For all those who slave over a hot stove...

I am spending a fair amount of time traipsing round kitchen showrooms at the moment. This is an indirect result of being flooded in the New Year. The insurance company has paid me to get my kitchen redecorated, so of course I had to decide what else to do to it first. My current plan is to get it refurbished - keep the existing units, but get new doors and drawers and worktop, also a new sink etc etc. I know it's getting on for a year since the kitchen got flooded, but I don't believe in hurrying important (expensive) projects, and the insurance company doesn't seem to mind if I never get it redecorated - they gave me the money and no proof required that I've gone ahead with it.

A lot of you will probably have stopped reading this by now, but for anyone who is still with me, I wanted to share with you one of the more outlandish sights I've come across so far - a television directly over the cooker. Well, I clearly don't spend enough time slaving over a hot stove, as I have never for one moment wanted a television above it. And most people obviously create much less general mess than I do as otherwise they would be spending all their time cleaning the said television. But if you would like to see the kitchen that is so far the leading contender for being my nightmare kitchen, have a look at this.

PS I had no idea it was my 500th - should have done something special instead of looking at kitchens, but it's too late now, this will have to do!