I am just going to write a few words.
I am in bed at Lucy’s house. I have been trying to write for ages now but there is an affectionate cat somewhere between me and the keyboard.
It doesn’t matter where I put the keyboard. There is still a cat in the way.
I have left Oliver to his own devices. He has messaged me to tell me that he is not dead and also that the fire has not gone out so he is not cold either. Both of these are good news.
I dropped him off at work this morning and came rushing down here. Actually I did not rush very much because it is the school Easter holidays and all of the motorways were busy, and also it is prudent to go slowly and carefully because observant readers will recollect that my taxi is still without an exhaust. It has got a bit of an exhaust, which rattles a very great deal. This does nothing for its general peaceable tranquillity.
Lucy is in a very mess. Mark came down last week and did the first two days of a week’s work, and then buzzed off. This left Lucy with some holes in her walls and a very great deal of dust.
We started off by trying to clear up the dust.
We have cleared up lots and lots of dust. When we had cleaned that dust up we started on the other dust. There was a lot of that as well.
I have told her that I will build a wall for her tomorrow. I am not exactly a novice at wall building but it is probably thirty years since my last attempt so I might as well never have bothered. Mark said to build it with blocks and cement but when I looked at it I decided that a stud wall with plasterboard and timber would do the job just as well, and fortunately when I spoke to my brother this evening, who is a real builder, not just a thirty-years-forgotten novice, he said that a stud wall would be easier for everything else as well, so I can proceed with a clear conscience.
I am not exactly looking forward to this but I am sure it will be all right.
It can’t be that difficult if builders can do it.
We had a nice surprise this afternoon as well. We had just got to the point of feeling despairing about scrubbing when there was a knock on the door and it was my mother.
She had come to see if she could help, in the way mothers do when their offspring are overwhelmed by dust.
I think it might be some time since she has built any walls either, but she swept and wiped and scrubbed away dust like a very welcome angel.
I was so pleased and grateful I can hardly tell you, and by the time she had gone everything was beginning to look considerably more optimistic, so Lucy and I painted the ceiling, which meant that we had a not-very-dusty house with a yellow ceiling. Indeed, by the time the day was done we were feeling rather more cheerful.
It would not have been difficult to feel more cheerful than we did this lunchtime, I can tell you.
I am going to build a wall tomorrow.
I have built them before.
I can do it again.
After that I am going to have to install a new fuse box for the electricity, but that will be next week’s job. I have done that before as well, but I have forgotten what you do so probably I ought to look it up first.
This is going to be an adventure.
