Wish You Were Here

This is all the decorators gear, piled up in our back room. Sadly there is no one here to actually use it. As we half expected after yesterday, our decorator had phoned in sick this morning. Not because he is ill but because his lad is poorly and he cannot arrange alternative childcare. And because he can’t be here, neither can his apprentice as the latter is not allowed to work unsupervised. Effectively, that means a loss of sixteen man hours today. Looking at what has been done and - more importantly - what still needs to be done, there is no way the job will be finished by Friday night, even if the lads are back on site tomorrow.
All of which means I have now had to cancel the carpet fitters, the plumbers, the electrician and the curtains and blinds people, all of whom were due to come in next week. So it’s at least another fortnight without central heating or any coverings at the windows (besides the sheet we’ve stuck up over the lounge window!) and at least ten more days of garden furniture and camping out in one room! Oh, and did I mention I’ve got a cold? No better today so still snotty and achy, but if I miss tonight’s rehearsal, I’ll only have one more before the dress. I’ll wrap up warm and keep my mask on in the hope that’ll get me through it and won’t affect the rest of the cast.
The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that we have not yet had a call to say our new furniture is ready for delivery. As they originally said they could hang on to it for a couple of weeks after it arrived at their warehouse, if we weren’t ready, then we should still be able to avoid the nightmare scenario of brand new furniture in rooms that weren’t fully painted.
At the end of the day, matters are out of our hands so there is no point in getting worked up about it. The plumber and electrician were not surprised in the least that I was having to postpone them - it’s a daily occurrence for them at the moment as all the trades are working flat out and it only takes a small hiccup with one of them to wreck a carefully planned timeline. All I can do now is see what happens tomorrow…