Rock the Casbah: August 2012

Monday, 27 August 2012

First day in our new apartment

We managed to move all our 'stuff' into the new apartment by the end of June, but flew back to the UK the following day! Consequently the vast majority is lying around in boxes, and the apartment doesn't yet feel like it's ours. Take a look at the video to see what it's like...

Sunday, 26 August 2012

Summer of… weddings

Last summer we were really happy to receive two ’Save The Date’ cards from friends for their summer 2012 weddings and we were really looking forward to both weddings as a chance to catch up with friends that we would not have seen for some time. But soon after Christmas we began to realise that our summer wouldn’t just be one of sport and shopping, but one of weddings too, as we were then invited to three other nuptials! The most exciting of these announcements was that Fabs and Sam would be getting married at the very start of the summer.

Fabia and Sam, Bristol on 30 June 2012

The main concern is always that the bride arrives to the wedding, but we were a little concerned about ourselves arriving as we finished school (and moving!) on Thursday, so flew on Friday morning and were met at the airport by DaddyP who drove us to Bristol. It was a slightly crazy 24-hours of travelling, but we made it!

Our first stop in Bristol was to the community centre where we unpacked (!) one of our cases that was half-full of all the bunting we’d had made for decorating the hall. We didn’t really know the size of the room or how much to get made, so we just asked for all the material (20-meters in all) to be made in to strings of bunting. Scotty fashioned a ring device to hang from the ceiling in the centre of the room and the bunting strings ran out from this to the sides – it looked really good!

Whilst we were doing the bunting, Sam was organising the speakers and sound set-up and Fabia was sorting the kitchens and the table laying. They had a real team of people helping them, so we soon decided it would be OK for us to go and check-in to the hotel and see the other P‘s who had arrived.

The next morning we weren’t needed at the church or the community centre, as most setting up had been done the previous day, so we headed in to the town centre to buy a few last minute things. On the way we had a call from the bridesmaid team requesting some supplies so went on the hunt for these before getting back to the hotel and changing ready for the big event!

Matt and Becky, Godalming on 2 August 2012

Matt and Becky had got in early with their Save the Date card and we’d decided to treat ourselves to two nights in the hotel for the wedding, even though it was not too far from our place. We arrived at the hotel and checked in and we soon had callers at our room getting ready for the pre-wedding quiz that was going to take place that evening. The pre-wedding quiz was pretty fun and it was good to see friends from Cairo and some old friends from Guildford over a relaxing pint.

The next morning it was all go, as Scotty and Sayno had to get rigged ready for their ‘set’ in the church. We grabbed a quick lunch as we all changed back at the hotel and then were back at the church ready for everything to start.

Thom and Mandy, Streatham on 4 August 2012

This was a real ‘public transport’ wedding for us as we took the train and changed at Clapham to get to the church – and even the groom arrived by train! It was great to see some friends that we hadn’t really seen since our own wedding – when they were the band! Everyone was well and we did some catching up before heading in to the church.

The wedding march started and we all stood up, waiting for Mand’s arrival. Both of us took a slight peak and saw the car outside, but couldn’t see the bride yet. Nothing unusual, until the second verse of the wedding march finished and there was still no sign of her! After about 10 minutes the flower girl comes running down the aisle and whispers something to Thom (who must have been feeling pretty nervous by now!). The music stops and we all sit down. Filler music then plays again, leaving us all to speculate about why the bride’s car is here, but no sign of the lady herself!

Mandy does arrive, and looks stunning, and after a few stumbles from the vicar with the wording of the marriage ceremony (!) the two of them have properly tied the knot!

The sun stays with us for a while after the service, but there is a brief shower drawing everyone back inside for a while before we all head in cars to the hotel for the reception. The weather has cleared up and so we all enjoy being outside in the gardens – and some people even try some ultimate frisbee golf (!) that the couple have set up for everyone.

In the evening we enjoy a fair bit of banter on our table and a good few drinks. There is a sweepstake on the length of the Best man’s speech (which is won by Chris who went for 7 mins, undercutting our low bet off 9 minutes) and all is finally revealed about the late arrival of the bride (she had had a phonecall from her brother who was running late and so she needed to wait for him to arrive as he was due to do the first reading!). We get our dancing shoes on as the first band playing is a ska covers band. They are awesome and play Night Boat to Cairo as well as Mysterious Girl in their set. After them it is Soul Calibre, Scotty’s old function band, and we really enjoy their set too, although Alice’s feet can’t quite do what they used to!

