I can’t say it better than the great man Charles Dickens himself:

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.

Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms.

His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

… it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s hoping for a much better 2008.

So after a week of hard slog in the flat, where are we now?

All the radiators are now painted and looking great! Importantly we can actually have them on now and thus not freeze in the colder weather. The two bedrooms are all filled and sanded and just need a bit of painting to be done – amazing that it has taken this long even to get a single room finished! Cupboard shelves have all been sanded and undercoated and top coats have started. The cupboards themselves only need a little more filling and then will be ready for painting. All the doors are now ready for painting.

What’s left? Well, sadly, lots…

• in toilet – underfloor heating, boxing in, tiling, paint ceiling, fit mirrored cupboard, hooks
• in hall – filling great big holes still left in walls / ceiling / floor. Paint walls / ceiling, lay flooring, skirting, new door architraves throughout
• bathroom – paint ceiling, clean tiles, grout them, fit new side bath panel out of the right wood and tile it, fit mirrored cupboard, hooks
• kitchen – boxing in pipes, re-levelling floor after idiot builders walked on it whilst wet (nice bootprints), finishing electrics, last row of tiling, grout all tiles, fit doors and lay rubber floor
• lounge – paint ceiling, lay flooring, skirting, fill and paint boxing in and window sills.

So lots and lots to do, by the end of next week – eeps! We have a proper builder from Wednesday though, so hopefully it should be done in time. But we still need help from people if they have any spare time… (its a bit like a telethon, I know)

Well, we were supposed to be moved into our refurbished flat at the weekend and guess what? Didn’t happen. The builders completely lied to me repeatedly about when it would be done and so I had to kick them out for being so unbelievably shit. I’m very glad I did because now that we have cleaned up the flat (which they failed to do) we’re finding more and more of their work was completely substandard and just plain STUPID and WRONG. Hopefully I’m going to get confirmation from another builder that he can come in next week and sort out the major screw ups, a lot of it is DIY-able though so Bea and I have had to take this week off work to try and get the painting / clean up done. Happily we have a plumber sorting things out tomorrow, so then we’ll actually have a loo that works – we dare not use it currently

So – I’m asking if anyone has a spare evening or day and fancies helping out with a bit of simple painting or sanding we could really use the help! We’ve got so much work to do and right now we might not be in by Christmas