A bit of hard work!

Today Keith and I cleared out our garage and made three trips to the tip to get rid of stuff that we no longer wanted. The garage had become very cluttered again and walking through to get to our tumble dryer was becoming a hazardous operation!

Keith started by making a false floor in the eaves and put loads of stuff up there, some of which I wanted to throw out. A short argument followed with him getting his own way in the end. Huh! I just chucked everything out onto the drive and then tried to fit it into his car but I knew we'd have a few trips ahead of us. Our immediate neighbours, Gill and Tim, came out and had a chat with us and before long Tim was tackling his garage as well so all our mess didn't really matter as he was making enough of his own!

Our first trip to the tip was interesting as we were quizzed as to what we had in the car and then directed to one of the 10 skips. In the old days everything was just thrown into one but now we had to recycle almost everything we had with us and I was quite impressed. Their notice said that last month they recycled 80% of the waste deposited there which I was very pleased about. We managed to actually throw away just one black bag on our first trip with the rest of the stuff going into the metal, wood or textile bins.

After my second trip I went to pick Sophie up from work (we weren't at all busy) and then Keith and I made our third and final trip with our old exercise bike (into the metal bin) and a bag of old toys which sadly went into the landfill skip.

I went home, hoovered out Keith's car which was filthy from all the dusty, dirty items that had been packed into it and then covered the car with some old sheets as I'd taken it through the carwash earlier and I didn't want muddy cat footprints all over it! It raised a few eyebrows from our neighbours but I didn't care!

As we'd worked all day we ordered a Chinese take-away for dinner and Keith and I went to the pub in Walgrave for a drink while it was being cooked. Although I enjoyed going to the Hare at Loddington last night, I'll always have a special affection for the Royal Oak which we've been visiting for over 20 years. I feel very at home there, know most people who come in and it's great to sit at the bar and chat to Ian, the Landlord. Home is best!