Painting the bedroom wall

It's not a pretty picture. Me in my undies (well a bikini top and knickers), perspiration running down me in tiny rivulets and dripping onto the floor if I don't manage to catch it and wipe it away with the face cloth I keep close. It's 32' with 74% humidity (actually the weather site says it's 84F feels like 92F, although I don't have a concept of fahrenheit any more I know that's damn hot). Why did I not wait for a cooler day? Well that's a bit like waiting for a sudden drop in temperature in hell. It's hot today, it was hot yesterday and it will still be hot tomorrow. Better get it done.

My gaze is between the wall, the paint roller in my hand, and the paint chip - no, it's not my imagination that the first 2 bear little resemblance to the third. The chip called "creamy dill" is a soft creamy green. The wall looks like the sort of colour we could descriptively call puppy poop - and not a healthy puppy at that! I'm horrified.....  I've only done a strip about 18 inches wide, but in this heat it's drying too fast to wash off, and I don't have any of the original paint colour to go over it. I don't even know what the original colour is called to buy some.

As I stand there wondering what to do, there is a knock at the door. Oh great, now I have to scramble to put on something so I can look at least clothed. I don't get a lot of visitors but I don't need to scare them off even more. I grab the dress I wore 2 days ago and fling it over my sweaty body, pulling at the zip as I run to the door.

It's the building administrator, she wants to know if I will be at the meeting on Saturday and I answer in the negative. Her face falls, and she tells me no-one will be there. Several of us had already requested a deferment but this was not mentioned. She gives me a form to complete with contact details, and when I mention that I am in email contact with 2 other owners, she thrusts another 2 forms under my nose. It's clear as she hands me a pen that I am expected to complete them now.

Ten minutes later, business completed, she departs and I contemplate my return to the bedroom wall fiasco. For sure it will have dried by now, so there's no changing it. Maybe I'll just stop for a coffee? I briefly wonder whether it's too early to pour myself a consolatory alcoholic drink, but decide that water is what's needed first. And chilled bottle in hand, I open the bedroom door.

The Goddess of Paint seems to have paid a visit to my bedroom while I was away, and the partly-painted wall now looks remarkably close to what I hoped for. I know that sometimes paint dries to a lighter colour, and sometimes darker, but I wasn't expecting this transformation.

I strip off and return to work with renewed enthusiasm and in less than an hour the wall is finished. Well, all except a patch above the air conditioner that I can't reach even from the highest ladder step. The walls here are 2.7m high and I'm not tall as you know, nor am I keen on climbing to the top of ladders with a paintbrush. I do what I can and decide it can wait until a suitably tall and/or helpful friend can finish it off. I have about 3 litres left of the 4lt bucket so it won't dry up quickly like small quantities do.

You can see in the picture the difference between the dry colour and the work-in-progress colour.

The first coat is mostly dry and I'm really pleased with it, in fact I may not need to do another coat. The walls being such a rough texture, there will be a few spots I'll need to touch up but overall it looks great. Within an hour I can put the furniture back and congratulate myself on another job ticked off the list. Actually the list is pretty short now - maybe I'll have that drink with lunch after all, and then a little snooze in my redecorated room. I've already had a full day - up at 8.15 for a swim in the sea, fresh orange juice at a roadside stall on the way home, shower at home, cooked pancakes for breakfast, painting, form-filling, moving furniture. Goodness I'm tired even thinking of it all! Was that a yawn????