Friday

Today we had a houseful of workmen; kitchen fitter, working surface fitters, electrician and plumber. At one stage there were five people working in our confined kitchen space.

Everything was coming together just after lunch at about the time I was due to go out to go for a hair appointment. Mr C was ensconced in his office on a work call and unfortunately there was still a few minutes work to do in the kitchen. I left it as late as I could but eventually, I had to leave and needed one of the vans moving off the driveway. But at least I was able to say my goodbyes and thank you as I left.

Due to my previous hair salon closing I was trying out a new salon for the first time. My stylist was lovely but I couldn’t quite get her to understand how I wanted it blow dried. So, I left with a much less bouncy hair style than usual and a couple of hours later all of the bounce had fallen out leaving me with straight flat hair. The salon experience was clinical rather than warm and welcoming. I have booked a further appointment, for a light perm in a few weeks’ time. But I am considering my options…

When I arrived back home the kitchen was complete, it has lightened up the space in the way I had intended. I love it and I am looking forward to my first home cooked meal from our happy place.

Before dining in Va Bene! in Broseley we visited mum who once again was in mixed states of mind. She hadn’t eaten any of her tea because she said it looked unappetising.

Va Bene as the name would suggest is an Italian Restaurant. The service and food were excellent a fitting finale to our two weeks of adventure dining out locally.

Friday

I awoke to a beautiful sunny frosty morning. Not long after our kitchen fitter arrived followed by his son who is working on the electrical parts of our kitchen refit.

First the electrician investigated the reason for the kitchen ceiling light failure. After investigation it was deemed that ceiling light was faulty and corroded which had led to the fault. It is not surprising when you factor in that the oven extractor fan with its disconnected hose was venting out directly onto that light fitting for several years.

Mr C went to purchase a new light fitting so that it could be fitted today along with the new electrical switches. Our electrical switches and sockets were mismatched because when our previous kitchen was installed, new sockets were installed but the old sockets were not replaced.

Now we have light!

A cupboard door has been fitted so that we can get an idea of what the kitchen will look like when it is complete.

With all that has been going this week I almost forgot it was Friday, the day for my dental appointment. Thankfully something Mr C said triggered a lightbulb moment and I remembered just in time.

We visited mum who was out of bed sitting in her chair. She was partly herself and partly with the voices in her head rather than with us. She had no memory of what happened the day before.

Later we dined in Smithfields restaurant rather than have takeaway Fish & Chips. The food was delicious and the glass of wine went down a treat.

Thursday

The kitchen is now begining to look more like a kitchen again. We called in briefly to see mum after the fitter had left, she had been in bed all day and although she was pleased to see us she told us to leave.

We dined in the Vineyard Cantonese Restaurant for the first time since the current owners took over. The food was excellent.

Tuesday

The kitchen units arrived and were stacked around the house, both inside and out. Shortly afterwards the plumber arrived and worked miracles with the piping under the sink. It now looks much neater than it has ever done before.

Next the wall and floor units were installed ready for the finer tuning. During the afternoon whilst one of the cabinets was being fitted to the wall the ceiling light winked out and refused to work again. This reminded me of ‘the case of the flickering lights’ which occurred several years ago due to a loose connection where a ceiling extractor fan had been fed off a light fitting.

Our kitchen fitter pointed out that the existing fan was not connected to the hose extractor and on closer inspection it looked as if it had never been connected. No wonder we had been having problems with the extractor fan over the years.

We visited mum to see how she was before dining out. Our intention was to go to The William Withering but we flexed the plan at the last minute and went to the Cock Hotel instead because I knew that the festive menu was still available. I chose spicy carrot wellington with all the roast trimmings. It was delicious.

Monday

We had to be up early, although not necessarily bright for and 8pm start.

The kitchen was completely stripped leaving only the electrical appliances, including the cooker which is not part of the new design.

The two-week work schedule and options were discussed. The spaghetti plumbing underneath the sink will be tidied up, the plug sockets will be changed so they are matching and additional wiring is needed due to the make of cooking appliances we have chosen.

We dined in The Sutherland (formerly The White House) which is now part of a small chain, The Grill club. The service and food were excellent.

Sunday

Just before my mum fell ill and was admitted to hospital we had signed up to having our kitchen revamped starting on 6th January 2025.

Mum being in hospital (and still not home) and Christmas left us rushing around at the last minute to clear the kitchen. We got there just in time.

