The great flood

Its quite a while since I posted, put it down to February ennui not that things haven't happened.
The weather has been brutal.  After the first weekend of flooding we had the army in town putting up barricades along the river in advance of the next storm,  we hit hit the national news.  That weekend we had no flooding.  Last weekend there was more flooding but not quite so severe.  In between we had a few inches of snow that closed roads and caused the usual chaos, these last few days we've had brilliant sunshine, cold winds and a bit more snow.  I'm getting out and blasting my eyes with sunlight.
Meantime we had a water leak in our building, in the roof space above the fire escape.  It wasn't major but for some reason it wasn't attended to for 10 days and walls and floors were getting damp.  The joys of paying a property manager to ignore your problems.  
Finally the plumbers arrived to fix things, the water was turned off for a few hours and they left around 4 pm.  Mr FF and I had just sat down to dinner at 7.30 when there was an almighty rumbling, we thought maybe a very low flying plane.  Then our boiler started vibrating in an alarming way, Mr FF switched off the power and then the water but still it rumbled.  It was quite frightening as we thought the whole thing might explode.   We eventually went outside, into the escape stairwell and found water pouring from the recently repaired mains in the ceiling.  By this time the water had percolated down to the flat on the ground floor (through two others) and the owner was out in the atrium asking for help.  
We alerted our in house management board members, two were resident at the time, and the emergency plumber was phoned.  He was a good half hours drive away, meantime the basement was under 2 inches of water.  Mr FF took control, you can always rely on an engineer, and eventually managed to turn off the the incoming supply.  He had a lot of difficulty as the wheel is large and stiff from calcification, there had been a problem not long ago when the water board had to be called in to turn off the supply as the plumbers couldn't do so.  Why this wasn't freed up at the time is beyond me, it still isn't corrected.
All this happened two weeks ago, apart from our lovely cleaners coming in and hoovering up water with a special machine there has been no progress.  The floor in the escape lobby has started to swell with damp, goodness knows what is happening in the damaged apartments that are unoccupied.  We are told the owners are aware of the situation.  
We were all without water for two days until a further repair could be made, we did try to question the plumbers about what had gone wrong but they were very evasive, muttering about the pipe possibly being from a bad batch and refusing to let us see what pipe they had used for the repair.  We have a suspicion that it wasn't of the correct grade as it split completely a few hours after installation.
All this is nothing compared to all the poor people who are flooded but its still very annoying and was probably avoidable.  No one from our property management company was here to oversee the repairs or investigate the burst.  There will now be lengthy discussions and negotiations with the plumbers and our insurers.  I hope we might learn from this, get the stop wheel fixed so it works easier, find an emergency plumber who isn't 20 miles away,  but I doubt it.    
Maybe its just a coincidence but the two board members who were involved on the night of the great flood have both put their apartments on the market.   At least Mr FF has checked that no water main runs over our apartment and we always turn off our water when we are away so one less thing to worry about.
When not concerned with the effects of the water leak our thoughts should be turning to Italy but we can only wonder about the Coronavirus and when and if we will be able to travel. 

Stormy Sunday

I woke this morning expecting the much forecast Storm Ciara to be battering the windows and rattling the roof tiles, fortunately it was fairly quiet so I briefly imagined that it wasn’t going to be too bad.  Wrong, apparently it has been the worst storm for almost a decade.

The overnight rain must have been torrential, it was shocking to look down onto our town and see how much the River Wharfe had risen bursting out beyond the rugby club.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the lido under water.  In many parts of our region homes and businesses are flooded again.

Mr FF and I risked a short walk out this afternoon for the newspaper, for a while the rain stopped and there was blue sky.   Water was pouring off the moors, drains were unable to cope and streets had turned to rivers, in fact roads in and out of town are closed, there are no trains or buses and shops closed early.
Now it’s dark, the rain is pouring down again and the wind has started gusting, the effect exaggerated for us up on the third floor.  The storm is due to continue through the evening, keep safe.

For the girl who has everything

Mr FF returned safely last night from his week in Tenerife and life in the penthouse returns to normal.   He had lots to tell me about the trip, mainly about the all inclusive meal plan.  Its nice to have him home looking tanned and relaxed.
What present did he bring you I hear you ask, he told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands, this is my gift. 

Yes 2 kilos of Canarian potatoes, he'd told me how much he was enjoying them.  Mr FF is noted for the strange gifts he gives me, I have in the past received tools for the Hoover, an industrial size blow torch for weeding the drive, it was so heavy I couldn't lift it and we ended up selling it on eBay.  At least these will be useful and hopefully taste as delicious as he suggests.  Lucky I am easily pleased. 

Preserving and pampering (and pets)

Mr FF is in Tenerife, as you do he has taken himself off with one of his groups for a weeks walking at a large all inclusive hotel.  I was of course invited but the thought of mouching around all day, maybe having to be pleasant to strangers and listening to the walking chat all evening didn't really appeal and of course my life is never lacking sunshine so I am enjoying the winter here in Ilkley.  The 425 bedroom hotel with two pools, entertainment, so far including a nightclub, bingo and an Elton John tribute show,  made up my mind.  Last night I watched a programme on tv about a similar hotel in Spain, I was a bit shocked by the group of ladies who drunk 5 vodkas before lunch and then switched to cocktails and the fact that chicken nuggets were the favourite meal on the menu.  
So Mr FF is enjoying the sun and scenery when he can tear himself away from the buffet.  The island does look very pretty, he's sent plenty of photographs and the group are certainly getting away from the crowds.

