Things I have done today, part 1

[rhythmaning]

Today, I started to clear out my boxroom office.

Well, it used to be my office when I was studying for my Masters. (Before that, it was my darkroom.)

Since then, it has kind of filled up. With paper, with old magazine, with piles; piles of piles. When I left my job – oh, four months ago – I put a whole load more paper in there, and the first thing I meant to do was tidy it all up, file it all away, and lead a neat, orderly, organised life.

Funnily, enough that didn’t happen.

Until today. I needed to find a photograph – a particular photograph, one that I took in Arles maybe six or seven years ago; it is one of my favourite pictures, and I wanted to scan it (along with many others; I have been pulling pictures out that go back twenty or so years).

I looked through all the packets of photographs I have that aren’t in my filing cabinet, and I couldn’t find anything from that period; so I needed to go into the depths of my filing cabinet and sort through all my old photographs. (This requires lots of reminiscing, of course. And looking through old letters, that kind of thing.)

Except that the desk was in such a mess that before I could do anything, I had to sort that out. Still, it has only taken my four months to get started.

One reason why it is such a mess in the office is our cats. Firstly, because the cats like to get into the bedroom, they scratch at the carpet; so to protect the hall carpet, we put a mat – a common or garden doormat – down in front of the bedroom door. Unfortunately, this stops me opening the door to the boxroom, so I rarely go in there – just long enough to grab a handful of waste-paper, say, and leave it on the desk; never enough to actually sort anything out. (Still, out of sight, out of mind. So they say.)

Secondly, because the cats find the boxroom a fascinating place to be. They get really excited when I go, and rush in in front of me. And hide. There are so many things to play on – so many places to hide! Since I was going to be in there for ages today, I left the door open; the cats came and went, taking full advantage to explore.

They explored the drums (in pieces – not set up); they explored the desk (sending piles of paper falling to the floor). And most irritating of all, they explored the filing cabinet. Sensible-and-shy started off by walking on the open drawers; and then cute-but-stupid climbed down behind the open drawer – quickly followed by his sister. And they did not want to come out. SAS did eventually, but I had to grab CBS by the scruff of his neck and pull him out.

They were not impressed.

Neither was I.

But at least I made a start on sorting the mess out (four carrier-bags for the paper recycler, not to mention the stuff I shredded).

I didn’t find that photo, though; it must be in the bottom drawer of the cabinet. And that is going to take an archaeologist to find,