whatho | Bathroom's free.

For the past four days ago, the only words myself and my brother have exchanged have been 'Bathroom's free' on my behalf and 'Thanks' on his. Mostly he skulks in other rooms whenever I hove into view. Today we made a slight advance. When I left the house this morning, he was the only other person in, so I shouted 'I'm going now. You can come out' in the direction of the kitchen, and then I scarpered. I think he only listened to the first bit because he said 'Okay' and I'm fairly sure he didn't mean to acknowledge his whole hiding thing. And I ruined my exit by having to return first for my wallet and then for my jumper. But still. When I came in again this evening he accidentally found himself in the vicinity of the stairs at the same time as me, so he said, powerfully crossly, that he had to go and feed the cats because he'd forgotten to do it on time and I pointed out that it wasn't actually time yet anyway and he said he thought he'd heard them asking for their food and I said that didn't necessarily mean anything, and then we went our separate ways. Just now I said 'Bathroom's free'. He said 'Thanks'. I don't like it very much.

The new bathroom's quite good though. There's nowhere to put towels and there's a hole in the skirting that leads right into the ceiling space, but the cold tap in the bath doesn't drip. I've never experienced a non-dripping cold tap before, ever. Mother says it won't last, but we're enjoying it while we can.