February 2011
 
 

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Editorial

 

Send your ideas, thoughts and feelings to LetsConnect

Heather Haworth. Women’s Ministries Department. British Union Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  Stanborough Park. Watford. Hertfordshire. WD25 9JZ. United Kingdom.

email contact:-   Letsconnect

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Stress affects us all. There is good and bad stress. Good stress enables you to run when in danger. Bad stress is when you allow events to make you ill. It is said that the three most stressful things in life are death, divorce and selling the house. In winter deaths tend to take place more often. The long cold dark days can over stress an ailing person so that means we attend more funerals at this time of year. Lately, perhaps this has been a source of stress for you. Another cause of stress can be found at work - too many balls to juggle, not enough support or budget and the need to cope or you may loose your job.

 What is the source of your stress? Because women multitask often we take on too much and cause our own stress level to be too high. Karen Holford shares how her stress level went up when she bought a new kitchen. Sharon Platt-McDonald gives us another in her series on stress and our health. Perhaps learning to say NO to taking on too much will help lower the levels of stress. For me the Feature page is where I go to help me cope with my stress levels.

 The rest of the articles will engage you in pondering on how to live with the right balance of stress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pot-pourri

 

 
 

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This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

 GPS

 A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football game.  Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans.  Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

 When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.  The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.  They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.  The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.  It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

 Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it.  Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

 

 

MOBILE PHONES

 I never thought of this.......

 This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen.  Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet... etc...was stolen.

 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says, "I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago."

 When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.  The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number.  Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

 

 

Moral of The Lesson:

 

Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.  Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc....

 And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

 Also, when you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them.  If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

 

  

                                                   

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Feature

 

 
 

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Emergency Telephone Numbers

 

 

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:U4RaGrZZqvYUMM:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OPzzEwpIr6o/ShtcSLMj9eI/AAAAAAAABIo/jFhho1OWzCU/S220/hands%2Braised%2Bin%2Bpraise.jpg

These are more effective than 999.

 

 

When –

 

 

You are sad, phone .............................................................................................................John 14

You have sinned, phone ...................................................................................................Psalm 51

You are facing danger, phone ...........................................................................................Psalm 91

People have failed you, phone ..........................................................................................Psalm 27

It feels as though God is far from you, .phone ................................................................Psalm 139

Your faith needs stimulation, phone ..............................................................................Hebrews 11

You are alone and scared, phone .....................................................................................Psalm 23

You are worried, phone .........................................................................................Matthew 8:19-34

You are hurt and critical, phone .............................................................................1 Corinthians 13

You wonder about Christianity, phone ...........................................................2 Corinthians 5:15-18

You feel like an outcast, phone .............................................................................Romans 8:31-39

You are seeking peace, phone ............................................................................Matthew 11:25-30

It feels as if the world is bigger than God, phone ..............................................................Psalm 90

You need Christ like insurance, phone ....................................................................Romans 8:1-30

You are leaving home for a trip, phone ...........................................................................Psalm 121

You are praying for yourself, phone ..................................................................................Psalm 87

You require courage for a task, phone ..............................................................................Joshua 1

Inflations and investments are hogging your thoughts, phone ..................................Mark 10:17-31

You are depressive, phone ...............................................................................................Psalm 27

Your bank account is empty, phone ..................................................................................Psalm 37

You lose faith in mankind, phone ..............................................................................Corinthians 13

It looks like people are unfriendly, phone ............................................................................John 15

You are losing hope, phone ............................................................................................Psalm 126

You feel the world is small compared to you, phone .........................................................Psalm 19

You want to carry fruit, phone .............................................................................................John 15

Paul’s secret for happiness, phone ...................................................................Colossians 3:12-17

With big opportunity/discovery, phone ...............................................................................Isaiah 55

To get along with other people, phone ..........................................................................Romans 12

 

ALTERNATE NUMBERS

 For dealing with fear, call ...............................................................................................Psalm 3:47

For security, call ...........................................................................................................Psalm 121:3

For assurance, call ...........................................................................................................Mark 8:35

For reassurance, call ..................................................................................................Psalm 145:18

 

  

 

ALL THESE NUMBERS MAY BE PHONED DIRECTLY.

NO OPERATOR ASSISTANCE IS NECESSARY.

ALL LINES TO HEAVEN ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY.

FEED YOUR FAITH, AND DOUBT WILL STARVE TO DEATH.

 

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Issues 

 

 
 

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The Gentle Art of Saying ‘No’

The phone rings and someone asks me if I will be a speaker for an event in three days’ time because the original presenter has been rushed to hospital. An email arrives asking me to attend a meeting that has been scheduled on the only day I have free in an entire month. My son brings a letter home from school asking parents to make cakes for a charity bake sale. A friend pops round for the evening and asks me to help her create two hundred hand-made invitations for a special event...

