Hectic day

Well, it's been all go Chez Moi today! At one point, it was like one of those old farces, where people come in and out of different doors and everyone gets very confused. Not helped by the fact that I couldn't find the calendar where I'd marked all these appointments!

First of all, I realised last night, that I had forgotten to do I the most important thing when moving house - change the house insurance... Oops. I had rung them to ask if our stuff was insured during a flitting, and they said yes. They didn't say, 'Mind on to change your insurance for the new address'. And why should they. It's obvious...

I'd forgotten how much of your life is taken up doing a house insurance as every little clause is read out and they ask if you understand it. I know they have to, and I'd be complaining of they didn't. Well, we were 20 minutes into the call, when the first of my tradesmen arrived to look at a job. She said she'd ring back in half an hour. Could we have a password, so as not to go over all the first bit again - Maltesers.

Anyway, on to call number 2 and another few clauses, during which she politely reprimanded me for saying 'Yes' before she had finished the question - I had the old insurance with me and was (silently) reading each clause and trying to speed it up. Naughty.

Then the next tradesman came. An architect, actually, to check if we could knock a wee wall down to make two small box rooms into one big box room. Then the tradesman who organised him came to discuss the job.

Then two lads appeared with a ladder. 'Who are you?' I asked. They had come to put up the chandelier (just a Laura Ashley one- nothing posh).

Then the hedge man rang to say he could come tomorrow.OK.

I rang a man about soundproofing ceilings. (We have a heffalump residing upstairs). More of this later...

Then I mislaid our final gas and electricity readings, as I was listening to Greensleeves in a queue and asking the electricians if they could swap a dimmer switch. I walked round and round the house and could not find the little bit of paper. Panic! So I hung up.

I have since found it, but then the men came with the kitchen table, chairs, coffee table and telephone table for the hall. I am now waiting for the power company to ring me back, probably at the same time as the third tradesman comes to give a quote on the job. I think the insurance girl has given up trying to read me the 100 clauses. Which is not a good thing, and may technically mean that we're not insured.

I am sitting with a beer, watching tennis with no sound. I just need silence for a wee while. Just as well I'm retired. How could you do all this when you're working? Still, it's all progress.

The iPad blip today ( is this a series?) is of the new kitchen table and chairs, and the wallpaper which has to go, because the painting must hang there. The boxes are only temporary.

And the painting won't stay there. I think it will look better above the table height...