That sounds annoying to work with. Hope the electricians are done with the work soon. :) Our apartment building is getting together tomorrow to do some maintenance work outside. Hopefully the weather won't be too bad. They have ordered pizza for us to eat after, so that is a nice bonus.

We stayed in London for five days. We did so much that my feet were killing me most of the time, but so worth it. :)

Hope you can rest up a bit after being in so much pain. :hugs: Any plans this weekend? We are celebrating Mom's birthday on Sunday. She has invited all her siblings, as well as my brother and his family and me. So it will be loud. lol As mentioned above. Maintenance work for the apartment building tomorrow and pizza after.

lol I've tried things like that and he just laughs :K lol go us :D

It looks really cool :D

thanks :) happy birthday to your mum. No, no plans, but on Monday I'm getting my hair cut and Weds we have a trip to ATL hope you have fun !

the electricians finished earlier than expected, and that included changing the cooker hob (which was an unexpected extra due to the way it'd been wired in previously) :D
Hopefully the maintenance work isn't too terrible to do, and the pizza is suitably tasty! :D

I'm not surprised after 5 days of sight-seeing! :P I found it bad enough just walking from the train station (as I didn't want to try going on the Tube) 😊 (read the edit)

Sod's law on him laughing :K has the pain eased off now at least?

ooo that's a snazzy outfit you've got today :D (keep reading)

[edit] (edited 11th May) Well that was unexpected last night - not only was there a chance of seeing the Northern Lights, it was also a clear sky and it lasted for long enough for the sky to be dark!

These were all taken from indoors, through the window (I'm not going outside at 11pm laughs). It wasn't visible by eye (the sky just looked lighter, with what looked like clouds on the horizon - that was actually a pinky purple part of the aurora, as in the photos you can see the stars). You could see the green on the camera screen (my phone camera failed to pick any of it up). I did have to lighten the photos on the computer just to make it easier to see :P

There's a chance of it continuing tonight as well, although they're saying it's likely to be less intense than last night ;)

thanks lol I've changed it again :P ooh that's awesome. They look amazing. yeah the pain is definitely lessening. its just taking awhile.

ooo I do like the violin outfit :D that works really well as a stage too :D

If I'd stayed up for another 50 minutes (and looked straight up) I'd have seen the pinky-ness above the green, as the aurora intensified a lot .... but I was using Mum & Dad's bedroom window to take the photos (mine faces south), and Mum was standing behind me yawning so I got the hint that she wanted the room back! :P

At least the pain's disappearing little by little, although no doubt you're wishing it'd vanish a lot faster ;) When have you got to go back to the doc for him to take another look at your foot?

thanks, it's the closest to me I could get

You're lucky we couldn't see a thing with all the cloud cover.

lol very true.

Well it was supposed to be this week but he's going out of town and he didn't tell his staff. -shrugs- so I've been rescheduled for next week,

it works brilliantly :D

Do you normally stand any chance from where you are, or are you 'too far south' like us?

Well at least that gives you another week before he potentially makes everything painful again ;) and as long as it's not too uncomfortable at the moment, I reckon that'd be a positive to have an extra week 😇

I've been working on a "project" since the end of February.... I've actually got an apartment! :D All that work the electricians were doing - that was at the apartment (I had the old manky storage heaters removed & radiators put in instead, and they replaced the fuse boards to get it all up to code). Then at the end of this month, the water tank is being replaced (the hot water pressure is really low - if you wanted to run a bath, you'd need to start a long time before you wanted to get in the water!) :)

So far most of our time (Mum & Dad have been helping, thankfully!) has been spent washing the walls - which came off black ^ just to show how mucky the walls are, this is part way through cleaning it 😊

Today was working on the kitchen work surfaces and cupboard doors (let's just say that the previous owner wasn't keen on cleaning!)....

^ and not much work gets done when you've got a view like that laughs

There's still decorating once everything's finally clean, but it'll be quite a while before I can actually move in properly anyway (need to pace it and take it slowly, just doing parts of days to start with, so I don't risk my mental health getting utterly screwed up 😊).

Haircut and trip to ATL sounded fun. :D What did you end up in ATL? I am going to tonights soccermatch with my dad today. He is finally back from his 3 weeks trip to Spain. Lucky duck. lol

You got some great pics from the northern lights! The view from your new apartment looks stunning. :O Love the trees! Congrats! I hope you be happy there. :) Turned out they did not order pizza after all. o_O But at least the outside area looks nice tho. lol They talked about doing a barbeque later instead

We did have to take public transport when I was in London last time, as it was too far to walk from the hotel when we went sightseeing. It was a bit overwhelming trying to figure it all out at first. :)

I'm still amazed I was able to see the Northern Lights from here laughs now I know what the sky actually looks like at the time, hopefully I'll know what to look out for in the future as well :D

Thanks :D There's also a small stream running on the opposite side of the garden area (my apartment doesn't overlook that, but there's some benches to sit by the stream) - when we were moving some furniture from Grandad's old flat into mine, we saw a Heron on the stream! :D

That's a shame they didn't order pizza, but I guess at least the outside area is better than it was before!

