Friday 9 June 2023
It’s 08:53, sunrise was at 04:30 and I got up somewhere in the middle, fortunately in the mood for cleaning and tidying ahead of my mum’s arrival late afternoon.
Just the thought of cleaning has meant that it is now 09:07. In the fourteen minutes since I started and resumed writing, I have swept the kitchen floor and vacuumed up the dirt and re-read the instructions for hanging an aluminium chain curtain. In my new do-it-your-bloody-self mindset, I know that I want to put it up today, but that means drilling through the wall outside the front door. This strikes me as something far too grown up. But, somewhere over the past [insert figure larger than I like to think of] years, I have become a grown up and I know we have the right kind of power drill to drill a hole in the wall so the only thing stopping me, as is often the case, is me.
It’s 09:19. I’ve been multi-tasking again. There is no logical reason for doing that, I don’t for a minute think it makes anything get done faster but it does make me feel like I’m doing/have done more.
I have some work that needs prioritising today – it’s now 09:27 and I certainly wasn’t prioritising the right things. I decided to see where the chain curtain hooks might need to go. Incidentally, not in the stone but in the doorframe. I also took photos of the new rug layout to send to Chris, who’s currently in London and will be escorting my mum from Victoria to Euston.
Yesterday, on my shopping trip ahead of my mum’s visit, I found myself in unfamiliar territory in B&Q at the circular saw area (no purchase made). I also had a coffee stop, an ice cream stop, an emergency-cake-for-later stop and a heron-admiring stop. Busy day out and about in Peebles, Galashiels and Selkirk.
Back to the initial point of having work that needs to be done today. Other than that, some more bits of cleaning and tidying, though I did most of the kitchen last night and the bathroom this morning. And, of course, the chain curtain is going to go up. I have just realised (only a few minutes elapsed to have that thought) that the chain curtain does need to go into the wall rather than the door as it does not need to be up close with the door. Anyway, writing about chain curtains as much as this is another first. It is also vocabulary I would not have been using in London.
It’s 9°C right now, forecast to reach 18°C. Tomorrow is forecast to be a Scottish heatwave, 24°C. Fortunately, the downstairs of our house is yet to get warm. The upstairs, unfortunately, is another matter, but overnight the forecast is 11°C. In Lewisham tomorrow, a high of 27°C but 16°C at night. I’m ignoring Sunday as that seems to be a degree or two hotter. Good for midges though – or, rather, good for us that the midges will stay away from the heat. Right, off to focus on some work. And putting up the curtain thing. And vacuuming. And tidying …