BIT'S AND PIECES

There are dire warnings in the press and on the internet about a drastic change in the weather due anytime. Winds are sweeping down from the North Pole and large areas of the country are supposedly to be snow bound. It is certainly colder again and the wind is getting up so golf tomorrow is looking doubtful. Fortunately there is a fall back plan as the club has two snooker tables and my mates have suggested that this will be the alternative programme.

The night before last we had a failure of lights in the lounge,kitchen and spare room. No probs Carol, I will soon replace the fuse. Opened the meter box to be confronted by a large sign warning dire consequences for meddling with the contents - and not a fuse in sight. Got the agent's electrician in and he went to a circuit breaker box cunningly concealed behind he front door and saw that it had tripped on one circuit. The bulb in the loounge had burned out thus tripping the breaker. Pretty simple when you know how.

Also lost the bathroom light - it is a fluorescent so I said no probs Carol, I'll replace the starter. Oh no - the installation looked like nothing I had ever seen before and no obvious starters. I took a photo and went to the local "we have everything store" and they said they had never seen anything like it either! The electrician then explained it was a decorative type installation with an inbuilt starter on the tube and he would see what he could do to replace the whole thing. Cars are not the only things we are having problems with!!

Carol is not going on contract with the school - they cannot offer sufficient salary as Carol is not a "qualified teacher" and there is a maximum salary applicable . The Poms have a Qualified Teacher Certificate rating which does not take any recognition of Australian qualifications!!As this salary is considerably below the remuneration she gets from ITN (the agency supplying her services to the school) she is staying with that arrangement. It means no pay during the holidays, but under the arrangement she has, she is able to deduct all sorts of expenses (including the L360 per month rent) before tax and the net effect is very acceptable.

The school term finishes on Dec 20th and there is a two week break We drive to my brother's place after school (hopefully the roads will not be ice/snowbound), spend the night there and then go on to Heathrow to get our plane for Vienna and Christmas.

I have just read a comment in the Times about the likelihood of the weather getting nasty, and it said that we should watch what the squirrels are doing as they store a lot of acorns when there is a hard winter coming. Our little buggers have been working their bushy tails off for the past few weeks - so it don't look good!!