Chocolate Biscuits and Earplugs - Preparing for imminent arrivals

Any minute now. I’m waiting for the knock at the door. Our visitors are en route and will be arriving soon. I say ‘our’ visitors but they are more my husband’s friends whom I have barely met. It’s a shame SP has gone out. I’ve already given canvassers for the local election a warmer welcome than they really wanted. Perhaps the next knock at the door will be the genuine guests.

We have been tidying and vacuuming in their honour. We want our house to be at its best for what may be the friends’ only visit. Alas, despite two days of preparations, there are still areas for improvement. I take comfort in the fact that SP has time to watch the latest James Bond film. Clearly this means that I have time to attend to my email and blog.

Household Pattisson is not looking too bad. It’s just suffering from a few weeks of procrastination. Recently, so many things have seemed more urgent than housework: I’ve come up with some great excuses for not wielding the vacuum cleaner.

Mainly, I’ve been working. If I really want to be a writer, I have to squeeze every second out of my day. Writing is something that can only be done when FP is asleep, given that both she and the writing demand my full attention. Naps are the sacred times when I can switch on the computer and be creative. I’m holding on to the idea that JK Rowling did no housework for three years before her Harry Potter success. One day I’ll be able to afford a cleaner.

The website has taken up a lot of time lately. First, there was the designing and building process, now there is the maintenance. Not only have I had to learn about technical issues such as web-hosting, DNS entries and email accounts, I have also had to spend an inordinate amount of time monitoring my hit-counter on Google Analytics. I feel it is important to keep checking in case there has been a new visitor or two.

Then there is the vacuum cleaner problem. As vacuum cleaners go, it’s quite a good one, but it is Very Loud. I wear earplugs to operate it. FP cries and runs for cover whenever I switch it on. This means that I cannot easily vacuum while FP is awake. I need to have back-up in the form of someone else’s legs available for her to cling to.

The last two days have been a bit frantic. I’ve put things away marginally faster than FP has taken them out again. SP has cleaned the bathroom and provided the safety-legs during the vacuuming.

So here I am, hoping that the house looks Good Enough and telling myself that a warm welcome and chocolate biscuits go a long way towards compensating for some slight clutter and a few specks of dust. I’ll put the kettle on.

Chocolate Biscuits and Earplugs - Preparing for imminent arrivals