You can see from the picture that truly exciting things are afoot.
The long bar that you can see across the middle of the picture is the ridge piece that goes along the top of the conservatory.
One of us, I forget which, but you can probably guess, had the brilliant idea of covering it with gold stick-on vinyl. We have, as you might recall, still got quite a bit of this left over from the fridge.
I am very pleased with this. It is going to be lovely. It is becoming lovelier even as I write, because although I am on the taxi rank, it is a very quiet night so Mark has stayed at home. He is industriously sticking bits of beautiful gold vinyl on to the ridge piece even as I write.
Some of our friends dropped by this afternoon as well, and they made the brilliant suggestion of adding some stick-on coloured LED flashing lights as well, which I thought was fantastic. As it happens we have got a couple of strings of these somewhere, so we are going to glue them to the gold ridge pole, and our conservatory will be the nicest one on the alley. It is the only one on the alley, but even if the alley was full to bursting with tip-top brilliant conservatories, nobody else’s would be half so splendid.
I have never seen a gold conservatory with flashing lights before. It is going to be an absolute one-off.
We have also got some rose copper vinyl. We are going to stick that to some things as well, probably the door.
Suddenly I am excited and happy about the whole thing. It is going to be wonderful.
Mark has not been sticking gold to ridges all day. For most of the day he has been putting the glass bits into the window frames. You can see the little one that he has done in the roof. He has got most of the side bits done now, and the joke that we have had all along about being hot and opening a window is going to be real before long.
I took the taxi for its repeat MOT, which it passed, and then took the paperwork in to the council offices. The lady behind the desk was quietly admiring of my taxi paperwork, and said that it was the most efficient that she had ever encountered. This did not especially surprise me as taxi drivers are not famous for their interest in detailed and accurate records. This is most especially where the Inland Revenue are concerned, but the council comes under the same leaky umbrella.
My efficiency was not truly the result of an interest in paperwork, but could be explained by the knowledge that if everything is to hand you can get in and out quickly and thus save £1.20 on the purchase of a parking ticket. I considered that this particular expense was a shocking waste of resources, it is the equivalent of a whole bag of Giant Chocolate Buttons, at least whilst they are still on Special Offer in Sainsbury’s.
I bought a bag of Giant Chocolate Buttons, by way of self congratulation. I am eating them in the taxi now, in between customers, and feeling pleased with my resourcefulness.
I should not have bought anything really, because I have had to cough up for Oliver’s new school uniform today. The lady rang from the school shop at nine o’ clock this morning to tell me cheerfully, in a Scottish sort of way, that they had packed it all and would be posting it out as soon as I supplied some cash.
You will not be surprised to hear that from my point of view it was the middle of the night. I had been in bed rather less than four hours, and stumbled around trying hopelessly to locate Mark’s credit card and work out what on earth she was saying, whilst she realised that I was half asleep at almost lunchtime, and became disapprovingly Scottish instead.
I can’t now remember what she said it would cost. That will have to be a surprise when it shows on the statement, but actually I don’t care. Actually I am so pleased I can hardly stop grinning.
Having the uniform on the way makes it all thrillingly real. He is off to senior school. He has passed his Common Entrance and after all these years of worry and planning and hoping and wondering, it is all going to happen.
I wonder if the Queen felt like that when they rang her up to hand over her credit card for Prince Charles’ uniform. I wonder if she was as pleased and excited as we are.
She might not have been.
She hasn’t got a lovely gold conservatory with flashing lights either.
1 Comment
Ridge looks splendid, could have come off a fridge I once saw, but wouldn’t it have been less adventurous to have put it in place before the roofing glass? Just curious.