We get a late taxi back home and rather than falling asleep actually have a great chat to the driver as we listen to the radio and talk ‘Olympics’ with him.

Matt and Catherine, Conniston on 11 August 2012

Another ‘public transport’ special for Matt and Catherine’s wedding as we meet Crispy in Euston Station and get the train up to The Lakes together. The train is packed, but we’ve got a table booked and so get our seats and then our packed lunches out. The journey is surprisingly easy (which makes us think we should have done this before – and put it on the list as a ‘possible’ for next summer) and we make our connecting train and then manage to get the bus to Conniston (with just enough time to grab an ice cream in the sun before we board!)

It’s a gorgeous little town, surrounded by stunning scenery. This is the first time that Alice has been to the Lakes and the sunny day makes it all look beautiful. That evening we head out to the pub for some drinks and dinner with the wedding party. It’s a village-y sort of place and when we find out that it has a brewery next door we know we’re in for a good night. Even better news is that the brewery won Best Beer at the GBBF the previous day – not so good news is that this was awarded to their deadly looking barley wine which even Scotty dare not have a half of! We have a great evening catching up with friends and leave looking forward to spending more time together the next day.

As the wedding isn’t until the afternoon we have time to get to Coniston Lake in the morning. Alice is excited as this is the lake that inspired Swallows and Amazons. Scotty (and everyone else) is excited that this is the lake that the XXX happened on. We walk around the lake, as Alice doesn’t quite feel brave enough to take a boat out at 7 months gone, and then enjoy a coffee in the cafe before going back into the village for lunch and to get ready for the wedding.

There aren’t many weddings that you take a minibus up a steep incline to, but Matt and Catherine’s is one of them.

Seb and Tess, Dublin on 25 August 2012

Alice couldn’t make it to this wedding as it was the weekend we were due to fly back to Cairo and would involve an extra two flights and lots of rushing around. So on Friday afternoon Scotty headed across London to the airport with a rucksack packed.

SCOTTY TO WRITE SECTION

Summer of…shopping

We always do a bit of shopping when we are in the UK to buy things that we either know we cannot get in Egypt, or we know are really expensive in Egypt. Our list usually consists of clothes, maybe shoes, beer kits (!), toiletries and food. Sausages and Shreddies are usually our top buys, along with Branston Pickle and favourite sweet treats like Crunchie bars and Jammy Dodgers. With the Baba Ganough on the way though things were going to be a bit different this year!

With the help of friends in Egypt we’d started to put together a list of things to buy and bring back with us – things that again would be expensive in Egypt, or just not available at all. This included some brand recommendations to look out for and covered everything from baby clothes, to medicines, sleeping, changing and feeding. This list also meant that we would need to visit a whole host of different stores including Mothercare and Babies R Us, but also JL and some online shopping.

Our list started off looking like this…. but then we typed it up ready for our big shopping trips. As we bought things we’d cross them off, but inevitably we found ourselves adding to the list as we went along once we realised that we needed other things or had other recommendations from people.

We started off pretty well and did quite a bit of shopping in the first few weeks. By the time it came to mid-July in fact we had managed to fill one of our suitcases with nappies (with space for the newborn cord), maternity pads, medicines and slings (the Dudley’s not only advised us on their best buy sling, but very kindly lent us two of their own for us to use!). The first big buy that we focused on though was the pram and the search for this started with a trip with MummyB to Lincoln’s Babies R Us, Mothercare and Mammas and Pappas.

Our pram criteria were that we wanted something that could be used from birth and something that could survive the Maadi streets (well – allow the baby to survive the Maadi streets when in it!). We started our search with a shopping trip to Lincoln with MummyB. The lady in Babies R Us was really helpful and showed us a few models straight away and helped us narrow down our choices. She kept saying “I should go and leave you to look at them” but we really wanted her advice and she really knew her stuff. We’d seen the Mothercare pram that some friends have out in Egypt and it turned out that one of the best choices was another brand’s (original) version of this, so we knew we were going in the right direction. In Mothercare they were helpful again and we saw the model that these friends have as well as another model that looked good.

