A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Hurray, the painters arrived! Yes, the workforce entered the compound and took possession of the whole house in a record time Bit by bit our house is filling up with rather less nice appealing smells. On top of that am I even unable to communicate with these enthousiastic men armed with brushes and buckets filled up with paint. Yes, they speak a language I do for once not seem to understand. But hey, they get the job done nicely. For as far me, the person blessed with two left hands can judge!

In case you wonder what colors they are bringing into our daily surroundings I don't have groundbreaking news. No, we have not gone through any fierce arguments or long reflection periods about color patterns because P proudly announced one Saturday afternoon that he had already chosen: white only!


The less nice side effects of having an enthousiastic workforce into the house is that I for the last few days seem to be lost a bit inside and outside the house.
-I don't sleep well. Our bed is parked in the middle of the bedroom. So I guess you won't be surprised to hear that I even manage to bang into furniture when I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. So to my body color I added now blue and purple as well.
-I am thinking to much about things that should not be on my mind-list. Uhm, nothing new but the paint fumes seem to make it even worse. And nope, the headaches are still there and this week I was very close to making an appointment with a doc but then A got into the way and one of my secret projects. Still enough excuses to put that one not on the agenda.
-I can't seem to find things and this due to the boxes that are still out there. To make it even worse the painters move stuff around. So now some boxes have even disappeared. Scary! Every day it is a big surprise what our house will look like when we enter. 'Hey, mum our house has changed again!', is A his punchline of the week.
-I forget many things. One day I even managed to forget my mobile and to put on earrings and that equals double nudity. And for the moment I need my phone more then ever because now that our clock radio is not plugged in we use our mobiles as an alarm. And, boy, do I miss Thomas of StuBru his cynic comments in the morning. I now even freak out more when I meet up with my own reflection in the mirror. I am tempted to give instructions to the painters to cover this reflecting surface also under a layer of white paint!
-I don't feel welcome in my own home. Days I am not to supossed to go into work I am kind evicted from our home address. Try then to find other destinations but I most of the time end up at work. Even hang out in my own car waiting for these 'strange' men to leave the house. When I dare to go in while they are still hanging around with white paint I feel that my presence is not preferred. So the neighbours must think I must be even more insane now that I am parked right in front of our own house and stay in there for longer then 20 minutes! And yes I have been dancing in my car with my iPod-nano plugged in or singing along with my newest music asset: Glee, season 1. Don't know if the windows of my Vauxhall/Opel Corsa are soundproof. In case you got your share of the Stallie-produced entertainment it will only one more week of torture ahead of you.

But worst of all is that P and I are restless and that A gets into fits:

1. A hates it that his entertainment zone has vanished under covers and that he can't find that one ultimate lego-brick he needs to finish one of this newly made up construction. And he even announces in the mornings that all his stuffed animals had a very bad night because they had to sleep under his bed! And the moment he could not find the remotecontrol of the TV he started to cry. 'Mum, our TV does not work anymore! They have hidden the remote control!', made me LOL but I had to sweep of some tears.

2. Stallie can't read a single page because she can't lean back against the walls. And so now I have even a harder time to fall asleep. Was so happy that I managed to finish the last book of the Winter Read (YES, Spring is about to arrive on Nicola's Bookclub reading list! Spring!! SPRING!) before the painting force entered. So now I am so tempted to dive into one of these dull brown boxes and try to find that tiny book with Yoga excercises. I already sit in the middle of my bed in order to find my center!

3. P walks in and out as he wishes and announces in between runs, social calls and numerous consultations that he is back on call! When I questioned him about the fact that I can not seem to see any logic in the way this call shedule is put together he just looked at me and said in his typical dry voice:'Hey, I don't mind it is Winter!' Beats me! I then tried to point out very politely that we are with the three of us in this period of Winter.

Yes, so much has happened this week on top of the painters but I seem to have a very hard time to find the perfect blogging spot. Stallie has been in many interesting places and I fell in love once more with her job. But this is an other story which I hope to tell when I face the freshly painted walls of our house. And all our filled up boxes have been unloaded.

Because I bet that once all that white paint is on the walls (and P was so nice to even allow them in on Saturday! AHHHHHHHHH!!!) that I am going to look like them as well: a whiter shade of pale. Uhm, I think I need to pass the Benefit Brow Bar very soon to get pimped up for that rather less colorful period of time! Uhm,seems that painters also seem to qualify as the ultimate shopping excuse! Nice that white color!

P.S.1: This weekend I decided to find a more colorful place to hide out and to dive under with A: my mum's! So in case you see P and his it totaly covered up in white paint then please feed him and let him use your shower!

P.S.2: Annie Lennox her 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' was for me the best song to go along with this entry. A song that holds many happy&intense memories created in Leuven as a post-graduate student & jobstarter and living amongst very focused and a lively bunch of people. People who took care of me and people that took me on some awesome intellectual and fun outings. Still grateful for that very intense period of time.