Unending shopping trolleys

19th April

The day started too early again - first task was finding out where in Cambridge we could get some cheap mattresses or ANYTHING, in an attempt to get a better night's sleep (we appear to be unable to sleep well on blowup beds :( ). We kindly got lent one foam chairbed, and that was comfortable, so that was what we aimed for - Argos appeared to have some in stock, so we headed there via Cambrige station to pick up Matt's parents, who announced that they were coming up for the day, to take us out for lunch. Definitely not to be argued with :)

On the way to Argos, I got distracted into Homebase, so I am writing this whilst lying (laying?!) on cushions more usually used on recliner chairs used in the garden. Half the price and hopefully they will do the job :)

We all went and ate lots of protein at Maison du Steak (definitely recommended - I shall go back again without small person and try the desserts at some point - we felt guilty about ordering pudding when there was nothing on the menu that he could eat - so I bought chocolate to eat on the qt when he's not about!) and then investigated the state of the attic (remarkably empty, only a few things, very surprisingly) and the garden - erm, not so empty...
When I looked at the house, I noticed that there were two shopping trolleys in the garden, and had some idea what I was letting myself in for. But upon closer inspection, every wheely bin, of every colour (1 x blue for recycling, 2 x green for composting, 2 x black for rubbish) is full to bursting of rubbish, and rubbish of a sort that the council will not take, from any bin. Additionally, further down the garden is a big pile, which I had assumed was trees and branches.  Upon closer inspection , it appears to be twenty years or more of rubbish, including carpets, broken electrical items, car batteries, and at least three more shopping trolleys.  I haven't found the bottom of the pile yet, so there may be more.

We sorted out some of the rubbish and brought it to the top of the garden, ready to put in the skip when it arrives, but we will need at least to more skips to get rid of it all.  We took the two accessible trolleys back to Aldi, from whence they had come, and the assistant manager was so overwhelmed, he gave us a free bunch of flowers!

To finish the day, we tried digging a hole to plant the rhubarb we'd dug up from the old house - only to find that there appears to be absolutely no goodness in the soil - back to Aldi for some (peat free!) compost, and hopefully the rhubarb might survive if I can persuade someone to water it once a week. But the garden is going to need a lot of TLC, even once we've got rid of all the rubbish and dog muck. But I have a garden that I can work on again, which is a good thing :). However, once again, I have been so busy working on the chaos, I've not taken time to get any photographs of it.  I'll try again tomorrow...

And after a long shower to get rid of the fibre glass, mud, and other muck, time for a hopefully good night's sleep before I get introduced to my new church tomorrow morning...