So. The house. We want to install wood laminate flooring (or possibly real wood flooring)in the hallway and the livingroom, recarpet the stairs and bedrooms, repaint the whole house, and do a loft conversion. (Which, now that I write it all down, sounds rather ambitious. However.) Anyway, we looked at various wood and carpet and paint options in some local shops yesterday, and had someone come round to the house to give us a quote for the loft conversion, and got a couple of quotes for the floors. Said flooring quotes made us flinch a bit, so, after doing much online research, Bobby believes we could lay the floors ourselves, which - even factoring in the cost of a decent saw etc - would almost halve those particular costs. He is totally gung-ho about this, whereas I am filled with doubt and angst. I have visions of us collapsed in despair in a house strewn with misshapen bits of wood. I think it's my bad sewing experiences that make me think that Things Like This Go Wrong. So we will see ... I think even as I type Bobs is researching how you do the fiddly bits like the places where the radiator pipes are.

And today we went to B&Q. (Big DIY chain, mainly remarkable for the amazing speed with which its employees disappear around corners before you can catch up with them).

I did not enjoy the experience, not one little bit. I felt incompetent and overwhelmed, and it made me bad tempered. Though I did not plumb the depths to which one grandmotherly looking woman had sunk. Her words, which I overheard in the Christmas decorating section: "Oh for Christ's sake, just get whichever one you fucking well want." And a merry Christmas to you too!

We came away from B&Q with some paint samples and brushes and a step ladder and various other bits and pieces; after painting some swatches on the walls this evening we want to pick up a couple more samples tomorrow and, with any luck, we can start painting for real on Tuesday evening.

I need to practise saying that as though it's a good thing.

Oh, and just to make life that bit more complicated - we are pretty sure that Stephen's eyes need testing, so we need to try to book an appointment for him for tomorrow afternoon.

So, to-do list for tomorrow :

1. Call doctor about Emily's prescription; she needs a repeat as she has only two weeks' supply left.
2. Call optometrist.
3. Be at work by 8.45
3. Walk to hardware shop in my 40 minute lunchbreak and get paint samples.
4. Hopefully, visit optometrist with Stephen after work - ie after 4.30.
5. Get home, be at new house by 6, as another loft company is coming to give us a quote.
6. Eat. What, when?

Maybe I should go assemble something in the crockpot now. I really don't feel like it, though.

On the plus side, we did also buy a teeny weeny Christmas tree from B&Q which pleased us all greatly. Our livingroom here is so minute that there's no space for a decent sized tree, but our baby tree makes us feel Christmassy and happy anyway.