Productive and fun

I had a very enjoyable and most productive day today.  Most of the morning was spent, as has become my Saturday morning tradition, with housework.  And yes, I count that as part of the enjoyableness – I’ve got it down to a routine where I put on some loud music and get to work, and can generally get everything done within two CDs.  It’s still enough of a novelty to be able to play whatever music I like without criticism (to be fair, H would rarely overtly criticise my music choices, but he nonetheless made his distaste sufficiently clear, to the point that I pretty much gave up putting any of my own music on when he was home) that that’s a big part of what makes my Saturday ritual fun.  Plus there’s the nice buzz from the energetic work of cleaning, and finally the sheer pleasure of sitting down at the end and knowing that my home is clean and tidy and just how I want it to be.
The rest of the morning was spent sitting in the sunroom with a cat on my lap (actually, two cats, but they changed shift part-way through, so I was spared having to try and fit both on my lap at the same time :-)), reading a book and watching a flock of wax-eyes catching insects in the lemon tree.
Then this afternoon Harvestbird and I undertook part two of the great furniture shopping expedition, visiting many many many furniture shops in search of the pretty.  We quickly established there were two types of shops – those who catered to those like us, and those who catered to the “more money than taste” brigade.  The latter were identifiable by their preponderance of overly shiny metal, and small occasional tables starting at $1000.
The expedition was definitely a success – best win was a fantastic glass-fronted cabinet that will fit the hallway perfectly, in a gorgeously distressed dull red lacquer-type finish.  Again I’ll have to wait until next week for it to be delivered, but there’ll definitely be photos once it is.  I also managed to find a floor lamp I liked (the shade is pretty dull, but I’m sure with the application of a little craftiness I can rectify that) and that sits perfectly alongside my nice chair, and (bargain of the day) an $8 second-hand table that, with a little ingenuity, I should be able to turn into the perfect base for my mosaic coffee table.  Pictures of both once I’ve finished them.
And of course the expedition was rounded off with tea and cake, for the perfect end to a lovely day.