that!!!

Now, the Mhinisteir can finally start using his new trouser press.

First Christmas Card for 2019

We received our first Christmas card for Christmas 2019 at the end of last week!  It was from one of our former parishioners in England.

I was very touched to receive a card  from her as she was only recently widowed after being married for 65 years to her wonderful husband.  Mr and Mrs T were very close as a couple and I know that his sudden passing away has been very difficult for her.

Death is very painful but we as Christians can take comfort that death is our final enemy.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death – 1 Corinthians 15:26