Boris and Boika are friends again

 
After a couple of days of continued hissing from Boris towards Boika and of Boris sulking under the duvet all day, he's finally made friends again with Boika. This was verified when Flo saw them drinking at the tap together earlier today.

ahhh... isn't that sweet! 

Update on house

I promised I'd post an update with some pictures taken from this weekend. So here it is.


As you can see from the picture above, they've started to install the ceiling in the front of the house now. They've also started to build the half height wall that will enclose the kitchen area.


From the pictures above, you can see that they're squaring off the reclaimed section of wall in the kitchen and that they've installed a number of ventilation ducts up a ventilation shaft they discovered that runs to the top of the house. It's up this shaft that the dirty air from the kitchen and toilet will be vented up the ducts. Beneath this shaft is the doorway to the small utility cupboard, where the washing machine is going to be located along with all the cleaning and ironing equipment.


The picture above shows that they've now finished bricking up the wall to form the toilet and enclose the back of the kitchen area. They've also installed the doorway on the kitchen side of the cupboard that houses the stairway down to the cellar. This cupboard will be used as a pantry, with a trap door installed over the stairway so that it's possible to walk into the cupboard. On the left you can see the reclamed archway that provides access to the toilet and the doorway on the other side of the pantry, for access to the stairway down to the cellar.


In the picture above, you're looking towards the front of the house from the dining area and can see that they've started building the half height dividing wall. Flo's just spoken with the builder and he's asked us to come and have a look at the wall now that they've built a bit more of it, since he seems to think it's a bit imposing... so will have to see! But the kitchen area does indeed feel larger than I anticipated.


For those who are a bit squeemish I'd avoid looking at the picture above. Not the one of the toilet, where you can see that the flushing tank and mechanism have been fitted behind the wall, but the picture of the ceiling. We agreed that it would be too expensive to try and restore the original ceiling (and also not up to the council's building standards, since we have to install an insulated ceiling now that we're converting the house from an office), but the builders have been a bit brutal in installing the frame for the new ceiling, screwing right on top of the old ceiling rose.


Now into the lounge and you can see that the frame for the ceiling and the ceiling insulation has all been installed. Also, the windows have been unjarred and now open and we intend to get these reconditioned and double glazed.


Looking back from the lounge to the dining area, you can see that there's now a small step in floor levels with the under-floor heating and cemented floor installed. This will ultimately become flush once the floor in the lounge is leveled with a cement layer and the wooden floor is installed. The plastic drain pipe sticking out of the floor runs down into the cellar and will be cut flush with the finished floor to provide a conduit for running electrical cables between the cellar and the lounge. This means that all the electronic equipment (like DVD player etc) can be homed out of the way and out of sight in the cellar, with the TV being the only electronic apparatus on view in the lounge.


The back of the house hasn't really changed much, so there's no point posting any new pictures from there. However, I realised that I've never taken any pictures of the complete front of the house. So, in spite of the rain, I ventured outside with the camera and took the picture above which shows a view of our neighbours appartments upstairs. Notice that the builders have stuck newspaper in the window to prevent people from looking inside... I think this is more to prevent people seeing what they're getting up to than the work that's being done.

That's it for now... I'll take some more pictures as soon as there's something new, which will probably be the finished kitchen wall and the closed in ceilings.

Boika feeling effects of anesthetic

 
After visiting the vet yesterday, we were informed that they would have to put Boika to sleep under a general anesthetic in order to perform a visual inspection of her throat. Neither of use were too happy with this, since given Flo's recent experience we're well aware of the fact that being under general anesthetic is by no means fun. However, given that Boika was unable to eat, we both felt it was the only option.

So we left Boika with the vet for the afternoon while we continued with our weekend chores. Around 3pm we got a call from the vet saying that everything had gone to plan and that we could pick Boika up around 5pm.

When we went to pick her up, the vet showed us the thin blade of grass that had been removed from Boika's soft pallette. There's was a little bit of soft, bloody tissue on it suggesting that it was anchored in place pretty securely, so probably would not have come free for some time... indicating that we'd probably taken the right course of action taking her to the vet. He also told us that they almost missed spotting it. The vet who performed the procedure couldn't find anything, but then the vet we spoke to said that he had a look, determined that something was there given our conviction and description of Boika's behaviour. Eventually, he spotted the piece of grass "round the corner of her throat" and apparently it was very tricky to spot amongst the mucus.

