Don't Believe Everything You Read Online!

Around this time last year, a friend told me that there were some very well-priced, cantilever parasols on sale at Ikea, so I, too, bought one. We didn’t get a huge amount of use out of it last summer, partly because we spent less time up on our roof terrace during the day than we had anticipated, but mainly because the the roof is high enough to catch whatever wind is about, and so it was often a bit too blowy to open it.
You can imagine, then, how I felt when said friend, visiting back in the autumn, wandered over to the parasol, looked at it for a moment, and than said, “You’ve got the same problem.” The ‘problem’ was that the frequent small movements of the closed parasol had abraded the cord that raises and lowers it, to the point were it had snapped. Checking the Ikea website, showed that, the season being over, the item was no longer listed, and so couldn’t be replaced! Suddenly, it seemed like a very expensive purchase, dividing the cost by the number of times we had used it.
I did what I have learned to do in such circumstances; I googled the sentence, ‘Cord on Ikea parasol has snapped’, and in no time at all found a raft of fellow sufferers. Also, though, I found someone with a solution; instructions on how to take the thing apart, fit a new cord (we opted for metal this time, not nylon), and reassemble it. Half an hour’s work at most, we were told, but a two person job at certain stages. So, whilst in England recently, John picked up the necessary 9 metres of cord and yesterday we set about repairing his. DIY is not my strong suit, which is why I was so happy to have John’s help (This actually translates accurately as watching John, handing him some things when asked, and holding other things when asked) as he is a DIY natural.
The job is now done, and so on Monday we will repeat the process for my parasol. Only this time we will be looking to trim a bit of time off the task. Half an hour at most? I think not! Close on two hours is what it took. On the other hand, we will now have fully-functioning parasols again.