You may have noticed that my blogging has slipped. I hang my head in shame for this. But in my defence, I have been exceptionally busy; doing the day job for around 60 hours a week as well as co-ordinating the refurbishment and improvement of our new house.

So far the library/dining room (of how pretentious it sounds) is done, as is the kitchen, office and bathroom. The back bedroom required nothing, though the front bedroom has changed out of all proportion to that which looked at us with the sad hang-dog look of peeling wallpaper and chintz curtains. All that has gone; swept away to be replaced by crisp clean walls and fitted furniture. The only thing left to do is have the carpets done which comes some time next week.

We’re having our house warming party on Saturday. Some might ask why we’ve left it a month and a half. However the reason is simple: we wanted to be able to show the house complete, done and dusted. We wanted to avoid at all costs a party whose guided tour of the new pad consisted of telling people over and over again “Ignore this; it’s going” and “If you can imagine it, we’re going to be doing X, Y and Z just as soon as we get around to it”. In that matter, we have succeeded.

I suppose those who come on Saturday won’t truly appreciate how far we have come in a month and a half. So much has changed, but in a way that I suppose that if you did not see it before you would just think “oh, that’s nice” and move on to the next room. Zoë and I will be content in knowing that we’ve more than left our mark on this new house – and I’m not talking about all the holes we’ve drilled in the walls (well, those pictures and paintings won’t put themselves up you know).

Consequently I haven’t had the time to do any writing. However the next book – ‘Twinkle little star’ is moving ever closer to publication. I’ve seen the cover, and it looks fantastic. I have a little space cleared on my library shelves for my proofing copy – and there are a lot of shelves in here I can tell you! Fingers crossed that it does even better than ‘Bringing home the stars’ did. It has a high mountain to climb to do that, but I’m confident for it.

Back to work in the morning. I went back to the other job full-time, for now, because we want the mortgage paid off as soon as possible. I have to admit that after so long in front of the keyboard day-in, day-out it is nice to get out and travel the country again. It also earns a lot of extra cash which comes in handy. I’m a strange person who has never been in debt before until this mortgage came along. I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of a debt, but it was the only way. Up until now everything I have ever bought has been bought outright. Until the mortgage is cleared, it is a necessary evil and a means to an end.