I was wondering how many of my Twitter/facebook/friends have ever been to Slovakia ?

what do you know about Slovakia ?

I guess some of you may have visited Bratislava, but, that’s a city, not representative of the country, and in my opinion, apart from the old city center, not a very nice city at all ..

So tell me people, what do you know / think of this central European place ?

Friendships ..

Mine seem to be going only one way …

Maybe I am just in a down mood, but I feel that my friendships always come from me. I am a person that likes to be in touch, like to keep the friends he has, and values them very highly. Apart from maybe a couple of you, and I think you know who you are, my friends communications only ever comes when I email someone.

I don’t think I am being negative, but just an honest thought.

I have twitter friends that only react when I send mails, I have email friends who only ever react when I email first, the same can be said of texting as well. Living remotely from all of my close friends, electronic communication and social networking site is how I continue to maintain my friendship links, but surely this should go both ways ?

Maybe I should just stop, see what happens ? Maybe my friends have got used to the fact I will always start an exchange in emails or msgs ? But, somehow I doubt that. I think, if I stopped contacting people first, my communications with people would just end, and that I find sad and strange. It makes me sad that people do not value the friendship as highly as I do. I place my friends at a very high level, but maybe I am kidding myself. Maybe I am not high on their list, and they have 50 other people they do have regular contact with, and it happens I am too low on that list for them to initiate the first contact. Happy to be friendly and to respond, but never to think .. “Hmmm, wonder how Moon is getting on?”

Now, there are some exceptions, but in general, this is how I am feeling. If I didn’t bother to make the contact, see how things are in other people’s world, I am guessing they probably wouldn’t even notice…..

YAY !!!… Finally, just under 1 year of removing the first brick from the wall in the attic, we have moved to our new home. It is all a bit of a mess, but it is OUR mess. As anyone who has moved will know, it takes time to unpack, then re-organise and then re-organise again, but we just don’t care. we are in our home. Our first home to own as a couple, and of course, our first home with Matej. People that have followed this story know the sweat and tears we have put into this project, and the exhaustion felt, esp over the final month of finishing things to a standard that we could move in.

Unpacking was a lot of fun. You have to remember, we packed to go to the USA after only 6 months together, I packed things away that Mrs M had never seen, so to finally unpack and have things about after 4 years was great, so really nice surprises. Then, for us to unpack things we shipped back from the USA was also good fun, Matej obviously helping !

So…. before I show you around, just take a look at this …. this is where we started. I do not have video of the very start, but this is from I think, Feb this year.

And here we are now…. have a look and see what you think ….

So, I will start at the back of the house, which are the two bedrooms… Matej’s and ours…

From here we will go into the bathroom. Not finished just yet, need some doors fitting to the cupboard, but otherwise all very nice, and the little fella loves his bathtimes ! and … this is where the underfloor heating is sooooo good

This is the view from my bedroom door, right down to the entrance. On the left are the doors and windows leading outside to the patio, with the streaming sunshine lighting up the place, and then to the right is the house… the Living Room, Dining Room and the Kitchen… all open..We will have some comfy chairs here, so in the future we can enjoy a coffee looking out into our garden. For now, its a great runway for Matej.. !

Ok, here is the sitting room, complete with my fireplace. We have now got the grate and fire guard, and have had the fire alight for the last two evenings. Perfect end to the day ! It burns perfectly, and gives the whle room a wonderful Atmosphere. Just need a roasting pan for my chestnuts ! lots to be done here, but for now, it is what it is… my place to sit, put my feel up and have a little rest…

Into the kitchen and dining room areas… We still have some doors to be fitted in the kitchen, and at some point we will be having a range cooker installed, but for now we will cook on the old cooker. We have a dishwasher, old farm sink, waste disposal unit. We love the new wooden work tops, although I am little anal when it comes to people not using coasters !!!

This is where we will have our walnut table, once we finally get ourselves organised, move the fallen tree from the garden, and get the wood prepared, but, in time, we will have a lovely, family table..

This is the view in reverse running back down to the bedrooms, and a final look at the fireplace..

So, we are moved in, and now we will start to make it a home. I already feel relaxed here, even though the stress of trying to do all the jobs we have, get things into places we want them, having Matej quite poorly for a week… it is fun. Matej loves the space, the soft carpet, his room and the fact he can run the whole length of the house. The underfloor heating is really great, takes some time to get it right, either swealtering, or cold, but we are getting there.

The dogs are happy too, They are not so keen to escape anymore, and they will settle in the sun when they are not chasing each other round the garden. We still have so much to do, but…. we are here, in our home ….. Wonderful !

So, can you believe it, because I most certainly can’t. Today is the day that we move into our cottage in the sleepy village of Medvecké. Finally.

