Renovation hell ... the photo chronicle

renovation madness & The Christmas Table

It seems that most people have spent the past weekend doing Christmas shopping, putting up the christmas tree, filling the fridge and pantry with food and going to christmas parties. But such fun-filled relaxation (yes, even christmas shopping sounds relaxing to me right now) is a far off memory for Joel and I.

We’ve been working solidly day and night for over a week to get our bedroom finished in record time. Finally, tonight, we will finish!!!! And we couldn’t be happier! We have a fabulous new bedroom with taupe/latte coloured walls and a dark aubergine coloured feature wall. It is looking fantastic and we can’t wait to move back in! Gone is the circa 1979 dim wooden light fitting, and in it’s place halogen downlights, I’m certain I’m going to rediscover all kinds of clothes in by cupboard simply by being able to see them now!

Poor little Cooba has been so neglected that after we finally downed-tools last night at about 9.30pm dead on our feet we just had to take him for a walk. He certainly enjoyed the break from boarder patrol in our back yard which he had been doing for the past week!

Over a week ago just after Joel returned from offshore we both had our ‘Julebord’ (literally translated Christmas Table) Christmas parties. Unfortunately they were on the same night otherwise I could have gone to Joel’s as partners are invited. Our department were doing part of the entertainment. Here is a pic of everyone in the ‘green room’ getting ready for our performance (I’m not in this one as I was taking the photo).

It was a version of ‘Yellow Submarine’ with different lyrics. After our show I caught a cab to Joel’s party and joined him for an hour or so. It was a fun night, although we were home before midnight and up early the next morning installing plaster board...! Such a glamorous life we lead. I will post some pics of our finished bedroom very soon.

Hope your christmas preparations are going well!

Emma.

Welcome Oscar!

We are so excited that our lovely friends Mari and Kev on Thursday 20th November welcomed their eagerly anticipated little baby into the world. His name is Oscar Olav Murphy, he was 3.2kg and 48cm long when he was born. The labour was of course not a cake-walk but Mari did an amazing job and Oscar arrived in the early afternoon as a healthy little baby boy. He was only one day past his due date, which was a huge relief to his parents who were gearing up for a 2+ week wait!

I was lucky enough to be able to go and visit them at the hospital on Friday evening. They are a beautiful little family and of course Oscar's mum and dad couldn't be prouder. He was very well behaved and slept most of the time, in contrast to how he seemed to spend his time while still in the womb when it seemed he couldn't keep still! He is such a cute little baby with a beautiful little face and big blue eyes. He has his father's dark hair but I think the eyes and nose look quite a lot like Mari. Unfortunately for Joel he was offshore when Oscar was born and hasn't met him yet but I'm sure that will be priority number 1 when he returns.

Here he his with his very proud and happy mum Mari

Like a little Buddah, sleeping soundly

A taste of the action

Before Joel's ship set sail (or motor...) out into the North Sea, I was allowed to come on board for a Visning (visit)! It was so interesting to go on board one of these huge ships and see how it all works. Joel was so excited to show me the ROVs (Remote Operated Vehicles), cranes and heavy machinery. Of course I was more interested to see the tv room, gym, solarium, sauna, dining room and living quarters! Here are some pics from the visit, and also some additional photos that Joel took while offshore. Don't be alarmed by what looks like fire, it's just the camera doing funny things with the light! Trust me if it were fire Joel would not look so calm!

Joel has a room to himself. He is A, there is no B.


Up on the bridge, straight out of a StarTrek episode! Couldn't use the flash unfortunately, sorry its a little blurry

One of the ROVs on the deck.


Alongside the ship at the dock.

The rig, taken from Joel's ship

He has to write his name on his hat so that if he forgets his name, he just has to look in the mirror. Clever hey?

I'm hanging in there while Joel is offshore, filling up my time with some Christmas Shopping, trips to the gym and watching as many of the tv shows that Joel hates as I can. I've also been catching up with friends and taking care of Coobs. It looks now like Joel will be away for at least another two and a half weeks.

BIG shout out to Mari and Kev, patiently (or not!) waiting for their little baby to arrive. Tomorrow is the official due date, but they're expecting to go into overtime (to borrow the AFL term). It's a hard slog at 9 months pregnant and getting through each day is a bit of a challenge at the moment, so wish them well. Also happy birthday to Janine for tomorrow as well.

