Isn’t that a pretty sight?  I have to say the kids were so excited when I told them we bought a new door - they thought we’d finally got around to getting a bedroom door, sorry kids…. it’s just a new front door.

And Wouter has a ruddy huge pole……

<—- long suffering wife

We have been incredibly fortunate to have ‘inherited’ quite a bit of my folk’s furniture with their moving to Knysna. We enlisted the help of Frank (our trusty Malawian handyman) and a few of his mates to help shift what we didn’t want to my folk’s place and take what they’d left for us. Ostensibly we needed their help to move the piano which now stands proudly in Tamsyn’s room. She’s our budding Victor Borge We also scored a lounge suite and a Welsh dresser. Having decided somewhat belatedly we wanted the Welsh dresser, we had to collect it ourselves this morning and take across the rest of our unwanted stuff. Flip some of the stuff was damned heavy… I’m completely pooped now. ‘Twas worth it

I’m now on the hunt for a coffee table - figure something fairly low, in dark wood with a glass centre.

As we keep saying, we’re getting there little by little.

Decided to avoid being stuck at home yesterday because of the Two Oceans Marathon, so we stayed over at Bellville and spent the morning/afternoon at the Bloemendal Oyster and Champagne festival. I bravely ate an oyster, never again. Don’t care how much of an aphrodisiac they’re meant to be - you can keep them!

Yep, the glass shelves are up! As my Mom said, our bathroom is the nicest room in the house. I have to say I LOVE it - makes one want to sit on the toilet for hours just staring at the shelves. I know I’ve said it before, and will probably say it again - but we really need to have more visitors round, because it’s the impetus we need to get things done. Had friends over Saturday night, the shelves were put up an hour before they arrived. If you look really closely on the left hand side there are 3 little bottles, tiny story behind them too.

(figured I’d make life easier for you - and save the eyesight)

I think we single handedly keep the bottle banks going with all the wine, beer and cider bottles we dump there every week - the last time Wouter went to off load some he came back with two of the little bottles shown in the picture. Seems a hospital had dumped them, well I took one look and decided I had to have them. They really are the cutest little bottles and so versatile. So the next time Wouter went to dump our bottles he came back with about forty of them. Some might think we’re odd, but you have to admit with a little ribbon around the neck and some glass pebbles inside - they don’t look half bad, and we’re doing our bit by recycling them! They’re also great as candle holders and were put to good use during earth hour, I reckon one should turn the lights off more often and light candles - not only is it saving energy but it is really flattering too.

The other highlight from the weekend was Jessica’s involvement in Kontiki 2009, she’s been involved before but this was the first time she was old enough to be a part of the crew and stay on the water for 24 hours. The other side started her involvement in the whole Brownie/Guide thing and I haven’t really been to many of the things they’ve done, but I’m really glad I went to watch them bring the rafts in. It was tremendous fun and the work they do to make their rafts is quite amazing. Jessica’s team had a hard time bringing their raft in because of the wind - it was howling, but with a lot of team work and able assistance from her father, they managed to come along side without too much hassle.

I took this picture from the top of Boyes Drive - the wind didn’t make it very easy.

Their’s is the little brown one in the middle, number 17.

It was quite remarkable to watch them dismantle it as well - a lot of squealing when they had to jump into the water to help lift it onto shore - but after the initial leap they acted like pros.

And now for something completely different - it would appear that Bagheera needs a bit of kitty discipline - this is what she said to me when I told her to get off my counter.

(as an aside if you clicked on the link…. spray bottles only work if the cat doesn’t like water)

<— been feeling decidedly grotty last few days - and as I don’t get ill often I tend to over dramatise things when I do so I initially figured I had a stomach ulcer, then moved onto acute appendicitis but alas nothing as dramatic as that… just a common garden variety stomach bug. Wouter very sweetly told me to drink Jigsimur

OVERDOSE:

Excessive use may cause severe stomach cramps. These problems are symptomatic.

Blimey probably should have read the warnings before taking the stuff, after all it’s because of stomach cramps that I took it in the first place! As an aside, the stuff tastes vile, we’re talking more vile than even the vilest medicines, now that’s vile!

