Sunglasses Please

I’m not very good at accepting favours. I hate to put people out. There are times though that it’s necessary to be a little flexible and agree no matter how much it goes against the grain. One of my nephews has been going on at me for a while about decorating. He’s been quite poorly and having had to leave work as a result of the illness is ofttimes at a bit of a loose end. Last months he went and helped decorate Yvonne’s in time for the birth of my grandson, I made sure he didn’t lose out on his petrol- and before my bright spark brotherfriend makes any suggestions it wasn’t through siphoning anyone else’s tank. This time he was adamant he wanted to help me and didn’t want ANYTHING for helping. He had paint and all the brushes and pads he could need and on Wednesday morning rolled up to my door in a pair of shorts and laden down with equipment. I may have mentioned before that my place cannot be described as palatial and is rather full. First job of the day a coffee for me and a chocolate for David followed by a little chin scratching festival while we decided where to start. I’d had a bad night and a nasty angina attack first thing but no way could I let him tackle things alone, partly because I was embarrassed at what he might find. No Michael, not porno magazines, I returned those to you unread. If you imagine my lounge as a box with the door at the front right On the right hand wall is a large leather settee which is opposite the large window and the TV. On the facing wall are two merchants chests of drawers with a small table between them where Ju resides and presides . Opposite them, on the wall to the left when you enter the doorway is a large cabinet with cupboards below and shelves above, there is also a glass display cabinet. In front of these are two armchairs and in front of those a coffee table. I mention these only because they are of an Indian wood that weighs a ton. Behind my chair sat / lay the biggest pile of paperwork, games, cards, giftwrap. future gifts you could ever imagine which was the bane of Ju’s life. We decided to start on the wall behind the settee. There were just three walls to paint as the fourth is papered and I haven’t decided what to do about it yet. We pulled the settee forward and my red face lit up the room. Underneath was an assortment of peanuts and sweets left by the degu’s . Even better (?) there was an extension cable for one of my lamps which contained two plugs with little wire attached. They belonged to a CD radio and some earphones. We swept up and removed pictures etc from the walls. I took a load of Ju’s old paperwork from under the butler’s tray table and departed the room. Giving most of the papers to the binman in case he wanted a hernia I nipped back to take down the net curtains for a wash. I decided to do them all at the same time being of a frugal mind and followed some good instructions from a friend to put them on a wool wash and to use the same cleaner as in a normal wash and the same conditioner. I refuse to call it softener as I accidentally put some in a bath once and I’ve never been the same since. The wall was soon done and David decided to start on the left hand one, leaving the window wall till last. With hernias popping up everywhere, I retired again to my room after moving the tonnage known as ‘The Furniture’ and started on my emails. I was writing and trying to think of a way to get Michael to do my ironing at the weekend when one email caught my eye. A friend was suggesting a Thai bride. She’s young, likes older, kinder men ( well , he got kinder right) and with the iron dangling in front of my face the idea had some appeal. Then I remembered I was never into bondage and gave up on the idea.( Tie bride Michael, keep up please). By the time the second wall was done the first was dry. So were my nets. We moved the settee back into position and had lunch. ( For the sake of a certain Australian friend I’ll just mention I had a ham salad roll). David couldn’t access the window wall until the second wall had dried so he left the room and made a start on my hallway. I forgot to mention he sugar soaps all the walls before he paints which means extra time because it needs to dry first. He managed to do that to all the walls in the hallway. As they dried he laid to. Soon one wall, two walls and three walls were done. It was almost time to finish for the day but before he left we had time to move the furniture back from the second wall of the lounge. In walked my brother for his Wednesday game of scrabble. I hadn’t realised it was so late. It was, and Dil sent me away with a flea in my ear to make his cuppa. David left with my thanks. Thursday morning arrived, we’ll just gloss over last night’s score for now I think. I had a problem that was really frustrating me. Two weeks ago I’d wanted to buy something from Amazon.com. I have a $5.99 gift voucher there and it’s hard to access because for books I always have to use Amazon.co.uk. Anyway, I thought I’d succeeded with the item I wanted. A few days later an email from Amazon.com said they were having problems getting funding from my bank using my card. I checked I’d done everything right- I had, and tried again. It seemed OK but again a few days later the message came back the same. At the same time a letter came from my benk fraud team to say they’d suspended use and needed to talk to me. Difficult since I don’t speak on the telephone. It turned out they were questioning the use of my card for a £2 purchase which was in fact a charity donation. £2 measly quid !! I thought it was straightened out when the man from India said he’s release the card straight away. Happily I went back to the transaction. This week on Thursday the purchase hadn’t gone through again. I was convinced it was because I was buying from.com instead of .co.uk and cancelled the order. I made to buy it from Amazon.co.uk instead. All seemed OK………………………………….To be resumed. We moved the crap my stuff from behind my chair, moved the chair and the TV and David painted the last wall of the lounge. He went out to his car and came back with a set of metal drawers on wheels which he claimed to have been given by a stallholder at the market he visited on the way to me. I wonder if he thinks I’m really as green as I’m cabbage looking. They don’t look inexpensive and here’s a man who isn’t working. I can’t allow this. I know the roughly what colour the last wall of the hall is to be and I ask if he’d be prepared to take me to the shops for a new table runner for the console table and voile for the door ( see, I know all the technical terms). Off we go to the shops where I get what I need and as always a lot more too. I give David an envelope and tell him it’s to cover the cost of petrol for coming to me over the two days. He argues but can’t fight me covering that bill at least. He’s a trusting soul. With no furniture to be moved in the hall David gets started and I head off to the emails again and more promotion for Memoirs of a Superior. It’s approaching lunchtime and I leave the room and OMG it’s really, REALLY, Turquoise. ( For my Australian friend, let me remind you I had salad again). I lunched in silence, the glare having given me a headache. I wash the pots in shocked silence and go to hang the net curtains ( I need something to peep round at the neighbours). The wall starts to dry and I’m glad to see it’s a much more muted colour than before. It goes perfectly with the voile and runner. David leaves with my thanks but not before telling me he’ll be back next Tuesday and Wednesday to do the pit ( where I have the freezer) and my bathroom. He wants to do my bedroom too but that’s a job for hero’s since it’s tiny and there’s nowhere to move the furniture to. We’ll have to see what next week brings and maybe I can get away with just the bathroom for now. ……Resumed…… Michael came Friday and has now stopped laughing at the colour. At least he knows it was Ju’s choice and not mine. Saturday morning brought an email from .co.uk to say payment refused. It’s very embarrassing. Then I went to Virgin to top my phone up and the same thing happened. We were out before 8am shopping and then paid a visit to MuJo because John was ill yesterday. We returned this afternoon to try and sort this out which necessitated another very annoying telephone call to New Delhi or it’s environs. They are very nice people and very helpful but regretfully my inexperience with the accent means I have lots of problems understanding what’s being said. In the end it turns out the helpful young man from two weeks ago had done nothing to restart the card. I was asked to create a new telephone banking code without letters as alpha numerical ones are no longer accepted and then told I could go ahead. I went straight to Amazon.co.uk to kick start the order again and then to Virgin to top up the phone. They asked for the first, second and seventh numbers from my code….refused, they asked for the first , third and eigth number of my code, brilliant, it only has seven. Than a light shone in my brain and I tried my old security number …it worked. I’m back on track I think.

I’ve added this photograph but it really gives no indication of the impact this colour had when wet, or even how it looks now when you’re seeing it in full daylight. Hope you’ve all had a good week and have a better one coming.