the heating bill for my flat was bad enough last month! We've turned the temperature down on the radiators this month (still learning what temperatures they need to be set for to make sure the room doesn't get too cold, but isn't too hot), so hopefully that'll be a bit more bearable on the next bill 😊

We've got a couple of colder days forecast, then it's back to 10 or 12C and rain for Christmas (which doesn't make it feel particularly Christmassy really!)

Just wanted to give you gals a heads up. I won't be online much the next few days due to spending time with family. Mum is picking up Pusur and I for a short holiday with his grandma/aka my mum. Presents are under your trees! I wish you both a peaceful and joyous holiday!

Paddy: I always struggle to keep the temp in my flat "just right". It often tends to feel just a smidge to cold or tiny bit too warm. I hope you can work out how to keep the bills affordable. Christmasy weather is not on the horizon for either of us it seems like, but it should be nice regardless. :)

I hope you and Pusur have a great time (and don't find it gets too busy with too many people!) :D

I'll probably be sending gifts out in boxes on here again this year, as I'm still not organised enough to get them under trees :P

Next week we're going to take another meter reading and see if the lower temperatures on the radiators have made any difference ;) My parents' place has gas heating, so that pricing is totally different anyway.... I had no idea what to expect for electric heating to cost :P

I think they're forecasting snow showers for New Year's Day (although no doubt that forecast will change to warm and rain before we get that far), but today's been blustery and showers (some sleet showers this morning)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS <3 Hope you are both well and have a safe and happy holiday. Sorry, I'm still kinda twitching over trying to get everything done. :/

Is your flat okay from the storm, Paddy? Parents alright too?

Enjoy the time with your mum Lene

Happy Christmas!

The water level on the brook at the back of the block of flats didn't actually breach the edge of the bank (it wasn't any higher there than it was last winter when we went for a walk around), although it did flood quite badly a little further upstream and downstream. So I've got no idea how it flooded around the area without having a problem by the block where my flat is, but my flat was perfectly fine! :) All the trees seem to be well managed too, so there wasn't any wind damage to them either ;) The garage is still wet (still waiting on the management company getting it sealed or whatever they're going to do), but hopefully they will get that sorted in January (if not, we'll be phoning them again!). Parents' place is on a hill, so it doesn't tend to get problems from rain (thankfully!), and although we lost a couple of fence boards (we've tied up the fallen boards with washing line :P), we got off lightly - two houses in the road lost their fences completely!

Pusur did not enjoy us having people over, but at least he came out of hiding for a little bit to greet our guests. : ) 3 days of get together is a lot, but it nice to be able to see everyone. Since my parents are not together anymore, it becomes a bit more complicated.

I hope the heating costs won't be too bad. Good idea to do a meter reading to see what is up. El. is pretty much the only option in my flat, unless I install a heat pump. Those use much less electricity but are also very expensive to buy and install.

We are expecting 4c and rain for NY eve, but does not matter too much to me since I will be staying indoors anyway. I hope the snow showers won't be too bad. :)

I hope you had a safe and happy Christmas too. heart I know I did. I felt like I had a million things to do too before Christmas Eve, but things are chill now. lol Hope it I for you as well.

Pusur not liking everyone visiting does give you an excuse to escape and sit with him for a bit if it gets too busy for you as well though ;) I'm pleased he felt brave enough to at least greet people before disappearing again ;) I can imagine! It was hard enough when I had to go to my Grandad's place for a get-together after Gran's funeral (that was back in 2004) - all the relatives I hadn't seen for ages, plus some I had no idea who they even were (didn't meet up with that side of the family much) o.O

We've tweaked the heating again (gone for a slightly lower temperature, but also having the heating on a low setting slightly earlier in the day so there's not so much of a jump to get it to a suitable temperature to be in the room.... if that makes sense?), and the week's meter reading came out lower than I'd anticipated, so I think we might have it sussed now :D Heat pumps are still quite new (at least over here), so maybe in the future they'll be more affordable to buy & install ;) I don't have that option on my flat, unless I ask the council and management company for permission (and no doubt there'd be some weird restrictions around that), so I'm sticking with regular electricity!

That isn't too terrible on the temperature - do people tend to set off fireworks at midnight over there, or is that more of a weird UK tradition? ;)

New Year's Day forecast has changed (thought it would) and they're currently saying it'll be 11C and heavy rain :P

I have some relatives I don't see that often too, mostly some of my cousins and their kids/partners. For the Christmas parties it was just the my closest family getting together. My parents, siblings, nephews and nieces. So no new faces. But 3 days in a row still feels like a lot!

