Cliffhanger

My summer break is nearly over, officially, that is. Unofficially I was hardly aware that I had a break. It was a different Summer than last year, anyhow. I had not made any vacation plans this year, I was exhausted at the end of the term and there were still a few tasks that needed to be done before the new semester would start.

I started with working on the website of my practice for a couple of weeks, which is nearly done now. I also nursed an extra pair of rabbits from a friend. I became lab assistant for my bachelor project’s tutor, I have to run a couple of more tests for her. And I was a freelance taxidriver, bringing the children to the airport and picking them up again. The only convenient thing about driving to the airport in the middle of the night is that there is very little traffic but after so many times I still feel a little jet-lagged without even entering a terminal. Between their different trips I took up on being a control centre on my own. Meaning, avoiding the news except when the Ghanaian president passed away when my daughter was backpacking in that area.

To distract myself I have done something I was thinking of for quite a while. The thing is, I have two Klippans. Those of you who are familiar with IKEA will know immediately what I am talking about. Klippan is the name of a couch, sold by IKEA. Translated it means cliff, I found out. Never realized that I could be sitting so comfortable on a cliff! It is a simple two-seat couch, or like how IKEA describes it, a loveseat. You can easily squeeze three people on each couch. Mind you, they will have to love each other, sitting so close together, but that happens only occasionally. And it provides indeed a good starting point for lovey-dovey activities. It also does have a removable, washable cover and all that, plus the low pricing, makes it the perfect couch to me.

When I moved in here I started with one Klippan and within two years I had bought a second one. That was all I could fit in this living room but on occasions when all the kids are at home, it is not enough. Therefore I was thinking of changing the two couches into a corner couch and even extent one side of it with a third one in time. Desperate in need of some physical exercise this Summer, to be able to sleep normal again and to distract my thoughts of not going away this year, I plucked up the courage to really perform what I had been thinking of for a while.

I turned the couches upside down to inspect their inner parts briefly. I already knew they were slightly different, the oldest one was delivered in one piece whereas the newer one had the arms and back parts delivered separately. But when I carefully inspected them more I found out that the newer one revealed more of its construction where the other one had had those bits covered neatly. Curiosity kills the cat but makes the job much more exciting. I therefore decided to start with the oldest one. I could do with a little excitement after all. Equipped with a  bodkin I started with removing the many staples. First the ones in the Velcro fastener and then the ones in the cover. I did not open the whole thing, just the part to be able to remove the arm. As soon as the hole was big enough to take a peek I discovered to my horror that it was almost completely made of polystyrene, with bits of wood here and there for the staples. I could have covered it up again and quit the idea. But hey, that’s not like me.

The wooden parts were very thin and were glued on the polystyrene. Have you ever sawed polystyrene? I would strongly recommend it. When you want to have a snowy landscape in the middle of a hot Summer’s day. Thank God, my equipment also consists of a vacuum cleaner. With my bare legs and sweaty forehead covered with tiny white particles I worked my way through the couch. Optimistically thinking that if the project would fail I could always throw the couch away and buy a second hand one on the Dutch E-bay (lots of them there, what would you make of that?).

Anyway, the job was not so hard to be done. I only had to replace two legs of the coach after removing the arm and put the fabric back with the stapler. With some kind of wonder glue for porous material, I glued the wooden shelf with the legs back on the polystyrene.

All said and done it was time to refurbish the cover. Therefore I fitted it over the new model and unpicked the stitches of the now excessive fabric parts. All there is left to be done at the moment is sewing a new piece in it from the leftover and then it’s like new. That is, for a prototype. To become a little more like I want it, I have to do something with the arm of the other couch as well, to make that part and the back of the changed couch more equal.

I will wait with extending it with a third couch until I have moved houses. Oh, yes, that’s another thing I have been doing these months, house hunting. More about that next time.