Oh dear.

A couple of days ago I was sitting watching the sun set over the Caribbean, my only concerns how we were going to cook the fresh fish we were going to have for supper, where I’d left the novel I was reading, and how my Rum Royale had disappeared so quickly.

Today, in contrast, I have been required to undertake the chores of normal life; grocery shopping, more floor mopping to attack the dust residue left from the repairs and maintenance, and, for a couple of hours, fighting with a recalcitrant curtain rail.

I had to take the curtains down during the repairs, and, as they had been up for over 11 years, not surprisingly the act of bringing them down caused many of the hooks and bits and pieces to break, brittle after so many years service.  I, somewhat naively it turns out, thought that all I would have to do would be to replace the broken components and everything would be fine.  But, no, as it seems that the design of the basic curtain rail has changed, moved on and evolved.  Where I needed bits with slots, the only spare parts I could find had sticking out bits, so, I had to replace the whole thing.

The rail comes wound in a tight coil, and the instructions recommend warming it in hot water before trying to attach it to the brackets on the wall.  They also suggest that fixing long runs of rail is a two person job.  I can see their point; even after its relaxing warm bath it’s still a 15 foot length of wayward plastic.  Having someone to hold the end to stop it whipping round to whack me on the back every time I got one piece attached and moved onto the next stretch would have been nice.  Equally, I can proudly say that I finally managed it on my own, and, so far the curtains have not fallen down.

Now for the rest of the nesting process to continue…..