panik: (ITC - Not shit)
2010-08-17 10:10 am
Entry tags:

It's raining again*

and I'm exiled upstairs, for the builders are here to fix the chimney/rip-up the kitchen ::cue sounds of filth, turmoil, mud and destruction:: I'm feeling a tad fed up when I see

THIS

and suddenly, there is good in the world again.


*Sunday-Monday, the deluge actually stopped for a whole 2 days in a row. Honest to God, there was actual sunlight all day long. I almost went mental.

ETA 14.30: There's been a huge wreck of dust and stone, everything reeks of wet soot. The new liner has become lodged in the tunnel of goats against a fallen stone deep in the chimney. The builder is currently bashing a hole in the spare-bedroom wall (occassional home to many a fangirl :) to free it. Lord knows how long this is all going to take to put right. ::holds head in hands:: On the bright side, he's fixed our drippy gutter while he was up the ladder so, swings and roundabouts. shitshitshitshit.

ETA2: 16.00: He's still here, still working poor chap, up and down the ladder and on to the roof in the pouring rain.
Pictorial evidence of our nightmare.

Kitchen chimney

In the kitchen...

Bedroom chimney

In the bedroom...

blocked

Oop  t' chimney.

It's still raining, too. ::laughs like a mad thing::
panik: (TS - Shit!)
2010-07-20 01:52 pm
Entry tags:

omg RAIN!

Lots and lots of RAIN! Simply terrifying quantities of water are falling from the sky!!!

Hoping we don't get a spring rising in the kitchen. again. Though I suppose, looking on the bright side, we could bottle it and make a fortune. Withnell Kitchen Spring anyone? I could put it in a blue bottle, I have one somewhere. I think it's in the cupboard next to the fridge
panik: (DW - Eleven the man)
2010-06-28 10:32 am

A salutary reminder.

Yes, my fellow Brits, we are very crap at footie, but who cares about that when we live on what is possibly (still) the coolest lump of stone on this planet? Oh yes, my babies, for we have Time Lords and they rock!

We also have NEW! Top Gear and Reliant Robins! Oh good gracious me, I thought I was going to die, if not of suffocation then the massive haemorrhaging caused by the lolz - And new IT Crowd! and Rev starting tonight. It is, indeed, good to be alive. If only it would rain, just a bit (I know, I know, I'm never satisfied, me but my rain barrel is down to its last smelly dregs and there's only so much you can do with a watering can and a bit of leaky hose that was bought in 1972).

panik: (TS - What?)
2010-06-09 07:45 pm
Entry tags:

Taking the universe to one side, having a quiet word.

It's June, you know, summer? So plz to be telling me why it feels more like bloody November out there? At least we've been spared the tornadoes this time. I hope East Anglian flisters are safe and well.

I smell woodsmoke on the howling, wind-soaked gales breeze, a neighbour has clearly caved...


panik: (Not Writing (Hank))
2010-02-24 09:45 am

There is no snow.

Plenty fell in the night, we were getting a proper frightening few inches building up out there when we went off to bed but it's pretty much all melted overnight which is - good, isn't it? When we need to go out tomorrow and the coalman's due and only a day's worth of fuel left in the bunker. So why do I feel so let down by the absence of the tedious cold stuff? What a complex, contrary and thoroughly precious little snowflake I am.

So, we are home (kneels and kisses slightly threadbare Persian rug)! The house is still decidedly chilly but the Aga's lit and after a pleasing log fire last night, warming slowly (though I'm still in my thermals).It's 9.30 and I'm still in my pjs, trying to gear myself up to the rigours of the day but getting the usual first-day-home, post-Dad crash in which I sit on the sofa and stare at the wall and/or ITV4 till teatime.

Hey ho, I must move myself and shower and make the bed and write something, there are novels and TS Fics of Teh Most MASSIVE! Angst to be written, not to mention Real Work (of the sort that pays the bills) to be accomplished.

Maybe mor coffee will help? It has achieved exactly nothing so far this icy morning but I feel it's worth a try. ::nods::
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-02-21 10:22 am

Snow

Again. Woke to a good 6" (oo er missus!) and it's still coming down.