Back home we decided that we really had narrowed it down to these two options and so browsed around the web to look at the various reviews and prices for them. Both were offering slightly different things and it was really hard to choose; both were travel systems which meant that they could be a buggy but could also take a car seat and both were a good price. The Trenton had good suspension, looked solidly built and had an extra carry cot which meant that the baby would be facing us when it was lying flat during the first few months. The Xtreme had inflatable tyres which cushioned on uneven surfaces and its three wheels meant it moved well and folded neatly. It seemed that the Trenton came with more gadet-try which was reassuring in a way, but we wondered whether it was all really necessary (do we need to have a carry cot and the baby facing us if we plan to use slings a lot?)

It was probably a good thing that the online offer of 20% off was due to expire at the end of the week as it meant we had to make our minds up and stop faffing around the decision. We decided to take one last trip to see both of the prams at Mothercare in London with MummyP and although we came away not much the wiser it was worthwhile to have another Mummy see them both (although we only managed to see them both because a customer was using the Xtreme herself and the store didn’t have any in stock! The assistant in Mothercare Oxford Street was less than helpful!)

In the end we plumped for the Xtreme as we felt that the three wheels would do well in Maadi, it folded slightly smaller and looked like it could continue to be used for longer. After we ordered it though, we did go online to buy spare inner tubes and a puncture repair kit! The saga of the pram didn’t quite end there as we had a right faff picking it up from Mothercare Holloway Road (they couldn’t find it in the stock room and ended up having to be phoned by head office and sending it to us in a cab!) and then of course a faff preparing it for the flight back to Cairo. We phoned EgyptAir a number of times to check that we could bring the buggy with us and that we would be allowed to bring the car seat as hand luggage – even though we would not yet have a baby to put in it! It took the Egyptair call centre a while to get their heads around all of this, but eventually we got the right answer (and when we got the ‘wrong’ answer we just phoned back until we did get the ‘right’ answer!)

Other big buys – in terms of decisions and shopping around - apart from the pram were an Ergo Baby sling (thanks Dudleys for the recommendation!), nursing bras for Ali (not easy to try and guess how big your boobs are going to be, but we gave it a go!), a fan for the buggy (needing a balance between being baby-friendly and ‘pimp-my-ride’) and various herbal teas recommended on the NCT course (which, ironically, we then found on Road 9!).

Our best buy of the break though was found in the Wimbledon Cancer Research Charity shop. It was Scotty who spotted it – a small purple draw-string bag that was in a glass cabinet and priced at 6.50 We’d been thinking about buying a TENS machine as we’d heard that pain relief options in Egypt would be an epidural or nothing. If we had been in the UK we would have probably hired one, but as this wasn’t an option we had to decide between buying one for over 60 quid, or not bothering…so finding this at 10% of the cost was a brilliant buy. We’ve had to buy new electrode covers and batteries, but it’s still a bargain. We don’t know how effective we’ll find it (some people love them, others don’t get on with them) but at least we have it and can give it a go now!

Our closing list looked like this. There are a few things we still haven’t ticked off that we will probably get in Cairo, or if we cannot find them then will ask people to bring them out for us. And we will probably need to write a new list of things we need to buy now that we are in Cairo that we didn’t even contemplate buying in the UK e.g. a change mat!

But there you go – that was our summer of shopping!!!

Summer of….Sport

We’d been planning for quite a while that this would be a summer of sport for us. One big reason is that Alan Pennington (Alice’s grandfather) ran in the 1936 Olympics, but we have been doubly excited about the Olympics taking place in London since Scotty was there in Trafalgar Square on the day, seven years ago, that London’s winning bid was announced.

When information about tickets first came out we keenly downloaded the calendar of ticket events and started to plan what we would try to go and see and how much money we would be happy to spend on it all. We put our two applications in; trying to spread between us the tickets we most wanted in the hope that we would get a spread back. Our tactics didn’t fully work, as although we did get three sets of tickets we didn’t get some of the sports we really wanted to see (such as rowing, athletics and beach volleyball). Luckily though we could apply in the second round as we had not got any tickets on Alice’s allocation. The second round was no longer a ballot, but was a first-come first-served affair, and so we made sure we were prepared by working out what we would apply for and aiming for higher price brackets in the hope that this would give us a better chance. Luckily that paid off and we were dead chuffed with the way our summer of sport was panning out! And all this was a good 10 months before the summer actually started!

Olympic Torch in Kingston, 24 July 2012

We’d researched the route of the torch and were excited to see it was coming through Kingston when we would be down in Raynes Park. We knew we wanted to see it on our old stomping ground and so caught the bus in good time to get there. When we arrived we followed the crowds and found somewhere to stand along the pedestrianized shopping street. It was really exciting to see it so busy and that everyone had really come out for the event. For us this was one of the first signs that people were really going to get behind the games.

