1. Tidy the house until my mum is impressed.
17 March 2007: Mum came to stay. Not only was she not impressed, she spent her entire visit whining about the state of the house; I came within an inch of suggesting that she lets us know next time she's coming to London and I'll book her into a nice Travelodge. No. Not actually all that much progress. My aide said "you worry far too much about what your mother thinks". True.
25 February 2007: My friend Mike said "The thing about your 101 things list is that one of them is much bigger than all the rest." He also said, helpfully, "What you need to do is buy a new house, and then move everything from the old house that you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. Then burn the old house down and claim on the insurance."
We're not doing that. Lilian, who ought to be easier to impress than my mother, is staying. "Have you noticed how much tidier it is, and how much decluttering we're doing?" I asked.
"No," she replied.
Anyway, as of Feb 2007, this one is definitely started.