teylaminh | Jun. 9th, 2007

For some reason this afternoon I was struck with the overwhelming urge to clean the living room. And also the bedroom. At which point I stopped. It seems, in restrospect, there may actually be a logical reason...

Paul and I took my bike to Halfords today to ask what might need doing to it. I had asked a woman in there the other day how much their service cost, and she said it was £25 depending on what needed doing to it. The bloke who looked at it today estimated about £50 for getting various stuff fixed, like inflating the tyres because they were punctured (they're not, I just haven't ridden the thing in about seven years...), or fixing the brakes, etc. The cheapest bike that Halfords do is £90 in the sale. I think I paid £60 for mine full price from Makro.

So I was then trapped in a dilemma of whether to pay good money for it to be fixed when I could easily get a new bike for just a little bit more. Also slightly annoyed by the fact that you effectively pay Halfords £25 to look at your bike and nothing else. I can look at a bike; can I have £25, too?

So we gave up and dragged the bloody thing home again, after a brief trip to Somerfield to get some crisps and stuff for lunch at work. I was just a bit pissed off by the whole bike fiasco, mostly because I can't afford to get it fixed and definitely can't afford a new bike, although the latter seems to be the better option. And also that I am still without a bike, effectively, and hence my best laid plans of Getting Fit and Losing Weight by riding such have been thwarted by everything being so bloody expensive these days. I might as well sit on my arse and let it expand for all the good my intentions have done...

So, it seems that the cleaning was just my way of venting the frustration, really. Mostly I noticed that the living room carpet needed cleaning, which I blame on watching UK Home & Health's Cleanaholics weekend. So Hoovering our living room would be half the job if it wasn't for having to move all the furniture, but at least in the process I polished the windowsills, stripped the tablecloth and washed it, and also washed the sheet covering the bed/sofa to get rid of the greasy marks.

After that I made a start on the bedroom. In the process I somehow managed to break the (perfectly adequate) bulb in my bedside lamp, but other than that it now looks better. I rearranged all the various perfume bottles, boxes, candle holders, etc, so they're easier to get to and can actually serve a purpose, but things will look much better if we can get hold of one of those DVD/VCR combo things. The video is on the way out and so, probably, is the DVD player... which is also enormous.

Paul hoovered the landing for me and did the washing up and sat playing Scrabble whilst I did everything else. :P But he's taking me out for food later (at Star City, because Birmingham is rubbish for interesting restaurants) so that makes up for it...

I shall now read my f-list and sit here doing nothing for a bit...