Chairwoman For The Day

Up incredibly early this morning, to catch the 5.20 am coach to London [thankyou to friend Bob who was willing to be our taxi driver to the bus station!]

Bob was going to the PLASA 09 [Professional Lighting And Sound Association] show at Earls Court, and I was going to spend the day with Liz.

We got to Victoria coach station around 8.30 and then went our separate ways.

My aim was to sort out the covers on the dining chairs for Liz. Back in August I'd found some Orla Kielly type fabric at a really good price, and so I arrived at her flat around 9am armed with fabric, staple gun etc and after breakfast, we set to work.

The chairs were in a bad way - the original covers were a pale beige cotton/synthetic blend, non-removable, and generally badly stained because they were in the kitchen and get a lot of use - and cannot be cleaned properly when things get spilled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see how bad they looked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I unscrewed the pads and Liz cleaned off all the grot and grollies!

 

 

 

 

Hint - when you are applying new covers, it is much easier if you staple the centre of each of the four sides first, then adjust the edges and corners. If you begin by working along one edge it is more likely that the fabric will distort [I learned this by bitter experience a few years ago!]

 

Here is one pad with first 4 staples- and trusty Powershot Staple Gun.

 

 

 

 

 

Before and after - now doesn't that look a whole lot better?

It cost about £13 to renovate all four chairs, and they are now wipe-clean so should last a good long time.

 

Feeling pleased with our efforts, we went out for lunch. I was fascinated to pass this blue plaque

It really ought to be magenta coloured!

 

 

 

Some buildings have the most amazing sculptures on the outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near Borough Market, we passed both an old hop-factors, and the Hop Exchange [must check if this is connected to the LeMay family I know]

 

The Hop Exchange has the most wonderful architecture inside and out and the security chap kindly let me go inside briefly to take a photograph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch at Leon in Canvey Street SE1

Liz and I spent much time discussing Economy Gastronomy [Allegra, the cook on that, was one of the founders of Leon]

I'd love her cookbook!

The food was wonderful - Liz had meatballs and I had a superfood mackerel salad. We both had the incredibly refreshing Leon Lemonade

We were going to spend time in Tate Modern, but Bob rang to say he had finished at the show - so we got the bus round to meet him in Leicester Square. We liked the idea of "Spamco Hazardous Waste Removal" - is this van, which passed our bus, full of sinister pink canned meat - or unwanted emails?

After a wander up to Oxford Street and a coffee together, we bade farewell to Liz, got the coach back to Leicester, and finally got home round 9.35

A very enjoyable day. Bob has some interesting freebies from his show, and Liz gave me a wonderful little gift. I shall photograph that tomorrow and blog about it then.

It was also good to keep in touch with Steph, and discover that her first day in the New Job went well.

Now a cup of tea and off to bed!