North of the Stupid Line

For those of you who are dying to know what the latest in the Llwynon Road saga is, here’s a picture of our bed located in the second bedroom. This is only a temporary measure until the master bedroom is sorted and decorated (which will be when my father sorts out the back boiler/fireplace/airing cupboard). You can probably tell that it’s quite cramped in there, but it’ll do for now.

There’s not much else to report property-wise. Rachel and I spent our first night here on Sunday night (which was my birthday, incidentally), and we have now completed the decorating of the two smallest bedrooms, and the bathroom is useable (and very nice it is too).

All that’s left to do now is to enjoy the house and the rest of my annual leave, and wait for my dad to finish my sis’ garden and go on holiday, and then we’ll be able to do more stuff.

Oh yes, we’re having our new 3-piece suite on 2nd or 3rd September too. Gawd knows where we’re going to put it. Oh yeah, if you want a green 3-piece suite, in a good condition, originally bought from John Lewis for £1,200, do let me know. I’m selling it for £200. It may be easier if you either live locally or if you have suitable transport to take it to wherever you want it. You can see a picture of it here.

Rachel and I had the pleasure of being invited to Rachael and Matthew’s wedding today. It was a lovely occasion, as most weddings usually are, but the bride and groom are a special couple. They are both regular attendees of the Gospel Tabernacle, Pontllanfraith, and are both devout Christians. As are their families it seems! It was a very highly charged, very devout service, which included a lot of hand waving in the air, “Halleleujahs” and “We love you, Jesus!” It wasn’t as cringing as I expected, and I was actually touched by the outpouring of love, not just for Jesus, but also for Rachael and Matthew. It was great.

Rachel and I were dressed up in our Sunday best, and you can see a picture of us on the left. It’s not very often we get a chance to dress up, and it was nice to feel and look good. I look rather dashing, don’t I?

The Reception was held at the New House Country Hotel in Cardiff, and was just lovely – food was great, company was good. All in all, Rachel and I had a lovely day, but we were knackered by the end.

Welcome to our new bathroom. Innit spiffing? It’s not completely finished yet, we will have wall panels around the bath, an electric shower fitted and sealant around the bath to make it waterproof. There will also be some shelving in the corner above the toilet, a towel radiator, and a toilet roll holder, plus a toothbrush holder by the sink, and a shelf under the cupboard, which is above sink, just out of sight. We’re planning to go to IKEA on Sunday to look for some bathroom accessories.

A big thank you to Wayne for doing that for us in just nine hours! We’re both very thrilled with it.

For the last two days I have done nothing but paint. I started with the ceilings in the bathroom, second bedroom and study bedroom, ready to move in. I did those yesterday. Today, I painted the bathroom “soft cream”. Oliver and I then white-washed the second bedroom and study bedrooms, and I plan to paint the second bedroom a “Putting Green” colour tomorrow, and the study bedroom a “Paprika” colour either tomorrow or Thursday.Wayne (Dad-to-be’s cousin) is coming on Thursday to fit our bathroom for us, which is quite exciting. At the moment, the bathroom suite is being stored in our master bedroom. Once the bathroom is installed, Rachel and I plan to move in properly.

I have to say that, weirdly, I have been enjoying the painting. It is hard, messy work, but I keep telling myself: “this is all worth it; when you walk into these rooms over the next few years, or even if you’re just showing visitors around, you’ll be able to say ‘I painted those walls’”. Cute, huh?

Sometimes I marvel at how far society has come in terms of the development of technology. As I type this, I am at Paddington train station, just finished a cuppa tea, and waiting for the 12:45 train to Newport.

I have my laptop on with the datacard connected to the Internet. I decided to have a go at moblogging i.e. take a picture on the move, and upload it to a blog. What I’ve done is not really moblogging in the true sense of the word, as I’m not completely mobile – if I’d taken the photograph on my mobile and emailed it to flickr instead of taking the photo on the mobile and then transferring it to my laptop via infrared, then it would have been moblogging. But this is the nearest I’m going to get for now, especially as I can’t get the email working on my mobile.

Anyway, I’m at Paddington, and you can see a picture of some trains that are stationary on Platforms 1 and 2 (incidentally, the Platform 2 train has left). You can actually see my view from where I’m sitting now for yourself – spooky.