Cheers from me,

Em xo

And the walls remain down.....

Our renovation project got off to a wonderful start with a flurry of activity and action. We had stalled slightly as work demands have increased and more overtime and less energy has taken its toll. However our project came to an abrupt halt today as Joel has begun his offshore campaign. What was expected to be a small, aprox 10 day trip has in the past 2 days blown out to an all-singing-all-dancing-offshore-extravaganza. Joel came home the other day with 4 weeks as a possible timeframe for him to be away! Yikes! We might be sleeping in our lounge room when our guests arrive! He’s taken the camera so maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get some pics of his offshore adventures.

Meantime we’ve had some glorious autumn weather - cool, clear sunny days and very still. Surely it can’t last long...?

BIG congratulations to my cousin Penny and her partner Ben who have a brand new baby girl, Tilkah Lilly. Looking forward to meeting her soon. Also congratulations to Merete and Åsmund, proud parents of a baby boy Trym. Still to come, Mari and Kev are expecting very soon with the due date of 19^th November, and Jess and Joel Carswell also due this month. It is a month of babies, and we wish everyone well.  I will continue to be loving (single for now) parent to our little darling Cooba who is as gorgeous as ever, especially now as the fence is finally keeping him in the back garden.

 

That’s all for now,

Emma.

The walls are coming down!

We have begun our 3rd major home improvement project (after the deck/garden and guest bedroom) which is to our main bedroom a facelift. We plan to install new downights, put up plaster board for the walls and ceiling (gyprock in oz, gipsplater in norway) and make a feature wall. We will also install some more insulation to keep us cozier in winter.

We have started by emptying the bedroom and moving into the guest room temporarily. We have a deadline of Mid December before our guests arrive and need to kick us out of their room.

There is turning back now as we have ripped down the ceiling and walls. Here are some pics of our progress from today.

We also found it quite interesting to peel back the layers and identify the fashions of the time with the wallpapers that were laid on since 1953 when the house was built. They say that fashion is cyclical but we can't honestly see how any of these wallpaper designs will ever come back into fashion.

Anyway - we can't type much - stuff to do.

Hooroo.

Injuries, London, Zurich, Madonna, Visitors

It has been so long between posts I wonder if you think we are still around!! So what is our news?

5 days after arriving home from our holiday in France back in early August, Joel was competing in a road cycling race. Having just returned from 4 weeks eating and drinking our way around France perhaps he was a tiny bit below peak fitness, but in any case after slightly losing touch with a fast group at the front as he reached the top of a hill, he was trying to catch them up on the descent, and ended up misjudging a sharp corner and had a crash.

He was travelling 60km per hour, just typing it makes me shudder. His head and shoulder took most of the impact. Fortunately the helmet did its job but broke apart with the impact, and he was left on the side of the road with a terrible pain in his shoulder. It was fortunate that he crashed right next to one of the red cross ambulances (not a coincidence – accidents occur at this corner every year – mind you perhaps it never occurred to the organisers to put up signage or warn the competitors…) but Joel had to wonder about their competence as he had to ask repeatedly for a sling, and other than provide him with a blanket and arrange a ride with the time keeping car to the finish line, they were next to useless.

I met him at the finish line and we went straight to the hospital for XRays. The XRays showed he had fractured his shoulder blade. Basically he got off lightly – it could have been a head injury or worse. So he ended up with half his body covered in scrapes and bruises and with a very sore left shoulder. Needless to say this put pay to any idea of a social life for a couple of weeks until the pain reduced. But everything has healed up really well now and he is pretty much back to normal.

We have also had a friend of Sally’s come and stay with us. Shankar is travelling the world for 6 months and was visiting friends in Bergen and Oslo so we invited him to join us for a weekend in Stavanger. We took him up to Preikestolen (of course!), and really enjoyed his visit.

I have had a couple of work trips – one to London for a conference which also happened to coincide with the Madonna ‘sticky and sweet’ Concert at Wembley Stadium. A colleague had bought tickets back in May and happened to have a spare one. It was a sensational concert, she is absolutely amazing. I also had a day with a customer in Lucerne in Switzerland and was able to combine this with a visit with my friend Rebecca. I haven’t seen her for about a year and a half so that was perfect.

