We've bought a house!

We'd realised for some time (well, since before Louka was born) that we couldn't live in a one-bedroom unit forever. Recently we actually started looking for a house, and we'd visited two in the inner west, and attended two auctions which both went too high for us. Then Mike told us of a house in Harbord that was up for sale. The reserve was more than we'd been considering, but less than the two auctions we'd attended. It was ten minutes from the beach, and right next door to a park with play equipment. The house was in solid condition, but ugly and not taking advantage of its position: not worth renovating in fact. It had tenants. It got passed in at auction.


So we made an offer. It was accepted. There were a few anxious days while we worried we'd be gazumped. Then we got the word that contracts were exchanged. It's ours! Well actually, settlement isn't till July, but it will be ours.

In memoriam: Nana Joyce

Louka's Nana and Graham's grandmother, Joyce Rostron died yesterday at 94 years old. She'd been having difficulty breathing and was rushed to Emergency at Ryde Hospital. Given oxygen through a mask, she revived and was moved to Intensive Care. She told the medical staff she did not want to be revived if her heart failed, and she died gently and with dignity two days later.

She had always loved children, and Louka was the last child she had to care for. It was good then that we were able to visit her in hospital on the days before she died.


Related posts:

Nan Joyce's birthday
Visit from John and Meagan
Pre-Christmas catch-ups
Merry Christmas!

Lunch with the grans

While Graham's mum is in Sydney, she wanted to see my mum again, so I arranged for the four of us to have afternoon tea at the Tea Room in the Queen Victoria Building.


They had a high-chair, which was quite hard to get Louka into, so she couldn't climb out of it like she does at home. However, after a few bites of egg sandwich she found another way of getting out ― the persuasion technique. She was then fairly happy sitting on my lap a while longer, but soon got restless and wanted to walk around. So I followed her around the grand spacious room, which used to be a ballroom. She was actually very good, not trying to touch things or annoy other customers, and willing to be amused by looking at herself in the huge mirrors at either end of the room.

She was also showered with gifts. I'd bought her a book, Swim Little Wombat Swim, on my way to meet mum and Pat. Pat had knitted her a clown jumper, and bought her a wiggly wooden snake like the one that's Kofi's favourite toy. And mum had bought her a new drinking cup to replace the one I'd broken on the weekend.

When we'd finished (one afternoon tea and one morning tea, the afternoon tea being an expanded version of the morning tea and served on a three-tiered plate) the two grandmothers headed home via Town Hall station while Louka and I went to see Graham at work for a few minutes before going to Wynyard station and home.

Easter

Easter is a family occasion: even more so than usual this year because Graham's mum (Nana Pat) is in Sydney.


On Friday we went to Mum and Dad's place for hot cross buns. Unusually for her, Louka didn't want one. This was particularly odd as they were a hundred times nicer than the Bakers Delight ones she generally gets.

On Sunday we went to Mum and Dad's place again for lunch. We picked up Graham's mum on our way. Mum always saves one of her extremely rich Christmas puddings for Easter, so the first course has to be relatively light. It was herbed chicken with potatoes and salad, delicious.

Of course we still ended up eating lots of chocolate too. In fact Louka started eating the chocolate bunny she'd been given, foil and all, before lunch, and then didn't want anything but chocolate. She also received a pretty gold name bracelet and some cute red shoes.

My sister's kids received a lot of little butterfly hair clips, so Mick pinned back Louka's hair with them. It looked lovely, but when she found she could pull them out she wanted to eat them. Mick also tried pinning back Max's hair, and Louka got in on the act.

After so much excitement and chocolate, Louka was pretty grumpy, and fell asleep as soon as the car started to go home.

Doing Daddy's work for him

Another busy saturday

We started the day with coffee and pastries from Pattison's Patisserie at Chatswood Chase. Except that on the way there Graham saw some shoes on sale at Rivers and stopped to try on and buy some. Did the shopping and came home for lunch (and a nap for Louka).

After lunch (and after Louka woke up) we headed off to Croydon to look at houses for sale and to attend a couple of auctions. One of the auctions we knew was well out of our range, but we were surprised that the other also went too high for us. We'd just looked at the house, and while it must have been beautiful when in good repair, it was extremely run-down. Oh well...


Home for dinner, then turned all the lights and appliances off and headed into the city to look at Earth Hour. We got off the train at Milsons Point and walked across the bridge. While some of the lights of the bridge and opera house were off, the general effect was much the same as usual. We heard other walkers making the same comment ― a bit disappointing.