Those of you who have followed this story will know the journey we have had from 100 yr old, outdated, traditional Slovak cottage to the new home that is ours. I won’t lie, it has been very tough. We have been lucky with our builder who I cannot praise highly enough. You hear so many horror stories with builders, we have simply the best there is. We were lucky that we didn’t really uncover any major surprises along the way, but then again, we expected to knocked down, re-wire, re-plumb the whole place anyway, not too many surprises when you have plans to redevelop 90% of the place. That said, never ever think these thiongs are easy, they put huge strain and pressure on you and a relationship.. be warned

Pictures will follow once we get a little more sorted out, but we are so happy with the place. It hasn’t really hit me yet that I will not have to be sitting on a kitchen chair (my arse is sore from two years of that chair) to use the laptop. I can now go back to enjoying my Parents-in-laws company. Without their support, no way could this of happened so easily, and I am ashamed and angry at myself for not realising this more and thinking more before getting angry and frustrated with them. They are wonderful people, hearts as big as Slovakia, doing all they can just to help us. Sometimes they help too much, and lovely as they are, I do not want to live with them. As lovely as all my readers are, I do not want to live with you.

I think they understand this, however, it is quite common for children to continue living with parents as they gain their own family, just not for me. I am so looking forward to have my home, my domain, my castle !

The transformation of the old to new has been incredible. I watched an old video clip I took back in Feb, and just watched in amazement. I love the fact that when I now walk around the new place, I can still feel, smell, visualise the old walls, furniture, structure of the place. Even though we have redesigned the house, I hope we have kept its soul.

It has been wonderful to open boxes we packed from our time in the USA, even more, boxes I packed that my wife has never seen, and from her storage, old things she hasn’t seen for 8 years. We are stating our new life now. Matej loves, simply LOVES the new place. He runs on the carpets, makes snow angels when he can, and it is so much safer that the PIL house for him. We have wonderful under floor heating… so so good !….

So, now we can settle, take our time to fit into our home. Well, not too much time, my Brother and his wife arrive tomorrow for a weekend !!! still, it will be wonderful to share some time with them, and invite, and all others into our home… but, just give it a week before you come over please !

******** UPDATE ********

We MOVED !!!! yesterday …. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What a nightmare turn of events of Thursday night for poor Bilbo…

After the tough time he had of damaging his shoulder, limping about and biting me in pain, he took a nasty turn for the worst on Thursday. He was also a very lucky lad. Sometimes things just happen for a reason, good or bad, and this time it happened to occur for the good !

I had Meg on her chain, and I whistled for Bilbo to return so I could lock him up for the night in his new kennel. He slowly, decides to limp over, and with me in a huge rush, as always, I lost patience with him, so I walk over to scope him up, and give him a helping hand to his kennel. As I go to pick him up, I feel his stomach, like a football !.. I mean, hard, swollen and big ! Well, big for the little fella anyway. I had noticed earlier, about 30mins before, he had eaten really well, that’s always a good sign after an illness or accident. I decided that his had a tummy full of food, so I chained him, and walked to the car.

As I walked, I had a nagging feeling. I know dogs, I have had many of them over the years, and I just knew something was not quite right. Luckily for me, my cousin over here is a young Vet, about to qualify, so I thought I should call her. I described what had happened and she said, very quickly, “get him over to me now, that is not right”. So, I took Matej home to Grandma, loaded the limping, sad looking Bilbo into the car, and headed over to her place. After a quick examination, in the road, in the pissing rain, she quickly decided that Bilbo had to go to surgery immediately So, she dashed him off the her surgery, leaving me to just sit a wait.

I had a call about 8pm, he was in a tough situation. They could not get him to vomit up enough of the food to release the swollen tummy, so they had to operate. I gave my permission, and just waited… nervously…

I got the call later on to say that the operation was a success. They removed nearly 2kg of food from his stomach, and he should recover just fine. I was so relieved, and yes, I cried again.. (yes a big girl, but he is my dog, my ickle Bilbo)….

The issue was the fact he had eaten so much dried food, then drank a lot of water, and his system couldn’t digest it all, and the added water caused the food to swell. Interesting, this has never been an issue before, and isn’t with Meg at all. But, lesson learnt, soak the food properly first, and use less of it, to mix with wet food as well. He has not got a place inside as he recovers, needs further injections (which he does not like) and he will be ready, in a week, to join his beloved Meg. Meg, incidentally is a sad hound to, every time I let her off her leads, she simply rushes to Bilbo’s kennel, only to find it empty.

Bilbo is a lucky boy. Lucky I went to lift him up, Lucky I decided something wasn’t right, Lucky I have a wonderful cousin who reacted immediately. If we had not of taken the action we did, She said he certainly would have died in the night. Thankfully, he is a sad, but getting better little dog !

So, following my spectacular tumble last week, I have incurred further injuries from Sunday.

I was bitten for the fist time by a dog. A proper, full on, ‘prise the jaws of my hand’ kind of bite ! The sad thing about this, it came from my loving, softest, friendly little wandering soul of Bilbo.

As normal, happens at least once a day, lead by Meg, the two little sods decided to escape and go walk about in the village. I am not to bothered by this anymore, but I feel I am responsible if my two dogs are annoying other villager’s dogs who are kept in their own gardens, so I dutifully whistle (glad I learnt to do that when I was young) Finally, Meg comes dashing up to me, which is strange, as Bilbo is normally the one to return first. In the distance I can now see Bilbo dashing towards me, but not in his normal bouncy style, but is a run for you life, low to floor dash.

