'Tra-la-la' she thought.. 'what could be nicer than a jaunt with Juliano and Andreea to see Amanda's new house?' So having kissed Beaky, she sped off to Philbeach Gardens to meet them and to set off for Black Horse Road.
Andreea squeeezed - she's pregnant with Amelia and Lukas - behind the wheel and off they went. She had her mouth open within 20 minutes at the sight of the new (to her) Westfield and all the building works taking place behind the Holland Park area.
Zoom zoom.. no traffic om the roads and they made such good time that they pulled off into a huge shopping area and Juliano slipped out to them buy coffee and edible treats. Having 'wasted' quarter of an hour, they drove to meet Amanda at her new house.
Juliano, who is in charge of the refurbishment of the house, opened the door and in they went. Both Andreea and mum's eyes rolled about a bit as they explored this - extremely - weird dwelling. "What an extraordinary layout" they both remarked and she went through the kitchen, the only decent room in the house, out into the garden.
Which was why mum was there, she was to give Amanda ideas of what she would do if she decided to take on the job of making a garden for her.
Dear Readers.. if I say it was a complete nightmare, I am not exaggerating! The courtyard, which is what it is, measured 7 metres - 22 or so feet - across by 10 metres - 33 or so feet deep BUT the entire surface was covered to the depth of 30 cms - a foot - at least with large stones. Not pebbles.. stones!
The walls were tall panels of cheap fencing topped with arched metal posts which supported a fine mesh and curved inwards. 'Curious, no, not curious, absolutely extraordinary' she thought and went inside as it had started to rain.
Amanda arrived and they went back out and looked at the area, the side passage and into the poor broken down outhouse at the end of the garden and spoke of what mum would create and how she would achieve it. And then Amanda dropped her bombshell.
"That sounds absolutely lovely and I would love that if the garden were for me, but it's not, I have 13 rescue cats and a dog and the area is actually for them and I will be putting down covered litter trays out here and the outhouse will be for them if it gets too hot or if it rains during the day when I'm out at work or at university".
It was, excuse my French, pissing with rain, the temperature had dropped below 10 degrees and she was, frankly, more than a trifle pissed off at being asked to come and look at something that didn't require any input from her whatsoever!
GRRR.
So she smiled at Amanda, for whose father she would walk over hot coals in bare feet and said "Sweetie, you don't need me at all. What you do need is to call a rubbish clearance team and get them to take away the stones, then Juliano and his team will be able to get in to the outhouse safely, they'll replace the roof, make good the walls and flooring and put in a proper window, job done. The floor of the courtyard is concrete so nothing has to be changed there, the garden gate to the street has to be strengthened and made burglar proof and you will have to extend the cat security fencing all the way along that fence and over the gate".
And she walked back into the kitchen where Andreea looked at her and who then 'waddled' off to speak to Juliano.
Within a few minutes Juliano appeared carrying a monster box of tools and said "Ok Amanda, the first refurbishment phase is finished, call me when you are ready for me to start on the next phase. We're leaving now I have to get Andreea home as she is cold" and with that he scooped up Andreea and mum, opened their car, packed them in and off they went.
Andreea turned a few corners and stopped.. she hit the wheel and ranted "What the hell was that for? Why did she ask you to come over here to design a garden when it's going to be a cats' lavatory!" and they roared with laughter.
They dropped her off at her house and she ran down the steps and into the flat.. brrr.. she was so cold and her jacket was soaked. Kettle and soup were both heated.. she had a shower, got into her PJ's and jumped into bed.
The next day was glorious, sunny and warm and we had three friends to lunch on the allotments!
Monday arrived.. also dry and sunny, she had a very sore niggly patch on the inside of either side of her throat just below her ears. She gargled with salt water, brushed her tongue with a squirt of tincture of Myrrh and went about her business.. which was to gather me up again and head out to the allotments.
The next day in the afternoon, she packed a backpack with things for a 2 day stay away, gathered me up but this time we were off to visit friends in their lovely house way up above Streatham Hill.
