Calmer Weather

Thank goodness the weather has calmed down from what it was only a few days ago. We had to scrape ice off the car's windscreen this morning before we could drive off at around 7.15. I had found a bottle of de-icer under the kitchen sink the other day when I was clearing out the cupboard. Surprising what gets hidden at the back. Several bottles of part-used spray cleaner, which means we don't have to buy any more until it's all used up. Those pump-action spray bottles are all very well, but they don't work very efficiently. You have to 'prime' them several times before they produce any sort of spray. Anyway, I went back into the house to get the de-icer, but it just wasn't very effective in melting the ice on the windscreen and it just seemed to make things worse and the glass more smeary which didn't make driving very easy. I think you just have to let the car heater warm up sufficiently to melt the ice but it's the first proper frost we've had in quite a while. Perhaps just pouring hot water on the windscreen would be more effective than using the de-icer. Which begs the questions, what is the use of de-icer if it doesn't do it's job properly? I must remember to not buy that particular brand ever again.  

At least it's stopped raining. We don't seem to have had as much flooding as in other parts of the country, fortunately, but I hear that the Ouse in Bedford and Newport Pagnall has flooded quite badly. The wind has also dropped, and there has even been some sunshine, but briefly. We have had an email from our landlord  through the agency  saying he wants to do a visit on 18th January. Strange that we've live here for around four years and they've never bothered to do any sort of inspection before. So we'll have to make sure the house is clean and tidy which really shouldn't cause too much of a problem. I just wonder if they would take some time to look at the state of the fence and think about replacing some of it as at the moment there is a panel propped up where it was blown over in the gales a few weeks ago, and the leak caused by the botched attempt to install the washing machine and which is dripping into the old washing-up bowl and needs emptying on a regular basis.