Here’s a quick update from Wales! Things are moving on here. I’ve recently realised that my approach to finding a builder was all wrong. I was using the internet, word of mouth and advertising boards to compile a list of local building firms. I was then calling round and attempting to arrange for them to come out and look round the palace (!) in Swansea. My success rate was incredibly low, almost everyone I called either didn’t come back to me or was booked up well into 2008 – in some cases until October. A scary number also arranged to meet and then didn’t show up! I’ve now found a site that allows me to advertise my job in detail and then sends this advert out to all the registered trades people in my local area – genius! It’s so lovely to actually have builders contacting me and asking if they can quote. I’ve met with a couple of very promising firms this week and hope to book someone to start early in the New Year. I’m hoping to add this website to my links page and am just obtaining the necessary permissions.

The rest of the work in Swansea (the stuff that’s down to me) is all going well. The lovely thing about this job so far is that every week I’m learning new skills…..and using bigger power tools : ) Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been getting to grips with wallpaper stripping which I can recommend to anyone who lists ‘bingo wings’ as one of their body issues. I’ve also entered the brave new world of sanding - another fantastic gadget, but as tempting as it was, I held back for popping a photo of me in the goggles and the dust mask on the blog – the lighting was all wrong : )

Many of you will be pleased to hear that I’m now a proud fan of lunchtime television and my work days are carefully structured to allow a lunch break at 1.40 for ‘Doctors’ – I’d recommend it for anyone planning a sick day soon. Luckily it’s on BBC1, which is the only channel that I can pick up in Swansea as, after lugging an old TV and my trusty free view box to the house, I discovered that the previous occupant favoured NTL and therefore has no aerial at all. Consequently, I’ve been forced to go back to the eighties and plug a booster aerial in - I’ve found that if I balance it on it’s side in the living room window I can get a grainy picture which sometimes loses sound for BBC1. Fantastic.

At the moment my time is divided between Swansea, my Mum and Dad’s new place near Abergavenny, and Jamie’s in Fleet at weekends (how cosmopolitan). I try to spend one day a week at Mum and Dad’s catching up on emails and researching exciting things like macerators (if you’re not sure what they are, don’t bother looking them up – just be grateful). However, these admin days have recently been interrupted every couple of hours by the problem illustrated in the photo below…

My new role as part-time shepherdess was unexpected but was actually fun for the first few hours. However, after politely shooing the renegade sheep out of Mum and Dad’s garden (predominantly, the vegetable patch) 3 or 4 times – they wised up to my inexperience. Up until that point just a small, hard-core group of sheep explorers had been sneaking through the fence but gradually word spread of the inept guardian of the vegetables and they started bundling though the dodgy fencing in packs and facing me down when I started shooing. Anyway – I was near breaking point when Mum came home and between us we wedged an old wheelbarrow in the gap – crisis adverted.

Remember to check out this blog regularly for more breaking news and life and death struggles!