All Because of The Gizzies

It started because of the Gizzies (properly known in NZ as Gisborne Cockroaches) and went on from there to become a major undertaking in which not a single thing in The Cottage remained unaffected. Everyone does the tops of the kitchen cupboards at some time in their life but I've even cleaned all the light units and behind all the pictures and moved every single item of furniture (except the bookcase which, because of the possibility of earthquakes, is anchored to the wall). I've rearranged things like tv and hifi wires which I should have sorted several years ago. For someone who doesn't mind ironing, and therefore starts from a position of being sad, I have taken sad to a whole new level!

So what is the connection with Gizzies? Well Gizzies live outside in wood and are not interested in the food that we humans eat so leave us alone.  Except that when it gets cold they start looking for nice warm places to nest and a nice new cottage with lots of insulation and natty little crevices under the roof of the deck and which is built on stilts with a massive natural cavity underneath is ideal.  It's been very cold of late by Hawkes Bay standards and the Gizzies are moving in.  The Cottage is treated so they die pretty quickly when they do enter the living space.  Nevertheless I've just re-treated the whole place to hasten their demise.

Of course one of the by-products of all this activity has been a clear-up of the study and the disposal of lots of old bank-statement and telephone accounts etc from pre-on-line days.  I also found lots of papers and lists and reminders-to-do-things that I didn't even realise were on my desk and the careful piles on the study floor.

Now as it happens whilst I was doing all this I discovered that I was not alone.  Katherine wrote a splendidly humorous post entitled Messy Pup which you really must visit and a friend commented on Facebook "Word of warning. All those piles of papers teatering on the edge of a kitchen surface, dining room dresser, office shelf, book case, bedside table, laundry room surface or porch window sill leave them where they are. Don't do what I had been meaning to do for nearly two years and tidy them away. Can't find what I'm looking for now. In some of those piles were papers that I needed and always knew where I could lay my hands on them at a moments notice. I may have cursed their very existence every time they may an unscheduled avalanche across the kitchen when friends visited or as I ran from the house on a school run fluttering liked autumn leaves in front of the puppy who thought it was so wonderful game. DON'T file them away especially when you haven't a tried a tested filing system. Raging like a bull. Need to find those papers."

So why am I telling you all this? Well the answer is simple. If I don't, then no one in the world will realise what I have been up to the last few days except me....... and I'm not interested.