Before and After

Hubby was having a clear out and he had put this little table on the rubbish pile but I had other plans.  This table has history in it.  It’s been in our family for generations five years and has served us in a variety of ways.  It’s been a nature table, a picnic table, a shield from a mighty battalion of space-aliens, a pirate ship and even a sledge.  Yes folks, you heard.  A sledge.  Don’t ask for details, it’s not pretty, but broken teeth and bleeding lips were involved.  And lot’s of tears.

Anyway, it’s been a good little table.  We didn’t pay much for it and there’s still some mileage left in the wobbly and weather-worn old thing so why would I let it be turned into a bag of mulch or animal bedding?  It still has capacity in its original form.  All that it needed was some time and TLC so today, it being a lovely day and all, me and my star trooper got out the sandpaper and the wood stain and gave it a make-over that would impress the likes of Gok Wan no less.  Of course, more paint ended up on me and my splat-happy son than on the table itself but the result was good.

Talking of lovely days, everywhere I’ve been today Mr Blue Sky has been playing.  In two ways.  Literally, the blue sky has been out all day and also the ELO song has been playing everywhere.  I heard it in our local co-op.  And on the way home, the man in the traffic queue had it blasting out of his car.  And it was on Virgin radio tonight while I was making tea.  Do you think the weather had something to do with it?

Talking of lovely days (again), is there any finer indulgence than eating strawberries and cream outdoors while sitting at a freshly painted, cedar coloured garden table?  I won’t spoil the scene by telling you that in reality we weren’t sitting because we had nothing to sit on, muchly due to the fact that the four chairs that came with the table really did have to be scrapped because they just couldn’t make it through the five harsh Winters that we left them exposed to.  

And . . . without really wanting to finish on a negative point, I just have to give some thought to the poor Burmese people for whom the weather has been so harshly cruel.  Avaaz are asking for donations and they tell us that in spite of the fact that the Burmese military junta managed to aggressively dispatch mighty army against the peaceful protesters last year, in contrast it’s response to the disaster has been dangerously slow.  In fact, it’s being suggested that the regime’s culture of secrecy may result in the obstruction of humanitarian aid getting to the people. 

Could things possibly get any worse for the poor people of Burma?  They need our help.