Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Dangerous things, brushes.

I did it again. The number of times I've done that over the years is incredible.

I've been a painter & decorator for a while. I started working in construction while I was at Uni reading for a bachelor's degree. I needed a job because I was a "mature" student, (I was 22), and had my own flat. I got a grant of course, but I couldn't afford my flat, my lifestyle, my books (expensive subject I was studying) and to eat, without part-time work. Construction work was easy to come by, back then. It was almost always self-employed, casual, and cash-in-hand. (They've tightened up the tax laws since and it's a lot more difficult). I could do odd days here & there when I had a day without lectures. I never intended it to be long-term. I had a different career planned. But my life took a nose-dive and you know what they say about the best laid plans...

So I wound up in construction. I'm mostly a painter, often a paperer and frequently a general builder and have been for longer than I care to think about. There's something almost every painter does at least once, whether a professional (in which case it's a frequent thing), or a DIYer (in which case it's probably only once). What is it??

Well... There I was today. Up a ladder. 25mm gloss brush in hand. When the lady of the house brought me a cuppa.

You guessed it. I reached down to dip the brush in my paint-kettle and ruined a perfectly good cup of coffee. If I had a quid for every time I've dumped a brush in a cuppa instead of a paint-kettle, tin, bucket or roller-tray... well, I wouldn't be sitting here. I'd be lounging around in some Caribbean tax-haven, hob-nobbing with minor royals, chief executives, and famous film-stars.

Fortunately the cup itself wasn't ruined, just the coffee. And the lady had a sense-of-humour. A very good one, in fact. She actually laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks. I've never seen anybody do that before. She was very nice and brought me another cuppa once she'd stopped laughing. She wouldn't hand it to me until after I'd put my brush down and stepped away from the paint though. But since she also brought me a sticky bun I wasn't insulted. It was proper coffee, too. Nice.

See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you

Ze

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