In the garden

We’ve finally got our back garden sorted out. The lawn was in a terrible state and would not improve no matter what we tried. So the nice chap from Nightingale Landscapes came and dug it up and replaced it with gravel. It’s only a small garden so there’s no vast expanse of gravel – plus we’ve also extended the patio (which desperately needed jet-washing) – which reduced the gravel area. A couple of sections of log roll and some new plants have been added and the garden now looks really nice. And it’s practically zero maintenance. Yay!

On Sunday evening we turned on the patio heater and ate al fresco for the first time this year. Which was nice.

chamber of horrors

Uuuurggghhh!! We had a blocked drain!

in a flash

With the SAP implementation imminent, I'm at work on a bank holiday. I'm not that busy to honest being reliant on other people to do stuff for me, so its a pain in the arse to have to be in.

Christmas was good, overall. Our lunch on Christmas Day left a lot to be desired so we've decided not to go out next year but to stay in and cook our own lunch. My presents were well received – HP particularly liked her "hot diamonds" but that's hardly surprising. My own pressies were very good and I was surprised to get a Playstation (one of the new slim ones). I'm not much of a gamer but I've harboured a desire for a PS2 for some time. I already have a lengthy list of games to buy!

Boxing Day with the outlaws in Portsmouth was the usual mix of the manic and relaxed. In the evening we played the Pringle Golf Challenge (putting into an empty Pringles tube – nothing to do with the knitwear) in which I came joint second despite having to play "wrong"-handed. Then we played a couple of games of Trivial Pursuit. The first lasted about 20 minutes using the new DVD version – the concensus was that it had been dumbed down rather a lot. Reverting to the Genus edition we (HP, her brother and I) overhauled a 5 wedge lead and 2 game-winning questions to win.

The drive back up north yesterday was horrendous. A glorious winters day, time off work and all people want to do is go shopping? Madness.

one more sleep

Just one more sleep 'til Christmas.

We're pretty organised so there's no last minute shopping for food or presents. In fact most of the presents have been wrapped under the tree for two weeks. Tesco delivered our shopping on Wednesday and we go out for Christmas lunch anyway.

HP is more excited than me. Counting the sleeps before Christmas is her thing. Of course I'm looking forward to it too but it doesn't feel like a special time of year any more (if it ever did). We set a limit for each other on the cost of presents but I have gone a little OTT. Even though I'm a spoilt only-child with minor brat tendencies (think Cartman's birthday party), I do love giving presents as much as receiving them. HP isn't too bad to buy for but my mum is terrible so she gets dull, practical things or stuff that she's guaranteed to like – which really takes the fun out of it.

And poor old Jack has a cat cold. I hope he starts to improve by Boxing Day when we'll be driving down to the out-laws in Portsmouth. I don't think Alfie's mature enough to look after his big brother.

Finally, why do I feel guilty when I neglect my blog? No one reads it so its not like I'm disappointing anyone but in the back of my mind I'm always aware of how many days it is since I posted. I can feel a New Years resolution coming on…

lost weekend

Another weekend spent decorating. You'd think I lived in a mansion or something but it's just that I'm slow, thorough and easily distracted. I really must do some stuff in the evenings this week though or I won't get everything done before Xmas.

organisation

Strangely for me, I'm sort of disciplined and organised at the moment. Maybe it's these weekends spent decorating or the fact that I'm a bit busier at work and it's carrying over into other areas? Whatever. I still have some way to go to fit in all the things that I'd like to be doing but its a start.

rollin’ rollin’ rollin’

More decorating this weekend. On Saturday we didn’t finish painting until 7.30 in the evening which buggered up our plans to go and see Alfie (the film, not our kitten who we can see any time).

On Sunday HP’s parents came to visit and her dad criticised my edging in the kitchen. We hired a van and went to the Nottingham IKEA on Monday to get some wardrobes for the spare bedroom os that was another long day. While it’s nice working 3 days a week, spending 4 days decorating and stuff takes away some of the pleasure.

More decorating this weekend… and wardrobe assembling too, of course.

splat

I ache in all sorts of funny places after four days of decorating. At least downstairs is almost finished now – only one wall left to paint. It’s been such a ball-ache we’re already revising the plans for upstairs and only painting places that actually need painting.

magnolia

With Rush’s European tour now out of the way, I must now look forward to decorating the house. It’s almost two years since we moved in and we can’t leave it much longer before freshening the place up. There are lots of settlement cracks to repair too. Luckily we are devoid of any imagination or daring and we’ll be replacing the standard new-build magnolia with a new shade of magnolia. Almost anyway: one wall of the kitchen will be done in a pale blue and the downstairs loo or “cloakroom” if we were posh, will also be pale blue. All ceilings will remain white. I know it’s boring but we like it. It helps keep everything feeling spacious and the neutral colours on the wall means that paintings and printgs don’t have to match, blend or contrast – we can hang anything on the walls.

boris and his pals

We are plagued by spiders at the moment. Not in the house, but outside. They’re spinning webs all around the windows and inevitably some of them make it inside if we live the windows open. so we’ve been keeping them closed. However, the recent humid weather has made this very uncomfortable at night. A fan has provided little relief but if anything, makes it worse because of the noise. We solved this problem yesterday by making our own insect screens from net curtain material and velcro. They worked a treat and last night we slept very well. So well, in fact, that I could hardly get up this morning. No change there then!