A Place For Everything......

Most weeks I try to complete my blog on a Sunday morning.

After a late start and browsing my way through the sections of the Sunday Times that I can be bothered to read (Culture, Style, Travel, and Technology - sums me up a little I feel!), I'll make a large exotic coffee liberally sweetened with vanilla to cope with my latent diabetes (!) …….and head into the study.

One of the joys of buying the flat that we have had for the last eight years was that ostensibly it has three bedrooms. Two of these open directly into the lounge, and although that's going to be a problem when we eventually come to sell it, if we do, it's been a great advantage for us. It's the perfect flat for a couple who want that bit of extra space.

One bedroom, laughingly referred to as the spare bedroom, is a great place for the laundry. It is where the cleaner ensconces herself for an hour on Friday morning to do the ironing, and where, during the rest of the week, washing hangs waiting to be laundered or ironed.

The other spare bedroom has been turned into that great luxury - the Home Office. Actually I must apologise for the misuse of capitals there. I don't actually process any immigration appeals in it, but it is probably one of the places in the flat where I spend most of my time, as it's primarily my office. A lot of my work is done at home, planning jobs, sending out quotes for corporate jobs et cetera, and having the luxury of a space in which to do it is absolutely gorgeous. This is where I dictate my blog; and it's where I can bury myself away hours doing Internet shopping, or browsing. It's a den, a hermitage, a sanctuary away from the real world and yet the nerve centre of my communications with it.

I'm always reminded of one of that most irritating of homilies. "A tidy desk means a tidy mind". I like to think of myself as a very tidy person. I border occasionally on the OCD. Yet somebody looking at my desk would not think so. It's tidy to me of course. I know where everything is, and within one arms reach I can get hold of most of what I need to make my life function. Okay, it might mean occasionally having what is I believe,technically referred to as a "rummage", but I know it's on my desk if I need it.

My desk has evolved biologically. When it first arrived, in a box from Ikea naturally,  it held a laptop, a desk lamp, a pile of folders and some pens.  I suppose the fact that it now holds considerably more as a testament to the way that technology has developed, and hopefully also to the way that my life has got busier. Working from left to right,  there's a spring-loaded iPad Holder for when I use my iPad is an extra screen: a three tier filing tray which is also managed to become a repository for old phone cases and cables. Two pots crammed with pens barely used; a card rack holding various visiting cards I've been given, for complimentary meal vouchers for the Park Tavern in West Norwood (as a result of quiz night winds); £20 in John Lewis vouchers; two complimentary tickets for the Odeon cinema as a result of a disastrous visit to see "Life of Pi". Then we have the pièce de résistance in the centrepiece of the desk which is my brand-new iMac. Given that this is one of the state-of-the-art new ones recess before Christmas is wafer thin and takes up a small amount of space. Behind this is our new BT hub. Recently our Internet speed is increased considerably, and this does bring with it a joy. The installation of the new home brought with it great sorrow and anger, as any reader who kept up with my tweets,  or  who has had BT install something for them, will know.

 There's an IKEA desk lamp, bought for me as a 40th birthday present. I can remember that is when I approached the age of 40 it suddenly became apparent to me that of course I would never be able to participate in the ritual gathering of materialistic possessions that a married couple do. That was clear to me by the age of 40 that I would never get married; in fact when I was 40 it wasn't a possibility. To circumvent this, for my 40th birthday I sent out a  pseudo-wedding list. This gave me an opportunity to acquire the sort of things that everybody should such a six champagne bowls,  a deluxe Scrabble set with revolving board and electronic timer, and a coffee service.

 The champagne bowls do get used occasionally,  though Rich prefers a flute.  The Scrabble set rarely makes an appearance as of course now we have Scrabble on our iPads, and the coffee set  is gathering dust in the kitchen somewhere  as I am the only coffee drinker in the house.

 There's a second computer monitor on the far side of the desk, and four  wired hard drives, which contain backups of backups (see earlier reference to OCD), a dock for my iPhone, a trackpad mouse pad, mouse ,coffee stand -  I think you're getting the idea. All these things are found a place on my desk, and their right to that place has never really been questioned.

Think it's spring now isn't it, or at least that's what the BBC programme indents keep telling us,  which is possibly the only reliable way to know what season it is these days.

So spring means clean. I can feel a tidy coming on. Of course that is a tidy on my own terms, which is putting things into other places that only I know why they need to be there.

That's called individuality.