A Light in The Cellar...A Day in The Snow!

Wow, it is all coming together quickly now...
Some things I think will take forever are completed in 10 mins virtually and other things I think should be a breeze are seemingly taking forever.

This is due in part to my not really knowing what is involved in the process over here and how they do it. Hungarians get the job done...and while that suffices in many cases, it is not to my liking for a lot of things...eg...ugly pipes all over the walls, inside and outside for gas, water, heating etc.

It looks so awful, but that is how they do it...but I do not like it.

So after poor Imre has done a job, I check it out and at times I have to get him to pull it all out, dig holes and hide things etc etc.

That just happened in the cellar...
He ran pipes along the middle of the lovely brick walls, for the power cables and it looked horrid, ruined the feel and mood of the room, so out it had to come.
Now i have to invent how to run power down there and have it hidden as you can't cut into the brickwork  to run trenches etc. Can't have power leads running everywhere, so the thinking cap is working overtime now!

Anyways, apart from that glitch, we have been able to work around the snowy weather, the sub-zero temps on some days, the rain and foggy days and overall, things are getting done slowly, but moving forwards.

Am learning how to empty all the data from my 8 year old Vista operating system computer which has been lugged all around the world for the past 7 years...and still works...Be it ever so slowly now as Vista is not supported anymore and will be unsupported as of March this year by Firefox too.

I found that I have something like a total of 70 GB of pics in one file alone and loads of other stuff, along with 6 or more books I've written, so will need a huge data storage whatever to store it all on.

It was a very trusty HP computer which I was always happy using. It was lovely to feel, smooth, nice round edges etc, a great keyboard and so on, but over time, as Vista became unsupported, the keyboard died and I had to buy a plug in external keyboard last year to work it...

But it was a Hungarian keyboard, with the English letters hidden within the Hungarian keys. If you wanted the @ you had to press these weird things they use for decorating their letters with over here etc etc.

In other words, you had to know off by heart, the Qwerty keyboard...which I don't as my one typing finger does not have an eye. Talk about confusing to a dyslexic person...an understatement to say the least!

It is a nice sunny day again today, 3C, so will get on with some outside work and finish this later on.

At the village farm where they house a lot of animals. On the corner near where MR Bean is positioned.

Time to make some new doors for the cellar...

Hoping to have fold out doors that make a guard rail too.

Next time you see this am hoping the floor door will be made and the power on down in here too.

Andrea out playing in the snow with Pedro...while it is snowing.

He loves the snow...

C'mon!

The little scamp...

Caught him!!!

C'mon, more running yet to do...

Well, dog is not tired, but someone else is!

Heading out for my jog and the old bushes on the fence have their own romance to display...

Awesome fresh snow today....

Sunny and beautiful...

A bit deepish here for the road...

The ice is very slippery, but the side of the road is fine.

This is usually filled with sunflowers!

Looking lovely this morning...

Beautiful!

The poor cars...

Another shot of my fave tree in the village...

Along the back straight headed for the last leg of the just under 3 klm track...

People going to work at 7.30 am...

The sun glistening on the dew drops ...a shot for my sister to take.

Wish I had her camera here...it was beautiful to see.

Nice...

Coming up to the bus stop corner shop on the right.

The little park on the other end corner of my street...

My bus stop in winter!

Headed home...

In April, this street is a mass of pink coloured blossoms...

My friends in Holland have this holiday house...My place is on the left, as you can see just down the road a bit.

Back home and Imre is digging in the power cable for the cellar underneath him!

End room a tool shed/workshop again!

The last stage of getting power down here, hopefully!

Where to put the power points???...Now I see we need brown ones, not white, plus the white line is actually where he put the pipe to take the power cable but it looked terrible, so he has to pull it out and somehow put it somewhere safe and out of sight!

Nothing stops a hungry dog! He broke the cone on the first day when I let him out into the snow. It froze and snapped very easily as he dug in the frozen ground for his hidden bones!

Gee, that waaaas goood! An entire chicken carcass devoured in under 3 minutes!

Dog had his operation etc on Wednesday and the lady who normally nurses them after their operations, was sick...so guess what???

Yup, I have the dog again!!!

My daughter used to say...Never give things away because you will recieve many fold those things back again! She was referring to an old refrigerator she gave away once and in the next year she received 3 almost new fridges !!!

Dog is off to Germany on 3rd Feb with a friend who manages a dog charity, so that will be OK, I guess...only another 8 days!

Well that was the past week in the snow at home and around the village with a dog.

See you all next week, stay safe and well and be happy.

Cheers,
M
xxxx

No Need to Go to the Snow, it Came to Me!

This European thing is too funny for words.

In OZ, the snow is in the mountains, down in the Snowy's

Over here it is in the mountains too...and it also comes visit you!

Still makes me giggle...

Come join me on my way around my morning jog on Monday last...Someone built me a snowman, but his head fell off.

Up at the corner where Mr Bean and his car are stationed!

It looks like the snow has been graded...Along the main road section of my jogging track...

Around the back of my track...

This is the longest section of the back part of the track...

My place is to the right of the house with the big roof! Still another 1.2klms to go!

I love this Xmas tree...

