Unfortunately I fell into the English trap today ... hence hubris is the word of the day!
Having seen Mum off on the bus at 9.30 am I returned to the numerous planned 'chores of the day'. First, hang up the washing, feed the birds, empty the ash, fill the peat basket and empty the compost bucket into the bin. Everything going well, continued and, after vacuuming, washed the kitchen, bathroom, porch, passageway, stairs and landing floors. Feeling very pleased with my achievements, checked the email and made some smug remark to the downunders about spring (probably that was my mistake), then I confounded my error by making a clever remark about Mum and widgets. Having finished the email I went for broke and prepared to fix said widget to underside of toilet seat.
You see the result! From small beginnings ....
I successfully removed old broken widget, drilled holes for new and glued it in place, after checking the seat was sitting securely once more. Put seat down then realised what I really needed (when gluing) was some downward pressure ... heavy weight on seat. Ah, I remembered that when preparing the ratatouille yesterday I had pressed the extra moisture out of the aubergine and courgette in the collander by use of a fine rounded boulder of serpentine (kept by the back door for such occasions). Fetched said boulder and placed on toilet seat above widget ... disaster ... hubris ... it fell into the pan and smashed it!!
A line of poetry from Milton's Ozymandos comes to mind (probably misquoted) 'Look on his works oh ye mighty and despair'!
Archie (bless his cheerful and helpful heart) has been and is away to get another pan, meanwhile I have demolished the rest of the pan in preparation for replacement. Archie has promised he will be back and have it in place before Mum comes home and only smiled when I told him shamefacedly how I had done it.
Now I desperately need a ... well, look on the bright side, at least I'm a man, but then a woman probably wouldn't have got into this situation.
'Hubris: arrogance, such as invites disaster'. Chambers Dictionary.
4 comments:
I think there might have been a few other kind of words in there too!!
Oops.
I once pulled a toilet off the wall in Rishikesh, India after slipping in the shower and grabbing the tank. I tried to explain myself in sign but the Indians only laughed their heads off.
My fondest toilet humour memory is Beth running down the passageway in our flat in Edinburgh with her trousers around her ankles shrieking. Hot on her heels was the contents of the cistern. The seal on the cistern to pan connection gave out during the flush. Beth travels much faster than flushed water.
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