First home decorating project

After being in our house for over a year now, I thought it's about time we started doing some decorating. We chose the smallest room in the house to start with: the downstairs toilet. And we're only painting the back wall where we will be hanging a selection of frames and photos.

testers

We chose three shades of grey (fifty would have just made it hard to decide!) and made our choice: the one on the far right.

It's called "light rain". Not really a name I would pick living in England when light rain is what we see on a daily basis, but the color worked well with the frames. I really liked the one on the left too, the lighter one, but the frames kind of disappear on that one. Not enough contrast.

Still before realising it's gloss we bought...

Back to the shops we go to buy the selected colour. I find it and then spot a smaller container in the same colour. We only need a little bit of paint as it's only the one section of the one wall we'll be painting. At home I prepare the wall by painstakingly taping masking tape all around and covering all surfaces. First coat painted we discover it's a gloss paint we bought instead of matt!!

the gloss

It stayed that way (one coat of gloss) for about two weeks now. The same colour in gloss turned out much lighter than it does in matt too. In the end we decided we're not happy with this one and went to get the matt version today. 

Andre with the sander

I quite liked the effect the sanding created

Andre sanded the wall down for me as the matt won't stick to the freshly painted gloss. First coat of the new matt is now on and drying. Second coat to be painted later this afternoon and hopefully Andre will hang the pictures for me tomorrow. Will post an update of the finished wall soon!

Starting over with the matt this time.

*like my painting pajamas? ;-)

Boxing Day at West Wittering Beach

It was raining every day between Christmas and New Year but Boxing Day felt especially cold and windy. We drove anyway after spending two days at home. We've not been to West Wittering before. It seemed like a lovely beach. Must be a popular beach as there were lots of people. We didn't stay very long though. When we got out the car there Andre realised he had left his jacket at home! I was freezing with my coat so could just imagine how cold Andre must have been. Him and his dad took a few photos while Marietjie and I tried to hide from the wind. Then we got in the car and drove to Ikea! Much warmer!

Cold and windy! Quite like a Cape Town winter's day!

Perfect wind for the kite surfers

Typical English beach with pebbles.

Christmas Eve & Day

Andre and I both still had to work Christmas Eve, me luckily only the morning, Andre had the late shift until 7pm. So we decided not to cook a big meal as we usually do for Christmas Eve but have canapés instead and cook on Christmas Day. Andre of course made us stay awake until midnight to open presents.

I bought him this t-shirt. I think it
matches his expression above!

Christmas Day we also spent at home. The girls cooking and the guys watching and giving instructions! Lots of good food and family time at home.

Checking on the roast potatoes and parsnips.

Made mulled cider for the first time and
it turned out so good!

Christmas holiday

Andre's dad and stepmom arrived the 22nd of December. We were waiting for them at the airport and they snuck up behind us and surprised us! We were actually standing watching a police officer with a sniffer dog randomly checking people's luggage when more police officers appeared with big guns slung across their chests. We were discussing how they must have just appeared because of the flight from South Africa having just landed ;-) Just kidding! Kind of!

We had a lovely time with them. We both love love love having family around us although for some reason the family seems to not always understand this and is often wary of staying too long!

So they arrived on Saturday, we spent the day at home and on Sunday went to London to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. As I understood it's meant to be a Christmas market type thing but it was really more of an Octoberfest (loads of rides) with a bit of Christmas market on the side! It was great though. We had a good time there. Lots of color, lots of people, good food like crepes which is very German Christmas market-like. But also a beer tent- fun, but not very German Christmas market-like!

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon strolling down Oxford Street and Regent Street admiring the Christmas lights. I love Christmas lights!!

A Christmas Carol

The day nursery I work at is taking part in the Wokingham Winter Carnival and the theme is both A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I've never seen A Christmas Carol so thought I better watch it before the carnival so I know what it's all about and perhaps it would get me more excited about the carnival.

I also thought with us now living in England it might be a good idea that we buy this as it was written by the English author etc etc. 

