Wednesday 13 July 2011

The painter on the balcony


If you look very carefully at this photo (of the view from our bedroom window), you will see a very thin iron balcony, with a painter on it painting a window. This worries me on two counts:

1. I have no idea how this tiny, slender little balcony stays up in the first place. I don't really know how any building stays up, and it is a constant source of wonder to me that our bath (for example) doesn't come crashing down into our hallway. But this little balcony is something else.

2. I hate heights; for myself and for other people. That well-known photo of builders sitting on a girder eating their sandwiches hundreds of feet up never fails to make me feel queasy. So I am worried about this painter on two counts; heights, and the staying up (or not) of buildings. How bad will his injuries be if the little balcony succumbs? and will I, as a nurse, be expected to rush forth and minister to him? I'm having to restrain myself from shouting at him to be very careful, but then that might make him jump, which could be the straw that brings the balcony down.

I am trying to write something useful, but the possible fate of the painter is most distracting (the corner of the bedroom is my "office"). Oh dear.

6 comments:

  1. What's puzzling me is - if he's on a balcony why does he need a ladder?

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  2. Funny little things like that worry me now.

    In the good old days of sash windows, I used to sit on the bedroom window ledges, close the window on my legs and clean the outside. I must have been bonkers!

    (Some might say I still am!)

    Anna :o]

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  3. Good question, Keith. I think he needs it to paint the underneath and...oh, I don't know. He's gone home now. I'll have another look in the morning.

    Anna, you were bonkers. Definitely. You woudld NEVER catch me doing that!

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  4. What I like, Frances, is the view from your window, with or without a painter to worry over! On the other hand, he might trigger a story idea for you.

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  5. Rosemary, you're right. the view is lovely.

    Keith (in case you revisit) he must have heard you. No ladder today.

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  6. At first I thought, Yes, I definitely need those new specs - I could not make out any people in this picture, let alone a painter on one of the tiny balconies. But now I think I can just about detect a faint human face behind one of the window panes. Almost ghostly!
    As far as heights go - well, I am one of those people who love to climb up anywhere they can, for instance hanging half way out of my kitchen window in order to get to the lovely sweet black-red cherries on the tree growing right in front of it.

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