Simon’s parents have something or other to do in Belfast tomorrow, so they are staying with us tonight.  Its the first time they’ve been down since we  moved.  Even though we’ve invited them many times.

I am making goulash and noodles and crusty bread for dinner.  Maybe a salad as well.  Maybe not!

So we’ll give the place a brush up today, get the spare room all nice and pretty and await their arrival.

Our first house guests!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, let’s try these pictures again, shall we?

The hallway after you first come through the front door of the flat: –

At the end of the hall there are some of my masks,  I have quite a few.

This is the hall bathroom, which is the first door on the left as you enter the flat: –

Nice, big, deep tub.  Shower too!

The next door on the left is our bedroom: –

If you look very carefully, just past the second set of pillows, you will see my dragon.  Her name is Isabella Francesca.  I got her a few weeks ago.  She is green and purple with silver fingernails.  I may take a closer picture of her later.

Another thing to note in the above picture:  There are, above our bed, two pictures that are exactly the same.  They are prints of a Georgia O’Keefe flower, framed identically.  I bought them at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I framed them the same and posted one to Simon when I was in San Francisco and he was in Belfast.  Now they hang side by side.  (they hang a bit crooked because I used existing hooks…man are the walls *hard* in this place!)

The next picture is the view from the other side of the bed: –

That’s my dresser, which I use as a dressing table.  You can also see the very nice, big jewelry box that Simon bought me as a gift one year.  I love that thing.

And the other side of the room: –

Where the stereo lives!  That door straight ahead is to: –

Our ensuite bathroom.  I deliberately didn’t shoot the floor, but trust me, its blue. The shower is to the left and the toilet to the right.  That glass shelf with the towel rack Simon and I installed ourselves.

This is the view from the door of the Master Bedroom down the hall to the lounge: –

On the top of the shelves to the right you can see some of my puzzle globes.

The first door on the left is: –

The library.  All that bedding on the bed is new as of yesterday.  I was in Primark and found a duvet set, with sheet and pillow case, for about £7.  And a duvet for £4.  And its pink because I expect the only person who will ever stay in there will be my nieces.  And they love pink!

If you stand with your back to that bed and look to your left you will see: –

A set of bookcases.  Look, there is *actually* room for more books!  Those pictures at the top are of my nieces and nephews.

And the other side of the room: –

More bookcases! Hence being the library.  On top of those are my baseball caps.

The next door down the hall to the left is the guest bedroom: –

I have no idea why that duvet is so lumpy…anyway it is completely coincidental that the duvet cover actually matches the curtains.  We brought the duvet cover with us, the curtains were already there.  And that picture on the wall? Its a chicken.  That was already here!

Here is the view to the foot of the bed: –

Wait, you mean you and Simon have even *more* bookcases? Why yes, yes we do!

Next up is the view from the lounge door back to our bedroom: –

More masks on the right there.  And another shot of my globes!

And then you enter the lounge: –

This is what you see when you look left.  Well, Simon isn’t always there, but a lot of the time!

And when you look right: –

The dining area.  And a bit of the kitchen.

And here are our new wall units: –

Look! All my pretties are out!  And that curved shelf is my perfume bottle collection.

And finally, the kitchen: –

Isn’t it pretty?

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Come back and see me sometime!!

I just unpacked the last three boxes.  Its really truly done.

Still a few things to rearrange, but I will do that tomorrow, since it is May Day Bank Holiday tomorrow and I am off work.

Once that is done I will take more pictures to show y’all.  So stay tuned!

So what are we doing with our three bedrooms?

Well, the Master Bedroom, is, of course, mine and Simon’s bedroom.

The middle, small bedroom is now the library.  I have even turned the single bed in there into a sort of couch, so come on over and pursue the shelves, grab a book and curl up!  There are even throws if your feet get cold!

And the third bedroom is for guests.  It also has bookshelves in it (as does the hallway), but I think it is still a cozy little place for a guest to spend the night.  Or for me to spend the night when I can’t sleep and don’t want to wake Simon with my tossing and turning.

So I am very satisfied with what we have here.  I think we’ll stay awhile, if the landlord is okay with that.  We’ll see in about 7 months!

But we’ve been having technical problems all weekend with the ‘net.  Some sites were available, some were not.  This one was not.

It was some weird Virgin Media thing.  Their ‘engineers were working on the problem’ all freakin’ weekend.

So I spent the weekend putting together flat pack furniture.  Still have two bookcases to go.  But the wall unit in the front room is done.  And half empty.  I need to go buy some more stuff. 😉

Nothing much else to write about.  Been a quiet couple of days.

So, the lift in our building has mental issues.

It has one of those mechanical voices to tell you what floor you are on.  No problem, right? Wrong.

The day we moved in it called our floor, the 6th, the 2nd Sub-Basement.  There isn’t even one sub-basement in our building, never mind two.

Then, on occasion, it announces the third floor, as you ride past it.  Not when stopping at it, just to note that it is there, I guess.

Oh, and it always says going down.  Even when you are at the basement.

I really hope there are no sight impaired people in our building.  Cuz they would never get the right floor.