Well. We didn't get it. The story I mean. We didn't really like it. We didn't think it was a very Christmassy happy type of movie we would watch again. Especially not at Christmas time. Even Andre said it was a bit scary and creepy. Do people let their children watch this?

Sure, afterwards you get the moral of the story, that you need to give to the poor and celebrate with your family and friends. But I would have preferred a more upbeat happy movie.

We bought the blu ray 3D version and if it wasn't for the 3D effects we were enjoying I wouldn't have finished the movie.

I saw Oliver Twist during music lectures while studying teaching and remember not really enjoying that one either. I remember the colour brown and dullness when I think of the movie.  Musicals I did enjoy were ones like The Sound of Music. That was happy. Oh and Mary Poppins. I liked that one too.

Sorry Mr Dickens. We tried.

Ear op

A week ago I had an operation to repair my perforated eardrum. It's called a myringoplasty. I just googled the word to check the spelling and a video came up of the op being done to someone's ear. It's gross, I couldn't watch more than a few seconds! I'd rather not know what they do to me while I'm asleep!

I was very lucky to get referred to the Hampshire Clinic in Basingstoke 3 months ago by my GP. They were able to fit me in for the initial appointment much sooner than the local hospital here could and I just wanted to get it sorted as soon as possible because at the time I still had an ear infection which the GP couldn't get cleared up himself and I really had problems hearing.

The waiting area at the clinic this morning with
an unlimited supply of tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

Usually you would wait quite a while to have an op done or even just to see a specialist on NHS. NHS meaning you're not paying for the treatment. Not anything at all! Still can't believe that, being used to paying for private medical insurance in SA and Switzerland and then still having to pay the doctors and for the hospital stay and everything else. It's like a huge Christmas present getting this op done for free. Sure, that's part of why we pay taxes, but we paid tax everywhere else too.

Once the infection was all cleared up the doctor was able to book me in pretty much right away for the op. 

Waiting in my room before the op.

Andre dropped me off really early. The clinic was hardly open, the security guard had to unlock the door for us! Andre had to get to work for the early shift so he could pick me up again that afternoon. I was taken to my room and was very impressed that I got a private en-suite room for the day. I could watch TV, but there wasn't much on so I sat reading most of the time until they came to take me to the operating theater at 10am.

Before the op in my lovely hospital gown.

I had to walk to the operating room and was told about this beforehand so could bring my own slippers and dressing gown. The operating room was tiny and nothing like a previous one I've been in with big lights glaring down on you. This room was even smaller than the room I had there for the day. 

There were quite a few people in the room though, two or three nurses, the anesthetist and someone I think who was like an assistant to him or something. They put the needle in my hand but I didn't notice them actually giving me anything through it yet. I soon did start to feel a little weird, like before you are going to faint. Also like before they put you to sleep but it was lasting too long and I wasn't going to sleep. I asked whether they gave me something or whether it was just me being nervous and starting to feel faint. Turns out they gave me something. They asked me a couple more questions and after that I can't tell you what happened!

After the operation, back in my room.

I woke up at 12 noon in the recovery room and a very kind nurse stayed with me and calmed me down. I always wake up crying and shaking after anesthetics or after fainting and I warned them about that! It was no different this time. After about half an hour there I was taken back to my room where I stayed the rest of the day. 

Chicken sandwich for lunch which I actually enjoyed, I was
so hungry and thirsty after not having eaten that day.

Andre came to keep me company after work and we got to go home at about 6.30 that evening.

I've taken it nice and easy at home, staying in bed all day until Andre gets back from work in the evenings, when I'd move from the bed to the sofa in front of the tv for a bit before moving back upstairs again.

Liquid vitamins!

I had to go for a check-up this morning and apparently it's healing well. I now have antibiotic drops for my ear for the next 10 days and then another check-up in two weeks time. I'm hoping it will have worked and that my ear will be ready for snorkeling on our next holiday!