Back to Blogging

Well, it's back to blogging, I thought I'd be most of the way to the UK by now but unfortunately not...

Tonight I went to a function with Dad. It was at Parliament and was in celebration of the public holiday on Monday which is Labour Day. I shook hands with a few politicians and ate some little bits 'n pieces. We met a very nice coulple, Walter and Eva and they will probably join up to the German club (Walter is German, Eva is Polish) and it was nice to chat to them.

The photo below is the balcony at Parliament House which is really nice.


The next photo is from Nightcliff Beach. These pics were taken on Mum's new phone.

I actually have a splitting headache so just a short one tonight...

Back Where It All Began

I had a very short stay in Port Hedland but it was nice to go back and have a look around. So much has changed (and a lot is still the same!). A nice trip down memory lane. I really enjoyed wondering along the beach though. I would like to live one day by the beach (and have someone to walk it with coz walking the beach solo is no fun - like when I lived in Tannum Sands - but at least this time I had some company).



I also found some interesting things on the beach ;-)

Whilst at the airport I bumped into someone familiar...


And someone else couldn't help but having a look around...


I feel like I still have so much to do. Jasmyn, Amanda and Cain came around earlier and it was lovely to have them here. My brother rang also so it was nice chatting to him. I will go off and make some more curtains...

All Things Houses

Today dad and I went and looked at a new retirement village that has opened. They have two and three bedroom houses / duplex units for "sale" but within a retirement villiage setting and there is a community centre with nurses, physio etc. For a retirement village the houses were quite nice and the standard of finish was nice but I thought they didn't seem very "retirement" friendly considering they would be for older people - the door frames and vanities / cupboards weren't wheelchair friendly and given that at older age some time may be spent in a wheelchair and the house would be less friendly. Anyway, I love going through houses and picking them to bits with my dad.

He next showed me a new development suburb near the hospital, Lyons. I noticed a two storey home was open for display so wanted to go have a look. It was by a builder I hadn't heard of before, Killarney. As soon as you walked in the front door you nearly went head first into a set of stairs. The layout was ok but there was too much wasted space due to the positioning of the front door / staircase, and the finishing didn't seem to be top quality (the laminate on the timber flooring was already peeling. But I liked the master bedroom ensuite, room for two (the next Killarney house had a nicer version of this shower / basin set up but I didn't snap a pic of that, and sorry, still have cupboards underneath the basin):


The next Killarney house was much nicer and better finished off. The master room was huge and I was quite impressed. It was actually a really large house and I'm still quite taken with it. It's called the Cavan 5 and has the master bedroom, three proper bedrooms and then the "study" which you could use as another bedroom (it's quite roomy) and it actually has a bathroom attached like an ensuite. There's another room the plan calls the "store" which you could use as the study (this backs onto the other side of the second ensuite). So really, it's like 5 bedrooms plus a study.

The other one I really liked was the Piper 4. It's 4 bedroom but from the plan (which was a little fuzzy, it looks like there is a games room, family room and a living room). The ensuite was cool, not only was there double basins and a separate toilet that can be accessed from the ensuite or the hallway, there appears to be a spa ;-). The main bedroom has both a bathtub and a shower. The layout looks to separate the rooms more into traditional "rooms" rather than the open planned spaces that most of the houses have. It's nice.

What I liked about the Killarney homes over the PTM Homes that we looked at next were the double basins in the ensuites and double showers ;-)

I was initially doubting the quality of Killarney given the first house we saw (the double decker) but the sales guy reckons that it wasn't their home, it belonged to another builder who was unable to sell it successfully so they were taking it over, or some excuse like that.

There were some PTM Homes open for display also. They had such cool and funky (almost spacey!) interiors and one of the homes I really liked the layout of. The second home I totally didn't like the layout of, although the bedrooms were a good size.

The one below (The Saij 1) had such a funky kitchen and sooo many cupboards. We couldn't find a space for the fridge, till I looked in one of the "cupboards" and it was one of those integrated fridge thingies (I think it's a new concept here).

The Saij however was the one I didn't like the layout of - although I did like the main bathroom and the ensuite and it had a rather cool "theatre" room and study (I guess you could make the study a fourth bedroom) but the study and the theatre room are away from the bedrooms which would be good for sound purposes if you're playing a movie or games really loud.