There was lots of standing around at first with not much happening and then after a while the Kingston parade came through with a display of dancers and costumes from the Korean cultural centre (as New Malden has the highest concentration of Koreans anywhere in the world…apart from Korea of course) and a few others. We’d heard that then the sponsor vans would come through but we didn’t see them (and later found out that they had pulled up in the Market Square rather than try to negotiate the narrower streets).

The first sign of the torch coming was the official cars coming through, followed by a bicycle or two at various intervals. Then a cyclist came through saying that the torch was just 5 minutes away – we thought this was all quite clever to have a range of out riders checking the route and preparing the crowds. We asked one of the volunteers how long it would be and he said that we’d know when it was close as we’d heard it!

It all happened quite quickly really. We heard the crowds cheering and peered down the street to the bend and could just about make out a group of runners in grey surrounding a single runner in white holding the torch. We did our bit of cheering (but foolishly had not brought with us anything to wave!) and then the runners had soon made it past us! It was quite exciting to see and think about how for the torch had gone and think of all the people who had been out to see that torch. We really should have picked up a local paper as it would have been nice to know a bit more about the runners who were coming through Kingston and what their stories were.

Geekily, one of the exciting things about seeing the torch go by was seeing the grey runners ‘protecting’ the flame. We’d heard that these were Special Branch people and they all had ear pieces in ready to take action in case anything was amiss. We noticed that one of the grey runners had a long thin bag over his shoulder which we deduced was a spare torch (!) and another runner was running with a small canister attached to his belt. On closer inspection we saw that this was a spare flame – no one was going to spoil this show it seemed!

Olympic Torch in Harringay, 25 July 2012

It was only a day later that we had the chance to see the flame again, but this time we weren’t just watching it on route, but were going to the end-of-day party that was being held at Alexandra Palace. We were quite impressed that DaddyP had managed to get tickets and were dead keen to go along.

Ready to learn from our previous flame experience we were planning our outfits (Egypt football shirts) and where we might stand (somewhere in the shade), but when it came to it only one of these two plans actually happened (it was just way too hot for synthetic football shirts!). After a bit of queuing we were let through the gates (which were cunningly at the bottom of the hill so that the crowd would spread out as they climbed the hill to the stage area) and we made our way to the ice-skating car park which had been turned in to a stage area with a fenced-off running route. We found our ‘spot’ very quickly which was cunningly both in the shade, and because it was on a corner gave us a good view of the running route and the stage.

With our spot secured we went for a wander and managed to get some freebies; free tracker-type bars, free coke bottles, free drum-things from coke and free wavey-things and sweat-bands from Lloyds. We were quite well kitted out by the end of it. we did make one purchase and that was a new addition to the tea-towel collection (good for drying dishes and for waving as the torch goes by).

It was quite exciting when we found out that the celebrity runner doing the last leg of the relay was Daley Thompson. We spied him wandering around the crowd and then doing some pieces to camera for the Beeb, but didn’t manage to collar him for a photo.

The pre-torch entertainment on the stage came from the various sponsors and was OK, but nothing too exciting. They did have some Harringey young musicians playing which was good to see – a steel band before the torch and then the jazz band afterwards who were very good.

As when we saw the torch the day before there were various out-riders who all came up the hill and then we had the final cyclist to let us know that the torch was about to come in to view, but again you could hear it. As they had ‘secured the area’ there were no longer any grey runners beside the torch as it came up and Daley ran right passed us on his was to light the cauldron while we waved our wavey-things and tea towel.

It was a really good fun evening and once again it was amazing to see so many people out getting so excited about the Olympic Games. After so much scepticism in London about the games it was reassuring that people were going to get behind them – because if they will get behind a small lighted object being carried through the streets by people, then surely they’ll get behind anything!

Rowing at Eton Dorney, 30 July 2012

Our first proper Olympics event and we were both really excited as rowing was one of the sports we (well, Alice) really wanted to see! As the rowing was out at Windsor and Eton it would have meant a very early start from Raynes Park to get there in time, so Scotty booked us in to a hotel for the night before the event so that we’d be able to get there in a bit of a more relaxed manner! We walked up through the park towards the castle in the early evening and it was a gorgeous sight. Wandering around the town that evening was really nice as it was just the two of us on our first bit of a ‘holiday’ in quite a while!

