Lazy Sunday

I got up early today. I needed to really, but it isn't something I enjoy. I have always thought that Sunday mornings are for sleeping, for letting the body recover from the torture we submit it to during the week. However, today is different - I have a list of D.I.Y tasks to complete, and there is no time to waste.

Immediately upon rising from my slumber, my body reminded me of Rugby Saturday - a win, and my last match of the season. Nice to go out with a victory, but I felt my performance was not as good as it could have been, largely due to my opposite number in the line-outs stealing almost every ball we competed for. Anyway, my body was aching all over, my back tight and even my fingers were sore. Not quite the hyper extended elbow and swollen nose from the previous Rugby Saturday (another win), but both injuries have managed to live on, remaining little niggles. The joys of getting older.

The morning started with some landscape gardening. I have been tasked with creating some vegetable patches where the decking used to be. It is a 4 metre square area, and for the past week I have been viciously ripping and smashing the wood to get it clear of my workspace. Had the screws been in good condition, I would have simply unscrewed and removed them, but that would be far too easy. Smash, break, rip, tear, that's what I have been doing - to various parts of my body. Decking now removed, I started outlining the two patches that will soon become home to carrots, beans, pumpkins and more.

The design is quite simple, just a couple of raised beds made from the decking wood that hasn't been shattered into a million pieces, most of which ended up embedded in my hands. After a couple of hours, the first is built and ready for soil, which is yet to be ordered. Instead of continuing with the second bed, it was time for respite in the form of an outing to B&Q, to buy a new kitchen sink and tap. Fitting this was to be the afternoon's task.

Kitchen sinks are unfriendly buggers, when you are trying to remove them. Especially if you want to keep your skin intact, or have an aversion to kitchen unit edges digging into your spine. Still, I successfully removed the offending item, and put the new one in it's place. Surprise, surprise, it doesn't fit. A few alterations to the worktop had it snug in no time about half an hour. The fiddly bit of screwing in the clamps was easier than I had thought it would be, but that lulled me into thinking the rest of the job would be a breeze. Unfortunately, the waste traps were to be an evil jigsaw puzzle of plastic tubes, bends and nuts. Just to make sure life definitely wasn't going to be easy, the instructions had the tubes running in places that housed existing plumbing that could not be moved, so I had to make a few changes. After attempt number four, the job was done. The water was back on, the plumbing was leak-free and the kitchen was back to normal (almost).

I think back to this morning, when my body was brimming with pain and stiffness. Now, my body is brimming with pain and stiffness, but my girlfriend has a new sink.