It's a shame about the forest.

And I should know. I served on 5 OUSA committees (OUSA Belgium, NERF, the SRG, the Region 9 Regional Committee and the OUSA EC) for about 3 years and I have just thrown all my papers away. And it took three huge Royal Mail sacks to take it all down to the skip here. Heaven knows how many trees that represents but if you calculate the number of people who actually serve on them it must be at least something the equivalent of the New Forest.

But at least I can get into my office now which is just as well, for that's where I've been sleeping and so I'll have room to spread out tonight.

We also have an electric oven and grill. Terry helped me fight my way into the garage that I rent downstairs and we pulled out the fitted oven that I bought a few years ago in a sale. A slightly shopsoiled display unit it was and so reduced from £769 to £307 and so in keeping with my idea of going for quality at a reduced price rather than full-price rubbish, I bought it and stored it in the garage until I was ready for it.

It seems too that the rewiring that I did in the kitchen was rather ... errr ....unorthodox and with Terry being a fully-qualified time-served electrician he put that right in no time at all - well, geologically speaking that is.

The cleaning and throwing away of stuff is also continuing and at this rate we'll have a place to sit down by the weekend.

I'm hoping that we can have the place finished off in a couple of weeks so that I can sell it and have another weight off my shoulders but in a certain respect I shall be sorry to leave here permanently even though it's been almost four years since I paid it any more than a flying visit.