bairn blog: a tale of three henleys

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11:23pm Thursday, 27th July 2006

things have been quite manic at henley towers. after jo’s departure on sunday we had a chilled (as in relaxed – the climate has been anything but) evening trying to munch our way through the contents of the freezer in time for our new arrival on thursday.

cole has had quite a busy week at work doing welsh web work, stumbling his way through rendering welsh vowels online (all seven of them, a-e-i-o-u-y-w!) and also finalising a blog for one of a series of workshops being carried out to celebrate the architecture of sir basil spence.

peta’s week has been much more eventful. gethin had his second batch of jabs on monday (ouch) and was quite the grump at the start of the week which we have attributed to him missing jo, the pair of them having got on so well over the weekend. however, by wednesday he was back to his usual self and smiling at the simplest of things. he has also been perfecting his laughter which can be seen if you click on the link in the previous blog entry. sooooooooooo cute!

otherwise, we have had a quiet and swiftly passing week. henley manor and its environs has been suffering from a veritable heatwave. commuting in this weather has been about as much fun as sharing a furnace with a toaster (“move over delonghi two-slice, there’s plenty of room for two!”) and the office in which cole works, usually the coolest of the building, has been like the tropics. am seriously half expecting a couple of tree frogs to pop their heads out from beneath my organised chaos neat and tidy desk any day now.

if it got any hotter i may just melt altogether, leaving nothing but a small pile of slightly damp clothes of an acquired aroma. but just when hope was fading faster than the average items of clothing worn per capita of late, the cavalry arrived because today was the day that our lovely, shiny (as shiny as white can be) fridge freezer was delivered. hussah!

cram all your relishes and assorted dairy products on one shelf so that there is room for a beer or two? no more – we now have the luxury of three (count ‘em) shelves upon which to spread our refrigerated wares (as well as two salad crispers whatever they may be). dust off the crampons and pick axe, we’re off to find some frozen peas! no need – our freezer door opens unhindered by a glacial mass that would single-handedly offset isostatic rebound. find the torch, light the candles, i’m off to get me a yoghurt. nay – we now have a light that goes on when the door opens and off when the door shuts (our previous fridge, alas, did not. saying that it may very well have shone when the door was shut but not when it was open, but only the cheeses, vegi sausages and a particularly old jar of olives will know).

so, the henley’s secret weapon against all things hot and clammy has arrived. ice cubes to the fore, set salad crispers to stun, it might well be a long summer but we have the technology to defend ourselves and, more importantly, room for a 24-pack of stubbies!