Month: November 2018

Today I finished painting the downstairs lounge in Cupcake. I may do a bit more, and make the rear wall of the fireplace end of the room (just visible at left, behind the guitar, in the pic above) Cupcake as well, instead of the yellowy-orange we inherited from Clive. But, for now, this means all the walls and other bits and bobs that were in the rather too pale and cold off-white are in the new nicer, warmer colour.

I should’ve taken before and after pics of the under-stairs area, as I stripped out some horrible plasterboard, loaded with Artex, which had been slathered on in Van-Gogh-feeling-seasick impasto swirls. That went to the dump, and I’ve left the underneath of the stairs as raw wood for now, as you can see.

I have possible plans brewing in my noggin, re putting some under stair built-in cupboards here, possibly even with an area for stowing the MX5 hardtop. But for now I just rearranged the furniture a tiny bit, swapping the table and desk/cabinet around, and moving the shoe boxes/rack over to where Teresa keeps all her shoes, under the window, by the radiator.

I’ve moved the tatty studio-armchair (covered with a very dark brown throw in the pic above, to the right of the lamp) tight up against the red sofa, where before there was a gap. This has meant the lamp had to come forward a few inches, so the base cleared the feet of the chairs.

I also moved the clock-mounting screw higher up the wall, so the clock is now well clear of the top of the lamp, where formerly it was too low, and partially obscured. Now we just need to get the clock cleaned and up and running. It’s interesting how in the daylight Cupcake looks like clotted cream, whereas in the evenings it appears to take on a richer more custardy colour.

Teresa suggested we watch The Ladykillers tonight. I wanted to watch a fresh episode of Columbo – I’m working my way through the complete boxed set – but she got her way. And it has to be said, even though I’ve seen it several times, The Ladykillers really is superb.

Alec Guinness is great, as the creepy Prof. Marcus, leading his rag-tag band of ne’erdowells on a ‘stick up caper’. Katie Johnson is equally fab as the dotty old Mrs. Wilberforce, who lets a room to the gang.

The plot is great, but I won’t give it away here. Suffice it to say that Prof. Marcus’ team are working together for the first time, and masquerading as a group of enthusiastic amateur musicians. The prof’ plans to make use not just of Mrs Wilberforce’s home – which, like her, is a relic from a bygone era – but her, as the unwitting mule for the lolly.

But the prof’ hasn’t taken into account the unforeseen consequences of her well-meaning busy-body nature. From her wonky pictures, to General Gordon and her other parakeets, she is a law unto herself.

As the prof’s well laid plans unravel, the nature of their crimes assumes a darker hue, as they begin to plan to be rid of her. But she is a force to be reckoned with.

The ensemble cast is great. Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers meet pre-Clouseau, and, with Cecil Parker and Danny Green, form the gang. There are small but strong supporting supporting roles for such familiar faces as Jack ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ Warner (a cop, what else?), and Kenneth Connor (taxi driver) and Frankie Howard (barrow boy), the latter two perhaps most familiar from the later Carry On films.

The setting is also worthy of note. Like her home, Mrs Wilberforce is a relic of a bygone era, a holdover from the Victorian/Edwardian age, polite, moralistic, and heavily floral, lodged amidst terraced tenements and the industrial grime of a large railway terminus.

She embodies qualities that range from lightly quaint to deeply irritating, but is stoical, decent, and ultimately very sweet and hugely endearing. Her simple good naturedness is the nexus around which the grubbier workaday business of the contemporary world revolves, giving the whole film, in addition to its darkly comic side, a wistful romanticism.

A really terrific film.

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P.S. I did also get to watch Columbo, Grand Deceptions, which starts with – joy of joys – slow panning shots of an ACW (American Civil War) diorama. I’ll probably post a review of that at some future point on my mini-military blog.

We have friends coming for a Sunday roast later today. Getting the painting and decorating finished in time was reasonably hard work, as Teresa insisted I refresh the paint on the stairs, which were rather tatty.

Found a good spot for the mirror I took off the recent FC wardrobe, in the corner where I formerly had one of my sets of model display shelves.

Having the downstairs tidier is lovely. I’ve stuck the hard-top for my MX5, which currently lives in the lounge, on the car. I’m going to have to find some way to store it that doesn’t impinge on our living space. There’s a butler sink under the stairs, under the white sheet. Need to find somewhere to stash that as well!

The stairs certainly do look a lot nicer now. Only thing is, now the wear and tear to the paint on the handrail is more noticeable.

Teresa also insisted I pack away my little Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz kit, which I’ve had set up in the lounge. I haven’t put it away, but just taken it down and stacked it in the corner.

This morning I finished painting the downstairs hall and stairs area, which looked lovely in the early morning sunlight. I’m painting purely with brushes, which is more work (than rollers), but also more fun.

The ‘party wall’, which we share with our immediate neighbours, in the older cooler off-white colour, mid-way through clearing the area for painting. Still no real idea what to do about those pesky exposed light fittings. One thought is to install some of those inverted conical uplighter doodads.

Mid-way through painting the longest wall section. This gives a good indication of the degree of difference in colour and atmosphere. It’s so much nicer, warmer and cosier. Really need to change the main light fitting! The three part ‘chandelier’ is what we inherited from the previous owner, and not to our tastes – well, mine, at any rate – at all.

I also painted a fair bit of the old chocolate brown woodwork, in the lovely Permoglaze glossy white. This stuff stinks, and is oil-based, requiring cleaning and thinning etc with White Spirit. It also required two coats. I’m going to need more, to do all the skirting boards, and other wooden bits and bobs.

I now have to wait for the painted woodwork to dry out fairly fully before I can rehang the last of the three curtains at that end of the room. But I have to say that the dining room end of our long through lounge ground floor now looks quite lovely!

Teresa and I love a game of Scrabble. We haven’t found the time to play in ages.

Today she was off work for a medical check-up, and I’ve stopped teaching at my Thursday school, on account of it being too far away – Bishops Stortford – to remain viable.

So we got out the Scrabble. And here’s how the board looked at end of play.

One thing I enjoy about our games is that, unlike the old-timers who once thrashed us at Scrabble Club we made the mistake of venturing into, we aren’t hell-bent on winning via as many two-letter combinations as are humanly possible. Certainly for me it’s a game that’s just about the fun of thinking of words.