Stars?

Just over two weeks ago, when I was in Edinburgh, I got a phone call from the builder with a quote for the architect's plans. It was way, way beyond the already stretched budget I'd given the architect. Practically double. We talked for an hour, at the end of which I realised that I'd have to give up on all my plans for building green, do the absolute basics then sell the house (which is currently in such a bad way that it is unmortgageable) and move somewhere cheaper.

Since then the builder and the architect have been trying to salvage something of my project and I met with them this morning. The architect's design, which I've spent two years discussing with them and for which I have planning permission, is out of the (unbuilt) window. Within my budget I can have insulation on my existing building, new wiring and plumbing and an extension behind the house which is smaller and more basic than designed. There will be no plastering or painting so I will end up with the existing 1950s wallpaper to deal with myself. I can do that. (The builder has offered me his part-used pots of paint from other jobs free.) There will be no kitchen. I can do that. (The architect has offered me a second-hand set of kitchen carcasses free.)

Then the builder told me that a job had been cancelled and he can start a fortnight on Monday. So I will be spending the next fortnight putting things in boxes rather than hosting four 17-year-old German singers. The cleaning and table-mending I have done for them is redundant.

While my head was leaping all over the place this afternoon Secondborn and I went as planned to an exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum called 'Beyond the binary: gender, sexuality and power' (extra). There were contemporary commentaries and various artefacts, including things from the museum that had been reinterpreted, but they seemed quite disparate to me and I couldn't grasp much of a narrative. I checked with Secondborn who knows much more of the narrative than I do and she agreed. So it wasn't just my whirling mind. There is an important story to tell about 19th century collectors and later anthropologists who have interpreted other cultures in the light of their own and it was good to see a museum addressing this contentious issue.

My next 15 blips are highly likely to be boxes.