Ups and downs

Up: new carpet finally in front room. I know, not a fascinating picture but it's there for the sake of completeness. This paves the way for re- attachment of curtains, installation of furniture and final activation of new bedroom status. Also, for reasons which make perfect sense, the likely installation of a wireless network.

Down: it would be nice to say with confidence that this room will shortly be double glazed. This requires the installers to be satisfied that removing the present frames won't bring the front of the house tumbling down. Seems like a trifling little concern but I suppose it ought to be addressed for form's sake. (Lord knows how old the present frames are. For all I know they're original, and this house appears on maps of Abingdon from 1850 ...)

Up: shower finally installed, and very nice it is too. No picture for reasons which I will come to. It's enclosed by a double-curtained booth as opposed to the more normal single curtain along the bath. Don't know why, but there's something about being able to throw back two curtains, one on either side, that makes you want to shout at the same time, "here I am Abingdon, behold me!", though so far I've managed not to.

Down: said curtains are ... um. Beware of catalogue shopping. The star lady plumber installed some rather nice shiny chrome pipes, so I thought I would pick the "silver" option to go with them. "Silver" is of course catalogue speak for "early Pertwee era metallic grey". I really should have gone for white, which goes with most things, at least in bathrooms.

Up: star lady plumber also installed new pipes to connect washing machine direct to the flat's water supply. No more squeezing hoses onto the basin tapes, wrapping flannels round them to catch the drips and running an extension lead down the hall from my bedroom.

Down: can't use the thing, because she instructed that we first acquire connecting hoses with a right angled plug at both ends. If she'd said "a right angled plug at one end and a flat one at the other" then I'd be laughing, because you can't walk into B&Q or Homebase without them leaping off the shelves like the python in that particularly rubbish Jon Voigt movie. But a pushmepullyou arrangement of right angled plugs seems to be about as rare as ... well, pushmepullyous.

Up: she has offered to come back and change the angle of the pipes instead.

And, just to show life is actually on average pretty good at present, here are some ups without downs.

Up: had to saw some wood into a particular shape (long story) which I did without any injury beyond a splinter that soon came out. Contrasts nicely with the Boy's recent lesson, which can be summarised as IF sawing AND the blade jumps across your fingers THEN stop.

And finally, up: we have a week and a half to pay £320 for a wedding, that being the 12-week-beforehand deadline for same. Now, it could be argued that parting with £320 is a down by anyone's standards, but how much more do we get out of it? Eh? Eh? Some things are beyond rubies.