In the spirit of a life less curated (and believe you me, if there ever was a week to exemplify the idea, this would definitely be the one), I am sharing the happenings of my last week. If you follow my feed on instagram you probably have seen the picture below accompanied by what a friend refered to as 'the likes of a Some-Mothers-Do-Ave'Em Episode' (if you're not familiar with this 1970's TV British Show, you need to check the link, it's hilarious!). My niece, Daili and I were like Frank and Betty in the show. We had a series of accidents that lead to the house practically falling to bits!
The day started with the usual mixture of sleepy heads and mad rush to sort out online orders and pending things before we all had to leave the house. Daili wasn't feeling the best, so we decided she needed to stay home and get some rest. The house's hall was crowded with boxes we had with the bits from the Day of the Dead Altar, which needed to go to the attic. Around 11 a.m., I received a phonecall from a very upset Daili, telling me she had had an accident. I went into a panic. What?! What happened? Are you ok?!
A million things went through my head in that second it took her to inhale and gather the courage to say -'I am ok, but I made a hole in the celing of your bedroom'- she proceeded to explain that while taking one of the boxes from the hall into our unfloored attic, she lost her balance and fell in between the joices. Which of course meant, she went though the ceiling of my bedroom and landed with one leg on my wall-to-wall wardobe. She was so upset about the hole, she couldn't tell me whether she had hurt herself or not.
I picked up the phone and rang my ever helpful dad in law, who went to check that she was ok (which she was, if a little bruised). She sent me the picture below by text. My only thought was -fuck that's bad!. I rang Alan, and he had a very similar reaction, which is much odder in him than in me (he does not swear in vain as much as I do). We both agree the best thing was that Daili was not hurt. When I got home that night, we realised the wardobe she had landed on was, unfortunately, also broken. It was on Alan's side of the wardrobe, so all those folded, never worn woollie jumpers I've been begging him to throw away, fortunately (or not?) served the purpose of cushioning Daili's fall and preventing more damange beyond the roof of the wardobe, which gave Alan an excuse to say 'I told you they'd come in handy someday' (smug fecker!).
When up in the attic checking the damage from above, we noticed light coming from the roof (we rarely go up the attic). Turns out there was a hole in the attic too, directly to the right of the hole in my bedroom!!! Now things were starting to get serious. I don't have a go-to-builder, so our friend Yolanda sent us the details of hers. I rang him and he quoted for the job. We agreed he'll do it on Monday. In the meantime, we put a suitcase right above the hole in the ceiling, to stop the cold from coming into the bedroom, which did make us feel better but was actually useless for the purpose it was intended: the bedroom was freezing!
The following morning, all positive and ready to get through the weekend, I'm blowdrying my hair and the next thing I see a mouse coming out of my bedroom door into the bathroom, where I was standing with hairdrier in had. The mouse saw me, paused and turn around back into the bedroom. I froze for 2 seconds, screamed at Alan, who was working in his pyjamas at the computer. I quickly closed the door of the bedroom. I was in a dressing gown, barefooted. Alan was in his pijamas, no shoes or sleepers, all our gear was in the bedroom and neither had the guts to go into the room to get stuff out!!! -What if the mouse come out again?! What if it goes downstairs? or into the kitchen?!!!- totally hopeless we are!
While I hysterically rang a bunch of pest control numbers on a Saturday morning (hoping beyond hope one would be open). Daili and Alan built a barricade against the door frame to prevent the mouse from coming out into the landing (coz this mouse cannot climb tiny barricades I'm sure!). She then went into our room, stripped the bed, took everything off the floor surfaces (not sure why) and got our shoes and a change of cloths for us. By then I had gotten lucky and a pest control company had actually answered. Monday came and torrential rains with it. I sat in Localise's office looking up at the velux windows being pounded with what could only be described as a monsoon!! I was sick with worry. By the time I got home, the whole in the roof was leaking like mad, the house was freezing and I was still terrified of the mouse. I was seriously considering abandoning ship by then!
Two days later, the rain sort of stopped enough for the builder to come in and do a proper job. Hole in roof got sorted, hole in bedroom closed and wardrobe repaired. Mouse? still at large but I have hopes he found a way out of the house or into one of the humane traps! There was abosolutely nothing, nothing glamorous about the happenings, and if it wasn't for the fact that Picado got featured in the Food issue of LeCool Dublin Magazine and in an article in the US Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler as hotspot 9 in Dublin, it would have been the week from hell. All in all, by the end of it, I was completely and utterly exhausted! But hey, how was your week?
