I cut my thumb ……. with soap

So, I am supposed to be writing Christmas cards right now.

Instead, I am exhausted and spending a few minutes (which is fast turning into one hour or so) relaxing.

Today I have been busy. Following Piero’s destruction blitz that he’s on at the moment, I decided that I would have to bite the bullet and sort out the TV cable. It comes in above the front door, runs along the hallway, into the lounge and then to the bedroom (where the TV is located).

Originally, the TV was in the lounge but when I moved it to the bedroom I had to buy extra aerial cable and, rather than putting it against the wall, ran it in front of the wardrobe. OK, it was because I was lazy.

Then we got Piero.

Piero quite liked the cable that ran on the floor through the bedroom doorway and along the wardrobe. So, after nearly chewing his way through, I taped it to the floor using packing tape.

That was months and months ago.

After the fridge destruction, he found a slightly prominent and loose bit of cable in the hallway. It was near the skirting board.

And his persistence in pulling it (it must have been a great game) even when I had secured it and taped it and various other things, meant that, now, there was only one solution. That was to re-route the whole thing. Which I have now done. Now it goes along the ceiling of the hall, through a new hole I drilled at the top of the doorway into the lounge, across the door frame and through two other holes in the bedroom door frame, into the bedroom.

From there, it is tacked to run behind the wardrobe (where it goes down to the skirting board for the first time) and from there to the TV.

To get it now, he either has to jump about 7 feet or pull the triple wardrobe out away from the wall.

And, to be honest, if he can get it now, I will really give up.

And then I washed my hands. I have a new bar of soap but a small sliver of the previous soap.

The previous soap was rubbish. It was that glycerine soap and created no lather and I didn’t like it, Also, it was heavy and I thought the sink would crack when I accidentally dropped it in there a couple of times.

So now I have this thin sliver of this crappy soap. And, as I was washing my hands, somehow I managed to cut my thumb with this sliver of crap soap and so now have a plaster on it as it bled profusely.

I can hardly believe that with all the drilling, hammering, cutting of cable, fixing of cable, use of screwdrivers, etc. nothing happened until I used the soap!

Now, where’s the justice in that?

I was exhausted

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.