Monday, 7th December 2009
Fun At Home At The Weekend
Friday night was ‘date night’ as just because we’re married doesn’t mean that Fi and I can’t still treat each other to dinner and wine now does it?
Fi met me outside work at 17:00 and we wandered into the city centre. We did a little window shopping in Debenham’s where we found the perfect curtains for the lounge and we paid a visit to House of Fraser where Fi bought herself a beautiful dotty-blue dress. From the shops we headed to Harvey Nichols for an early evening cocktail (if you like bourbon – I can recommend the Manhattan) and some nibbles. After cocktails we wandered round the corner to, what turned out to be, a great Italian restaurant called Piccolino where we enjoyed a bottle of wine and I had one of the nicest pizzas I’ve ever had (probably only second to those I’ve had in Rome!).
Saturday morning was a military operation. We drove to Debenham’s first thing and bought three sets of curtains and three curtain poles for just shy of £450. We then headed to Cribb’s to do some Christmas shopping. We managed to get pressies for my folks, brother, nephew and (to-be) brother-in-law. We also found the perfect coffee table in John Lewis, although we’re going to have to wait a bit for it…
After lunch on Saturday (fantastic smoked salmon and scrambled eggs) we tried to put up the curtain pole above the patio doors. Putting up a curtain pole without a wooden batten to screw to and solid concrete to get through is never going to be fun. I’ve got a decent Bosch hammer drill but even though I could get through the concrete I just couldn’t drill the holes accurately and, consequently, couldn’t mount the brackets. I’d like to say that I handled this problem in a calm manner but I may have got myself into a bit of a mood…
I had cheered up by Saturday evening and we sat down to watch Public Enemies on DVD which was OK but I probably wouldn’t watch it again.
Sunday was a good day. We laid a carpet in the upstairs bathroom (which we’ve been meaning to do for months) and it wasn’t a bad effort even if I do say so myself. It’s certainly a vast improvement over the horrid bare floorboards we were having to put up with previously. After lunch, we bought a fantastic Christmas tree from the Clifton Rugby Club before heading to John Lewis to buy some different curtain poles with easier to mount brackets. I was determined not to be beaten by them!
We drove home via Sainsbury’s and then set about mounting one of the poles above the front window in the lounge. I had decided on a “pilot hole” technique to my drilling where I would use the new 3mm Tungsten-Carbide tipped drill bit I’d just bought to drill the holes before widening them with ever-increasing drill bits. It worked perfectly! The pole went up without any hassle and we now have some beautiful curtains hanging in the lounge. I was only allowed to put up one set though, just in case one went wrong and spoiled the evening…
Filled with self-satisfaction that I wouldn’t have to pay some handyman to put up the poles we put on some Christmas music and decorated the tree. Here’s a picture of it – I hope you agree that “Terry” (yes, we’ve named our tree!) is very pretty:
We rounded off the weekend with a delicious roast lamb and a homemade blueberry cheesecake. Wonderful.