On A Brighter Side...

Same language yet slightly different interpretation.

One of our radiators has sprung a leak. A few water drops cascade into a bowl underneath it as soon as we fire up the central heating. Not such a good omen right in the middle of a cold spell. Never mind, our plumber lives two villages over.

As can only happen in our village, I met up with him outside the doctor's rooms on Tuesday, while I was taking someone there.

" Hi, so glad I saw you. Would you be able to come and sort out our dripping radiator? "

" Of course I can. Just call me when you've switched it on and then I'll run it through. "

Honestly, I think that is what he said and we eventually organized that he would be at our house Thursday at 8 a.m. As a seasoned procrastinator, I made huge plans to have the house ship shape for this 8 a.m deadline. Did I mention, that the plumber is a known perfectionist and keeps his house tidy? And more importantly, he is a friend of my parents and it wouldn't do for them to be exposed as having an untidy offspring, but I tend to think that this ship has sailed long ago.

In that important mental run-up to the actual cleaning, I ran through the various rooms he might have to go into. Bathrooms because he might have to put more water into the heating loop, the actual radiators, general tidiness and of course the floors, which he would have to lie on to look under those radiators. A tall order indeed.

Yesterday morning arrived faster than expected, and I had left myself 40 minutes to do all of the above including having a shower, washing my hair and getting dressed. Yikes, wonder woman indeed! My subconscious mind had warned me that he might even arrive early. Perfectionists aren't known to be late or even fashionably on time...

Oh yes, I heard his car driving up our driveway at a quarter to eight. Luckily I had showered and done most of the tasks, except for washing last night's dishes. The kitchen looked like a whirlwind had blown through it, and it had: moi! The Bobster of course is unexpectedly the neat one in the kitchen.

Never mind, I would have to make light of the less than sparkling kitchen. Look, he more than likely didn't even notice and I'm sure that in his profession he's seen much worse. So, there I was prepared for him to pull out and replace the pipe underneath the radiators, and had cleaned the bathrooms to my mum's standards, when all he did was to pull out a spanner and tighten the bolts. Five minutes tops, no rooms inspected.

The great part about this linguistic mishap was that I have done a stint of house cleaning and don't need to do it again too soon...

Biggi