I have a small key ring that a friend made for me. I keep it to remind me of something I keep on forgetting. The key chain has several red glass beads of different shapes and sizes – presumably red to remind me to ‘Stop!’ and at the very end of the chain are two metal letters: N and O. They spell the word ‘no’. My friend had seen me working fourteen hour days at a holiday camp that my husband and I run for families on the north Cornwall coast, and she had decided to try and make me slow down and do less. That’s quite hard to achieve when you have lots of families depending on you for a great holiday. So, when she gave it to me, I jokingly held it upside down so that the letters spelled ‘ON’ instead! And that’s often what I felt like – a person who is ON-call all the time. Someone who couldn’t say ‘no’ because it was somehow wrong, because I should be helping everyone I possibly can, whenever I can, wherever I am...Or should I?

 When we’re about one year old we learn to say ‘No!’ when we see a highly threatening spoonful of spinach moving rapidly towards our mouth. For a few months that word is our only protection against the struggles of our parents to feed, clothe and potty train us and we learn to use the word powerfully. And then we lose the art, because we learn that ‘No’ is what naughty two-year-olds yell when they have a tantrum, or moody teenagers say when they don’t want to help with the washing up. ‘No’ usually ends up with punishment, or at least an argument, and we’re taught that ‘No’ is what ‘unhelpful’ people say. As we grow older ‘No’ is a word we don’t like to hear from others, so we don’t like to say it to them, either.

But I work in a caring profession, and it’s so easy for me to fall into the trap of saying ‘yes’ more than I should. I have drifted far too close to the edge of Burnout Ravine to feel comfortable saying ‘yes’ to everything. In the movie, ‘Yes Man’ Jim Carrey discovers the crazy consequences of saying ‘yes’ to every request and offer that comes his way, and he experiences  all kinds of wild predicaments because of those tiny, but powerful, three letters.  Saying ‘Yes’ might have brightened up his dull existence, but it probably also added a significant amount of stress, especially when he found himself bungee-jumping off a bridge. ‘Yes’ can be a good word. But it can also be a dangerous word. Especially when we say ‘yes’ for the wrong reasons.

  

(Becky – this re-think section could be a sidebar if you need one.)

Here are some ways to protect yourself from the un-gentleness of ’Yes’.

Firstly, ask yourself why you think you should say ‘yes’ whenever anyone asks you for help. Make a list of all the possible reasons. Stuck for ideas? Here are some suggestions:

It’s wrong to say ‘no’. (Re-think - It’s protective to say ‘no’ – the word not only protects me from overwork: it also protects my family from living with a grumpy person who is stressed because of the overwork!)

Only ‘difficult’ people say ‘no’. (Re-think – Sensible people say ‘no’ because they know they have limits.)

If I say ‘no’ perhaps the other person won’t like me anymore. (Re-think – If the other person is mature and thoughtful they will respect my answer. I can also say ‘no’ in a positive way, by offering other helpful suggestions.)

I will feel bad if I say ‘no’. (Re-think – I will remember how bad I felt the last time I said ‘yes’ and then struggled to manage the responsibility.)

I say ‘yes’ because it is important for me to feel valued and useful. (Re-think – When I say ‘yes’ to too many things, or the wrong things, I usually end up feeling even more undervalued and exploited.)

  

Once you understand why you feel you ought to say ‘yes’, and why it is ok to say ‘no’, ask yourself the following questions:

Can I do it this week?

This is a question I put to myself whenever I’m asked to do something that will add extra work to a week in the future. If I couldn’t fit the task comfortably into my current week, the chance is that it won’t fit very comfortably into a future week, either. Answer: ‘I’m sorry, I‘d love to help you but I don’t have enough time to do the job as well as I’d like to.’ Or: ‘I’m afraid that week is already very full. I don’t think I could squeeze anything else in at that time’ Perhaps you could try asking... (insert the name of someone who may be able to help, and who will still speak to you when they find out that you suggested their name).’

Please can I ask for some time and space to think about my answer?

It’s all too easy to say ‘yes’ when the person making the request is standing there in front of you, or is hanging on the end of the phone for an answer. You have the right to some space to think about your response and to get back to them in your own time, just as they have had the time and space to think about asking you. It’s very acceptable to say that you need to discuss it with your boss or your family first. Or maybe you want some time to pray about the request. Ask for their email, if possible, and say you’ll let them have an answer within the week. It’s much easier to write and say ‘no’ in a kind way than to tell someone face to face or over the phone.