With my sense of direction, I'd have probably got on the Tube train heading completely the wrong way 😇 it was bad enough finding the right street on foot! :P But public transport would definitely save your feet from excessive walking ;)

oh for sure we'd never have a chance to see it. We are way to far south. I was really disappointed that we couldn't see the lights with the cloud cover. Seeing them is one of my "bucket list" items.

well it became painful as were the cast was split (to adjust for size and such) has decided to rub and cut into my leg and my doc is out of town until Monday. So I've got a sock crammed down there right now to help with the pain.

Oh my word how wonderful! Congratulations. How did you get it? Is it close to your parents? the garden is lovely! Do you think you'll get a dog or another pet once you move in properly?

I haven't had a haircut since before we moved to the new house, so it's at least 4 years. In ATL we bought some British groceries and I took my rental violin and traded it in for a different one. The more I played it, the less I liked it. We weren't getting along and I thought even though I plan on upgrading in October if I can, it wasn't worth it to either struggle with it or ignore it. The one I own has become the default go to violin because it's easier to play... and the rental is meant to replace it. I know the pegbox needs work on it and the cost of that is rather high so that's why i have the rental in the first place. It doesn't make sense to keep the rental as it is with me pretty much hating it. It was slightly larger bodied than the new rental and my owned one so that does play a factor in how it sounds. The good news is that 100% of what we pay into the rental is given back in store credit for the first year. So we are building equity in it to help pay for the new violin. If we keep going after that it's like 40% goes into the instrument or something, so you can see why I want to pay off the rental in October and hopefully trade up as well.

oh spain is brilliant, not that I've ever gone lol

apparently there's more chance in a couple of weeks' time.... looking at the Aurorasaurus website, people were saying they'd seen the northern lights from much further south than we are, so you still might have a chance even if it's just seeing it on camera like I did ;)

Doing a quick search, it looks like you need a KP Index of 8 (it goes from 1 (lowest) to 9) and I think we need a 7 or 8 here, so there's still a good chance ;) When I took those photos, it was an 8, and later that night it went up to 9.

Urgh that isn't much help is it?! Hopefully the sock will help, and not make it feel too bulky at that point until he's back and can resolve it :K

Mum and Dad helped (I had to borrow a bit as well), and I was fortunate with Grandad's will too ;) I ended up making a spreadsheet with scores for each place I'd looked at (I'd been to look at two apartments last year, and saw the others online), which helped narrow down what I really needed and what wasn't as much of a requirement as I'd first thought ;)

It had to be within walking distance from my parents' place (it's just under a mile and a half, but that's mostly downhill :P) and although the communal gardens aren't fenced in, there's a park a few minutes walk away.

I do have to ask for permission from the management company / landlord for any kind of pet (even for goldfish!) - I think that's their way of making sure there's no inappropriate pets being kept there ;). There's several cats and at least one dog we've seen so far, so I'm hoping they'll be agreeable! My long-term aim is to get a dog, which hopefully then could be trained up as an assistance dog - that'd mean I could work towards going places solo rather than always having someone else with me ;)

^ that's the view of the stream from the back of the block (it's not overly clear unless you open the image in a new tab to see it larger :P the stream's running behind the tree).... that was taken in January (we went for a wander around the garden a few times before the sale finally went through) when we'd had a lot of rain, so the stream was pretty high ;)

Yeah i'm hopeful. Dad's worried about the storms because they can wreak havoc on all our tech (the world's tech I mean) so he's hoping the coming storm isn't bad. but yeah i really want to see it!

KP index? I have no idea what you are talking about LMAO.

I hope so too. Right now it does seem to help some. It was so painful and hurt for hours and hours after walking

that's really awesome! I'm so happy for you <3

Scores are a great way to help :D

Oh it sounds brilliant and I love that its close to them too :D

That would be brilliant if you get permission for a pet. I know some places ban certain breeds so that might be why

oh yes that would be amazing <3 I really hope you can!

ooh so pretty. I can see putting a chair there and reading lol but that's me. Would you apply for your own allotment or share with Mum and Dad?

ooo that's a snazzy new outfit today :D

That's true - I think they were a bit worried about GPS and sat nav on the latest one! hehe basically it's now strong the storm is, so the higher the number, the more chance you have of seeing it from where you are ;) There's a page on a weather forecast site here (link) which gives the current KP number ;)

Maybe that's a good excuse to not do any chores that involve you being on your feet for the weekend, so you can rest it ;)

