Tripping the lights, not fantastic!

Sophie left home at the slightly later time of 7am this morning because she was attending her company's annual conference at the NEC in Birmingham for two days and helping with the Gala Dinner this evening. Instead of taking the train, as usual, she was driving Olive and taking a colleague with her.

Keith and I made a start on our list of jobs, and when we moved the doors from the conservatory, we were both dismayed to find that some of the white paint had peeled away... it set the tone for a frustrating day! We re-hung the doors and Keith touched up the areas that needed re-painting. I cleared away all the newspapers and tidied up, making it look much cleaner and neater again!

I vacuumed the living room floor and studied the instructions for our new Vax carpet shampoo machine. The first hassle was getting the clean water tank back on after we'd filled it. We both had to try and manoeuvre it into place and then I turned it on and made a start. I'd moved the furniture out of the way and tackled the worst area first, the patch of carpet in front of the sofa. 

We shampooed most of the carpet and I decided to empty the dirty water tank. By mistake, I undid the clips and the tank fell forward and emptied its contents all over the freshly shampooed carpet... I could have screamed! We had to try and suck it all up again, but by now, I was not happy!

I filled the clean tank again and stripped the cushions off the sofa. It was great to hoover underneath and know it was all clean! We tried to manipulate the cushions so the seams were at the side, but they were made of foam and wouldn't budge easily! Another frustration! I was going to take them out of the cushion covers but the thought of not getting them back in again, made me zip them up quickly! We used the special nozzle to clean the sofa and it was all going well, until a) the little lever didn't work, which meant that I was spraying water everywhere when I was supposed to be sucking it back into the machine, and b) using the machine tripped the electrics... Not once, but multiple times!

Keith was annoyed it was happening as he said there was obviously a fault with the machine. We turned it off for half an hour and had a cup of tea, but as soon as we turned it on again, it tripped the electrics again. I went onto the Amazon site and requested a return, which was quickly arranged, with a replacement machine due to be delivered later in the month. We then had to get it back into the box, which we had kept in the garage, thankfully!

We spent the rest of the day trying to avoid the damp carpet in the living room and we couldn't sit on the sofa as that was damp too. It was horrible! We'd decided to eat out this evening and I'd booked a table at the pub in our village.

We arrived a little earlier for our table to find the pub packed with people, so sat in the snug and studied the menu. Keith opted for the pork belly while I chose the fish and chips, and we enjoyed bread and olives before our main courses. 

The table behind us was occupied by a couple of our neighbours and a friend, and they were so close that I heard every word of their conversation! Keith was facing the public areas and was constantly people-watching, much to my annoyance because all I could see was him and the wall behind!

We were all done by about 8pm and back home by 8.30pm! I sat on the sofa and put a throw underneath me and I wasn't convinced that we'd done a great job with the carpet! I was hoping it would look better when it was fully dry!