New Balls Please

The wife decided that she needed a new ballpool for her therapy room. The original, circular and very flimsy playpen had collapsed many moons ago but I for one was quite happy with this because, as I've mentioned before, cleaning the balls was a proper pain in the arse!

My misgivings, however, were not taken into account when I was dispatched to the playroom with a tape measure and a fearful warning ringing in my ears;

'These are expensive and made to measure. Don't fuck it up!'

And as you can see. I didn't!

Ballpools are important tools in many aspects of therapy, and help kids with most of the ailments they visit us with. They're a great place for kids with ADHD to let off some steam and for our autistic kids with sensory issues, a great place to feel relaxed, surrounded by gaudily covered, cheap plastic balls...nope, I've no idea why either, but perhaps the biggest reason is that they're so much bloody fun!

This was ordered online and being custom made and heavy duty specifically for commercial use, it cost an extra £80 quid to have it delivered down here to the island. Anything ordered online from any one of the home shopping channels has a hefty surcharge to pay for the additional transport and postage costs.

It turned up three weeks to the day after ordering in the back of a small truck from which three wild-eyed, no doubt Kratom-using delivery men who'd been awake all night travelling, carried the 80kg of bits into the room for me to assemble. It was very well packed and unpacking it was more difficult than actually putting it together. That was just four pieces and eight screws and yes, my measurements to get it right in front of my climbing wall were spot on.

So after much grunting and humping, I got it all into the playroom and the black bags full of balls were pulled out from under the stairs. As you can see from the picture, we didn't have enough to even half-fill it. Believe me, two thousand more balls are now on order!

I have to say, it's very well made and covered in a very heavy duty vinyl which up to date, hasn't needed much cleaning, just a little wipe over with a damp cloth of the kind I always have to hand and it's really taking a lot of stick and being used for most of the day. The vinyl floor mats and padded walls were made by someone local on the island but when we asked her, she said she only did straight lines!

So there you have it. A new ballpool to add to the wife's arsenal of therapy tools. She says therapy, the rest of the world says play, either way, it seems to work and the kids love coming here so it probably doesn't matter! Either way, we have more vinyl in the house than a 1970s Austin Allegro.

Wishing everyone a great weekend

Well done wife. Get them to dump it in the living room, about as far from the therapy room as you can so I need to move it through three narrow doorways...

Now that's what I call a good fit!

Turning the house into a bomb site!

Hmm. Something missing. Oh yes. BALLS!

Don't worry about the mess. The MiL will burn it!

Peppa and George ready to welcome visitors.