They’re probably only little things in the grand scheme of things but it’s immensely frustrating when they happen all at the same time. Clearly the answer is MTFU but in the meantime I’ll whine ineffectually here for a while.

I should point out we’re in the process of fitting out a new house so I guess we should expect some pain from that anyway.

Friday:
Find out the wood stove and flue in our new house has been badly installed. The whole lot needs pulling out and refitting properly. We even need to make a new hole in the roof.
Wooden floor fitter goes AWOL two days before he was due to do the fitting, still no contact.
Find out ALL the plaster in kitchen needs pulling off as it was badly applied a few years back.
Internet access at home dies completely. This is after weeks of it intermittantly failing. Virgin still haven’t resolved this.

Saturday:
Mum has masectomy
Quote for new carpets comes in, twice the amount I anticipated. Long ‘discussion’ with the wife about appropriate quality.
Find out one wall in lounge needs fully replastering due to it’s age.
Woman crashes into my wife’s car while it’s parked up. Front end is a right mess, undriveable. Insurance company argues for ages about a courtesy car, finally sorted it on Monday.
Go to birthday party. Both of us are seriously pissed off after all the previous but at least my wife can drink because I’m driving. I drive back about midnight after the longest night on earth with a semi-comotose wife in the passenger seat.

Sunday:
After collecting my mum from the hospital, collecting my son from his aunties, going down the tip and taking some boxes to the new house, I have no time to ride.
Still no internet.
I spend the afternoon sweating like a pig in a dry, dusty house chipping away at the strongest cement on earth to remove the old hearth. I have sweat around my crotch when I leave the house. So this will be when the neighbours meet me for the first time. Nice

Monday:
Still no internet
This was going to be my day off when I could have a nice ride in the sun but after taking my wife to the car hire shop, the estate agent rings to tell me we have a tenant viewing of our old house. Cue 5 hours of frantic cleaning (house was a tip due to us packing).
Family come round, say all the wright things, seem really interested, ask all the right questions. And then right at the end, ‘it’s too expensive’.

Bah! Solutions? I tried drink on Sunday night, didn’t really help that much,.

Best wishes to your mother. The rest will sort out in time.

I drive back about midnight after the longest night on earth with a semi

Not all bad then.

Without wishing to sound flippant, you seem to have missed out your positive list (there must be some):

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

And best wishes to your Mum too.

Thanks, and Drac.
The positive would be that they caught it this time very early and don’t expect any issues. After that I’d struggle to find any good bits in the weekend. I quite enjoyed watching the Tennis (which I don’t normally) and Froome I guess. I’m kinda rooting for him now.

I have no time to ride.

And here lies your problem. No me time. Create some. I’ve had 2 years of all the bollocks you’ve listed, it sucks. Prioritise, create lists, take some time out.

Plus point: you didn’t chin the phantom housebuyers.
Well done.

Have you tried calling bearnecessities to give you a hand with things?

Best wishes to your mother. The rest will sort out in time.

+1

Where’s the new house out of interest? My dads a plasterer if you need one, lives in Bolton.

It sounds like you have a close knit family that help each other out when needed – all the rest is just gravy.

chin up samuri. At least you haven’t got the squits any more.

(hope your Mum makes a full and speedy recovery)

Froome I guess. I’m kinda rooting for him now.

With your recent luck this worries me 😉

Seriously though,hope things improve, your mum gets better, and you get a good ride in soon!

wors: Leigh, Pennington. The plasterer has already been engaged for the kitchen, just waiting to see what he quotes for the living room and if he’ll be available in time. If either is not acceptable I’ll be giving you a shout, ta.

Mostly passing annoyances, although they do have a cumulative effect. Except for mum’s mammaries natch. Take advantage of the loan car, sack it all off and come down and see us at the seaside before we move to China in September.

Best wishes to your mother. The rest will sort out in time.

This 🙂

I know what you mean though – it does all happen at once. Concentrate on the important bits (ie the people you love) and ultimately the rest of it’s just fluff. It’ll all work itself out in the end!

Here’s a positive – you found out you needed two plastering jobs doing in time to do them together. EDIT: Alongside the inevitable messy job the stove work will involve…

Oh, and you don’t want to put in your wood flooring and new carpets before the plastering gets done, so there’s plenty of time to find a new reliable fitter and mull over carpet options while this is taking place.

