the adlards

you know its bad when a plumber makes that sound. well today i went to the pool shop with a pink princess water bottle full of green pool water, and he would have made that sound, if he had been an english plumber. he thought the whole system needed repleacing but ‘see if you can get the pump to turn over’ . fortunately paul (my sisters other half) arrived and took care of it. we went back for 3 bags of 20kg bags of salt to throw in the pool and hope it will be clear in the morning. it seems that winter time will be a good tome to start replacing the pump the filter and the salinator thingy…..ho hum.

i ran out of steam today. i think working till 10 the last 2 nights and all the physical stuff was just too much for my body. ended up with a mega migraine saw stripes in the pool where there werent any and had to be taken home for painkillers and sleep. thankfully gerry and carol did a great job of scraping in the lounge – only about 3square metres to go and now i am trying to take it easy and rest so that i have some strength left for tomorrow.

perhaps i will go and find one of those coconut squares that gill and the girls made yesterday……mmmmm (nothing quite like coming home to freshly baked treats:)

note to self – never leave the dado rails you have just levered off of the walls lying on the floor. also rubber croc type shoes are not reallythe proper foot wear for a work site

on the bright side – jo who lives over the road can give tetanus injections so i didnt have to go to hospital…..:)

carol (my sister ) and i have been having loads of fun, lots of sanding and scraping. the floors are all done now except for the lounge floor which needs another sanding. we got all the wallpaper off of the lounge walls (under the offending dado rail) and found a beautiful cretestone plaster finish which someone lovingly had done and then someone else lovingly covered over with stripy wall paper dado rail and paint. i decided to keep stripping the paint off of the top half of the room to reveal the rest of the cretestone rather than painting the room – this is our most time consuming job at the moment.

2 helpers will be helping to clean today and with a bit of elbow grease and gerry’s help we hope to finish all the dirty dust producing jobs today, clean up and then start painting tomorrow. its great fun.

i swam in our pool yesterday wich is lovely albeit a bit green (so off to the pool shop for chemicals and shock treatments) jo managed to open the pool fence by pulling very vigourously on it (shock) so the arrival of the poolnet man is hopefully iminent.

anyone who isnt doing anything this weekend is welcome to come help;)

Perhaps airport lounges are where I’ll blog from now on.

I’m sitting in Jo’burg airport en route to Florida via MY BROTHER BEN (albeit briefly) who I haven’t seen since he married the delightful Anna two years ago last week.

I shall be spending the rest of the week on an island off the north coast of Florida. It’s going to be tough. It will be winter, of course, so it might actually be tough. Stepping out of Heathrow airport last week reminded me what I’ve been missing. I do enjoy a little winter. A week was quite enough.

It really was strange visiting England – like coming home and feeling like a stranger. I’d forgotten how green it is there. After the increasing earthiness of colours as Africa’s summer progresses, looking out of the taxi window at the intense vibrancy of green felt a bit like trying to stare at the sun. It is a very beautiful place.

Thinking of beautiful places, we got access to our house today! We sat on the floor in the family-room-to-be and ate milktart and something Italian before I had to go to the airport. It’s going to be wonderful. Michelle’s spent most of the day sanding floors and stripping wallpaper. When I get back in a week it will be a beautifully decorated haven of tranquility that I just need to collapse into.

Actually, I fly in after about 27 hours of travel on Thursday night at 10.10 and the next morning at 8 a truck pulls up outside with a couple of tons of boxes of our stuff to unload. It’s going to be great!

… and a long walk in the morning might land one in hospital. I tried a walk along the Thames towpath yesterday – the hotel looks over the river – but stopped when the mud became too deep for my work shoes.

It’s been a busy week. I’d been missing winter and have definitely had my fix now. Stepping out of Heathrow into the cold was great on day one. Stepping into the sauna on day three was better. I’m now rather looking forward to the 35 degrees waiting for me back in Cape Town tomorrow.

Apologies to all of you I couldn’t get to see this week, but would have loved to. Next time I shall have to include some weekend in my trip and keep some dinner-times free for friends instead of colleagues.

Next week we get access our house AT LAST! Very exciting …

just had my legs done at a salon for the first time – for anyone thinking of doing the same ITS MUCH MORE PAINFUL THAN DOING IT YOURSELF

so there you go, another lesson learnt.

walked along the canal this morning with gerry and the girls before the heat became too much. lots of dogs, some walkers and only one squirrel to be seen. its great to be able to walk like that so close to home.

off to do something spectacular with the day;)

we just had a lovely party to celebrate gerry’s 60th. brunch at constantia uitsig followed a very early birthday cake breakfast.

its very hot (due to be 35) the girls are sleeping and i think i will lie down and enjoy the peace.

james taught me ages ago how to do this but i forgot how.
just figured it out;)

so since his lordship is so busy doing stuff (in london ) you will have to put up with me.

its been a busy day for us including 2 seperate shopping outings, one by foot (cos i forgot nb baking stuff) a visit to a bicycle shop (for solid tyres for the pram – 3 punctures in as many days) a picnic with a new freind for jo and soph, a cake baking session (its someones 60th tomorrow) and the usual stuff that has to happen before a house full of people and 2 small girls can go to bed.

sorry its not very eloquent and my punctuation etc is almost non existed (sorry ms shaeffer and mrs mc glad)but at least it gets the point across:)

signing out…

just to see if i can

I know, I know, that was two days ago. The thought still counts. Have a good one.

I started work yesterday after three months slothful self-indulgent time off and I have to say it was a bit of a shock to the system despite the sea breeze and the sound of waves. It’s quite possible that I work in one of the best-located offices there is. Anywhere.

It was a grey day today but the view’s still good. Pics from the festive season when (as ever) I make the time …

The girls had their BCG innoculations yesterday – TB and Polio. Unfortunately the only hospital that does the innoculation any later than the day following birth is the same one we took Jo to when her eyebrow needed stitching. Going back and having them use the “pokey thing” on her again was a bit much for her to bear. She was a little angry with us for the rest of the day. I remember the same behaviour from Blossom when we took her to the vet.

She did understand the whole thing though (Josie, that is) and wasn’t lured there under false pretenses. She was anxious when we got home to ensure that Granny and Grandpa had had their injections too so that they didn’t get diseases.

Sophie just yelled her version of “OUCH!!!” and then was right as rain.

Today’s our last day in East London on this trip. We’ve lots to do: sorting moving quotes, getting a car tyre repaired, visiting the bromeliad garden, packing. That’s not why it started at 4am though. I have no idea why it started at 4am. The three are now all in separate rooms and I hope to have some time to myself until about 6.

Here’s a pic of the sign to help tide you over until we post more pics: