Brr....

It seemed I woke up one morning and the temperature had dropped by about five degrees. Brr! The log fire has been on every evening and, although I'm still refusing to turn the central heating on I'm starting to miss our bathroom fan heater (it was making a loud rattling noise so it was taken away to be fixed on Monday but isn't back yet :sad face:  )
Where did October go? It seems only five minutes ago that it was September! However, I have been thinking that I'm ready for October to be over. I'm not sure why. October is my favourite month and it's not like it's been a tough month - it's actually been quite fun!
Early October brought our anniversary - 3 years married - and last week I went away with my Mum for a mid-week break to Bournemouth.
We went to see Caro Emerald at the BIC and she was AWESOME. I think I'd put her up there in my top two of live performers (the other being Madness - those guys know how to put on a show!)
We stayed in the Queens Hotel and Spa and when we arrived the girl at reception told us our room had a sea glimpse. We discovered a 'glimpse' it was not, but instead probably the best view in the hotel:

 Mum was really pleased with the view. She phoned Dad immediately.

View from the other window

We made full use of the spa facilities - swimming every day and chilling out in the hot tub and sauna. Day two brought rain. Lots of it. So we wandered along the seafront and around the shops, had lunch out and generally spent some quality time together.
We noticed these cool metal sculptures on the railings down to the beach:

Rain clouds hovering

In the afternoon we went back to the hotel to rest, eat Greggs sandwiches and watch Jeremy Kyle (guilty pleasure) before getting changed.

Watching the rain.

Then we caught a taxi to the BIC by which time it was really hammering it down. We were on the end of the row and the two seats next to me were empty all night, which was nice. The two seats in front of us were eventually filled - 3 songs into Caro's set - and then vacated before she'd finished her first 'last song' (after which she came back for a really excellent encore)!

Caro on stage

The next morning brought more rain but we headed downstairs for one last swim and then went to the spa for treatment packages. By the time we'd finished the sun had come out and after heading out for a quick spot of lunch we headed home.

Bye Bournemouth!

It was a lovely little break and broke up my work week nicely - I only had to work Monday and Friday which was great!

Blimey, where did that time go?

I'm a little shocked to realise that SBB and I have been back for two weeks. We went away on holiday to Cyprus and it was lovely. It was thoroughly relaxing and I came back feeling happy and content (of course that feeling promptly disappeared after being back at work for 10 minutes but that's another story!)

Ah, Cyprus... I miss you already.

But, being back in England means only one thing: time to get back to work at the flat. We decided to 'ease ourselves in' by tackling the living room. You may remember the before pictures from a previous post but more recently the living has looked more... well. Messy.

We'd cleared almost all the stuff out a while back so it was pretty empty while I filled in shelf holes and prepped the woodwork. Then I got to the window sill of the large window (the window in the photo above).

I scraped it.
I sanded it.
And yet... the paint could still be peeled off. So...
I scraped it.
And sanded it.
And STILL I could peel paint off. Like this:

So. So. Frustrating. I must have done the scrape/sand combo about four times before we went away. I was almost ready to give up - to say 'to hell with it' and just prime it - but I was determined not to be beaten.

So the other night whilst SBB and my Dad were drilling holes for the kitchen spotlights I tackled the window sill once and for all. And finally after a LOT of scraping.....

Ta Da!!
I just need to go over the really stubborn bits with sandpaper just to soften the edges then it's priming and painting time!

Also, we painted the walls:

Just excuse the fridge in the middle of the room (which is an entirely rational place to keep a fridge, don't you think?). I think the light magnolia really makes the room look bigger - much better than the blue even though I loved it at the time.

I really feel like we're getting somewhere now, even though it's just paintwork. The only room that hasn't been touched is the bedroom. Apart from the hallway, but that doesn't count as a room, does it? Hopefully we can start putting in the kitchen soon which will not only mean we're one step farther on but I'll also be able to go to Ikea to buy some accessories!