Real life

Real life

28 October 2017 9:00 am

The Albanian builders have started a turf war in my kitchen. The hostilities broke out suddenly. One minute the builders…

Real life

14 October 2017 9:00 am

They are building the bonfire already. In the dip where winter flooding sometimes creates a small lake, the wood and…

Real life

7 October 2017 9:00 am

How reassuringly like old times it is, going to a God-forsaken retail park with Stefano. We mooch about the DIY…

Real Life

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Assuming someone had moved house before, and put a new boiler in their new house, while remaining a customer of…

Real life

23 September 2017 9:00 am

BT have just put the phone down on me for asking them to stop sending me junk mail, which is…

Real life

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Stefano and his boys got to work with gusto and within a few days the upstairs of my house started…

Real life

9 September 2017 9:00 am

Stefano the Albanian turned up in a brand new Audi off-roader, cutting quite the dash. He looked older, with some…

Real life

2 September 2017 9:00 am

My friendly neighbourhood Lib Dems have put some campaign literature through my door. In a covering note, they intimate that…

Real life

26 August 2017 9:00 am

Darcy is high-maintenance, so I decided to leave her in the posh livery yard, with its luxuriant shavings beds and…

Real life

19 August 2017 9:00 am

Easier by far to load up my horses and move them to the next village than try to fight the…

Real life

12 August 2017 9:00 am

Like Steve McQueen gone slightly to seed, the builder boyfriend strode off into the sunset. Nothing becomes him so much…

Real life

5 August 2017 9:00 am

‘This situation is Rorke’s Drift,’ said the builder boyfriend, after our proposed renovations were objected to at the parish council’s…

Real life

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Quite stoically, I was mountaineering on my hands and knees over a sea of rubble to get to the temporary…

Real life

22 July 2017 9:00 am

Two months after I cancelled Sky, a strange letter arrived in the post. ‘We are writing to you because we…

Real life

15 July 2017 9:00 am

‘What do you think it means?’ I asked the builder boyfriend as we stood in front of the sign. A…

Real life

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Last night, I had dinner at the M25 services. I don’t mean I stopped for a break mid-journey. I mean…

Real life

1 July 2017 9:00 am

Since moving to my dream home in the country a month ago, I’ve only had to fight a parking dispute,…

Real life

24 June 2017 9:00 am

All had gone suspiciously quiet down our little track on the village green, and we had begun to think we…

Real life

17 June 2017 9:00 am

And so, as it must, the pilgrimage to find a local GP surgery begins. This is a great British tradition,…

Real life

10 June 2017 9:00 am

‘I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake with my council tax,’ I said to the lady at Guildford Borough Council. ‘Right,’…

Real life

3 June 2017 9:00 am

‘You’re probably excited about your new service and keen to start using it as soon as you can,’ said the…

Real life

27 May 2017 9:00 am

After spending the day unblocking the gutters and drains in the pouring rain, he wasn’t in the mood for a…

Real life

20 May 2017 9:00 am

The builder boyfriend has dug himself a hole. I don’t mean he’s in trouble with me. I mean he has…

Real life

13 May 2017 9:00 am

Well, there were seven of us in this chain, so it was a bit crowded, to paraphrase a princess. We…

Real life

6 May 2017 9:00 am

A gentleman on Twitter ‘writes’ to say I’m boring him with my house move. ‘Snooze-fest’, says this chap, and he…