The midas touch

My grandad was a tinkerer and a fixer. As a mechanic, he knew how to mend and build, and there wasn’t much he couldn’t bring back to life. But he had an affliction. He was addicted to gold spray paint.

In his later years, his interests honed in on clocks. He would get all kinds of timepieces ticking once more, and, if they needed a bit of sprucing up, out came the can. In all honesty, it could be brash, and sometimes the tone of gold was jarring.

But the apple falls right under the tree, does it not? Having skipped a generation, the love of all things shiny and gold is strong in me. I honestly do rein it in as far as I can, but it has to be acknowledged as an affliction. I’ve decided to embrace my love of gilt, gilding and adding a soupçon of bling. But I’m staying away from the spray paint (so far).