Dear Aoife, Sorry I haven’t been in touch. I’ve been very busy. It’s hard sometimes with an 8 month old son and a new house and a busy work and social life to take time off to write to you. I hope you are keeping well and thanks for all the news about your life in M_____. It’s great to hear you are doing well.

We are planning to move into our new home on Friday week. We spent all last weekend shopping for a bed and white goods and a carpet for the sitting room. Himslef is on a fortnight off and working from 9 – 5 in the house everyday – he’s doing great work. I am on half days until Friday week and then I have a few days off after the bank holiday. We are very carefully thinking about the tasks involved in getting the house ship shape: think about it too much and your mind boggles. You know your mind is boggling because you can feel it in your temples and your eyes. Here’s a quick rundown of all we have to do:

  • we have no hot water and we don’t know why
  • all of the rooms have to be painted
  • we have to pack all our belongings and move them
  • we have to write to all these authorities and tell them we are moving
  • we have to eat, sleep and drink
  • we have to stop Garman from rolling into or onto anything dangerous
  • we have to stop Garman from chewing and swallowing anything dangerous
  • we have to entertain the wee scamp when he is not in the creche (thank god for the creche!)
  • we have to tame the jungle in the back garden
  • I would love to update this site more regularly but it is just not possible
  • I would love to e-mail all my friends and family and ask them to come over and help with the painting
  • we still don’t know what colour our bedroom is going to be
  • and more but the temples and eyes are hurting….

I got a phonecall yesterday to tell us that, because of holidays (what are they?) , our mattress will not be delivered until the 12th of August. We will have a bed from next Wednesday. This all sounds so terribly negative but it is in fact exciting. I am, very sadly, particularly excited about the imminent arrival of our dishwasher. I am very aware of the importance of the invention of machines such as this in the emancipation of women. Considering the washing machine in the flat has been bust for about 2 weeks I would imagine my colleagues are rather excited by the imminent arrival of our new washing machine. Mind you the fact that I still haven’t run out of clean clothes is a testament to the size of my wardrobe which causes the temples and eyes to throb once more as I think about how I have to move all that stuff and about the size of the space in which I will soon have to store it all….

Excuse me while I go and lie down.

I’ll try and keep you posted.

Lots of love, your big cousin,

Roseanne

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