Catch my breath

Pardon us if we feel a bit smug. We feel like we've really achieved something this weekend. Only in a small way, you understand. It's not solving international diplomatic crises or writing the next great philosophical work. No, it's much more mundane than that - we spent the weekend doing those things you always put off because there's something more exciting to do.

Eventually, they mount up until it looks...well...like a mountain of a task. Even more of a disincentive to make a start. Until days like yesterday and today, when you think: "Right. Time to roll my sleeves up."

First order of business for Saturday was a bus ride into town to take back our only duplicate present: a copy of the new Eagles album. We opted to keep Nikki's copy (I'd removed the original packaging when wrapping it, whereas mine was still intact) which meant I had the added bonus of choosing a replacement present. I opted to continue the process of replacing my vinyl collection and chose another digitally remastered Caravan album: If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You. We stopped off for a Starbucks and a skinny muffin but ended up finishing our coffees stood in the street, since the entire building was evacuated when the fire alarm went off. Still, it helped cool the coffee down quicker!

Returning home the second thing on the list was to clean up after Friday's visit from the plumber. Having swept and mopped everywhere we soon realised that the large hole in the kitchen ceiling had a cold howling draught blowing through it which was fetching down dust and small clumps of the debris that always lives in the ceiling void of old houses. Stuff left over from countless previous jobs - floorboard replacements, rewiring, plumbing - all tradesmen leave their shit under the floor where no-one sees it until the next job. That hole needed a temporary plug until we've sorted out what we want to do with the ceiling and hence became the most recent addition to that task list of "things I don't really want to do." A cannibalised cardboard box that had brought Christmas presents from the U.S. did the trick, held in place with a few long nails. It doesn't look pretty, but it's serviceable, quick and cheap.

Next on the list: taking down the Christmas decorations. I've never understood why so many people misinterpret the Twelfth Night superstition and believe that you must wait until then to take decorations down. The "rule" is actually that you mustn't leave them up after January 6, not that you can't take them down earlier. Personally I prefer to have everything back to normal before we go back to work. There's nothing more depressing than coming home from that first day back at work to a house with its Christmas tree and tinsel all still twinkling sadly at you, when you know the holidays are long gone and all stretches before you is the cold dark winter. But this year our last holiday day was New Year's Day itself and I didn't feel like spending that clearing up, so the decorations have hung around all week apart from a few lengths of tinsel that I've collected up when I happened to be passing.

So Saturday afternoon was dedicated to collecting up the hangings, de-decorating and disassembling the tree and putting everything back in its box. I was interrupted with the tree half denuded by the doorbell. One of neighbours computers had "gone all black" and could I help? I headed across the road once I'd boxed up the tree to find a delegation of neighbours watching some bulbs being planted. Perhaps 'delegation' is too strong a word - it was one other guy. When he learned I was there to tend to the sick computer he offered to cook us a meal if I could fix his - which appeared to be suffering from the same problem we had when Nikki's PC was new: one Vista; one XP; and never the twain shall file share.

Well the first examination was concluded fairly quickly. The patient was terminally ill with a blown video card. Hubby was quite happy to invest in a new card while wifey was keener on a new deal. I left them to the debate and re-crossed the road to sort out the file sharing issue. Turned out to be the same problem we had - Norton by default blocks Windows file sharing. Took me an hour to remember that, which was a tad frustrating, but I left neighbour #2 happier than I'd found him.

Today we collected up various piles of Christmas presents that still littered the study and the lounge, put DVDs in the "to watch" pile and ripped CDs onto the PCs, after which the only two jobs remaining for me were the two I hate most: ironing and budgeting.

I always say I'll record credit card transactions in the budget daily so they don't mount up. Then after three months, when my wallet can no longer be closed because of the wodge of credit card slips, I'll "get around" to doing the budget. And it takes hours. You'd think I'd have learned by now. Funny...it's the same with shirts. Iron one or two every time the laundry's done, or wait until there's 10 need doing at once, and you're facing an hour's worth of ironing? Guess.