As I had but one small job today I decided to go into town with my ex. and buy some more gifts for Christmas. It has been an extremely windy and occasionally wet day and we struggled in the inclemency that is late Autumn in the UK. We managed to buy quite a few things and there remains only a couple more items to buy. I usually have all my presents bought before the end on November so I am on target. I hate last minute shopping but I still sometimes buy that little something extra.
Going back to that one small job this morning, it was an experience I don’t ever want again. A lady, I shall use that term very lightly, had a problem with a power point in her house or so I was told. It turned out to be an extension lead and the plug on the end of the cord to one of her electric convection heaters. A very simple task to repair and I had it done in minutes. That wasn’t the experience to which I was referring. When she opened the front door I was welcomed by a disgustingly foul smell. The house was in a very bad state of disrepair, nowhere was the wallpaper intact, it had been scratched so much at the bottom by the cats she kept and it was peeling off the walls everywhere else due to the damp conditions. Cobwebs adorned every conceivable place and cat litter was strewn all over what passed for carpets on the floor. The woodwork, doors and windows were in a filthy state and years of greasy finger and hand marks disguised whatever paint that had survived the years. Old furniture and dirty clothes filled the rooms and the smell of stale food and cat urine permeated the house. The bed hadn’t been made in months if not years! The lady herself was well spoken but unkempt and untidy in her appearance. Litter was scattered everywhere and the whole place should have been completely gutted, cleaned and redecorated years ago. The lady told me that she had lived there ever since she was born but that now she had no-one to look after her. I thought that she was simply lazy for she was fit enough but told me that she couldn’t be bothered! I am amazed she isn’t ill living in such conditions. I wonder if she has guests round for Christmas. Somehow I don’t think so. How anyone could live like that without caring in the least I have no idea. I have been in some dirty places before of course but never one as bad as this.

Shirley Anne