As he gets close my heart begins to break. I can see he is only on 3 legs, his front left leg dragging and flopping about. I am sure it is broken. He dashes past me, and into the large drainage channel, scared, shivering and not moving. I cannot reach him, and nothing is making he move. He was so scared, shaking, crying …. Broke my heart.

I sprint Meg back home, ready to face the worst with Bilbo. I as run back to the road, he come rushing up to me, still on three legs, with the third just hanging down. He lets me scope him up, and just shakes in my arms. I take him home, sit quietly, and examine him the best I can. The good news was that the leg wasn’t broken, marked, and just painful, he just lay so still in my arms, I thought I was about to lose him. I took him to his kennel, got a blanket and just lay him down, sat with him, stroking him, and wondering what else I could do.

I think he was either hit by a car, or bitten by another dog. I am not sure. He is quite a timid soul, but who knows. I took him another blanket, and as I tried to get him comfy, he suddenly snapped and locked onto my hand. For a small dog, I can assure you he has a big bite. I had to prise his jaws off me. I did swear. I left him alone to settle, he was so still, motionless, shallow breathing, in shock. I could do nothing, I sat on my house steps and cried. I could not bear the thought of him just slipping away. After a few mines of this, I decided to act my full 40 years, get up off my arse, and check him again. He was sleeping, so I left him for a couple of hrs.

I returned, he wagged his tail, stood slowly, and I genuinely felt he looked sorry for biting me. Not his fault at all, if you poke anything hard enough, it will react. He ate well, and I let him off his lead, and he limped over to see Meggie. Throughout the night he was ok, and this morning, looked 10x’s stronger. I think I might over reacted, but he looked in so much pain, and so forlorn …..

Just shows how much we love our pets ….

It has been a while since Matej made an appearance here, but I could resist showing you all how he is coming along ..

Lots of fun right now, loves his Pooh Bear and his football ..

I do not like Gravity or Newton, he was clearly a tosser and when Gravity works against you its a bastard I suppose we do need it, but yesterday it was my undoing.

I landed on my Butt… not just a stumble, but a full on, comedy fall .. down some steep steps, carrying a heavy, tiled topped, chest of drawers.

These were not your normal house stairs, these were the stairs that lead up into the attic. I have been up and down these stairs a fair amount, and admittedly had a couple of wobbles on occasions, but never took a tumble. Yesterday afternoon I certainly did. I was moving the first of our boxes from their 2 year vacation in the attic, and rather than moving the shoes from the side of the steps, I thought it would be best (easiest) to step aside of them.

So, when I was in the Kermit position (Where he was not at the bottom, and not at the top, about the stair where the little green fucker stops), maybe he tripped me,… I realised that my center of gravity was a little too far back, and that point when you just know there is no coming back. With my hands full of this bastard chest of drawers, I just knew the worst was coming … Oh fucking hell I might of yelled … At the base of these stairs, there is no room. The is a cupboard full of stuff and the hoover also lives there, not the most comfortable for my peachy arse to land on.

I crashed, from about 10ft up, into said cupboard, with one foot still lodged on the Kermit step….. bugger Ouchee…. the drawers landing on me, and stressing my knee to bend the wrong way, which, btw, it does not like. Some of my readers know I suffer from bad knees, and I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to help…. As I landed, I managed to crash through the two wardrobe draws on the cupboard, pull them off with my tracksuit bottom, now indecently ripped btw, and lodge myself in this prone position …. I might, just might of said a few colorful words at this point.

I managed to tumble the drawers of me, get my other leg under me, and release my trapped knee, remarkably, just a slight twist and some swelling has come from this, a rather nasty bruise on my shin, and a rather Peachy Arse Bruise ……

Yes, I am an idiot !

Twitter is a funny animal…

I use Twitter daily, in fact, I could go as far to say I am addicted to the inane world of 140 Characters.

I have people on Twitter who have the ability to really make me laugh using those 140 Characters.

I have some people that can be amazingly creative in those 140 Characters

I have ‘friends’ that complain about my spelling in 140 Characters

I have an artistic friend who talent amazes me in 140 Characters

I have some people who are just dirtbags in those 140 Characters

I have people who tell me their every meal over 140 Characters

I have coffee adicts using 140 Characters

I have fitness fanatics who eat take-aways that astound me of 140 Characters

I have some people whose self importance astounds me in 140 Characters

I have some genuine friends from those 140 Characters

I have people that never talk to me using use their 140 Characters

I have one member of my family who talks bollocks over 140 Characters

I have a couple of the bravest cancer fighters in the world who tell their story over 140 Characters

I have people who fawn over my little boy over 140 Characters

I have a moustachioed lady using 140 Characters

I have a cat and a dog using 140 Characters

I have genuine helpers using 140 Characters

I have Mums by the dozen using 140 Characters

I have some weird people using 140 Characters

I have got advice from those 140 Characters

I have angrily unfollowed because of the 140 Characters

I have a friend who I have lived with her depression over 140 Characters

I wonder where you fit into these 140 Characters …??

and yes, I am counting …

I haven’t posted much for a while on the house, because I wanted to try to show you all the impact of our recent developments. We are nearly there now, 15 days to go until My Brother and Sister-in-law arrive, and they will be staying with us.