The other PTM house was The Prairie and I really liked this one. The kitched was very funky with a light blue theme and I just LOVED the 3x3 cupboard thingy you can see on the left side of this pic. You pushed on each door to open it and each square is a little cupboard. I guess I just love the splash of different but similar colours.

This house was really nice because it had two different areas - one section of the house was like the kids section which had three bedrooms (or two and a study) laundry, main bathroom and a family room. This section was entered into by a door off the side of the kitchen, so it was distinctly separate. The kitchen area was an open space with a dining and another living/family area. Off the end of this came the master bedroom which was very funky (although not as large as the master in one of the Killarney homes). Although more user friendly, the internal living space was nearly 40 square metres smaller than the other PTM house.

There was a turtle in the park next door which was really cool!

After all that excitement I crashed when I got back home, and it was a struggle to get back up again. I have started puttying the sliding door frame and am about to venture outside to start the actual sliding door. Not too difficult this putty job, bit fiddly though and I'll have to sand and give it a second coat I think also. I have also inherited yet another curtain! I'm actually a bit tired...

PS. For more information, check out:

http://www.ptmhomes.com.au
http://www.killarneyhomes.com.au/

Hot, Wet and Purple

Before I began the undercoat the day before yesterday, I had to move the bookshelf about a meter to the right. Easy enough task, take everything out, move bookshelf, put everything back where it was... but I had to wait for Her Royal Highness to move first...


So today, I have finished the first coat! I'm not sure if it's my imagination or the fact that I know some areas are lighter than others (it's a first coat, it's ok to be like that right?) but I'm convinced I can see the outline of where the window was. It's even worse looking at the real wall instead of just this picture. I used masking tape on the ceiling and skirting board and they seemed to work ok, didn't peel any existing paint or any of the new paint. I also put masking tape on the air con and little security sensor thingy although I would have disturbed the wet paint if I were to take them off, so they're still on (I hope it doesn't peel the paint off when I eventually do take them off).

As some people know, if something takes an hour to do, I will normally get it done in 3 hours. Painting is no exception. I am horrendously slow. But I am proud of the outcome :-) My first wall! The area on top of the air con was the hardest, as was the area around the sensor.

As I had finished and was washing up the brushes and pads, mum went to have a look. I heard a small scream of delight so I think she's happy with it :-) which is good because she was saying yesterday that she thought the colour was too dark and wanted to change it but I'm sure the paint is non-refundable! And to be fair, if you compare the photo below to the one done with the sample paint, the sample paint does look a little darker (at least it did on my phone when I was comparing them - but you'd probably need to have them side by side).

Dad also liked it and now everytime I go and have a look it makes me smile, I love that colour! Really need to change the curtain box now though! (hmmm, next project: curtain box or putty the sliding door... guess it should be putty the sliding door, then while that's drying I can do the curtain box... then the other curtains... or maybe my "to do" list is just too long but I want to do it allllll!).

Anyway, second coat tomorrow...

In other news, I took a short video of the drip coming from the air con unit - this shows how humid it gets here and how hard the air con has to work to get rid of all the water!

I'm so looking forward to going on holiday soon, so soon, so very soon, yay!!! Meanwhile, it's good to see that someone is chillaxing
;-)

It's Time

There comes a point in every woman's life (or there should, I've decided) and my time is now. I am ready. To paint. There is something a bit nerve wracking about opening a can of paint (even a very small one) and facing a wall which is about to undergo a tranformation. It would be less daunting just putting the undercoat on, but I was testing the colour, straight onto the existing paint and new plaster (a colour not too dissimilar to this text!).

Was it Blackberry Sorbet? No. A last minute change to Angel Heart. If you're gonna go for it, you might as well jump into the deep end (and this from my mum!). So the slightly darker Angel Heart it was. The original intent was to get a sample pot of both colours and test them, but at $7.50 I decided to be stingy and just get the darker one. So... what thoughts have the audience??

Of course I'm getting deeper and deeper into it and the "to do" list is suffering. The black and white (or more appropriately: aged white = yellow) curtain box won't do and needs to be replaced. I'm thinking this can be done with a strip of appropriate fabric and a staple gun (which apparently you can hire from Bunnings). My biggest enemy seems to be time. I had also planned to finish puttying the sliding door... luckily I've finished the curtains, although if I don't keep my big mouth shut I will end up getting another two curtains on the "to do" list also.

