Halloween isn’t generally a big festival here. It’s growing in popularity with younger people, and there seem to be parties about locally, well in the nearest town. Just a few years ago it was very difficult to find any special local event other than kids dressing up and trick or treating.

The more traditionally celebrated festival is All Souls Day when people visit their passed loved ones and take flowers to their graves. It’s the only time when you can see lots of flowers in the shops!

Other than that, I didn’t post yesterday because I have been worn out after panelling every day for a week. None of that today though. I’ve finished all but a few small pieces that need to be fitted in. The plaster board man came today. He will make a nice white ceiling for me over the panels I’ve put on.

Before he arrived with my friend, we had a it of drama with an error code on the washing machine. No problem there you may think but the machine is in my cellar and it was full of wet clothes and water. I thought that I’d have to check the filter. The problem being that the way out of the cellar is a step up! We couldn’t lift the machine, it was just too heavy. In the end I used an IKEA bag, with one edge jammed under the machine and I took the filter out trying to catch most of the water in the bag. About half went on the floor which I didn’t want but at least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The filter had a twig in it! No wonder it wouldn’t work!

I get twitchy about big appliances. We had a fridge which actually could sing and dance! It was very sophisticated, except that it stopped working! As it was still under guarantee, I contacted the company, LG, who sent a bit of a hopeless engineer who told me what the fault was. It was a common fault which can be fixed at home but he wanted to take the fridge away and said he’d come the following week and collect it. He even rang me the morning of the collection saying that he’d arrive at 9.30. When he arrived, he seemed surprised that I hadn’t carried the fridge freezer down to the car park after he’d told me he’d bring a friend and they’d take it away. To cut a long story short, he refused to take it away and said that only if I paid him 200 euro, he’d take it. It seems like an odd guarantee. The company were no help and told me that it was my responsibility to take it down to the carpark even though the guarantee said that if it was not possible to repair (it didn’t say the reason), then they would replace the appliance or refund the payment! Neither were done but what did happen that we resolved never, ever, to buy an appliance made by LG ever, ever, again.

After that experience, I go into a cold sweat if something doesn’t work properly, just in case the same thing happens. Oh the joys of rustic living.

The ceiling man arrived right on time, followed by my friend a couple of minutes later. When he saw my ceiling he said it could be done but the price may go up from what he’d quoted (here we go!), Thankfully, my friend is a good one and she has worked with this chap before. She will try to keep the price down for me. I know these things cost but just how much can the prices go up?

He can’t come until the beginning of December at the earliest but in the mean time, I’ll get my new windows and perhaps I can start painting the walls, although, I’d wanted to buy a new wardrobe and possibly a new bed when the ceilings were done. I’ll be zen about it and it’ll give me more time to think about what I want to do.

After they left, a quick shower then settle in for halloween evening. My younger kids went to a party and I stayed in with my eldest and followed what we have established as a family tradition. Two films, the Rocky Horror Show followed by Sleepy Hollow. Another halloween has gone by!