Well, the home of Scott and Lori has definitely been a disaster as of late. We've been without heat for going on two weeks now. Please keep in mind that it is wintertime in Scotland. Being without heat is lethal. I've definitely been feeling sick for the past week, and I'm blaming it on coldness and dampness of our abode.

This has meant lukewarm showers (not cold, thankfully, as we have a separate boiler for the shower which kinda works), cold dishwater, I'm assuming cold laundry water, and cold air. Our laundry won't dry on its clotheshorse, the dishes are piling up (I only attempt them at times of high motivation--for it's either plunge into the cold dishwater, or heat up the kettle four times which takes ages and only produces a mean amount of water), and the electricity bill is skyrocketing as we've been using a couple of tiny space heaters to keep our bedroom warm.

To make matters worse, our ceiling began leaking a few days ago. After my lukewarm shower, Scott went downstairs and noticed water leaking--rapidly--out of the ceiling underneath the bath. We thought a pipe had broke. We shoved a bucket under the leak to catch the drips and called our emergency home service number (Hurray for Royal Bank of Scotland Premier Account!) and discovered the seal was broken in our tub. This problem, too, has yet to be fully resolved. Which explains why I'm at my in-laws right now, blogging. We had to come over here this morning to get our showers. I'm hardly complaining. It's warm here.

Luckily Scott and I are coping with all this well. I did have a wee breakdown when I came home yesterday and saw our house totally torn apart--parts of the bathtub lying here and there, ceiling missing, new boxes brought over from Scott's parents' house, the old guest bed taken apart, and a massive pile of dirty dishes. But we'll get there. We'll get there. We've got it better than most of the world, don't we?