This is a two part post.. so come back later to read the second part.. pippip.
GeeGee Parrot.
October 20th, 2018.
Andreea squeeezed - she's pregnant with Amelia and Lukas - behind the wheel and off they went. She had her mouth open within 20 minutes at the sight of the new (to her) Westfield and all the building works taking place behind the Holland Park area.
Zoom zoom.. no traffic om the roads and they made such good time that they pulled off into a huge shopping area and Juliano slipped out to them buy coffee and edible treats. Having 'wasted' quarter of an hour, they drove to meet Amanda at her new house.
Juliano, who is in charge of the refurbishment of the house, opened the door and in they went. Both Andreea and mum's eyes rolled about a bit as they explored this - extremely - weird dwelling. "What an extraordinary layout" they both remarked and she went through the kitchen, the only decent room in the house, out into the garden.
Which was why mum was there, she was to give Amanda ideas of what she would do if she decided to take on the job of making a garden for her.
Dear Readers.. if I say it was a complete nightmare, I am not exaggerating! The courtyard, which is what it is, measured 7 metres - 22 or so feet - across by 10 metres - 33 or so feet deep BUT the entire surface was covered to the depth of 30 cms - a foot - at least with large stones. Not pebbles.. stones!
The walls were tall panels of cheap fencing topped with arched metal posts which supported a fine mesh and curved inwards. 'Curious, no, not curious, absolutely extraordinary' she thought and went inside as it had started to rain.
Amanda arrived and they went back out and looked at the area, the side passage and into the poor broken down outhouse at the end of the garden and spoke of what mum would create and how she would achieve it. And then Amanda dropped her bombshell.
"That sounds absolutely lovely and I would love that if the garden were for me, but it's not, I have 13 rescue cats and a dog and the area is actually for them and I will be putting down covered litter trays out here and the outhouse will be for them if it gets too hot or if it rains during the day when I'm out at work or at university".
It was, excuse my French, pissing with rain, the temperature had dropped below 10 degrees and she was, frankly, more than a trifle pissed off at being asked to come and look at something that didn't require any input from her whatsoever!
GRRR.
So she smiled at Amanda, for whose father she would walk over hot coals in bare feet and said "Sweetie, you don't need me at all. What you do need is to call a rubbish clearance team and get them to take away the stones, then Juliano and his team will be able to get in to the outhouse safely, they'll replace the roof, make good the walls and flooring and put in a proper window, job done. The floor of the courtyard is concrete so nothing has to be changed there, the garden gate to the street has to be strengthened and made burglar proof and you will have to extend the cat security fencing all the way along that fence and over the gate".
And she walked back into the kitchen where Andreea looked at her and who then 'waddled' off to speak to Juliano.
Within a few minutes Juliano appeared carrying a monster box of tools and said "Ok Amanda, the first refurbishment phase is finished, call me when you are ready for me to start on the next phase. We're leaving now I have to get Andreea home as she is cold" and with that he scooped up Andreea and mum, opened their car, packed them in and off they went.
Andreea turned a few corners and stopped.. she hit the wheel and ranted "What the hell was that for? Why did she ask you to come over here to design a garden when it's going to be a cats' lavatory!" and they roared with laughter.
They dropped her off at her house and she ran down the steps and into the flat.. brrr.. she was so cold and her jacket was soaked. Kettle and soup were both heated.. she had a shower, got into her PJ's and jumped into bed.
The next day was glorious, sunny and warm and we had three friends to lunch on the allotments!
Monday arrived.. also dry and sunny, she had a very sore niggly patch on the inside of either side of her throat just below her ears. She gargled with salt water, brushed her tongue with a squirt of tincture of Myrrh and went about her business.. which was to gather me up again and head out to the allotments.
The next day in the afternoon, she packed a backpack with things for a 2 day stay away, gathered me up but this time we were off to visit friends in their lovely house way up above Streatham Hill.
This is a two part post.. so come back later to read the second part.. pippip.
GeeGee Parrot.
October 20th, 2018.
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