Act 3, Scene ii: The Great Wall

In London, there's a slight stigma with living above a shop.  So when I decided to purchase a flat above the village boulangerie, I gave myself the other challenge of trying to create a space that would defy such prejudices.  My daughter asked me to create a home, so that we could reside as a family.  I wanted to create a secret; that looking from the outside, you'd never guess, what laid behind the walls.

In Act 1, I was confronted with a newly refurbished, severely disadvantaged, white, white, flat.

Instinctively, I knew what needed to be done.  That poor wall needed art, it needed texture.  It needed to be stripped apart, expose its bricks.

So I started mediating and observing, brick walls.

At the neighbour's...

Along Beaufort Street...

Across the street from our hotel...

 And finally, right outside our hotel.  This idea of a black brick wall took root within me.

I learnt it's not so straightforward to hack out plaster to reveal brick.  So we moved on to my Plan B, which was to just knock out a small portion of the wall to unearth what was beneath.  If we found brick that could be useful, I suggested that we let our imagination run and keep hacking more wall space.   I was then going to paint everything uncovered, black.  Yes, the wall would be uneven, but that was the whole point- to give the flat texture and lift it from banality.

And then my builder chanced upon Plan C. 

Plan C stretched the budget a little.  It also presented us with a mathematical conundrum.

***

Week 18, post-sugery, I got back on my new neighbour, the horse whose ability to handstand, dislocated my elbow, avulsed two ligaments, broke my arm.

I explained to my therapist, that as my arm seems to have plateau-ed in terms of recovery, and my shoulder atrophied, the only way forward to building strength now, is to engage in the very activity that requires such strength.

There was no fanfare getting back on Dumpling.  Instead, I felt the same happiness I feel when dancing- that calm, quiet, grateful joy.

Only from the heart, can you touch the sky- Rumi

***

Meanwhile, my brick wall project became like The Great Wall of.  

It's been slow and tedious.  I extended our hotel stay by a day, by three more days.

Yesterday, the wall was fully covered and grouting work could begin.

After the builders completed cleaning that lower segment of the wall, they told me they would stop for the day.  The day was not over yet, and their task not done.  But, the Polish Football Team was playing, and that, was surely more important.

Absolutely, I said.  I understand.  I hope your team wins!

Act 3, Scene ii-  ah the element of discovery, of cultural differences and surprise.  Waiting for my bus back to Chelsea, along Putney Bridge, I see birds fly across the Thames.