Souper Saturday!

Following on from Fantastic Friday; I had plans for today. However, these were thwarted by Pauline being struck down with the gastric flu bug which is doing the rounds here.

G woke me with a cup of coffee, and I lay and read for a little bit, then I phoned Mum for a bit of a chat. When I finally crawled out of my (very lovely, warm and comfortable) pit, I decided to take the spare room in hand.

I say 'spare room', but as we only have 2 bedrooms and the only people who ever stay with us are the Bandits, it is actually their room. This is obvious from the giant green grasshopper toy basket, and the books and games piled high around the walls. Arlo sleeps in the bed, and we make up a mattress on the floor for Ida, as the two of them punch lumps out of each other if they get put in the same bed!

Under the bed it is like Death Valley. Clouds of tumble-weed like fluff (comprised of dust and dog-hair - yuk) surround and cover the selection of rubbish dumped useful items stored there. Old suitcases of holiday clothes (too wee, or too big, or too horrible); a giant plastic box of DIY stuff; two Venetian blinds (taken down from the living room when we got new windows put in 4 years ago, and never put back up); portfolios of Stuart's (G's son) coursework from when he was studying Photography in Glasgow; Ida's step for the bathroom sink; large plastic box filled with many CD's which have now been copied onto the hard drive of G's Mac, and then downloaded onto his i-Pod; brand new roller-blind for our bedroom, bought in a sale in Dunelm Mill, which is a foot too wide and we never got round to figuring out how to cut it to size without it looking like a victim of fabricide; a Dyson heater in its box (fabulous thing, handy to have in case the gas central heating ever breaks down).

Two hours later: under the bed is spotless, and provides immaculate storage for two suitcases, the contents of which have been ruthlessly culled. Also, the portfolios have been vacuumed and replaced, on top of the mattress. The heater is still there, along with the roller blind.

On the landing is a black plastic bag of holiday clothes, to go to the Salvation Army recycling bin at Tesco. The DIY stuff has been resited to the garage, except for a a few items which will be needed tomorrow morning when I VARNISH THE LIVINGROOM WINDOWFRAMES!!! before I put the venetian blinds back up. The CD's have also gone to the garage, in preparation for catalogueing for sale via E-Bay. Said blinds are in the kitchen, resting against the wall, where they will p*ss me off so much that I will definitely either put them up or put them out before the end of the week.

And so, dog walked, Guardian (whose front page top left corner, announces it is a Foodie Weekend) fetched, sick friend phoned, I finally sit at the table to have some of my delicious soup from yesterday (second day soup always tastes better), and a read of the paper.

Was going to go for food shopping, but I don't want to deprive myself of the pleasure tomorrow!

PS - the dark (and unappetising-looking in the photo) bits in the soup are actually great chunks of beef, as it is Scotch broth. Yum yum.