Miracles Do Happen and Mistakes Can Be Costly

I've written a few upbeat posts of late:

• A New Healthy Happy Me in 2015 
• When Your Wishes Come True
• When Blocks Are Cleared Everything Falls Into Place

... but the truth was, Aaron's bed still needed to be built. I was REALLY upbeat when I made a start on it myself, but that was after quite a huge issue. Something I haven't felt ready to blog about till now!

Basically like I've said in previous posts, we've had the bed and the paint since August and I had been putting off painting the room. I thought I was onto a real boost in my energy and ability when I started to paint the room. Life was looking rosey and everything seemed possible.

However, we had visitors imminent (24th and 25th Jan), so when I posted (on a website) the job of the bed being built, I went with the only person who could do it that week, in time for their arrival. My favourite trusted guy could "do it Monday" (26th Jan) but I told him that wasn't good enough. The chap who could do it, had a voice I didn't trust, but I went with my deadline instead of my instinct. Dear reader, never, ever, do this!

He rung on the morning of the job (Thursday I think it was) and asked if I was still expecting him. The dreaded feeling returned. I said "yes" that I was still expecting him. I'd done SO MUCH to get the room ready for his arrival.

Anyway, when he arrived I let him go up first with me behind him, similarly always being nearer the door than he. Yes, it wasn't good!

The bed was in 3 large boxes, and I unpacked them with him, and took each cardboard sleeve personally out to the garden. All the plastic sleeves of the bed bits too, and polystyrene, so that he'd have room to work. He can't say he spent ages unpacking as we did it together and it took seconds! I didn't do so before his arrival as a lot of flat pack guys are really adamant they only do brand new stuff (so that they are assured nothing is missing) so I wanted the bed looking boxed and in its place for his arrival. I then said "is everything there?!?!?" to which he said yes, at which point I left him to it. OH THE IRONY! The irony of me leaving everything sealed, of me asking, "is everything there?" - clearly my gut instinct knew what was to come. I've said in many a blog post, time is circular, not linear, so it is not necessarily being psychic as such, but rather the future and the past and the present all being so linked in a circular energetic fashion. Energy that if you are not closed to it, you CAN tap into. It's listening to it, and changing tack accordingly that is often our failing.

Anyhow, I "left him to it" for over 2 hours. Several times I wanted to check progress but didn't want to go near him didn't want to disturb him. I told myself, won't it be nice to get a surprise and see it finished rather than bit by bit by bit.

I was just thinking "it should be nearly done now" when he came downstairs and dropped a HUGE bombshell.

He said that one page of the instructions was missing and pointed me to the page that had the manufacturer's telephone number on (a nice normal landline). He left me to ring them and went outside for a fag!

I got through immediately, and they sent me the PDF of the whole instruction booklet. I stayed with the gentleman on the line, whilst I waited the 30 seconds for the email to successfully come through. Once I had it, and established it was correct, my HR (Human Resources) Manager of old Miss Marple skills kicked in. I looked at the pack of A4 pages neatly stapled together. (1) Was the staple disturbed? No! (2) Was the paper near the staple disturbed? No! I was JUST about to give up that idea and then I went to the page that was missing, opened the paperwork up and RIGHT there was the CORNER of the page he had pulled out!!!! No, I AM serious! I say this as I mentally hear my reader say "you cannot be serious?!?", when sadly, indeed I am. 

The penny dropped and I went into "work" mode. I have had MANY positions of authority. DIY Manager in Homebase bossing young lads and shoplifters about. A Cash Office Manager in several retailers talking to thieves (taking money from the till) straight in the eye, when I know that they are responsible for the short. A HR Manager, having dealt with all kinds of fraud, from staff discount abuse, right up to claims for imaginary overtime, and worse. 

So, I stand on the doorstop glaring at him, and he stubs out his fag and comes in. I show him the paper, show him the triangle of paper, and he does not deny it. Nature abhors a vacuum and I abhor a silence, so when he didn't say anything, I felt the need to fill the gap, and said "this is how easy it is, you hold the corner of the bundle, so the paper and staple are not disturbed and then you choose a page and just tug, and voila!" thus showing him that I knew HOW he did it. Again silence!!!! Admit it you fool! Deny it you fool.... No...........

Again, I need to fill the gap, so I take my laptop up, with the PDF on, and take him through the missing pages, hoping that he will do/action, what I read out.... But either he truly didn't understand my instructions, or he just wanted to go, but he didn't understand a single thing I said from those two pages (it was one page, but double sided), so I said to him, if you don't understand what these instructions (and I) am telling you, then you may as well leave. I did then say "why didn't you tell me a page was missing earlier, you have been here over 2 hours" to which he said "I should have done" but it was a stupid thing to have asked given that HE removed the page. I asked "what have you been DOING for over two hours" and he pointed at the fact that EVERY piece of wood had fittings in. Every hole had a screw or bolt in. THAT was what he'd been doing. But there was no point, as when I started to build the bed myself I discovered that a lot of the screws weren't even in the right place. Look at the pic below, it is obvious that a screw needs to tie into that circular fitting but no! He'd put THREE wooden pegs in. I didn't know how I was going to get that central one out, but as pictured I very easily pulled it out with a pliers.

