What A Week
Posted By Judith on 2nd July 2017
Last Sunday I looked at the ‘week ahead’ weather forecast and my heart sank. Rain. I haven’t been feeling very well for several weeks now, but at least when the sun shines I can go outside. The idea of a week of day-time TV was enough to push me over the edge, so I decided to stop being a wimp and decorate the little bedroom.
It hasn’t been touched since we moved in 3 years ago, save for a thin coat of white emulsion ‘just to brighten it up’.
And so began a hard week.
It was going quite well until Wednesday morning when the kettle sprang a leak. I turned to my trusty ‘back-up’ kettle but that had been in the cupboard for so long it had forgotten how to switch itself off after boiling.
I returned to make my cup of tea after feeding the birds to find boiling water spewing out of the spout all over the kitchen cabinets.
Then the postman came.
We’ve been trying for some time now to put together a collection of Belgium pottery but pieces in good condition are hard to come by.
We were pleased to have found a pair of candlesticks on E Bay and even more pleased when our bid won.
As the postman handed me the box it rattled ominously. Let’s just say the candlesticks hadn’t travelled well, in fact they had been comprehensively smashed as you can see here.
They had survived in mint condition for over 100 years only to be completely destroyed by a combination of poor packing and Royal mail. Heartbreaking.
The candlesticks went in the bin with the 2 kettles.
This did not bode well for Thursday when we were expecting delivery of 2 very large mirrors also bought on E Bay. We didn’t want 14 years bad luck.
Fortunately they arrived safely on Thursday teatime. They were both to be ‘floor-standing’ against a wall and on Friday we decided to fix the first one in place, this one involved setting it into the skirting board across a chimney breast.
You’d think that 2 reasonably intelligent people with plenty D.I.Y experience could fix a 30″ wide mirror in the centre of a 4 ft wide chimney breast.
For some reason we found it harder than it should have been, the measurements just didn’t seem to add up. We weren’t helped by the fact that the mirror is brass, 4 ft high and weighs about the same as a small hippo. By the time we had screwed it into place it was 1″ too far to the left.
Personally I would have let it stay there, but Peter, perfectionist that he is, decided he couldn’t live with it off centre, so on Saturday we took it down and moved it.
It’s now Sunday morning again and the sun is shining. The bedroom decorating has gone well, though isn’t quite finished. The mirror is in the middle of the chimney breast, but as the room hasn’t been decorated yet you’ll have to take my word for it.
My new kettle came yesterday and it’s a joy not to have to boil water in a pan.
Onward and upwards!!
