Life In 79

Outside 'tis icy-cold and a thick layer of snow covers every available surface. Inside they are keeping warm by drinking hot toddies, roasting chestnuts and singing carols as they huddle around ye olde... pellet burner.'  It's  not the same is it....doesn't have the same romance of a log burner and yet everyone seems to be getting one. You can't enter a supermarket without having to navigate a pallet-load of bagged pellets.  We are thinking of upgrading our heating source and asking ourselves the question 'pellet' or 'log'? We have two log burners at present, one at either end of the house. The one in the kitchen is a modern model which we bought last year, the only problem is that when the wind blows in a certain direction smoke is blown back into the house and we have to open a window... which defeats the object of a log burner, I know; I appreciate this is not the fault of the burner but our 'draw'. We have tried opening the top vent and c...

Anna and I are at that age when things start failing us or dropping off. I am going deaf, according to Anna, who will only ever communicate with me from another room, if I am using a power tool or have an electric toothbrush in my mouth. The fact of the matter is that Anna mumbles and her Scottish accent doesn’t help. A lot of the time she talks to herself, so it is often hard to tell if she requires an answer. Our eyesight is not what it used to be either. I have trouble focussing on things far away and close-up (hold something two feet from the end of my nose and I can see perfectly). Anna is long-sighted. I go to an opticians for my glasses, Anna goes to Poundland. We have a plethora of glasses dotted about the house, all very similar in style. A great chunk of my day is taken up locating the correct glasses I need for a specific job. I know if I have accidentally put on a pair of Anna’s glasses because everything is enormous, the lenses are covered in fingerprints and she has a ver...