DM and I are excited……

We’ve been out and ordered our new furniture for the sitting room…..twice! We screwed up the first time and ordered stuff too big for the room! However, in a wonderful demonstration of great customer service the company we bought from let us change our order today, after we realised our error last night.

So, this has necessitated another trip to Plymouth today, after one yesterday, when we placed the original order – two days over the Tamar – scary! We wanted to get moving on this because we are going to try to embrace ‘Ice Fest’, our atheist version of Christmas and be less bah-humbug than normal! We have decided therefore to try to get ourselves in shape for the event.

Getting ready for the new carpets that arrive in around a fortnight, we’ve been changing light-fittings and putting up curtain poles. I am thrilled to bits we’re so organised – this will be the first time we’ve managed to tick the boxes and complete a room…….oh how I hope I don’t live to regret being so confident about this!

The curtain pole is up and the only ‘challenge’ was drilling into the solid granite. We know this is possible because we’ve seen our plumber and our electricians do it but no matter how much we spend on so-called granite-proof masonry drill bits, we still can’t find one that reliably does the job. The current one has been used to drill seven holes and is now as bent as a bent thing. Correction – it drilled six holes and the last one was drilled by an old bit because we discovered the new one was dead.

The light fitting is up and we’re dead pleased with that too. The last evidence of Mad Maureen is gone from this room and we’ve now got our ‘marks’ on it – the carpet, curtains and furniture will complete that process.

Not all in our world is working out this well, we’ve got all of our food piled up all over the kitchen counters because of an infestation of some kind in our larder. I’m “prodding” food and if it moves, it goes in the bin and if it doesn’t I’m cooking it then freezing it so that it can’t move in the future if you see what I mean. I’ve scrubbed the larder with bleach and still every time I go in there I find myself face-to-face with a dozen or so of the little nasties. I am possessed – a mania where I squash them with my finger then get a mad look in my eye and go ‘ha that got you’. Call me old-fashioned but I can’t bear the prospect of insecticide in a cupboard where we store our food.

This is one thing I’ve learned about being here in Cornwall – you have to get used to all sorts of creepy-crawlies (and I include rats in this definitions – it’s not restricted to invertebrates in my world) that you don’t really experience in leafy Surrey. (Well, let’s say I never did anyway – I suppose that it’s possible it did elsewhere in the county.)

So, we’ve screwed up by ordering the wrong stuff – now that’s sorted, we’ve screwed up the curtain pole and the light fitting and finally we’ve been screwed by these little creepy-crawlies who are terrorising our food cupboards.

I was surprised to see that it was today last year that we took up the carpet in the sitting room rather than live with the filthy nasty thing that was there. So, by the time we get the new one down, it'll have been around 13 months. The fireplace didn't become functional for another six months after the shot was taken either. Progress is certainly being made!