We've got...

... a youngster in our studio for a couple of weeks, doing work experience. Last week we had her going through all the programme tutorials. Today, I have got her designing the invitations to our Anniversary/Housewarming party.

Which should be in the first week of July, provided Dave is able to get stuck into the bathroom this week.

So - watch this space... if we DO have a bathroom ready, we will be having a party - and I will post info here. If we DON'T quite get the house ready, we won't be having a party - but Dave and I WILL be going camping in Harlech.

Puppies!...

Ours are the two on the right, Dave's mum and dad's dog is on the left.

I took this, seconds before the ginger bugger in the middle found a nasty, stinky mud pit in the park... I was distracted by the other two and didn't see him skulk off.

I think they deliberately set up a diversion. They're clever like that.

Gutted!...

Ok... this is where you get another glimpse into my twisted little mind.

Every morning and afternoon when I walk the dogs in my local park, I have been checking on a song thrush who has built a nest REALLY low down in a tree - the nest actually overhangs a path, and given that I've seen kids throwing stuff at the ducks next to the path I've been quite worried about her.

So, I've checked twice a day for the past four or five weeks, and she's always looked up over the top of the nest, as I've stood about 6 feet away from her, each time I've seen her head I've walked away. Happy that she's still there.

We've stayed in Dave's mum and dad's for the last week and I haven't been going to MY park, but to one nearer to their house. This morning was the first time I had a chance to go, and I was excited and worried about seeing the thrush (yeah, I know - terribly, terribly sad.)

I could see from the car park that I was going to be disappointed, the park wardens have been in and coppiced all the trees - all of the lower branches... gone.

I nearly cried. I feel like Tony Soprano when the ducks left.

Absolutely, gutted.

Woohoo! ...

... looky what we've got.

A BATH! With taps that work!!

Yay!

Le Weekend ...

Friday night

Dave and I went to The Castle with Ste, Clair, Ruth and little Dean. We sat outside in the beer garden till closing time, with the boys going for random walks around the castle walls. Steven tried to climb up and got covered in anti-vandal paint.

Nice.

Saturday

We had a plumber in Casa Hands for most of the day, carrying out the first fix on our bathroom... by the end of Sunday we had a bath and a toilet plumbed in, though we will have to use buckets to flush the toilet until the tiling is done.

Saturday Night

I went on Heather's 'hen do' - starting the night in a stretch limo!!



The chauffeur drove into Liverpool 'the long way', so that we had a full hour driving round with bubbly stuff to drink. We had a glimpse of how old we'd all become though, when, by ten o'clock we all wanted to find a nice comfy pub to sit down. Well, when I say 'all' I of course exclude the 19 year olds - they wanted to PART-AY.

We had a nice meal, bit of a pub crawl and then back into the the limo with more bubbly stuff and we were all dropped off at our homes.

I stumbled in at 02:30, and poor Dave had to get up for work at 05:00.

D'oh.

Sunday

Suffered.

All day.

If you knew...

... how much I LOVE kitsch, then you would know that this is SOOOOO MEE!


You're My Little Pony!! Sweet and innocent and
happy, you make people want to spew burrito
chunks. Even a Care Bear could kick your ass.


What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wheeeee!

The most unhealthy lunch ever?...

... possibly. BUT it has cake!!

Bathroom Diary : Day Two...

No pussy footing about, no witty comments, just this photo of our bathroom.

Pray for us.

Bathroom Diary : Day One...

I arrived home from work last night - to pick my stuff up before going round to the Dave's mum and dad's, to find that 'im indoors had removed EVERYTHING from the bathroom, and adjoining WC.

No toilet, no bath, no sink. Nothing.

Very bare and very scary looking. I can't wait till it's all finished, it's getting exciting now!

The plumber came out to our house last night, to see how much work he needed to do. This is the guy who did the work on the bathroom in Old House.

He's a good guy. He's actually fully booked until November, but has said, if we don't mind, he can fit an hour here, an hour there until the work is done.

We're OK with that. That's how we remodelled our last bathroom.

So, he came round, gave everything the once over and said he can have the first fix done at the weekend (which means functioning bathroom).

He then stayed for another hour - shooting the breeze.

Dave phoned me at his parents and said: "I'm JUST leaving, see you in a bit".

I couldn't help but think that that hour could have been spent a bit more bloody productively! :o)

I'm a tyrant. :o)

"Did you get a price?", I asked.

"Erm... no, but he's a good fella."

Oh well, THAT'S all right then.

