I don't know why I lay awake last night unable to sleep. I have theories. I had slept too much during the previous day and had some excitement and some coffee before returning home for bed. I just had to wait it out.

As a consequence, I had a fairly low energy day today. Work was definitely in monday morning mode, and I was not raring to go. I'm not always raring to go. Sometimes I'm more raring to go that other times.

However, I did some productive things over the course of the day, as the world turned around some axis that I am not the centre of.

After work I had a dinner engagement with a friend from my old job. I got home just after six and dinner was to be at eight. I couldn't let a couple of hours slip by without doing something. I grabbed a paintbrush and roller and covered over the newer bits of plaster (already coated once with paint) in the kitchen. This brings the kitchen up to at least 2 coats of paint everywhere, which means I should be able to go over with the proper second coat and call it finished soon.

Following the roller action and the washing up of the paintbrush and tray, I zoomed upstairs to sweep out the top two attic rooms. They've been wanting a good sweeping for a while now and there have only been cursory bad sweepings provided. I did a reasonable job (you couldn't eat your dinner off the floor, but you would consider painting the room without expecting dust in your paint) and I left the windows open to let the dust out.

Then I got changed back into civvies and zoomed over to a late-night shop to buy a birthday present from my niece. This is an item suggested by her mother - my sister - which I chose from the range of suggestions because, were I young, I'd want a go on it. I sort of do want a go on it, but I can't because I'm too big. It was also the only item suggested that didn't seem to be a matter of "here - play with this domestic cleaning/cooking equipment based toy".

With time to spare, I made my 8 o'clock dinner and we ate.

Dinner didn't last the evening and I was soon back at home with a different paintbrush in my hand and different paint. I was up in an attic room, converting fresh plaster into single-coated plaster. My housemate provided assistance and we zipped the room to completion in record time, listening to some comedy as we went.

Bizarrely, I am still raring to go, despite having had little sleep. However, my body needs rest and I think I've done enough for one day - not quite enough to reverse the slovenly events of the weekend, but enough to feel like the house has inched along a notch towards completion.