Sunday 13 March 2011

Exams, Prams and Clicking Cams

Hi.
You might remember me? No?
I'm Damian. No?
I'm your friend.
I used to see you all the time. Come on, you must remember me.
We used to go to the pub and have fun. It was a while ago, admittedly.

I was just looking back at this blog and was amazed to see that the last post was December 27th!
I've been busy you see.
"Nesting", I think they call it. Or more accurately "Being instructed how to nest"
As its been such a while and I'm mindful that my rambling might not keep your attention, my update today will predominantly be brought to you via the medium of digital imagery. Saves reading, doesn't it?

Its been a whirlwind of a year so far.
I've started a new job, which was the start of my slippery slope into becoming a social recluse. In order do the job, there's a fair bit of training. And an exam! I haven't had an exam since sitting in the main hall at Thomas Rotherham, wondering why I thought A-Level Physics was a good idea.
There was a bit of light reading around which the exam was based:


In the run up to this exam, I was like a coiled spring and a right pain in the arse (with reason, failure meant possible redundancy). Though this made a change for me to hold that title!
Having got the exam out of the way (I passed with 90%), it was time for the aforementioned "nesting" to commence.
Now, as is always the case with my lovely wife, nothing is ever straightforward.
What should have been a simple case of creating a nursery has, so far, consumed my whole life for the last 5/6 weeks.
Friends have asked "What on earth have you been doing / Why is it taking you so long?
And that is a perfectly reasonable question, because you've never seen behind "The Door"
"The Door"
"The Door" which must remain closed whenever you have visited our house.
"The Door" which must not be opened in the company of others.
"The Door" which leads to "The Knits" secret habitat.
"The Door" which leads to the entrance to Hades if you ask me!

[In best David Attenborough voice]
"and here we see The Knit, at her happiest, in her natural habitat of material, buttons, threads and wool"


Just take a moment to appreciate JUST HOW MUCH knitting gear there is in such a moderately sized room!
I mean, look!



Clearing this room took 2 full weekends to sort through, with what was not needed being thrown away and what was to be saved being relocated up a flight of stairs into the attic.
Not surprisingly, for Mr Trebus [click Trebus] the stuff for disposal amounted to a couple of bin liners worth and therefore, the rest I had to hump up stairs!
Eventually, I got it looking a bit more spacious:


and it was at this point that Davros turned up to assist (I thought Daleks couldn't climb stairs?)


With the nursery on its way to being prepped, phase #2 of the job began.
Did I not mention phase #2? The nursery wasn't enough to take on. I'm also doing the stairs, stairwell and landing!

First priority; get in the professionals



A professional in the form of my brother, Ashley, who did an amazing 12+ hours of solid plastering.
For which we are forever grateful..
(Im sure this was only made bearable by being able to boss me around and constantly refer to me as "his lad")
During the plaster-a-thon, I was taught how to plaster (you thought I wasn't listening, didn't you mate) so I put my new found skills to good use when I ripped most of the wall down whilst removing the shelving in the nursery room


I was quite proud of myself, if I'm being honest. Not a bad job I thought.


Hence the smug look


I will gloss over (I'm here all week) the next bit as I can feel my blood boil at just the thought of sanding/stripping/undercoating/painting skirting boards, door frames, bannister's etc.
Now to colours; I preferred the darker one, in the glass.


In the end, Karen opted for "A Hint of Soft Khaki". The colour? Its anyones guess. Greeny? It does look nice when its on the walls though.

I did not pose for this photo
So, in the nursery, we've nearly done. Its all decorated, just the carpets to go down and the cotbed and furniture to go in. I'll save the big "reveal" for another time.

In between the painting, the sanding and the painting, we have found a bit of time to do other, less mundane things.
I took myself off to get a bit more of my tattoo done

 
which was a definite mistake when it came to painting the staircase the following day.
Oof!

A less painful morning was spent in the company of a good friend of ours; Sarah Cullumbine.
Sarah dabbles [very professionally, I might add] with a camera in her spare time and had kindly offered to capture a few pictures of Karen's growing bump. I'll post a bigger selection of the fantastic pictures she did for us another time, as I still have to edit some of them and haven't had the time (did I mention I've been busy decorating?)

I think I'm having a boy as its sitting higher up.



We also managed to get some wheels.
We opted for this


Check out the suspension and disc brakes on that bad-boy!
Only me get excited by that? Oh well

I did also manage to sneak for the pub for a few (12+) hours last weekend but this did me no favours. Sanding is painful enough as it is, but 1000000 times worse with a hangover, in silence, whilst being glared at by a hormonal woman.

A forced smile
So that's about it really, well, it isn't but I'm tired of typing and uploading pictures and my teas ready.
I'm having tea cooked for me as my reward 2 x 8hr in a last big flurry of:



and not breaking my neck whilst climbing up these


I appear to have lived and breathed the life of a serial DIYer for the last month, which has left me feeling like this, most of the time


But, as much as I'm knackered and I moan, I just catch a glimpse of Karen with that podge and I smile to myself. All this, for a little thing that is, in approx 36 days, due to change our lives forever.
Well worth it.
I'll catch you all later, as soon as I've put this brush down!

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