Today I have learned a number of things. The first of which is that there are still some human beings in hire shops in the world. We hired an industrial floor sander from our local supplier and were treated with dignity and kindness by the chap in the store, where in Sandhurst, we’d have been lucky to escape with a sneer and most likely would have been subjected to a bizarre sort of ritual humiliation that people in the South East are famous for.

I have, since this morning, sanded our dining room floor, an area of around 10 square metres – not hard work exactly, but tiring, dirty and tedious. Anyway, the mask in the shot did keep a lot of nasty stuff out of my lungs – you can see some of it attached to the filters on the front of it. However, I did get a lungful, two eyes full and DM remarked that it was a good job I couldn’t see myself in the mirror as I finished the job because I was beige – my least favourite colour ever!

Now though, we have beautiful floorboards, real wood, real woodworm and all sorts of other delights – well, what would you expect from a room where the floorboards were laid, then lain undisturbed for more than a hundred years?

I think there is huge value in this. Restoring things to their former glory, not tearing them apart for short term comfort…..but then you might expect me to say such a thing.

There is also a value to life – my Dad told us a story tonight (the folks are visiting but very sensibly decided not to stay in the rat’s nest, but are in a guesthouse up the road) about how he was trusted with a quarter of a million quid’s worth of hard cash once, by his boss, because his boss knew he had a lovely young wife (Mum) and a bonny babe (me). Dad’s boss got him right – a softie who loves his family so he’d never take a quarter of a million rather than come home to his girls – me and Mum – a quarter of a million in 1960 – who knows – maybe 10 million’s worth now?

He somewhat spoiled it by saying he’d have thought twice if it’d been half a million…..but we know he didn’t mean it, don’t we Mum?

Love you Daddy!

Last year, I was photographing something cutting!