Housework update (I can't believe I just wrote that!)

So my lovely blogger friends gave me advice about my writing-housework dilemma. Jen at Salt recommended a robot vacuum cleaner, Adele Geras advised me that doing the housework would make me feel better, Clare Grant suggested a house stripped of all but essentials (that would take me several years - just to strip it of all but essentials!) and she and Rachel Fox seemed to think the best thing would be just to bite the bullet and play loud music while I'm at it.

Get on with it then, Baines.

Well, I didn't for a bit - in fact, I felt more inclined not to bother (I'm so stubborn). And I moaned about it to my mother on the phone, and she said to me, 'Well, you CAN'T do housework and write!' (Though there was that little note of self-satisfaction; she'd just told me she'd spring-cleaned two bedrooms that day, which included - apparently - brushing down the ceilings and curtains [?!]). 'And anyway,' she said, 'it's dark now: too late to start cleaning. Remember what Nanny [my grandmother] used to say: "If you can't do it in the morning, don't bother: there are more important things to do in a day." ' (My mum's pretty houseproud, but she understands human nature, and she knows I'm my grandmother's granddaughter.)

But then. Well, guess what, I got up yesterday and I could stand it no longer. I cleaned the kitchen!!! Well, yes, only the kitchen, but it was the worst bit, and a monumental job - all those cat hairs, for one thing (I don't have a cat, we had a cat visiting for Christmas - don't ask!). And DO I feel better!

Funny: clean and tidy kitchen, and now I have a clean and tidy head. This morning did a whole load of admin which has been clogging up my head and overwhelming me, and now the decks are cleared and my head is free for writing....

You were right, my blog friends!

Only thing, there's the rest of the house still....