Jerry Springer on Roy Plumley's turf.

Jerry Springer was the guest on Kirsty Young's Desert Island Discs this morning! What with that and Question Time and Nick Griffiths, it looks as though the BBC might be going to make a habit of giving us bizarre combinations of people and programmes. Suggestions welcome! Jeremy Paxman presenting Blue Peter! Admittedly he does have an interesting story to tell, having started off as a civil rights campaigner working for Bobby Kennedy. He was born in Germany of Jewish parents and the family only just succeeded in getting out of Germany in '39. They were among the very last Jews to get exit visas. They came to England but after the war went to America. His rationale for his show is that he felt that it wasn't just the rich and glitzy who had disfunctional tawdry stories to tell and it was a shame that the poor were being missed out. Well how about that then? I missed the end of the programme so I'll try and get the tantalising bit about his favourite disc, luxury item and the one book he would take on iplayer.

Dust

Room now back together but still missing furniture. Last night Lorraine and I reluctantly set about washing (scrubbbing) the plaster dust begrimed floor. It will need another wash yet. The skirting boards went back on today as did the window sills and facings. So instead of writing this I could be cleaning! O joy!

Now that that other dust raising event - Nick Griffiths on Question Time, has settled, I feel the need to do a little metaphorical cleaning. I found his presence on QT made me angry. But not with him or the BNP whose policies I despise anyway. No, I was angered by the decision to bring him on the programme in the first place. I thought question time was a programme where interesting and topical questions were asked and answered by interesting, clever, well informed people. Fat chance! Here was a show trial with the questions almost entirely being slanted in such a way as to enable the audience and the rest of the panel to have a go at Griffiths. This is not what QT is for! Moreover by victimising him it probably created as much sympathy for him as alienation. An interesting article in Scotland on Sunday which focussed on the beginning of the BNP campaign in the Glasgow by election, gave us the mood of some of the locals, which was decidedly and scarily on BNP message. Hard times whilst bringing out the best in some, can alas also bring out our scapegoating finest.

Day 3 nearly there

Well, we've reached the weekend and the process has not been as bad as we were expecting. I guess it has been a taster for the attic extension work to come. Men return on Monday to replace skirting boards and then we can have the room back.

Day 2 at 54

Well, the damp smell has gone and they are already putting things back. Plasterer next. We looked through the hole in the floor before they put the new boards down and what struck us was how basic and simple the construction is. Not that I'm volunteering to start a business in removing rotten timbers and replacing them. Not quite yet anyway.

Today at 54

Ok here are day 1 photos! The house smells of damp plaster now. However as you can see we are definitely committed.......

7 am the alarm wakes us. In an hour workmen will arrive to tear up floor boards and get to grips with the damp timbers underneath our sitting room floor. The room is empty and fills with hollow echoes when you enter in the way that empty rooms do. It smells strongly of must and damp now that we have lifted the carpet and exposed the floor boards. The next 3 days (best estimate) will be filled with sounds of tearing, sawing and hammering. They (the firm contracted to do the work) say that dust will get everywhere. However, just in case this isn't enough fun for us, we are having the attic extended some time in the new year. Watch this space

Holidays

This is us doing exciting things on an Austrian mountain. We had a fabulous time romping in the mountains above Seefeld just as their summer season was nearing its end.