Rod for my own back

But not for my window.

After much trial and error - including trying to use some existing holes in the window frame - I dug out my electric drill. Vrooooom! This is going well, I thought. TIll I noticed there were not enough screws in the pack, and none of the 5000 I have in various toolboxes was suitable.

Back to the shop, where they had to open another pack to get me enough to finish the job.

Then I had to reposition some of the brackets. Offering up a pole with two bendy parts was like handling a live snake. Then I realised that the main part of the damn thing that had looked to be the right length was actually too long when I allowed for the fact that the brackets hold it away from the window. Out with the hacksaw to shorten both that and the two side pieces. Which are apparently made of diamond-hard material and uncuttable, especially with a blunt implement.

Plan B then came into operation. Shove the f**king stuff in the spare room till the weekend.

I like your cane solution, Eliza. It reminds me of the lengths of dowel we used when I was a kid. They slotted into hooks, too. Can't make the curtains go round corners, though.

JoJo, on another subject altogether (ie. Gary Sinise being a "squit") it's someone of no importance, with a hint of "squirt" about it, too.

Happy Accidents will, I hope, appear some time later this evening.

Up the pole

The curtains in my living room have been holding on - just - for a very long time.

There are two windows, one of them a bay. The curtain rails are where my dear little departed parrot Rio first met her great love Louis. Together they excavated the plaster above it as if it were a clay lick in the rainforest, and unclipped the hooks so that the curtains hung on only by the end-stops. They often chewed the hooks till they broke. Rio also made it her mission to chew through the curtain directly behind her cage, and though the weave was so dense, even getting the tip of her beak between two threads must have been a major undertaking, she managed to chew a large hole in it.

The curtain rail in the bay should bend round the sides of the bay, but I could never make it bend enough to actually clip it into one of the fittings. So one side was very bendy and unsupported. As I rarely drew them, this was unimportant.

Then came this year's long cold snap, and I decided that the curtains really did need to be closed. The effort was too much for the rail in the bay, and another fitting snapped, leaving the rail attached at the extreme ends and in the middle. Closing them became as precarious as trying to stand up on a seesaw.

I spent hours yesterday trying to fix it, but to no avail. I cannot face more of the same. So I decided to hunt down a curtain pole that fits in a bay window.

The big DIY store doesn't sell them. The catalogue shop does, but I needed to see it and discuss it with an expert.

Enter the Paul Simon curtain shop.Of course they were in the middle of a refit. Of course it took the assistant ages to locate all the extras I need. But I did manage to get a brass pole that will fit my bay window, and is more straightforward to put up.

Only they say (inside the pack, of course), "It is advised that TWO people should fit this pole". Aha! So which neighbour close to her 70s should I ask for help?

Don't overdo it, said the physiotherapist today. A chance would be a fine thing.

OK, so can someone beam down the broadband line and lend me a hand, please, so that I can get the pole up, rather than being up the pole?

Steal This Movie

This was going to be tomorrow's post, but what with Depths being on TV this evening, I haven't had time to cap Happy Accidents.

The next five movies all need capping before I can post them, so it promises to be a busy few days. I haven't even had time to watch Staten Island yet!







Those veneers are SCARY!








Oh look, there he is holding his wig on!

That Championship Season

Yeah, like that little squit Sinise is anywhere near tall enough to have been in a championship basketball team in his teens.

Only Vincent was the right size. Vincent always is the right size...

The Thirteenth Floor

Or Passe Virtuel, as my French version is called.

Don't ask.