My twitter friends will all know I have been painting…. sodding painting. After a days work in the office, it’s a question of dashing home, getting changed and heading to the house to paint. Not an easy job at all. Fresh plaster seems to just drink the paint, so 3 coats required all over, and of course, having those wonderful Oak Beams also means I have to take care painting between each and every one. The two bedrooms are done, the kitchen is done, but a fair few still to go.

We have finished the windows and doors. It was a huge thing to be able to leave the house on Tuesday and actually shut the door behind us. In the 18 months we have owned this place, we have never closed the house off. It has always been open for people to wander in, the dogs to wander in and out and for workers to see it as a building site, now we can close the doors… it’s a house.

We have removed the delightful outside toilet, and are finishing off this small roof that comes off the garage. This used to be for chooks and pigs, but will be my store for tools etc. Comes off the garage which has now had a new concrete floor to it as well.

We have lights in the place too, do you know how good it feels to flick a switch to have light, rather than dragging lamps all over the house !

The kitchen floor is down ….. all tiled and done !

The kitchen is now half fitted … How cool is that ! We have all the appliances being stored at our builders house, we will be moving those in right away …

The trap door leading down the the wine cellar, this will be insulated, and finished in wood.

And this is the dinning room, and we will have a large, family table made from our own Walnut tree.

We have my pride and joy, and about 3 weeks solid work from the builder to have this …. My Fireplace. This is an all English fireplace, Slovaks never have anything like this, and I am very proud to have designed and help create this. I have to give huge credit to Maros, the care, commitment to making this look perfect has been incredible. It looks easy to build right ? well, the guts of this has been near impossible. To cut and shape the bricks to fit around the shell of the fireplace has be slow, painfully slow…. I love it, it has always been my dream to have a house with a fireplace like I have always known at My Mum’s, and now I have my own. With a mirror, a companion set, and a few other parts, it will be just perfect !

and the ever helpful Matej ..

We have some work to do, we have to move a door and relocate the boiler, which is a real pain, but not a disaster.. fit the furnace, connect the water… and we are done …. oh, build a driveway, complete the drains, finish off a new section of roof …… ad infinitum …

It’s exhausting ….. not just physically, but mentally for us both right now ..

As always, we have a lot on our plate, but with the 27th of Oct rapidly coming towards us, we are now in full stress, mental mode !

“Why ?” I hear you all ask……

Well, the date above is the date that we must be moved into the house by.

“Why that date?” again you all chirp ….

That’s the date my brother and his lovely wife come to visit us for the third time in Slovakia. So, we must be moved in by then. The place won’t be finished, that will never happen I feel (think about the painting of the Golden Gate Bridge…..) but, we will be ready for them. I am pleased that we have been set this date for them, it gives us the goal, the aim, that we have to be sorted by then.

Autumn is here now, although we have stunning days, the nights are now cold, and more importantly, becoming damp and foggy. The damp will get into the house if we do not get a move on and get living there.

So, what are we up to ? Well, a few things (there’s a surprise) … Work is manic for us both. Our company is getting stronger and busier, which leads us to be busier and busier. My role as a Program Manager for our newest, and biggest customer is challenging me, and keeping me of mischief, and Mrs M role as product development manager is running her off her socks. I have the client visiting this week, so that will involve some late nights, and then Mrs M has to go to a ‘bonding’ course for managers, which takes her away until Saturday morning, leaving me to do the daddy stuff at home. Along side this, we have money to organise, more and more builders to organise and supervise, and for me, I now have a full time job working at the house.

This week, any spare time I have I will be painting. Sounds easy, but when you have a whole house to paint, inside and outside, that’s a lot of painting ! Fresh plaster takes an extra coat as well, and with my wonderful beams, even more work in preparation and covering them ! I have so far spent two weeks doing this, and so far, two rooms are complete, ready for the carpet to be sorted. I will now start at the other end of the house, the kitchen. White, white and white is the order of the day here. Might change our minds later, but for now, we have no idea on what colour we would really like, need to get a feel for the place.

What else this week … Well, our builder should finish all inside work. The fireplace is the key, and then a trap door for the wine cellar (added numerous grey hairs this week as Matej toddles towards the opening!)…. The kitchen tiles are all down (looks brilliant) and the kitchen will be fitted next weekend.

On Weds, we have the final doors fitted. This means, after owning the place for 15 months, we will have keys, and we can lock our doors. For 15 months, the house has been open to anyone, or indeed anything (hate rats) who wants to come on in. We have been very lucky over the things we have just left in the house, nothing has gone missing…. That’s why we love our village !

We now have lights in our rooms, how cool is that, no more dragging leads and lamps everywhere !

The house ends are now sealed and plastered, ready for me to paint.

All in all, we are on track… just need the boiler to be moved (like we knew you had to have it a meter from the electric box !) and a new door knocked through to accommodate this, the furnace is ordered, needs to be fitted, and I think that is about it …. Carpets delivered, bathroom to be finished, toilets fitted, but bacteria for the waste recycling … anything I have forgotten … probably !

Nothing to say really, just thought I’d ramble on, after all, that is the name of the blog right ???

