Twelfth night

The guys in the truck are preparing to take down the Christmas decorations. I am not going to take ours down until Sunday. Apparently the Vatican says this is ok....

The Merrywalks shopping centre is up for sale, as the owner, who lives in Manchester, is retirement age. Starbucks was going to open there, but has pulled out. Since Stroud is the coffee shop capital of the universe, no one seemed bothered! The original shopping centre was built in 1970, and there is an unlovely noughties extension that houses Wilko's, which appears to be my second home!

I've done so much faffing around sorting out the house today that I've managed to injure my shoulder (rotator cuff). Stupid me, I should have stopped when I felt tired, which was several hours earlier. But the phone kept ringing...

Nonetheless, we took one car boot load of stuff to a charity shop, and I have sorted out another lot, bound for several destinations. Bought a load of heavy duty boxes for my card business, and brought them home by bus. I could easily take a whole box full of books and other items out of the house every single day for six months, and still we would not notice much difference....

Right now, I am in the sitting room, watching Persuasion on DVD ( the BBC version) and enjoying the light of various candles and a lava lamp that I uncovered on my quick rearranging ( the slow one will be when I take down the tree).