Well this is depressing - my favourite day planner has been discontinued and I've had to choose a new style planner. I don't mind growing older (beats the alternative!) and I'm actually quite interested in trying new tech but I have never liked electronic calendars and day planners and have happily used two types of 'old school' methods for years - one a 'pocket diary' (BritSpeak for day planner) and the other the now discontinued desk day planner that even Paul liked and used faithfully. Sniffle. I'm going to miss that thing!

It's early October and owing to the house move, things I normally do in September were pushed back to October. This morning I was caught up enough to go online and place my order for the usual diary and day planner refills. To my shock, however, I couldn't find my day planner refills ANYWHERE - not even on the publisher's website!

So I emailed the publisher and one of their customer service reps promptly replied the refill in question has been (SOB!) discontinued. She very politely refrained from saying the discontinuation was owing to near-total lack of interest in that particular style but I knew she was only being polite as the style is VERY 1950s - doubtless interest and use has dropped off severely especially over the past few years.

For those curious as to the style, it's one of those two-ring base things with pen/pencil crease at the foot. Marvellously useful - compact, each day having a two-page spread with weekends sharing (Saturday to the left, Sunday to the right). Terribly 'old school', retro, vintage, Grannie stuff - we loved it.

Every New Years Day I would go through and mark the day (and which) the bins went to the kerb. Also useful for noting medical/dental appointments, birthdays and other important dates, it served as a superb message centre for the household in so many ways including jotting down telephone-email-snail mail details. It sat on the front hall table at the old house and has been temporarily sitting on the electric fireplace mantel in our new home, and it was the one and only place in the house I could rely on the pen remaining with it. It worked ever so much better than the wall calendars and e-calendars - worked well with my pocket diary and Paul's personal one as we do carry those with us but always made sure to update the desk one on returning home.

Honestly I think I will have a serious cry 31st December 2018 night knowing the next morning a bound A5 'page a day' diary will be taking its place of organisational honour. The day planner will go on the sideboard, both soon-to-be retired one and new completely unsatisfactory one, once the living room is free of what seems a gajillion boxes needing to be stored in the eagerly anticipated weather-tight shed. Next to the landline, of course - the day planner, not the shed:)

A LONG MOAN/WORD ABOUT DOWNSIZING:

Sigh. I'm beginning to despair of the shed ever arriving - it's been what seems months (but really is only weeks) since we ordered it.

At first we thought Paul would use the shed as his 'man-cave' - OH! Excuse me, his 'study'.

But then the movers brought in his desk and set it down in the bedroom and he decided 'Hey, this is much better than spending the money to have the shed wired (for computer and heat)!' - meaning 'Hey! The bathroom and kitchen are a lot closer now, and wow think of the money I'll save on wiring and heating the shed!'.

Boy howdy did Paul's eyeballs light up at the thought of that savings and followed up that thought of money saving to 'persuading me' it would be so much nicer to keep our two remaining 'we won't have room for these' storage pieces for use in our new downsizer, storage units we had on Gumtree and he promptly removed once I was 'persuaded'...now I have the sideboard (can't complain too much as it's a GORGEOUS Art-Deco with two drawers and two under cabinets) in which I shall now be storing first aid/health and beauty (hahahahaha) and toilet roll. yea - or should I nod to modern times and write 'yay'?

 And the 'vintage' (and not really my cuppa) 1970s era oak wall unit with three doored under cabinets and a glass-fronted three glass shelves upper. To store kitchen over-flow in the wall unit including spare kitchen roll - which is about all it's going to hold.

So as a consequence of his money-saving thinking, it was good-bye to my dream of floor to ceiling bespoke cabinetry along ALL the walls in the living-dining room that was to have been closed doors over drawers on the lower half and glass-fronted book-shelving on the upper in which I'd planned to use part of for kitchen and bathroom 'overflow' and the glorious rest for all my craft supplies.

Where are all my crafting supplies to be stored? Why out in the new shed, of course - in plastic boxes he's happy to 'splash out on' if it means the bigger save on bespoke storage cabinetry. So once the shed arrives I'll have to go out to the shed and gather ALL the supplies for a single project at one go. None of this convenience of having everything in the nice warm house where I can walk over from the sofa or sewing machine, no, I'm going to have to go out there in all weathers for supplies.

Meanwhile Paul is happily doing his computer thing in the bedroom - all his wants and needs are neatly stacked/shelved all in one place. 'Because I don't have much so my stuff should be sorted first' he claimed without one whit of a hint of shame.

Meanwhile the living-dining room is awash with cartons and honestly the place looks like an episode of Hoarders.

Luckily we hadn't bought a dinner table and chairs before moving in because there isn't anywhere for that to go just yet. I'd post a photo (yes, I'm a before/after photographer) but it's really just too embarrassing despite knowing this is all temporary and in a month the place is going to be cosy and lovely and organised and...OH GOD PLEASE LET THAT BE TRUE!

I need to go through every single box and reorganise EVERYTHING as Paul in his Asperger's logic decided my method of packing everything together (as in all the sewing fabric on one box, all the sewing minutiae like needles and thread and...in another, and the sewing patterns in yet another and the cross stitch, crochet thread, yarn according to weight in yet more boxes...) was wasting space.

OMFG I can't find a bleeding thing! Looking for yarn and crochet hooks I found the hand mixer, five drinking glasses, some casserole dishes, and his fly tying tools wrapped up in bath towels. Looking for the sieve (colander, strainer, whatever) I found some of his drill bits and bolts, my unmentionables, the gluten free flours, several tins of tomato soup, and the television remote control for the bedroom telly (which I still can't find but it doesn't matter since I can't watch late night telly in the bedroom while he's on the computer. dammit). I sadly STILL can't  find the sewing machine!

I have given up and am just opening boxes as I get to them and trying to find places for everything we need in the house whilst finding a holding place for things we don't need in the house every day but need enough to keep from being rid of. And all the while Paul walks through the living-dining room shaking his head and clucking and telling me he can't take much more of the clutter and I should be better organised and really, he's lucky as hell I don't clock him one. Or two or three.

But...non-violent payback is a far more satisfactory mo-f...er, well, if you don't know that one I'm not going to explain it. Suffice it to say PROPER plastic storage boxes ain't cheap and I am not scrimping on those - if I have to brave the weather to make something I want to be in and out of that shed quicker than lightning and cheap boxes are not a real money saver in the end!

To make things that much more 'fun' - the kitchen sink is spewing water (into a bucket I have to empty during and after washing up or rinsing veg or running washing machine) and the plumber can't get here until Thursday next (a full week away) owing to huge number of call-outs to sort gas boilers people are switching on without having had an engineer in to check first. Yep, the weather has turned, it's full-on autumn and winter looks to be close on its heels as a particularly harsh one according to sun-spot history. I'd call someone else but this plumber is worth the wait (and the emptying of the bucket several times a day). 

Right. On a happier note, we are settling in slowly but surely. Yesterday the window blinds went up in kitchen and bathroom windows and the living room and bedroom windows. The kitchen floor now has a lovely slate-effect sheet vinyl floor covering and the steam mop is working wonderfully to keep it looking as lovely as when laid.

Real bliss is being able to nip out to the shops or to the library or just for a walk, and WOW, the stars show so much better in this low-light-pollution zone, WOW!

Downsizing, not without its 'issues' but worth it in the end.