I have the next two days off work and I was hoping to have a sleep-in today. The damn crows decided I didn’t deserve a sleep-in and woke me up at 5am with their screaming. No sooner had I opened my eyes than Puddy jumped onto my chest and purred fur all over my face, drooling on my chin in the process. Yes, it is possible to purr fur – she’s shedding her winter coat as the days become warmer and her fur is so loose all she has to do is sneeze and I have enough fur to knit a (slightly creepy) jumper.

Anyway, I tried to get back to sleep but it was a lost cause. I kept waking up and falling asleep and waking up and falling asleep until finally at about 8am the noise of cutting cement started a few doors down and I knew sleep was hopeless. I got up, showered and fed the cat. I also made Phill breakfast because he was running late and I was in an unusually good mood. Don’t get too excited – I simply assembled cereal in a bowl and gave him a spoon.

I’m so domesticated.

Anyway, the painters arrived at 11am to fix the water damage in our ensuite shower finally. We only reported it over a year ago! They originally wanted to turn up at 7:30am but I’d asked them to make it later and thankfully they had been able to slot us in around lunchtime. The ironic thing was I didn’t end up getting that sleep-in anyway, but oh well.

While the painters were here, I set about doing some housework. It’s weird – I wanted to look busy, even though I had every right to lounge around on the couch watching Oprah and eating icy-poles if I wanted, since it was the first day of my “weekend”. I cleaned the kitchen, washed and hung out a load of washing, cleaned out Puddy’s litter, tidied the dining room table, cleaned our bedroom and scrubbed our bathroom. I was buggered by the time the painters left at 1pm!

So… the plan for this afternoon is to vacuum the house (since there’s now little white flecks of plaster trampled all over the carpet upstairs), tidy the office, vacuum the mattress on the spare bed (which is covered in a thick layer of black fur since it’s where Puddy sleeps and I’d forgotten to put down a protective sheet) and clean the spare bathroom. Then I have to bring in the washing, sort it and put it away. Oh, and find the cat, who disappeared the instant the painters arrived with a petrified expression on her little face.

Today has really made me wonder about what to do on a day off (a legitimate day off, not a sick day!) when it’s just you at home alone. Your friends and partner are at work, so it’s you and an empty house (and perhaps a pet or two). What do you do on your day off? Do you obsessively clean the house like I do? Do you sit on the couch all day watching TV and eating junk food? Or do you go shopping?

Anyway, I’ll get right onto that vacuuming … as soon as I’m done watching Harry Potter.

Hey, it’s my day off!