After three months it’s time Rosa got her own room. So this afternoon I started on the mammoth task of tidying up the spare room.

There must be few jobs less interesting in a weekend than tidying. I mean, here are the highlights:

• a decayed stick of approximately 10 year old promotional chewing gum from a Chris Knox record
• a poster of H. R. Giger’s “Penis Landscape” that my dead brother gave to me for safe-keeping (he didn’t want Mum to find it – it had been distributed with his copy of the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist)
• two old pairs of my glasses: the first with an unfortunate “chosen by Mum” look; the second with an unfortunate “John Lennon wannabe” look (I was never much of a rebel)
• some faded snaps of a fair-haired nine-year old with his Grandmother that Bella could not see was actually me 26 years ago
• a pile of comics that I thought I might sell until I saw how little they actually go for on eBay
• some more than seven-year-old cheque book butts that I can finally toss
• lots of dust (resulting in sneezing and, er, nasal discharge) and the occasional dead spider

It was either this or do what Becky’s doing at the moment – using a steamer to remove some old wallpaper. I’m probably even more allergic to DIY than tidying, so maybe I shouldn’t whinge too much.