Boika was still extrememly out of it when we saw her; she couldn't stand, although was trying repeatedly, but falling over at every attempt. Very unlike her, she didn't make a noise when she was placed in her transporter box.

We gave her lots of attention when we got home, but unfortunately we had to seperate Boris from her while she recovered. When he saw her still under the effects of the anesthetic he reacted very strongly and started hissing and moaning at her. We were a bit concerned that he might start being aggressive to her, so we kept them seperated for the rest of the night.

This morning Boika was looking and acting much more like her old self, which was a huge relief; it's not nice seeing your beloved pets go through so much stress and anguish. She was still acting a bit timid, but was walking around exploring and wanting her food.

The next step was to introduce her and Boris back together. This didn't go so well, since Boris was still doing the hissing and moaning routine. The difference now was that Boika was holding her ground and in fact seemed quite relaxed about it all, if a little bit upset and being treated so coldly by her brother. What I did notice however was that it appears to be Boris who is the one that is scared of Boika; as I mentioned, Boika doesn't seem scared of Boris' behaviour in the slightest. So I think things will return to normal... it might just take a couple of days. 

Boika's not very well

 
Boika's been coughing alot yesterday and this morning and, very unlike her, she's not been eating. Seems that she has an obstruction in her throat, probably from eating the plants that Flo received as a get well gesture from her colleagues at work (a bit ironic really).

So, we're taking her to the vet in a bit to see if we can get the obstruction removed. Unfortunately it's the weekend, which means having to drive a bit to visit a vet that is open today. But she's worth it! 

Flowers definitely help the healing process

Every time that I started a sentence with: "if I owned a hospital", I made Jonny giggle. Research shows that patients recover quicker if there is lots of green around them and I am not talking about Cooking Apple Green© or other paint colours. So I would make sure there are lots of nice trees and plants in and around the hospital. I am not aware of a research of the healing effects of good food, but I am sure that healthy home cooked food works wonders for a speedy recovery. So good food would be item number two on my ideal hospital environment list. And yes, it is true what they say about hospital food, in case anybody wonders…

Speaking of colours, before my operation I was a bit concerned that I would have to remove the beautiful Card-again© nail polish from my newly pedicured feet (Isn’t that a great name? Who comes up with names for paints and nail polishes? Is that a job?). When having a general anaesthetic, you are not allowed to wear any jewellery or make-up, including nail polish. Jewellery I can understand, you wouldn’t want a surgeon to get stuck behind your long dangly earrings for example and apparently they can tell a lot on your condition during the operation by the colour of your skin. But nails? So I decided to take the gamble and leave the nail polish, half folding my feet behind the hospital bed to hide my painted toe nails. Strange how it only takes a few minutes to be transformed from an individual to a patient. I had to change into to a theatre gown, put my hair in a cap, they shaved me and I was ready for theatre. But I still had my painted toe nails, my own little act of hospital rebellion! :-)

One of the first things I remember from waking up was the doctor telling me it had been a laparoscopy not a laparotomy, which was great news really, but I couldn’t have cared less at that moment, I was so drowsy. Second thing I remember was a nurse with a strange accent so I felt the compelling need to ask where she was from. It turned out she was from Scotland and had been in the Netherlands for over twenty years. Something to do with dogs, but in hindsight I am not completely sure how those two things were related. Anyway, I thought it was great news that she was Scottish so I immediately switched to English and asked her to call my husband. Which she didn’t want to do, but she did want to administer some pain killers. First things first. She asked me to rate the pain on a scale from one to ten, so I gave it a four. This has probably got to do with being Dutch, we never rate things very highly, giving a ten out of ten hardly ever happens, so four sounded good to me. She then injected me anyway and asked me again how I would rate the pain. That’s when I said it was more like a four now and that the first time it was probably a six. She said she had figured. It later turned out that four is the minimum pain threshold for administering drugs. Oh well.

Jonny wheeled me out of the hospital on Tuesday with four battle wounds on my tummy. The one around my navel, which is now extended to one and a half times its original size, looks like an amateur tried to make a work of art using play-doh. Needless to say that it is debatable whether I could be considered a human installation…


The last three days have been used for lots of resting, sleeping and emerging myself in all the love and attention that Jonny has been giving me. I am also enjoying all the calls (regular check-up calls from Geoff really kick ass!), the flowers and the cards. Attention from friends and family definitely gets top marks for speedy recovery and feeling better about one self. My friend Annemieke said that one of the advantages of recovering at home is the diva-like behaviour one can display. I am sure she meant loads of lounging in gorgeous silk pj’s on leather daybeds, but nothing could be further from the truth, since I am actually walking around in track suit bottoms (other things hurt!). But the one glamorous thing I still have going are my painted toe nails!

