Worky weekend

OH and I are going to enjoy a few days off next week and are using the weekend to straighten the house and garden out. I spent Thursday evening in the loft re-acquainting myself with my possessions. That's how I have to call these annual faux-decluttering occasions in all fairness because invariably I end up deciding to keep things rather than throw them away. For example, I can't let go of:

* old school or uni essays
* old course files
* any photocopied research
* birthday, Christmas and other cards people have sent me
* old diaries
* children's books
* motivational or mood postcards that I used to stick on the fridges of various temporary abodes during my 20s
* old posters
* my old basketball team strips
* any photographs and their negatives or slides
* old heating and telephone bills
* current account statements going back 20 or so years
* old car registration documents



So I spent the evening upstairs chuckling over ancient pictures of OH and me and decided that both of us have grown gracefully into our middle-age faces and bodies and that the idea that you always look your best when you're young is simply not true.

Around midnight I realised I did have to go to work the next day and called it a night, refilled some boxes, pushed them into a corner and decided to throw out most of the VHS tapes and some old magazines I knew I would never read again plus old shower attachments, a rusty bathroom mirror fixing and other crappy little bits, and sheets and sheets of old torn cardboard for the compost bin.

OH and I also moved his old Ikea wardrobe downstairs where it is currently waiting to be picked up by a local charity. Also awaiting collection in the hallway: 2 shelves that won't stay up, a box of DVDs we've watched enough of, some clothes, a ceiling light (a donation from a friend that looked better in the box than out of it) and some decorative shelf knick-knacks like bowls that I find just end up being in the way on the few occasions each month that I get round to dusting so out they go.

Not yet in the hallway but about to be carted downstairs and onto the driveway is a honking great rusty metal water tank from the loft that was unearthed during the roof repairs from a few years ago and that was taking up much-needed space upstairs. Next Door asked us to hide it behind the stack of compost or THEY will get to it before he does. There's an unspoken understanding in our street, or quite possibly in most of our town, that if you put anything metal that isn't a car or has flowers in it, in your drive, someone local, THEY, will quietly pick it up and dispose of it for you. There's a lively trade in scrap metal and we now know two people who want a piece of the action. All our millions of rusty burnt nails and screws, old bent door fixings, or any metal crap we unearth on the plot always disappear discreetly if we put it in those special spots, i.e. at the back of our drive or the front of the allotment site. Saves us the trip to the council skip where invariably some bloke in a foul mood will turn us away because he suspects it's "trade rubbish" (and chargeable).

Yesterday, OH was about to spend most of Saturday on the sofa cruising on the internet so I prodded him into action. We took to the skip: 2 huge ex-sofa seat cushions that I really should have left with the upholsterer to dispose of, a box of old VHS tapes, loads of old duvets and pillows with disintegrating plastic fillings that I always wanted to turn into stuffing for home-made doll projects that I invariably never get round to. So out they go.

Then he got into the swing of things and we loaded the car up again with 5 plastic beer crates that had been quietly breeding in our garden. Off we went to the shop, dropped them off, and dropped a ton on another crate of my two favourite Koelsch varieties (Frueh and Reissdorf) and a crate of OH's favourite gluten-free beers. Summer may come.

Arrived back home at 5pm for the second shift. Quick cup of tea and a tutorial with OH on how to operate the masonry bit for the drill, and on to the patio, front and garden. OH trimmed the fig tree at the back while I noisily drilled four holes in the bay facing the front and finally, after probably 5 years, tied up the second clematis, now in full flower. Very proud of this: that clematis was a bit accidental and never did much at all but this year it did so up on display it goes. OH and I then weeded between the cracks out the front and came out with 2 forks full of weeds. Impressive!

By 8pm a storm announced itself and a quick check on lightningmaps dot org told us that one was indeed on its way to us so we packed up for the night, had some sofa food with a bottle each of our boutique beers, watched the football, then tried to find something to watch that didn't involve someone either pointing a gun at someone else (British tv) or someone pointing her bare boobs at us (German tv). I think I settled for some worthy documentary on a Bavarian regional channel and ended up falling asleep on the sofa again -- and woke up this morning with the television still blaring in German but now it was Volksmusik followed by an excited presenter interviewing Heino. There are few genuine horrors left for me but this was one.

The forecast has promised a wet Sunday so we'll be scuttling round the house doing chores and hoping that the next two days will be dry enough for me to mow the lawn. We're slowly working our way through the backlog of tasks but have managed to strike quite a bit of our list.