It has been about 4 years since I left England, headed out to California, and then came to settle into Slovakia. Things have changed in my life more than they ever have before. That’s not supposed to happen to a 40 yr old right ? I mean, are we not supposed to be settled in Suburbia with the Ford in the driveway, and the 2.4 children running around …. I always thought that would be you know, but how different could my life be ?

I don’t think I know of anyone out there who has had such a roller coaster of a ride in life. Don’t get me wrong, apart from my Dad’s death back when I was 18, it has all be self induced. I made these choices, and I am sure most of them have been the correct choice ?

After all, at 40, I am happier than I ever have been. I have more in my life that I ever imagined possible, so that means the choices I have made have all be correct.

It amazes me sometimes how easily I and Mrs M seem to take tough choices. I decided to quit my City job in a few days to follow her to the USA. With 12 hrs of me learning I had lost my job whilst in Canada, and could not return back home, we decided I would fly back to England and Mrs M would follow as soon as she could. We decided within a day or so to come to Slovakia and buy a small piece of land here, and to build a place….. we then also took the decision with a day of buying this old cottage, change our plans of the old land, sell and rebuild the cottage we are now so close to moving into ….

So, how come we can make these decisions so fast ? are we reckless ? Are we lucky they work out ?…. I would say no to both of these. I would say a couple of things, make a choice, and wholeheartedly give it a go, after all, you can always change that choice right ?… and I never ever want to die wondering …? .. I never want to look back and say ‘I wonder if’… Now, I know all of the choices we made were before Matej, and that obviously changes how reckless we can be, but I still think we will always makes choices quickly and then look forward rather than to look back ..

I wonder what choices I will have to make going forward ? I would say nothing major now, but then I would have said that every year since I have been with Mrs M, but clearly, that wasn’t the case …..

I wonder if anyone has had more changes in a short time span as we have ???… if you have…. I’d love to hear about it ?

Do you think we have been lucky it seems to have worked out ? Or do you wish maybe you could make decisions so quickly and go with that conviction

Whatever anyone ever says about me, they can never doubt my enthusiasm to take a chance, commit, and live with that choice !

A huge leap forward in the building of the house. This was the last major work we had to get completed. Obviously, underfloor heating effects the whole house, but also, with this complete, we have our final floor now laid as well. It is not a cheap option, and certainly not an easy option. Lots of preparation goes into laying the heating, but we are so happy now it is done. I walked around the house on Sunday Morning, and I felt like a giant ! from day 1, until now, we have raised the floor by over 40cms. That is a huge amount of concrete, and for the first time, the ceilings were not miles above me. The windows are now at the correct height, the fireplace can be visualized properly….. It really feels like a home now ..

So, this first picture is of the hallway leading into the bathroom. I include this one because it is the only photo I have that shows the polystyrene layers before the black, pipe holding layer went down. Maros and I spent 12 long hours laying this stuff down. I HATE the ‘squeaky’ sound of polystyrene, so 12 hrs of fitting, cutting, squeezing in the bloody stuff, over every inch of the house like a huge jigsaw puzzle was no fun ! It is best to do this in two layers (5cm each) for better insulation, but you have to make sure the joints do not match with each layer.

On top of this, goes the black, plastic layers that will hold the pipes in place. Again, fitted all over the house…. I didn’t fit this, this is where we had the experts come in.

and here we have the first of the water pipes being clipped into place.

Once all the pipes have gone in, tested and fitted to the two manifolds we have, the concrete men come in. It took the guys two days to complete the pipework, they were excellent, worked long days, fast, tidy, and have done a great job. The concrete men then pumped the first layer of concrete all over the house. This is special concrete designed for this application, and after letting it set over night, the following day they came and completed the job. Again, fast, clean, good guys who have done a great job.

The whole house now has one floor level, and looks like this:
Matej’s Room

Our Room

The living Room

Fireplace and one of the manifolds

Kitchen and dining room

and the ever helpful….. Matej

Once we are done, maybe our crop of this will help calm the nerves ?

So, where now.. well, we have the patio doors and external doors to come, they will be with us in 2 weeks. We have the fireplace to finish, and on Monday, the kitchen is starting to go in….. On Monday, we are going to buy the paint, so I can start to paint the place from Tuesday onwards… and we have chosen carpets and tiles …. so, nearly our pain, and yours for reading this blog… is coming to end … we hope…. I have plans to be living here within a month……

Hiring workers in Slovakia are a funny thing, like all countries, you get the good, the not so good, and the bloody awful. We had a choice when we took on this project of rebuilding the Slovak cottage, in fact three choices, one of which was never gonna happen !

1 – Get a company to do everything and hand us the key at the end
2 – Find individual trades to do the job for us
3 – Do it all myself

Have a guess which was wasn’t a goer ??

We took the option of finding all the trades ourselves, and when I say ‘ourselves’, I obviously mean Mrs M ! My Slovak is improving, but, it is not that good. We have chosen well, you all know that our builder is just fantastic, his speed, his commitment and quality of work is just great He does get paid above average for Slovakia, but I kinda believe that you get what you pay for, and the added bonus he gives us with looking after the whole project is worth every penny.

We have also chosen well with Roofers, Sparks, Plumber and heating, the only mistake we made was with the fireplace, which turned out to not be a huge error.

