I have a thing about windows, I like them to be clean, to be able to look at the outside world without something impeding the view. Since the builders moved in this has become increasingly difficult. I do not really like curtains, so we had none in the appartment. We had steel blinds if necessary, although I did concede to curtains in the bedrooms after a conversation with Mr. Swiss on the influence of light on sleep.

However, we now have bulders, they have removed my steel blinds and we will have new blinds, but only in September, or was it October, although I think the last notification was November. Anyhow a good reason to have some sort of curtain on the windows. We decided on those strips that we can adjust and even put to one side as in the kitchen.

They are not the sort of curtains you can put in the washing machine but have them dry cleaned. Eventually it becomes cheaper to replace them every 5-6 years, perhaps even more, so no problem, I will then be approaching 80 years old so who cares. In the kitchen I never close them during the day as I cook, and when you cook you get cooking flavours and highlights on your curtains. We even have a special length over the cat flap so that Tabby can still enter and leave according to her wishes.

But as I mentioned, I want clean glass windows. After a week of hammering, drilling and boring with the building machines, I realised this was becoming a thing of impossibility. I could have cried when I had to wipe down my windows with a damp cloth in the living room before even beginning to clean them. Luckily I have a good system, but my body no longer has a good system. It no longer works as fast as it used to. I spent an hour on a Sunday morning doing an extra clean of the windows on the West side. However, the East side windows were not spared, but they were not covered in buiiding residue, just unsighly stains from the rain which I never had when I had blinds outside.

Yesterday Mr. Swiss and I went shopping, thinking what could possibly happen. When we returned I had to do something in my computer room/office/whatever and there was a young man squatting in front of the window. Actually he was sitting on the ledge as we now have a ditch in front of the window. He looked at me and smiled and I was thinking even a golden oldie still has her charm.

“Could you close the window, as the smell might be an annoyance.”

First of all I was flattered that a young man even wanted to have a conversation with me. However the context of his words put me off a bit. I noticed that he had a roll of white paper, something like overgrown toilet paper, and was sticking it to the wall at the bottom of the window. I notice there was a sort of paint removal liquid type of smell, very chemical and asked what he was doing. He said it was insulation for water protection and after a further question, he assured me that the smell would disappear after an hour, so I went about my normal business cooking lunch.

In the meanwhile the young man also went to lunch and I decided I could now open the window. The window was covered with a white powder similar layer on the bottom half. Another set of windows to clean, as three windows were involved, would this never end. Every day a new building surprise. We now have a long week-end, with Whit Monday holiday, so no more builders until next week on Tuesday and plenty of time to clean windows.

This seems to be following me everywhere. Yesterday morning we went week-end shopping and I do not usually drive the car on Friday, as Mr. Swiss finds he wants to get the shopping done – did he mean I was a hindrance on the steering wheel? So I had the opportunity to take photos on the way. Here again dirty windows were in the way in the car. Not really dirty, but there was an anti camera layer on them. I had to open the side window in the car to get a decent photo.

It is now Saturday, so I might have time to fit a little window cleaning in, although I am sure the builders have new plans for next week to destroying my clear views on the outside world.

Hope your week-ends turn out well, and you all have clean windows.