Yesterday was my birthday and I'd had a pleasant day planned that crumbled to nothing when Jas decided to be off school sick the day before and still not healthy enough for school after 24 hours of skiving (I'm such an insensitive mother), so as I lay in bed before my alarm went off (why, when I can have an extra 30 minutes sleep do I always seem to wake up before my alarm would normally go off?) I considered how old I was.
You'd think I'd remember by now, like back when you're little and you count up the months so that you can add on 3/4 or 1/2 to your paltry sum of years, but no, I usually have to think of the year I was born (1965) try to remember what year it currently is and then subtract one from the other...
Yesterday morning was easy because with the current year ending in a zero means my age must end in a 5 (I know it'd be simpler to just remember how old I am) I wasn't amused by the realisation that I can now consider myself to be halfway to 90...just as I shall now be avoiding clicking any age boxes in questionaires that put me into the 45-55 bracket...at that point I could have sunk into a real depression with the thought that I was probably half way through life without having achieved my goals, except that I've never really had any goals, my motto has always been to enjoy life, I've never aspired to be a world famous scientist making earth shattering and life enhancing discoveries, I'll be happy if I'm happy, shallow eh? But achievable.
Anyway my birthday was as pleasant as it could be, what with a husband half the world away in Hong Kong and not due home for another 10 days and the younger child threatening to hurl, pretty presents were gratefully recieved, I went and bought my own cake (and ate it too), flowers were delivered (this almost NEVER happens, but I like it, I like it alot - please take note; the quickest way to make me smile - buy me flowers) and as Jas managed to keep the contents of her stomach internal and seemed to get perkier as the day progressed I went out for a few birthday-tinis at Lulus with friends.
Last night I discovered that 3 martinis is my limit, 4 is at least a half a 'tini too many. We had an entertaining though with a long conversation about the problems with outlaws (Rebecca's in particular) travelling through Europe with rogue TomToms and vomiting children, just how endemic is the drug culture in the UK and in Germany, the change in the UK driving test which means that Ian's daughter will probably be stuck on a scooter for the rest of her life (memory like a goldfish apparently) and the difficulties in learning German (expats always discuss this at some point in any conversation) but also the fun that there is to be had when listening to foreigners speak English - Ian and Kamesh were discussing favourite tipples when a German colleague started to listen in and so they asked her what she liked to drink and she responded with "I like 'sex on the beach'", now I'm quite sure that a native English speaker wouldn't confess to this being their favourite cocktail (unless they were 3 sheets to the wind or wanting to be provocative, but she was neither) but I guess to a non native 'sex on the beach' is only the name of a vodka & peach schnapps cocktail much like 'slippery nipple' is a Baileys & sambuca mix as opposed to a suggestive comment, I'll stick to martinis!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Painting by numbers
I've changed the colour scheme in my kitchen.
It's been an uninspiring peachy colour for the last 3 years and the colour has never really worked, the colour scheme as a whole, the kitchen units/worktops/flooring and paint colour were fine together but the paint colour by itself was just too....bleurgh, insipid and as I must spend more of my time in the kitchen than in any other room something had to be done.
If I'd been planning this in England I'd have gotten a paint chart from Dulux and then some tester pots and my walls would have become a patchwork of different colours, but here it's a bit different. Yes, you can buy ready mixed paint but the range of colours available ready mixed isn't so huge (Germans tend towards white, white or white when it comes to painting their (woodchip covered) walls) what happens here is you go along to the local DIY shop (we have a new big one now after the old shed got burnt down - I'm not kidding) with a sample of the colour you want your walls to be, it's scanned into a machine and then custom mixed (yeah, I know this happens in Blighty too, but in my 15 years of home ownership there I think I only used custom mixed paint once, if at all, and I've painted pretty much every room of every house we've owned, at least once)
I took my German teacher with me to buy the paint, just in case they started using lots of technical words that I didn't know and before I knew it I'd bought 50 litres of tartan paint. We were served by a young(ish) Herr Di Simone (Sicilian, don't you know) who was reasonably charming, but not sufficiently that Muna was prepared to exchange English lessons for his home cooking (can't blame a guy for trying & Italians do love to flirt) as well as 60+ litres of paint we came away with those funny paper coveralls, a couple of rollers & new brushes, he was trying to convince me to take the cheap ones but I told him I wanted some that the bristles didn't fall out of - I do hate that, don't you? Especially when you then have to pick out the loose bristles from the wet wall. Di then figured he was onto a cashcow and suggested a stick for the roller so I could reach the top of the wall (I told him no, I'd stand on a chair, like I always do) or a funny doughnut shaped roller for the corners...but how does that help in the ceiling corners? So that was another no, I think he got his pound of flesh anyway, especially as I bought enough rollers so that I wouldn't have to wash them out but could throw them away, I hate trying to get the paint out of rollers, it never works and they never dry properly.
So that was my weekend, 9-10 hours of painting spread over 3 days (have to leave 8 hours or so between repainting it said on the tin) I had a little 'help' with a couple of the walls from Jas, she was desperate to be involved and then discovered it to be rather dull and not quite as easy as she'd thought (rollers are pretty heavy when laden with paint and there was no way I was letting her loose with a brush at the edge of the walls) But I quite enjoy painting walls (hate ceilings and skirting boards - but we don't have them in our house, skirting boards that is) I put some music on and go for it, and then before you know it the whole room has changed.