I feel the need to watch "Bridge to Terrabithia". It's not such a random comment if you've seen the film (and you will!) - I'm refering to, of course, the scene where they paint the room (der!). Love that movie.

On other things... I felt rather strange at Coles today when I bought some bread and floss and after going through the checkout felt empty handed because, here you don't have to pack your own bags. Sweet.

Also, I had a chance to catch up with my favourite dish, honey chicken (brownish lump of meat to the right):

I caught up with some CSI the other night with my mum.

I also swung past the local Day Spa and picked up a brochure. The lady told me that the Hot Rock treatment is good for knots in the back even if you think that you need strong hands to get rid of the knot she said the heat from the rocks works wonders. They have a special going, $45 for half an hour of hot rocks (usually $60). So I might go for that. I've also just noted that they do waxing. I can choose from bikini, g-string, mohawk or brazilian. I'm assuming that Brazilian is the same where ever you go (unless of course you're in New Jersey where it's outlawed!) so I'll just go for that. At $50 it's slightly more than the one in Amazingstoke (depending on the exchange rate) but I wouldn't have thought that there would be such a high demand here for it. Well, I could be wrong. I'm curious as to what a mohawk is though!

Holiday?

Well, I'm not sure about Mr Tickle, but I seem to have done more work recently then I did at work! (shhh, don't tell my boss).

Today and yesterday have seen me add removalist, seamstress, cross-stitcher, chef and IT help desk to my list of achievements, along with spending time with my niece, delivering paper work to my sister-in-law-to-be and visiting display homes! Man am I buggered!

The sorting out of boxes is going well. I must have thrown out 50% of what I came across. Mum said that I should just throw some things away and not let her know what they were (because then she would want to keep them), but there were a few things that I had to ask if she really wanted them thrown out and of course she didn't! These included baby clothes, dolls clothes, my Barbie Ferrari and all the lego etc. It was kinda cool going down memory lane but I'm glad that lots got thrown out too.

The coolest find was definately my recorder... the search continues for my music book. Technology certainly moves on and there were plenty of examples of antiques among this group, including:

The display homes I visited were very nice, very funky and modern. I'm not sure I would actually buy any of them, but one definately had appeal as I thought it was quite large with good sized bedrooms.

Mr Tickle has some random photos he wants uploaded...

sign at Coles ;-)

chicken sausages, dinner from the other night

I'm so pooped, might go watch Pirates of the Carribean with mum or just vege out and do n.o.t.h.i.n.g!

Oh yeah, the password reset thing worked a treat! Was a bit freaky - all that white text on black background, but I just followed the instructions and seemed to press all the right things as the password is gone and dad can now use the laptop (thank you Peter!!!!). I know the next thing will be that he'll want access to the wireless internet... but that is a job for another day!

PS. As you know, Mr Tickle needs to stay well hydrated in these hot conditions. For "sensational taste" Mr Tickle recommends...

Troubled Tickle

Mr Tickle has had a rough couple of days, I think the heat is getting to him! I've had a lot of headaches as well.

Today I went shopping with mum for nappies... learnt a few things about nappies too! Anyway, bumped into Mr Haberdashery at the eatery so we all had lunch together, which was nice.

Yesterday Mr Tickle bumped into a few familiar faces also:


This afternoon we all went to have a look at a duplex unit (aka semi-detached house) which has just been finished. It's by a builder who mum and dad know quite well, Shane. The unit was very nice, very high quality finishings. He used a really nice tile scheme in the kitchen and bathrooms - it's a large, almost copper colour tile and just looks stunning, a little bit shimmery. We drove around the relatively new suburbs and looked at some houses. I like some of the two storey houses (we do have them here). They look quite funky and I'd love to get a look inside one of them!

Swung past Spotlight this afternoon on the way home and picked up the rods for the curtains, so I can properly start them tomorrow. I'd better get over this headache quickly as there still seems so much on my to-do list.

Ooooooh, chicken sausages for dinner tonight!!! These are spinach and pine nut chicken sausages too! Yummy yummy.

Tomorrow mum and I are going to PM's house (with the nappies!) so I'll get to see little Jasmyn again.