Mid-Week Frustrations

Well, It's been a frustrating week so far. My iPad, my lifeline at the market for checking facts, reading the paper and general online boredom-reducing activities when the market is quiet, has had to go back to be fixed ..... TWICE!! It sort of freezes if you touch the screen too fast and then I can't turn it on or off. Despite the fact that I paid an extra £58 for an extended warranty, they didn't actually fix it the first time it went away and when I got it back, it lasted a grand total of 7 minutes before it froze again while I was trying it out. It went back again the very next day and it's due back again this afternoon so I guess we will see if it's fixed. I intend to video the opening of the box and the testing of the iPad this time because I got the impression that they didn't believe there was anything wrong with it. 

I'm also still waiting for my printable fabric to arrive. When I ordered it from Amazon, I didn't realise that it came from America. It was only after I had paid for it that I noticed the delivery date was quite long, a major giveaway that it's coming from far away. I do think that they should make it much clearer up front when the item is not coming from the UK because if I had realised, I would have chosen another company to buy it from, a UK based one. I have so many ideas that I want to get started on and it's frustrating to be waiting for it to arrive. I know .... I'm too impatient :-( Trust me, I do realise that these are all very small and petty things in the grand scheme of things but added to everything else that's gone wrong in the last two weeks, these just feel like the last straw. 

I'm also starting to panic about Christmas. I can feel it rapidly creeping up on me and I'm nowhere near ready for it to pounce. There are Christmas adverts all over the TV, the shops are full of Christmas gifts and toys and cards and food and booze and not 1 but 4 Sky Christmas Channels have suddenly appeared in my movies package ..... it's all very disconcerting! I'm not a Grinch ....... honestly I'm not, but when I have very little money, like this year, I find Christmas very, very stressful indeed. 

And, to top it off ....... I have rats in the garden! They have taken up residence in the bank that houses the borehole pump so I am now faced with the task of getting rid of them! I live in the middle of the countryside and as such, I know that there will be rats and mice and bugs that I don't particularly like and I accept that but, although I know they're there and although I know it's part and parcel of country living, I'm sorry but I don't want them in my house or even my garden if I can help it! Luckily they aren't near the house at the moment but it's getting a bit too close for comfort and I need to sort them out before things get any worse. I spoke to a farmer friend of mine who said that the weather had been perfect rat-breeding weather this year and that there had been a bit of a population explosion. I am loathe to put down poison so, unless I can man up and bring myself to kill them that way, I will need to come up with a plan B. Maybe humane traps. I don't know. The only thing I do know is that they have to go! Actually, any helpful tips from you people out there in Blogland who have dealt with this kind of situation would be very much appreciated. 

So .... that's been my week so far, what have you all been up to? Hopefully yours has been a better week so far than mine :-)