Monday, February 28, 2005

A wet monday morning

Well I suppose we have been waiting for the rain, but it is 3 celcius and misty. My building team have been laid off for the day and I have moved my landscaping team onto delivring bricks and rocks and wooden poles up to my small farm just west of the garden centre. I knew it was raining - my back hurts.
Just back from signing the deeds to my apartment - 300 euros in property tax and a whopping 1250 euros just to sign the deeds. So now I start my 30 year mortagage, it matures just before I am 70 years old.... lots of relief though as I had to get an ex girlfriend to sign as a guarentor and was not sure whether she would turn up - but she is a good friend and no problem. Now I can think about a holiday, I missed a chance to go to Brazil - 7 days including flight and half board in a four star hotel in Forteleza for 476 euros!!!!!!!
Back to reality and time to pick up the kids and make dinner. Tonight:-
Grilled Goats Cheese salad
Grilled chicken with sweetcorn and carrots (kids)
Grilled salmon with lemon and capers (me)
Grilled ice cream (you belived that?)
Fire wood just arrived - just wait to see if the man will put it into my cellar in the pouring rain. Log fire and a scotch only a couple of hours off...

Sunday, February 27, 2005

End of a fine week end

Hi ?
How are you doing. It has been a good busy week end.
FRIDAY
I closed the Garden Centre on Friday having taken 2,400 euros for the week (break even is 1400 euros) so felt quite good.
Got a call from my ex wife to say she will be away for another week or so so could I keep the kids until then - no problem. Her father had a bad car crash earlier this week and she has flown to England where he lives, Turns out he is badly smashed up but have told my kids (his grand kids) that he is just poorly and in hospital, will tell them more when I know more.
Left the kids on their own after dinner and took my girlfriend to a new bible study class I am doing, hosted this week by JC, who is a wonderful single mum who has a big house with lots of dogs cats kids garden - I wonder if she is hiding behind all these mountains of work she creates for herself?? She is nice though - I have delt with her ex husband in the past and he was a P.
SATURDAY
Took the kids to youth club then showed Owl (my lady) my garden centre - we have just finished the new gallery and it all is starting to look great, I am organising an easter fair there on Saturday 26th March (Easter Saturday), should be good. I was fretting all day as I was supposed to be taking my former girlfriend and her daughter out for dinner and although I had told Owl she was bristling a lot.... imagine my relief when the ex girlfriend rang up to say she had the flu!!
Now here is the funny bit - I made a mistake with the baby sitter the previous night, I had told them friday instead of saturday so they had turned up on friday, now I had to ring them on saturday to say I didn't need then at all - except they are really nice so I invited them to dinner at the elleventh hour. Turbo charged cooking as follows:-

Home made roast cougette soup (9 out of 10 - by Owl)

Sea food rice (7 out of 10 by me)

Home made apple crumble (1 out of 10 - burnt and tasteless...)

but nice night and it made up for my hopelessness...

SUNDAY

Up early and down to Owl's church in Almancil as I am the male side of our new praise band in the St Vincents Anglican Church there. Freezing, next time I go there I think I will empty out my freezer and use the contents to warm the church up. Singing 7 out of 10 - but everybody loves me so think I got away with it. I love being next to Owl and involved there - I think I have to take singing lessons though.....
On to lunch, an invite to S and J's in the middle of nowhere - well a roaring log fire, plenty of red wine and good hosts. I live in an apartment in the city so their rural nest is bliss - and they only quizzed my landscaping head for half an hour. Good prawns and salad ( I am one of those veggie - types, only recent after lots of stomach problems I found it was meat that caused me to be fat and sick!!)
Dropped Owl off at her apartment and feel a bit sad, I really am a bit too attached to her. Kids now in bath and whisky (Jamesons - the only scotch worth drinking!) My glorious Newcastle have won again (four wind in ten days!!) and will now do a simple dinner of fresh ravioli and pesto sauce then sink into my plump white sheets.
Tomorrow is a bigie - have to sign my deeds on this apartment and start a thirty year mortagage, but it starts the next phase in my wonderful life on this incredible planet.
See you all tomorrow. God bless xx