Today has been fun. We went to Peterborough in search of a mirror to go over our newly refurbished fireplace. Those of you who have been here know that we did away with the woodburning stove a few years back and replaced it with a propane gas fireplace. It’s great, works even when the power goes out and as we pay for the propane first we have control of our heating costs. I highly recommend them. But as always, I digress.

Back on topic. Having put in the fireplace we initially did a very basic surround made of kind of mottled brown/beige/grey/other colour wall tiles but it never really worked. As we have been repainting the entire kitchen/dining/living room and entrance hall plus up to the gallery, I came up with a design which I scribbled on the back of an envelope and told Alan ‘That’s what I want you to build, don’t worry, it can all be done with MDF and stock wood molding.’ He gave me a look. You know the look. He showed our friend Tom, who looked at Alan and shrugged. Sometime my genius takes a while to filter through to lesser mortals. However, once I had bought the stock molding Alan began to get the drift, especially when I did quite an elaborate mime of how I wanted it to look the penny finally dropped and we were back on the same plane of thought. It looks great. All it needed was a mirror.

I had originally seen a round mirror that I thought would work but now, all these months later, when we went to Homesense that was no longer available. But there was the perfect oblong mirror, not only huge (i.e. the right size) it was also only $49.99 which made it the right price to boot! Next, hanging the thing. It is very heavy. Alan asked me where I wanted it. I told him. He measured. Drilled. Put in Rawl Plugs and screws and then the mirror. I looked and said

‘I can only see the top of my head.’
Alan: ‘It’s where you said to put it.’
Me: ‘I’ve changed my mind, it needs to be lower.’
Alan, sighing, ‘How much?’
Me: ‘About six inches.’
Alan: ‘Mutter, mutter, mutter, grumble.’
Me: ‘But you are allowed to have an opinion too! ‘
Alan: ……….. well I didn’t actually hear what he said because he was heading to the basement to get more Rawl Plugs and screws and coughed, but somehow I suspect he said something rather rude.

Now the mirror is up and it looks great. We stood back to admire it. We just can’t figure out who those two old people are staring back at us. We think it is a bewitched mirror………..

P.S. While we were out today we also picked up a new nightlight thingie that you plug into the wall. We are old, we need lights to show us where the stairs are. This one is cute. It is flat. Depending on how you flip the switch it can be off, or blue, or green. I came up with a rather brilliant (in my never humble opinion) rationale for the colour coding so that when Alan is working late and comes home and sees green or blue… it gives him a clue as to what to expect as he heads up stairs. But he has told me that I cannot give that description on here or he will never be able to show his face at work again. Which is a shame, it would help his co-workers to understand the man better. Either way it would explain why he is always so easy going and good-natured at work. But again, I digress. ;o)

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