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.