Precious Things

Today I heard a snippet of a programme about hoarders on the radio. It told a story of pe.ople who were found in their house, surrounded by piles and piles of matchbox cars. Years ago, I knew a woman who had a whole room left over to the piles and piles of newspapers she hung onto. She was the nicest person ever, although it was clear that both she and her brother were loopy as.

Apparently it's not as unusual as you'd think, it's just that we don't see much of people's houses from the street.

Made me resolve (again) to get rid of a whole load of stuff, and to push my way into people's houses more. Okay, just get rid of a whole load of stuff.

With that in mind, I thought I'd keep an In/Out log for la casa this year. This week's In/Out is a feeble attempt, but here it is anyway:

In:

• groceries;
• Sweeney's cricket set; and
• Sweeney's Tonka truck

Out:

• two pink cot blankets, for the neighbours' friends' newborn twins;
• four pairs of newborn-sized booties, for the neighbours' friends' newborn twins;
• a few fetid items from the fridge - compost. Does compost count??;
• my pair of Capos - binned;
• three pairs of utterly munted shoes that I should've ditched years ago - binned;
• the Christmas tree - on the deck until ... October, probably ...

Yes, we're fairly rollerskating around the football fields of reclaimed space in our house now.

In other news, Sweeney, Harper and I took their Nana to Fairfield today to see our Auntie Thelma. She's nice. Her husband, our Uncle Joe-who's-Keith-Quinn's-uncle, was so hilariously bad at telling jokes that it was the theme of his funeral. He was also nice. Today, we ate fruit cake and I ran around with the boys while the girls caught up. It took about two days to find the goshdarned place and four minutes to get back to Wellington. I hate the Hutt.

Sorry, the Hutt, but you just don't make sense to me.

But good road trip, Nana, Sweeney and Harper!!

In other, other news, I took the car into the garage to get the outrageous noise coming from the wheel diagnosed. The outrageous noise kind of ... went away on my way there, but I figured it was still worth a look because I'm trying very hard to be sensible in all areas of my life. The mechanic called me later and confirmed that no, there was no noise, and indeed, no issue that required any action at all. He reckons that a stone got lodged on the brake's Wear Indicator, and dislodged itself this morning. Hurrah!!

In still more news, I watched Psychoville tonight. It's made by two of the chaps from The League of Gentlemen. Same creepy feel, cast of gazillions. With added extra Dawn French as a delusional midwife. Ace.

I must've watched the League of Gentleman dvd twenty times. It's brought it all back, watching Psychoville tonight. Local things for local people. Twelfty. You're my wife now, Dave.