I started out with pages in a notebook, but I realised I kept changing the ratings I gave for things, so 'no garden' ended up only being a -3, but 'no balcony' was a -5, as I thought I'd be more likely to use a balcony than my own private garden (and I then don't have to worry about cutting grass either :P) so I figured it was more sense to use a spreadsheet ;) It's weird that some of the things I thought would need doing (like rewiring the whole place) didn't need doing, yet things I thought would be fine (like the hob and water tank) are the bits that need attention!

nods I guess maybe they just want to keep track of how many pets there are in each block, so there's not an influx of cats or dogs or whatever ;)

hehe there's a couple of benches along that section, so it'd be interesting to see what that's like on a summer's afternoon :D

There are allotment sites nearby, but I should be able to keep my current allotment as I'd still be within the same council area ;) That way Dad can keep helping laughs

Finished this one a couple of days ago. Love it! Big thank you to Paddy for this gift. :D :Keep reading :P

Paddy: Sounds you have been able to get a really nice place. :D How big it is? I like the idea of getting a support dog too.. if you get a certified one you could basically take it anywhere. Nice that is not that far from your parents either for when you want to visit. :)

London seem to involve excessive walking, public transport or not. lol But I still loved it! :D

Raven: Sounds like a good system to upgrade your instrument without spending too much money upfront. Hope you will be happy with what you end up getting. Of course I don't know much about violins. lol Cant really find much of British groceries where I live, even though I live a fair big closer than you. lol That is how it goes sometimes. I can find some stuff imported from the US, but not a huge selection.

that looks amazing! :D I'm pleased there was a nice lot of detail in it :D

It's a 3 bed, although one of the rooms will be Mum's (so there's the scope for any support I might need, and Mum can make use of the space too!). nods over here there's plenty of organisations & charities who train assistance dogs, but unfortunately they only do autism or physical disability needs, rather than mental health. So my option would be 'owner training' with support from an organisation that have online training videos available, and also can do the assessments for each stage of the training. It could make it a harder process (as I'd also have to find the "right" dog / puppy in the first place), but it'd the only way to achieve it!

At least London is mostly flat though. If you came here, there's be quite a lot of hills if you want any further than the city centre ;)

And I love your hew HA by the way :D

Thanks, I plan on starting on the dolphin painting next. I have always loved dolphins so that was perfect as well!

3 bed is awesome! You can have a guestroom and one room for sewing and other hobbies too then perhaps? I did not know you can get owner training that way, sounds like a good option if you can get assessments too. Can they help find a suitable dog too? Even just letting you know which breed might work best for your needs?

I did notice that London was mostly flat. :) Same can't be said for my city either, even though it depends on the area of course.

Thanks! I made this one for the customization under 150K contest. ;)

Hopefully that'll also be a good one :D

One bedroom is Mum's (she wanted to use part of it for crafting too!), so one bedroom will be mine (it's smaller than my room at the moment, but that doesn't matter, as I don't need to fit as much in there), and the other will be for sewing / computer / music :D

Unfortunately they don't do any help with finding a suitable dog (at least not the organisation that I've looked at), but they do have a guide on their website for which breeds tend to make the best assistance dogs overall ;)

It works really well :D (and that reminds me, I need to get working on an entry for that too!)

thanks ready for mask. I love your ha as well :D

Yeah we've been doing that but its been hurting for the last few days after a few days of no pain so I'm rather confused.

You sound like you were pretty organised with the process.

its always something lol.

Well it makes since. I hope you find the perfect pooch :D

awesome :D I'm sure he'll be thrilled ;)

ooh lovely diamond dot :D

that's what I think too. I hope so too.
Is British food something the mass enjoys over there?

thanks - I just reworked Niamh's favourite look from the last few days laughs

Hopefully it'll ease off, or at least not be any worse after the doc is able to check it over ;)

I probably made it a lot more complicated than it needed to be, but I wanted to make sure I felt I was making the right decision (and I'm terrible at decision making! :P). Looking forward to the end of this coming week, as then the hot water tank will have been replaced, and I should have decent pressure for the hot tap :D

Well Dad was quite put out today, as it's been raining, so he can't go to the allotment and dig the trench ready for the runner bean plants to go in ;)

You are fortunate to be able to have 3 bedrooms. :D I bet you can have some fun shopping for everything you need for the new place too. I know I did when I moved here. 👼

I am no expert or anything, but a lab might be one to consider. They are generally very good natured, loves people and having a "job". ;) But of course there are many other suitable breeds too.

Thanks! I am glad you liked my entry. Not that I expect to win, but at least I will get the prize for entering.

I can't say British food is something that is enjoyed much by the masses here. People enjoy fish and chips of course, but struggle to think of much else.