Lots of big rocks

In April, Selina went to Alice in Wonderland in London, it was Sara's Christmas present. It was a submersive theatre experience at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

We spent the day in Aztec West Spa for Selina's birthday in May. We also saw Birdsong at the Old Vic. Pete's read the book a few times and has always wanted to see it on stage.

We went to Stonehenge at the end of May and camped. On the way we stopped at Salisbury Cathedral and saw the actual Magna Carta which was impressive. 

We went round Stonehenge in normal opening time. You can see all the people in the distance.

Then we paid extra to see the stone circle after hours. As it was getting dark, we wondered amongst the stones with a handful of people. At normal opening time you can only walk on a pathway surrounding the circle, so it felt very atmospheric walking in between the stones as the sun was setting. 

Pete had really enjoyed it, until he realised you could see all the stones from the public road as we drove back to the campsite!!

Flat renovation

In between contracts in 2015, I took on a task that has been on my to do list a while: renovating my flat in London Bridge. At times it was frustrating and exasperating, but overall it was fun and a job well done with help from some experts! 

The flat isn't that big, I've still got the layout from when I bought it:

I decided to keep the same layout, but strip everything out (kitchen, bathroom, heating system, floors, doors). So quite a bit of work, especially given how old it looked before:

Selina couldn't wait to get stuck in and start looking behind the covers!

First step, everything had to be stripped away. The boiler and two water tanks were removed (by a professional of course). Although we did manage to salvage one of the tanks for the Bristol garden! I was surprised how the guy was able to knock the price down by selling the stuff he removed for scrap!

Tiles off (by someone who thinks of themselves as a professional!).

A bit of bashing, thanks Darsh for the extra muscle!

A pile of stuff for the council to collect, boy did that take some organising!

Once everything was out, I found a great guy who I had too much fun with to plaster and skim all the walls...

Then my boiler man fitted the new boiler and new rads all in different positions from before, including this funky rad:

Then it was on to the fitting of a new bathroom and kitchen, along with new lighting, doors, architraving, flooring throughout and multiple coats of paint. The end product was pretty impressive, in a grey and white themed kind of way!!

Phew!