11.17.2004

Oh God! I just spilt lavender air freshener chemical all over my arm and intensive scrubbing has not removed it's presence. Now I'm faced with the prospect of three 3rd year lessons tomorrow smelling like I imagine Oscar Wilde might have done.

This morning I woke up to glorious sunshine and strolled out onto the balcony topless in celebration. Immediately after being noticed by a dear old woman hobbling around in circles (exercise?) who promptly stood stock still and stared at my semi nakedness with fear in her eyes I myself noticed a small drama playing itself out upon the stage of the park beside my apartment block. Within this park is a large jungle gym (which can be seen in the photo featured in this post) and a particularly slippery slide (I've tested it out on several drunken occasions). It seems as though the council had decided the equipment needed some maintenence as I sat and watched for half an hour as a council worker attempted to paint the actual slope of the slide with very little luck. There he was, gamely striding up the slope, bucket of paint in hand, only to pause midway for several seconds and then slip rapidly back down, paint sloshing uncontrollably.
After making a coffee I returned to the balcony to see he had ingeniously tied a small ladder to the top of the slide and was now walking back up to a point where he could grab the bottommost rung of said ladder. All was well and good for about a minute until his feet slid slowly backwards whilst his one free arm, and the rest of his body, stayed affixed to the ladder. I left him hanging at a precarious 70º angle as I had to set off to work.

When I got home this evening I saw that the slide has been completely painted - he managed somehow, good man. Perhaps there's a moral in all this but I'm afraid I'm too dumb to extract it.