A Complicated Week

Well this has been a complicated week, which happens all too often for us.

I don't know why it is, but for some reason or other, my wife and I are both fated to have complicated lives. Nothing is ever simple and straight forward for us.

I don't know exactly which direction this article will lead in, but if you enjoy reading this, please just keep on to the end, and see where my ADD brain ends up going.

So far this year, having moved into our house in October, and not having even got straight, my wife's daughter, husband, baby and two small dogs ended up moving in with us for 3 months. It's a long story, covered HERE and also HERE.

They finally left 5 weeks ago, and we managed to tidy the house up, clean the carpets, get rid of our old living room furniture, and brought new couches with money that we got from our wedding in April.

Last week my wife's son ended up having some problems, and so as from last weekend we are now looking after his dog.

This used to be my wife's dog (long story don't ask), and since nobody else could take him we ended up doing so. I'm not sure how long we will end up with him, but it started out being a few days, and now it could be weeks or even months.

Now Max (that's his name) is the complete opposite of the two smaller dogs that we had before. These two would race around everywhere, come in covered in mud, escape capture and tread it all over the carpets. They also had to be watched carefully when they went outside, because they would invariably get out of the garden and then have to be chased down. They did both love to chase after cats!

Max is a German Shepherd. Not your average German Shepherd mind you, Max is a MONSTER! He stands as tall as a table, and then his ears, which stand straight up, must be a good eight inches long above that. His head is enormous too, so just to look at he is quite intimidating, but he is fortunately a real softy.

When my wife's son brought his over last weekend, he was a bit out of place, but he has adapted very well. The biggest problem that we have is that he is shedding, and shedding badly too! If you were to brush him to get rid of the loose hair, you would end up with enough to coat a miniature sheep, and even then the hair just keeps on coming.

So our nice new couches, which are at least leather not fabric, and everything else in the house too, are getting covered in hair. Every time he shakes, it's like a blizzard, and a cloud of hair goes everywhere. He also gets an itchy nose, and loves to rub it on things, preferably the couches, much to my wife's frustration.

Speaking of itchy noses, we have both suffered this year with allergies, me more than any year that I can remember, and sneezing fits have been almost daily this year. I also suffer with a mild allergy to either dog hair or saliva, which makes my skin irritate, however Max has only made my nose itch a bit when there is a lot of hair/dust in the air, and my skin hasn't itched at all fortunately.

He is a lovely dog though, and a complete opposite to the little ones, in that he is happy to just lie down and keep us company most of the time. Max does have a really good temperament, and he loves to be made a fuss of.

Already he has taken to me, and when I come in from work, before I can change out of my work clothes, he is there rubbing against me, covering me in hair, in and out of my legs, making whining noises because he is so pleased to see me. He also likes to pick up either one of my or Debbie's Crocs, and to bring it to us, but he won't let us take it off him, avoiding our attempts. Then he is invariably off down the garden, and like last night, the Croc gets dropped at the back of a flower bed somewhere.

Max then picks up his ball, and love us to play with him, but he doesn't like it to be left outside, and so finds all sorts of ways to try and bring it back indoors, giving me a puzzled look when I take it outside and shut the kitchen door.

Still, it does mean that we are not alone, and we have a commitment now to try and walk him, if not every night, as often as we can.

He does make a good deterrent to burglars though, as his bark is like no other. It's like he has a sub-woofer (didn't intend the pun) built in, and when someone comes to the door he literally booms out one deafening bark after another.

Well as I said, life is complicated right now, and having a new house guest is just one part of it.

Money is extremely tight, with our costs having gone up, and with fears of more job losses, we don't know what we would do if either of us lost our jobs.

This month my money was more than spoken for even before it came in, and since I couldn't pay my full share of the bills or groceries, it's time to economise until the end of the month. Unlike the USA where many people get paid weekly or bi-weekly, in the UK most people get paid monthly, so that money has to last a whole month before any more comes in.

This does make you good at budgetting, since if you are not careful, you could end up with a week to go at the end of the month, and no money left for food or petrol/gas.

Already we are looking at simple meals like egg or beans on toast a few evenings to try and stay in budget, but today happens to be my wife's birthday, and so we are biting the bullet (as you do) and going out for a meal. It will go on my credit card, but then the problem just gets put off until next month. Oh well, hopefully by then our big lottery win will have happened, and we will be ok...

So tonight we are off to our favourite Indian Restaurant, where they do a really nice meal, and it's a nice atmosphere. We both love Indian food, and don't really need the menu, we know what we like.

We usually start with Onion Bhajis, which are superb, and maybe some Chicken Tika and Samosas. Debbie always has a Chicken Tika Biriani, and I love their Chicken Dhansak, which starts off sweet and ends with a bitter taste. The food is just so good.

It's been a hard week for Debbie, being her first week back at work full time since she hurt her back eight weeks ago. A local tragedy mid week, has meant that she has been in school yesterday and today, counseling children, rather than working at home. It's been difficult for her because of her back strain, but also because of the nature of the tragedy, and so she will by tonight be feeling tired and stressed.

Although there is a lot to do in the house and garden over the weekend, I think we are just going to take it easy, with a bit of cleaning, gardening, and then on Sunday there is the British Grand Prix followed more or less straight after by the World Cup Final.

And before you can snap your fingers, it will be Monday again, and another week back at work...