I don't know who first coined the phrase "the devil's in the details", but it's apt. Today has been a day of details threatening to get the better of me. I went to the dentist to have my mouth cleaned out of plaque around the gums. As a result of this, the hygienist did her usual trick of hurting me. It's such a small area she cleaned, but it hurt a great deal. However, the fact that I've done some better brushing since last time and the fact that it hadn't been years between hygienist visits meant it didn't quite hurt as much. Yay.

This is the dentist who don't have appointments over lunchtime because they want to have a lunch break without patients. Erm... aren't people who work in the local offices going to want to come over lunchtime? Couldn't you maybe stagger your lunches to keep the place running? No? Oh dear, another detail. Still, they were much nicer to me today, when I attended my appointment, than yesterday when I dropped in to arrange an appointment, given that I'd lost their number and they'd not been given my change of address. I think they just didn't like being invaded by a recipient of their service unannounced. Weird!

More details threatened to spoil the day. There were questions on the exact location of the pipes being run in my house. I answered and then discovered that my exact answer came with a practical problem, but one which had already been solved when they rang to explain that they'd ignored me... but their answer is just as good. Still, it required me to think and be involved in the decision making process.

However, the big detail relates to the roofing. The simple fact is that my roof is not practical for a roof ladder to go on. As a result, my roofer is going to have to get scaffolding. In addition, the piece of slate they were going to put around the new flue is not the right pitch for the job, so they're going to have to get another. So the flue hasn't been put in today. This may be a big deal, or it may not. I guess I'll have to find out. Without a flue, there's no heating, but there wasn't going to be a working system today anyway. Hopefully it will all be resolved this week.

In typical busy-Ashley-fashion, my week has now been totally booked up. Here's the plan:

Monday (gone already) - DIY
Tuesday (today) - Gig in Deptford, SE London
Wednesday - Watching Chicago in West End of London
Thursday - meeting, in London, to do with a sketch night
Friday - go to North London to have dinner with my family
Saturday - a day of DIY followed by going to Watford to see Bill Bailey - anyone fancy coming?
Sunday - my family come to see my house, followed by me doing a gig in Reading
Monday - go to London to do the sketch night lighting and sound

So, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday are all in London. That's not a small number of visits.

Should be fun, though.

So the house will sort of be left to its own devices... or at least those of the plumbers.

Oh, and the stuff I'm working on at work is all right, except for the details... which are the most of it!