Get up your ladder

My colleague said to me if I am to carry on climbing ladders then painting and decorating, I'll get big muscles. Over the weekend I had spent six hours up a ladder and although I can't say I've noticed if my muscles have got bigger, which I could do with, I was utterly and completely knackered. What muscles I had in my shoulders and back had decided to go on strike. Even a night of sleep did nothing for me, I felt exactly the same when I got up in the morning as I did when I went to bed. Bloody knackered. It was at about this time I thought if someone were to ask me to paint their front fascia board like my own one I'd have to ask them for a couple of hundred pounds at least. Then I'd charge extra for the materials and if they didn't supply me with cups of tea, sandwiches and biscuits I think I'd stick another hundred on top as well. The fascia board still isn't complete and now two days later I'm feeling recovered.

It seems out of order when you think one of the most important things anybody can learn is not taught in school. House maintenance. Be it decorating, plumbing a bit of wood work or even roofing, this is likely to be a skill every individual will have to use at some time in their life. We have DIY stores all over the place and just to rub our amateur noses in the muck there's TV shows where the uninitiated home DIYer is taken to getting a good whipping. However, it's not their fault. This knowledge is not imparted, and it should be. Right from an early age. The earlier the better I'd say.Yes get babies in their nappies playing with paint brushes and blocks of wood. Oh yes, they already do. But you know what I mean! Especially when you can then get a professional come in and do a job which is fairly easy and charge an extortionate rate. There are definitely times when professionals are non optional, but when it comes to a little bit of paint and decorating most people can at least have a go. Except for the individual who has a fear of heights. Mind I did get stung by a wasp. Nearly fell into a rose bush and once the ladder did slip a little bit. But hey it's my life. At least I got food, I'm an expert in eating, definitely no help needed there.