Muted Monday

After all the fun, enthusiasm and satisfaction of working on the garden in the sunshine yesterday, today has felt decidedly muted - the weather has been on the cool side and grey all day, and we've both felt a little lacking in energy.

For me, this took the form of a migraine which came on during the night. Frustratingly, that meant I wasn't able to get out to do my regular pathetic-excuse-for-what-might-pass-as-exercise this morning. I haven't managed to do much since we got here, and have been disappointed in myself for not managing to do more, but doing something makes me feel a little better about sitting on my backside all day (and not even having to cycle to work or walk upstairs all day)! Oh well, today it wasn't to be.

While I settled down to my computer hoping the pain killers would kick in soon, Stuart went downstairs to the apartment where he kept himself busy for a couple of hours finishing the wall for the wardrobe:

The stepped block you can see beneath the new wall (about 1.5ft high) is in fact some sort of buttress that's meant to protect the house against earthquake damage.

Ignore the light and the mirror - the plan is that once the wall has been plastered and painted, we will put a rail from the new wall to the end wall of the room, creating a clothes rail, and then hang fabric curtains along the front to hide the rail & hangers. Confused? Well, you'll just have to keep coming back until we have a picture of the finished thing!

After Stuart had finished clearing up, we had lunch outside - not because it was a particularly lovely day or especially warm, but because it was slightly warmer outside than inside (around 19-20C), and very still, so eating our lunch in the fresh air with our lovely view to look at seemed the sensible thing to do!

We both spent the afternoon in front of our respective computers, doing both 'work work' and holiday rental research and admin. We've been trying to find out what other holiday rentals are around in the immediate area and what they offer, for what price. Not only will this help us to gauge our own rental offering, but it gives us an idea as to where else people can stay if they make an enquiry and we are fully booked, or if we don't have the space to accommodate larger groups.

Finally, to round things off for today, I've been thinking over the last few days about the things I'm most looking forward to arriving when our shipment of furniture and belongings arrives from the UK at the weekend. They are (in no particular order):

• A wider variety of clothes from which to choose each day (including more warm weather clothes for outdoors, and more warm clothes for indoors)
• My hot water bottle, for making working in the office more bearable (we had the log burner going again today, but even with that going, and wearing two jumpers, I was still cold)
• My thick, fluffy slippers, for making working in the office more bearable (sensing a theme yet?)
• Our own bed, pillows and bedding
• Our Nespresso coffee machine

There are loads of other things I'm looking forward to having back in my life, but those are the ones that have been at the forefront of my mind over the last couple of days. Roll on Saturday.