Winter is not my favourite season, even though winter at "Riverbend" is nothing like what's shown in this clip, and in any case, by ten o'clock enough "global warming" has kicked in which allows me to take off my puffer jacket.
What makes it more uncomfortable is that our fireplace is not drawing properly and the house fills up with smoke as soon as we light it. We rang the man who installed it several years ago, but his phone keeps ringing out, so we went to his house which looked a bit deserted too.
Peeping through a window, I noticed bare cupboards and a lonely cat stretched out on an unmade bed. Borrowing pen and paper from a neighbour who also gave me a strange look, I penned a short notice which I left under the door. His emailed reply was waiting for us when we got home, "I received your note today but unfortunately I am dealing with a personal problem. My apologies again but you will have to look elsewhere." His problem is obviously far greater than ours.
In German folklore, chimney sweeps - or "Schornsteinfeger", if you must know - are supposed to bring you good luck, but I was out of luck with two others I phoned. Surely, they can't all have a personal problem!
We had more luck when we visited the Country Women's Association in Moruya yesterday where we bumped into Roberto and Lois whom we had befriended in the warm-water pool a long time ago. I'm not much of a "sconeversation" man but we joined them for a long talk about the state of world and the state of our health, neither of which is quite what we wished it to be. Of course, I'd only relented to go inside because they also have a book section inside their craft shop but the selection was predictably limited to potboilers and heftier versions of Mills & Boon.
It's close to ten o'clock now; I've had my porridge and my cup of tea, and it's time to take off my puffer jacket and feed the ducks before another slow-motion Riverbend day of reading and listening to the radio and having lunch and a happy-hour nap on the verandah awaits me.
Oh, and "ayrozsells" sent me a message to say "Hi Manfred, your order is on its way!" Happy days and happy memories of Burma are here again!