Those who have known me for a while will know it isn’t that long since our kitchen was refubished. Some aspects of the kitchen did not stand the test of time, needing repairing or replacing which in some cases proved difficult. Reluctantly we came to the conclusion it would be easier to start from scratch again.

The lack of kitchen facilities led to us having lunch in Truffles, Ironbridge before we visited mum. And later we dined in Willow, Southwater.

After a refreshing nights sleep it was time for breakfast. Continental breakfast (no rolls) and cooked breakfast options to order were on offer and didn’t disappoint.

We lingered at the breakfast table before walking into town to explore the bookshops. Mr C was keen to visit the Cinema bookshop to peruse its extensive military section. Currently he is interested in the Wars of the Roses, hence the visit to Tretower on our way to Hay-on-Wye. Whilst he was exploring the military section I found a tray labelled ‘Wales’ in the travel section. It was full of guide books for local attractions.  As I browsed the items in the tray I noticed many that I have in my own guidebook collection including some Ministry of Works publications which I miss for their in-depth accounts of the heritage sites they covered. There was nothing new for me to add to my collection so I left empty handed, as did Mr C.

Next we visited the Richard Booth bookshop. We found that the café is currently closed so, at the appropriate time, we left for elevenses in the nearby Granary Café. Sadly the drinks were served in a takeaway cup. Suitably refreshed we returned to the Richard Booth bookshop to continue browsing their book selection. From previous visits, I remember the Folio Society Section of the bookshop and was disappointed to find the extensive collection of illustrated books was no longer stocked, although that part of the bookshop still retains the name associated with the book collection. This was easily my favourite bookshop of the day and I left with three purchases; The Book of Hay by Kate Clarke, The Elan Valley Clearance by David Lewis Brown and Wild Ruins by Dave Hamilton.

After visiting a few more bookshops including Addyman Books with its delightfully decorated themed rooms we returned to the Granary Café for lunch. I had a long discussion about sandwich options and the temptation of an extensive salad bar led me to choose a salad roll. There was a bit of a mix up with my order, when my roll arrived it was filled with smoked salmon (one of their standard options). The problem was quickly rectified and, when it arrived, the salad roll was delicious as I am sure the salmon roll would have been.

Comfortably replete, it was time to visit a few more bookshops before taking our book purchases back to the hotel. The carrying of books through intermittent rain squalls curtailed my ability to take many photographs as we explored the town. After relieving ourselves of our book purchases we returned to to town for a flapjack and tea in the Cosy Café. The Café was warm and cosy so we lingered a while before returning to the hotel to chill out before dinner, which for me included a relaxing soak in the bath.

Once again we dined in the hotel restaurant and on receiving the menu we found that a few of the options had changed to a Christmassy theme. I chose Chestnut Nut Roast accompanied with pureed butter nut squash, sautéed potato and a festive veg medley.  I followed it up with a single scoop of Salted Caramel ice cream. It was all delicious.

The Percy Chantry was built in the 15th-century and is the only part of the priory church to survive complete, although what we see today is the product of renovations. The Chantry has an intricate ceiling composed of intersecting ribs with 33 carved bosses.

Yesterday, all stops were pulled out by the kitchen company as they were trying to locate an alternative cooker for our kitchen.  The problem was that we wanted a white cooker and there was a four to six week delay for one in that colour, despite their supplier promising that one was available.  They caused the same hassle over the fridge freezer too when they told the kitchen company that they could deliver direct before advising that the item was now obsolete so wouldn’t be delivered after all.  This caused a mad rush round during the week before Christmas, trying to locate an alternative and get it delivered before the kitchen was due to be installed.

Anyway lets get back to the present…  After some searching around, the kitchen company managed to work a little bit of magic and pull a rabbit out of the hat!!  They located the model I wanted in the colour I wanted and even had it physically inspected to make sure there was no mistake.

It was delivered and fitted today as were a few other things that needed finishing off.  I am very pleased with the finished kitchen and the cooker produced an excellent evening meal

Thank you to everyone at QA Kitchens

It was a day of two halves, the good and the bad. The tiler arrived in good time, finished off the last bit of wall tiling and then did the grouting. The person who will eventually paint the walls turned up in good time to assess the situation.

Then half an hour after the fitters were due to arrive and install the cooker and finish the last few bits and pieces (such as putting the wall sockets back in place) an email arrived (not a phone call?) to say there had been a problem with the cooker which was supposed to have been delivered to the kitchen suppliers by Hotpoint.  No cooker!

Hopefully the kitchen suppliers will come up with a suitable alternative tomorrow…

I was so looking forward to some home cooked food tonight!!