Just a quickie.

Have you ever come across the saying "If it ain't broke; don't fix it"? Well, I'm the living exemplar of its veracity!

The window in our bedroom isn't level, it runs off a bit down to the left. This isn't a great problem, as you can still see out of it, and open and close it. It's a window! Nevertheless, its been bugging me for a while as the curtain rail is fastened to the architrave around the window frame, and the heavy weight of the the curtains is starting to pull at said architrave. What would any red-blooded man do in this situation? He'd fix it, of course! And so I started out.

This is a very simple and straightforward little job, about 30 minutes or so, insh'Allah.

I had a batten in mind which was in the big dikkeh on the roof terrace, it just needed a few inches sawn off the end. Three holes drilled in the wall, in which to insert some wall plugs (fissures, in Arabic) and fasten the rail back up, Bob's your uncle! Why oh why do I keep falling for these same old lines? Have I learned nothing during the past four years of living here?

Drilling holes in walls has always held a kind of dread for me. This venture would prove to be no exception, my big nasty JCB hammer drill drilled so far and then wouldn't go any further, then went off course, making the hole bigger than I had wanted it, too big for the fissures! To cut a long story short (again) I eventually had to get out my 14mm "Hilti" drill bit, in an attempt to break through the stoppage. Still no use!!! This particular hole was now about an inch high and almost five eighths wide! I had to use a hammer and chisel in the end. It wasn't the brick which was the problem (I thought that it might be concrete and a hard pebble was in the way) it was the mortar! As hard as bell metal!

I overcame the drilling problems then cut pieces of wood which hammered tightly into the holes to take the three screws, marked the wall with a pencil using my spirit level, drilled and countersunk the batten, all was ready to put it up. Haha, you really think so? When I "offered up" the batten; it rocked from side to side, because the wall had a camel's hump in the middle! "Ah" I thought, "KV Explorer's Surform!" It worked its magic on the wall, and the batten and curtain rail went back up without further ado. Alhamdulillah! It only took about three hours! The operation involved using 21 pieces of equipment/tools, and drove me stark staring bonkers. Also, I'd left the mounting studs in the ceiling from the A/C fan unit which used to hang in front of the window. They were about 6 inches long and I kept banging my head every time I turned around while I was up aheight, one bang even drew blood!

Of course it is all my darling Freda's fault, after all, who else should have told me that it really didn't matter, and reminded me that we are in Egypt; where these small irritations are of absolutely no consequence? Maybe I'll stop speaking to her for a few days, that'll teach her!