Diamond Jubilee

Is anyone actually doing anything for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee? Does anyone do that sort of thing any more?

I love the idea of hanging bunting (this one’s from Lakeland), getting together with your neighbours, everyone bringing a dish, putting everyone’s tables together in a long row with matching tablecloths, and having a great old time. It is also probably the 60s in this dream.

I watched the Royal Wedding (capital R, capital W) last year with much more interest than I thought I would. I wished I’d invited people round so we could enjoy it together.

However, I’ve mentioned before how little I know my neighbours. Which makes the Jubilee dream even more ridiculous. Yes, even more ridiculous than spending £6.99 on four metres of floral bunting. And you know you’d need more than one.

I’m wishing we were a little more community-minded though (not just us, everyone on our street). This week, I’ve made friends with one side of neighbours on Facebook (howdy, neighbours!) – Family B for those of you paying attention. While I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction, isn’t it silly that we’re friends on Facebook before being friends in real life? I’m completely holding myself responsible here.

So, over to you. Do you get on with your neighbours? What broke the ice? Any plans for the Jubilee that involve your neighbours?

Busy making other plans

For those of you who are interested, here are the floor plans of our house.  Actually, these are a mirror image and the kitchen’s now extended to where the hall and bathroom were, but you get the gist.  They’re actually the floor plans of our house style from Barratts.

This should hopefully make more sense now for people who are finding it hard to picture where rooms are in relation to each other.

When we’ve finished the kitchen, we’ll need to finish off the living room, and then we are planning to either decorate our bedroom or do the garden.  We really need to look at our bedroom, because we’ve got tester paints on the wall, which immediately makes it look like a work in progress.  When we paint the kitchen, that will also involve painting up the bottom set of stairs (which will be a giant pain), and I imagine the top stairs will get done when our bedroom is painted.  Fitted wardrobes would be nice, but a distant dream at the moment.

Our ensuite will probably be next after that.  Barry’s enamoured with those shower units where you buy the entire thing, no grouting or tiling required, and I know he’s got his beady eye on something similar to go around the bath in the bathroom on the middle floor.  Basically, he hates tiling.  Who can blame him?

The spare bedrooms are the last on the list.  While we obviously want our guests to have a lovely stay with us, the effort and expense of decorating two rooms that get used less than once a month can wait.  But I will make them a cup of tea when they stay.  Fair dos?