Now for something completely different!

Ok, I expect you are fed up with the saga of my kitchen. I will move on.

This week has shown me that when you can't write because of circumstances (noise, no electricity, no internet, needing to project manage or shop for a project etc.) you need to be creative about what to do to usefully employ your time.

I have ventured into writing reviews for television programmes. This is new to me but I have found it very interesting, both in terms of actually deciding what to watch and review and in the actual writing of the review.

Daytime TV is a strange world. It was a learning experience just looking at what was on offer. It seems that you can watch a couple of films if you have the time and inclination; Channel 4 yesterday was offering the 1956, Sailor Beware! and Five, The Sign of Four, made in 2001. There was the news and a selection of talk and game shows, and, of course, soaps. I settled on ITV1 and a show called Dickinson's Real Deal.

I knew nothing of the programme, its host or what I was about to see. Venturing firmly into the unknown, armed only with a remote control, notepad and pen, I settled down to watch.

What fun! For those of you who have no idea what this is all about, in a nutshell it is a televised antiques market, hosted by antique dealer, David Dickinson. Keen punters with items to sell, come along and sell their items to the resident dealers or send their items for auction. Viewers can sit in on the haggling and it is hard not to join in from your armchair, particularly when it is quite obvious that the hapless seller is selling at too low a price. I suppose it is hard not to let money go to your head when £50 notes are being slapped down on the table in front of you. I could not help a smirk when, after listening to a dealer frankly telling a lady that he had no idea of the artist who had drawn the pictures she was offering, cut to the chase by asking, 'What sorta dough yer looking for?' We later heard that he could not sell the pictures he had bought for a song.

The programme is vulgar, brash and, I fear in a recession, completely addictive! I can't wait for the next edition.