The next morning we had our fill at breakfast and then took a taxi to the venue (we had intended to use the free shuttle bus, but we thought that if we were going to treat ourselves to a lie-in then we may as well do things properly!) There was a fair bit of a walk from the drop-off to the entrance itself, but it was a lovely morning (so unlike England!) and so we were quite happy making our way in. Once inside we found our seats and found that they were pretty brilliant seats! We had decided to fork out for the seats, as we wanted to be sure of getting to see some rowing, so they were Category A (our only top price tickets) and this meant that we were pretty much on the finish line itself!

The races were all heats and repocharge so there were no medals to be won today which meant that although the crowd was really vocal there wasn’t quite the same buzz as I imagine there would be for a medal race. We didn’t know beforehand who was going to be racing, so when the countries were announced on the start line we’d choose who to support based on whether we’d visited the country before and liked it, e.g. Hungary got a lot of our support! There were a few GB crews who were racing though, so for those races there was no contest for our cheers.

Because the course was a 2000m straight, it meant that you had to watch the majority of the race on the big screen to have an idea of what was going on before the boats go to you. Even using the screens you were never sure of the exact placings because the angle of the camera could easily distort two boats that were close together. With the boats so far away as well to start with, we found ourselves and the crowd watching in silence at first, then maybe a cheer or shout at the 500m intervals that the places were put on the board. As the boats came into view though (probably the last 250m), the crowd around us would be shouting and waving so wildly that you couldn’t even hear yourself. Our throats were feeling it by the end of the first few races but we struggled on! When GB were racing the crowd went extra wild and it was great when Kat Grainger’s pair turned to the crowd once the had (easily) won their race to acknowledge their support – it made everyone go wild again!

Beach Volleyball at Horseguard’s Parade, 1 August 2012

Our second set of tickets was to the Beach Volleyball – something we’d been excited about ever since the bid announced the planned venue for this. How genius was it to host beach volleyball backing on to Downing Street?

We wanted to allow enough time to get there easily, especially after all the talk of security and crowds, but the organisation was actually very well done; the walking routes from the tube were well signed and were long enough to allow any crowd to be well spread out by the time they go to the venue gates. We were impressed. It took us only a few minutes to get through the security and have our tickets scanned and we were inside.

Inside, and the stand wasn’t open yet, but the grounds were so we started to wander and were soon drawn to the main lawn where we found the Horseguard’s Band playing a James Bond medley! Another genius move! We stayed and watched for quite some time as their choice of tunes continued to be inspired. When we did move on, it wasn’t far, as we got ourselves a coffee (no longer having had the luxury of staying in a hotel near by the venue!)

When we found our seats they felt a bit high up at first, but it meant we had a great view of the central London sights and we were actually directly behind the court so were a good position. It was a good set up in the venue, as they had a video explaining the sport and the scoring and the DJ playing tunes out before the teams came on.

Once again, we didn’t know any of the teams, and so picked at random the team that we were going to support (tending to go for either the underdog, or the eastern European option!). What was great about the stadium style venue for beach volleyball was that the atmosphere for the crowd was brilliant. When the teams came out there were lots of high-fives and pumping music being played. In fact the pumping music was played between each and every point! At first it seemed a little excessive and slightly odd to have sport played to so much music, but it created a really great atmosphere and meant that the crowd really got in to it with loads of clapping (including the ‘slow hand clap’, gradually getting faster during the point)

Weightlifting at Excel, 6 August 2012

Athletics at the Olympic Stadium, 9 August 2012

Women’s Football at Wembley, 9 August 2012

Summer of….moving

We’ve already blogged about the trials and tribulations of moving apartment in Cairo and needless to say we (especially Scotty!) had had enough of moving, packing and carrying by the time we arrived in the UK at the start of our summer break.

Our plan for this summer was to stay in the UK and not travel overseas on holiday, but to get a bit of a break ourselves, and to make the most of the Olympics being in London, we had decided to get our house in Raynes Park back from the tenants for a month. Whilst we had the place back we thought we could do odd jobs and some work on it (cheaper for us to do it than to get a contractor through the letting agent) to make the place look good ready for new tenants. This seemed like a great plan until we started making a list of the things we’d need to live there…. things we’d either need to find in the loft or garage at MVR, or things we’d just need to buy. Argh! It looks like we’re moving again!

