Like aristocratic chickens in the French Revolution…

One day, quite soon, I hope, we will stop dealing with Moving Issues.

Last weekend was buying a new table, which we picked up secondhand. 'It came into the house like this …' the woman said. 'Are you sure?' I asked. 'I would have thought you'd have to take the door off.'* 'Oh no, no, no,' she said. 'Definitely not.'

So we spent ten minutes trying to get the table out. Mr Brammers came up with four possible strategies, thwarted only by reality. We then took the door off.

At this point – and you're wholly right that it should have been before – I said, 'If we have to take this door off, won't we have to take ours off, too?'

'Oh no,' Mr Brammers assured me, 'Our doors are wider.' This was a lie. But we didn't take the door off. We removed the side gate, instead.

We had one of my fave friends over for dinner at our new table on Monday, which was fabulous, despite the fact Mr B was in bed recovering from carrying a giant heavy table and knocking over and then rebuilding a giant heavy gate. That laid us low for much of the week and we only cooked a couple of meals and emptied a few boxes. So this weekend we were determined to do better.

We did! Garden centres were visited, half a tonne of buiding waste was shovelled out of the front garden and about 150kg of compost slathered on one bed, one more bed to go and then a whole new bed to dig over and form next weekend. Pots were potted, heavy things were lugged, and the cats' climbing hammocks were reassembled and placed against the side of the house in the conveniently hard-to-get-out-of back garden. And then we spent 15 minutes trying to get Rusketus off the roof.

You saw that coming, too, didn't you?

We're still a bit worn out, that's our excuse.

Exhaustion and overwork is also my excuse for missing so many birthdays lately.

tsosh, I miss you. I hope you had a splendid day yesterday and that this year has been kind to you, which you so thoroughly deserve.

gossymer, I hope you come back soon, I miss you, too! I hope you have been mugged by the present fairy!

sassy_cissa, I KNOW you were mugged by the present fairy. You're the loveliest person, thanks for bringing the light you do to fandom!

On the topic of which, birdsofshore, you are a fandom gem and you bring so much delight! I hope that you are having a spectacular day and that your cake levels are bordering on the ridiculous.

And it's possibly exactly the right time to say happy birthday to the wonderful meri_oddities. May gifts and cake and joy be even more dominant than usual in your life today.

Sorry to everyone I've missed in these chaotic months, I've thought of every one of you!

* When it comes to spatial awareness, I am staggeringly excellent with things, utterly rubbish with my own elbows.