Chilly.

Bright and sunny today and very cold. There was only the faintest line of snow to be seen on the hills but coming back from Aber the view from the very high hill revealed taller mountains completely covered with snow. So that's where all the snow has got to.

First thing this morning the electrician and his trainee arrived to do the second fix in the utility room and my study. He remembered putting in sockets for the washing machine and was most surprised not to see any on that wall of the utility room. Going back through my photos I found one of the utility room in its early stages which showed one of the double sockets on one side of the window and the wire leading off to the other one. It turns out that the first builder had put the plasterboard over those sockets after which the wall had been plastered and painted. It's beginning to feel like a comedy of errors. With the help of my photo the electrician located both sockets with hardly any mess. He also found the source of the flickering light in the inner hall which as I guessed was a problem with the wiring of the switch. The last thing we asked him to do was to disconnect the wires for the wall lights in the sitting room. The original plan was to have wall lights on either side of the bay window but now that it's French windows the lights would be in the space needed for the curtains when they are open. Before the final disconnection I got out one of my beloved torchieres (from Dingles) and we tried a few alternative positions but nothing worked. So no wall lights in the sitting room. Maybe in the front hall/library.

In the afternoon I went to Aber to collect some flea drops for Speedy which I'd ordered from a local vet, do some food shopping and go to the bank. It was only as I pulled into the car park that I remembered I should also be collecting a curtain pole from Argos. With no email or even the relevant number I turned up at the front door (you can't actually go in the store) but luckily I was able to give them enough details to identify myself and they handed over the pole. Annoyingly I ordered two poles but because they are different lengths they have different collection times and I've yet to have an email about the second pole. Collecting Speedy's flea drops was funny too. I'd checked on the map where the vets was and even identified the building on Google street view. (Aber is small enough that I was able to walk from Lidl and Argos to the bank and then to the vets and call in at Tescos all well within the two hour car parking time.) I got to the bright blue corner building where on the closed front door was a notice saying if you had an appointment to knock and wait. This I did, twice until I realised this might  not be the door for the vets. There were no specific signs on the door but up above on the house front was a sign for a dentist, oops. I walked around the corner of the building and there was another equally domestic looking front door with a sign to knock on the front door and wait for the receptionist. The clue that this was the vets was another small sign saying only one human with each pet please. That's Speedy sorted, something that's vital as he still sleeps on the bed with us even though the door does close now.