Systems

Wonderfully satisfying 10 pm onwards allocating drawers in the new cabinet and clearing off the windowsill which was where toiletries were formerly stored . Some difficulties over fitting the cabinet against the right wall , necessitating some re jigging of the 37 toilet rolls which were lurking behind the door and completely re siting the bin . N favours the sytem in one of her friend's houses where the bathroom is kept clear and family members carry their own toiletries into the bathroom on a need only basis , from their bedrooms . In fact we had quite a companionable chat about all this and some other matters . I know this system would never work for me . Shower would be on , I would be happily under the water , hair dripping , reaching for the shower gel and .... it would be like camping all over again . Queing for half an hour for a hot shower and reaching front of queue only to discover the shampoo was back at the ranch .

The pointy screwdriver ?

Stepped out to get coffee and get caught in a thunderstorm .

Later , the storm catches me unawares at home just as a delivery van brings two large boxes of cabinets ( bathroom and laptop area ) which I had forgotten ( temporarily ) we had ordered .

Thus I find myself composing and typing in a text for D which says " where do we keep the pointy screwdriver " . Im being polite of course , I know exactly where I used to keep two screwdrivers , one of each type if you know what I mean . One with a flat end and one with a pointy end so that no job would defeat me . I go to the drawer and someone has moved the pointy one , and the flat one , which I attempt the job with , has to be rejected as I know in two minutes I will be stripping the screws and the whole job will go t**s up , as all the teenagers round here say , with great regularity and very seriously , as if not appreciating that for me, and perhaps others of my generation , there is a very real image attached to this little phrase.

I don't send the text in the end . I can predict that D in Sheffield will not know what I mean by a pointy screwdriver , and I haven't the stomach after a day report writing and attending meetings and driving round Walker lost ( until I manage to work out that the reason the satnav isn't working , this time , is due to remote control battery failure . ) I am so used to the satnav not working , and trying to figure routes out without it first , that its only when its clear I am not going to find my destination that I make a last ditch attempt to solve the satnav- not- working- thing with the simplest solution , two new batteries .

I then try to add the castors to the new cabinet myself by hand , without benefit of screwdriver and abandon that fairly quickly too .

Now I'm resigned to waiting for the return of the man who won't know where my screwdriver has gone , but will have a boxed set of his own all present and correct . Tense ? Who Me ?

hatemail

Just read the dooce blog today about hate mail and wondering , again , who it is who is reading my blog ? The records show a startling increase in the daily numbers , even yesterday , a Monday, being higher than the weekend figures . People seem to be coming back . Heather B Armstrong , who makes a living from blogging , seems according to today's blog to attract a high level of hate mail and I have to confess to finding the few samples she had posted highly amusing . Reminiscent of the ungrammatical text sent to D after he refused to trade his MR2 for a very un ok other-type-of-car , the name of which escapes me . ( everything seems to escape me these past days ) . I guess hate mail when directed personally could be deeply upsetting , but for myself I'd be delighted to get some feedback or some idea of who is reading the blog , why , and well Im not sure what else . Any comments gratefully received .

A long and complex dream about cotton wool and puffalumps and woke , finally with a dry mouth and a big fluffed out Toby cat tucked under my arm . The door opening had been done without me and cats were positioned all about the room waiting for me to emerge . 6 30 am and the shower runing already . I squint about trying to make sense of things and see Jessie climbing carefully into D 's overnight bag and everything falls into place . Someone has dropped my glasses onto the floor and there is an odd crunch underfoot as I stand on them . Great start to the day .

I wonder if Windermere is still there .