Just recently we’ve had my mum come and stay with us. We had a weekend together in Stavanger before she headed over to London to visit with Chris, Berni, Dorothy and the girls. I then flew to London to meet her for a “girls’ weekend”. We crammed a lot in during 3 days including seeing ‘Wicked’ the musical, meeting Sam’s parents for lunch, having a manicure and visiting some wedding dress stores. It was fantastic to have some time with Mum with just the two of us. She headed home yesterday.

So now we are looking forward to having some of Joel’s family visit us in Stavanger for Christmas. And then of course our visit to Melbourne in January.

That’s all for now!

Emma.

Our Bobil Adventure, Summer 2008

And here it is, the blog entry you've all been waiting for! Our summer holiday photos. We have embedded it as a slide show, so click on the heading above to start the slideshow and enjoy!

Yesterday's highlights, St Emilion

Highlights for yesterday:
Saint Emilion, near Bordeaux. Beautiful little town.
The smell of macarons being baked, amazing.
Baguettes & croissants delivered to our door at the vineyard where we stayed overnight, mobile bakery, astounding!
Red wine in this area, spectacular. Yum.
Bumping into Bec's friend Matt in a little bar. What are the chances?

Saint Emilion

Hi again. We are currently in the Bordeaux region in France staying at a romantic little village called St Emilion.

We stayed in Royan until late this evening. I had a lovely cycle this morning through amazing country along the coast and past fields full of blooming sunflowers. When I had a tail wind I actually convinced myself I was in a breakaway in the tour. Then Emma and I went for another cycle along the coast stopping at a lovley outdoor restaurant for lunch. After that we hit the beach which was very relaxing and enjoyable.

Sadly we left Royan and made our way to Bordeaux and are staying amongst cab sav vineyards in an amazing setting with a lovely sunset.

Tomorrow we plan to do a cycling vineyard tour/crawl tasting hopefully many fine drops. Then ... who knows??? Maybe stay here for a couple of days then head to the south atlantic coast to either Biarritz or St Jean de Luz.

Anyway, more adventures beckon tomorrow and beyond. To borrow and bastardise a saying from Mr Sitch and Gleisner ... "There's always a vineyard somewhere."

Go Cadel!!!! Keep your eyes on SBS because he is going to win the tour!

Update from France!

I am going to send some very brief updates from my pda with the basics of what we are doing. Pls excuse the bad spelling & abbreviations! We'll then use this as a reminder later to do the full update with pics and all. We made our way from Frankfurt across to France. On the way stopped in Kaiser Slautern, great festivel in full swing! Arrived in Epernay in the champagne region. Weather was 20 but very wet. We arrived at Moet & Chandon for a tour looking like drowned rats!

Then drove to Villers Bretteneaux (sp!) and visited the australian war memorial. Next to the Loire valley. Lots of wine tasting, good food, divine little towns to drive & cycle through. Saw famous chateau Chenenceau.

Today we dropped in on Le Tour, rarely have I seen Joel so excited,like a little kid! Saw them all wizz past, tres cool. Will catch them again on the Alps. Now on way to Royan, a costal town recommended by Sam. Next is bordeaux. Our motorhome is awesome, v comfy and well kitted out. Stayed last night on a property with a chateau surrounded by vines on 3 sides. Amazing. More updates soon. Ryan how's coobs?

Emma.

Summer (sort of) in Stavanger

In 4 days time, Emma and I leave for Frankfurt, Germany to commence our month long degustation, cycling, relaxing, and exploring tour of France (and surrounds).

We pick up our bobil in Frankfurt and cruise roughly around in an anticlockwise direction around France. Coincidentally, the 2008 Tour de France route also takes in an anticlockwise direction (I am not sure if Emma is aware of this). So it should be a very enjoyable month of travelling.

Our first stop will be Epernay in the Central North East of France which is the home of Champagne (well it is Champagne actually) and home to Moet and Chandon. It should be a good start to our tour. We probably won't get a chance to update along the way but we promise to provide a good blog when we are back.

In the meantime however, here is a glimpse of our last couple of weeks in Stavanger.

We (well Emma mostly bless her - I was out riding) finally got around to painting the wall between our place and next doors.









































We went to the volleyball the other night after work with some good freinds. Stavanger has a round of the world cup beach volleyball each year (we went last year also and we posted some pics back then). We went along which was enjoyable as always, and then went across the harbour to a lovely outdoor bar and had some fresh prawns in a bucket washed down with more than a few beers. We then caught up with some other friends later in the evening at the lønningspils (pay check beers) evening at a local bar. Lovely evening.


















Here is me - we had OK seats this year, but we also had a great view of the harbour where there were 2 big cruise liners in. I got to watch them both leave also. Tough life!
























After the prawns on Friday night, we went for a shop to this amazing gourmet food supermarket. Got fresh prawns, fresh baguettes, chorizo sausage, mozarella, salmon, dips, cheeses and quiceish paste and washed it down in the sun with a bottle of our favourite Cloudy Bay.


















It was just like training for what will come in France.
























The lovely spread.
























The lovely company.


















Cooby also got a taste for the good life and Stavangerske prawns

Warm up race for Le Tour de France

Joel competed on Saturday in the Nordsjørittet (North Sea Race). Having opted to drink beer in Belgium (refer previous post) rather than participate in a seeding race a few weeks earlier, he was in the general group 6, rather than the serious riders that left in the first groups. Our friend Justin (he and his wife Nat are the proud parents of Cooba’s sister Brandy) was visiting for the weekend, so we drove down to Egersund, about an hour’s drive south of Stavanger, to see him off. The race is about 90km along a coastal trail combining road and off-road tracks, and is very picturesque winding its way along the south west coast of Norway – a very nice part of the world.

Joel completed the course in 2hr:51min which was a fantastic time, and won his group after strong competition with 2 other riders to the finish. Joel managed to burn them off riding up the last hill – anyone that knows Joel on a bike knows how much he loves the hills – nuts if you ask me. The overall winner completed the race in about 2:25. Joel's time should see him seeded in the elite group for next year’s race. Of course having borrowed a bike from a mate (thanks Al!), because none of his 3 bikes were suitable, I am now being targeted with a very focussed campaign aimed at buying him a new bike. At AUD$5-6K I’m not exactly rushing out to the bike shop, but that does not seem to dampen Joel’s enthusiastic campaigning!



We are now getting ready for our holiday, lists galore of things to take. I hate to think how much our luggage will weigh! After a beautiful 6 weeks or so of sunshine and true summer weather during late April and May, unfortunately it did not last. We have been back to mid-teen temperatures and quite a bit of rain over the last few weeks. Joel and I refuse to believe that was The Summer, and now it is over, and are crossing our fingers for some warm days during August and maybe even September. The warm stretch broke records in Norway, but for us it was just a short taste of what we hoped was a ‘real’ summer. After last years dismal imitation of a summer we (perhaps undeservedly) felt like we were owed a good one! Time will tell.

Cheers to all,
Emma

Enough of the ring already!

Anyone would think by the lack of updates on this blog lately we have been doing nothing but swan around in loved-up post-engagement ectasy.

Well ... we have been doing that, but we also have been a little busy.

Here is a photo slideshow of some of the things we have been up to. You have to click on the photo below first and then click on slideshow to start. Happy viewing!

Blog update May 08

Joel and Emma

The Ring

I was surprised by a phone call yesterday afternoon from our jeweller saying that my ring was ready to collect, a day early! Joel had a colleague visiting from Aberdeen and insisted we go and meet him for a beer downtown by the harbour before going to the jeweller. I think he just enjoyed watching me squirm!

Finally we headed to the jeweller and collected my beautiful ring. It fits perfectly, nice and snug without being too tight or too loose. I personally think it is the most beautiful engagement ring in the world, but of course I am 100% biased. But you can make up your own mind....

Emma.

