We’ve been back from holidays for three weeks now, which is amazing to me. It’s very trite and cliched, but it feels like just yesterday we were running about in Tokyo.

I keep meaning to write a bunch of holiday observations (and pre-holiday observations), but there’s so many bits it becomes a little overwhelming and I do nothing. Yet another illustration of perfect being the enemy of the good/done. I have no idea how I managed to post every day for such a long while!

Here’s a bunch of random bullet points about current events to get me back into the groove.

+ I don’t think ThePalace(OfLove) is particularly cluttered or our wardrobes that extensive, but post-holiday we managed to gather 5 large garbage bags of clothes for donation. And a couple of boxes of miscellany. We delivered these to the charity shop yesterday and I expect there will be another bunch after Joan leaves for sunnier climes.

xxx

+ In the spirit of minimising, we had a good hard look at some of our other *stuff* and are selling one of our DSLRs on ebay. Yes, we did indeed have almost-identical cameras. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We didn’t take either on the recent trip to Japan because they take up So Much Space in baggage and are crazy-heavy to lug about. And we got by quite well with point-and-shoots (I borrowed Joan’s) and our phones. One hour to go on the auction – lets hope for a last minute bidding frenzy.

xxx

+ It’s been raining quite a lot over the past couple of days. And it’s that rain which falls in those odd May/June directions and causes everyone’s houses to leak. When heading out yesterday to do the groceries (ugh) we found a few neighbours exchanging rain experiences in the communal driveway. It appears the waterproofing we all did this time last year was successful across the board, so yay all of us! We saved a bundle by doing this ourselves. Next up – front facades, which unfortunately does require professionals.

xxx

+ We racked up six years in ThePalace(OfLove) in mid-May. This is astounding, surely we just moved in? It’s interesting what changes and improvements we thought were absolutely essential 6 years ago which we’re now “meh, we can live with that”.

Biggest and best things we’ve done: changing the down-lights in the living space from halogen to LEDs, separating the light and extractor fan switches in the bathrooms (they were on one switch – so dumb), new oven once the old one died (so very good), painting the walls and doors white, removing most of the revolting vertical blinds, having taps installed out front and on the lower balcony.

Things we thought we absolutely needed to do but didn’t: replace the entire kitchen, renovate the bathrooms, replace the stair handrails and balustrades, refinish or replace the hardwood floors. Clearly I was reading way too many design and renovation blogs – everything is perfectly functional and not entirely hideous.

I’m quite glad we didn’t spend the eye-watering amount of money it would have taken to action these things.

Things we really do need to do but have been putting off: replace broken air-conditioners, replace bedroom carpets (honestly, these are beyond gross), plaster Bessie’s ceiling, have the front facade waterproofed, fill loads of cracks, finish painting over leak stains.

xxx

+ Can it really be five days (!) until Joan departs? FIVE! She’s been back living with us for two years now and it will be incredibly weird without her in the house. This morning we’re aggressively culling clothing and shoes and other belongings to fit in her one large suitcase. I’m really rather envious of her – there’s definitely something appealing about chucking it all in to head overseas and start a new life!