Speaking of the man he’s been busy in the kitchen again we now have our cupboard above the sink - looks damn fine.

Try to ignore the messy sink.

What else? Well Gymmie is now officially being labelled a disturber of the peace and I’ve told Wouter he needs to be incarcerated every night for the sake of everyone’s sanity (mainly mine). Not only was I outside in the middle of the night hissing ‘Gymmie’ at a loud whisper, but the next door neighbours were also out mumbling choice phrases under their breath - it got so bad at one point that the other neighbours let their dogs out…. effective I have to say…. not one but two cats came catapaulting (hehehe) over the fence and streaked off into the darkness.  He doesn’t look like he could disturb anyone, does he?

Bagheera on the other hand  is a pain in the toosh if you’re trying to scrapbook when she wants to play, in desperation I kept throwing things onto the floor for her to chase around. Turns out all I really needed was a bunny. Awhile back Wouter found a bunny (stuffed, as in toy not as in something someone might have shot, stuffed and placed on a shelf) in our room and I couldn’t figure out how it got there. I thought perhaps Tamsyn had brought it - but no turns out Bagheera has claimed him as her toy and carries him around all over the show.  She also enjoys sitting on ones chest.

 

I decided to take a trip down memory lane and looked at some of my old report cards - oddly enough, I didn’t seem to do too well in school (could be because I didn’t really try all that hard.. *gasp*) what is amazing though is Tamsyn’s teacher appears to have been my teacher too when I was in Grade 4 (Std 2 in my day) - which must make her at least 104. I gave my report card to Tamsyn to find out if it is her, ‘cos golly that means the woman has been at that school a helluva long time.

Bagheera assisted by pointing out all the crummy results I got.

We had our official housewarming this weekend - went off rather well, had enough food, plenty of bubbly and lots of chatting. In fact we’re still eating leftovers, and likely to be for awhile.. especially the carrot salad (which was yummy, I might add). Wouter’s Mom very kindly brought two salads, not sure who she was expecting - but if the entire army, navy and airforce had arrived, we’d still have some left over.  We’ve decided to hold these parties several times a year because they force us to finish things that might otherwise have been put on hold for months. Don’t suppose we’d get presents each time though. Speaking of which we did receive some lovely housewarming gifts, pot plants, towels, candles, bottles of wine. I’m a tad worried about the plants - figure if I put post-it notes all over the house reminding me to water them they might just survive.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish off the things we wanted to before the party - the cupboard people let us down badly, and the glass people ran out of glass *sigh* so I couldn’t have my shelves up in the bathroom. Still things are starting to take shape and one of these days….. our house is going to look damn fine.

Speaking of not looking damn fine… we had an impromptu braai last night as the folks popped round and Wouter had something fly into his eye. Much poking about with an earbud later and all I could see was what might have been a tiny cut on his eyelid. So we covered the eye and I got to sleep with the Dread Pirate Wouter.

As an aside…. Wouter figures I’m dreadful because I forgot completely to take photos of the housewarming but I was instantly taking pictures of him looking like this. In my defence I was so busy running around at the housewarming that I completely forgot I had a camera.

Not that I nag…much. My one goal this holiday was to get my scrapbook room sorted and after some gentle hinting, ingenious clues, loquacious comments and whispered pleas in the dead of night I got my much anticipated shelves.

Originally we were going to put up three shelves but once the bottom two were up, it became very apparent that there wouldn’t be enough space for my printer so the top shelf got axed and the second shelf raised a notch.

Then the great sort out began.

As you can see - there was much to be done.

Must say I’m really looking forward to spending time in here.

We did a few things on the house front - put up the outside light in the back,

put up the lounge curtains (yay!)

when we get the folks’ lounge suite - the lounge is really going to look good.

Poor Wouter hurt his arm quite badly when we re-potted the yuka tree

which rendered him unable to do anything, which in turn meant he was bored out of his mind, that is until he got a call from Pieter - apparently it’s a typical De Waal thing to do - break ones car and then get rescued.