But, here is the thing I don’t quite get with Slovak trade…. When we negotiated a hourly rate with our builder (strange in itself, normally you get a price for the job, but as we didn’t know what we were getting into, be decided an hourly rate) it was made clear that not only did we always pay for the lunch hour (to be fair, Maros never ever takes an Hr), but we were also expected to provide the lunch for the workers ….. that’s really strange for me, and fortunately, the builder agreed this was unnecessary, and didn’t push it, but it certainly is expected. We have our heating workers here at the moment, they have come from up north to do the job, the lead worker we know very well, and is a close family friend, but we have had to find and pay for their accommodation, provide lunch and dinner for them…..

I can understand paying for accommodation I guess, but I would expect this to be included in the final price, but for Mrs M to provide lunch, and for me to cook dinner (yes, I did the cooking) for them is strange, something I would never expect to do….

We do provide coffee on site, and for our labourers, part of the deal is we provide them with beer daily….. (don’t ask, we just do) … but never did I expect that we would be a canteen as well !

Things you learn huh !

Tara’s The Gallery’ gave me an excuse to revisit this blog I wrote, and to celebrate by greates pair of shoes !

Sometimes you have to make a panic buy, you know, you have 30mins to get something you need, but you have no time…. Well, that’s what happened with these boots.

We were leaving sunny California for Christmas with my sister in Vancouver, when it struck us that we only had flip flops to wear, not really what you want to stop Jack Frost nipping at your tootsies huh !.. so we dashed of to the local Mall, and rushed into a sports shop, you know the type, we stock everything for every sport, but we haven’t got a Scooby what it all does….. Now, I never buy specialist things from general sports shops. If you want decent walking boots, go to a Hiking shop.. simple, but, needs must. We were looking at expensive, got to the top of Everest type of walking boots when we decided, lets just get something to get us through Christmas, not a big rushed splash out on the wrong boots, so I found a pair for $20, size 8, sturdy, comfortable (for the 10 steps I took around the shop floor) and I was happy enough.

Well, 4 years later, I am pretty sure I have had my $20’s worth ….

They have been sensational… they have walked miles, kept my feet dry every step, and not a blister in sight. They have been walked around Big Bear, Big Sur, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Hoover Dam, The Canyon, Tatras Mountains, Vancouver Island, Bear Watching and Whale watching in Canada and Alaska, Ireland, Slovakia, Northchurch Common, Portland Maine, NYC, San F, San Diego and finally, their final resting place, No 3 Medvecke…. Building our new house….

Just sometimes you get a bargain, and these wonderful boots have seen and done it all…. For $20 !!!

After our first mistake in building this house, we took down the laughable excuse of the previous effort, and had another fireplace man arrive to sort out the mess, and then our ever patient, skillful, determined builder resurrect the new one ..

The results are stunning, and we cannot wait to have it finished.

Our builder is a real rarity, he is dedicated, has never let us down, over the course of nearly a year now, he has been at our place, working in the rain, snow, sweltering heat to get us into our home. He lives in our small village, and he has become a firm friend of mine, and a builder you can trust. He never just does something to get it done, he treats our place like it was his own home. His attention to detail on this fireplace has been admirable, and if you ever want a builder… Maros is your man !

He did have a little help ……

the brighter reading amongst you might have noticed a change in floor colour … well, this is the start of the Hydro insulation… on top of this will go 15 cms of poly styrene, then the underfloor heating, then sealant concrete …. then we are ready to decorate !!!!!

It has been a while since you last had a view of the mansion that will be called Walnut Tree Cottage … well, I think that is what we will call it ….

We have done huge amounts again, and we really feel we might be getting close to a moving date ..

We have now had all the walls plastered. This was a big job, and it took 4 men 10 days to complete all the walls and ceilings… They are now all ready to be painted !!!! yay !!!

These two are the two views of the Kitchen, the raised level you can see is where the whole floor level will be after the underfloor heating has been installed. You can see the rebuilt steps leading down to our wine cellar

This the view into our main bedroom, and the door leading off into Matej’s room.

And this is the view right down the length of the house, living room, kitchen etc to the right, large open windows and doors leading outside to the raised patio and the garden.

From the outside, things are changing slowly….

We have a complete, new roof all over… very happy with this being finally completed. We have spent aa huge amount of time and money getting this complete. It is obviously very important to the house, and as we will look at it for many many years, we knew we had to get it right !

Our builder has also started work ‘softening’ the outside edges to the patio. I am proud to say this was my idea, and he has done it perfectly, we have the raised wall complete now, and will be filling the flower beds with soil this weekend, ready for the different flowers etc we would love, just very happy to see the final images taking place.

So, we are heading towards the finishing line, we have one major project left, the heating system. We have bought the boiler, the pellet fired furnace, and the underfloor heating system will be installed next week. This is the last major part of the plan, after that, kitchen fitted, white goods are ordered, fireplace finished…. and well, dare I dream ..

and finally, this is one house I built ….. Matej’s 1st birthday present….. and it stayed together, even after 5 children rampaging over it !

I am in denial… surely not… really … Noooooooo .. a whole year …. No Way !

