Today I've mostly bin...

[LAT]

Hmm. Maybe a nice cheap sheet of lino is called for!

[giraffe]

We have recently had the bathrooms done and the tiles choice was the one thing that had me totally stumped. These were wall tiles, and I just found it impossible to imagine what they would look like in situ. The only ones I was sure about were the ones that we bought that were on a room display in the showroom, and we had the room done exactly like the showroom, with every item the same. The downstairs toilet, which only has about 1 sq metre of tiles in total I kept going back to look at the tiles I liked, but every time I came away I started doubting my choice.

And the flooring is the only bit that has caused us trouble. We decided against ceramic tiles as they might be slippery when wet, and opted for Karndean, but the first people that laid it made a complete hash of it, to the point where they offered us a full refund, plus all the products they hadn't got as far as using as a gesture of goodwill, without me even asking for a refund. The second company that came to do it have managed to do a better job upstairs but still haven't done the downstairs loo, because the floor underneath the bodged job was damp, and we are having to leave it to dry, to see if there is an underlying problem or the bodgers have caused it. So I have been wishing we opted for ceramic while the toilets were unplumbed!

Our kitchen floor is ceramic and it isn't cold to the feet particularly and I have never cracked it by dropping champagne bottles. (But then we don't drink champagne!)

[Scurra]

Our kitchen floor is ceramic and it isn't cold to the feet particularly and I have never cracked it by dropping champagne bottles. (But then we don't drink champagne!)

Well it sounds as though there's an easy solution to that...

[Bunnylump]

...Just got back from a 4 day geography field trip to Weymouth. Had great fun with sixty six 14-15 year olds doing beach profiling (using ranging poles / tape measures, clinometers) as well as pebble sampling (with quadrats and callipers) and wind speed / direction measurements (compasses / anemometers) plus not forgetting longshore drift measurements (oranges -yes, really! / timers, with shoes and socks off and sploshing about in the sea to retrieve them! )

The trip also featured walking from Lulworth Cove, via Stair Hole and up to Durdle Door. Fortunately for us, it was a gloriously sunny day, with truly breathtaking scenery.

Jurassic Coast showing stumps resized.jpg (257.98 KiB) Viewed 1712 times

It was really hard work (we were still supervising kids out on the beach / in the town up until about 9 30pm every evening and then having to do room checks until 10 30pm.) However, the staff also managed to have some fun after that each night in the hotel bar, which catered for the other residents who were OAPs on a coach party. So yes, folks, we did join in with the karaoke and tambourine playing.

The kids were all brilliantly behaved and really good fun, but I don't think I have ever been so tired in all my life!

[LAT]

Sounds brilliant. I've always wanted to visit that area ever since my two each went on a geography field trip there many years ago. They went when they were about 12 and at a different time of year. I remember hearing there was concern that some of the smaller members of the group might get blown off the cliffs during the walk!
Part of what they did was a survey on tourism in the area but it was so wet and windy that there were very few tourists about so the poor long-suffering visitors they did meet found themselves being interviewed by several of the groups of kids in turn!

Definitely no doubt that the scenery is spectacular though, that's a lovely photo.

[Bunnylump]

The south coast is absolutely fabulous. I've been on quite a bit of it in the past few months!

Today's excursion was to Ickleford lavender farm. I now have about 30 bunches of lavender hanging to dry in my hallway.

[LAT]

....trying to work out where everything is going to go in the new kitchen cupboards.
I have lost 4 inches in height on the wall units plus I have lost the L part of an L shaped cupboard. I also discovered last night that the units are 2 inches shallower than my old ones which means that I will need to be very inventive to fit all my stuff in again - and probably a bit ruthless too. I knew I was losing the height and the bit of width but finding out the new cupboards aren't as deep as the old ones was a bit of a shock and lots of things I have will have to go in sideways which is a bit frustrating.

But at least the work is over so no workmen arriving first thing every morning.

[Bunnylump]

Oh dear! That's a bit of a dilemma! Could you maybe have an extra cupboard put into your garden room for the bigger stuff that you don't use so often? I suppose I'm quite fortunate that I did my training as a building surveyor all those years ago - planning measurements comes quite easily to me, so our microscopic kitchen was literally planned to the last millimetre! I had a plan of the kitchen and then all the possible units cut out in scale drawings, and moved them around until I found the best option, whereas a couple of my friends employed kitchen designers, so that although their kitchens LOOK fabulous, they aren't very practical. Hope you manage to get it all sorted out!

[LAT]

We had thought of having an extra cupboard put into our utility room but decided against as the quality we could find for buying just a single cupboard looked dreadful, so we thought we would see whether we can manage without.
Unfortunately it looks like the standard depth of wall units has changed since our old kitchen was installed so it probably wouldn't have helped anyway!
I have however cleared a load of jigsaws etc from another existing freestanding dresser so have gained some space that way.

Lots of my old Tupperware food containers will have to go in sideways and I will just have to remember what is in each as the labels will be on the side now!! I try to avoid putting foodstuffs into base units because of the possibility of the cats bringing mice in but may have to rethink that for some items.

It's all such fun!

[Bunnylump]

Meeting two lovely people for lunch and having some exciting discussions.

[LAT]

Meeting two lovely people for lunch and having some exciting discussions.

Lovely?

[Bunnylump]

Yes!

P.S. The orange and plum cake is still sitting like a brick in my stomach. Don't think I'll need any tea!

[LAT]

I really enjoyed my choccy thing.

[Bunnylump]

Oh I enjoyed my cake, it was just massive!

[Wulfruna]

Glad to know you had a fruitful time - in more ways than one!!

[chazzie]

Meeting two lovely people for lunch and having some exciting discussions.

Exciting discussions?!! When can you tell us more???

[Bunnylump]

Well, I'm leaving that for someone else to make an announcement. Keep checking for updates!

[Bunnylump]

...Wondering why I am married to a man who is currently enjoying playing Wallace and Gromit game on the x box...

[LAT]

It could be worse you know! He's allowed to relax, he's on holiday!

........... talking to police and my insurance company about the theft of my car.
The thief broke in through a small window that we leave slightly open at night, went through to the back of the house to get the car key and exited the way he had got in.
The good news is that the police have recovered the car so I will get it back eventually but the bad news is that N discovered this evening that a couple of dozen bottles of wine and champagne were stolen from our garage. I doubt we'll get them back.

[Bunnylump]

All I can say is I hope it made them REALLY, REALLY sick.

And yes, re Wallace and Gromit, we've done sitting out in the garden sunshine admiring the mountains, we've done conversation, we've done enjoying some lovely wine and cheese, so now it's that sophisticated combo of me on here and him playing Wallace and Gromit. Doesn't auger well for retirement, does it?