First Impressions

First impressions count. Did you know that? Opinions are formed and there’s nothing you can do afterwards that will change them.


Marianna’s colleague, Bill, his wife, Hazel and their children Katy, Becky and Josh visited us on 7th June 2009. At that time this house was a time capsule of deep pile carpets which covered walls, floors and ceilings. It was also a Fairground Hall of Mirrors since they were on walls and ceilings. The children loved it and ran, dived, sled and treated the whole place as an adventure playground. That was just fine by us since we were about to start demolishing it and we loved that they had such a good time. Today, the five of them returned to see us but most probably to see the house and the children were keen to explore the Wendy House again. The problem was that despite the absence of deep carpets and mirrors they still saw the place as a playground. Their parents repeatedly pointed out to them that the house looked very different from last time, it was almost finished and they must treat it more respectfully. But they didn’t, couldn’t. Our house brought about a Pavlovian response and they couldn’t not go wild. As the four adults sat and talked downstairs we heard screams and doors opening and closing and slamming and feet stampeding. I’m a great fan of Bill and Hazel’s parenting style which doesn’t involve X-Box’s, Wii’s or television but their children were beyond their control today and eventually they admitted defeat and loaded them back into the car and departed. Marianna and I then wandered around the house and closed the wardrobe doors which had clearly been used for ‘Hide and Seek’, noted the multitude of handprints on the walls and the footprints in the bath and that a large number of Marianna’s shoes had been removed from their boxes and worn.



Still, Hazel brought an exceptionally good carrot cake she’d made which, in my world, makes up for pretty much anything.