Jennieworld Today

Today my lovely plumber came and fitted my new shower and toilet cistern. Not very exciting, I expect you’re thinking, but it is for me! Do you know the feeling that you get when you have a project to finish but something gets in the way? And then you feel like you can’t do any other projects because that one has been left unfinished? Well, that project is my bathroom. A good while ago I started tiling the walls to a height of about four feet all around the bathroom, except for behind the shower where the tiles will go to the ceiling. That was fine except I was waiting for the shower and cistern to be replaced before finishing. And I needed in my mind to complete the bathroom before I really get stuck into revamping my bedroom, which needs to be done before I’ll feel like starting the jobs which need doing in the kitchen. So, although it doesn’t sound very exciting, the installation of my new shower and toilet cistern allow me to finish the bathroom off and move on to the next thing. It’s closure, if you like!

In addition to this, my plumber, Eddie, is a lovely man, who seems never too busy to stop and have a chat; he even took a few minutes out to read a book to my younger son. It’s great for me that I felt so comfortable with him in the house, as I can imagine that quite a lot of men would probably make me feel very insecure and ill at ease, being in my house while there is nobody there but for me and my boys. But as I’ve said, he felt like a family friend as soon as he came in the house, which was great.

So, next job to do when I have a free afternoon is to once more attack the tiling! It’s only the bit behind the toilet and the shower wall that I have left. Unfortunately these are the areas requiring most shaping of the tiles, so it could be a tricky afternoon. However, I’m up for a challenge! Once that is done, it will be time for me to attach my mosaic tiles to the top of my basin cupboard. Such fun!

First of all, an apology. I have been very remiss recently with regard to maintaining my blog, and I apologise. Illness, spring cleaning and a general lack of inspiration have all stood in my way. However, while I cannot promise that I’m back up to speed (I think I’d need to post a few more times before I can make that boast), then this is the first step of that journey.

And speaking of first steps, tomorrow will be another of my first steps on the road to health, fitness and hopefully a longer and healthier life! I’ve never been a manic easter egg eater, which is good as I’m planning to try to eat more healthily as of tomorrow, and schedule exercise in much as I would any other important appointment (albeit rather more frequently than most appointments I need to make these days). The clocks went forward today which means that I won’t really have an excuse (barring hurricanes, hailstorms or maybe snow) for not getting out in the evenings and moving a little more than I am at the moment. However, a little more on that in the future.

 I also plan to knit a little more in the next couple of weeks, as Firefly has appealed for a few more squares to finish off the latest blankets in her Project Gracious Parcels. They are satisfyingly short projects, so I can’t really say no, can I? I recently finished a lovely red jacket for my younger son (with buttons like gingerbread men, which he chose and loves) and while I have started a jumper for my older son I’m not feeling the enthusiasm for it that I did with the first one. Maybe because it needs to be so much bigger! However, I’ll get through it eventually, and it’s not really needed until the autumn so I have plenty of time.

I also ticked off another box on my internal ‘to do list’ this week when I joined my local library. I’m a very fast reader and my ‘book habit’ is ruinously expensive, so hopefully this will ease the financial burden a little! As well as this, we have no more bookshelf room anywhere in the flat, so it really does make sense if I just borrow books for a while.

Right, off to Ebay to look for an armband-holder for my MP3 player. Anyone know of anywhere better to buy them? At the moment my MP3 player is suspended by a cord around my neck, but I really don’t fancy jogging with that bouncing around - very distracting!