It's taken nearly a year but I've finally got my house in order, quite literally.
Over the past 11 months I've been on a global tour that's mostly seen me going about my daily chores and spending available down time finding all the necessary pieces I need to facilitate organisation and comfort in a compact space.
The basics have long been tended to. The bed, sofa and desk have all been put to reasonably good use, though I do question the need for a bed as I usually wake up on the sofa with the BBC news headlines branded somewhere in the front lobe of my brain.
What hadn't been dealt with were the details. Paintings and photos were leaning against walls, CDs were in boxes, books were acting as side tables, the lovely oak storage system from Denmark was waiting to be fixed in my office and living room, and there were colonies of glassware and ceramics that needed creative direction.
All of these things would have continued to languish in purgatory had mum not arrived on the scene 10 days ago to take matters into hand.
On my return from an overnight trip to Valencia all the pictures had been hung. The next day new cushions had been made for my Borge Mogensen daybed.
The following evening I returned to find a new screen hanging between kitchen and reception room - a much-needed feature to create some sense of order and division between lounging and nagging chores.
The only thing that's missing is a nice lady to keep it all in order with twice-weekly frequency. The head of the Norwegian ambassador's household has promised to find someone to take on this task, so I'm hoping order will soon reign full time and not just when mum pulls into town.
Urban planning
If you've found your winter weekends have so far kept you in town rather than up in the mountains then you need to come up with some urban distractions to keep your mind off thought the pistes. As you probably enjoy this paper sometime before lunchtime on a Saturday, here are 10 remedies I've come up with to keep me occupied and entertained in the city:
1. Ian McEwan's Saturdayis my current bedside read. This will soon be followed by James Hawes' Speak for England and perhaps, just perhaps, the new John Grisham.
2. Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education is perfect fare for a Sunday afternoon. It also gives you an excuse to crack open a bottle of cava just after lunch.
3. The new issue of German AD is devoted to America and has a profile on Sao Paulo-based architect Isay Weinfeld's latest project in Brasilia. If you're in the market for a new house in the sun, it will have you reaching for the phone for a meeting.
4. There's a new bike in my life to help me speed through the weekends and explore parts of London that have so far been uncharted, at least by me.
5. Tennis in the park is a perfect Sunday afternoon pursuit, especially during a mild February.
6. Tracking down very obscure music on the cdjapan website. My latest best finds are Maki Nomiya's two solo albums.
7. Snapping up bits of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish modernist furniture and glassware on lauritz.com
8. Keeping to a promise of getting through all the Sunday newspapers, The Economist and nytimes.com before it's bedtime.
9. Pretending I live in Vienna by listening to ORF's FM4 via my Powerbook, while working in my apartment.
10. Developing plots and schemes to ensure that the next weekend will be spent on the slopes of St. Moritz or somewhere similarly sporty and sunny.
Gore TV with bite
Finally, TV programming might get the kick of quality it deserves when Al Gore's INdTV gets underway later this year. With a galaxy of interesting names attached to his project, including Apple's Steve Jobs, to create a revolutionary news and information channel for the 18-34 demographic in America, it's going to make for interesting viewing, with Fox launching a business service and all the US networks deciding what to do with their regular output.
Having already lined up an interesting cast of talent to get the network on the air, the association with Jobs suggests that ANN the Apple News Network might actually become a reality.
Building on the concept of having citizen-style reporters tell the stories, as pioneered by OhmyNews in Korea, Gore's new channel could mark a revolution in broadcast news. I do wonder if Tipper will have anything to do with the scheduling?
