poliphilo

When I was a kid I used to sleep under a sloping roof with a few inches of plasterboard and tiling between me and the open sky. It was bloody cold- much as it has been in our house these past few days and nights.

The new bedroom windows are held in place by chewing gum. Last night there was a bit of a wind and they creaked like a ship in a gale. There's nowhere to hang curtains or blinds so we blocked out the light by wheeling a couple of clothes racks in front of them.

Ophelia Field says the British national character- and our ideas of what it means to be gentlemanly and ladylike- were first formulated by Addison and Steele in The Spectator. I haven't read The Spectator; I don't suppose many my age and younger have. Addison was a little chilly, but Field is clearly fond of Dick Steele- who was a rackety, hapless man who seems to have tried very hard to be good.

We have joiners here this morning. They're putting a false ceiling in the kitchen.