Today I ...

I promised myself I would never diarise on my blog, but I have just had the most, umm, there-isn’t-a-word to-describe-it sort of weekend. It actually began with hanging out with some friends on Friday night because one of our circle has just returned from five months in Afghanistan with the Army, so that was a special evening, with lots of laughs, and we were all most pleased to celebrate the fact that he’s back home. At one point in the evening he showed us all the Chuck Norris t-shirt the Australians had made up while they were over there. Apparently it’s hilarious, but it was lost on this Chuck Norris ignoramus. Here’s a sample: "Chuck Norris went into Hungry Jacks and asked for a Big Mac ... and he got one" ...

But the reason for this word-less weekend is because Tuesday is new carpet day. It’s about time we got new carpet in our flat, because the existing no-longer-carpet is genuinely threadbare and hazardous. New carpet is nice idea in and of itself, BUT, we were told that the carpet people would move all the furniture if we just shifted all the stuff off it. Think about how much stuff in your house is not actually furniture. It’s like moving house only worse! We are packing and carrying things about, only to have to put them all right back where they came from again.

To fully appreciate this situation you need to know that our flat is on eight different levels, with 64 steps on the inside of it. Most people don’t completely process that information the first time, so it goes like this: level 1 – Suzanne’s room, level 2 – the laundry (thank God for this very large uncarpeted laundry, which now looks something like a library, or actually more like Gould’s bookstore in Newtown – I despair when I go into that bookstore because I know there could be treasures of great value in there somewhere, but I am never going to find them), level 3 – the room I have commandeered as my "study" because I am responsible for all the books just mentioned, level 4 – the loungeroom, level 5 – the kitchen/dining room, level 6 – my room and the bathroom, level 7 – Anna’s room, level 8 – Karyn’s room (the novelty soon wears off). So, I have spent two days shuffling up and down stairs, and almost off this mortal coil, with armloads of stuff - and come Wednesday I get to do it all again. I have even had that most terrible of thoughts and wondered if I have too many books. I do think that’s an impossible scenario, but a few have been singled out for disposal (no-one would grieve over these books though: the text book on benefit-cost analysis; the big, fat, pink book that anyone who studied calculus at university owns ...). It’s actually been a good time to attempt to sort through some stuff. Anna and I are the sentimental bower birds, while Karyn is the great tosser-outerer. I pulled out the baggy green velvet coat my Mum made me years ago, which hasn’t been worn since those years, and wore it into Anna’s room with the question "what about this, do you think I should keep this?" and Anna’s reply was, "It looks like a Lord of the Rings coat! If you were going to a Lord of the Rings party you could wear it – that’s why I keep stuff". So I walk off thinking, yeah, if I go to a Lord of the Rings dress up I might need this, and add it to the "to keep" pile. Sigh ... no wonder I hate new carpet day.

Added to this word-less weekend is the fact that I sat my doctrine exam on Thursday night, which I thought was really quite hard, and I have been waiting and waiting for that to be past to begin reading my new birthday copy of Adam Bede by George Elliot (love George Eliot novels and it’s been years since the last) and that’s been further delayed by new carpet day – I simply can’t start novels when there are other things to do.

In consolation I did go out last night with a group of people I don’t spend lots of time with (after turning down a day in the hunter valley to shift things) to Woolwich Pier hotel, and we had a lovely evening discussing all manner of topics. I was actually feeling quite tired and boring but on the way to the car was told "you’re a very well-rounded and well-read person" who seems "interested in things". That was a really nice surprise, which rendered me quite speechless. But do they know I’ve never heard of Chuck Norris? This person ought to be commended on their complimentary ways actually I think, as I certainly wasn’t the sole recipient of affirmation throughout the evening. Note to self: be more complimentary - it makes people feel nice.

Anyway, I am sitting here in the ghost of my room, thinking that I have a great many treasures on earth, looking at Adam Bede ...