Eejit!

Hopefully...

HOPEFULLY...

... Dave will be starting the demolition of our bathroom today.

It's a bit dubious though, the poor sod was up until 01:30 this morning, trying to finish a paper for college, which should have been handed in last night (he thought it was supposed to be next week). He emailed it to his tutor when he finished it, but he has to hand in a hard copy this morning. (He gets 10% deducted for each day that he's late.)

I tried to tip-toe round this morning, so that he could get some sleep, but he was up and about before I left for work. He had to go over to his parent's house, to pick up their dog.

They went on holiday at 05:30 this morning.

Which means that we can stay in their house this week while we convert our bathroom from a horror to a haven of tranquility.

This photo was taken when we first viewed the house - it's actually a lot worse since this was taken, bare bricks - HUGE hole in the ceiling, not pretty.

CLICKY FOR PHOTO

I can't wait till it's completed. We actually have two nasty rooms as a result of this. The bathroom itself, and the guest room, which now houses the new bathroom suite (we brought it up out of the garage so that we could check that we had everything.)

I will not be leaving the bathroom for a week when it's completed. At the moment it's so AWFUL that you have to take a bath in the dark... with maybe just one candle burning. Just so you don't see the full horror. /shudder.

It's strange, because I'm not usually one to 'linger' in the bathroom. I prefer to just jump in the shower, quick scrub and back out again.

The bathroom at the moment doesn't have a shower though, so I have to wallow in the bath. Cursing.

I think once we have the new bath in - I will be the kind of woman who spends HOURS at a time in the bathroom.

I will also be spending a small fortune at Lush.

Ha!

HA!...

I've found a disc in work, that has lots of old photos on, and thought I would share this with y'all.

For your delight and delicictation, I give you - Dave and Maria (from 12 years ago!)

The Weekend.

THE WEEKEND...

We've had quite a productive weekend - we bought some from luverly stuff for the garden, from Willow Pool. Well, a tree, (a vivid acer), some bedding plants and a luverly gothicky style cherub to hide under the shrubs. He looks scareycute.

We did some potting on, deadheading and a TINY bit of weeding in the front drive.

On Saturday night we went for a meal with Dave's family. It was Paul and Paula's anniversary. And we had a very pleasant night. Maria couldn't drink because she was on anti-biotics and Dave couldn't drink cause he had to be up at 05:00 for work, so we decided to volunteer as designated drivers. Dave took his parents and his brother and Maria took Paula so they could have a good girly natter.

The meal was nice - Maria had a greek salad for a starter, and pork fillet wrapped in parma ham, while Dave had tiger prawns, chorizo and squid for a starter, and swordfish for his main course (if you're interested).

As we left the restaurant - Dave said he would drive everyone back home, and meet Maria at Casa Hands. Given that Maria didn't have any house keys, she decided to take the scenic route home, looked at some of the houses up on Millionaires Row, trying to get some ideas for the garden (though it's a bit moot at 23:30, when you can barely see a thing!)


By the time Maria got to Casa Hands, Dave's car was already parked outside the house, but - oddly his dad was standing in the middle of the drive.

Apparently they'd JUST got to his parents house, when mum realised that she'd left her bag at the restaurant - with the keys. Dave didn't want Maria to have to wait for him to get home, so given that there were no valuables in the bag, he decided to drive to Casa Hands and get HIS keys to his parents house.

Just as they pulled up outside Casa Hands, Paula realised that she was sitting on mum's bag.

D'oh!

So, Dave decided to wait for Maria - though he was a leetle bit worried that she wasn't already home. It's probably not really 'normal' behaviour to go driving round Hands Ville at 23.30, 'looking at houses'.

Sunday is Maria's 'pottering day. She tidies the house, mops the floors down, strips the beds etc. Usually does a bit of ironing. Yesterday she decided to FINALLY get the study into some kind of proper working order, and was rolling around on the floor under the table for 90 minutes, unhooking everything from the 'puter, so that she could 'start again'. When she was finished, and stood up, she looked like a yeti. Covered in dust, dog hairs and dust bunnies.

Nice.

We're going to have to seal the study up tonight, as Dave is going to start knocking walls down in the bathroom and we don't want brick dust clogging up the fans etc. on the 'puter.

As of tomorrow we will be staying at Dave's mum and dad's (while they're on holiday) - and will hopefully have a working (though not 'finished') bathroom by the end of the week.

So - that was our EXCITING weekend. How did y'all do? Any news? Any gossip?