Those who know the Welsh Hovel in which I live will remember that the most hovelish part was a two room office from the Edwardian era, tacked on to the original 1650 farmhouse. My priority since we arrived five years ago has been renovating the main house and barns and transforming the fields and garden. This year I finally addressed the office block as you can see below.
The lovely original floors remain but I have installed lighting and had the walls plastered. The roof has been re-slated and repaired so no longer leaks. I had used one room as a potting shed and also to store some food either in sand boxes or in a freezer my in-laws gave us. In photo one you can see that the freezer remains and on the window sill are a row of sunflowers I am growing with the kids and also some marrows, grown from seed, to plant out this weekend. The only picture in this room is a cartoon of me done at a London Irish players summer ball when I was a lot younger and a bit, thinner – 14 st 0 as opposed to 14 st 8 today. I should say that my weight continues to fall as I digest rabbit food and work hard in the garden. I aim to hit sub 14 st again by late summer.
Room two has more paintings and photos reflecting various parts of my life story: a Cochrane family tree, the Ilbert girls, the worst play I ever saw, my brief time dodging tax in the Isle of Man and, of course, Greece.
But what you want to see are the nudes of the ex g/f. She had them drawn and given to me as a birthday present a long, long time ago. The thing is that the Mrs thinks it inappropriate to retain them let along hang them up in my office and I suspect that the husband of the ex g/f would not really want them to be sent to her. So what to do?
Certainly I am not showing them to you all as, though they are very appealing, that might embarrass the ex. It is a conundrum.
