Just over a month ago I wrote seven posts in seven days, and it was actually remarkably easy. Now that I’m back to one post per week, it’s somehow become a bit more difficult. Partly down to the fine weather and the fact Mr WIAA is on holiday from his paid employment (as opposed to the wonderful world of self-employment which must still continue over the summer months), but mainly because there seems to be just so much going on at the moment, both in the wider world and domestically. Every time I think I have an idea for the following week’s post, and start working on it, by the time I’ve gathered my thoughts we’ve moved on to something else.
Since pressing the publish button last week we’ve had two high profile resignations from the cabinet, our government seems to be in total disarray with regards to what our future relationship with Europe will be and the POTUS and FLOTUS flew across for a visit. As expected the POTUS made a few monumental gaffes, whilst the ever-elegant FLOTUS just looks like a trophy wife who still can’t quite believe what has happened to her.
On a happier note we saw the miraculous rescue of 12 Thai boys and their football coach from flooded underground caves. I am in awe of what the divers went through in order to facilitate that rescue. Sporting-wise, we’ve had the closing stages of the World Cup where England nearly made it to the final, but fell at the hands of Croatia, a country with a population of 4 million. The Men’s Wimbledon Final took place on Sunday where the Serbian with the haircut that never changes recaptured his tennis mojo, and took the big prize.
In the more frivolous sections of the media we found out lots about the goings on in the Love Island villa (they do like to “crack on”, discuss their “connections” and parade around in barely there swimsuits). It also seems that the youngest of the Kardashian clan, aged only 20, is likely to become a billionaire in the very near future courtesy of a make-up range that the Love Island girls would no doubt approve of – Lots of products aimed at plumping the lips to cartoonish proportions.
So, that’s the wider world taken care of in three paragraphs, what’s been happening domestically? Well, DD has landed herself a new job which she is really pleased about and with Mr WIAA on holiday, we finally got the bit between our teeth and started doing all those jobs round the house that have been staring us down for months. Sadly there is nothing more likely to cause marital strife in our house than a spot of DIY, so needless to say tempers are frayed. Much moving around of furniture has had to be done, but if punctuated by frequent stops for a cuppa, it’s all bearable. Cue Bernard Cribbins and that great wee ditty from the early ’60s, Right Said Fred.
Today I finally finished “the kitchen project” which started a long, long… six months ago. The reliable, skilled tradespersons we had always hoped to commandeer never materialised, so a lesser tradesperson called Alyson did the lion’s share of the tiling, decorating and up-cycling of furniture. Back in January it only took 8 days to rip out the old kitchen and install a new one, complete with appliances, but it’s just taken me 14 days to sand down the old table and chairs, then re-varnish and paint them in another colour. Blame all the false starts for the length of time taken, but now that it’s finished, I’m really chuffed with myself.
One condition I have when decorating is that Mr WIAA does all the cleaning of brushes, especially if white spirit is involved. Such a messy business and really hard nowadays to dispose of all that cloudy solvent when you’re finished. Other than that however I am more than happy to spend my days up a stepladder, or crouched at skirting board level, transforming tired rooms into freshly painted ones. The best bit about decorating is being able to listen to the radio, totally guilt-free, for hours on end. I say guilt-free because I am incapable of doing anything that requires any modicum of concentration (computer stuff generally) and listen to the radio at the same time, so I have to limit my listening pleasure.
The kind of mainstream stations I tend to listen to don’t often play songs I’m unfamiliar with, but every now and again they surprise me, and this week I have a few new songs to add to the ever-growing database that constitutes the tracks of my years. This next song, like Right Said Fred, is from the early ’60s but a very different animal indeed. I don’t know if this is unusual for someone of my vintage but I was unaware of American artist Nancy Wilson until this week. Once I got past the idea that she sounded a little like our own Shirley Bassey I really warmed to her, and loved this little gem of a song that popped up on one of the radio playlists. Yes, it gets the prize for earworm of the week, and you don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know… how glad I am, about that.
(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am by Nancy Wilson:
(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am was a hit in the US for Nancy Wilson in the summer of 1964. It also received the Grammy Award in the R&B category the following year. Someone I had been unaware of until this week but someone I might like to investigate a little further once some semblance of a normal routine returns.
Hopefully by next week it’ll be back to business as usual but not always easy at this time of year to keep the pot boiling as my mum would say. I still have another post idea to tackle as a result of having thrown down the gauntlet a few weeks ago. Not going to be easy however, so to the person who suggested it, still on the back burner at the moment but will definitely appear in due course. In the meantime I’ll just “crack on” (as the Love Islanders would say) with all these decorating jobs and if it looks as if tempers are starting to fray, I’ll take advice from good old Bernard Cribbins and ‘ave a cuppa tea. Unlike Nancy Wilson, I don’t think my love (for Mr WIAA) at the moment has no beginning, end, front or back but fortunately it’s all just temporary!
Until next time….
(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am Lyrics
(Song by Jimmy Williams/Larry Harrison)
My love has no beginning, my love has no end
No front or back and my love won’t bend
I’m in the middle, lost in a spin loving you
And you don’t know, you don’t know
You don’t know, you don’t know how glad I am
My love has no bottom, my love has no top
My love won’t rise and my love won’t drop
I’m in the middle and I can’t stop loving you
And you don’t know, you don’t know
You don’t know, you don’t know how glad I am
I wish I were a poet so I could express
What I’d, what I’d like to say yeah
I wish I were an artist so I could paint a picture
Of how I feel, of how I feel today
My love has no walls on either side
That makes my love wider than wide
I’m in the middle and I can’t hide loving you
And you don’t know, you don’t know
You don’t know, you don’t know how glad I am
What's It All About? 
