This week has been a both exciting and stressful. I came home from a writers festival with a fresh, gooey cold, but only really got one day to rest and recover. Last week we had a few ducted heating and cooling quotes, and aside from them all being so different in price and approach that there must be something dodgy about one, if not two of them, one of the quoters said we shouldn’t use our current system because the ducts under the house had been squashed and it could be dangerous.

So, of course, the weather turned unseasonably cold. In fact, on Tuesday we had a freak storm that dumped hail the size of marbles first, then so much ordinary-sized hail that there were drifts of it on the roof, the pool filled to almost overflowing and the water became filthy with debris from our garden and the soil washed down from below the neighbour’s house.

Looking up the internet for advice, I emptied some of the water in the pool that night, then the next day tried to run the filter in order to start cleaning it. But the filter controller packed it in, and I wound up having to call the pool shop. The guy they sent out said it was unfixable – too old and no parts available – so we’d have to get it replaced. That, on top of the cleaning and chemicals, is going to be a substantial unanticipated cost.

The ensuite renovation began on the Monday, but thankfully that’s been mostly trouble-free, though it has demanded a lot of attention. We had two frantic, exhausting days of getting the old house ready for sale. And we’ve been running around getting some last moment items for the ensuite.

So I’ve been looking forward to the weekend, determined to not spend it doing anything except, perhaps, bake a birthday cake for Paul. The bathroom renovators are here again, but I was determined to pretend they weren’t. It was one of them who noticed that the grass by our driveway had risen into a water-logged dome – a water main has broken. I’m hoping this has nothing to do with the plumber’s work yesterday.

I really need to check if the neighbour is aware of the storm damage below their house, but a discussion on Facebook has made me realise I’m a lot crankier today than I was aware, and the last thing I want to do is get off on the wrong foot with a new neighbour.

Instead I’m doing lots of research on the internet for how to combat erosion and water run-off.