A birthday visit and painting

 Saturday was our daughter Kirsty's birthday. Hardly seems possible that she is 45 - not saying she isn't grown up. She absolutely is, but it seems like only a few years ago that she was a very little kid.

At Caffray Ave, Whanganui when she was probably about 1

In Masterton at QE II Park

First day of school, so that's 40 years ago in 1982. Outside at Cherswud, in Johnsonville.

Year 2 at Paparangi Primary School

 She has resumed a pattern of coming back to Wellington from Sydney for her birthday (now that travelling is possible again). She has an extremely wide circle of friends here in Wellington, so David and I (and most of them I think) are allotted a place in the timetable of her visit. She showed David her spreadsheet for the week ...

We had Friday, and considered ourselves extremely fortunate to have such an extensive time.

Kirsty had requested that we go bike riding in the Hutt. However, as I am still up to my a*se in alligators work-wise, I suggested that she and David go for a bike ride here in Waikanae and I'd make lunch while they were out.

That plan was amended to lunch first - cheese tart, roasties with rosemary, lettuce salad and coleslaw. The leftover cheese tart was quickly placed in a plastic container for Kirsty to take back to Lisa and Max's place. Somehow though, we all agreed that it would be lucky to survive the train trip in to Wellington ...

Kirsty has only recently learned to ride a bike. I am not sure why she was never interested as a kid, but she wasn't. However in November, she and some friends are going to Rarotonga and hiring bikes for tripping around is part of the plan. So learning to ride was required. Kirsty has bought a bike and regularly goes out riding along the riverbank which is reasonably  accessible from where she lives. On Friday though, she had my e-bike. I had suggested she might like me to raise the seat as she is a fair bit taller than me. But she was fine with it in its position. It did mean that she could reach the ground where I definitely cannot!

I sent the two intrepid cyclists on a mission to Harrison's Garden centre - to buy a bird feeder plus seeds and bird cakes. Kirsty facetimed me from Harrison's and showed me the three feeder options, asked my opinion, got it (either of those two but not that one). So of course they came back with the 'not that one', didn't they?

Once the bird feeder was filled and attached, we had dessert - in a rush, as Kirsty had a train to catch back in to Wellington. And as there had been a fatality at Mackay's Crossing south of Raumati, we drove her to Paekakariki to get the train at 5.04. Of course, the left over chocolate brownie was packed into another plastic container for the lovely daughter to take away. She is so good at saving us from ourselves!

As it turns out, the 'not that one' bird feeder was a good choice and the birds love it! Bird cakes (peanut flavoured) in one side and seeds in the other. It hangs beneath the bottle of sugared water that the waxeyes drink from all day. And it is a delight! When I am at my desk and stressing about a deadline or a particular word that has disappeared from my built-in thesaurus as I am writing documents, looking out at the birds feeding is such a pleasure.

Sparrows and waxeyes feasting

The tui thinking about it

The tui drinking sugar water

The waxeye hanging on to the tube and drinking, and his friend waiting its turn

 

I think I need to request a rate increase though - those birds are like teenagers: they just never stop eating! And the pack of 6 cakes costs $13. They can get through 2 cakes in less than a morning and a cup of seeds in the same timeframe!

There has been a change of scenery in the garage over the last couple of weeks. David had, some time ago, requested that we get the rough, tough carpet for the garage. I was happy to sign off that business case. The business case that I was not so happy to sign off was the one that concerned repainting the garage ceiling and walls. However I signed it off, with a sense of dread, because one condition was that himself (aka ACP) would do all of the painting - as the Tui ads say: Yeah, right!

We chose paint - white for the ceiling and light grey for the walls. I said I would paint the scotia and two inches (5cm for us Kiwis) either side of it in the ceiling white. Then I would paint 5cm (2" to the imperialist running dogs) in the grey below the scotia so that ACP didn't have to get close to the WHITE scotia with the roller full of GREY wallpaint.

DAVID CANNOT COLOUR BETWEEN THE LINES!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

 So I had to go around after he had finished and sand the grey paint off the white scotia and then repaint the scotia. I could have left it splodgy. But actually, it turns out that I couldn't.

We are getting it done.

Is this David working on the painting? Nope, it's ACP's beloved wife ... Sanding then painting the top 2" or 5cm of the grey below the scotia.

The shelves are still waiting to be painted - I would not have bothered myself, but ACP wanted to have them grey ...

I was reading and he wanted attention - I was ignoring him. And I didn't want him coming in the lounge in his painting clothes as he couldn't guarantee he had not wiped painty hands on his shirt or trackpants in the last few minutes ...

 

 

Where did this powerpoint cover come from? Shelves looking good!

A self satisfied pose...

It does look pretty smart.

After a time of wonder, the job was finished - I did do more than the scotia and the clean up of it. I did around all the window and door frames, above, below and between the shelves, and below the bench.

I also did two coats on the entranceway from the hall to the garage (it used to be a hall cupboard, but we made it into internal access for the garage back shortly after we moved in). When Joe and I redecorated the hall, that entranceway was painted in the hall colours - better than replicating the pink of the garage walls and ceiling ... But once the garage was grey and white, the pale lemon (Otorohanga in the Guthrie Bowron palette) didn't look so good.

 I am pleased that David stuck with it - he does find painting a bit of a struggle as, to be fair, he has no capacity for focal length given one eye is a bit no good. So knowing where to stop with the roller is a trifle hit and miss as he swipes upwards - in some areas more hit than miss ...

 

The carpet is going down on Monday. More then!