Caravan Diary, Day 12

Well, well, well, we're finally back in the 21st century! Broadband is connected and we even have a landline phone. Amazing! I can now actually look at builders' quotes without needing to get my magnifying glass out. Wicked!

The first lot of new internal doors arrived this morning and apparently the carpenter is going to spend all day tomorrow fitting them. And we're having skirting boards in two of the bedrooms. Not that that was particularly high on my list of priorities, but it seems our builder has been delayed on another job and thought he'd do us a favour if at least we saw some progress on other fronts.

Tim and Corinne might be rocking up to give us a hand again on Saturday and, while I can't think of anything nicer, I am slightly apprehensive, as it'll become very apparent just how little progress we have made since they were last here. All I can say is: sick children. I really don't know how on earth to get on to wallpaper stripping and hole filling with a baby and a toddler who both seem glued to my hips.

In other news: our new road is really growing on me. Not only have we now met several of our neighbours and all of them without exception have heartily welcomed us to the neighbourhood. No, we also have just discovered an alleyway leading from almost opposite our house to a football-field-cum-mini-playground and further onto the primary school. Ace! Ah, and then there is the lady riding her horse down the street. Two sightings of her so far. Curiouser and curiouser...

Caravan Diary, Day 10

The British Summer has finally arrived. It has been raining cats and dogs all day. Our feet now make squelching noises when we plod across our front lawn from caravan to house and back, and we can sometimes hardly hear each other over the drum roll of the raindrops on the roof of the camper. The whole camping experience is suddenly very authentic - and not in a good way! It wouldn't be that bad if the kids weren't this whiny. It's seriously hard to keep them entertained and distracted from their various malaises when all you have to work with are 6sqm. All I long for is beds AND a table to be up at the same time. Am I being overly demanding?

Caravan Diary, Day 9

Sick children and caravan life don't go together. You can't have a bed out for your poorly preschooler at the same time as having the table up for a decent cuppa/meal/working on project spreadsheets.
What kept me from losing it completely today was some decent catch-up with my girlies in the afternoon (I hope I kept my little tykes far enough away from your lot so as not to spread the lurgy!)

What's really nice about living in our own driveway, by the way, is that we've got a panoramic view of our new road. It's a bit like sitting in an oversized bay window. We're quickly picking up on the habits of our neighbours and can tell who belongs to which car/house.

Nothing more to report. Just still desperate for the BT man to come and connect our broadband and phone (note my priorities!) to take us back into 21st century. Apparently Wednesday's the day!...

Caravan Diary, Day 8

Right, our bedroom is now finally cleared of all traces of manky wallpaper. Am I imagining it or is it actually smelling a bit less?? 

Willem is a bit ill, so he was allowed to watch DVDs most of the day, while we tried to get on with stuff. Astonishingly, he aborted Toy Story several times in favour of jigsaw puzzles. Only snag: he doesn't like doing them on his own. On the one hand that's really sweet. I like nothing better than doing jigsaws with him. On the other hand we really could have done with longer productive slots. Thank heavens Korjian, our lovely neighbour from Princes Street, popped in for a couple of hours for a tour of the house and to entertain Mats, which helped a lot!

Not much else to report. I just hope Willem is fine again tomorrow so he can go to nursery...

Caravan Diary, Day 7

Willem drumming away to 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'
on Radio 2. Slightly peculiar sound combo!

Today was odd. The kids and I had a lie-in which meant by the time we had tidied away the beds and had breakfast it was nearly midday. At least we nearly got our bedroom stripped of the hideous dark red flock wallpaper, in no small part  thanks to Alison's kind loan of a wallpaper steamer. Hendrik has been working away at it almost all day. I did what I could, but this whole DIY thing is so difficult with two kids tugging at my shirtsleeves. That's possibly the greatest challenge/frustration. I see all these things that I want to work away at, but always seem to have a hungry baby on one hip and a bored pre-schooler on the other. Arghhhhhhh!

In other news, we just found that the horrible people who sold us the house have left the attic (BIG space!) full of junk. Together with the furniture in the garage that we found on day one it's at least a skipful of old stuff that we'll have to get rid of. Bastards! They better hope that I never find out where they live! I'm in a good mind to just dump it all on their front lawn. WITHOUT the bin bags it's currently in. Oh yes, and the oven's not working. So no pizza anytime soon. I'll have to ask Dave, our tame electrician, to have a look at it next week. I'm just  annoyed that we spent a good three hours cleaning the darn thing before we checked it's working. That was super-stupid. Lesson learnt, I hope.

Team Schäfer tonight after well deserved curry. Caravan still smells a bit,
but how much better is this than the smell of stale nicotine in the house!