I dislike DIY immensely. And by DIY I mean anything to do with repairing things, making things, right down to decorating and painting things. This is particularly embarrassing, as my dad is a DIY legend, and he has failed in passing on any of his enthusiasm for spanners, creosote and foxtail wedged tenon joints to his son. Not for want of trying, though; I remember getting some kind of junior toolbox for my 9th birthday – the kind of gift that’s probably banned, now, under strict EU health and safety guidelines, or perhaps even stricter EU child cruelty guidelines – and I immediately plunged a junior chisel into my junior thumb, causing junior blood to gush forth. I don’t believe I ever used the junior toolbox ever again, and adult toolboxes hold equal fear for me. Jenny keeps suggesting we make our own shelving units – “apparently it’s really easy” – and I just shake my head sagely, murmuring “It’s really not a good idea.” It’s terrible, really. I can’t expect my dad, now several years into retirement, to keep driving the 47 miles to my flat just to remove a rawlplug from the wall. Anyway, yesterday he and my mum drove the 47 miles to my flat to make sure I didn’t make a complete pig’s breakfast of painting some skirting board. Disaster was avoided, mainly because I kept popping out to perform various, er, “errands”.

The skirting board having been painted, I began a task that I actually find extremely pleasurable: Putting electrical & computing items back in the right places, neatly, free of dust, with cables neatly tied and desk layout rationalised. God, I’m a vile human being. In other news:

Look, tickets on sale for the Field Music show in Euston in a couple of weeks.

I’m finding this album strangely addictive. I’m also finding this album strangely addictive, but I’ve always been a sucker for prog rock.

Does anyone know what the name is for those things that attach to tops of doors that makes them automatically close, but without making an enormous bangy noise? I’m referring to them as “springy doorshutting mechanisms”, but that can’t be right, can it.