The final curtain

I ordered new Voiles for our living room last week. After looking at the same dreary net curtains for 9 years I thought it was time for a change. My husband doesn't like change, but I tried to explain to him that although I'm not one who feels the need to have the latest fashions in home furnishings, you can be so out of fashion that you actually start drawing attention to yourself. Apart from that, I was just sick of the sight of them. Then he said "You've been looking at me for longer than that, are you sick of the sight of me as well?"

Anyway, I digress. I bought some Voiles the other week, but of course having a memory that is so poor that it rivals only with my husbands (he can't even remember that I changed the curtains in another room only two months ago), I forgot to take the measurements with me. Actually, in my defense, I did make a pretty good guess, only the measurement written on the packaging which I thought was the length turned out to be the width. So of course I had to make a second trip. And due to the fact that they didn't have the length I required in stock, I had to order them, and then make a third trip to collect them once they were in.

I collected them yesterday, and so today I got on with the jolly job of putting them up. I needed three Voiles as we have a bay window with three sections. Everything was going fine until I put up the third Voile. "Oh, I don't believe it". Hubby then said to me "Oh, did you pick up the wrong length?", "No, they gave me the wrong length". I love how he always assumes the mistake was mine. I tried to phone them, not really knowing what time they close on a Saturday, but there was no reply, so I guessed that meant they were closed. Good job I rang, because I wouldn't have been overly impressed if I had made a forth trip to find them closed.

This does however mean that I am now stuck with the wrong length until Monday when they will be open again. (Actually, I wonder if they're open on a Sunday? I'll give them a ring tomorrow and see.) As it turns out, the person who collected my Voiles from the stock room and gave them to me isn't as stupid as I thought - it's the packaging that was wrong. Thankfully that third Voile is too long and not too short, so I've decided to leave it up until I have a replacement, and at least it's not noticeable from outside. Well, I couldn't have two Voiles up with one dreary net that's 9 years old could I? (Just a side point, I have actually washed them during those 9 years, in case you were wondering) So, what's the odds on me now having to order a forth Voile, and wait another week for it?

All this "window" stuff reminds me of when we first moved in. We wanted a curtain rail to go round the bay window, but had no idea what length to buy. Someone my husband worked with just lived up the road from us, in a house of the same design, so hubby thought he would just go and ask him what length he bought. "Eight foot" he said. So off went hubby and bought an eight foot long curtain rail, and came home to fit it. When he put it up though there was a foot long gap at both ends. He went back to his work mate - "I thought you said you bought an eight foot long rail?". "I did" came the reply. "Well I just put mine up and there's a foot long gap at either end". "Yeah" he said, "mines like that as well".