A few weeks ago we discovered a leak in the kitchen at home. Our kitchen floor is lino, but there’s a seam roughly level with a row of cabinets where two separate pieces join. We discovered water seeping through that and found that we could squeeze more out by walking back and forth over it. We think we probably missed it through the hot summer because a) we had a rug over that part of the floor and b) it’s been quite warm and maybe it’s been evaporating.

In due course a plumber visited and found the problem to be the washing machine, so that’s fixed now. Unfortunately, it’s gotten very mouldy around the source of the leak. So we are awaiting people to come and fix that. In preparation, we’ve had people in to take away our dining room furniture and rip up the old lino in both the kitchen/dining room and in the downstairs loo.

They can’t put drying machines in the kitchen yet or it would just blow the mould around. Not a good idea. But we have got some blasting away in the downstairs loo, much to the chagrin of the cats, who think we have trapped their mortal enemy - the hoover - in there. They’re pretty loud, but it’s white noise so I’ve been able to tune it out.

Meanwhile, the floor of the kitchen is all sticky, ruining our slippers one footstep at a time. The walls are bare so it’s an echoing place now. Vaguely reminiscent of when we first moved in (except back then there was nice lino), but also vaguely reminiscent of the sets of that Backrooms movie I was too scared to go see earlier this year.

A photograph of a lino-less kitchen floor.Bare sticky floor, backrooms-style.

At the moment cooking is an interesting process. We don’t have a lot of bench space and it’s been an instruction in how useful it is to have the dining table as a backup. About half our food prep equipment is distributed in boxes around the rest of the house. Your feet get stuck to the floor while you chop onions or make a cup of tea or hastily evict a cat making an illegal incursion or pretty much anything really. Every dinner is a TV dinner. Please invite us to your house so we can eat at a table once more.

But the distribution of stuff and the general chaos of having some rooms out of action still provide an opportunity. The health app is going to love all those trips upstairs to fetch tupperware. And there’s other knock-on effects too. I’m the sort of person who loves to wait until the time is right before taking action. It’s why there are loads of long gaps between posts on this blog. The upside of having this disruption is that it’s going to be quite a while before the time is really right again. And that frees me to take action I think. At least when it comes to writing posts, which I’ve come to realise is pretty important for my mental health.

So don’t expect too many recipes in the next few weeks and months, but maybe I will write a few more posts on other subjects!