You just never know

So much has happened this past couple of weeks that I’m not sure where to start; probably best to start where I left off. The Sunday after returning from holiday I went to see mum in Melton. Phil hadn’t been down since the start of his MSC so she was really pleased to see me which was sweet. She cooked us a really lovely roast lamb dinner which was good of her because of trouble with her dentures she was barely able to eat any of it. I did the usual jobs, opening jars, sorting out the post and put all the clocks back. Why do old people have so many clocks, Bett has 4 clocks just in her lounge alone.

I am not sure if I have talked about my cleaning jobs but whilst I was in Egypt I accepted 3 cleaning clients and the first started at 9.00 am on the Monday morning. I’ll admit to being a bit nervous which is crazy because I know I am a good cleaner. My first clean was for Normal and Ann who have a 4 bed house on the Poet’s estate. Norman showed me the house and told me where the cleaning stuff was and basically left me to get on with it. The house was immaculate; I don’t think I have ever cleaned such a ‘clean house! I had a job spec to follow and I had done this and more and still had 40 minutes to spare. I ended up cleaning the insides of the windows just to make up the time of 2 and a half hours.

My next job was an hour and a half clean for Becky in New Bradwell. I knew that Becky was a child minder with several pre school children, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a snake in a cage. The house was an old rectory and it was pure chaos when I arrived. The kitchen was filthy but I was fine once I got stuck in. Once again I found myself with half an hour spare so I cleaned the utility room and scrubbed the dog’s bowls. After I finished there I ate my sandwich in the car and went to the gym. Four hours cleaning and 2 hours in the gym and I was knackered after my first day!

I was back cleaning at New Bradwell on the Thursday but this time for a 2 and a half hour clean as I had to do the upstairs. I wasn’t too comfortable cleaning the room with the snake in but I did make myself peer into its cage but I didn’t see it.

On Friday I had a 6 hour clean at a big house in Bozeat. By chance I discovered that the client was a friend of Emma’s (next door neighbour from number 11) on Facebook. I sent Emma a text on Thursday evening and she gave me some background which was really useful. Just goes to show it’s who you know and not what you know! The client Annika showed me round the house which was massive. They had a gym with a pool which was actually bigger than the gym at DW. It wasn’t ideal because the kids were home and also the grandparents were staying. Again, I had a job spec to follow and I worked like a Trojan not evening stopping to go for a wee. I was exhausted by the time I got home just before teatime.

I won’t name the company that I am cleaning for but I have not been impressed with the way they operate. The deal is the company charge a monthly management fee and then the clients pay you in cash, and of course if you are doing it by the book, this income has to be declared. This is not a biggie but the thing that pissed me off was the agreed days and times with the clients and turns out they had double booked me, leaving it to me to negotiate different days and times when I could clean which was not want they originally asked for. I am certainly not afraid of hard work but I need to earn more than a 100 quid a week so suffice to say I was certainly having second thoughts last weekend. Events sorted out my dilemma but I will come on to that next.

Phil went into Cranfield to study last Saturday and I went to the gym in the morning and then went over to the caravan. I paid Dennis next door and stripped the beds. I checked to see what was in the fridge only to discover that we must have had a power cut and the fridge had defrosted. It was a right mess. I am thinking now that I really should have turned the fridge off but I can do that another time. After cleaning up I went round to have a cup of tea with Sue and Ian. It was a lovely day and initially we sat outside but then the sun went in so we had to go outside. I guess I stayed for an hour.

We did the usual on Saturday night, a light supper and then X-factor which I fell asleep in the middle of. I woke up around 10 only to find that Sue had received a call from Kay in Spain telling her that Marie, step-dad’s partner had dropped down dead at Stansted airport. To say that I was shocked was an under statement. Unbeknown to me Marie had flow back to the UK for a couple of weeks to get some dental work privately. She was flying back to La Manga on Saturday evening and taking her oldest Granddaughter. Becky had gone through to the departure gate with the cases and Marie I think had gone out to have a last fag and was just approaching the departure gate when she collapsed and died. Meanwhile friend Kay and step dad were having a Chinese meal in a restaurant near Mercia before heading out to the airport to collect Marie and Becky. Kay took the call from Marie’s daughter and had to break the news to John. When I came round I had to speak to Sue, Kay and John who was booked on a Ryanair flight back to Stansted.

