Well, the kitchen moved on a pace this week with the worktops being fitted. We are really pleased with the way that they look and have definitely made the right choice for us and the house. The sink is in place and the hob is in the work top. The plumber is coming round to do his bit – apparently before Christmas, but I’m guessing probably not. But at least we can look at it and imagine it finished, and as we’d planned on a cheese feast for our Christmas meal it won’t really make any difference.
Manuel has been unable to unblock the stove pipe as it has been raining too much and he doesn’t want to stand on the slippery roof. The stove was very blocked just as it comes out through the wall with soot, but appears to be blocked further up too, so he’s going to have to stand on the roof and look down the pipe.
We’ve had a lot of rain over the last couple of days, in fact, we were on ‘yellow alert’. This has made things a bit difficult as all the dogs have had a 24 hour stomach bug, and are being sick a lot, but it is difficult to keep them outside – or indeed to get things dry after we’ve washed them (they seem to like to be sick on soft things).
Rosie is fine and hasn’t been affected by the stomach bug. I wonder if she may be the cause of it. She’s had kennel cough, but that’s not come to much and is getting noticeably less. She is getting on well. We’ve made a little pen for her with a puppy cage inside. She gets fed in the puppy cage and sleeps in it, but we keep the door open for now and she can walk around the pen. When she gets older she may be too big for a cage, however it does help having somewhere safe where they can stay. She cried – a lot – the first couple of nights, but doesn’t seem too bad now. We’re trying to keep to a routine where she is put in her pen a couple of times a day. To give the other dogs a break, but also so she gets used to being on her own.
Tomorrow we’ve got manualidades here with the youngsters. I’ve planned making sweets, which they quite enjoyed last time, plus making christmas cards, paper monsters and paper angels. I’ve got from 5 year olds to 11 year olds, so it’s going to be quite challenging to keep them all entertained. They are having lunch, and they were worried about being just fed vegetables (they know I’m a vegetarian). It’s difficult to know what to offer, so I thought that burgers would be a good idea. However I have been really surprised at how difficult it is to find them. Eventually we got some in Zafra. I thought Ian could make them burgers like they get in burger bars with all the trimmings. However looking through our fridge I think that might mean lettuce. We’ve also got some potatoes to do potato wedges. Next year when we have our oven fitted, I might go for pizza and they can make their own toppings, however we’ll wait and see how tomorrow goes first. There’s a very real possibility that I may swear, again, that this is an experience that is best never repeated…