Yay for figuring out how out the heating at your new place. :D I hope things are coming along nicely with getting everything in order. Heat pumps have been around for a while now here, which makes sense with the winters we can get. You can also use them to get your home cooler in the summer. I am not sure if they are allowed in my apartment building or not. Since I don't have plans of getting one, I have not looked into it. :)

It has been snowing heavily at times since New Years, so it looks really pretty outside. :D I am going on a walk tomorrow, hoping to enjoy the winter wonderland feel. ;)

at least it wasn't all the extra partners & kids that you don't normally see, so that made it a little easier ;)

I'm still working on getting the decorating sorted (got the painter chap booked in for March to do the living room but I still haven't decided on a colour for the walls yet!), so that'll just leave the hall, bathroom, 'loo room', and kitchen. Certainly the hall is quite desperate to get done, as the paint on the ceiling paper is peeling off outside the bathroom....

Yay on the snow! It always helps to have some snow for a true wintery feel to a walk (as long as there's a mug of hot chocolate to drink afterwards to warm you up :P). We've potentially got snow later today, but it's meant to turn to freezing rain, then just rain for tomorrow.... then getting colder again on Monday (I'm positive the weather just wants to really play games with us!!)

Picking a colour for your walls is never easy. It is nice that you are able to have someone paint them for you. It is a lot of work. The walls in my flat were all painted white when I moved in (except my tiled bathroom of course), and I find that a bit boring. I have only gotten around to painting my bedroom though (and wallpaper on the wall behind my bed).

We are back to rain and wind now. Big shocker. ;) I hope you did not end up with slipper roads/pavements. That is the worst. I am looking forward to spring now, not so much the summer though.

I did want to do the painting myself, but the walls in the living room in particular, have so many different layers of light green paint (and paint dribbles from the top as well), that I thought it was better to pay someone to do the painting 'properly' so it's got a nice even coat.... then when it needs repainting in the future, I can do that one! ;)

At least plain white is a lot easier to cover (and it doesn't risk clashing with anything else) ;) But it's always nice to get it looking more like your style and not having boring white walls for too long :D What colour have you picked for your bedroom?

I've shelved replacing the carpet for the moment (it's got moth damage in each room), as partly I can't decide on what kind of flooring I want, but also if I did get a young dog / puppy in the future, I wouldn't want to have a brand new carpet down before that! :P

Always the way with the weather changing to wind & rain - that's what we've got forecast for most of the next week :K But we did have some snow on the 7th: The council had gritted this particular road (it's a bus route, but the bus service stopped that morning as even that little amount of snow was too much for them to allow the bus to drive up & down the hills), but the snowy / icy pavement is much like all the other non-bus route roads were.

2 van drivers were determined to drive up our road that morning (it's a cul-de-sac so it doesn't normally get gritted by the council). A third van driver that looked a lot younger than the others, parked at the bottom of the hill & walked to wherever he was working. The two that insisted on driving up the road took about 20 minutes to get both their vans less than 60 metres up the road (I have a feeling that the first van in particular would've damaged the clutch & possibly his tyres with the way he was driving!)

That makes sense. Sounds like it would be tricky to paint it and get a nice and even result. I have never been great at painting walls, but I suppose practice makes perfect. :P

I picked a grey-ish purple for my bedroom walls and a purple wallpaper with a gold pattern for the wall behind my bed. I wanted it to look luxurious and bouchie. xD I think I succeeded with that personally. I also did not want my bedroom walls to be too light, as I sleep better in a dark room. :)

True, a puppy is likely to have a few accidents before they are properly house trained. Floors that are easy to clean is great. I can't say the tiles in my bathroom are that easy to clean, but at least the rest of my flat is. :P

We have not had anymore snow, but plenty of wind and rain per usual. I am used to that kind of weather being the norm, so it does not bother me really.

the only wall painting I've really done, was painting the concrete support columns in the shop I worked in(!) - they used to be multicoloured, and the new manager wanted them painted plain white.... I managed to do about three of them (after hours when the store was closed), but he decided I was taking too long, so he had the visual display team do the rest of the painting while the store was open o.O

ooo that sounds like a brilliant shade! :D I've got a lilac / silver shade in my bedroom at my parents' place (that's south facing, so it gets a load of sunlight), and my flat has a yellowy / creamy shade on the walls as it only gets the sunlight in the early morning so I didn't want it to look too dark ;)

I still need to clean the walls & ceiling in the bathroom - the previous owner had a new bath & sink installed, with new flooring as well.... but she didn't have the painting done at the same time, so it looks rather tired & grubby! I guess that's part of the disadvantage of white paint on the walls, as it looks mucky faster! :P

Hopefully you've had some sunny days as well? Our weather doesn't seem to be able to make its mind up - one minute it's a really chilly wind, the next it's sunny & feeling pretty mild!

