We really hope that your Christmas and New Year celebrations were extravagant and gorgeous and you all had a wonderful time! We had a lovely Christmas and New Year and took a well deserved break from work - yippee! The phones did switch back on last week and the advertising has now been turned back on and the seat belts are being clicked back in as we speak, but the break has been lovely.
We had a day on the boat with some friends and their son. The weather was a little windy and we needed some help to get back in the pen (first time in ages :o) and we sat on there drinking, laughing and talking 'til late and then Paul ordered a few pizzas that we collected from the marina entrance and we continued the above for a few more hours! I think we've found some good mates there and look forward to spending many more days (and nights) of fun with them - at last, someone on our wavelength - horrah! Our mate took a lot of video footage and bless her, she put it all onto DVD for me with titles and background music and everything! She even made two copies: one to send to our Mums. See - how lovely is that??
New Year was spent with said friends and we were going to head down to Rockingham to watch the fireworks, but Addy wasn't very well on NYE and in the car on the way there took a turn for the worse. So although Sam and Darcie were disappointed, we headed home and watched the celebrations on TV instead :o(
Thankfully though, he was right as rain the next morning; how annoying is that???
Actually, the whole Xmas / New Year thing was very relaxing and enjoyable this year. There is certainly less pressure on people here to have the 'perfect' Christmas with the debt of a third world country at the end of it. I managed to go to a Dept store, the Saturday before Xmas, park right outside, walk straight in, up to the counter and get served immediately with my lay by stuff - how fab is that? I then drove round to the back of the building to have it loaded into my car by 2 old Essex boys in 30+ degree heat. Merry Christmas, I thought!
So, to the New Year. Hopefully at some point the house will be ready. We can filter the pool so it will no longer look like the Blue Peter Wildlife Pond and we can have it landscaped and made to look habitable. It is like a money pit at the moment. Everything seems to be costing more than anticipated, but hey ho - such is life. It doesn't help that we've got expensive taste I suppose, and as Paul says, there's no point putting cheaper stuff in that needs replacing after 2 years, is there? The landscaping is a MAJOR budget breaker, but it should all look gorgeous. We're hopefully getting our own palm trees and having granite paving - yeay!
OK, not much of an update at the moment. I'm supposed to be having an early night, but seeing as it's 12.30am, I don't think it's going to happen! Here's a lovely photo of Darcie on the boat:
and another one of Adam looking 'reflective' - OK grumpy!
...and finally, the painters have been in this week. They've painted all the ceilings and coving white and done the doors and frames 'parchment'. Yes - it's a shade of brown. There's a surprise, eh?
Hopefully there should be more movement on the house this week. Watch this space.
Take care one and all and write soon xXx.
