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looking forward to doing nothingPosted on Thu 25 January 2007 at 09:14I am so looking forward to tomorrow. It will be the first day in ages that I can have a long lie and luxuriate in the knowledge that nothing has to be done. We are unpacked, organised and very very clean. I cannot begin to describe how filthy this house was. I can’t believe we didn’t notice when we looked round. It really took the shine off our pleasure in owning this house. It’s bad enough moving house at the best of times but having to scrub every square inch (and for a change that is no exaggeration) was really dispiriting. For those who know me, you can picture the scene eh? Karen on a stepladder scrubbing the ceiling. Karen cursing every 2-3 minutes as a new bit of filth fell on her. Karen falling off the ladder when fly crap landed in her eye. Karen cursing even more. Karen kicking the ladder over. Karen cursing even more. Karen knocking the bastard bucket over as she heads for the sink. Karen cursing even more. Karen lobbing the bucket off the deck. Karen cursing even more when she has to go and get it back. Karen cursing. Karen cursing. Karen cursing….Yup, you get the picture. Karen cursed a lot last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Steve wasn’t even in the running for the gold medal for cursing in spite of a sudden spurt close to the finish line. Oh, damn, I feel a tangent occurring….. Karen on the top step of the Cursing Olympic podium, lovely shiny gold medal round her neck. Tasteful purple and gold tartan tracksuit adorning her lissom body. Scottish anthem played by whatever Pipe and Drum band you care to mention. The promise of 21 pints of lager in very clean glasses curving her mouth in a sweet, winsome smile…… No – it can’t be….surely not? Is that DIRT on the podium? Best it’s effing not!….IT IS!! …Oh, you little bastard, where’s my duster….Right, you shitty little bit of dirt, you’re in a world of trouble…OK, lets get the BIG GUNS! Ha ha dirt, you ass is mine as I wield the ultimate weapons - THE POWER WASHER AND THE BIGGEST BOTTLE OF BLEACH EVER KNOWN TO MAN!!. Take that you little bugger,…there is no hiding place from SUPERKAREN, vanquisher of dirt and despair, heroine of domestics around the world…… Oops, d’ya think I’ve maybe overdone the cleaning then?! However, under all the filth was a lovely house in surprisingly good condition – possibly dirt has a preserving effect that science has not discovered yet. We have decided that we don’t want to rush in and start painting everything. We would rather wait and see how we feel in a few weeks or months. See what suggests itself if you know what I mean. The last owner came round to see if she had left a rucksack here. Just as well Steve got to the door first. I would have said ‘you left the attachments for your Hoover (true) but you don’t even know what they look like so that’s no great loss eh?’ She said she would have liked to have done some weeding, but didn’t have the time as she had 4 kids. At that point I was busy picking my jaw off the deck at her sheer bloody effrontery. I have 4 children but I am bloody sure no house I ever lived in was as filthy as this one was. That is not a reason, that is an excuse. And weed – try picking up a bloody cloth and wiping the walls now and again!! Enough!
We bought Melissa a trampoline and of course, I had to be first to try it out. I couldn't bounce for laughing - a feel good factor if ever there was one.
Melissa went camping with her friend and family from Sunday to Wednesday and seems to have had a really good time. They went to the Coramandel Peninsula and the weather stayed fine for them. It is the first time she has been away with friends and it is great to see her making such good friends as she has here in the short time she has known them. She will never forget her UK friends (can't name you girls for reasons of confidentiality but you know who you are!) but at least she isn't sad and homesick, which would have made us heartsick too.
We even ventured down the gully. I haven’t laughed so much in ages – it was a real release after the stresses of the previous days. We took the camera, St George and St Andrew, two pairs of secateurs and gardening gloves, 3 belts because we had no rope. And off we went on a journey of adventure. ….it was just such fun – the kind of adventure you have at age 11 or 12, not as an adult. After battling slippy grass, fallen trees, vines, brambles, fences, steep slopes and marshes, we finally made it to the promised land and took each other’s photo waving the appropriate flag ….Good grief: you didn’t think we had the real Saints George and Andrew with us did you?!! We found a grape vine, a stand of bamboo and a mature lime tree. The gully has been cultivated by previous owners but has been sadly neglected by the last lot. We would love to do some work on it but it would be a major undertaking that we don’t have the time or knowledge to deal with now. However, if we do some research and planning (over several beers), I see it turning into a major project. Our furniture, both shipped and new goes really nicely here: it feels like home already. We have bought another patio table, 6 chairs and patio heater as the deck here is a lot bigger than at the rental. We are so happy now, don’t want to go to work, just want to wander about running my hand along the clean walls, admiring everything. We probably sound like smug superior bastards lording it in our heavily mortgaged home. Do you know why that might be? Because that’s what we are!! Can’t help but feel completely fulfilled and at peace with the world. My heart swells with happiness at the moment: it is difficult to find the words to adequately express our sense of peace and actualisation– long may it continue. Well done us. Yet again I find myself trotting it out but here it goes: I wish you the same joy and fulfilment in your lives and we find in ours.
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