All Change Please, All Change (my weekend not abbreviated very much)

Changes were afoot this weekend (#cccccchanges#). The dining room is now very white, with the exception of the wood work which is still a beautiful shade of lemony yellow. On Friday when I arrived home from work I stripped off to my shorts, donned a dust mask and some goggles and set about sanding the walls down. I hate sanding and for an hour I sanded and sanded and then sanded some more.

Having restored a few houses now I have some pretty impressive power tools and my Pro Bosch ½ sheet sander powered through the job (that sound likes and extract from Tool Time…). I immerged from the room covered from head to foot in a thick layer of dust. You would have had to see me to believe it. Wifey ran away when I went for a hug and the cats disappeared through the cat flap at top speed. I headed for a much needed shower and then settled down for the night with Wifey, the cats and a bottle of Chenin Blanc.

Saturday saw me head off bright an early for a driving lesson. I can drive, allegedly. I will explain all now.

I am member of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) and I have been asked to train as an Observer (An instructor really). So there I was, for 2 ½ hours on Saturday morning, observing and being observed. (Who was observing the observing observer?). I thoroughly enjoyed it and whilst it has been a year since I past my test and bad habits have begun to creep back in, I was amazed on how, once you have the technique, it becomes second nature to me.

I would love to blog about the Associate (the learner) and the drives that we do, however, I must respect their privacy and not comment on how they performed. (even though this is an anonymous blog my conscience won’t allow me to break this confidence). I think I did well and the comments I gave the learner were spot on and were made in a positive tone.

I returned home to be greeted Wifey covered in paint having put the first coat of base coat on the dining room walls. I quickly donned my DIY gear and PVA’d the ceiling. Just another reason why I hate Artex….. In the afternoon we needed to get some DIY supplies, so a trip to the B&Q in Crawley was called for. We stopped in Horsham and grabbed a bite to eat at a good coffee shop we frequent and, as we were heading back t o the car, an advert grabbed my attention. It said;
AFC30K – A free Nokia N95 on your tariff awaits you inside”
Ps – we have some in stock…

Well what was I to do? Despite the sales assistant trying to talk me out of it I was finally presented with my new Nokia N95. I had to convince the salesman that I really wanted it; that was the phone I have had my eye on ever since my phone savvy brother visited in the spring. This may sound perverse, but I respected is attitude. He informed me of all the pitfalls of my desire and showed me some excellent models which in many ways are better than the N95. The big problem remains that I just don’t know how to use any other phone than a Nokia. I have tried and my old Sony Ericson nearly made the grade, but then I accidentally dropped it in a pot of paint and back to a Nokia it was!

I have just finished setting the new phone up this morning when I synchronised it with my PC and all my contacts and diary etc are all nicely loaded safely in the new phone. Anyway I’m happy with it so far (2 days….)

On Saturday evening we spent some time at Wifey’s parents as the love to see Pickle. We also got some free grub and then went home for a ceiling painting session and some more wine.

Sunday was more painting and some other chores around the house which caused me to loose my temper in a big way. My temper usually subsides hours later and usually after I’ve broken the thing that annoyed me in the first place. This time a session painting, a shower and some sweet lovin’ sorted me out in a fine style and set my up for a pleasant afternoon in Guilford. (Thanks to Wifey for understanding….)

Lunch was at Wagamama’s; the baby seems to like their Yaki Soba. I have a great photo (taken on the new phone of him trying to suck in a mouthful of noodles. (I guess it’s the sort of picture you could only love if you’re a parent!) A swift wander around the town followed were we spent a couple of hours looking for something that we didn’t find. We finally called it a day (narrowly avoiding the new Krispy Kreme doughnut shop) and called in to see Wifey’s sister on the way (ish) home.

At home more changes in the dining room and some quality time with my Honey Pie (Wifey). Yep Sunday was a pretty good day. Now let’s see if we can survive the week at work.