The past two days have been a complete and utter rollercoaster. Like I mentioned in previous posts, we've started painting in the Girls' Room. On our half-day on Tuesday, we managed to get a whole coat on the walls, and I estimated, based on that progress, we'd manage a further two on Wednesday. By Thursday, therefore, we'd have the room ready for furnishing.

So, we had the time - it was the resources that were a gnawing worry for me. We had the time to get up two coats of paint in colours that we may or may not have had in our possession.

Wednesday morning, I arrived at the Boys' and Girls' Club on time, to find that we had the same tubs of paint lying around from the previous day - white, magnolia and peach, which we'd used as an undercoat. No pink, and certainly no purple. We waited for Tim to arrive, who said he'd found a tin of pink. He brought a tub into the sports hall, where all our stuff was being kept, and sure enough there was a distinctive salmon pink around the edges. It was nice, it wasn't in-your-face hot pink, it would do.

Anna prised it open while I waited, paused, and gave me a look.

"Er..." she said, and held up the tin so I could see inside.

"Er indeed," said I.

It was definitely paint. And it was certainly paint of the pink variety... but it had the added attribution of complete solidity. Tim, hearing our utterances, asked us what was the matter. Anna lifted the tin and upended it, proving her point and keeping the floor spectacularly clean whilst doing so. Hats off to her!

So we had no pink. And, since we had no purple either, this meant that we'd be sitting around, twiddling our thumbs or working elsewhere while the Girls' Room would sit sadly neglected. And this, people, is why you should always go wild when it comes to resourcing. Get what you need! Hell, get more than what you need! A job with leftovers is a job well done!

A thought had, fortunately, occurred to me while I was making the small trek to the club in the morning. I'd been paid that very day. Wilkinson's, noted for its vast range of snazzy paints, was only two minutes away from our project.

This thought, paired with the fact that our first break was at half ten that morning, led to an amusing scene in which Anna and I dashed through the streets in paint-stained overalls. In Wilkinson's, we bought three colours - 'Disco Diva', which was pretty much identical to the solidified salmon, 'Plum Punch', which was a lovely fruity purple, and 'Jelly Bean', which was a bright sunburst orange. Then, we rushed to the bakery, to the cash machine (upon learning that Gregg's don't accept cards) and to the bakery again. Suitably painted and fooded, we returned to the club.

It was a great day, was Wednesday! A massive high in which we all went a little bonkers. We ended up with opposing walls in the pink and purple, with all the woodwork in orange. It was a bright, psychedelic wonderland in the making, and it looked marvellous. Nobody had any objections - June (who runs the club) saw it and gave me full reign of the colour scheme! It was joy - the act of giving something to a group in need, the selflessness, the paint fumes... we all went home that day feeling optimistic.

"The manager's seen in that room and it's not good", we were told this morning by Vicky, our team leader. I'd literally only just arrived. I stood there, baffled, in my huge suede overcoat, half-way through the act of putting my bag down in favour of a roller. Anna, my partner in crime, was also present.

"What's not good about it?" I asked meekly.

"The colour," Vicky explained. "It's too..." And then she did a hand-flaring, eye-popping gesture which said 'in your face'.

After doing all that work yesterday, and after being told all day that the work and the colours were fine, we were now being told the complete opposite. Later I'd come to the conclusion that, because we were so into it (and believe me, we were), they probably didn't have the heart to tell us what they were really thinking. I've learned that there are a variety of people out there; short-fused people, moany people, people who easily misinterpret things, and people who'll leave opinions to the harsher critics. We could rant about it 'til the bovines returned, but we wouldn't be able to change the fact that we're all destined to meet and work with shy, crazy, hot-tempered, loud, quiet, unpredictable people.

We came to an agreement. The room was not our room - it was for the girls who used the club to hang out in. So while the colours were brilliant by our tastes, other people would walk in and their eyes would undoubtedly explode. It makes a lot of sense, actually, and while I was annoyed at the wasted work - if they'd had a problem, they should have told us yesterday - I accepted that personal taste was not universal. So we got more paint - a selection of pinks, reds and purples, and decided on a new colour scheme. We'd lose the orange, and we'd tone the pink and purple down to a more subdued shade. That way it was still a more girly theme - albeit stereotypically so - but it wasn't as much of a visual assault.

Today's work consisted of painting the pink walls, rectifying most of the woodwork (save the bits we can't reach; for health and safety reasons we aren't allowed beyond two steps up a ladder) and being a bit peeved about it all. It's a weird place to be, sympathising with both sides of an argument. I apologised to June over the faffery of the colour, and there was an undertone of no hard feelings as well - while I couldn't speak for the others, I now understood that my personal taste in decor wouldn't necessarily work for other people. So it's all been smoothed over now.

Tomorrow, we start afresh. No the room - I mean the mindset. We'll put today's upsets behind us, pretend it never happened and crack on. Even with the changes to colour scheme, I bet it'll look awesome.

The work that remains, then: we still need to fix the purple walls, and the higher parts of the woodwork remain orange. Tim or Vicky will probably have to sort this out as, like I said, health and safety. The pink walls probably won't need a second coat, but we'll see. After that, it'll be the skirting boards, and we'll have to get paint off of anything that wasn't meant to have paint on it. Once this is done, the remaining work will just be acquiring flooring and furnishings. June's sent a few bar stools off to be re-upholstered in orange leatherette, and the beanbags/curtains thing is still on. Anna and I will be doing aforementioned canvases in our own time, which will bring back some of our beloved colour into the walls.

I'll be honest with you; I emerged from today in need of a drink - in the supermarket a few hours ago, a crate of Kopparberg caught my eye and I nearly bought it to guzzle at my desk. The stress levels have been unreal. Thankfully, though, I've saved my pennies from being washed away in alcoholic decadence - I've decided that an electric guitar and a bass will be much more fulfilling. Huzzah!