Start the week as you mean to go on, then. I'm feeling deeply knackered this morning, aching in my bones and needing a jolly good sleep. This is unsurprising. I put effort into the weekend, in terms of trying to be awake before 10, doing labouring in a house, and also making good efforts to enjoy the evening and company. I think that all three of these were achieved, and, when coupled with a pre-8-am wake up this morning (even though I added a snooze facility to that), I'm quite worn out.

In a good way.

This week is the start of a frenetic burst of activity and I haven't time to get all soppy and knackered. So, I'll just have to drink plenty of coffee and live with this apparent exhaustion. There are two evenings this week for me to do my own house-things in, and my plan is to finish the sanding in my living room and generally head towards painting. I haven't decided whether I will actually start any painting. It would be immense if I could at least prime the skirting boards in the downstairs front room, but we'll see.

The bathroom man has put up some of the stud-work and generally prepared for having a toilet. I may not need him to install me a new soil stack. That's probably a good thing. I'm aware that this week hasn't been a massive progress as far as I can see, though it's quite possible that there has been a lot of work done and that the stuff which appears to be big (like making a working toilet or sink) are the easy bits that snap together in 9 minutes after a couple of weeks of solid preparation. I don't know.

There's a plasterer coming this week to do the bathroom and I have opted to have him skim my downstairs hall ceiling too. There aren't many surfaces in the house that I intend to turn into a flat paint finish. The hall ceiling downstairs is surface where it's the preferred option. I wasn't certain, after I'd removed the polystyrene tiles from it (and the block of polyfilla), if this ceiling could just be skimmed (as opposed to boarded and skimmed). I wasn't sure if, had I asked someone to skim it, it would be likely to end up cracked and shit. So, I asked a plasterer, who was in the house as part of the damp-proofing works, whether it would be a good idea to skim the ceiling (as opposed to doing something else to make it flat). His answer was "well, if you want it smooth, it is". I do, and I will. Just with a different plasterer, that's all.

This week is also quite gig intensive. My original plan to double up on Wednesday has been felled. The added gig has been substracted, leaving me where I started. The reason it was withdrawn is down to the fact that someone better offered themselves to replace me. This sounds horrible. Essentially, I was going to have to close the show, which wasn't a natural place for me, but which would have worked. Someone else offered to be in the line-up (I think there may have been a drop out) and could only be put on as a closer. There was no way I could open the show, and no way that this person could open it either. So, my lesser-status, coupled with the risk of me not even turning up on time, was enough to get me dropped from the line-up. That's showbiz folks. However, there's no hard feelings. I'm quite relieved, really. Plus, I'll get to do the gig in a later month. No problems then.

However, I have Wednesday in Farnham, Thursday in Manchester, Friday in Southampton, Sunday in London... there's a possibility of Saturday in Dover (WHY!?)... it's a busy gig week. So tonight and tomorrow night are critical for the DIY. I may come home early on Wednesday (for a gig night) and so some stuff too.

It's going to be a hell of a week.

I'll probably write about the weekend later.

Today I have to go to the dentist.

This post is getting random.

Enough.