WOW, surprised my 20 year old ski suit still fitted! Didn't even have to change the belt fitting either. I had my house winter clothes on, big jumper and winter pants under this, so was amazed it still fitted me, although the pants legs seemed longer! Dohhhh, that means I've either shrunk...or the suit has elongated from hanging all that time!

Hahaha, just as well the pic is blurry, as I now see the suit is faded in a few places...Haven't worn these for over 10 years and they are still OK, no holes, no busted seams, so it's off to ski we go soon.

Am madly packing everything up now that just about all the interiors are completed and am getting ready to move gear around into other rooms and newly painted cupboards for the final move now, so it is very exciting.

Have decided how to set up the rooms at long last...not easy when I didn't design the place myself. But all in all, I think it will all look great and function well, by this time next year.

Have had over 20 repositionings of everything here...so many kitchen positions, as I just could not get comfy with the original, no windows set up.

But now that the  power points are finally in, the new lights up and working, it is starting to feel heaps better. We don't have to run out to the front door anymore, to turn on the bathroom light...

Ahhh, the joys of renovations hey!!!

Well, must away and study some more about the Inspector General's Report and see how my fave past time info is shaping up. Big exciting things in store for us all, so I can hardly wait.

Here is a link if you care to watch it.
It is about an hour and 20 mins or so, but is verrry interesting indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuV3FlOxh_c

Now on that exceedingly happy and hopeful note, I'll say cheers and catch you all again next week,
Love and peace to all,
M
xxx

Going Skiing!

So excited!!!
At last I finally get to go skiing after 6 years of failed attempts!
It seemed I was either in OZ, in Serbia, in Croatia or in Ireland at the times it suited my "biorhythms" to go!!!

Knew this would grab your attention!!! Ginger ale in a glass, but I only saw the skull part just now...hahaha...

Next stop Prague after Feb...So had better get my contacts warned I'm coming...

Then, whilst down in Bavaria after May, will go and find out how to get a pic like this. I have been there 3 times so far and got my dream pic on the 2ndvisit, but this was the one I originally wanted to capture myself. The pink fronted pic...I think this must be taken with a very looong lens or from a helicopter?

Meaning, I set my goals for a certain date, but silly me...instead of being flexible on the date and swinging it back or forwards a bit...I didn't!

I can't believe I was so dumb on that issue.

If there was one big lesson I gained from my entire life thus far, it would be this...

"Set your goals

Plan a time range and action plan to achieve them

Work towards them

If things don't go according to plan, don't ditch the goal, adjust the timeline

Do not change the goal...

BUT

Remember, you can change the time frame !

Oh, dohhhhh.

Feb was always the time I'd planned to go skiing, I have no idea why, just Feb sticks in my mind.
This year was no different...but I'll be busy in Feb.
So... faced with the option of not skiing again this year, it suddenly hit me... I could go in January!

So dumb, I can not believe I'd locked myself into that way of thinking for so long, without thinking to adjust the dates...sighhh

So, a friend and I are headed for the ski fields in Slovakia, which is only 3 hrs from here.

Have my hot pink ski suit here with me...have to try it on to see if it still fits...then hey-ho, it's off to ski we go!

Will take heaps of pics up there, so keep an eye open for my blog near end Jan.

Imre is here now fixing the remaining power points and light fittings in 3 rooms. I bought the new cables a few weeks ago, but it was all wrong...can you believe they gave me some weird cable no one uses here for house fit outs???

Imre has been trying to use it, but it is really fat and he has to trim it down a bit so it fits in the plugs.

He is now replacing new double power points in my room as I bought 3 doubles at Tesco, but they are so weak that I want to replace them. They do not hold into the wall when you pull out the plug from your appliances, the power point comes out with it too!!!

I have some nice strong new ones here and he has an hour spare, so it's my turn to get new plugs in my room to replace the new plugs he put in just a year ago!

It had been beautiful weather here for winter for the past 2 months basically, and I knew the moment I commented that,  a deep freeze would set in...and it did!

It snowed 2 evenings ago...delicious...then it got freezing cold and now the roadside puddles are really deep frozen!

Jogging in the mornings is amazing...I only go about 4 times a week at the moment now, as I am a bit lazy at times, but try and get out at least 4 times a week. I do feel a lot better for the entire day when I go each day, but 4 times a week is fine for now.

YeeHawww!!!

Oh dear...snowed in...no jog this morning!!! Can't open any of the gates...all frozen shut. Could boil the jug and melt all the snow...but making coffee with it sounds much better!

What a lovely view over Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon tea, ...

The other day, we had to try and fix the water leaking from a busted drain pipe...So, had to dig up the entire pipe to find the leaky join...

Getting the attic door area and walls done outside, plus the attic door sanded both sides too...ready for painting.

As seen in the full sun...

Getting the old power point taken out and new ones put in, in the kitchen/dining room.

Now everything is just about ready for a final paint. can hardly wait.

OK everyone, must go now and do some work...well,do some washing anyways!

See you all next week with more fun news.
'Bye for now,
M
xxx

Say ;bye-'bye to Pedro, the dear little doggie...

Dear little thing he is...Wild as a jumping jack, but a nice little fellow really. He loves the snow too.