A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the back of my comfy chair (inherited from Agustín a few years ago) had gone a bit wobbly. Then it started sinking on one side, getting worse and more wobbly by the day. And so I thought the best thing to do would be to cut it open and see what the problem was. This is what I saw.

See that white elastic with the double line running across it? Well, that and the piece of wood it’s attached to, should be attached to the other side of the chair. My theory is that it got bashed about during the move last February and then Loki – doing his Jungle Gym routine climbing up back of chair and then hanging there – didn’t help. Damn. The wood slats on the left-hand side have snapped in two places.

Thing is, that old comfy chair has seen me through some very hard times. After all the cancer ops I would never have been able to sit comfortably on – or even get up from – the IKEA sofa/bed, which has to be one of the worst-designed sofas ever. I needed something with sturdy arms so I could settle into and push myself out of the chair without having to use too much “gut power” with stitches going from here to there.

I don’t know what to do now. Repairing the old comfy chair is beyond my capacity, and I’m not sure it’s worth getting it restored by a professional. In the meanwhile, I have brought the IKEA reading chair down from upstairs. It’s a bit low-slung to be comfortable getting in and out of, and it also leans back too much. I need a more upright chair.

This afternoon I’m going to wander over to a small neighbourhood upholstery place I pass all the time. They will either solve my problem or cost ten times more than buying something new.