Decoration is 90% Preparation

And don't I know it.

Yesterday just about broke the back of the prep work in the kitchen and 30% and I may actually start applying paint to the kitchen rather than removing it, which we seem to have been doing for the past couple of days.

Today's agenda see us off to my Dads to steal his lawnmower water his plants as he is back from Sunny Saundersfoot tomorrow. Then a trip to the Supermarket before returning to my penance in the kitchen. Do you know, reading this, I don't know how I contain my excitement.

Oh - I do have a little moan from yesterday. As an interlude between sanding and moving Village Idiot's sheep I paid a visit to the local Orthopaedic Clinic as one off my fingers has an annoying habit of locking in a position. Before you  start thinking "its the middle one that locks upright" even I wouldn't stoop to a joke that cheap and easy.

My appointment was at 4 o'clock but they called mid morning and asked if I could come in around half past one as they were running early. Now this caused some surprise because their modus operandi is to see me between 1 and 2 hours after the set appointment time - this is a recurring condition.

So, off I toddle and turn up just before one thirty and announce my presence at the desk; "a bad man here. I have an appointment at 4 but you called and asked me to.......".

The receptionist affixed me with her good eye, completed a quick visual , made a diagnosis of time waster and said "Ya, it vas me zat called. Sit zere and vait".

... and so I did. I needn't have worried. They have become more sophisticated under the new NHS management systems. They bring my appointment forward making me think "ooh, that's good" and then see me 30 minutes after the revised appointment time just so I don't get nostalgic for the old times when I could read a couple of  aged, torn and coffee stained copies of Hello or the Saga magazine.

I didn't realise it was possible to be late and early at the same time. This suggests that they may have quantum monkeys managing my local hospital rather than the normal sort of monkeys that I previously thought were in charge.