In reality it is the fourth bedroom but when we bought the house I asked for a study, something I had always wanted. So we got it properly kitted out with a desk and shelving etc. Many years later when the old desk pretty much fell apart we got it done properly with real study-like tables running along an entire wall.
Somebody visiting the study once said "it's so tidy. Mine is such a mess." But as I sit here writing this, I realise what a mess it is in. There is paper everywhere. There's also a lot of things on the wall. So here goes - a description of my little world which may say a few things about me as a person.
Starting on the left and moving around clockwise. I have a three draw wooden modern filing canbinet which is full of rubbish and seriously needs to be sorted. It has old notebooks, pens, electronic garbage and all the things you can't find a place for but just jumble together. On top of this is a mobile scanner for which I seem to have lost the software. There is also two large containers full of family and holiday photographs that desperately need to be sorted and indexed. There is also a photograph of my youngest son as a baby with my grandmother (his great grandmother). She would have been well into her nineties at this point and died just a couple of months short of her 100th birthday. Her daughter 0 my Aunt - died this year at the age of 105).
On the main desk I have the following. a three tiered set of shelves which are a throw back to my journalism days. These contain paperwork that needs to be dealt with and probably never will. There's a portable digital radio that I rarely now use, my camera which does take trips out, a container with pens and pencils, a calendar, my wi-fi equipment, a landline phone, a digital clock, some files (these are temporary and will go back on shelves), a blood pressure monitor which I sometimes use and my desktop computer and monitor. Moving along there's a wireless printer, a portable television, a number of speakers and some other gubbins that needs to be put in an appropriate place.
Around the walls are things that tell you a little about my life. There's two awards that I'm particularly proud of. They are the South Norfolk Community Sport Volunteer of the Year from 2014 and the South Norfolk Queen's Diamond Jubilee Inspiring Achievement Award from 2012. Below those are two prized possessions. A personal letter to me from my musical hero Harry Chapin and a personal letter from his pr officer. Then I have my Masters Degree certificate.
On the wall in front of me, it's a little stranger. I have the following. A photograph and description of Hethersett's win in the community of the year competition, a variety of photographs of my grandchildren (my pride and joy), a framed copy of the Desiderata poem given to me by my cousin, a heart shaped piece of wood stating "A grandfather is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart", a piece of artwork from Hethersett Old Hall School which closed a few years ago, a framed poster of the Woodstock Festival, a clock that is currently an hour behind as I haven't changed it, more family pictures, a picture of Regent Road in Great Yarmouth from Edwardian Times, a pictured of Yarmouth Market Place, a picture of the racehorse Frankel given to me by a friend, a random picture of a horse named Rankin with jockey Greville Starkey given to me by somebody I used to work with who was a very good sports photographer, a small postcard advertising a concert by Billy Cotton and his Band at Norwich Hippodrome (I told you my study was a place for randomness), a picture of David Bowie and a poster illustrating all his studio albums.
Then we have file after file after file for everything from family history to old cuttings, Norwich speedway and football programmes (told you I was a bit of a Magpie) and above them is a picture of Norwich School pupils taken in 1967.
The rest of the study is an horrendous tale of books, files and old bags scattered around - not to mention the best part of 50 years of my personal diaries. So I won't bore you with any more and call it a day for today.