I love the snow but this is getting tedious. At least it's Sunday, there is such a thing as toast in the world and Randall and Hopkirk is on in a bit; life has its small compensations.
panik: (Withnell & I)
2010-02-03 02:40 pm

Back in Withnell!

Huzzah!

*g*

No snow on the ground here but it's just started falling from the sky. O: And the door man is here, fitting our catches, we can has new doors at last (and there was much rejoicing).

But by bloody 'eck it's cold! My nips are tunnelling through my clothes like The Mole in Thunderbirds.
panik: (Beware my stare)
2010-02-02 04:47 pm

I hope you are all spared the nightmare

...Of walking a mostly-blind dog in wet snow in the almost-dark when school's turning out.

Almost an inch deep now. Buggerbuggerbugger.

We're still planning to drive back to Withnell tomorrow - srzly, they're going to have to close the M62 to stop us, we are so ready to be home already!

I am, however, starting to wibble about the proposed weekend in Matlock. I mean, the met office are saying the snow will be gone by the weekend, but then they said this weather wouldn't be here till tomorrow teatime so once again, I point my angry finger in a south-westerly direction and indicate by means of semaphore and Aldis lamp that they are made of purest  F.A.I.L.

ETA: Oh, now  you change your forecast NOW you issue your warnings. Bit  bloody late when there's already an inch of the stuff on the ground, y'shower of bastards!
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-02-02 03:05 pm

It's snowing again

...quite heavily.

I rather wish it wouldn't.
panik: (TS - WTF)
2010-01-30 04:21 pm
Entry tags:

Clear and blue but omg!

It's absolutely ARCTIC out there! All water is solid ice, the roads are impassable.

What happened? I demand an explanation for this climatic outrage
panik: (Fifty)
2010-01-14 05:51 pm

We are home

OK, gonna give this one last try...

There's still a lot of snow around but the roads are mostly clear so we decided to give it a go and -

We're home (huzzah)! Stove and fire are lit, the chill is lifting, I have my favourite wine and an embarrassment of cheese and other goodly delights for later so life is good and - OMG! people! The Complete Seinfeld box set with oodles of extras and the coffee table book!!!! ::does excited little shimmy:: Almost worth turning the page on yet another decade. *g*

And I finally managed to take down the Christmas decorations, only 9 days late. How much bad luck do you think that equals? :o)

And using delightful and apposite new icon, courtesy of the delicious [livejournal.com profile] snailbones , because I now can!
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-13 10:51 am

F***F***F***F***

We are still in Yorkshire and it's all my fault.

It was thawing late yesterday, Mark said - let's go, but it was already gone 1pm, and we'd be getting home in the dark and I was worried about Dad, who needs a lot of forewarning about any kind of change to his routine and I said, no, the snow ploughs have been through, it's thawing, it's raining in some places now, it'll be OK, we'll leave tomorrow morning...

What the ploughs left behind has frozen into an inch of solid, shiny ice - everywhere. No buses are running anywhere between here and the motorway, not even central Huddersfield. More snow is forecast today, the sky is full of it.

We're buggered.
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-11 02:15 pm

Adventures with Tesco.

As I suspected would happen - the reason we stayed in Yorkshire yesterday during the only weather-window since Christmas - Tesco couldn't get the van up our hill. We've had another five inches over night and it's still coming down hard.

So Mark and I trundled down to the bottom of the hill with rucksacks, loaded up as best we could then we and Tesco-Boy (they're like policemen, you know?) brought the rest (and there was a lot, we really were scraping the bottoms of our collective barrels at Dad's house, gentle reader, we were out of whisky, we were almost out of tea!) on his trolley and we got it all here. Tesco-Boy wouldn't even come in for a cup of  coffee anxious to get back and finish his shift. He really did go beyond the bounds for us today bless him and his little woolly hat.

