Who’d have thought you could get so happy about new windows?

It’s amazing the things that make you happy as you get older.

In my Twenties it was late nights, lots of drink and being chatted up by good looking fellas. In my Thirties it was sun holidays, nice wine and shopping sprees.

In my Forties (I KNOW – I don’t look a day of it!!) what makes me happiest is nights in, in front of the fire with Aldi’s finest plonk and Netflix.

But my happiness reached unprecedented levels this week with the arrival of something so ordinary, so basic that I’m beginning to wonder do I need to get a life! New windows that’s what I got. New windows. And I can honestly say I’ve never been happier.

I have sunk to new depths of middle-aged mundanity with the arrival of those double glazed sparkling babies.

Admittedly I wasn’t exactly overjoyed during the week it took to fit them. Work men traipsing through the house with their

I’VE TAKEN TO STANDING IN THE WINDOWAND SAVOURING THE GRATIFYING FEELING OF NO DRAUGHT! EVEN THE CHILDREN HAVE NOTICED

muddy boots, leaving every door open and drinking endless cups of bloody tea.

But all the mess, the dust, the dirt, the having to look reasonably respectable first thing in the morning to let them in, was all worth it now that I am surrounded by draught proof, shiny new windows.

To put it in perspective, least you think I’ve totally lost my mind – for 16 years we have lived in the coldest house known to man. No amount of heating could keep us warm as hundreds of euros worth of heat escaped each quarter through our warped , wonky windows.

So finally we have gotten round to replacing them and Hallelujah! We are now snug as bugs. I’ve taken to standing in the window and savouring the gratifying feeling of no feckin draught! Even the children have noticed.

‘‘Jesus mam, the house is actually warm,’ said The Eldest when he came in from school the other day.

‘I know’ said I, making him come stand beside me at the window to feel no draught. Himself finally relented and admitted I was right to insist on replacing them. It only took me 16 years to convince him.

‘Jaysus there’s some heat in here,’ he says, rubbing his hands in glee, as if it was all his idea. Of course now he has decided we don’t need to have the heat on……. at all but that’s another day’s battle and one which I need to address with stealth and deviousness.

In the meantime I will cherish my newfound comfort and continue to stand in my windows and rejoice in the fact there is not a gale force wind blowing through.

Who’d have thought that by the time I reached my Forties, I’d be so easily pleased?

Mind you I still wouldn’t say no to a sun holiday!