It's A Lockout

The weekend started off as normal with us nipping off from work for the weeks shopping, arriving back home, everything seemed in order. That is until we tried to open the door, it wouldn't move an inch, the yale lock was free but the catch on the mortice lock was having none of it. We took it in turns to curse while trying to kick the door in, some tools would have been handy, just a shame they were locked safely in the house.

After almost an hour trying to figure out what to with the frozen shopping melting around us, Debbie popped round to a neighbour who brought some tools to see if we could break in, alas, without smashing a window it would be difficult and with the dogs in there, we didn't want glass flying everywhere. Our nice neighbour suggested I popped round to his house and flick through the yellow pages for a locksmith. I rang a few different companies and they all wanted about sixty quid plus to the cost of a new lock. With Debbie back at our house, I made an executive decision and told them to get knotted.

Our neighbour managed to get hold of some more tools and after a bit of mucking about, we managed to gain entry without causing too much damage. We still had a problem with the door though, it wouldn't budge at all, the handle wasn't having any effect on the catch. Just in time, Dad arrived and had a look at the situation then after some thought, I suggested we chisel out the wood behind the plate then knock seven bells out of it until it was bent out of the way. That we did and the door finally flew open!

We had got home at 5.30pm and now it was 8.30pm, Dad left about an hour later and by the time we had some tea and a couple of drinks it was gone midnight.

Saturday morning, we rolled out of bed at 6am and were at B & Q in time for them opening at 7am to get a new lock and door handle. The lock itself was the same as the old one but the door plate was completely different and it ended up taking me two hours to get it fitted.

With the house secure again, out came the Christmas lights for the side of the house. We borrowed some ladders for next door as ours weren't long enough to get me ten foot off the ground. We gave up on the side of the house, with no guttering there, I was trying to hammer nails into sandstone without falling off the ladder, one hand on the nail, the other on the hammer and nothing stopping me from swaying backwards proved too much. I'm not scared of heights, just not to keen on falling off!

We did the front of the house though, clipping the lights easily to the guttering before getting to work on the tree in the front garden. When darkness fell and the lights came on, they looked fantastic!

I managed to get the boards down in the bathroom during the afternoon before we went out with friends for a meal at a local pub, we thoroughly enjoyed having a break from the house while necking a few alcoholic beverages.

Christmas shopping was back on the agenda on Sunday, but not before getting the lino down in the bathroom and the curtains in the window, it's all finished now and looks miles better than it did. No rest for the wicked though, off we went trudging the payments of Barnsley town centre in search of those perfect gifts. We did quite well, although we've still got some things to get so another expedition is on the cards soon.

Finally we spent late afternoon and early evening wrapping presents while listening to a selection of festive tunes before settling down with a drink or three, flicking through the Christmas edition of TV Times. It's starting to feel very festive! Roll on Christmas! We need to sit down for a bit!

Paul.