Water leaks aside, I love everything about our flat. That said, the floor-to-ceiling windows in every room that shine so much light into our place are also starting to heat it up.
Curtain shopping somehow had managed to fall to the bottom of my to do list until I took a walk around the neighbourhood the other day.
I left in the evening but the air was still sticky with the heat. The sky was the colour of the earth and I had to squint to avoid getting sand in my eyes.
The construction that has made a mess of things in front of our apartment had also made a mess of the sidewalk. Where there were bits designated to pedestrians, the brick was crumbling away and littered with cigarette butts. Mostly however, to my sandal clad feet’s delight, there was no walkway, just sand, broken glass and bricks laid out like skipping stones.
Suddenly, amidst abandoned shop fronts with dilapidated signs, there was a blink-or-you’d-miss-it curtain shop wedged between an abandoned store front and a stationary store that curiously only sold mechanical stamps.
I entered the tiny room to see a desk flanked by two plastic lawn chairs and bolts of fabric slowly unraveling in the corner. It was papered in a psychedelic lime green design that I’m sure if you looked at long enough would start to play tricks on you.
When I entered, the tailor, sewing black trim onto beige curtains, looked confused. It seemed he didn’t know what to do with a customer. I asked him if he had linen curtains. He hurriedly pulled out heavy books filled with fabric samples. Polyester. Viscose. Jacquard. Anything and everything I hadn’t asked for.
Finally after a shouted conversation with another tailor sewing away upstairs we got it. I sat down in the blue plastic lawn chair that was stacked onto another, making me two inches taller, and settled in for negotiations.
I instinctively liked the pair of tailors turned salesmen, who’d translate amongst themselves when I’d ask them questions. Too much fabric they agreed, too much work. With the promise of a nonsensically small discount I asked for a card, but I already knew I’d be back.
