Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Parents Aren't Always Good At Their Jobs
(Nod to Dom here for the partial theft of his post title - when are you going to start up blogging again?! Surely events have occurred!)
They came to visit over the weekend, to see the St Nicholas Market in town and to help with a few bits and pieces round the house and with my holiday.
I've got a shelf in my lounge above the fireplace that's been slightly wobbly since I moved in. Has never caused me any problems - the only things I keep on it are my battery-operated giraffe, Galileo thermometer and (surprisingly still-extant) inflatable poodle. Dad mentioned it could do with some work within about 5 minutes of me moving in, and I knew even then I was destined to be writing this blogpost (or at least relating this tale somehow) at some point!
A bit of background may now be in order. My dad, being my dad, can't leave things alone. His motto appears to be "If it ain't broke, pull it apart to find out why not." He's also very good at starting DIY jobs, very poor at finishing them (at least successfully). It took him 2 years to tile our 8ft square bathroom at home (at a rough estimate, that's about 1.5 tiles per week). Some years after this, when he and my mum had finally agreed on a bathroom cabinet they both liked, he put it up, a job of approximately 5 hours, plumb lines, spirit levels, theodolites, planning permission, etc.. The next time I went to visit them, I walked into the bathroom, glanced at the new cabinet, and instantly noticed he'd put it on the wall upside down.
I could tell when he arrived that he wanted to have a go at it. I've managed to stop him doing on at least 2 other occasions, once by dint of nicking and hiding his screwdriver, then "finding" it again just before they were leaving. However, this time despite much protestation, I failed to get up early enough on Sunday morning to stop him, and I arose to find the shelf lying on the floor, plaster dust all around, and dad sat there muttering.
And that's where the shelf still is. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't put it back up, despite 3 or 4 goes at putting things into the ever-enlarging holes left by the original, fully-functional wall plugs. And I've got 2 gaping holes in the wall, no shelf and a giraffe sat in front of the fire.
This displeases me.
They came to visit over the weekend, to see the St Nicholas Market in town and to help with a few bits and pieces round the house and with my holiday.
I've got a shelf in my lounge above the fireplace that's been slightly wobbly since I moved in. Has never caused me any problems - the only things I keep on it are my battery-operated giraffe, Galileo thermometer and (surprisingly still-extant) inflatable poodle. Dad mentioned it could do with some work within about 5 minutes of me moving in, and I knew even then I was destined to be writing this blogpost (or at least relating this tale somehow) at some point!
A bit of background may now be in order. My dad, being my dad, can't leave things alone. His motto appears to be "If it ain't broke, pull it apart to find out why not." He's also very good at starting DIY jobs, very poor at finishing them (at least successfully). It took him 2 years to tile our 8ft square bathroom at home (at a rough estimate, that's about 1.5 tiles per week). Some years after this, when he and my mum had finally agreed on a bathroom cabinet they both liked, he put it up, a job of approximately 5 hours, plumb lines, spirit levels, theodolites, planning permission, etc.. The next time I went to visit them, I walked into the bathroom, glanced at the new cabinet, and instantly noticed he'd put it on the wall upside down.
I could tell when he arrived that he wanted to have a go at it. I've managed to stop him doing on at least 2 other occasions, once by dint of nicking and hiding his screwdriver, then "finding" it again just before they were leaving. However, this time despite much protestation, I failed to get up early enough on Sunday morning to stop him, and I arose to find the shelf lying on the floor, plaster dust all around, and dad sat there muttering.
And that's where the shelf still is. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't put it back up, despite 3 or 4 goes at putting things into the ever-enlarging holes left by the original, fully-functional wall plugs. And I've got 2 gaping holes in the wall, no shelf and a giraffe sat in front of the fire.
This displeases me.
posted by Chip : 20:56
2 comments
Comments:
Bertie - I'm going to make sure the shelf's back up first!
Badfriend - perhaps it wasn't a good idea for me to take 4 cans of Carling home from the quiz for him this weekend then!
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Badfriend - perhaps it wasn't a good idea for me to take 4 cans of Carling home from the quiz for him this weekend then!
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