WW # 28: Tea-riffic

Just a 'small' collection of the order... She will be drinking tea for years!

Tea-riffic

wordless wednesday

Here it is, the SPA!

OK, so as you know, we have been kinda busy with Chinese Teachers on Home-stay (first a week with two, followed by a week of three) and with the house painting. We now have only two bedrooms to go, so that will be done in a couple of weeks as one bedroom in particular, will have major work to be done with regards to the rendering...

But, as in previous posts, we did say that we would be getting a spa. First there was the purchase, buying the Gazebo (now a Pavilion), pouring of the slab, construction of the Pavilion and finally delivery of the spa. It was a very tight 'squeeze through the Garage (you could here the bubble wrap 'popping' as it went through...) and then up onto the slab. It was no mean feat in getting it there with one of the tyres on the trolley 'popping' and going flat!

When the B.I.L and Co were building the Pavilion, I got L to go to Bunnings to get some electrical cable for some lighting I was intending to do; one externally that the F.I.L found for us, and the other to be above the spa itself for some additional light. This one, a Chandelier, we actually got from IKEA!

Now these photos were taken at around 5pm last night, and was when the sun was going down and the light was low... It was also after a storm we had that left some parts of Sydney with 'Soft Hail' or a rare event of 'Snow'! (Read and see a video here)

Spa in Pavilion

Spa in Pavilion

For now, it's done!!!

Whilst over the last two weeks we have had some Chinese teachers staying with us, we are now on a 12 day break before we get another couple of teachers. In a separate post in a couple of days, I will tell you all about the latest lot of teachers. So, without having to prepare additional dinners etc, we can now move back onto 'normal' blogging!

After just over three years, we have finally (and almost all) painted the interior of the house. Not that it was all that bad a colour, but its amazing how just a wall vent almost falling off in one bedroom led to the whole house being painted!

Painted lounge room!!

1. Kitchen, 2. Kitchen 250708, 3. Laundry & Kitchen, 4. Lounge Room 250708, 5. Lounge Room: - Courtyard, 6. Lounge Room 250708

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

For now, we're done, but with two bedrooms to go, we are approaching the finishing line. After this, and we have already started looking at pricing, we will be replacing the bench top in the kitchen to a granite one!

Who said that the painting was over???

Just when we thought it was all over (for now), I came up with this brilliant idea (not) to paint the lounge room & kitchen on my way home from dropping off the new set of Chinese teachers. Oh what a fool am I!

So, here are a few 'before' shots just to show you what we had. Apologies for the mess as we had started to move things first, THEN decieded to take some photos!

Lounge Room: - Courtyard

Lounge Room: - Courtyard

Lounge Room: - Backyard

Laundry & Kitchen

Kitchen

All things being fair and good, it should all be finished tomorrow (fingers crossed... It is approx, 45-50m sq!)

Banksia Seed

Banksia Seed

A Chinese week...

This last week, we have been 'looking after' 2 very kind gentlemen from Chin, 'Peter' and 'Mr Day'! They are part of a group of about 40 students and teachers visiting Australia (Sydney) whilst on school holidays at home. We picked them up last Monday evening, and gave them some dinner at home and they pretty much 'hit the hay' as they were tired.

Their week with us consisted of 5:45am wake up call to leave by 7am to catch the train to Central. Then off to UTS for a morning lesson on English. Afternoons were touring around the city itself. This was also the week that L was up in Cairns, and did not return until late Friday evening!

However, on the Saturday, it was a long coach ride down to Canberra (approx 4 hours) for only a 2 hour visit! Needless to say, they were exhausted, and we treated them to an 'Aussie BBQ' of Sausages (bangers).

Yesterday, we treated to a visit to our local Gardens where the Council have some Kangaroos, Wallaby's and Emus. Off into Westfield for some shopping, where we had to find a Chinese speaking shop assistant, as the lady at the Lancome counter was getting a bit 'short' shall we say...

We then headed off to visit my 'In-laws' for an afternoon coffee down at Balmoral Beach. It was a really beautiful, mild Sydney Winter, and apart from the overcast conditions, we did not get any rain.
On the way over, we stopped in at Sydney Olympic Park to show them where we had the Olympics in 2000. First the main Stadium, then the Olympic Boulevard and finally the Cauldron that held the flame for the two weeks of the games. I showed them that ALL of the medal winners, had a small plaque with the event, country and name in the same colour as the medal they had won. BY CHANCE, the first one they found, was not only from China, but from their CITY!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Painting finished (for now...)

Ok, so you remember how we were painting the bedroom, then the hall, hall and dining room? Well here is the finished product!

OLD to the left and NEW on the right

Old and the new...

A flickr game...

I needed to something a little 'different' after coming home from work and painting. So, at work, I followed ExPat Mom's meme and did the Flickr Meme.

Flickr Meme...

1. Mini Beethoven, 2. Asado al Palo - Roasted Lamb, 3. The Singing Ringing Tree, Burnley, England - April 007, 4. FACE 2 FACE, 5. SERIAL KILLER, 6. Passiona my ABe - SOLD, 7. Kids, 8. Heirloom Tomatoes, 9. Il Figo del Podere di Greyskull, 10. Northwest 3, 11. Reflex, 12. TinTastic Bracelet

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Here is what you do:

• Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
• Using only the first page, pick an image.
• Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

Have FUN and let me know if you do it!

Thematic Photographic: Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool

Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool

This weeks installment for Carmi's 'Thematic Photographic' is of Sydney's Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool, whic is next to us at work. This photo was from when the Kittyhawk was in town!

There is a large composition of 'SKY' within this photo, which is wht I picked it (not to mention that it is raining today, so it would be just grey!).

Why we have not been blogging lately, sorry!!

Ok, we know we have not been blogging lately, but we have been kinda busy. The renovated bedroom is finished which led us into the entrance hall, the the hallway to the lounge/kitchen area and then we thought, maybe do the dining room as well! So painting has been very much the process as soon as getting home, and there has not been much spa action either! But that is all about to change, as we are on the downward run, it's almost finished!

So, here is a couple of pics of the entrance hall BEFORE we got to it with its cracks and all showing... Even Jasmine got in on the act!

Entrance View

Bathroom View