w/e 2022-04-17

I’m making the least of a gorgeous Easter weekend by staying indoors and doing some decorating, painting two small rooms – utility room and porch – whose floors we had tiled not so long ago.

“How long could it possibly take?” I thought, “There’s not that much wall to paint,” later learning that it only takes six months or fewer for me to forget the same lesson I fail to learn every time I do this. So much preparation. And then the first coat of paint, that I thought might take up to three hours, took nearly seven. How?! There’s not even room to swing my pants in there, never mind a cat.

Hence the late weeknotes. Today I must see this journey through to the end, despite my aching body, tired head, creaky knees, mouth that tastes of paint, and 180-grit fingers that Touch ID now refuses to recognise as my own. Tune in next week to see if our hero can cope with more than a couple of days of slightly manual labour!

As usual I’m painting the rooms fresh, clean, brightening white although a little part of me, after all these years, is starting to wonder whether, instead of this being Uncompromising Modernist White, or Chill Greek Village White, or Rustic Limewash Farmhouse White, is actually Pure Unimaginative White.

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§ After a bit of a wait we got our Fiat Panda 4x4 back from its service, the first since we bought it, which became quite expensive due to:

• Replacement oil sump, because the previous one had been “covered in liquid metal” which meant the oil could never be changed again. Thanks, whoever did that.
• Replacement for the leaking fuel filler neck, which explains the, er, leaking petrol and smell of petrol.
• Replacement for snapped offside rear coil (suspension I assume).

Plus all the other little things that needed doing on the overdue service. Cars are stupid, expensive things aren’t they.

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§ After last week’s weeknotes we finished watching the third and final season of The Split (on iPlayer) which was still good. It’s occasionally ridiculous, and generally middle-class-soapy, and the superfluous podcast subplot was embarrassing (but thankfully brief), but enjoyable despite all that. As before, the main draw was Nicola Walker and watching her character think about what she’s saying, something so few characters on TV seem to do.

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§ This week I’ve watched three movies on telly:

• Manchester by the Sea (2016, Kenneth Lonergan, All4) – good, and probably better than I found it, but I was disappointed that, despite it “starring” Michelle Williams, she’s barely in it, and she’s much more interesting to watch than Casey Affleck being sad.
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020, Eliza Hittman, Netflix) – very good, slow and gloomy.
• Mangrove (2020, Steve McQueen, on iPlayer) – excellent and 99% depressing.

I do pick cheery ones don’t I.

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§ OK, lunch then more painting.