Timeline: 12 February
2014: There's never a good time
to fall off a ladder, so if you absolutely must, best let the time choose you
and so the ladder chucked me off last Thursday morning and I landed two and
a half metres below on my arse, then spent most of the rest of the day in
Saumur hospital. Thankfully nothing was broken, but I've a huge bruised
lump on my padded landing area and fortunately only one broken ceramic floor
tile! Yes, the floor tiles have been laid!
As I lay on the floor,
feeling more hopeless than helpless with my right ankle locked in the rungs of
an ancient and very heavy ladder, in shock and failing to understand what had
just happened, I do recall saying something remarkably stupid like, ‘No, I
don’t need you to call an ambulance, I’m just winded’ and then faster than I
thought possible, an emergency ‘first responder’ arrived, as his full time job
had placed him right outside our gates emptying the contents of the bin into
the refuse truck, his part time job being a fireman with paramedic training.
The ride to hospital was frustrating not so much from discomfort of uneven road
surfaces playing percussion with my back, but by the ambulance crew not
allowing me to doze! By the time my hospital processing begun however, I was
pretty much zoned out with pain and shock to appreciate three women taking all
my clothes off! Two hours and six X-rays later, the doctor broke the news that
no bones were broken, but I’d have to stay off work for four days and even gave
me a medical certificate (I must give it to the bride) and a prescription for
some rather effective pain relief.
So, back at the barn, the kitchen
has progressed rapidly and is looking good. All the tiles laid, I set about
finding a complimentary coloured grout. Realising I’d need to do some test
pieces under the kitchen units, I set off to buy small bags of likely
candidates for kitchens with large format tiles. The colour choice was
staggering: black, white, grey, chocolate brown and the ivory we realised was
the only sensible choice. Against the nobbly cream tiles, however, the grout looked bright yellow, but it needed to dry out and would lighten in colour. Two
days later showed no change, hmm, not sure about this. The next day wasn’t much
better, but after another two days I went out and got enough to do the whole
kitchen, as it the colour match is just right. Note to self: wide tile gaps
filled 10mm deep with wet grout takes a full 5 days to fully dry out!
The under floor heating
incidentally, is working wonderfully and I’m looking forward to padding
downstairs in my bare feet next winter and enjoying a big slice of the day in
the kitchen.
Meanwhile upstairs, half of
the chestnut strip parquet floor has been laid and I’m looking to complete
the remainder when I return from my rest trip to the UK next week, so for now its au revoir et a bientôt from me,
LC
