The stress! I can’t cope! I‘ve seen retired people, they walk down the village for the morning paper in their slippers, they watch Fern and Lorraine and Richard and Judy every day and even have time to go down the garden centre and share a scone in the coffee shop. But not us!


On Monday when the kitchen people took down our old cupboards, large chunks of plaster came down with them. The outside walls where crumbling and large cracks where uncovered. The extractor fan wouldn’t fit, the floor slopes and the corners aren’t square and every time the electrician tried to add a socket more of the wall fell down. But apart from that, everything else was just fine. Fortunately the kitchen people were from Annandales in Hull and Steve, after looking at the devastation said “we have a plan, not sure what it is yet but I’m sure we have one”.


Well they did have a plan and out of the chaos, a kitchen is taking shape. Things were adapted to fit, lots of plastering was done and finally, as if by magic, some units have been fitted and worktops put on. All was going well until Christine woke me up at 4.30 on Wednesday morning to say she didn’t like the design of the units on one wall. It was essential to move one cupboard three inches to the left to accommodate a Welsh dresser Christine had just decided to incorporate into the design.


I explain Christine’s method of ‘design by trial and error’ to the guys and Steve grins and says “no problem”. They are now taking out the unit they put in yesterday to move it three inches.


So things are a bit of mess to say the least. The floor tiling will be done next week and then the kitchen finished. It’s looks like being Wednesday or Thursday before we are cooking in the kitchen again. Problem is Alex and the family arrive on Tuesday, but we will muddle through because there are surprisingly some benefits of not having a kitchen…..


Stress.Because of the stress Christine has abandoned the ‘no alcohol during the week’ rule. Unfortunately the wine is at the back of the dining room which we can’t get into so we are having to make do with gin. Tumblers full, it’s going down well.


Cooking. Because we have no means to cook it, means no vegetables, no grilled chicken or salmon and because we have no room, preparing salad is not easy. So it’s down the pub each night. Monday was steak, Tuesday was fish, Wednesday was pie and Thursday was chops - all with chips, excellent! Christine of course had the salmon, the chicken and the salads with new potatoes. Only downside is that we still have a microwave so the wallpaper paste is still there at breakfast.


I just need to remember the Bahamian attitude. In three months time I won't remember if the kitchen was finished on Wednesday or Thursday so why does it matter. I am sure Joe and Amber, our grandkids, will be quite happy to eat at the pub.