Phew.  What is there to say after a long day of cleaning and tidying!?  For the first time since being married I had someone to help me clean the house, and what pleasure.

For those who don’t live in South Africa, let me explain a bit more.  In SA its the norm to have someone clean your house for you, do your washing, ironing and pretty much all other household chores.  When we were in the UK a few years back I realized for the first time that this wasn’t so common in all other countries.

Now having lived here for my whole life, I must admit that I am one of the odd ones out to not have a domestic worker, and I’ve had to get used to people’s reactions when I tell then that I do all the housework myself, on top of working at the office for a full day.  Now this is not some kind of noble act to gain favor with anyone, or some money saving plan.  Instead I am just too distrusting to allow anyone strange into my home to come and clean & organize it for me.

I’ve been having these arguments with myself, and even with my husband about who we should pick, who we can trust, and who would be able to work with such care that our perfectionism will be satisfied.

Well, we have now finally found someone, and she did excellent for a first day.  I’m hoping that she will continue to be so thorough in future as well, as the trend is to slack as soon as you’re settled in – in many jobs that is.

For now, I am ecstatic with a lovely clean home, and NO IRONING – Yay!! So I’m going to busy myself with baking a banana bread.

Happy “rest of the” weekend all

I received this set of photo’s via e-mail, and found it phenomenal to realize -yet again – the power of the human mind and the creativity thereof. These photographs resemble something which I may have dreamed of as a child – something which was so far fetched, that I could only imagine it to be part of a fairytale. I have such an appreciation for people who are not afraid to remember, and then live these dreams. Bravo for the Mexican Architect, Javier Senosiain.

Even though we have Window Blinds in the new place, we still went to hang some curtains yesterday. It just looks so much more cozy with the curtains up!

Its slowly but surely starting to look more like a home, instead of just an empty building.

I still need some curtains for the bathroom, but who knows, maybe I’ll take mini blinds?

Apparently house prices in Manchester is great for first time buyers at the moment! I guess that’s specifically for buyers who are earning pounds though
Still, with Commercial Mortgage you might just be able to buy a house in England if you’re up to it! I would love to. I lived there for about a year, and I loved the country so much. Most people in sunny South Africa don’t understand how I can put up with the constant raining and grey days, but there is something so special about that atmosphere.