I later found out that Marie had collapsed and died instantly. She was attended to straight away by a Swedish doctor who was travelling and happened to be close by. The paramedics and even the air ambulance were called out but it was too late. As it happened in a public place the police were involved. Nikki, Marie’s eldest daughter drove to Stansted and the other daughter, Lorraine, who was travelling back from a holiday in Cornwall with her family, also drove to the airport. John was escorted off the plane by police when he landed and I think it was 4 am by the time they got back to Nikki’s. I know it was half one in the morning by the time we went to bed.

Unfortunately I was due to go to Melton to see mum so I had to phone first thing to let her know what had happened. I spoke to step dad and arranged to meet him and Marie’s daughters at the Princess Alexander hospital in Harlow. There was a problem on the M1 so I was forced to go the back way, I got horribly lost even with the sav nav but eventually got there 2 hours later. I met up with Nikki, Lorraine, Harry, Becky and John and we were taken to see Marie. I didn’t really want to see the body but I didn’t really have a choice. She just looked like she was asleep.

Afterwards I drove John back to Suffolk. As him and Marie had intended to spend 6 months in Spain everything was switched off, I left John to open up the house and quickly nipped to Waitrose to get some food. John was a complete mess and although I was reeling from the shock, I knew that I had to get my practical head on. On Monday after we all met up a funeral directors in Ipswich and then went to check out the new cemetery. It wasn’t a fun afternoon not helped by grey skies and torrential rain.

Everyone came back to John’s house and it was then that Nikki and Lorraine produced a will that Marie had done in 2007. John wasn’t aware of this so it was another shock, he thought the wills they had done together in 2004 were the only wills. We checked the drawers on Tuesday morning and sure enough his will was still in the drawer but Marie’s was gone. Although we searched we couldn’t find another will for Marie.

I know this blog is private but its not my place to share someone else’s business but what I will say is that Marie left everything to her daughters including her 50% share of their park home. From what I understand, John will have to either sell or buy the daughters out. The situation is not helped by the fact that John doesn’t get on with Nicky. We had a few meetings whilst I was in Suffolk and the atmosphere was very strained.

My sister Julia only lives a couple of miles from John so I arranged for him to have dinner with some neighbours and I went to have supper with Julia. It was nice to get away for a couple of hours. I had planned to come back to MK on Friday but as we hadn’t had the results of the post mortem I decided to go home. The park where John lives is a very nice place and his neighbours, since hearing the news, have been brilliant so I left knowing that he has a good support network. Whether he uses it, is entirely up to him.

I was so glad to be home, I got back at 2pm and Phil was already home. I sent him a text before I left and I think he came home so he could tidy up before I got back! To give him credit he’d done all his washing and ironing, he done the towels and even the dishwasher was empty. Just a shame he didn’t think to buy some milk and bread but hey, a girl can’t have everything.

Thursday was a big day for Phil because he had his first exam. He thinks he did okayish, he has to do a project as part of his mark so he is hoping that this will save him. Phil went to Cranfield to study on Friday and well, I just caught up with domestics. I wasn’t in the mood for the gym but I did have to get some shopping from Tesco’s.

On Saturday I went over to Overstone as Sue & Ian had invited me for lunch. It was another miserable day, I had to get some stuff from my caravan before going to Sue’s but I got to them at midday. I have to say I do like Sue’s new caravan, it is very homely and cosy. Sue had done fajitas for lunch and it was just nice to catch up with them both. Obviously we talked about John and Marie, Sue and Alan had a pitch next door to John & Marie in La Mange knows them quite well. Actually it was through John and Marie that we met Sue & Alan.

Yesterday Phil went to Melton to see mum and cut her grass. She has been whittling on about it for ages but Phil hadn’t seen his mum in ages so a visit was much overdue. I was in no mood to go to the gym and neither did I have the energy. I spent the more doing little jobs, just pottering really. Harriet came for lunch and stayed for a few hours; we were discussing Christmas decorations and she did make me laugh when she said that Billy came home with a box of coloured lights (everyone knows that white lights are more stylish right?). Apparently Billy had asked to have red tinsel and those paper lantern things that you hang on the ceiling. Poor Billy, his Christmas wishes will not come true in a million years.

Not much else has happened. I ripped half my fingernail off whilst changing the master bed in the Bozeat house and ripped it even more when I was unpacked my case. It is taped up and doesn’t hurt as much but I do need to get it seen too. I also got a £60 fine for driving in a bus lane en route to the hospital in Harlow last week.

I feel in limbo land right now just waiting to hear when the funeral will be. It’s very unlikely that it will be this week and maybe not even next. Still life goes on and this week I need to pull all the stops and try and find myself a 'proper' job