Staircase off critical path

I spoke with Scott the Scott this morning, who informed me that the stairs are being made and should be finished within a week! This is great news, since I was worried that the stairs might hold things up, particularly since the builder kept asking me when they'd be ready! This puts the pressure back on the builder though, since he needs to finish the plastering in the back portion of the house before the stairs can be installed.

Having spoken with the builder this morning also, he seems to think that the plastering will be done within the next two weeks, which means that the stairs should be installed within the next three weeks.

So things are coming on well. I met up with the builder yesterday and had a look around the house. The ceiling in the front of the house is now being installed and the ceiling in the living room is already installed. All the walls have now been built except for the half height one in the kitchen, which they'll have to start soon in order to fit the electrics.

I'll take some more photographs and post them this weekend.

House still stands in Dubai

A number of my colleagues have informed me that Dubai is changing at a remarkable rate, with development and redevelopment happening at an extraordinary rate. So I thought I'd take a look on Google Earth and see if our "old" house was still there!

And it is! Seems the area here hasn't changed too much other than a few new skyscrapers. However, if you pan out, what you certainly notice is Palm Island... and this is the "small" one... there's a bigger one being built down the coast.

What I find fastinating about Google Earth is that I can't see my parents house in any detail (which is in the UK and has been there for 25 years or so in a village that it a couple of centuries old), but Bushehr in Iran (where I used to fly to on my way to the rig in the Persian Gulf) is shown in very high detail... wonder if that's anything to do with there being a military base and nuclear power station there? These are American satallite pictures after all!

Anyway, if you've got time to waste then Google Earth is great for flying around the world and looking in your neighbour's garden!

Flo's on the mend

I went to visit Flo again this evening and as I'd hoped, she was sat up, eating and drinking and on her way to a good recovery.

She was still feeling a little groggy and tired, but was much more alert and light hearted than straight after the operation.

She'd managed to speak to the gynecologist, who told her that she'd removed the endometriosis from her left ovary. She said that the endometriosis was bleeding, which was probably why it had been so painful during her current period. Apparently, Flo also had some endometriosis attached to her uterus (which was also removed) and there are some adhesions indicating that the problem had been occurring for some time.

I'm back in to see Flo tomorrow morning, hopefully to bring her home at around 11:00.

Flo's operation a success!

We arrived at the hospital at 08:15 and quickly got settled after the ward nurse took Flo's blood and measured her blood pressure and heart rate (which is very good by the way!). By 09:15 the nurse was back and hurrying Flo into her surgery gown, as the first patient had already been operated on and the gynecologist wanted Flo prepping as soon as possible.

By 09:30, Flo was being wheeled off to the surgery ward, where unfortunately I had to leave her in the capable hands of the hospital staff. As Flo got administered her anesthetic, I returned home and did some shopping to ensure there's plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables for us to eat to assist Flo in a speedy recovery.

At 11:00 I received a call from the gynecologist who performed the procedure, informing me that everything had gone to plan with no complications and that the endometriosis had been removed using the laparoscopy (keyhole) procedure. Given the trauma of removing the endometriosis, the gynecologist said that Flo would have to remain in hospital overnight for observation, but would be home tomorrow.

By midday I was waiting on Flo's ward for her to return from the surgery ward. It was a very good feeling seeing Flo being wheeled down the corridor in her bed, especially the instant when, despite being extrememly groggy, she recognised me and a big smile lit up her face! I was extremely happy and relieved to see that she was OK.

After spending an hour with Flo and settling her down and getting her comfortable, I left her to sleep off the effects of the anesthetic, since she was fighting to stay awake. I shall return and see her this evening, when I'm expecting to see her up and about and eating the fresh cherries I bought her (since she's not a huge fan of grapes).

Kitchen featured in Livingetc magazine

Looks like our kitchen is becoming all the rage! Flo came across this picture and article in the March edition of the UK magazine Livingetc. Doesn't look like it came from the same supplier as we're getting ours from, but it's definitely the same design kitchen, this one recovered from a salvage yard.

Today we also purchased two small sinks for the two toilets, so that's another thing ticked off the list. We found a very well stocked supplier of all things sanitare just a 5 minute cycle ride from our house (only 2 mins from the new house), so that could come in very useful.

