This week has been a little surreal to be honest, being the penultimate week until Christmas. The sunshine has finally stayed with us, I think El Nino spring has finally ended and we have some warm sunshine. I couldn’t feel further from Christmassy if I tried! I am not sure I will ever get used to these upside down seasons!
The barbecue is out, the shorts are out, and life is good down here! I have even been able to take myself down to the rowing club in the afternoon after work (there are many benefits to finishing at 2pm!) and go rowing down the river, all by myself, beautiful and peaceful.
We are beginning to see events that we attended last year, which is kind of a signal perhaps that we are no longer newbies? Like, for example, the Kiln Street Party. 
This time last year though, it was raining, and we were all huddled in the shelter of the bar doorway, it was not much fun! So it was nice to relax, have a few beers with little care for anything other than having fun. We left the car in town and caught a taxi home. Coupled with a meal out in Waxys too, it was a lovely evening. I do think though, I am changing somewhat. I actually found it quite inconvenient to be deliberately in amongst huge crowds, a big crush and a queue for the bar!! I must be turning into a Southlander!
On Saturday I went for a pamper at the hairdressers. Actually, its a grey hair banishing exercise! I gain that delight from my mother, who had grey hair when I was a teenager and eventually went completely white. She was very famous for her ‘crew cut’ hair do that didn’t move a muscle. Mark thinks I should quit wasting money on hair colour and get a low maintenance hair cut like that! Thankfully, my lovely hairdresser said that although she could arrange it, she couldn’t bring herself to doing that to my beautiful hair!
One of the benefits of having a summer Christmas is that when you are pressed for time, you can just stick the turbo in the garden in the sunshine and work your butt off!
And I do love my garden!
Saturday afternoon, it was raining. We were bored, and it is only then that you actually realise what proportion of your life is conducted outdoors. We rarely watch the TV, and when the storm that broke our week of glorious weather arrived on Saturday we were a bit stuck for what to do to pass the time.
Well, what else was there to do, we decided to decorate! I absolutely love this house but it’s decor is a little, erm, shall we say, granny-ish? So we were both keen on this idea of mine! We are trying to make the house warmer, and were surprised to discover that the rood over the extension main bedroom actually was insulated, not like the rest of the house. So, apart from ripping the walls apart to insulate them, there wasn’t a lot else we could do. We are going to have to price up the windows and perhaps do them small steps at a time. I can see daylight through their cracks, so I am sure they play a large part in letting out the heat in the winter!
Christmas ‘Ham’. This will always look funny to me!
After emptying the room and moving into the spare room temporarily, We went off to Mitre 10 to choose paint. Terracotta is always a favourite of ours, and was the colour we chose for our bedroom in England. This time, we were trying to create a bright airy feel. Our room is double aspect, with the sun in the window in the morning, and in the patio doors in the evening. So a nice bright sunny yellow was what we chose. to complement that we chose a more terracotta colour for the paintwork as an accent.
We thought this would take a few weeks, and had to start by peeling wallpaper off. I hate wallpaper and wasn’t actually sure what state kiwi walls in a 1920’s house would be like. I was pleasantly surprised. The wallpaper, already falling off and peeling, simple came down with a light pull. We had the room stripped within 30 minutes!
By tea time, Mark had layer one of the yellow colour on, and by lunch time on Sunday he had painted most of the room in two coats! Perhaps this will be simpler than I thought!
While he painted a second coat on, I went for a bike ride, a lovely way to finish the weekend, and I love that I can do that just wearing a T shirt a week before Christmas!
Watch this space, I don’t this this latest renovation project will take very long at all! (Specially since Mark is off all next week, while I still have to go to work!)
Melanie Magowan 