Being Engaged

One of the best, most fun and amazing things about being engaged is that virtually everybody in our lives, from our nearest and dearest to those we might not have seen or spoken to in years, have contacted us to offer their congratulations. It is truly astounding and fantastic. I’m actually addicted to the messages and find myself checking my email, facebook and our blog each morning with so much excitement and anticipation to get my ‘hit’! I think this has really helped make me feel very connected to friends and family back home, as in an ideal world we would be hanging out and clinking the champagne glasses right about now (having imported all our Norwegian friends to Melbourne of course! I did say it was an ‘ideal’ world!). Fortunately we did plenty of that on Saturday night with all our Norwegian friends, and will continue to do so over the coming days/weeks.

 

I think now the adrenaline and ‘spaced out’ feeling has now dissipated, but what remains is a very content and happy feeling. As much as I’ve always thought and felt that Joel and I would always be together, I look at him with a different feeling now – this man will be my husband!  That takes a little getting used to, even after 4 years, a home we own together, shared bank accounts and our little guy Cooba, who will soon no longer be the ‘illegitimate child’ - kinda!

 

We’ve been thinking and talking about how/when/where we might get married, but have decided that at least for the next few weeks we’re going to put those thoughts to the side and just enjoy being engaged and celebrating that. Suffice to say one decision that we have made is that we will get married in or near Melbourne, so rest easy - you don’t need to buy the thermal underwear for a trip to Norway after all. Or at least not for a wedding, but perhaps a visit anyway??!

 

Thank you all so much for helping us celebrate and making this such an amazing experience. I would love to rewind to Saturday and do it all again, it has been so much fun. So thank you thank you thank you!!

 

Emma

 

PS. Picking up the ring on Tuesday, can’t wait!

Just another day in the office....!

UPDATE: HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS FROM THE PARTY.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE THEM:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75163841@N00/sets/72157604536426740/show/

_____________________________________________________________________________________

What an amazing amazing last 24 hours it has been! Actually yesterday was the best day of my life.

I set out for the evening to celebrate my 30th birthday for a low-key drinks and dinner with Joel, only 3 hours later to find myself somehow in the middle of a huge party at my house with 30 or so of my friends all dressed up in crazy 70’s outfits, and most amazingly of all, having just accepted the marriage proposal, delivered on bended knee and accompanied by a stunning diamond, from the love of my life!

What a day. I am absolutely exhausted, thrilled, excited and very emotional. But I am just so so so happy. I can’t get the grin off my face!

The party was absolutely sensational, Joel with the help of some of beautiful, generous wonderful friends planned it all as a surprise! The house was decorated brilliantly, the food was amazing, they just thought of everything. Sally and Sam arranged a video compiled of loads of photos and video messages from home which was beamed up on a projector for everyone to see. I was just amazed and of course cried my eyes out from start to finish. What wonderful friends and family I have.

And my Joel, well what can I say. He planned the whole day, and just made everything perfect and special. I think I am still in shock that he actually did it!

We have loved sharing the news with as many friends and family as we have been able to contact, and I’m sure will continue to talk to you all over the coming days and weeks.

We will upload some photos from the party as soon as we can find the camera...!

To everyone who played a part in the best day of my life, THANK YOU. I just can’t thank you enough. And to my fiancé Joel, I love you so much and can’t wait to marry you!

Emma.


PS. I know that the girls will want to see pictures (in fact have already been asking), so here they are. We will take the diamond in to the store tomorrow to pick out a setting for it. In the meantime, I am wearing a mood ring (which changes colour with my moods) that Joel purchased from the toy store for about $3 which is just as precious to me! He says he should have done it ages ago as now he has a 'mood chart' and at a glance can tell exactly how I am feeling. Genuis!

2 Problems:

(1) We need sun to enjoy our new deck and
(2) The spare room which we never use is now the best room in the house!

Ok - as per Ryan's suggestion, here are some before and afters.

























As we never thought the spare room was worthy of a photo, this is about as "before" as you will see. Shows much the same entrance pic as below.
























Now with lovely "eggshell white" walls, downlights, etc etc.
























From this ...
























to this ...
























to this ...

















to this.

















And some more pics of the finished room.


































Bedding for all. Come on over.

Now for outside.

















Before the fence(s).



















With new deck in place.



















From this ...


















to this ...



















Cooby seems to like it.

















From this ...



















to this ...



















to this.

Just got to put on the edging around the deck and all will be done. Just gotta wait for that warm weather to enjoy it. It is nice and sunny today ... the 2 degree temperature just puts you off a little bit.