ODD JOBS

Thankfully I did manage to get a little sleep last night and this morning the pain was much less,for which relief much thanks. Such violent pain makes me nervous as I am never sure when it will return and I have taken so much codeine, Diclomax and Tramadol that I feel very dopey indeed. The crunch will come when I stop taking the pain relief, but that will not be for a while yet.

Unable to do anything energetic I decide to do a few odd jobs which have needed attention for some time and I began with the repairing of my son's leather parka. This venerable garment is much loved and has in consequence been much worn. Apart from a few sewing repairs to the seam today I took on the much more difficult task of repairing a hole in the leather at the collar of the garment.

This requires a good deal of patience as it can take several days to do properly. Today I began by trimming the hole to remove any jagged bits and after a good deal of fiddling I had a neat oblong hole with straight edges. Next I padded the back of the hole with a cotton wool pad, not the fluffy kind but the type used to remove make up. This done I took a piece of thick cotton fabric and using some copydex glued it inside the hole and pushed the outer edges of the hole flat to make as smooth a surface as possible. Now I must wait until the glue is completely dry and as this can take hours I decided to finish the job tomorrow to be on the safe side.

I may as well fill you in on the rest of the job and so tomorrow I shall mix some acrylic paint to the exact colour of the jacket and believe me I am darned glad that the jacket is dark brown and the hole is on the inside of the colour as this part can be the very devil to get right. Now comes the magic bit, while the paint is wet I take a piece of leather and press it on to the damp paint, this should and I must say usually does leave the imprint of the grain in the paint, we shall see...I will let you know tomorrow.

There were quite few small sewing jobs to do, buttons missing from shirts small holes in seams the usual sort of thing. I keep a tin of buttons as my grandmother used to do, if I throw away an old garment I always remove the buttons first and this means that I usually have the right type of button when I need it. I get as much fun trawling through the old buttons as I used to as a child when granny used to let me play with her button box, I remember the clothes that many of the buttons came from, some are from baby clothes worn by my son who is now six foot four and very hairy indeed.

I also save lengths of ribbon and pieces of tape as these have a multitude of uses when repairs are needed as do scraps of leather and fabric, I suppose the make-do-and-mend ethic of my mother and grandmother who lived through the wars is strong in me because of childhood memories. I found the sewing quite a relaxing occupation, vastly different from my usual frenetic capers and I resorted to the old way of watching the television the while, something I never usually do during the day time.

The sun shone in through my window and I wanted very much to go in to the garden but resisted the temptation as knowing myself only too well had I done so it would not have been long before I was pulling up the odd weed or trimming up the shrubs. Bored with being in the garden by herself my little cat came to visit, found and empty silver bobbin and spent the next half hour chasing it madly around the room. Under the bed, under the wardrobe and finally down the stairs,after which much refreshed she went back to the front garden and sat very prettily on the sun dial lapping compliments from passers by,vain creature!

We had pasta for dinner with two sauces, chicken and tomato for my son and mixed mushrooms with basil and crème fraich for Pa and I as we have both eaten far to much of my son's favourite over the years!

This evening I still feel rather fragile and shall be glad when Pa is safely tuck up in bed and I can relax with my hot water bottle again, I hope that I can stop taking the pain killers y morning but something tells me that it could be at least another day before that is possible.

Pa has given me a large bag of maltesers and I shall enjoy some with my bedtime drink, naughty I know especially as I should be trying to lose some weight but hey, who wants to live forever?