After dropping off the sinks at the house, we sat in the small square just down the road and enjoyed a cup of tea in the sun!

Pet cemetery

 
It appears that our back yard is Den Haag's designated pigeon cemetery, since we've had three deceased birds this week alone.

We think the probably cause is starvation, or maybe rat poison from next door. Those who have seen the house will recall that the next door neighbours had a little menagerie in their garden, full of guinea pigs and... pigeons. Well, the property has recently been sold and the creatures have been transported elsewhere... except for the pigeons that used to steal the guinea pigs food. Since there's no longer a food source for the birds, we're thinking that they've starved.

The more sinister explanation though is that the new neighbours wanted to get rid of the birds in a hurry and laced their food with poison. I prefer to think that it's the first explantion though. 

Equally nail bitingly nervy as watching the England game

Still ecstatic after the victory of Holland on the Ivory Coast (only inwardly of course), we are sat next to each other to update our friends and family on our adventures. I tried to get Jonny to tell you something about my newly discovered medical condition, but he told me rightly so to do it myself. So I will...

We went to the hospital on Wednesday to find out whether we could start the next IVF treatment. It turned out that I not only had an extra cyst, but also grown another one in the ovary. And this little litchi-sized bugger was cloudy, which means it is either filled with blood or sebaceous matter and ready to stay. There is a risk for this structure to rupture and cause an infection during the puncture in the IVF procedure, so it needs to be removed before we can start treatment. A laparotomy was needed according to the lady doctor. Shock was complete, as this is major surgery and it is synonymous to a severe case of endometriosis. Walking into the hospital feeling healthy and coming out with the knowledge that I need a large open operation was a kick in the teeth.

The hospital in Voorburg does not perform these procedures in the summer, so we were put on the waiting list for the hospital in Delft. This can’t have been a very long list, as I was called the next morning for an operation on Monday. THIS Monday! That’s when the panic started to kick in. We had so many questions and there seemed to be so many different answers, depending on who gave it. Like, was major surgery the only option? Would I have to take more drugs afterwards? I had read that they put you on drugs that make your body act like it is menopausal, to prevent recurrence. This is where I would draw the line! I spoke to both a nurse and the gynaecologist, but neither managed to put my mind at rest. So we were at a loss what to do and I behaved like a real drama queen most of yesterday. So Jonny finally put an end to my misery and said we’d postpone the operation until all questions were answered, because he could clearly see I was not comfortable. He has been an absolute godsend throughout this! :-)

This morning I called the hospital again, but got rude treatment from the nurse. She said I needed this operation and that I had spoken to her and the doctor and that should be enough. I did not agree. So when she started telling me that I needed to listen to her (for the Dutch readers: “nou moet je eens even goed luisteren”), I told her that I did not HAVE TO DO ANYTHING OF THE SORT. It was one of my long unfulfilled dreams to be able to say that to somebody. At the right time and the right place. Admittedly it would have caused more impact if I had not completely broken down in tears straight afterwards, throwing the phone to Jonny, begging him to please talk to her. It seemed she was quite humble with him and she agreed things were going quite fast and that we could postpone if that made us feel better.

We ended up going to the anaesthetist this morning anyway and I was declared fit for the operation. When he found out that not all our questions were answered he insisted that his secretary called the operating specialist and was adamant we’d speak to her before the operation or otherwise postpone. The specialist was a bit surprised to hear this since she had not read my history or even knew that I was scheduled for the operation. She agreed to see us the same afternoon. So off to Delft we went, running into my dad in the hospital who was waiting for my mum to have her x-rays taken. The gynaecologist took her time and explained about the procedure, which in principle is a laparoscopy, a keyhole procedure at the cyst is removed and any other endometriosis tissue is coagulated. This would mean at most one night in hospital and a week recovery, as opposed to four days in hospital and four to six weeks recovery. Only if the cyst cannot be removed, or in case of complications, do they move on to perform a laparotomy. As for the menopausal drugs, it has become standard opinion nowadays that giving this to women with a child wish does not make much sense.




Without surgery the cyst is not likely to disappear, but might actually grow even bigger ensuring the need for laparotomy in the future. It might cause pain and eventually rupture, causing severe infection. Together with the wish to start the IVF treatment again, we decided to go ahead with it. After careful consideration, as the reply on a job application might read….

