We’ve started The Decorating of Our Spare Room – first task was to strip the manky old bit of wallpaper by the door (which got trashed by the electrician doing the re-wiring), and then put a new strip of wallpaper in it’s place. Inevitably the bit we’ve removed is an inch wider than the strip we have to replace it. Ah well.

It actually went quite well today; almost all the prep work is done (little bit more sanding to do, and the walls need washing down), plus I got the clever trick with the radiator to work – the one where you don’t have to take it off the wall and drain it, you just loosen the valves enough to rotate the radiator through 90 degrees and lie on the floor. Groovy. We’ve also got to stick down some new beading strip (or whatever you call the wood that goes at the bottom of skirting boards), but I’ve got that so shouldn’t take long.

Got this evening off, as a friend is coming round for food (Cheesy Marrow(!)) + video (Napolean Dynamite). Oh yes, the story behind the Cheesy Marrow is that we’ve started getting a fruit and veg box one a fortnight, that’s jam packed full of all sorts of things we’d never usually buy, such as marrow, artichoke, pineapple – so we’re having lots of fun dreaming up meals to use up all the veg! Think we’re going to use a Jamie Oliver recipe for the artichokes, which involved roasting them with potatoes. Oh yes, and loads of fresh parsley arrived too, so we made parsely pesto (yes, that’s really true), but have ended up freezing most of it as we weren’t sure we’d get through it in time.

Sunday is a day off, of course (although we might do some cooking), then Monday and Tuesday are full on DIY days (double bank holidays are one of the perks or working for a university!)