So in the garage we managed to find a saucepan, frying pan and some mugs in one box and then find Scotty’s tool kit, drill etc on another shelf. These were some of the first things we took down ready for tea-making and odd-jobbing. But to make tea you need a kettle…and we must’ve given away our kettle before we moved out….so down to Tesco we go to buy a new kettle.

In the loft and wardrobe at MVR we manage to find our towels, duvet and a bedside lamp. We take these down in another move along with some bedding and pillows pilfered from MVR’s general supplies. We need to take down two ‘loads’ of bedding with us as we’ll be having the B’s to stay on two short London breaks during our time there.

We also bring down Scotty’s guitar that we’ve brought from Buxton with us, as he’ll be needing it to practice (!) and then play at a friend’s wedding over the summer. Speaking of weddings, we need to move (!) our wedding outfits and accessories which includes two suits, one dress and four pairs of shoes!

But we can’t find everything that we need and so off to Tesco it is to buy crockery and cutlery (Tesco Value stuff is so cheap!). We probably didn’t need to buy these things new as we could have taken supplies from MVR, but we are getting fed up of this moving lark. Having said that, we don’t have a car and so do have to carry everything back in rucksacks as we walk home!

Not only do we have to move in, but we also have to move out again about five weeks later. We bring some things back in various trips across London, leave some things in the house, but luckily MummyP offers us a lift for the majority of our things meaning it’s just the packing/unpacking that we have to do, rather than the hauling!

At the end of our summer break we of course have a final pack and move of all our things back to Cairo. This mainly consists of baby stuff (which takes up a fair proportion of two of our cases, then the buggy which will go as a third case with the car seat being hand-luggage) but luckily we will be greeted by a lift in our new apartment which will save Scotty’s sanity after what feels like three months of moving!

‘28-day no quibble returns policy’ you say?

One thing that we knew we’d have to buy for our stay in the house was a TV. We’d gifted our TV to the P’s when we moved out four years ago, but when they bought a new TV they gifted our old one on again. We were quite happy to buy a new TV as we wanted something decent to watch the Olympics on. We were even happier when we browsed around Tesco and saw that you could get a really decent sized TV for 150 quid or so. Our plan being to buy the TV for the summer, and then either leave it in the house, or store it at (or gift it to) MVR. Either way, we knew we were buying.

So up we go to the counter once we’d decided which TV to get and as the guy was ringing it through he ran through their returns policy…. ‘28-day no quibble’ he says, and we both look at each other….

So back home we check the calendar and work out when to buy the TV that would allow us 28-days to watch the Olympics and have visitors. We decide to give ourselves a few days extra on the end and then go back in to Tesco to make our purchase. As we do, we ask the guy (different guy from before) what the returns policy is – just to be sure – and he says that it is 10 days. Erm…. what? They’ve just been on training apparently and the new policy for recordable items is 10 days. We point out to him that we cannot record anything on this TV and then a colleague confirms that in fact it is 28 days. Phew!

So we get our new TV home and it’s bigger (and flatter) than any TV we’ve watched before – this is great! Indeed the Opening Ceremony looks amazing on it and with the red button we enjoy loads of different sports – the TV does a good job. But all good things must come to an end and the time is approaching for us to move out and the TV to go back.

We think we can pack everything up by the Thursday , but it will be a bit of a rush to clean the place etc, so we decide to leave on the Friday instead. It would be silly to return the TV on the Thursday – as then we’d have nothing to watch that evening (!) – so we neatly pack it away on Friday morning and take it back to the store.

Rather than ‘no quibble’, the staff managed to quibble nearly every aspect of returning the TV including whether the return date was 10 days rather than 28, and then that we were actually over the 28 days allowed (we were on 27 days to be precise!). At the end of it, after speaking to three different people, Scotty finally made some progress, although the final ‘quibble’ was to get our Clubcard details so that the points awarded at purchase could be removed!

Raynes Park odd-jobs and improvements

I thought I’d add a note at the bottom of this post about the various odd-jobs and work we did on the house this summer.

Major work included having the stairs, hall and bedroom re-papered and painted, and having the rest of the house repainted (we were tempted to do this ourselves, but in the end got someone to do it!), getting new carpets for the two bedrooms, stairs and hall, getting two of the double-glazed windows replaced and getting a new washing machine.

Other jobs that we did included fitting trellis in the garden and planting some climbers, sanding down the doors to most rooms (as they were either catching on the floor tiles or on the new bouncy carpet!), getting a new valve fitted on the study radiator, fixing a slat on the futon and fixing the light in the garage.