I am still deeply mired in domestic carnage. In fact the past couple of weeks have been one big trauchle. The best way I can describe the pronunciation is – the ‘auch’ bit is the same as the ‘och’ of loch.

A trauchle is a long, drawn out, weary experience and that’s what I’ve had recently – what with gardening mayhem, destructive removal men, an electrician who didn’t complete his job, another one who turned up to fix his work and today it was the carpet fitters.

Emptying the dining-room of all the furniture and pulling up the carpet was a helluva trauchle, but had to be done. Then as I was giving the floorboards a last sweep this morning the carpet men turned up. They were supposed to come in the afternoon. That’s the first time anyone like that has been early. I had been planning on taking before and after photos but I couldn’t as they got stuck into the work immediately. I might take a photo of the carpet though, just so you can see what it’s like. I have to say the carpet fitters were great.

Tonight we’ve been putting all the furniture back in and after the third electrician comes tomorrow I can start thinking about pulling out the Christmas decorations. That’ll be another trauchle! I’m not complaining – honestly!