I am heading in for battle. Don’t get me wrong I love my partner but sometimes we disagree and we can’t find a middle ground. We generally learn to live with it.
Today is going to be such a day and most probably again in a few weeks. Why is this so? Simple I like pianos and he doesn’t. Like is a very light word to use. I love the piano, there are many wonderful memories wrapped up in that one word. Going to sleep hearing beautiful waltzes, upbeat, and other music being played, so many evenings of listening.
My dad used to be a talented player. His hands stiffened over time and he doesn’t play much now just very occasionally but he gets fustrated and leaves it. My brother and sister both got lessons but when it came time for me we were unable to afford them. It didn’t stop me though. I pulled all the books out and started to learn. i would practice for hours until I could play a song. Sometimes I would play by ear. Learning a song just by listening to it. Not easily like some people listening to it once and knowing it but listening again and again until I got the sound to match what I was hearing. I had great dreams of being a concert pianist.
I left home went away to uniand there ended my access to the piano as i moved 1/2 a country away 6 hours and started a grownup life with no piano. I hankered after one but it was one of those dreams that you hold tight to you. It can dim over time but never goes out. I was forever telling K that i wanted a piano. And he would ask me "Why would you want one of those noisemakers? they aren’t good for anything."
I would tell him "One day I will get one." he would shrug "Whatever." which really meant No you won’t but because they cost so much it really isn’t an issue.
Last week I walk into one of our Op shops and there was an old piano there. I looked at it and stroked it and tried a few notes. It was old and battered and I gave it a fond pat and walked away. The price was really good but the piano didn’t call to me. Tempted simply because it was a piano but resisted.
Fast forward to this week. I walk into the Op shop and I am surprised to see it is gone but even more surprised to see another piano. I walk up to it. It is a cottage piano which is a small piano and the sound is different to a grand or upright grand but still it looks lovely. My heart started pounding. It was so odd. I touched it, tested every key, looked inside checking the hammers. Phoned my dad who knows piano and he steps me through what to look for. No cracks, the hammers all work a couple of keys are soft but should be able to be fixed easily. the veneer is in good nick. I open underneath checking for anything. the wires go into metal and not wood. the only thing really wrong with it is one of the facings on the front of a key is missing but it doesn’t affect how it is played or it’s sound. the piano smells the same as my parents. It smells right.
The piano is out of tune but I can hear that it carries a good sound. my parents agree as I play Chopsticks, mum has picked up their extension and we are going over this piano thoroughly. I can’t see a price and think it must have sold and my heart drops in disappointment, but thenI find it $250 with the old piano stool that comes with it. They accept layby and I put a deposit down. The girls are with me and they are over the moon thinking i have done this for them as they wish to learn. It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with me.
I phone K to let him know. Now please realise this has nothing to do with money. He doesn’t worry about that sort of thing at all. REALLY I promise.
His reaction was to rip into me and then told me to take it back. He said amongst other things the girls don’t need it (I actually hadn’t mentioned the girls a all). I told him it wasn’t for the girls it was for me. I reminded him that I had always wanted one. He was furious. I am disappointed. I wasn’t wanting jumping for joy but maybe even a resigned "Oh". Not this anger.
I am not going to take take the piano off layby. I will rearrange my craft room so that i won’t inconvenience him at all. But I will have it. He will be furious. He will get over it. if he starts on me I will point out the huge aviaries I didn’t have say in and the 100’s of birds residing in them. He will look at it with anger for a while and then resign himself to it. i know this because he did it once at the beginning of the relationship. I told him then that he can’t control me and I will add things to the house that I love. It is our house he has stuff he loves (huge tv) and I have now what I love (piano) we are square.
