I am, I admit, a fundamentally lazy person. If I can avoid doing something, or get someone else to deal with it, I will. Procrastination should be my middle name.

Sadly, this isn’t the way my life is heading. I am now the person upon which all the grown-up stuff falls. I don’t enjoy this.

In the past, when Best Beloved was still fit and a good deal younger, we would tackle most jobs round the house ourselves. (I should note here that I simply don’t do gardening. Our “garden” is a wilderness, and I try to ignore it as best I can.) We gutted and redecorated our front room; we gutted and rebuilt our kitchen. With help from a friend or two, we rebuilt a back fence to give it a few more years of life. We also remodelled the wilderness to give space for a large wooden shed, which we then assembled and fitted out.

So, you see, we used to do this stuff together. Now, I have to do it on my own. I am unable to do most of these jobs alone.

Because we did so much on our own, we haven’t a network of tradespeople we can call on to tackle building and decorating jobs. It took me ages, for example, to find a decent plumber. Cold-calling random plumbers in various directories or from the internet is not my style: I’d much prefer a recommendation from someone I trust, word of mouth, a known quantity. I need a reliable jobbing builder, roofer, gardener, tree surgeon, and someone to come and clear out sheds, garage, and the wilderness.

Still, I now have a decent plumber I can call – which reminds me I need to call them up for a quote on a job or two I’d like sorting out…

My current plan, when I feel I can deal with some adulting again, is to ask the plumber if they work with a builder they could recommend. I also know, and trust, a fencing company. Perhaps they have other trades they work with and recommend.

Well, I suppose I should get on with that grown-up stuff. No-one else can to do it for me.