Where are the house elves when you need them?

This year, I've decided to get the house straight - I've been living in a state of semi-mess ever since I moved in (one of the joys or curses of living alone, I'm not sure which...). Add to that my tendency to squirrel stuff away because I might need it later, only to discover there are boxes which I haven't unpacked since I moved 6 years ago, and you can imagine the situation.

So, this year is going to be the new streamlined me. No, stop laughing! I think I started with that, really, when I began to cull my bookshelves and cd collection in a serious way for the first time ever. Previously getting books away from me has been like getting blood out of a stone, but marginally less productive.

Step 1 (now accomplished) was to empty the room I always said was going to be my office/study but which has always been too far from the only phone point in the house to get used as that most of the time. I understand that adsl doesn't do well with long cables so I will shortly be investing in a wireless adsl modem router to help with that little problem, so I can move my desktop computer upstairs to the 'study'. Along with all the other little gadgets and cables I need (I foresee a trip to Ikea in my near future as well, particularly now the local urchins have returned to school).

Of course, this is all probably to get my mind of my impending trip eastwards to visit my mother, with the promise of complete computer withdrawal (trying not to think about that), on Thursday. And it was working... kind of... ;)