For most of today, I’ve been working on THAT BLOODY ROOM again. I’ve now done another two coats of paint on the walls and it looks gorgeous. DM is going to start work on the woodwork tomorrow so we should be finished before the carpet arrives and that surveyor will smell fresh paint and see the work done already. Hurrah.

While we were fighting yesterday about what ‘normal’ people do, DM said ‘normal people go out at weekends’. I said ‘out where’, he retorted ‘shopping’. Now I’m sure I don’t need to say (again) that I abhor shopping culture with a passion. I can’t understand why we need to consume so much ‘stuff’ that won’t get used and will end up in landfill sites.

BUT I did get the point, so after my two coats of paint, we sat around and watched the GP, entertained all our neighbours with chasing in the chickens before they were ready to go to bed (an essential task as we were going to be out after dark), then we set off on my equivalent of shopping.

Except we didn’t need any money and we didn’t consume anything other than fresh air. That’s why we came here – to be able to pop to the beach and walk the dogs as though it was a trip to the supermarket.

I’m unable to see why anyone would want to shop over this.

As the nights draw in, the dark comes early and so we arrived on the beach at 5.30pm with just an hour of light. The sun was setting over the headland and there were a few surfers dotted around in the surf, along with a couple of chaps fishing, which I’ve never seen before on this beach.

I just love the surf and the spray – looking just like a Guinness ad or just like a wild place if you prefer.

Me, I am at last a bit rested and that room looks golden and sunny. I’m aching and sore from the exertion but at least my balance and sense of rightness has been restored. More importantly me and ‘im are friends again – I think……

Last year I had my babe on a rope....but he looked a lot cleaner than he doesn now, fresh out of the surf and two years ago, I was bemoaning the state of our radio