I took a few wrong ones out while he was there (not the one above though), and said to him "look at the damage it's done now" (made the holes bigger on a brand new gorgeous bed that I spent weeks choosing)!. I said "I will pay you for your time but you have got to go". We finally agreed on 12 pounds and he left.

He said three times as he was leaving "I am sorry that I have upset you" NOT sorry for what he had DONE. 5 minutes later he knocked on the door for his hoodie and I gave it to him!!! Actually I am just thinking back. There wasn't the ownership of "I have".... no, nothing as gentlemanly as that. Rather it was "I am sorry that you are upset"!

The page that I tried to talk him through on the PDF involved putting two pieces of wood at right angles to each other, and he didn't even understand that. You then once they were secure, had to add two book ends. Once I calmed down, I did both of those things myself after he left, and before the school run. In over two hours he hadn't attached anything... to anything. So I got moving:

Anyway that was Thursday and I shook! As in properly trembled. Then with 20 minutes before leaving for school pickup I made a start on it myself and did more in those 20 minutes than he had in 2 hours.... says it all really.

Then that night even with Aaron home I did a few hours more. I even built the bed's ladder:

I had to leave it there, as it then took 2 people to lift and Friday night and Saturday night Daddy finished late and was tired.

I'd got it to this stage:

So the visitors came to an incomplete room. And so it was....

If you look closely above, you can see there is a gap between the shelves and the sides, on both ends. I thought I couldn't rectify it as I would need to lift it, and it would take two so I left it.

It got to Tuesday 27th January (after the visitors had long since left) and I decided to be stubborn and did lift it. I thought gravity would push the sides on. When it didn't, I convinced myself that the wood had warped as we'd been storing the bed since AUGUST.

So, with a VERY heavy GUTTED heart I went downstairs. Totally deflated and utterly depressed.

I was feeling completely listless about it all. I remember thinking "guides and angels what is this all about?" followed by "if I am to get over this, I need you to sort it!" I was feeling very very low about it all AND the fact I had gone against my instinct in letting him in. I dowsed about it and asked if it was a lesson I was meant to learn and got a very firm "no". No, I wasn't meant to have put myself through that. I wasn't meant to book the dodgy guy!

Anyway Tuesday afternoon I felt guided to ring my favourite workman knowing full well he wouldn't answer the phone and would probably be too busy to reply to a text. It was his first week back at work and his newborn was 12 days old.

He didn't answer the phone BUT thanks to my little prayer, he called back 15 minutes later.

It gets better. The miracle is, he was working LOCALLY and was here in 20 minutes and took only 2 hours 20 minutes to finish the bed. He even insisted on putting both mattresses on AFTER I paid him.

THIS was/is a gentleman, not that other fool, who I should NEVER have allowed in my home.

So basically he arrived same day and built it same day. It showed me that something you have procrastinated over for FIVE months can actually be done easily, and quickly. I got the same lesson this Saturday (31st Jan) as I finished my tax return, and I'd been worrying about that since September and then did it in under an hour.

Turned out the reason there was a gap both ends was because those circular metal fittings (I think he said they are called "cams") have an arrow on. It has to face towards the hole once inserted and then away from the whole once coupled with a bolt. I hadn't had those circles aligned properly, so hence the gaps, and no amount of forcing was getting the sides on. If I tried any harder I would have caused some damage. Anyway, I am almost glad I did not know that, as he was a whiz at screwing everything in with a drill, and worked SO fast. I felt entirely confident that it was structurally sound, knowing an expert had built it. Really lovely guy pure salt of the earth!

So I am being shown, in lessons that are very clear to understand that

(1) You shouldn't worry about something for MONTHS, lowering your vibration, and infringing on your ability to be happy, when in reality the task can be executed incredibly quickly.

(2) The reality is often way better than the dread in the run up to it.

(3) I need to "just do it" with most things. I am actually a very productive person when I get going. THIS is what I need to fall into. To stop creating obstacles for myself. The self sabotage needs to stop.

(4) Getting supposedly impossible tasks out of the way, makes room in life to achieve more. To be happier. To get out more. To be in a better place for my family. To SEE the wood AND the trees! LOL!

So now, the bed is built and everything fell into place. I already had the bed linen, and Aaron adores it.

I know you all want to know if he is sleeping in it, but that night that I wrote about in my last post, was the only one, and even then he just did from 20:20 to 23:15 at which point he walked into my room and announced "I am wet!" and just stood there. He didn't seem bothered at having woken somewhere different.

He's touch and go with a cough and cold right now, so I will wait till that clears before trying to bed him into his room again, pun intended.

It's the second time that workman has come to my rescue as he built wardrobes in August, so I must use him for everything now, not that I need anything else doing currently.

My previous blog post shows the bunk bed in all its glory.

Thanks for reading.

Liska xxxx