h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Christmas telly has been generally rubbish this year

The only thing I reeeeeally wanted to watch was Dr Who - and I missed it due to being stuck in the kitchen. Harrrumph.

My house is unnaturally clean and tidy. Even the windows are cleanish - thanks to my 78 yr old mother who has considerably more energy and higher standards than her daughter. I say 'cleanish' - meaning cleaner than before but not quite sparkling since Mum refuses to get her cataracts fixed.

My Midsomer Murders DVDs came. Now I'll have something good to watch no matter how rubbishy the programs on the TV are. And, they will give me a good excuse for not cleaning.

I wonder how long it will be before we get the newer ones in the series in the US. We're 3 seasons behind. I could understand being one season behind - but not three. That doesn't make sense. And is grossly unfair.

My house is a wreck! We came home from the wilds of Missouri and didn't put anything away. Now I have it all to do today .
Oh well, the trip was worth it! We had a delightful time! The food was fabulous, the drink was flowing and the conversation lively. We must really do this more often!

I'm off to work, Lady C. Don't forget to come up with an idea or two for my display cases.

Sho - I'd to watch British telly, ut only get BBC world.
The flat needs vacuuming, but m-i-l-will only be here for new year's eve, so there's still Saturday afternoon to do it

Well, we're back from our Christmas away. We stayed at The Feathers in Ludlow. I can recommend it as a hotel, but not as a restaurant. The food was expensive, pretentious and not very good. Our room, on the other hand, was great (we think it was one of the best in the hotel). The bathroom was about 10' x 12' - that's almost as big as our bedroom at home! The bedroom area was huge, with a couple of easy chairs to relax in front of the TV in. The only minus point was the TV. It had Teletext, but not the Fastext our analogue TV has. I won't even mention that I've got used to the Teletext on BBCi. Boy, did I miss that!

Now we're home to our messy house with few decorations, and we're so happy. Able to watch exactly what we want, when we want. (Lord, I missed Freeview, and we've only had it a few weeks!) Able to eat what we want, when we want. It's steak and ale pie tonight, and roast lamb tomorrow. Maybe we'll do some tidying in the New Year. Don't hold your breath, though.

Hubby's just decided to start redecorating the utility room - good excuse not to clean because the contents of the room are now distributed around the house

You definitely can't clean under those circumstances. I suggest a good book and a glass of wine while you're waiting for him to finish.

We can always find excuses not to clean.
I have dusted.
Most of the Christmas decorations are resting in the attic in storage again. I will leave the outside lights, the snow village and the until after New Year's. Most of that will go into the storage shed or the basement.

You have a basement!?! All we have is a loft, which I'm reluctant to go into 'cos I don't like heights. I'd give anything for a nice large basement, about the same floor area as the floor area of our house (including the extension at the back). Mind you, I wouldn't necessarily use it all for storage. Some of my ever-increasing book collection would probably end up down there, and I'd use about half of it as a library.

Yes, we have a basement. It is the same size as the ground floor of the house and is totally finished. There is a bar in one end. We have a "family room" with a large screen TV, DVD player, VCR and stereo in it. Hubby's workshop takes up about a third of the entire basement and there is also a spare bedroom down there. Since we live in "tornado alley", a basement is a must for me. I would not have bought a house without one. We have storage under the stairs and in the furnace room as well as in the laundry area.
I cannot go up into the attic anymore. It has a fold down staircase and although I can go up the stairs all right, I have problems coming down.
I my basement!

Wish I had a basement

I have a small attic, a garden shed and a garage - all of which are Mr T's territory and places I don't go.

Has anyone else had a thing about getting the Christmas decorations etc put away by Twelfth Night - so as to avoid bad luck in the coming year?

I try, every year, to get the decs down by 6th Jauary. But I miss all the sparkly stuff so much

I tend, these days, to put it away on the weekend following 6th Jan, unless it's so early in the week that it seems silly.

We take our decorations down on 6th January. Putting them back in the attic is another matter. That's hubby's job and, you've guessed, the lights are still on the living room floor and my tiny tree is still in the back bedroom. Still, it's only been 9 days and you can't expect miracles.

Here's one miracle I've promised myself. The living room, back bedroom and our bedroom look like tips. I'm going to do a bit of tidying over the next few weeks. My health means that 'a bit' is just that - no more than about 10 minutes at a time, with a long rest afterwards.

At least you've got a genuine excuse, CD - though I'm sure you'd far rather be without it

Me - I'm just lazy.

I stood over mine until he put everything in the garage as instructed.

I've just come down from looking at the top of the kitchen cupboards. Oh man, I wish we could have afforded the ones that go all the way to the top!

We have an infestation of moths. It started in the summer, and I thought I had traced the "source" to some bags of nuts in the top of a cupboard. I chucked out all opend packets in there (since I found a few wriggly things in one packet. Washed and disinfected the cupboard, and hey presto: the moth problem went away. But then I found a few wrigglers, and the moths seem to be bac (not to the degree they were here in the summer though).

Any ideas how to get rid of the buggers? I don't want one turning up in my granola.

Can't help with the moths I'm afraid. Feeling smug as all our decorations (not that we put up many) are all packed away in the loft again.

But this week I brought some folding chairs in from the garden shed which has resulted in the distribution of old mouse droppings over the living room carpet

at least mouse droppings don't smell.

I have an Easter decoration hanging in my kitchen... in 2005 I didn't decorate for Easter, which means it's been up nearly 2 years.



Cheerful Dragon - don't push yourself too hard, mess isn't really that bad!

anyone?

My grandsons asked me to please leave the snow village up a little longer so I still have some sparkle in the living room. I am ready to rearrange the furniture and clean behind it all though so the snow village may have to go down in the next day or two. Besides, it's time to get out Valentine's stuff.

what Valentine's stuff do you have?

I have balcony decorations, which I plan to change according to season / date - currently I've just taken down the christmas decos and am finishing some giant snowdrops to put on there. But what, apart from hearts, could I do for Valentine's