This little fella has been in our lives for a year now, today Matej turns 1 year old, just incredible…

I have chosen just a few of the incredible images this little soul has given us over the last 12 months. I sit here with tears in my eyes as I type, because he is the most amazing thing ever to have come in touch with my life.

He is a wonder, the joy of seeing him in the morning as he wakes and ‘chats’ away to us. The way he breaks into a smile, then the wondrous giggle that follows. I true miracle to me.

As he wobbles on his legs as he walks from room to room endlessly, falls on his butt, and giggles.. what can I say.

I have been amazed at how easy he is, this maybe because of the routines we have, the way we are around him when things go a little astray, but maybe, we just got lucky with him ? He is starting to push some boundaries, started to have some small moments of strops when he has things taken from him, or when things do not quite go the way he wants, but that’s ok, he is growing up. I know that harder times are ahead, but I also know that we have a very easy going, always smiling, full of character little man.

We adore this soul, like no love I have ever felt before.

Happy Birthday our little man, thank you for a wonderful, exciting, adventurous 1st year, roll on the next one x

I have an addiction to travel, even last week for work I had to go and drive no more than 20 mins to go see some Steel suppliers (not too exciting), but just getting out of a routine, going place excites me. Next Sunday I am off on some proper travels.

It’s sadly a business trip, and sadly only for 4 nights, but I still get a buzz about it. I have to go to Chicago to meet a customer and a logistics supplier (Yawnnnnnn) The client happens to be the largest off road, large construction company in the world, and could give us more and more business in the future, as project manager, I have to go see them and be nice to them ! Even though this is work, I get the buzz. I love airports, they are happy, exciting places, people going off to places new, or back to familiar homes and loves. I fly through Heathrow, and airport that always holds great memories of travels past for me, and then into a new city.

Even though I lived in the USA for 2 years, and saw a fair amount, I have only ever seen Chicago from O’Hare … bit like seeing London from Heathrow ! so, I am excited by this. I love to see new freeways, road signs, different cars…… I love all of that.

I love going to new business meetings, new offices, new voices…. strange, but these things make me tick. Sitting in a bar at the end off the evening, new TV, new beers…. I even enjoy the hotel room !

It is tiring, never make the mistake to think short trips for business are easy. Meetings do not stop for jetlag, on coming home, the jetlag remains and keeps you unsettled for a week, but I still love the thrill of travelling. I don’t get stressed by arriving in place, trying to find taxis, hotels, meeting new people, I embrace and enjoy that. I love walking out of an airport into a new place, so many people doing everything as though it’s normal life for them, for me, it;s the start of a new adventure into this world of ours.

The old question of what you would do if you won millions …. well, for me that is easy. I would buy a nice, top of the range, Range Rover. Start at Cape Horn and simply drive ……..I never get bored of a new scenery rolling out in front of me. I never get bored of the rush as my plane takes off, or seeing the faces of all as you walk out from the plane.

It’s what I love….

Following on from yesterday’s Silent Sunday, I wanted to add a couple more from the set of photos.

Working for a Austrian company, sometimes I have to travel there for meetings, and luckily, last week, both Mrs M and I were asked to attend the same meeting (yes, we do work for the same company), so we went off to Austria, and just over the border to Germany for 3 days.

We were lucky, the sun shone, the scenery is stunning, and the Austrians and Germans in this part of the world really know how to look after their nature and beauty, so please enjoy these images from my business trip !

We travelled back to England for a two week holiday during June, to see my family, for Matej to see his Grandma, Aunts and Uncles, and for us to take the chance to Christen him in England. I have some religious views, I won’t share them, they are for me alone, but I will say that we thought important to do this, and to make it very special to me and my family, to have him christened in Northchurch. My family village, in St Marys, where all of my family have been hatched, matched and dispatched. Matej, to my knowledge, is the 5th generation of my family to be christened here. I also wanted him to know his roots in the future, and to know part of him will always have history in England and Northchurch.

So, for the first time ever, Mum had her whole family, including a grandson together, DBM from Canada had made the special trip over to be there, and it was wonderful to have us all together. My family are very close, we have a daft sense of humour that I think Mrs M finds difficult to understand. They drive me nuts at times, but I am so lucky to have them, and when I have needed them, they all come running. Matej could not have more perfect Uncles and Aunts, and the presents they gave him were wonderful All three of them came up with amazing gifts, and strangely all so different. I know he will treasure them when his older. I will say, the gift DBM gave him he already loves, and I always use the “Big Pooh” joke !

The day was very simple, easy and relaxed. Matej was a star in the church, happy as Larry, apart from having some kind of fixation with the candle, Note to self, he is a fire starter, twisted fire starter ! The service was simple, quick, easy and the Rev was a star. My brother did mention he was concerned that Matej was maybe too comfortable with a bloke in a dress !

We went back to raise a glass of champers to wish him all the best for his future, then we let him run amok amongst all our friends.

A huge thank you goes to Englishmum for the incredible coloured cupcakes ! We wanted something a little different, and she came up trumps for us, thanks Coos.

Matej has now also started walking, you parents will know the stage, the tottering, wobbling, delighted few steps before gravity takes hold. It a wondrous thing, but also means another set of eyes required to know where the little sod has got to now !

