I was concentrating so hard on my mission to remove seven years' worth of built-up cal from the loo we'd never actually used (Mallorcan water is notoriously hard), that I didn't hear The Boss come into The Den's tiny shower room behind me:
"Er, I thought we were supposed to be painting the persianas?" He stood with his hands on his hips, wearing a quizzical frown - and a fine head-to-toe film of dust, resulting from his labours with the electric sander and our exterior shutters.
When it comes to decorating, The Boss is head of sanding (the dust makes me sneeze and, besides, he'd never let me play with - sorry, use - the electric sander. I'm the 'lucky' person who gets to wield the brush with bristle alopecia - something all paintbrushes here seem to suffer from - and treacle-like Spanish gloss paint.
I'd finished painting the back door shutters and had been waiting for him to finish sanding the next set. With my brush sitting in a jar of turps, I'd decided to fill the time usefully and tackle the cleaning job I was determined to do. I didn't realise that it would take so long to actually reach it!
A word of warning if you're thinking of living in an old finca: Every job completed results in a new one (or more) for the everlasting To Do list. Not only did we have a shower room door peppered with woodworm holes but, on first flush of the newly-gleaming loo, we also discovered there was a problem with some of the twiddly bits in the cistern and the water wouldn't stop running. Twiddly bits were removed and the loo was once again out of commission for the foreseeable future.
A pair of newly-sanded shutters, balding brush and can of gloopy gloss beckoned; plumbing and woodworm problems would have to wait.
Jan Edwards ©2009
About Me
- A Finca Life
- Jan's been writing since she was a child, sending off her first novel - entitled 'Jimmy', and written in her best joined-up writing - to a publishing house in London. As she was only 11 at the time, the publishers were kind enough to send her a rejection letter that was at least encouraging. She's still working on her second novel . . . Before moving to Mallorca, Jan spent 16 years as a radio presenter - the last five of which were with BBC local radio. She was also a freelance copywriter and PR. Now living in a rural finca near Manacor with three demanding males (only two of them cats), Jan presents a weekly radio show (Radio One Marratxi 92.9, Sundays 10am-1pm) and writes articles for magazines and newspapers on a freelance basis. Jan enjoys cooking, eating, walking and the Mallorcan countryside. She hates litter, mashed potatoes and any dish containing snails.
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2 comments:
I do like a man covered in a fine film of dust.
Shame there were a few clothes between!
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