Archives: procrastination

Was a good boy yesterday. I did not prat about on my computer all
night… I did not touch it even. From the kids going to sleep I
slapped polyfiller of our (to be the kids) bedroom. Attempting to
make the walls smoother before an application of lining paper.
There are also a few dodgy bits of plastering old & new) that
need smoothing out. While going over the new plastered area it
struck me that the previous owners of the house were happy to put
up with really slipshod work. Terrible plastering – no finish to it
at all. Our newly plastered attic room has lovely smooth plaster –
really nice, & I will eventually get around to decorating it
how we want – essentially just varnishing the plaster. Louise
thinks I’m too fussy with all this pollyfillering, & should
speed it all up. Not really in my nature to skimp on this bit &
I am making progresses at last. Just have to remain focussed n
getting it sorted as we don’t want the same situation as Jack’s
room which was not finished until well after he was born.
“focussss paaauuulllll”
“oooh pretty thing on the computer!”
“fo.o.o.cs………”
“Now then, what was I doing? Ah yes, I’ll just go & prat about
looking for something pointless on the Internet”
“doh”
The kids have been playing well together these last few days,
Louise reports. They have been in generally good moods while they have
been around as well. None of that pettiness that they can get up to
like snatching & brawling. When I got home yesterday Jack had
been decorating. He’d used old birthday/Xmas card & put them up
with pegs anywhere he could. The ones on the stair banister looked
particularly fetching.

Did not get to tidy the attic later. The day slipped by too lazy
& I ended up even falling asleep on the sofa at one point for a
few minutes. It seems I am more likely to have a daytime sleep than
Eve at the moment, as although she was plainly jiggered yesterday,
she absolutely refused to snooze.
Got an email from my brother Neil on Friday night reminding us of
Jess & his engagement party in about 4 weeks. Guilt descends.
Louise & I are quite reticent about attending. It’s not like we
don’t want to go, it would be good to get away, but the factors of
travelling, accommodation, time off work, Jack starting school,
& the basic long & short of no money really look to be
precluding the decision. Bah.
Called Mum & Dad to talk it over & initially got through
to dad as he tidied up at the restaurant. He was basically full of
the common sense advice I would expect, & tempered the feelings
of guilt we had about our difficulties in attending, but did leave
the door open by noting, if we needed we could stay down with
them.
Dad called mum at home who called us. Neil, it appears, had asked
mum to see if she could persuade us to come (so he must have
guessed our procrastination). Well, perhaps it miiight have worked
if I had spoken to mum 1st instead of dad, as the guilt factor
might have swung it, but mum knows me well enough to know when
further discussion will only make me dig my heels in. Sigh, it
would be really good to go, but the all round logistics will leave
us, well, struggling for too long afterwards. I now have the
difficult task of replying to Neil.
At least we got the reply to the unreasonable fee the Emergency Plumber we had
back in May who managed to do precisely
nothing to help us. I say ‘we’, but Louise crafted the letter as she is a lot
more precise in writing such things than I. One less thing hanging over us. We
do not expect to pay nothing, but we don’t expect to pay for nothing.