The container is on its way

Well, we hope it is anyway. After two years of scouring eBay for bargains, rushing into Aldi at the slightest provocation and buying the latest low-price tools, and generally behaving like a pair of demented magpies, we have finally packed off a 20ft container for the house in Jamaica. It's funny how the business of acquiring useful bits and pieces for a second home starts to take over your life. At first, my wife was mildly quizzical. Slowly, though, the questions - 'Why do you need a new chain saw?' or 'Where are you going to put a table football machine?' - gradually gave way to 'Look what I just found in the bargain bin at Aldi' as the collecting bug took over. In the end, we had to send the container because we could hardly get into the house, as the boxes of 'really useful stuff' started to take over. First the conservatory went awol (and with it the view of the garden), then the dining room half of our main downstairs room filled up with cane sofas, carpets and curtain rails. Then the hall started to become blocked with big cardboard boxes. Finally, when the kitchen started to be overwhelmed, it was time to call it a day. Of course, that doesn't include the back garden patio area which had already disappeared under tons of scaffolding ('Honestly darling, it will be really useful when a hurricane blows off the roof'). Anyway, it's all gone now, and is due to arrive in Jamaica sometime early in November.