16/01: JUST CHECKING IN

Despite a couple of false starts because of the snow and airport closures, we eventually managed to fly to our home in Fuerteventura (Canaries) on Saturday evening. It was bliss to escape the snow (much as I love looking at it, the practicalities get a bit boring after a few days).

This is a working holiday and I´m pleased at the progress we´ve made so far. One bedroom has been totally repainted and new lampshades/bedding installed. The lounge is 95% repainted so a few more hours tomorrow should see it finished. We plan to redecorate one more bedroom and the outside porch area ... then we´ll pay a professional to tile the walls in our back garden/pool area. They are currently painted but, because of the weird plaster mix used by the Fuerteventurian builders, the plaster on all exterior walls continuously bubbles and ´blows´. Every year, I rub the walls down and repaint them and its becoming a boring, expensive task. So we´ll bite the bullet and pay someone to fix the problem permanently (we hope)!!

Then I hope we can enjoy the next two weeks just relaxing and recharging the batteries. I´ve got a lot of work lined up when we get back and I´m already missing my pencils and can´t wait to make a start. I´ve got some graphite pencils here with me and made a start on a double ´people´portrait which is required for end March .... I should have that finished by end next week if the decorating schedule goes to plan.

Hope everyone at home is coping well with the snow :0) .... thankfully we have none of that here - although it isn´t quite as sunny as expected. It has been cloudy for the last few days but the temperature is still mid to high 70s (in the shade) so I´m definitely not complaining.