Yesterday, the lads fitted a new double glazed window in the bathroom; that’s all the old windows replaced now.But the best bit is that you don’t brain yourself every time you get out of the shower now, as it opens from the top.

I finished tiling the hearth with the “magic tiles” and was disappointed to realise that only one person felt sufficiently inspired to finish my story from the last blog. It is, however, an ending to be proud of and certainly caused us great amusement, so thank you, Becky. It’s not too late to write an alternative ending; so if you’re a frustrated author, please feel free to indulge your talent!

Because the eventual habitable space here will be more than 170sq m, we have to employ an architect to draw the plans for our barn conversion, so we asked one round this morning. He was very friendly and extremely chatty and came up with a few ideas we hadn’t thought of as well as explaining how to slightly, and legally, bend the rules to our advantage.

Nick and Kieran are going to have to share a Christmas present this year ;-( Yes, life is so hard and our pension so small and the euro so strong……. OK, so it’s none of the above, but we went to see said Christmas present this afternoon, with Adrian as our technical expert, to give us his opinion and he said yes. I’m not allowed to disclose what it is, but it will be delivered tomorrow, so watch this space!!!