Weekend

We have had a busy week. John's orchestra had their concerts on Saturday and Sunday. There were rehearsals before and we have been trying to help out with the set-up, too.

The crowd was very appreciative - and sometimes almost carried away with showing their approval. It was fun to be there.

I have now spent three Tuesdays working on the house. Gail Clifford and I started with the dining room and it was been quite horrible. The ceiling has squares that are like very big tiles placed above beams. The squares have a design on them that look like the end of a fork has been drawn across them in a pattern.

The final paint job took all day because we had to use paint brushes and make sure the whole area was covered evenly. If we had the money, I would have had someone spray paint the ceiling. We now have three more of these ceilings to do plus the hallway.

Moaning aside, I love doing it. Gail and I work well together and spend the day talking and laughing.

A young friend of ours happen to come by yesterday and I invited her in to see how the diningroom was shaping up. She blurted out, "Oh, this is going to be great. I want to buy this house - but if I did, you would have to leave the wallpaper on the walls in the living room."

The members of my family know what the wallpaper in the lounge looked like - brown and cream flowers on a deep brown background - who would want that? Well, it is now considered quite trendy and the worst part is that I threw away all of the leftovers that were stored in the attic years ago. I have actually seen this wallpaper in a number of recent decoration magazines - I was amazed. We have the original kind - who would have thought anyone would have wanted it?

I told her we were not selling the house. We would be renting it and she wanted to know how much the rental would be. I couldn't tell her because we haven't got that far, but it was interesting to me to find someone who would like to live here. Makes me think that it won't be that hard to get renters.

Tomorrow we meet Robby Loretz for a picnic at an Auckland park. The weather has been dry and fairly warm. We are waiting for it to dip down very soon.