New Year new Beginings

Each time I post here, I promise to be more consistent about writing. Well this time I'm not because I obviously can't keep this particular promise. Its not that I don't like writing; I do. I just prefer doing other things, like knitting, baking, drinking beer, watching rugby etc etc. There seems to be plenty to do and in the rare moments of boredom, I never seem to think about updating the blog.

Well here we go again but first a wee look at 2011

Jan - never did get those Bettie's finished. Frogged them and did something else completely
Feb - Himself's big birthday. Party - booze - presents - fun
March - Himself's best friend's big birthday bash in A'dam  - got insulted by Himself's BFF's Missus and still not exactly forgiven her.
April - moved into the still unfinished new place.
May - missed the A'dam 7's, first time in 12 years because of double back to back work travel.
June - went to Estonia for work and pleasure - Estonia is a knitters paradise. Came back with a suitcase full of yarn
July - Mum came over - hired her a wheelchair and saved us both some pain. Her ankle and my ears from the whining.
August -  flat still not finished but getting ready for going to New Zealand. Has been the wettest summer ever so hoping that NZ has a warm spring.
September - New Zealand for the RWC2011 - Feckin Freezing, glad I brought the thermals - lovely place though, will need to go back. the natives are really really friendly and lovely and its just gorgeous. Excellent time had by all.
October. - back from NZ - my big birthday - party, booze, food, presents - RWC2011 final - NZ win against France which makes me very happy (don't like the French rugby team)
November - loads of business travel and a visit from Mess. Rush knitting for Chickie's Wedding. Yes my Aussie mate got married to a gorgeous Canadian in NYC.
December - NYC for chickie's wedding- shawl for me finished in time. elbow length gloves for chickie finished 1 hour before landing. Mum came for a visit (another wheelchair but she gets fixed this month) Orphan's Christmas and then Trisa and Pete over for New Year.

Breath in :o)

2012 so far......

Finished gloves for Evgenia's Christmas. She's Russian so gets her presents on the 6th. Lucky that isn't it considering I forgot to put her on my Christmas knit list?

Started Frank's fuzzy feet since one of his boats has a hole in it and the other is missing in action (probably still in a box somewhere) Anyway the floor is cold in the new place which is good in summer but a bit chilly in winter. The new place is on the ground floor, it has wooden floors and they forgot to install one of the windows in the cellar. To spinkle a bit of insult on injury here, they haven't even ordered the fecking window, as a result, the back part of the cellar is very damp and we have a nice bit of mould growing up our wall next to the window. Oh and back part of the cellar is now a hibernation camp for the biggest swarm of mosquitoes I have ever seen or want to see again in my life. At least they are hibernating. Occasionally one wakes up and goes fly about upstairs but they are that slow, its almost no fun at all killing them. I say almost no fun but there is a certain amount of satisfaction to be had squashing the buggers.

Actually there is a list of things that are not yet right with the new place and I'm pig sick of it. I love the flat, I'm just sick of the last minute things which annoy me but which are not getting done. The builder trys to pacify me by sending the workmen to do bits at time. This was supposed to be finished in 2010. Its now 2012 and I still can't use my cellar.

The list :

1. Damp in the garden room - reported in October when we noticed it.
2. Damp in the bedroom - no known cause, reported also in Ocotber to builder - no report from him on what action is to be taken
3. Damp in kitchen - not reported yet. Saving that for tomorrows e-mail to him
4. Skirting board sticking out. great for bunny to snack on but dangerous for toes. Reported in December
5. door frames too far out for the wall in bathroom and toilet. Builder Snr says that its because of the tiles. My answer was, I don't care, it looks like shit so fix it. Still nothing - reported 2 days after doors were installed in April
6. Damp in Cellar and missing window. - lastest report is that we're waiting on an industrial drying machine which will be installed in the cellar. to me that's pointless unless they install a window. Window isn't even ordered yet. 
7. Upstairs balcony takes away too much light. Underside supposed to be painted white. Still waiting on the painter to do that. Think that's from round about June or July
8. Front door squeaking. Been doing that since we moved in. Reported day 1
9. Crack between door frame and wall because of the door in the spare room not fitting properly due to 20 layers of paint on it. that's getting sorted on Wednesday next week. 
10. Draft coming through windows in Garden room. both sets. No idea what will happen with that but its there. 
11. Garden not nearly finished that the so-called gardener is rubbish. You tell him where you want a plant/tree and he'll plant it about 1 meter away from where you wanted it or somewhere entirely different for some stupid reason which has got nothing to do with logic or reason or even where the sun is.
12. Was sort of lied to about the size of the Garden but not a lot I can do about that since the builder is actually a lawyer too and never wrote anything down. Clever monkey
13. Shower tray has sunk towards the back corner where no-one stands and water has been pissing down the back wall into the cellar making things a bit wetter if that is at all possible. its got nothing to do with weight which builder Junior tried to blame it on to his dad but luckily builder senior (his dad) said that weight shouldn't have anything to do with it, its just been installed incorrectly. They came out and made a temporary repair. Still waiting on it being repaired properly. have now sent 2 e-mails and still no reply. The painter however did knock the door last night and asked if he could sort out the door next week. Not sure if that is a result of the e-mail but Im still a bit annoyed by the whole thing.

Decided that if things don't improve or get fixed very shortly, I'll consider legal action but all I want really is for him to do the work that needs done and finish the fecking job.

Ahhhhh. next time I'm posting pictures of what needs to be done along with the company's name and address. See if that gets the work done or me slapped with a liable suit.