It will rain all day on Saturday so I can’t escape to the park with the dogs :'(

As someone pointed out – it’s the wrong time of year for it.

Not the weather, of course. The weather is typical.

Last Saturday, it was still the wrong time of year but, at least, it wasn’t raining.

Saturday.

Morning.

Too early. I was told to take the dogs out for a walk.

I came back and he had already started. He hasn’t even dressed – just in underpants and T-shirt. He stays like this all day. I busy myself with going shopping, doing bits and pieces, occasionally responding to requests for something or for something to be held or for something to be found or something moved.

I also sit in the chair just outside the kitchen. Playing a game on my telephone, smoking, being bored. But there’s not a lot else I can do.

When it’s finished, I am completely exhausted. My legs feel as if I have been up the ladder all day. I can barely walk – and, yet, I have done very little towards the actual ‘work’.

This Saturday it is the turn of the hallway. He didn’t really like the orange wall in the kitchen but painted it the same anyway. I think it was a compromise. He definitely DOESN’T like the red-painted alcove in the hallway – but it will still be red after Saturday. I told him that I liked it, which I do and, if you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you will know that it was one of the reasons I fell in love with the flat.

So it will remain red.

This Saturday will be different. This Saturday I will be cleaning everything which has been moved out so that, when it’s put back, it will be clean. Apparently.

And, yes, it IS the wrong time of year – but it’s necessary, apparently, for Chirstmas.

He is already planning the tree. We have talked about his main present (it is a turntable to permit him to digitalise his vinyl record collection – and, as a by product, he will be able to digitalise mine too (although he doesn’t know that yet )). We have talked about my present (which will be a new television).

But, Christmas preparations are a seperate post, I think.

For this one is about preparing the flat. And, this year, it’s not just a clean. It’s a paint-job.

So, kitchen down. Hallway this Saturday. Lounge the Saturday after. The bedroom the week after. Really it’s for him and, quite possibly, so that he can have his friends over during the Christmas period.

Christmas has never been this much of a pain in the arse. Nor as exhausting.