I totally tip my hat to your DIY skills! Very, very impressive.
Your kitchen looks great.
Bye, till next time —
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Thanks – I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to decorating as I like everything to be neat and sharp. Mr WIAA is a bit more slapdash about it all so I end up taking over and doing everything. Not great as I end up getting overwhelmed. Never mind, only 4 more rooms to do!
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Yes, I’m also very impressed by your DIY skills and the kitchen looks gorgeous – congrats! Sounds like you and Mr WIAA are the reverse of me and Mr SDS – in our case he’s the one who has to get everything just right and I’m a bit more “oh, that’ll do” – but perhaps these personality traits complement each other and one helps to rein in the other so you still get a great result but avoid it all getting too obsessive? Well, I like to think so, anyway! I may spend my life painting but walls and furniture are a different thing altogether! DIY is so stressful, though, and I can’t think of one instance when we’ve had to construct, paint, mend or set up something which hasn’t resulted in a few cross words at the very least. I prefer to stick to holding the screws or, better still, just making the tea… I wonder if there will ever come a time when there are AI robots who can do all the fiddly stuff for us instead – can’t see it somehow.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with as a result of some further gauntlet-throwing, whenever that may be.
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Really chuffed the kitchen is FINALLY finished but now we’re just going for it, doing lots of other rooms whilst we have a bit of time on our hands. Nothing too radical, but as I say, bearable if Mr WIAA cleans the brushes and does the prep for me. Isn’t that funny that the two of you who work in the arts, with paint and sculpture, don’t really get too fussed about decorating walls and furniture – A totally different discipline and also probably accurate to say that it’s best to have a balance, so as to stop anyone getting too obsessive about such things. Very stressful though and after coming back from town earlier with more paint supplies, I asked Mr WIAA how many times he thought we might “fall out” before bedtime – We both went for 3 but it’s turned out to be only once so good for us!
Not sure when I’ll be able to do the gauntlet-throwing post because like you I’m having a bit of a block at the moment – This summer my routine has changed entirely so blogging not so high up on the agenda. I do want to stick to the discipline of one post/week however, just to keep the writing going. Hope you’re enjoying the summer down at the other end of the country.
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NITROMORS!
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You have a new name here and on BlogSpot it seems! I have a feeling I might be one of the few who would have the right accent for them though.
I panicked when I first saw your comment as we’ve had websites hacked before now and it always starts with a string of letters like that. Got it now and thanks for the heads up, but not planning on going there myself – Will leave that to the other half!
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For various reasons ( mostly to do with Windows 10 updates) I had to do a clean install of Windows 10. Then Google Chrome and WordPress (insert rude word here) me about til I went gibbering mad. I’ve had to renew my name and password to various sites as a result. I am definitely not an evil spammer. Regards Graeme “Gram” Lynch(ie) – or variants thereof.
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I sympathise as I’ve definitely been there – Evil Windows 10!
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What’s the first meal you cooked in your FAB new kitchen, Alyson?
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Crikey – A long 6 months ago since the actual kitchen and appliances were fitted, it’s just taken so long to finish all the cosmetic/aesthetic stuff. I think I do remember however that when we went to cook our first meal after having lived on takeaways and microwave meals for 8 days, the new oven stumped us, and we had to make a wholesome stew on the hob! My old oven simply had on/off and temperature knobs whereas for this new one you need a degree in computer technology – It was a good two days until we had digested (no pun intended) the manual and worked our way through the setting up processes. ‘Tis the times we live in.
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You have my sympathy, Alyson, as someone who’s spent the last two weeks painting more fences than Tom Sawyer and cleaning out the garage. Nice job on that kitchen though.
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I actually don’t mind interior decorating, as long as someone else does the prep and the clean-up. Sadly I now also have the garden fences to do and that’s not much fun at all (not white-wash like Tom Sawyer either) but as Mr WIAA did the two sheds the other day that was the deal. This all explains why I’ve not had much time to visit the other blogs this week but I will put that right now.
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P.S. I’ve found the easiest way to clean paint brushes is to throw them away and buy a new one.
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Yes there has been a bit of that going on but I am torn. I know we now live in a disposable society but I was trained in DIY by my dad, who took great care of his brushes and tools – He would be horrified. Then again, disposing of all that white spirit isn’t exactly good for the environment either so perhaps the best way to go. Upsetting if you’ve invested in quality brushes however.
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Fabulous! If this was my kitchen I would be torn about using it at first. It would be broken in very slowly. Nothing greasy or smelly on the stove for a bit. Loved your song selection too. It’s all in the delivery, that one. Could listen to it over and over.
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Thanks, it’s probably no biggie for people who have a new kitchen every few years but this is the first brand new one I’ve ever had as just had to make do with what was there until now. The sad thing is that we’ve been so busy decorating other parts of the house this week that somehow (although I do have a suspect in mind!) one of the worktops has got a bit scratched having had paint cans & tools laid on it. A mercy mission to the kitchen shop today to get advice on how to deal with it – No easy solution unfortunately.
As for the song selection I’m guessing it’s not Bernard Cribbins we’re talking about – You are the first person to mention the song on this post actually but as you say with her it’s all in the delivery and I love how she enunciates some of the words in the song – Bottom, top, stop,,,,, As for the you don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know part – earworm of the week I’m afraid.
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