If I say ‘yes’ to this responsibility, what other responsibilities will suffer?

You may be able to run the cake stall at the school fete, or organise a sponsored cycle ride for charity, but how will this responsibility affect your ability to be a good parent, partner or colleague? Who is most important to you – your family or the person asking for your help? How can you make sure that you’re living according to your values? Or can this be a family project, or something that you do with your friends, so that your close relationships benefit from the task?

If I say ‘yes’ to this, what other things will I have to say ‘no’ to?

Will doing this task add something special to your life, or take something special away? What will you have to say ‘No’ to in your life if you say ‘Yes’ to this request? Make a list of all the things that you won’t be able to do if you take on this project, so that you understand the full impact this responsibility will have on your life, happiness and important relationships. When you realise that you will have to say ‘No’ to some things that are very important to you, it will be easier to say ‘No’ to the request.

If I add this to my ‘to do’ list, how will it affect my ‘to be’ list?

We often find our personal value in the things we can do. We think that the more we do the more valuable and useful we are. But how does that affect who we are and how we live our lives lovingly, happily, peacefully, kindly, and generously? The more there is on our ‘to do’ list, the more likely we are to be stressed and miserable, and not so nice to be around. Make a ‘to be’ list and think about the goals you have for your character, such as being kind, polite, loving, cheerful, etc. Then make sure your ‘to do’ list doesn’t threaten your ‘to be’ list.

How can I say ‘no’ and still be helpful?

When you say ‘no’, you can suggest other people, times, places, ways of getting the task done, etc. Or offer to do a small part of the task. ‘I’m afraid I couldn’t manage to run a whole cake stall, but I will bake a couple of cakes.’ Or say ‘I could only think of taking on this task if you find me three other people who will be willing to help me.’ And give them the responsibility to find the other helpers. As a manager once told me ‘Someone else’s deadline is not your emergency.’

‘No’ can be a surprisingly difficult word to say, even though it only has two letters and one syllable. But, used wisely, it can also be a very gentle friend.

 

Karen Holford

 

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Health and Beauty

 

 
 

 

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STRESS – PART 1                                                                       -Sharon Platt-McDonald

RGN, RM, RHV, MSc

Health Ministries Director, BUC

  

GENERAL OVERVIEW

 

In this issue, we begin a new series on the topic of stress.  We will look at the causes of stress, its impact on health, foods which help to alleviate or aggravate stress, environmental triggers, and suggestions of combating stress and living a more balances lifestyle.  We will also explore the spiritual renewal we find in Christ as we are reminded in 1 Peter 5:7, ‘Casting all your care upon him; for her cares for you.’

 So what is stress?

 Stress is the body’s natural response, psychologically and physiologically, to events, both positive and negative, that upset our personal balance in some way.  We call these events or demands ‘stressors’ as they force us to adjust or bring an element of change.  They impact our coping skills and capacity to adapt and we experience the body’s biological stress response.

 When facing a highly pressured situation, the body produces higher levels of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline which cause changes such as the constriction and dilation of arteries, increased breathing and rapid heart rate.  Numerous other signs and symptoms can also occur which we will explore in the next issue.

 The causes of stress are highly individual but can be placed into three broad categories of stressors, namely: pressures, frustrations and conflicts.  If these stressors involve central aspects of your life or persist for extended periods of time, they are more likely to result in sever distress and disruption of daily functioning with consequent negative physical and emotional impact.

 An article in USA Today entitled ‘A Mess of Stress’, carried the results of a survey identifying the major sources of stress for typical Americans.  The research was conducted on 501 adults by Research and Forecast Icl.  The results identified the following:

 ·        36% stated that work was the biggest source of stress in their lives

·        22% cited money

·        10% said children

·        7% said health

·        5% stated marriage

·        5% cited parents

·        19% asserted that they had little stress in their daily life

·        only 5% said that they had no stress at all.

 

To assess your level of stress, try Dr Rahe’s ‘Life Changes Stress Test’ (via Google).  It will be most revealing!

 Yes, life can be stressful but we live it with hope in God.

 Until next time, consider this thought:

 ‘A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health.’  Mind, Character and Personality, vol 2, page 403.

 Good health!

 

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Inspiration 

 

 
 

 

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Responding to Hardship

By Dr Charles Stanley

 1 Peter 4:12-19

 When you face a trial, what is your first response?  You probably would like to run away as quickly as possible to escape it.  though this is a normal feeling, God has a different way.

 It is not the trials in your life that develop or destroy you, but rather your response to those hardships.  How, then, should we react when difficulties feel overwhelming?