I love Xmas, yes a lot of that has to do with the presents under the tree, but it isn’t just that. For me Xmas is when everyone gets together and you have a jolly good time. This year it’s a bit lean though - the kids are off to their Dad on Xmas morning leaving my folks,  Wouter and I to spend our first Xmas in the new house.  This is why we’ve decided to have our Xmas dinner and present opening on Xmas eve. I know a lot of people already do this, but for me (and my side of the family) it’s quite a foreign concept. It does mean we get to open our presents a day early… whoohoo!  It also means we’re putting quite a bit of pressure on ourselves because Wouter and I are still working tomorrow and I’ve decided that Gymmie (our terribly sweet but rather delinquent cat) needs to move in at the same time. I’m also a traditionalist…. xmas isn’t xmas without the turkey, brussel sprouts, gravy, roast potatoes, assorted veggies, xmas pud, xmas cake, trifle, mince pies etc. etc. Without all that - well it just isn’t xmas.  If you’re feeling sympathetic towards Wouter - it’s entirely justified.

 

For the last umpteen years or so the kids and I have put up a rather diminutive tree - never had the space for anything more, this year I was able to borrow Mom’s.  I’m also battling to take a really decent picture of it.

Progress on the house front plods along….. two major milestones (well one and a half really) - I had the first shower in our shower… and it was fantastic.

And we finally have handles on the kitchen cupboards (well some of the cupboards - we haven’t finished putting all of them on yet).

I think the “end of year” syndrome is starting to take serious effect in the Hubbard/Blake/de Waal household. There just doesn’t seem to be any energy left to do anything, and the will/desire to do things seems to have gone on an early holiday. In fairness Wouter hasn’t been feeling great and spent quite a bit of the weekend sleeping. I on the other hand spent most of it reading… not very productive at all. It wasn’t even a very good book, one of the many John Grisham’s (Testament). I apologise to any Grisham fan, but seriously it was a real pot boiler.

Despite the lethargy we did manage to get a few things done. On Saturday we went to Builder’s Warehouse ostensibly to find a bath, I clambered into the first small one there and decided it was perfect. My feet could touch the other side - my whole foot, not just the tip of my big toe! We then went into Eagles Lighting and found a fitting for the lounge and my (erm our) bathroom.

Pretty isn’t it? We’re going to put in down lighters/spots (never sure what the hell to call them) in the ceiling, so this light is really just for show.

 

I figured we couldn’t get too ornate a light for the bathroom otherwise it would compete with my light and that just isn’t on.

Would you believe we finally got the shower door? After waiting who knows how long - poor Wouter the things he does for this house.

As with everything else in the house nothing goes according to plan the first time around. We installed most of the shower door but the door doesn’t fit nicely - something to do with the professional tiler screwing up. I’m sure Wouter will blog in more detail.

Handyman tip of the week - if you’re in a hurry whilst defrosting your fridge (there was an iceberg in there bigger than the one that sunk the Titannic) and the heat gun isn’t doing the job properly… take the angle grinder to it - works like a charm.

Oh and we (ok Wouter) made sushi on Friday night. Jessica decided she felt like sushi and Wouter decided he felt like making it - perfect combination. Some of it was a little rough around the edges but it sure did taste good.

‘k so the ‘table’ isn’t the most elegant one around - it served the purpose.

Sunday we went to the airport to say goodbye to Odette and sprogs (my sister-in-law and kids) they’re off to join my brother in Australia. Brave woman travelling all that way with two kids under the age of 6 and no sign of drugs to ease the way (for her!! Lest someone think I’m advocating drugging kids on long haul flights). Mind you…

I have to say these days it doesn’t seem like we’re making much progress - but actually we are… it is just that a lot of the stuff being done is small stuff and usually technical (ie. wiring and suchlike which  Wouter is far better suited to blog about).  {The other thing is coming home after a day of work - the desire, energy and will to do stuff - isn’t always there}

However! The backsplash tiling Frank did yesterday - isn’t small, isn’t technical and is definitely worth blogging about.  I think it looks awesome, and really finishes off the kitchen nicely. They’re actually floor tiles we spotted when we went to choose carpets and I figured the colours would match well with the floor tiles and counters. I reckon I was right.  We still need to organise a bar counter, plumb the dishwasher, prep bowl in etc, etc.  One little step at a time.