I have had a song in my head for the last few months. I knew who sang it. I knew which album it came from. And I had a feeling the album was somewhere in the sideboard, but that was as far as it went. Until I started taking the wallpaper down from the hallway.

This is a long story. I recommend a cup of coffee.

So, Aimée was going away for the weekend on a course, and I decided I could take down the old wallpaper (a mess of double layers, over pasting, heavy paintwork, and a sad commentary on my ability to measure twice and cut once), tidy the walls, put up new wallpaper, paint, and put the furniture back inside three days. So far, it’s taken more than a week, and the sitting room is full of stacked up books, but that’s a side-story.

The fact is: there were a few items I needed to find before I could get started. The wallpaper steamer, the scraper, various brushes and rollers, I knew I’d need all of them, so I set about searching. The steamer was in a cupboard in the conservatory, as was the hose attachment for it. But the power cord was nowhere to be seen.

I searched the whole of the conservatory. Nothing.

I went through all my toolboxes. Nada.

I tried every drawer in the house (and found the album I had playing in my head for a couple of months), but no power cord. Eventually, I found it in a lint-spattered cardboard box in the utility room.

Anywho, here’s a song:

Halo, Still Here (2002)