I have been enjoying lazy baths, face masks, a pedicure, late night and early morning reading, too much time on the internet and strangely a lot of tidying.  I've also made the marmalade for another year, 9 jars and a small sample pot.  

I'm feeling relaxed and happy, particularly so as this morning there was an email from Mario with a photo of one grey cat.  We have no idea which one it is or if there are more but we have a cat and it looks like some sun.  

Back over the border

Since we left Scotland back in September 2014 Mr FF has returned a couple of times, I had never been back.  Until this week that is.  
A good friend of Mr FF died just before Christmas, he had been ill for a while, it wasn't unexpected, and we returned for the funeral in Greenock.  We were invited by another walking friend also attending the funeral to stay with him the night before, which was a big help. The funeral was a positive celebration of John's life, complete with music from the Goons, Abba and we left the service to the sound of Ken Dodd signing Happiness which put a smile on everyone's face. 
Then we stayed two days with our dear friends Pam and Andrew in the village where we lived for more than 20 years.  
So how was it going back you ask.  Well it wasn't as cold as I expected, I took plenty of layers but despite some awful wet and windy days I didn't feel the chill.  I had forgotten how beautiful the Scottish hills are, I love where we live now with our views of Wharfedale but the Borders are dramatic and majestic, I needed a reminder of that.
The boys had a trip into town for curry, the girls a much more girly day out with bookshop and gallery shopping, lunch and coffee and cakes.   In one shop I met the wife of a man I used to work with, I was surprised and pleased she recognised me and reminded of my days working in Edinburgh.  
We caught up with friends who live in the same little development of 9 houses where we were, we got the warmest of welcomes and time flew by as there was so much to talk about.  We did of course sneak down the road for a look at our old house and were rather shocked to see the state of the garden, and not just ours.  Many of the gardens were totally overgrown, unkempt, walls and fences falling down, it looked truly awful and must effect the value of property.  It made me very cross that people do not care for their own environment, what hope for the world if they can't see what is on their own doorstep.  I was rather pleased we left when we did before the decline.
We had a leisurely drive home that involved brie and bacon baguettes and coffee on the side of Lake Ullswater, a stock up at a farm shop and a round of applause from me as we passed the Ilkley sign as we entered our town.
Despite the sad occasion it was nice to reconnect with people, I miss my friendship with Pam and all our chats, knitting together and her listening to my rants.  We keep in touch with email and rather infrequent phone calls but being together was so much better and of course neither of us has aged a day over the last 5+ years.
The day after we left I had an email and a photo from Pam of their lovely garden that morning, I think we did rather well to avoid this.

Another one over

I think its safe now to think about taking the decorations down, such as they were.  Despite the inspirational stately home visits, in the penthouse it was mainly greenery and candles with of course cards everywhere.  
Before you ask, yes the £5 stocking rule still applies though this year Mr FF failed miserably and ended up buying me a couple of magazines which even as an offer exceeded the budget.  I of course did brilliantly, knitted him a hat with a couple of balls of pure Falklands wool I'd found for less than £1, a book about Pompeii £1, a British made leather belt that he liked very much from the charity shop £1.99 and stuck for something to spend the last pound on I gave him a big bag of savoury snacks, normally food and drink are not allowed, snacks were this time.  Job done.
We had a calm quiet time with the nicest walks ,Mr FF out with his groups, or just he and I wandering round the town and over the river,  gazing at the really  expensive houses or sometimes up onto the moor.  New Years day there was the traditional plunge into the baths at White Wells, we walked up to see people taking part and shivering a lot.  There is a little video here from the Yorkshire Post taken this year, you get the idea of how horrible it is, by mid day when we arrived the water was filthy and 4 degrees, but Yorkshire folk, you know.
In a few days we are heading back to Scotland, sadly for the funeral of one of Mr FF's walking friends who had been ill for some time.   Afterwards we are staying a couple of days with Pam and Andrew in the village where we lived.  It will be the first time I have been back since we moved to the penthouse.  
I hope you had a wonderful time, that normality is returning and that 2020 is everything you want it to be.  Happy New Year.

The festivities go on

Having so late in life discovered the pleasure of excessive stately home Christmas decorations yesterday we visited Harewood House which is not so far from the penthouse.  We met up with our friends Roger and Christine, started with coffee and chat then took a walk round the beautiful grounds, I am not a fan of formal gardens but for some reason I loved this one.  

The parkland is glorious, we walked round the lake through the Himalayan garden then took the little ferry back across the lake to the bird garden, which I felt was unnecessary and rather depressing, I am not a fan of captive creatures in small spaces.

The decorations in the house were not as opulent as Castle Howard, obviously everything was on a much a smaller scale and there were a lot of animations that I didn't particularly enjoy, talking statues that kind of thing, which involved the rooms being quite dark.  We need to go back again at a normal time of year to see the property fully.  

Fortunately I did see the painting of Seymour Worsley, the Scandalous Lady W.  If you haven't seen this BBC film you must watch it.  I watched it in 2015, have been waiting ever since to see the portrait, now I need to see the film again.

The below stairs part of the tour was delightful, you could just imagine the hot and steamy work involved to prepare elaborate meals.  There were a lot of cupboard doors that could be opened to reveal beautiful glassware, china, pots and pans. I came away thinking that I too probably need about 4 dozen individual size cut glass decanters.

And no library, there are 3 in Harewood House, should be complete without a Christmas tree of books.
This weekend we will travel to my brothers for the Santa drop and to attend the carol service in the village where he and I were born.  Another Christmas, another year almost over, I hope you have a happy and peaceful time.