What do you think?
before
during
after
It's been an uninspiring peachy colour for the last 3 years and the colour has never really worked, the colour scheme as a whole, the kitchen units/worktops/flooring and paint colour were fine together but the paint colour by itself was just too....bleurgh, insipid and as I must spend more of my time in the kitchen than in any other room something had to be done.
If I'd been planning this in England I'd have gotten a paint chart from Dulux and then some tester pots and my walls would have become a patchwork of different colours, but here it's a bit different. Yes, you can buy ready mixed paint but the range of colours available ready mixed isn't so huge (Germans tend towards white, white or white when it comes to painting their (woodchip covered) walls) what happens here is you go along to the local DIY shop (we have a new big one now after the old shed got burnt down - I'm not kidding) with a sample of the colour you want your walls to be, it's scanned into a machine and then custom mixed (yeah, I know this happens in Blighty too, but in my 15 years of home ownership there I think I only used custom mixed paint once, if at all, and I've painted pretty much every room of every house we've owned, at least once)
I took my German teacher with me to buy the paint, just in case they started using lots of technical words that I didn't know and before I knew it I'd bought 50 litres of tartan paint. We were served by a young(ish) Herr Di Simone (Sicilian, don't you know) who was reasonably charming, but not sufficiently that Muna was prepared to exchange English lessons for his home cooking (can't blame a guy for trying & Italians do love to flirt) as well as 60+ litres of paint we came away with those funny paper coveralls, a couple of rollers & new brushes, he was trying to convince me to take the cheap ones but I told him I wanted some that the bristles didn't fall out of - I do hate that, don't you? Especially when you then have to pick out the loose bristles from the wet wall. Di then figured he was onto a cashcow and suggested a stick for the roller so I could reach the top of the wall (I told him no, I'd stand on a chair, like I always do) or a funny doughnut shaped roller for the corners...but how does that help in the ceiling corners? So that was another no, I think he got his pound of flesh anyway, especially as I bought enough rollers so that I wouldn't have to wash them out but could throw them away, I hate trying to get the paint out of rollers, it never works and they never dry properly.
So that was my weekend, 9-10 hours of painting spread over 3 days (have to leave 8 hours or so between repainting it said on the tin) I had a little 'help' with a couple of the walls from Jas, she was desperate to be involved and then discovered it to be rather dull and not quite as easy as she'd thought (rollers are pretty heavy when laden with paint and there was no way I was letting her loose with a brush at the edge of the walls) But I quite enjoy painting walls (hate ceilings and skirting boards - but we don't have them in our house, skirting boards that is) I put some music on and go for it, and then before you know it the whole room has changed.
What do you think?
before
during
after
Monday, October 4, 2010
Can you keep a secret?
'cos Jasmine can't. I guess, really I should be glad that my 9 year old finds it impossible to keep the teeniest thing a secret from others but it can be annoying, especially as she has the flappiest ears known to mankind and so frequently overhears things she maybe shouldn't.
One year I made the HUGE mistake of asking her what she'd got me for my birthday and without even pausing to draw breath and certainly with no thought involved whatsoever, she told me. Simon was most unamused...haven't done that again I can tell you, although I do have a very good idea as to what 'she' has got me this year - I kind of saw the box as I was making her bed, it's not exactly well hidden (the present that is, not the bed) but I haven't mentioned it to her, I'm trying out my new tact and diplomacy skills...
Simon is away at the moment, we're entering week 2 of a 3 week absence as he swans about south east asia, staying in swanky hotels and being bored rigid in meetings. I suggested to Jas that while he was away we'd paint the kitchen, but keep it a secret from daddy and then we could see how long it took him to actually notice the colour change (he's colour blind). Jas gleefully then informed her father that we had a girlie secret, something was going to happen while he was away. Then on Friday, after I'd started the painting she told her dad that the secret was in progress, so it's a secret no longer, he even knows the colour...she'll never make a spy, they'd only have to offer her chocolate or something sparkly and the nation's secrets would be spilled.
One year I made the HUGE mistake of asking her what she'd got me for my birthday and without even pausing to draw breath and certainly with no thought involved whatsoever, she told me. Simon was most unamused...haven't done that again I can tell you, although I do have a very good idea as to what 'she' has got me this year - I kind of saw the box as I was making her bed, it's not exactly well hidden (the present that is, not the bed) but I haven't mentioned it to her, I'm trying out my new tact and diplomacy skills...
Simon is away at the moment, we're entering week 2 of a 3 week absence as he swans about south east asia, staying in swanky hotels and being bored rigid in meetings. I suggested to Jas that while he was away we'd paint the kitchen, but keep it a secret from daddy and then we could see how long it took him to actually notice the colour change (he's colour blind). Jas gleefully then informed her father that we had a girlie secret, something was going to happen while he was away. Then on Friday, after I'd started the painting she told her dad that the secret was in progress, so it's a secret no longer, he even knows the colour...she'll never make a spy, they'd only have to offer her chocolate or something sparkly and the nation's secrets would be spilled.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday Snaps 32
A last blast of summer for you:
These were my shorter than the normal (the seed packet must have said 'dwarf' somewhere on it) sunflowers, but perfectly formed despite their Tom Cruise-like stature. Shall have to read the packets more carefully next spring!
These were my shorter than the normal (the seed packet must have said 'dwarf' somewhere on it) sunflowers, but perfectly formed despite their Tom Cruise-like stature. Shall have to read the packets more carefully next spring!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)