So at seven in the morning on a Sunday the door-bell rings, and someone is suspiciously calm while I panic and start to wonder about who in the family has been injured or killed or sent to prison because who shows up at the door at 7 am on a Sunday morning except the bearer of very bad news that can’t be said over the phone?
I head downstairs, stepping into my track trousers as I run down the stairs, and pulling a T-shirt over my head just before I get to the door. And there’s two stout blokes in beige uniforms on the door-step, and behind them is a big van, and one of them hands over a clip-board with a paper for me to sign.
“Huh?”, I say and stare at the thing. I have no idea what’s going on. I haven’t had my tea yet.
“Go on, sign it,” Someone is still casually leaned against the door-post to the kitchen, and he’s looking intently at his nails, and refuses to say anything more beyond a dismissive shrug. He’s not going to tell me what’s going on, so I sign the board.
And then they wheel it in. They open the back of the lorry, use the lift to lower a huge bundle to the ground, and they wheel the damn thing past me. Mark finally reacts and points at a wall against which they prop the bundle.
“Happy anniversary”, he then says and gives me a kiss, and pull the covering cloth off the bundle, and it’s a piano. Apparently one of his relatives needed some space, and they had this Bentley upright piano from the early 1990s that took up all that space, and they let Mark have it for £80. So, he’s taken a huge chunk of his salary from the brick-laying job, and he’s bought me a flipping piano.
“You need something to do,” he says. “Or the next 18 months is going to be filled with you whinging about things. I’m not sure I want a whinging husband”, he says. “Happy anniversary. It needs to be tuned since it hasn’t been used for years, but I’ll let you get that sorted.”
I have no idea how to tune a piano. I have no idea what moves in that pretty head sometimes. But I do love him. But a piano? I haven’t learned to play the guitar properly yet. 
I don’t know which is the more remarkable aspect of this, whether it’s Mark buying you a piano, or a delivery at 7am on a Sunday morning! Anyway, it’s just the distraction you need, and Mark once again shows what an astonishingly perceptive young man he is. Now go find a piano tuner
It is not such a great mystery. The delivery men were more relatives that were moving a house in town, and before they started they did this little detour between the other set of relatives with the piano and us. A piano tuner is going to cost a fortune, right?
I’ve no idea what a piano tuner costs to be honest but yes, I guess it won’t be cheap. No doubt somewhere on the interwebs there are d-i-y instructions. It’s not a Steinway and you’re not Benjamin Grosvenor so it needn’t be done to concert hall perfection, but that said, a quick google for “piano tuner cost” suggests around £50 – £70 for a basic tune-up. Mark had better work another weekend
. It was your mention of uniforms and a signature that made me assume the delivery was by a courier company 
.
It was a moving company, but Mark’s relatives work there or own it. I’m not sure which. I suppose they needed to do the administrative bit properly when they were using company time to move a piano for us.
Nepotism. What would the world be without it. 
Stationary. It makes the world go round
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That is an amazing gesture, you have one very thoughtful partner, and someone who thinks out of the box. Go Mark Go Mark. Ivan
you will NOT try to tune it yourself. that way madness lies…
it is a job for a professional. and that COULD be fucking costly. however… once tuned, you can sit back and enjoy it for a few years
(tho’ the tuners will try to persuade you it needs to be tuned every six months. tell them to go get reamed in whichever direction they consider most fulfilling and gender appropriate)
and your husband to be is a sweetie.
I don’t know. It seems a simple job. Turn a knob… smack a tuning fork. Compare.
Just kidding, we’ll have to leave it for a week and then I’ll hit Google.
Haha what a fantastic thing for you, and what a fantastic guy who did it!
(Even if his perceived motive of ‘I don’t want a whinging husband, while a true analysis, maybe a tad harsh in the expression!)
And, don’t even think of trying to tune it yourself – let it settle for a few days, then get a tuner to do it. Trouble is, if it hasn’t been used in years, it might not hold its tune very well to start with and need to be done again – but as Tonkle said, not necessarily as often as the tuner would have you believe for a house piano – get it done when it sounds wrong to you!
You should hear him when he is annoyed with me. My man is not one to hold back on his honest appraisal of things.
It might be worth playing it for a while (as long as it’s not too far out of tune to be offensive!) until it settles down, and then get it tuned.
I tried it a bit, but it really does sound off and uneven. So, we’ll leave it for now. Next week when my Visa is magically replenished by the Swedish money fairies in Lapland (or something) I’ll check around for some professional.
There was a time when I played both piano and guitar. I would think you could pick it up with some lessons. Tuning should be a once every few years affair unless it gets moved again. Now music comes for ipad which should make accumulating sheet music easier. In a way I envy you – as I have arthritis and neuropathy in my hands I can’t play anymore. I do miss it – the only musical instrument I have that works well is my voice. You could expand your musical side which could go a long way to filling the void you seemed to have in your last post. Kudos to Mark for being a great husband-to-be! Isn’t love grand?
I found this Piano Tuner in your area ( http://www.martinsheargoldpianotuning.co.uk/Tuning.html ). He charges between £50 – £70 per tuning depending on how out of tune it is. So it could cost almost as much as the piano – perhaps you could get it tuned as a graduation gift?
Thanks. I’ll bookmark that until in a bit.
Oh I love your Mark! He’s just opened a great big red door for you! I would give my rig-… no, my left arm to be loved like that. Piano lessons anyone? -hugs- Happy Anniversary to both of you.
He’s sneaky, I’ll give him that. The anniversary was on the 16th,, yesterday. So, I thought we were still not doing anything special for it. So he waited an extra day to lower my guard. The bastard.
-grin- Mark isn’t a Capricorn by any chance is he?