Phew, the exhibition is finally underway. But what a nightmare it was to get there… I have to apologise for neglecting the blog for a little while. I honestly wanted to get back into writing daily in the build-up to the opening, but somehow it didn’t pan out like this. I won’t go into detail about the last week, that we had a visitor staying with us while our house didn’t have all the walls, or kitchen, and only one sink, or about the cold nights without insulation. The last 24 hours before The Opening were enough to make a puppet cry… if it still had the energy.

Friday we set the space up. What we thought would take us 3 hours took eight! Ah well, it is an acceptable misjudgement when it is your first exhibition. It was far more important that I had enough material to hang on the walls. I printed pictures and stories from the blog and they look really great on the wall. It’s a pity that the last thing I saw on Friday night was a glaring spelling mistake in the headline of the very first print-out the visitors will see. So it was a trip back to the office that night to make a new print-out and also to write an artist’s statement that I had totally forgotten about.

At least when I went to bed on Friday night I was sure everything was ready to go and there were only few minor things to do the next day before the guests would arrive for the opening.

I am a fortunate person. I only have migraines once every two years. Unfortunately, when I woke up on Saturday morning it was that day! My first thought was I can’t have one today so I popped a head-ache pill, totally forgetting that they don’t really agree with my stomach. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before I started throwing up. Hubby remarked jokingly that the pills were certainly 5 years past the best before date. I checked, and yes, the expiry date was March 08. It didn’t occur to  me to check at the time. They looked like the things I needed then and there.

But back to the story. A few hours of rest before the opening should have sorted me out, but the builders had asked us if they could put the gib board up on Saturday. Of course, as we want the house finished soon, we were happy for them to come in. How could I have known that I would have a migraine? So there wasn’t much reprieve with all the sawing and drilling and hammering going on in the other rooms of the house.

When we were finally ready to leave, we hopped in the car only to find the windscreen had cracked. And not just a tiny little crack but a huge, spiderweb crack right across the driver’s side. Something had hit it. All the wine for the opening was in the car and had to make it’s way to the Gallery. I tried to ring a friend to ask if she could pick me up. But both of my trusted friends who live close by were out and of course I had left my mobile phone at the office the night before, so I couldn’t ring them on theirs. I simply didn’t have their numbers.

Finally I got hold of one of them and yes, she would pick us up at 1pm. Thank goodness we stayed late the night before to finish everything. Otherwise I would have panicked by now but I felt far too seedy.

One o’clock came and went. No trusted friend in sight. Twenty past one and I was starting to get a bit nervous as said friend is usually very reliable. So I went to check the phone. Would you believe it? It was off the hook. So I rang my friend again. She was still at home and couldn’t find her car keys!

We made it in the end, and we made it before the guests arrived!

Ask me how it went. I can’t tell you. When it was all over, I went into the kitchen to thank my helpers and said “What a fizzer, eh!” All three of them looked at me as if I was at a different party. They thought it went very well.

I am pretty sure it was the Dedes. They tried to sabotage The Opening as they don’t want to be sold!