Episode Thirty Five S2: Rosie vs the Quiz & A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor Chapters 1-10

Welcome

to the Cozy Cup Book Club.

Grab a blanket, lower your expectations, let's talk books.

And sit

down even, I've just got so

many pillows.

I was really laughing because you were just

bent over.

That's how I spend my days.

We're sitting in different places today.

Yeah, it feels very strange.

Strange but comfy though.

Normally I ask you straight away, what are you drinking? How's your week been? But I'm just going to jump in.

Yeah.

Straight away.

And so the reason we've had this room smells like bleach and all the sofas have moved around.

It smells very clean.

Okay, maybe it doesn't smell clean.

That could be my odor that's masking that

smell.

It's all

very clean.

Everything's been moved around and there's expandable foam as far as the eye can see.

Oh gosh.

It's because I was like, why are there like bite marks on my carpet? as in the actual carpet on the floor, like the rug that we've got.

It's like a totter and tumble rug.

It's one of those memory foam rugs.

I was like, why are there bite marks on it? And I was going at the kids, I was like, has one of you been chewing on this carpet, this rug? Yeah.

And they were like, no, mummy, I promise.

And I was like, that is bizarre.

And I said to Ben, we haven't got mice in this house, have we? Do we have mice? And Ben, the other night, had texted me going, Kate, I have just seen the biggest fuck-off spider.

I didn't see it fully, but in the corner of my eye, I saw it run across the floor.

And I thought, right, I'm going to go get you and take you out.

And it just bloody vanished into thin air.

And he was like, oh, I reckon that was a mouse, actually, thinking back to it, because I couldn't believe how big this spider was that I saw in the corner of my eye.

It's like, oh, great.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, let's move all the sofas because our kids, most children perpetually drop food, treats, everything on the floor.

Of course.

So we're like, let's just move all the sofas out, have a good sweep, mop the floors.

Basically, no Rosie will understand, but we had where our chair was.

Welcome to the most interesting story ever told about where my furniture is in my front room.

In my house, we've got a window, one of those ones that sticks out.

A bay.

Yeah, but less cool than a bay because it's just like a square thing.

Yeah.

And they've put like a window seat in it, except the narrowest window seat ever, like a church pew size to sit on.

Not comfortable, unusable.

Because of that, we pushed our sofa up against it.

Over time, it became a storage for pillows, throws, blankets.

It just ended up behind said sofa.

Moved the sofa out, picked up the blanket and the pillows, mouse shit everywhere.

Literally everywhere.

Great.

Okay.

So all of these pillows are currently on my sofa.

All of the throws, blankets, everything as far as the eye can see has been on the wash.

The washing machine is going as we speak because we are still washing stuff is out in the utility room.

So everything is going through a hot wash.

We have bleached the floor to within an inch of its life.

And

Ben has gone round with expandable foam filling in every hole and crevice in our front room that we think a mouse could possibly get into.

So we now have a brand new layout to our room, which is really good for our family.

Terrible for our podcast because I'm currently talking to the TV.

It's very much a cinema layout now.

A

little bit.

Rather than a conversational layout.

But until we get new sofas, which...

When the kids stop spilling stuff on it, we will.

Yeah.

This is the way it will be because it's easier to clean.

But yeah, so we had a mouse infestation and I'm pretty sure they had a lovely little home behind our sofa nestled in with all our cushions.

Well comfy.

And the other day, Rosie came round and I just cleaned.

I'd picked everything up, moved everything around.

Yeah.

And suddenly...

They were then coming out and chewing on my rug.

Not a euphemism.

Because I've just got rid of all of their nest, basically.

So everything has been hot washed in the washing

machine.

Every so often we get field mice that move into our cellar.

So we put out the trappy traps, the ones that they run in and put the lid on.

Yeah, and then you take it off and you

set it free.

I'm sure somebody told me once upon a time that the distance you have to be able to take these mice away so that they don't just find their way back to you is excruciatingly long.

Well, I take them to the woods, which is a couple of minutes drive down the road, and they've never come back.

Oh, how do you know it's not the same one? Well, maybe it's the same one.

I mean,

we haven't had any for ages.

You wait.

You're going to get a message in a minute from Sam going, oh, I think the bloody field mice are back.

I think

we've got the field mice back.

But the thing is, they're so cute.

And they're so adorable.

So I would never, ever put those horrible, inhumane traps or poison or anything like that down.

But... yeah did not appreciate the amount of mouse shit that was yeah that's crazy so i've got clocky over there just tilted it a little bit so it's more usable around

everything

yeah it's my grandfather clock in the corner i've always wanted a grandfather clock

and your grandfather gave you one my grandfather gave me a grandfather clock

Uh, yeah.

So now my house looks fine.

Okay.

So enough about the mice.

That was just horrific.

Um, have I done anything else fun this week? Uh, I'm going to say yes, it was my granddad's birthday party.

Good old GD, G dad.

Um, I said 92 on our last episode.

It's 91.

This

is 91st birthday party.

It was very good.

Really enjoyable to see all the family and it was a great day.

That's enough of that.

But it was very good.

Happy birthday, granddad.

Happy birthday.