I've been terrible at coming on here :/. Sorry. I got sick at the end of December with a nasty cold that knocked me down. Took forever to get the coughing to stop :K. Also went to atlanta on the 13th this month and bought some better quality cello strings. Pricey but I love the sound and playablity of them. I'm doing really well with the cello, I think. It's a shame the company that I was with closed down in December otherwise I'd have entered another recital. Hope you two are well :) What's going on in your neck of the woods?

coughs that seem to last forever are a nightmare :K hopefully you're feeling more like you now though?

The cello sounds like it was a good decision :D That's a shame though with the company closing - are you having cello lessons from anyone else at the moment?

I was going to say 'nothing much' was happening, but last week the kitchen tap was dripping like crazy so we had to have the plumber to replace the tap. Then a few days ago, the bathroom sink was making the under-sink cupboard wet (ironically, we put a pot under the sink to check how much water is dripping and since that point the drips have stopped!). Then this morning the kitchen floor was wet by the kitchen sink - turns out there's a drip under the sink there (even when the tap isn't in use), so we'll have to phone the plumber again on Monday morning to get him to come back as an urgent visit to fix whatever the new problem is :K Really hoping for an uneventful day tomorrow! :P

I am sorry you got knocked down by that nasty cold. I had one of those this winter too, was not a great time. I am glad you are still enjoying your cello. :) You might be able to find another recital? I spent a couple of weeks in Oslo visiting my friend and than our associations annual meeting, but things are back to normal now. I am going to volunteer at the cat shelter today. :)

Painting is tedious, at least to me it is, so I would be happy to give that job to someone else. :P I like the sound of the yellowy/creamy shades on your walls. I wanted a dark bedroom, but I know a lot of people won't agree with me there and that is fine. :)

Cleaning the walls and ceiling in your bathroom is not the most fun job ever, but it will look great once you are done so still a bit satisfying in that regard. I find the tiles in my bathroom a pain to clean, at least the grout is. 😛

We have had plenty of sunny days lately and little rain, which is surprising really. :P It has been a bit windy at times, so it does not feel that warm outside yet.

I don't mind painting, I'm just not particularly good at it laughs :P I did paint my bedroom ceiling in my parents' house, but when it came to painting the door there's a lot of paint runs where I had too much paint on the brush (oops!) ;)

That's definitely true! I just likes cleaning the walls in the living room as you could see the difference as you did each bit of the wall, but the bathroom is more challenging just because of the shape & the fact there's not an incredible amount of space! (and having to clean the ceiling above the bath.... not too sure how I'm going to achieve that bit!). I haven't even tried tackling the tiles yet, although the previous owner had the bathroom installed in 2022, so I'm hoping the tiles won't be too grimy yet ;)

That's the 'fun' when you look outside & see the sunshine, step outside then dash back in for a warmer coat to wear :P

Have fun at the cat shelter :D (I'd be way too tempted to bring home a friend for Pusur!!)

Painting the ceiling sounds a bit tricky to me. I would probably make a mess out of it and end up with half the paint on myself. :P

I have the same problem with my bathroom, some places are very hard to reach. Like over the loo and not to mention the space around my washer that is also in there. That is a fairly new bathroom remodel then. No having to remove 20 years of grime so that is good. :) I also hate cleaning my shower walls (they are glass), but I have found some products that works fairly well for that.

The cats at the shelter are so sweet and friendly, that is is def. tempting to bring one (or ten) home with me. They have been able to rehome quite a few cats lately, so that is great to see. :D They are well taken care of in the shelter, but a permanent home with loads of love and attention is better. I have a feeling Pusur would not be impressed if I brought in a strange cat. ;)

I've absolutely love playing the cello :D yeah, I have biweekly lessons. I am definitely doing pretty well I think :D.

lol I've been wanting calmer days too so I totally agree with needing them :D it's been a chaotic bit going on. Cello string broke and had to drive to ATL to buy them since there wasn't anything here we could replace it with. Got new trainers that were at an outlet store an hour away a few days before that lol that's the kind of thing that just keeps happening o.0

my teacher doesn't do recitals sadly. I'm thinking of perhaps recording some playing and send you a copy on email. If that's something of interest :D.

glad you got to visit your friend :) and the cat shelter sounds nice too.

Happy birthday to you! Hope you are having a great day! :)

It would be neat to see your progress with your instruments, if you feel up for sharing. :D I am impressed at how far you have come and how diligent you are when it comes to practicing. :)