Preparation gets serious

I didn’t manage to get all the painting completed in the main bedroom on this trip to Melbourne. It’s so tricky and time consuming painting cornices, when they are a different colour from the ceiling and walls. I threw in the towel at 2.00am. There was no way I could possibly finish the job at the rate I was going before it was time to leave. Anyway, I was beginning to feel wobbly on the ladders, and there’s no point risking an injury over a coat of paint.

With two and a half hours sleep under my belt I was whisked off to the airport. For the first time ever and despite my child like fascination of the view from aeroplane windows, I dozed during the bulk of the flight back to Canberra. I felt dead all day at work. I hope no one noticed. I couldn’t concentrate on work, and left for the day earlier than usual. I caught the bus home, but unfortunately got on board the wrong bus and had to walk miles in the hot afternoon sun.

Less than 12 hours earlier I was cleaning paint brushes in another state, and here I was trudging along a street swishing flies away on a hot afternoon. What a day!

Not sure why my back was aching: because of the strange angles I was standing while hanging onto the ladders, or because we slept on the lounge room floor on the last night trying to avoid the paint smell that was in the bedroom.

So many things didn’t get done on this trip, but a lot did get done. The house is taking shape ready for sale, but oh, it’s a slow, painstaking, painful, tedious, boring job. I'll say more shortly.

I phoned home in the evening. S said that Elsa (our cat) was pining for me. She had been wandering around the house looking for me. Poor thing. I played a trick on her when I got home. When I arrived, I crept quietly into the house by the back door, and tiptoed into the bedroom, hid behind the bed, and called her name when she walked past. She took a double-take when she saw me. Okay, I’m a softy for our cat. Her nineteenth birthday has just gone.