My mother must have called the landlord of the building because, within no time, I remember that he was standing there viewing the damage to our flat and saying that he would pay for all the repairs. He knew that my parents had just finished papering that same wall, so the landlord very generously told my mother that she could choose any wallpaper she liked and that he would employ workers to install it for us. Price was no object!
This was wonderful news, not only to my father who would not have to do the work, but also to my mother who happily trotted off to the store where she subsequently chose a beautiful wallpaper of which we all subsequently approved. We children were delighted because it meant the task would be accomplished quickly, and we wouldn’t have to live much longer with those awful flowers.
It took us some time to recover from the hassle and the upheaval involved. As time went on, we began to laugh about the fact that the water tank had burst at precisely the right moment to rescue us from those abominable blooms.
Fish and chips to enjoy on Fridays, and with our freshly installed pretty wallpaper in our living room, we were all happy again.
Life was back to normal, or, at least, until the next time my mother announced that the place could do with sprucing up.
Fresh fish and chips served in paper
