Spring cleaning in autumn!

Well! Goodness me! What a busy time I’ve had of it!

I have been thinking about getting a filing cabinet for ages, to try to get me to be better at filing important papers. At the moment they’re just stuffed in a box, because I am too lazy to find the right folder for them, and it’s a bit of a bind sorting through all the folders to find the right one. So on Thursday Friend Cathy and I went to Clermont Ferrand.

I wanted really to buy one here:

which is “Nouvelle Vie” (New Life) a depot that takes old office furniture, restores it, giving handicapped people work, and then resells it. Excellent idea, but they didn’t have what I wanted, so in the end I went to Ikea. I bought a white, three drawer cabinet, & after lunch, some other shopping, and a quick visit to ILS (where I work) to do some photocopying I brought it home.

Then, on Friday morning, Mr FD made it up as it was a flat pack, and I decided to fill two of the drawers with my teaching resources…and so I had to move files, and then I pulled out a few drawers…and before you know it, my study looked like this:

and thisand this

It was a nightmare! I couldn’t move without treading on something I’d randomly tossed onto the floor. And when Jasper came exploring the teetering piles on the desk, you can guess what happened!

But after Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and most of Sunday working on it, I can say that my study is re-arranged and generally looking much better organised.

(Yes, I decided to move the filing cabinet, as it was blocking some light. Of course, I decided to do that after I’d filled it!)

I know that for some people it probably still looks incredibly cluttered – and actually, I would agree – but I do love having my “stuff” around me. And this is not only where I work & prepare lessons, (all the stuff I need for that is on the filing cabinet/folders side of the desk) but also where I do my crafting (that’s the stuff kept on the shelves in the behind-the-door area on the first photo) so there are a lot of things to get into a relatively small space.

The amount of papers that had been duplicated, or copied just-in-case, or actually weren’t very good resources was amazing! It took three trips to the recycling bins to take all the paper/card that was being thrown out. At least it can be recycled. I would feel horribly guilty if it was just being thrown away!

I do have to admit that there are still drawers (including one of the filing cabinet drawers) that still need purging and tidying, but that will have to wait until next weekend – this week I’m properly back at work, so won’t have much time for anything other than preparing lessons.

Today is Mr FD’s birthday. I played him this when he came downstairs for breakfast

I’m not sure he appreciated it. The cats had instructed me to buy him a box of chocolates from Jeff de Bruges, and I gave him a book

He had already treated himself to a brand new phone, and a flash for his camera, so I wasn’t going to go mad buying him other things!!

Tonight’s dinner is pulled pork, with jacket potatoes and HM coleslaw, and a cake from the patisserie. We were out for lunch yesterday with the Cycle Club – to be fair, they earned their lunch by cycling 100 km in hilly countryside. I just drove there with Friend Cathy and Odette.

There were bottles of red and rosé wine, plus decanters of kir as an aperetif already on the table when we arrived. As I was driving I only had a mouthful of each.We started with salad:

of sausage, with beetroot, asparagus, palm hearts, carrot, sweetcorn, lettuce.

Then

beef in wine sauce and mashed potato. The beef had been cooking for ages – it fell apart! Which was quite lucky, as there wasn’t much room, and I could only use one hand. The meat was so tender I could “cut” it with a fork. Very delicious.

I went round with a bag afterwards, collecting the leftovers for the Poor Cats – who loved it!

Then we had cheese, or fromage blanc. I chose Fromage blanc for a change – but I had some fromage sec as Mr FD didn’t want his goaty cheese! I forgot to take a photo, but here’s Friend Cathy eating hers:

And finally Pear cake and custard.

It looks a bit stodgey, but the sponge was very light. I was quite full by now, so I picked out the fruit and ate that, and had a tiny bit of the cake part.

So, he doesn’t have a very special birthday tea, as we had lunch out yesterday!

Thank you for your comments – I know lots of people read but don’t comment, but it’s lovely when people do say something!