 First, trust God.  Believe His Word and reflect on ways He has been faithful in the past.  He assures us that He limits our trials and enables us to endure.

 Second, persevere.  Even when we don’t understand and the pain seems too great to bear, we should never quit.  Continue seeking the Lord through His Word and prayer.  Cling to hope in Christ, and praise Him in the midst of the pain.

 Third, remember that our sovereign God is in control.  He’s allowing this adversity for a reason and will demonstrate His sustaining power through it.  Even though the pain might feel intolerable, the Lord will prosper us.  Scripture compares our growth to gold, which is refined through fire (1 Peter 1:7).  Often, I hear believers reflect on a difficult time and admit that despite the intense hurt, they wouldn’t change the situation.  They see the beauty God created through the struggle and realise its value.

 We will encounter difficulties – sometimes intense and painful trials that seem too much for us.  Yet we can rely on our heavenly Father to deliver and grow us in ways we could never imagine.  He doesn’t demand that we endure on our own, but He does allow us to respond and trust Him.

 

 

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Men's page

 

 
 

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I was shuffling toward the basement

with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

 

 

What began as a typical Sunday morning,

turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

 

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio

in order to listen to a Sunday morning swap net.  Along the way,

I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.

You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.

He was telling whoever he was talking with something about ‘a thousand marbles’.

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

 

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job.  I'm sure they pay you well

but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.

Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week

to make ends meet,” he said.  “Too bad you missed your daughter's recital.

Let me tell you something Tom,” he continued.  “Something that has helped me

keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”

And that's when he began to explain his theory of ‘A Thousand Marbles’.

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person

lives about seventy-five years.  Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900

which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime!

Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part.”

 

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on. 

“And by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.

I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about

a thousand of them left to enjoy.  So I went to a toy store and bought

every single marble they had.  I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up

1000 marbles.  I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.

I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

 

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for lunch.

This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.

I figure if I make it until next Sunday then I have been given a little extra time.

And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”

 

“It was nice to meet you Tom.  I hope you spend more time with your family, make your

Sundays count for something and I hope to meet you again here on the band.

73 Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.

I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.

I had planned to go fishing with some of my buddies this morning, and then I was going

to work on the antenna so I could listen to the game.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.

 

“C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to lunch.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Sunday together with the kids.

Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?

I need to buy some marbles...”

 

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Lifestyle

 

 
 

 

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How (not) to install a new kitchen

I first met our kitchen when we were choosing a new home. I wandered around the house, trying to be positive about the Captain Hook wallpaper and the egg yellow bathroom. The kitchen was traditional oak and it looked fine with all the cupboards and drawers shut. I dreamt of carousels in corner cupboards and other functional features, so I asked if I could explore inside the cupboards. The lady hesitated slightly and then agreed. The drawer runners rasped, the interior shelves had an unattractive finish, there were no special fittings and it was very worn and tatty in places, with broken plinths and damaged work-surfaces. It was older than it looked, but it would do, I thought.

So, for ten years, we lived with the aging kitchen, moving the cutlery to the least damaged drawer and trying to disguise the imperfections. Then one day, when yet another part broke, and we needed to rewire and re-plumb, and fit a better floor, we decided that when a kitchen looks like that, it’s time to get a new one. We scoured the summer sales, explored ebay, investigated the Internet and finally decided we couldn’t afford one after all.

But one of us had clicked on a website and left a phone number for more information. A day later we had a phone call. Someone would visit us and design a kitchen that was guaranteed to be affordable.

So he turned up and explained that they were less expensive because they owned a forest in China where everything was made, and they paid their workers well and took care of them. He measured up, suggested designs, and drew a new kitchen on a piece of graph paper with carbon underneath. It looked good. It was solid wood. He knew a local man who could fit it cheaply. We took a deep breath and decided to go with it – I mean – what could possibly go wrong? It was everything we wanted at a price we could finally afford.

I should have known. None of my friends with new kitchens had ever had a smooth ride. Things didn’t fit, cookers didn’t work, they had no sink for a month etc, etc.

But we paid a small deposit and he left. Then we noticed a small line at the bottom of the design sheet – we were responsible for checking all the dimensions before the delivery arrived. So we did. There were too many mistakes for us to sort out ourselves and the designer had left the company (already), so another man turned up to make sense of the plan. His design looked much better. The delivery would arrive on Friday and the fitters would start on Monday morning.

The delivery didn’t arrive on Friday and no-one knew where it was, or when it would turn up. Finally we received the phone call – the kitchen would be delivered at 6.30am on the Sunday morning. We had a family party a hundred miles away on the Saturday night and we’d planned to stay overnight. Now we couldn’t. We arrived home, exhausted, about 1.30am.

