New Year - New Room

I have the redecorating of my front Lounge all worked out and, God Willing, with good health, will be sitting in a new room within the week waiting for a new suite!!

Day One


The left side of the chimney breast is now stripped of paper, some of the glue remains as I ran out of 'steam' wiping the wall down after removing the paper.
No matter, I have yet to remove the paper from the right side of the wall ......  the television, router etc.will need to be moved first ..... one man needed round here ..........


By the way - found this written on the wall ..... some crazy people live in this house!!!

'Peter and Christine took down the Gold and Brown and put up the Gold and Red -10 November 2010'

This will have to be updated!!


Here's the new heart - Christine put up the Magnolia 07.01.2016 with love.


The original Couscous is still on the rest of the room, one alcove has test splodges of the various shades of Magnolia ..... Wicker, ice cream, pale bamboo .....

The new paper went up onto the wall like a dream, it has a basket weave texture - sort of - so there is no pattern matching.

The wall paper on the other walls is still in good condition so all that has to be done is the painting.

This was finished by the end of the week.  The furniture moved back in and home was restored.  
Now what room shall I do next?

No decorating has been done while I have been 'acclimatising' to retirement so I have several choices .....  I hope each room will be as easy this!! 

Shopping for a Bargain

Little Soldier is progressing very well, he's starting to walk now.  He enjoys his food as though he wants to prove to me that he has hollow legs!  He has been sitting in his little low seat but now needs to join us round the table .....
A leaflet pushed through our door announced that our local supermarket was having a baby event so off we went to purchase a high chair.


We brought home the box and when DDC came round, Grandad entertained Little Soldier, and she set to and erected the highchair - her first flatpack item!!!
We put Little Soldier in the chair with a couple of toys while we worked out how the harness straps worked and Little Soldier?...... he just carried on playing .....


All the bits were collected and put into a bag ..... sorted through by me .... hello DIY stamps to try out on my gelli plate ..... a bag of pure happiness .... lol

After use the chair folds up and fits behind the armchair in the lounge ..... how neat is that?

Interesting News

I have seen this notice creeping around the internet .......

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

To my way of thinking this means that if you don't have a google account - gmail addy - then you will not be able to 'follow' me - sign in the follow box on right - time to change to Bloglovin perhaps. 

A Weekend in Paris - part de deux

The second day dawned bright and  ..... well, actually it was a little overcast......


We had decided to join the coach party to travel to Montmartre and visit a Christmas Market there.  When we arrived, it was very quiet so we could walk around without any crowds pushing and shoving.  We walked with the Group up to the Sacre Coeur but then turned left into Le Ronsard cafe for a quick coffee.  We sat at a table in the window and had a brilliant view of the Sacre Coeur and watched with interest as the tourists arrived, remembering our first trip 'up the hill'!

We wandered along to the market but it was a very small craft market and we were a tiny bit disappointed.  We decided to find our own way back to La Defense and have a really good look round that Christmas market.


The Police were on patrol along with the soldiers today .........

We had a good wander round one half of the market and then moved into the Mall.  


We were amazed by the lighting, they looked so good but up close they were so simple which made them all the more wonderful! 
 This full size display had its own seating area to have photos taken even though Father Christmas had not arrived.  
It was a very popular area - nothing to do with the Costa situated to to side which gave us a good view of it all while we had coffee.
Along the concourse the light display twinkled and sparkled - tourists like me taking photos.

Back out into the market - bag and body searches at every entrance - we wandered round the second half.



Outside was a clockwork Polar Bear display, we watched for some time .... the baby on the left, the bear with a box on his head ....

We managed to find a bauble for 'Mon Premier Noel', a few finger puppets and a wooden train - no need to say who for!!!!

We walked back to the Metro and spotted this view ......

......... the arc of the Angels' wings outline the way to the Arc de Triumphe!

That was the moment the soldiers chose to go past on patrol ........









Here's a close-up of the view ....

These garden statues look good even in December........

... and now it is all over for another year ...........