And verily it came to pass that Tuesday became blogging day…

It’s been a busy week and so I’ve got quite a lot to report. From last week then:
Tuesday – went back to Newtown and cleaned the flat from top to bottom. Packed up my stuff and dropped it back into Brumby Street before going back for one last sleep at Newtown. In bed early as I knew the boys were on an early morning flight…
Wednesday – Mark and Carsten arrived at 6.15am. I got up shortly after and showered and had a cuppa with them before heading off to work. Gymmed at lunchtime, but was tired and so I tried to run and didn’t even do that very well :o( Back to Brumby Street for the first time in ages, but I think I ended up out for dinner with Pete. I can’t quite remember! Maybe that was Foodgame night and if so chicken pesto burger. Yum! Yes – we had to meet up to drop a cheque off at the solicitors (which in the end we forgot to do!) – see below.
Thursday – was meant to be eventful. It was the day we were due to complete on the house. Determined not to get too excited we hung out until 2pm – I went to the gym in fact to keep myself occupied. There was a message waiting as I came out to say that the vendors had failed to return one document on time and so it was postponed until Friday at 2pm. Bugger. Met up with Pete that night for comisseratory (?) beers. We had a couple at the Colombian (vile), one at the Shift (viler) and then decided to torture ourselves with a final beer at Stonewall (vilest). Truly vile. So, home – without a house.
Friday – tried not to get too excited again. Into work at 7.50am as I was taking a half day. Left at 12pm and hit the gym with Andrew. From there back home and Pete had picked up the ute so off we toddled back to his place to pack up some stuff. We took the call to say the house was ours and so we went to Jan’s (Pete’s lovely aunt) for a cuppa and then off to North Sydney (over the bridge and far away) to pick up the keys. We got a bit lost, but finally by about 5pm we had the place – yay! Exciting times ahead. So, back to Pete’s and we loaded up the ute with his stuff for storage at the house. We met Jan there and she’d brought some Moët bless her. Then it was back to Pete’s to load another lot of stuff for Rich and Russ’s and then we hit Una’s for a big meal of schnitzel. (I must have a word with cook – that schnitzel’s far too delicious for my figure…) Then it was back to Pete’s for a bit of a clean and then we were done. And dusted :o)
Saturday – well that was a day and a half!! I was up early and eventually headed out for coffee to wait for Pete. We had bacon and eggs and then descended on the house for our first real day of renovation. The plan was to remove all the nasty carpets and lino to see what was on the floors underneath; knock out the wall of the bedroom as it fronts on to the hall to open up that space; and maybe have a look at the sub-tropical garden and see what we could unearth. And in the words of Bruce Forsyth – didn’t we do well!! The carpet from the living area came up relatively easily – leaving us with some not very nice floorboards and a big void under the floor itself. Great. The kitchen floor was a bit better, but still not salvagable. In the meantime, Pete knocked the supposed brick wall between the living area and the bedroom – and hey presto we discovered it wasn’t brick at all and so we could knock seven bells out of it! Pete cleared all the living room side as I finished off in the kitchen and then we took out the bedroom/hallway walls. Not surprisingly we were a bit knackered by this point, having also entertained Rich the draughtsman; Tim and Ross; Mark and Carsten and Jan – as well as making chicken sandwiches. I suddenly remembered I was meant to be hitting John’s leaving meal (he’s back to Canada for a while) and was very late. We called it a day and went to our respective homes… I hit Oxford Street for John’s meal – it was good to say goodbye if only short and sweet! I went down to Manacle to wait for Pete and chatted to a few mates before Pete arrived and it was time to hit the Phoenix. Yay. Had a complete blast down there and I think it was 5.30am before we moved on to Arq having spent time with Mark, John and Allan, Rod, Murray, David Austin etc. etc. etc. Arq was OK too – though the music was a bit all over the place. We retired back to Rich and Russ’s at 8amish to watch Toy Story and drink tea.
Sunday - Slept for a couple of hours and decided it was time to hit the house baby one more time. We knocked through the one wall we had left and then decided we should give the back garden a go. We got it all clear (including the concreted in washing line) except the huge avocado tree by the time that Adrian, Jason and David arrived. We had tea in the garden once they’d gone and hung around until Jan and Ralph came to look at the progress. Home to change and then out to the Shift for a reward of beer. Stayed there with Mark and Stephen – popped out for chinese and then were so stuffed by 10.45pm that we called it a night. I was almost asleep by the time I reached Brumby…
Monday – into work and decided to give the gym a miss to go and buy healthy lunch and snacky stuff for work. However I did run home – I’ve got a permanent locker at the gym now and so plan to run the 3½K each way every day… Oh really. It took just over 20 minutes which is great. Showered and went to try and buy Bad Dog tickets but the shop was closed :o( Pete cooked gnocci and then we were going to go and measure at the house but tiredness overtook us. I went home and uploaded the digicam pics onto the PC, but not yet onto here – watch this space.
Tuesday – up and ran into work this morning. Systems testing was cancelled so normal day. Had Josh for my personal training session at 1pm. Back here. Ate like a horse. And now it’s time to go and run home. I’ll be fit if I carry on like this!