Sunday 25 March 2001

I’m writing this at midnight on Sunday, and I’m exhausted. Not surprising really, considering.

I had a very lazy day; a couple of naps interspersed by a couple of long hot showers because my neck and shoulder muscles were in spasm and giving me all sorts of hell. Fortunately the heat and naps calmed things down, so by the afternoon I was feeling quite lively. Lively enough to play around on the 'puter, read a little and do a truckload of washing up anyway.

The ‘rents and Charles came round to see me late in the afternoon, to drop off the groceries Mum had bought for me at the Swansea Street markets that morning (Mum and I have an arrangement whereby if she is going shopping, I read out a list over the phone, she does my shopping, drops it off at my place when convenient, I pay her back. An immense favour).

Mmmmm proper vegies … and as a bonus, baby beef shanks!!! Usually you have to ask the butcher to prepare or order these in specially, but the butcher at the market had them sitting there alongside the mince and lamb chops, just like ordinary. So I’m gonna make Ossi Bucchi for dinner on Monday night … not sure whether to have it with polenta or Risotto Milanese though. Both are yummy but I love the way polenta soaks up all the juices … and then leftover polenta is great to have in the freezer for snacks and other meals.

Anyway I digress. Dad had varnished the shelves I’d bought at Ikea the other night (he’d insisted; I gave in pretty easily; it was just too much like hard work. So thanks Dad) and delivered them with all the other stuff. So Sunday night I set to setting up the shelves and loading books on. But its never that easy though, is it?

1. unload books from tall bookshelf unit in the study, dismantle (remove shelves, take out metal pegs that hold up shelves, unscrew cross brace connecting vertical struts) and lug downstairs

2. unload books from medium bookshelf unit in the living room; pile them up on every available surface; dismantle medium unit (see above)

3. say "kerrist I didn’t know I had so many books". Repeat at intervals, and in varying tones of voice throughout the evening

4. put up tall bookshelf unit in place of medium unit; replace cross bracing, connect new extension, insert pegs and install shelves (with much swearing, standing on stools to reach the top shelves, using the handle of sharpening steel as a hammer); start loading books

5. unload small unit currently in use as a pantry in the kitchen; containers, cans and spices are strewn all over kitchen floor.

6. attach one strut of small unit to tall unit to replace small chest of drawers in use as a telephone table; main small unit intended to replace tv/video trolley placed in remaining unoccupied corner of the room

7. realise spacing between shelves on tall unit is wrong, all wrong; unload books, take out shelves and pegs; recalculate spacings, re-insert pegs and shelves, start loading books

8. realise spacing between shelves is still wrong

9. lather, rinse, repeat

10. pour large strong vodka and coke

11. re-insert pegs and shelves (accompanied by more swearing, banging, muttering under breath); load all books onto shelves, including unpacking and loading the several boxes of childrens’ and SF&F books that had been sitting on top of the cupboard for some years

12. finish vodka and coke. pour another

13. re-install medium unit in kitchen (swearing, banging, yelps of pain, fevered cursing) and load with containers, cans, cookbooks

14. realise several more shelves are required for kitchen unit; ditto for small unit intended for tv/video, necessitating another trip to Ikea

15. drain glass. swear. stagger to bed, leaving leftover piles of books, magazines, and cans of tuna still strewn all over entire ground floor

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