25th May

Another little drama has evolved over the past two days.

Yesterday morning at 5.30 the street was once again blocked off and Structural Cranes rolled in to lift the pieces of the louvred awning, to the roof. All very dramatic in the dark of night! Of course, the garbage truck arrived at the same time and had to round the block and come up the street the wrong way. The guys from the road closure company then wheeled the bins down the road to be emptied.

The two fellows, Ben and Paul worked away all day cutting and filing metal (noisy and messy) and got about a third of the job completed in the day. Out top floor is a building site once again.

Last night there came the weather warnings about heavy rain and gale force winds. Ben came back at about nine o'clock and secured everything. He said that he wouldn't have been able to sleep with the worry of  pieces of metal flying off into Hunter Street! 

 It has absolutely poured all night - sersiously poured. The roof is flooded as, I suspect, is the whole of Newcastle. It is like Pasha Bulka Day again. It seems to be driving from the south so the roof is slightly protected. Driving rain is always a bit scary, especially because it is so noisy. The windows sound as though they are going to blow in.

Here are some photos. They don't depict the torrent effectively.

Lift one from one truck

Lift two from the other truck over the road

Garbage truck arrives...!

Tight squeeze. The dogman was terrific at his job.

The main struts arrive

Ben and Paul at work

Rain!!!

Stop work...one huge puddle !!

Rain - and supported frame of the awning

The torrent. This was taken at 9am. Looks like midnight.

20th May

Some big action around the place today.

Firstly, the second large mirror arrived for the bathroom. After several hours of manoeuvring powerpoints, the mirror was put into place and gently pressed to secure it in the corner. However, it cracked  right through and was ruined!. So, we have to start all over again. This was devasting for the "glass guys", who are usually pretty chirpy. They looked close to tears by the end of it all.  Even though they must know, only too well,  the vagaries of working with glass, it was devasting.

On a more positive note though, some of the curtains arrived and they look pretty good. I am quite relieved.  They are both open weave fabrics and the photos do not truly replicate the colours.

The umbrella also arrived and it looks pretty snazzy out there on the roof.

Duting the week I finished hanging the family photos on the upper stair landing and the historical photos of the house on the lower stair landing.

Sally is still refusing to sleep in her new kennel, (she prefers inside where it is warm) but otherwise she has been pretty relaxed about her routines. She woofs at me and stands at the top of the stairs when she wants to go out and stretch her legs. So, we go up to Fletcher Park - to visit James! There is a big statue of James Fletcher up on the hill and we run around him a few times. He, James Fletcher, was an important founding father of Newcastle; a politician involved with coal - what else!

The other interesting discovery made this week involves some family history research. It turns out that Lester's grandmother x4 was a prostitute who had a criminal record, (it seems she ran a brothel but she had enough money to bail herself out a couple of times) and his grandfather x5 was an English convict who assumed another man's identity (this was why I could not trace him for the past 15 years in my searches of records.) He got 14 years for manslaughter and stealing jewellery. This isn't quite the family Lester thought he came from!

The square umbrella is well-anchored

Upstaits curtain...t's not quite this colour

Downstairs curtain

Taken with flash - again...not quite the true colour

The family gallery

The historical gallery

The historical photos

Other than that, we have booked our trip to visit Rowan and Sam in Thailand and Vietnam in October.

All good.

15th May

Another week has passed. We have had some visits from family and some Stocko's and we are making new patterns in our daily lives. Still getting up at 5.45 (and the Sunday pattern  is shaped by going  back to bed to read the papers on our return at 6.30,  before cooking bacon and eggs on the roof.) We have been taking a keen interest in the conjunction of the planets and find a few more people are up and perched at Nobbys these mornings.

 We are exploring many new walking paths. Yesterday evening we went up to the obelisk and laughed as we remembered  running around it with Liam and Kieran when they were very little. Those were the days when we had to walk the kids, not the dog! It is so high up; the view is exhilarating and the palm tree still throws a huge shadow.

Three developments have been; our sofa arrived. It is very plain and small and suits the space well. Owing to the turn in the weather, we have lit our ethanol (metho) fire. It works really well! The ethanol is dirt cheap and it is lasting for hours. We have "planted" two water plants in our water feature. I had to anchor them down with stones. I actually had to buy stones and two bricks to rest the pots on under the water. It is hard not having a back yard where you could always find that sort of junky stuff. Stones!!!

Today we spent a long time reorganising the lock-up. We've put Bernie's stuff at the front and Rowan's and Kieran's stuff at the back.  Liam, your stuff is in the middle awaiting placement in your freshly painted pad: some nice furniture and an excellent carpet/rug. There is also a jerry-can and a box of slot car racing track which is ready to move off to a new home. Any time soon.

Still no awning, mirror or curtains which means that this blog will continue.




Lester on the new sofa, in front of the fire - talking to Bernie




The place is cosying up quite well for Winter



The living area: some of Rowan's boxes were still there at the tie of taking the picture - but they have been spirited out to the lock-uo now. We will one-day (soon please) be box-less.

The baby papyrus - with stones!

Night view



Garden (with flash)



The garden tonight (without flash)

The Water Feature!!!

3rd May

We have now left Stockton for four months and been ensconced here for three weeks. It is starting to feel very homely. We continue to modify our daily practices, from changing where to place things to changing the order in which we do things. I find it a very friendly neighbourhood. The shopkeepers nearby hang out and greet us, including the young girl in the surf shop whose sign we rescued on the weekend and the security guard from the bank on the corner. When we walk in the mornings (yes, any cynics and disbelievers out there, we are still walking at 5.45 every morning), we recognise the same people who walk and everyone greets in some form. Often, I must admit, some people just grunt. It is early after all. The old boys down at the pool are very sprightly at this hour.

I have been really enjoying working in the vast kitchen. When Charlotte visited last week she asked, "Did you just go to The Giant Shop and order one of everything?" I am mastering doing preparation on one side of the bench and cooking on the other. We have a new game. The pop-up exhaust is hilarious and efficient - so efficient that the aromas leave my kitchen and are rapidly sucked into the air conditioning system below in the surgery. Lester texts me to see if he has guessed correctly what he is having for dinner! It gets him home quickly. We eat early and then he goes back down and finishes his paperwork.

Yesterday whilst I was cooking (in the giant's kitchen), I replayed  "Julie and Julia". I had forgotten how obsessed Julia became with her blog.  I've been flicking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a couple of days - highlighting bits. So I was in a great mood. It is so nice to be back in the kitchen properly, playing around. I just wish I  knew what I was doing, but it's fun.

Rowan and Sam are home from SE Asia and India for ten days. They emailed their menu beforehand. Needless to say, it contained all the old favourites: bacon and egg spaghetti, pork belly, roast leg of lamb,  "salt meat", "flat meat", favourite eggs etc. So I have been busy constructing the old stand-by meals.

The other day we were at the little Spanish restaurant in King St. We realised that through the lane we could see the back of our place. It was the first time we could see just how packed our roof is: solar heating, fox dish and nine solar panels. So I've photographed it...

We are still waiting for several things to be completed before I can say this build and blog is finished; the awning on the roof garden,  one of the kitchen lights needs fixing, the curtains are yet to arrive as is a bathroom mirror. Still waiting for the completion of the restoration of the brass bed as well. We also need to buy one lounge chair  and some stools for the kitchen. It could still take weeks. I also have to collect my pot plants which Hilary has been nurturing for me and I am hoping to make some wall gardens on the roof. Maybe I have to do a Kevin and have a Buildinggracelands Revisited! Like Julia, I will miss the discipline of blogging.