Week 17 - Have a Beauty Treatment

Although I have had a half leg wax occasionally (pros: v smooth legs, lasts a long time; cons: expensive, have to have footballer-hairy legs before you start); and eyelash dye (pros: eyelashes now dark enough to not have to bother with mascara; cons: eyelashes still 'lack body' so still have to wear mascara), I have never had a manicure or a pedicure before.

I decided that a manicure seems like a waste of time at this time of year, what with spending all that time weeding and digging at the allotment but I do like that sound of a pedicure.

We have a large hair and beauty salon up the road which was recommended to me by a friend on the rather flimsy basis that she had been in there once, for a haircut, about ten years ago; but that's good enough for me, so I set off to have my feet 'done' one lunchtime this week.

Going into a beauty salon is like going into some sort of alternative universe where the matters of the day are not e.g. economic growth forecasts, how red tape affects the small business, pound/euro currency fluctuations etc etc; but the merits of Elemis over Guinot facials; how wonderful the latest starlet looked on the red carpet, and how often nail infils are recommended.

I was expertly looked after, and pampered commendably - ending up with feet which had been soaked in a spa bath, massaged, treated with a 'scrub' & a 'deep' moisturiser; and nails which were shaped, filed, buffed and painted a pretty red.

My feet now look lovely - and not at all like mine! So I finished my coffee, paid, and went back through the doors into the real world - buying a sandwich & paper, dodging the charity fundraisers, and walking back to the office past the Sony shop having a closing down sale.

Week 17 challenge: done!

Week 16 - Give Credit Where it is Due

Even though I like to think that I am a fairly positive person, for some reason, it seems that it is easier to moan about poor service than it is to give praise when it all goes right.

I don't like to think that this is because life consists of a constant stream of disappointments, but rather that I expect people to be reasonably efficient at their jobs, and do what they are paid to do as a matter of course. 

Nonetheless, I welcome a pat on the back for doing a good job, so I'm going to try to be a bit more generous with appreciating that in others, starting with a thank you.

I bought a pair of wetshoes online the other day, through an Amazon retailer. Besides being pretty tight in the wallet department, I am also of an age that caution is the order of the day when buying on that new fangled interwebby thing - horror stories about your credit card being cloned; the goods not turning up; identity theft and all the rest of it.

However, I do buy online occasionally, so after I read the reviews of the product, and the feedback of the retailer, checked the price out, I placed the order, shortly after 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning at 8.15am the postman rings the door with the parcel. Blimey!

So after leaving feedback for the item on line, I wrote a nice thank you letter for exemplary service. Well done, Mikes Diving Ltd*

So that's week 16 Challenge: done!

*yes, the lack of apostrophe annoys me too.

Week 15 - Clean the Windows

This is one of the Challenges that I use to think of other things to add on the Challenge list - amazing what you can think of when 'cleaning the windows' is the alternative.

However, if life is like a box of chocolates, you can't always avoid that hard toffee one that breaks your teeth, so this morning I manned up, put on the waterproof apron and marigolds, and got the steps, bucket, sponge, cloth and squeegy out.

It took bloody ages to do both inside and out - I certainly had ample time to contemplate the astonishing number of windows there appear to be in but a modest end terrace (that's 10, including two Velux, plus a couple of glass doors, and the window over the top of the front door).

The weather was kind, though, the rain holding off until just after I'd finished, and the real bonus is that this time, I managed not to tip the bucket of water off the top of the steps all down my front, whilst in the front garden...

A Challenge well and truly done!

Week 14 - Repair Mini-Greenhouse

I bought my mini-greenhouse at the beginning of 2008, and mindful if it's nickname of 'a blowaway', I firmly anchored it to the east-facing garage wall using bungy cords clipped to eyelets that I drilled into the wall.

It is very useful, especially at this time of the year, but the plastic covers do have a limited life span, and the current one developed a split in the top in late Autumn, which has been steadily getting worse through the winter.

I've found it tricky to locate a replacement - Wilko used to stock them, but no longer, and the same was true at a couple of local garden centres. I found one on-line, however, and that arrived this week.

I unhooked the mini-greenhouse from the wall this afternoon; cleared out all the assorted stuff that has accumulated in there; swept all the leaves/horse chestnuts/snails from underneath then popped the new cover on; and attached the whole thing back to the wall.

And then the fun bit - I started to fill it up with all the pea and bean seed trays from the kitchen windowsills.

Before:

After:

 Marvelous! So week 14 challenge: done!