There's a splendid Dunkirk Spirit out there with grinning, snow-crusted people walking icicled dogs. We were offered a sledge to help with the shopping (alas it was no use at all, the shopping kept falling off ). It's all rather jolly and thoroughly splendid

Anyway, we're all warm and cosy by the fire now, mugs of well-laced tea, watching The Professionals, giggling at bad daytime ads on ITV3.

Would you like some more pictures? Just taken around and about the house, I wasn't about to venture too far afield in this. Like Rik the People's Poet says, a man could lose his bearings in weather like this.

Cut for the already bored )
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-08 10:33 am

Still in Yorkshire

We spent the day twittering with Chorley (bloody) council yesterday - we and many others - demanding to know when they were going to grit our village to which the answer was -we're not. Withnell and Brinscall lie high in the hills, you've got to go uphill (or down, as the case may be) in any direction to get in and out and, since Thurlstone is likewise ice and snow bound (despite the ploughs and gritters who arrived in force yesterday), I guess we're going nowhere.

It makes no sense to leave a warm and cosy house and risk life and limb on motorways and Pennine roads to get to an ice box of a cottage that it'll take us 3 days to warm up (and no idea how much wood and coal is left and I doubt very much if deliveries will make it up our hill anymore than we will).

So, like the man on tthe Guinness ad, we wait. I'm only mildly worried about our house, we're well lagged so not anticipating burst pipes, I have parcels arriving - they can be collected but Oh Dear God I want to be home in my own space!!!

Mark's just set off to walk to Penistone. He spent 2 hours yesterday trying to dig us out  - with the rest of the street, there's quite the wartime spirit in the village. :o) - with little success; despite the snow ploughs and rampant gritting yesterday, it's the ice that's the problem, rather than the snow. I'm not sure what he'll find up there, the shops have been emptying steadily with panic-buying and scant deliveries (we got on Look North because of it! ::does excited little shimmy:: - well, no, not really. Look North does not excitement make.) - on Wednesday they were rationing us to a loaf a head. Thank goodness for my sister's bulk buying tendencies and leftover Christmas alcohol.

I myself am going nowhere. I seem to have developed an inner-ear problem with mild dizzyness; went arse-over-tit twice yesterday so no snowy trekking for me. Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind.

Have some pictures while we wait for the thaw )
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-06 08:20 pm
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-05 09:40 am

bugger.

Snow stops play.

We shall not be driving home today )

I mean, I love my family dearly but omg! I am so ready to go home now!
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2010-01-03 04:01 pm

I went for a walk in the snow.

It's impossibly beautiful today. Clear, clean crisp and so, so cold. The snow is powdery, glittering, the sun right on the horizon (gone altogether now, of course) slanting down, the lightest flakes of snow floating down from a cold blue sky. It's pure Angel Dust out there; it's my favourite weather, it's perfect.

I took pictures, course I did, might post them later, too. 
panik: (Inertia)
2009-12-24 11:55 am

Weather forecast

Said clear skies, danger of ice.

Met Office, you are made of fail! )

Walked 2 miles to the vets in this for the dogs meds, they're closed till 2pm. ::shakes fist at the sky::
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2009-12-23 10:27 am

Right.

I've just called the sister. It appears an Asda van has been sighted in the lane this morning, this augers well for gritted hills and shifted-drifts and we've decided to go. Gotta go soon, too, if we want to be there before it goes dark so - a quick tidy and hoover of the old homestead, chivvy Basement Cat  from his perch by the Aga and send him on his way home (his own home, where he actually lives some of the time), make flasks of hot tea and be on our way.

So, all of you, do please -

Have a marvellous Christmas all and a simply super New Year.

I mean, if I'm spared, I'll doubtless be around, from this evening on aamof so I don;t know why I'm sending out the greetings now, tbh but there you go.

::a figure, shrouded in hats, scarves and coats waves wildly midst the snow:: See you on the other side. XXX
panik: (TSfic - Angel Dust)
2009-12-22 08:43 am

There'll be no drive to Yorkshire today.

Woke to several more inches of the white stuff which is still descending madly from the skies.

Maybe tomorrow?