Painting

We somehow got it in our minds that painting our flat would be a fun summer project. It desperately needed it. I don't think it had been painted for many years. Although the colour was fine, the walls were seriously marked, dirty and full of bad patch jobs. So with the landlord's permission, we got some paint, supplies, and got cracking.

First job was the hallway. Then the lounge, kitchen, and this weekend the front/spare room. We'll have to do our bedroom later in June, as the next two weekends are already booked.

I suspect only we can tell the difference, but I'm really pleased with how things look. The colour before was fine - "magnolia" I'm sure - but I wanted something a little lighter and more fresh. We went with "white cotton", which we're using throughout. We discovered that the previous paint scheme was - wait for it - dark blue in the front room, turquoise in the hallway, and the ubiquitous terracotta (Brits can't get enough of this one) in the back bedroom and lounge. Lovely.

Already, the place feels cleaner (no doubt because floors and everything else has been scrubbed within an inch of its life during clean up!) and brighter. It's been a lot of work, but I'm happy with the results.

Christian & Diana's Visit

I'm a little behind on my posting. Partly because we've had a lot on lately and I quite simply haven't had the time to post!

Ole's brother Christian and his girlfriend Diana came to visit over Easter weekend. It was Christian's 2nd time here in Newcastle and Diana's first. I only had Friday off, so Ole took them around on Thursday. They spent the day up at Alnwick Castle (aka Hogwarts) and Garden, which sounded like a lot of fun.

Then on Friday we headed out west to see some of Hadrian's wall. We stopped off at Birdoswald Fort (disappointing) and then went to our favourite place near a quarry where you can walk along the wall for a distance.

Saturday evening we went out to the greyhound racetrack. I've been quite a few times, but it was the first time for everybody else. What a fun night! Christian & Diana won big and we had a great time watching the dogs.

Unwelcome visitors

We've been having a little ant problem this year. Every year when the seasons change we get a small influx of ants. But this year there are more, they are lasting longer, and they are really annoying me.





Can you see that? Yes this morning I discovered them in the sugar. I'll give an award to whoever tells me how they got into a hermetically sealed jar.

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