I have just spent the past four days painting the inside of my house. Several rooms in fact. I was so bored with the white walls everywhere, and each time I wiped grubby fingermarks off said walls the white paint came off as well. I love colour so decided to go all out and chose a merlot shade for one room and spice for the hallway and stairs.

My son though claims it looks as if I have squashed tomatoes all over the walls in one room and done something horrific with several tweety birds everywhere else. But who needs the opinion of males…they are all colour blind anyway. So why do they always have men at the paint-mixing counter at the hardware stores?

Anyway, even though my back is killing me, I am on a roll now and have chosen a third colour for the living room – son reckons it looks like the result of a bad curry meal. But I don’t care because I am the boss and what I say goes! They are nice earthy colours and look great. But oh, my aching back!!