I got chance to see my second family, our neighbours from old who we spent all our days with, a couple of old friends from my work and golf trips who drove long miles to be there, and many friends from my cricket club who I miss daily. Thanks also to my photographer, Javers, a job well done, and I enjoy the sneaky boob shots too !

Matej even loved my jokes in my speech, what a boy !

To cap the day off perfectly, we had a surprise visit from EM Hubby, not every little boy get a personal fly by, esp with a dipped nose to say hello, Matej was thrilled with this, the noise and seeing his first helicopter, thanks again EM’s hubby, very special and thoughtful !

So, after a few weeks of being away, I thought it was time to let you all know that the light at the end of the tunnel has now been switched on !

Don’t get too excited, a move in date is still a distance off, but we have made two further significant improvements.

We now have new windows installed, in fact, we now have all the windows installed, we are only missing the large patio doors. This is a huge development, and finally shows the intended views and the huge amount of light these large windows will give the house. We also chose windows that when opened gave us the maximum clear views of the gardens, meaning there are no middle windows bars when you open them fully.

The second move forward is the new roof. As you can imagine, this was a huge project, it took over 3 weeks to just get to the point where the woodwork is finished and the protective ‘foil’ has been fitted. I actually worked on this for a few days, and it enlightened me into how complex these structures can be. When I have seen them do this in England, you simply buy the A frame, slot them in and Bob’s your Uncle … not here. These guys took raw timber and built everything. Because we are renovating an old cottage, we had to fix the ‘ring’ that the whole roof sits on, the to build the roof. It was a great experience, and made a huge difference to us.

This week the final roof tiles are going on, so by Saturday we will have the final, finished roof !

We have also started finishing the ceilings inside. They have all been insulated with thick polystyrene and neatly finished, all ready for painting !.. woo hoo…. even thinking about painting….

Another touch we have done is the guttering all around the place. This is the first time this old house has had such a luxury, so we now how to plan where all the rain water will finally end um, not as easy as just fitting down pipes and letting it be ! thankfully, on one side of the property we have a deep well, so the water can drain there, the other side… well, I have my thinking cap on !

So what next….. We had a meeting with our builder during the week, and he is already thinking of his next job, and trying to estimate a start date for that, so, we sat down to go through the projects we have left, there are some major ones to go, but realistically, we can see the end is in sight. The last ‘major’ addition will be the boiler, furnace, and under floor heating. This will be the most expensive part we think, and therefore we are now waiting on further decisions from the bank. Once we get the go ahead, we can finish this, which then triggers off the completion of external doors, the final plastering and then the decorating. The Chimney will be completed next week after meetings yesterday, and as soon as the outside walls have been finished, I can start to paint the house.

So, still a decent amount of work to go, but, the light is glowing ….

I have been interviewed here today !

http://thedisplacednation.com/2011/07/06/simon-wheeler-steel-automotives-project-leader-and-former-cricketer/

On Thursday we make the short flight from Vienna to Heathrow. Only a 2.5 hr flight, should be a breeze. We flew with Matej at Christmas when he was only 4 months, and it was very easy, now he is 10 months, I think it will more of a challenge. With a 2.5 hr drive to Vienna, 3 hrs at the airport, and then the flight, collecting bags, getting the hire car and the drive to sunny Northchurch to my Ma’s … means an all in trip of about 9 hrs ! …

When we moved here we decided that we would not spend every holiday we could heading back to Northchurch, too many things to see and do here, and the surrounding parts of central and Eastern Europe, however, this is one trip we just had to make.

The reason for the trip is to get Matej Christened. It means a lot to me that he will follow in the footsteps of 4 generations of my family to be christened in my Church. Not only that, this church has seen a huge amount of monumental moments in my life, from the burial of 2 grandparents, 2 further grandparents in the other side of our family, the marriage of my grandparents, Ma and Pa, and siblings, and me twice ! Many other family and friends weddings, and sadly other tough funerals. Although not hugely religious, this Church holds many of my memories, good and bad, and gives me a place I feel calm and thoughtful in.

Not only that, as a family, we will all be together. This happens very rarely, and I know it gives Mum huge amounts of satisfaction, pride and happiness to have her 4 children together, and for the first time, with her 1st Grandchild. It means a huge amount to me that my 3 siblings make the effort to all be there, esp Dr DBM coming from Vancouver, to be part of their Nephew’s special day, and to become his Godparents.

Other notable things happening in the two weeks is a weekend up at my Brother’s. They have both made a huge effort to visit us here in Slovakia, I cannot wait to spend the weekend with them, nothing to do except see the horses, drinks some beers and enjoy their company.

We will spend some time at my Cricket Club. People that have seen my tattoo know how much the place means to me, and to be able to spend some time there with my little boy will be priceless.

We will try to visit London for the day, and we 100% spend the day at Whipsnade with Dr DBM, EnglishMum and her two boys. Really looking forward to that, esp the picnic EM has kindly said she would prepare from her beloved Waitrose.

I don’t think this kind of holiday is relaxing, but I am very excited, to have my little boy back the my village….. yay !!!

Here is my little boy, at 10 Months…. time flies !