Things that make me go RARRH!

The list of things that make me want to stab myself in the eye is long, random, detailed and ever-increasing...and I've worked hard on a pretty good system of ignoring/avoiding whatever it is that drives me crackers. When people glide gaily into my lane at a certain local 3-lane roundabout, I swear and wave angrily but then feel fine. When the advert about the discount meat place with the ridiculous catchy tune comes on, I slam my hand on the 'off' button so fast that the radio is looking a bit worse for wear...but the anger is quickly dispelled. When people don't use their manners, I have a whole arsenal of passive aggressive retorts that mean I can walk away feeling relatively calm.

But sometimes I snap, the shit hits the fan and SOMETHING HAS GOT TO HAPPEN!

Last week, when Husband announced he had to go to Barcelona with 5 minutes notice and I had to cancel our long-planned and extremely long-overdue night away at Malmaison (bitter? moi?) I was gutted. I walked into the kitchen on Friday afternoon to prep dinner, needed some garlic and, bam, I pulled the pantry door off.

Granted, I was upset about our trip, but if I'm honest it wasn't totally unexpected. Man, I hated that pantry. When we moved in, Yummy Mummy unpacked our kitchen for us and as such, I didn't even know I had a rolling pantry for a few days! I was quite excited when I initially discovered it, but like most gadgets that lure you in, once the novelty wore off, it just drove me insane.

It was one of these things, but with crappy metal baskets inside, and it didn't open quite that wide. What appeared to be an excellent use of space was actually ineffectual, badly designed and annoying. Oh, so, annoying. Also, it was right at the end of our u-shaped kitchen units as opposed to in the middle of a bank or up against a wall? It didn't work. It made me angry on a daily basis. The whole kitchen has that effect on me, as it happens, but that pantry was my evil nemesis.

So on a Malmaison-related whim, I emptied it, attacked it with a screwdriver and then attacked it with a hammer. Nana helped! The space now looks like this...

Granted, it looks like shit, and Husband is a bit pissed off but you would not believe the difference it has made to the space. The kitchen is quite small and, whilst I suspected that the pantry was causing half the problem, I had totally underestimated how much better the room would look when it was gone. As you can see, it stood right at the end of the units and completely blocked the line of sight into the utility room. Not to mention the fact that the bin always stuck out...middle class problems!

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the space. At the moment the bin has been promoted and is proudly standing in it's very own 'area', but since counter top has always been a massive issue I'm looking for a standard height freestanding unit that would serve to extend that worktop a bit, even if it's a temporary measure until the whole lot gets redone.

So yeah, Husband wasn't too impressed but I am a wise, wise woman and sent him a photo on the Saturday morning therefore ensuring he was over it by the time he flew back home. That's how you play the game after 14 years ;-)

Plus, he should be pleased I just pulled a cupboard down and didn't deliberately ram my car into the side of some moron who can't follow white lines clearly demarcating lanes on a busy roundabout!!