Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

I have noticed lately that our house is starting to look rather shabby. The paintwork looks dull, and the walls have seen better days. As for the grubby ceilings, well, it makes me giddy even thinking about trying to paint them, now I’m an old lady!

I remember the good old days when climbing up a ladder was fun.

My mind took me back to the early days when we did so many silly things, trying to put food on the table when the kids were small. I remembered the house we were hired to decorate. Gloss paint on all the woodwork and expensive wallpaper on all the downstairs walls and, of course, the stairs. Nothing complicated, we thought. It was a piece of cake.

I am very tall, but that doesn’t help with old houses with high ceilings.

We had a ladder, but that wouldn’t be any good on the stairs. Then I remembered the exercise bar we had at home. The kind that spans a doorway so you can do pull-ups. With some luck and a following wind, we could clamp it across the stairs to take the other end of our scaffold board. Make sure it is firmly fixed and level, then we could balance the stepladder on it to reach the top of the wall.

At this stage, I must confess that I don’t like heights. I get nauseous and more than a bit giddy, but we needed the money.

Praying to all that was Holy and armed with a carefully pasted and folded length of wallpaper, I ascended the ladder. It was very wobbly, and I expected to fall and end up in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, wrapped up like a parcel in soggy wallpaper.

Those of you who have papered a wall will know that a fair bit of stretching goes on as you align the paper, trim the top and smooth all the bumps and air bubbles away. Several times, I swayed precariously on one leg but completed my mission.

What I didn’t know at the time was all the near-heart-attack moments that Anita was having as she tried to keep the ladder steady. She was in the perfect position to see just how dangerous it was and how close we were to disaster.

We had fun in those days, taking incredible risks and doing impossible jobs. This job was memorable for another reason, too.

The house owner had celebrity friends, and they would often have to duck under our ladders as they came and went. The best day was when Bucks Fizz visited, and Mike Nolan signed his name on Anita’s arm! They signed their latest record for us and told the world about the crazy girls decorating their friend’s house!

So, taking risks was worth it that day!

Not every job had such high spots. Like the time Anita knocked over a tin of white gloss paint all over a dark chocolate-coloured carpet! The owner caught us trying to scoop up the paint with spoons, and we expected our marching orders (or worse!)… But they couldn’t have been nicer about it.

It’s a lovely memory, but not much help with our shabby house!

Those were the days…