What do people do with all the junk they accumulate – I seem to have an inexhaustible supply of the stuff? Although my flat is fairly roomy there is a limit to how much stuff can be stored communally, and frankly I’m running out of room in the bedroom. I mean 200 videos & DVDs, 250 CDs, 34 (yes 34) T-shirts, 2 desks, a cupboard, a chest of drawers, 2 computers and (here’s the real killer) ~ 1,300 books!! I’ve had to acquire a new book every 9 days since birth to account for that many.

The problem is that old pairs of pants and even crappy films can be thrown out or given away but books – definitely not. I guess I should ramp up my bookcrossing activities – try and make a bit of space before I kill myself. This sudden urge to organize my life along lines of Spartan simplicity has been precipitated by waking up horribly late this morning (about 8am) and on leaping out of bed turned my ankle over on my hiking boots which were hiding under a pile of clean laundry. Cue cursing, stumbling around, general mayhem, and slamming out of the house at about 8.25 with a face like thunder. Not the calming start to the morning so beloved of our advertisers where some repellent perk-meister uber-babe calmy chews her way through a bowl of Hifibrewheatycrunchä horror food before skipping out of the house (generally filmed from a Kerr-azzy angle (for the technically minded this is called a Dutch Tilt)) with a spring in her step and joy in her heart – having already WASHED UP her bowl. Or at least put it in the machine.

I know there are people who don’t begrudge every spare moment before work as one that could have been more profitably spent pushing up zeds, but I’ve never met any. It probably helps if you have kids – you have to get up at 5.15am anyway so opiatic thoughts of slumbering on till early afternoon are redundant anyway.