Healing vibes to your mum.

I found that everything seems to go wrong at once, too – but again, if you have a month from hell now, it’s better than getting a drip, drip of rubbish events over the next six months.

Best wishes to your mother. The rest will sort out in time.

This, obviously.

I have sweat around my crotch when I leave the house. So this will be when the neighbours meet me for the first time

Couldn’t you have waited til the second visit to let the neighbours know what you’re really like?

I came out of the house and they were there 😉

A lot of us have been in situation, often more than once. As has been said, concentrate on the important stuff, the rest is just noise.

Something I find helps is that sometimes you simply can’t ride when you want to. I used to tear myself up not being able to ride with the club every Sunday or get out on my bike mid-week. I felt I was owed my bike rides and got grumpy if I didn’t have them. My missus will tell you that’s still the case 🙂 but at least now I’ve learnt that – sometimes – life genuinely doesn’t give you time to do the fun stuff. Grin and bear it and look forward to the good times coming.

Thanks all for the good wishes to my mum.

Dave, I’ll discuss with the missus and we’ll get something sorted. When in September? August is looking pretty busy at the moment.

I always refer to the immortal John “Bluto” Blutarsky at times like these:

“My advice to you… is to start drinking heavily”.

But seriously, the mum thing and sweaty crotch thing will be fine. You’ll laugh about the rest in a few years’ time.

Not sure how it works in the UK, but is there any chance of getting money off the former owners to fix the plastering + flue?

Positive thoughts: you’ve made a start on the new house, and as has been pointed out already it it’s better to discover all the stuff at the start, rather than years of drip-drip-drip. And you’ve tidied the old house, that’s another task you had to do at some point, now it’s out the way.

Have you tried calling bearnecessities to give you a hand with things?

I’m here now. I’ve cleared my diary and will be round shortly with Nick Knowles’ team and that Richard Branson’s head in a bag.

Best wishes to Mother, otherwise MTFU type comments / jokey arm punch etc.

Best wishes to your mother. The rest will sort out in time.

This, and

No me time. Create some.

this. And wash your bollocks.

I always refer to the immortal John “Bluto” Blutarsky at times like these:

Trust him, he’s in pre-med.

At least you havent fitted the new carpets before smashing out the hearth and getting re- plastered.
Take time out for your Mum,
Write a list and methodically work through it
Sometimes you just have to throw money at problems to make them go away
You do not need a wood burner for 3 mths ? ( hopefully ) so get a slab in ( i guess its not to regs ) chimney can wait till september

Good advice and that seems to be the consensus here too. We’ll get a new slab in so the carpet can be fit round it and then sort the wood burner when we have more time and money. Disappointing but so be it.

The problem is we were skint before all the plastering work needed doing, now we’re completely brassick. I’m not entirely sure if we can meet all the bills at the moment.

This is where I can lever my influence over bearnecessities to my advantage. Time to get your hand in your pocket mate.

This is where I can lever my influence over bearnecessities to my advantage. Time to get your hand in your pocket mate.

I’m not sure how this all works, but I believe you first have to give bearnecessities ‘some sugar’. 😯

No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead.

So you don’t want Branson’s head? Great; how am I going to fix this?..

A mate of mine had the following evening about a year ago:

Goes to a party, and after being there a couple of hours catches his girlfriend in bed ‘at it’ with one of his mates. He then proceeds to get wasted and doesn’t remember a lot of the evening.

Wakes up the following day in a park or garden missing his wallet and his >£200 nixon watch (18th birthday present from his dad). He still has his phone but it is smashed and unusable. He then realises he has also really badly chipped his front tooth (As in pretty much snapped half of it off). He then eventually gets his bearings and walks back to the party to get his car and finds it has been stolen.

That’s a bad night.

Jon we’re off 3rd September. Last week of July then…

hope your mum is ok.
I thought things were bad with me until:
All in the same week my aunty finishes last round of radiotherapy, uncles is told his cancer is inoperable, someone crashed into their car and finally their house was burgled when they went out for meal to celebrate aunties birthday. I saw them the next day and they were both still smiling!

Jon, if you are available come on the Monday night pub ride next week. There *may* be free chips after… If that doesn’t cheer you up what will??