Tuesday, February 16, 2010
New kitchen
Kat: It's not so new any more, but we didn't want to unveil it in pictures until it was totally finished. Anyway, here's the transformation: |  |
There was a doorway to left of the cooker leading into a derelict shed which is now Mat's woodwork room and general hidey-hole (more before and after photos of that to follow).
The old kitchen was fairly dilapidated - sockets nearly hanging out of the wall, cupboards falling apart, the window frame was rotten and didn't close properly.
There's a chimney which used to have the old range in; in the old kitchen this was a little cupboard and work surface.
The chimney had been clad in slate and painted white, and there were beige floor tiles. The floor tiles were fairly inoffensive but several were cracked and they was a line of missing tiles when the partial wall was taken out.
The transformation took place in stages. The first stage was to block up the doorway and knock down the partial wall. That happened in February last year.It involved moving the light switch to and radiator which had been on the partial wall. Previously, the light switch was half way along the wall and if you came in the back door in the dark, you had to feel your way along - not ideal while the dog was still being house-trained and tended to go to the toilet right next to the back door. The radiator is now under the window.
The old kitchen got ripped out in November. We had about a month without a kitchen, during which time we camped in the living room and ate at friends' houses (we owe lots of dinners!) The first stage was very dusty as the old floor was ripped up and the slate cladding taken off the chimney.After weeks of filling the kettle up in the bath, we finally got a spangly new kitchen. There's new floor tiles and most of the walls have been replastered. The kitchen was fitted by our now good friends David and Jo Retallack and it was decorated by Nick the Painter.
It looks a lot lighter not just because there are more lights, but the back door has been replaced by one which is half-glazed.
There's lots of drawers! We haven't had a kitchen with drawers for ages. As well as all the cupboards there's a dresser in the corner. Can't have too many drawers.
Best of all is a vertical double over in the chimney and a 5 ring hob with an extractor that actually extracts rather than just recycles - no more dashing to unplug the smoke alarm.
The stainless steel board to the right of the oven has magnetic pots with herbs and spices in, since you were wondering.
Fancy coming over for dinner?
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Prank calls
Mat: Exciting news down here, apart from the snow, is that I've started getting prank calls on my mobile!Actually it's not that exciting, they're the most boring prank calls imaginable - the caller seems to be incapable of stringing a sentence together. They're not even making sex noises down the line or anything interesting. I haven't ruled out the possibility that the mysterious caller is actually a monkey, randomly dialling numbers, as the conversation from their end is just monosyllabic grunts. I'll see if I can record the next one so you can join in the excitement. The last one went like this:
Me: Hello?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: Are you the same person that called me last night?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: I don't want you to call any more, okay?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: Bye bye
Monkey: Ugh ugh
To their credit they're dialling 141 so that it comes up as 'number blocked', so that's a pretty clever monkey. But more evidence of the simian-like brain of this "hilarious" prankster is that immediately after calling, they send me a text message which includes their mobile number! The first text message said "Who is dis nd how old r u? Tb", and the second one said "Who r u?". Presumably if you could spell correctly, you wouldn't be making prank calls in the first place. Maybe you'd have a job as telemarketer instead, and actually get paid for ringing strangers.
So I've decided to run a little competition: what should I say next time they call? Answers on a postcard to the usual address, and I'll be speaking the winning line using my actual mouth next time they ring.
If you want to call them to discuss what would be the wittiest put-down, or maybe you want to hear the grunting for yourself, they've used two numbers: 07592 361708 and 07871 561680.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Happy New Year...
Kat: ... and merry Christmas to all. We've been off work for a fortnight and have had a really relaxing break at home in Cornwall.Lostwithiel does festive very well. There's the Dickensian night with Victorian fancy dress, choirs, mulled wine, roast chestnuts and this year dense Jack-the-Ripper-style fog. Next the Pageant, a walking tableaux of the nativity scene (featuring a real lamb and donkey) with carol singing and more mulled wine. The Advent trail is a series of Xmassy window displays in shops and houses in the centre of town. Our film club, Lost In Film, showed a family screening of Monsters vs Aliens following a fancy dress competition (check out our costumes).
We were invited to two separate Christmas Day meals by friends but felt we were up to the challenge of both. After a walk and free drinks at The Globe, we exercised iron will at the magnificent lunch + all the trimmings in order to fit in another big meal a few hours later. We rolled home pleasantly full and not too drunk. It's been cold but clear and sunny so we've managed lots of walks, including finding 9 geocaches and creating a new multi-cache in Lostwithiel.For NYE we went to a Fantasy theme fancy dress party. Mat's original costume idea was fairly outrageous, but luckily for the children present it didn't work out, so he went as the old pirate standby. Check out the other costumes. It was a fantastic party and midnight before we knew it. Happy New Year!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Birthday fun
Mat: Yesterday I had one of the nicest birthdays in ages. Thanks so much for all your cards, presents and emails - I'm still replying to them all!
Yesterday morning was spent making three kinds of salami (chorizo, fig and hazelnut) with my new mincer, then over to Bryan and Debbie's for a Sunday roast. Incredibly I managed to restrain myself from opening my presents until after lunch :) My gifts were mainly on a woodwork / whisky/ cooking theme, my three favourite hobbies at the moment. Kat bought two dozen of my favourite cupcakes, which we scoffed in the afternoon.
Special thanks must go to Matty and Howard for a pair of incredibly useful woodwork manuals, and Michael and Lesley for a chain-mail butcher's glove, which protected my hand while cutting up the pork.
Later in the afternoon Rob and I started off another proscuitto (I made one on my birthday in 2007), which should be ready in August. Stanley managed to pinch one of the salami from earlier, which he swallowed in under ten seconds, and we ended the evening with the pub quiz, of course. We didn't win anything, but the whole pub sang me Happy Birthday at the end!
Monday, November 16, 2009
50 Geocaches
Mat: Last year on my birthday we went to find our first Geocache. If you don't know what this is, it's like a global treasure hunt, where you get a latitude and longitude and have to hunt for a small container. This usually contains a log book, a few toys and occasionally some other items. There are almost a million caches around the world, so there's bound to be one near you.Our first experience was awful - it was cold, wet and windy, we totally failed to find it and everyone came down with a cold afterwards. Despite this we've kept looking for other caches (although we haven't ever tried to find the first one again). Last Sunday Kat and I found our 50th cache (list here), including a really tricky one in the middle of an old clay pit that we're very proud of!
We've even placed one of our own - Stanley's Lookout, which has been found by 19 people since we hid it in August. To celebrate our 50th, we're going to create a Lostwithiel-wide cache, with lots of clues to find, which will hopefully be an interesting experience where you'll learn a bit about the area.
So if you haven't been to visit for a while and you're interested in having a go at Geocaching, come down and get lost :)
Monday, November 09, 2009
Another chair
Mat: I've now finished my prototype dining chair, and I'm pretty happy with it! It's only made out of pine (because it's cheap and easy to work) so it's a little weak, but the size and shape is good and I'm really loving the back support. I've just enrolled on a woodworking course which starts in January, so hopefully my skills will come on leaps and bounds!In other news, we're having our kitchen refitted. Last week was a downhill slope of destruction: tiles, appliances, cupboards and plaster all went. By Friday afternoon it was an empty dusty shell. We're definitely heading back towards a kitchen this week though - the plastering is well underway and the first fix electrics are in. Hopefully by the end of the week the plastering, electrics and tiles will be done, and the new kitchen will be going in the week after that. Everyone's being really nice and having us round for dinner, and it's a good excuse to try some new restaurants in the area :)