The kitchen arrived five hours later with apparently the right number of boxes. Relieved we went straight back to bed, thinking everything would run smoothly now we had all the components. After breakfast we emptied our old kitchen into carefully labelled boxes, stacked them in a bedroom, and sent the children to their grandparents for the school holidays. We had a fridge in the garage, a microwave in the living room, and a stack of paper plates on the coffee table.

On Monday the fitters came and removed our old kitchen. The room was ugly and gutted, like a battle scene, with various wires and pipes supported at precarious angles. I felt as if I were in emotional labour. This was the point of no return. It was going to be very painful for a few days, and there was no knowing how it would all turn out in the end. As soon as the fitters opened the first package there was a problem. No carousel had been delivered for the corner cupboard and they had to fit that first. So went ahead and hoped that they could get the carousel into the cupboard afterwards. The sink was the wrong finish and the tap was the wrong shape, but the old sink had already been picked up by the rag-and-bone man, so they installed the one that had been sent. The extractor hood was the wrong design. The built-in-fridge had a massive gash down its side, but fortunately its wooden housing hid everything, like a forgiving dressing-gown. Some of the doors were maple, not oak, and the twenty drawers came with the wrong components so they couldn’t be fitted.

Every so often a kitchen fitter would pop his head around the door of the lounge to break the next piece of bad news. We called the kitchen company but they said the only way to contact customer services was via email, and we would be held in a queue. So Jacob wrote an email detailing dozens of the difficulties and deficiencies. No one replied for about a month, by which time the fitters had left us. Our kitchen gaped with twenty drawerless holes and several other (hopefully) temporary unsolvable problems.

After another month they finally managed to send us the correct extractor hood (with a piece missing), some matching doors and the parts to complete the drawers...Maybe not... they’d managed to send the same wrong bits all over again, so we still couldn’t finish the job. All the top cupboards were misaligned because one unit was sent with bits missing. When we tried to put it right we realised everything needed to be taken down and moved along a few centimetres to make it work. The cornicing on top of the cupboards would have to be taken to pieces and new parts inserted so fit the changes. We’re still not sure whether the sink was installed incorrectly, or maybe it was warped like that before it arrived...

We’re still in a mess. Whenever we cook we play hide and seek with basic ingredients and once it took me half an hour to find some spaghetti. We’ve no idea where we put the flour. And we wait (im)patiently and expectantly. Last week we even rang customer services and found a real person on the end of a phone who knew what she was talking about. On Tuesday we called again to check the delivery times because now we have to move to another city. The man on the other end of the phone was abrupt.

‘You can’t have them. You can’t have nothing. Not now you can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s all burnt up, every last bit of it. Haven’t you seen the news? The warehouse burned down last night. There’s nothing left. Like nothing at all. The boss’ll call you...I reckon...maybe...sometime...’ (Like when?)

Last week I visited a friend who’s so eco-conscious that she’s ripped out her MDF and melamine kitchen. She has a cooker, a fridge and a butler’s sink with a curtain underneath it. She also has a range of lovely, old-fashioned sideboards and dressers that contain everything she needs. She’s painted them pastel colours (presumably with eco-friendly paints) and they look beautiful. I’m typing at the breakfast bar and gazing at the kitchen around me. It leers back, gappy, like the smile of an old man who’s lost most of his teeth. And I smile back, with all my gritting teeth intact, praying that our new house will have a perfectly beautiful kitchen. Today the estate agent has sent me his creative description of our current home: ‘The recently-fitted designer kitchen is in solid oak, with attractive, contemporary, open-plan shelving units...’

What I learned about fitting a new kitchen:

·        If you think you need a new kitchen, think again. The old one really isn’t that bad - learn to live with it.

·        If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

·        Always read the small print and pay for everything with a credit card so that it is insured against any problems or damage. If possible use a company where you can easily go to exchange things or buy extra pieces.

·        If developing patience was one of your resolutions for this year, a new kitchen is an excellent place to exercise your skills.

·        Learn to be unshockable. Behind every kitchen cabinet is a greasy, dirty, unfinished, embarrassing piece of wall. But it’s ok – the fitters have seen it all before.

·        Keep a list of favourite take-away restaurants by the phone.

·        Find somewhere safe to put the children and the pets before you move anything out of the kitchen, just so you don’t lose anything important. Leave home yourself if you can.

·        Always keep a supply of bottled water – plumbers can turn off your water at a moment’s notice.

·        Have a plan B, C, D, and E (at least).

·        You don’t have a new kitchen until you can host a party in it

·        When all else fails, make a cup of hot chocolate and sip it slowly.

Karen Holford.

 
 

 

 

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