Tidying up after coming back from holiday I took a pile of his 'bits and bobs' from the suitcase into David's office to put them on his desk. As I leaned over, I spied this - the remnants of a long forgotten glass of wine, complete with mould and rings where the daily evaporation has taken place. Delightful.

When the kitchen was first started, it was going to be a 3-4 week job and it was all a bit of fun and adventure. It didn't matter that we only had a microwave, electric frying pan and kettle - it was a challenge! I soon realised it was no longer fun when David was in Le Mans and I lived for a week on fried egg sandwiches because it was all I could be bothered to cook for myself.

With no dishwasher and no sink, we have found it difficult to keep up with the washing up and other household chores - even with Jo around.

It's now an uphill struggle trying to keep ahead of this stuff when we been in this situation, with no water downstairs in our house for 6-8 weeks now. Washing up is done in a bucket in the garden and we're using the outdoor tap for filling the kettle and cooking on our one-ring camping stove. I can't wait for the new kitchen to be finished, it's beginning to be a bit of a grind.

Still, even amidst all this ugly chaos, I still managed to do justice to yesterday's sugar snap peas in a really yummy pasta dish, Cornish soft cheese brought back from our holiday and the peas sauted in olive oil tossed through the pasta and served with a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper. Simple and delicious!