Beaming support

It's been a while since we posted an update on the house, so here's a few pictures and some comments to get you up to speed.


The steel beams have now been installed in the lounge, which has enabled the builders to knock down the remaining walls. This has made the lounge feel much larger and lighter as you can see from the pictures above.


The steel beams in the kitchen and dining room have also now been installed. The 7m long beam that spans the entire width of the house was a bit more difficult to install than anticipated and required the use of three jacking machines to lift it into place. The builders also ended up knocking a hole into the neighbouring office when preparing the wall to support the long beam... fortunately the neighbours took it very well and the builder's insurance covered the damage.


The cement floor in the front of the house is coming on too... a fine grade cement has been layed on top of the rough concrete that was laid last week and the floor has been levelled. A fine finishing layer is still to be installed prior to the epoxy priming layer and finish.

Now that all the beams are in and most of the new walls installed, work can start on installing the ceilings and then the plastering. The builder has also advised us that now is a good time to do the work in the garden. It just so happens that one of the builders is also a landscape gardener, so he's going to come up with a quote for us to do the garden too!

Updated view from outer space

Looks like Google Earth have updated their satalite pictures, since you can now zoom right into our street and our new house!

La musique dans ma tête

Tonight and Saturday night we're off on what has become our annual trip into the underground music world. Well, at least that's what we like to think.

Every year, Den Haag hosts a weekend of music called The Music in my Head. A catchy title, although I feel that it may already be falling out of fashion, since last night I discovered that it's no longer chic to use English words on the continent... German and French are back in vogue. Supertoll!

Anyway, the music should be good... I'm particularly looking forward to hearing the Brits Brummy band Editors and seeing how many people I can inform that I was born near Birmingham, the band's home town (which really is nothing to be proud of, but fortunately most Dutch people don't seem to know that).

Anyway, we'll let you know if it is any good this year and whether we manage to get mentioned again on any websites or magazine reviews... seems our audience anticipation wasn't appreciated by everyone last year.

Solemn promise to wake up on time

It is becoming harder and harder to deny that in 22 days time I will be officially unemployed. People are asking me how my job interview went (well, it went okay, but they just didn't think I'd fit in) and what I am going to do next (nothing). As for the new job, there is none yet. AND IT BLOWS MY MIND. You know the saying about not throwing away your old shoes before you have new ones? Well, I just have! And at times it freaks me out, but most of the time I am totally looking forward to the prospect of becoming a SAHW (Stay At Home Wife) for a while.

Of course THE next project is to turn me into a SAHM as soon as we can, or maybe a plain old working mum while we are at it, since I have not proven to be a very good stay-at-home-anything in the past. When we moved to Dubai and I was looking for a job, my nights and days seemed to effortlessly blend into one, with Jonny waking me up at noon so we could have lunch together. Or breakfast, as it would be in my case. Making dinner lunch and life confusing. Luckily that was only for about 3 weeks, since it only took me that long to find a good job.

So I promised us that it will be different this time. Apart from the baby project there should be plenty to keep me busy from July onwards. We still have have loads to do for the new house, I have a thesis to write and I will now take my time to find a more suitable job. No point in making the same mistake twice, is there? So this time I will not make time for mid-morning naps after Jonny has left the house.

As a bit of a sideline, apparently the people at Source Antiques are cracking on and making tremendous progress with our kitchen. Or so they say! They have received a colour sample from Farrow and Ball so that they can match the Cooking Apple Green®. You just have to love the name of that paint! They also have Cook’s blue®, which also sounds very suitable for a kitchen, but is a bit too bright for the subdued persons that we are. The guy Tom (with whom Jonny is now developing a serious email history to make sure everything is going according to plan) from Source mentioned that he saw the very same colour in a top 10 of colours for this season’s home-style in a magazine. We have not figured whether it was a top three rank yet. But Cooking Apple Green it will be!

The message

Saturday night Jonny and I watched a really soppy program about a couple that wanted to have babies but couldn’t. It was one of those we-can’t-bother-to-get-up-and-go-to-bed or maybe even too-lazy-to-get-the-remote-control-that-is-50cm-away moments. We were glued to the sofa and had to watch the drama unfolding and the characters go through Big Emotions. Needless to say it all worked out fine in the end and the viewers were left with a Message. I am unsure what the message was. But my giggling throughout the puke-enducing sweet melodrama gave us another message: we are ready for another try of IVF! If we can laugh about our own misery, that must surely be a good sign!

We had been talking about it before of course, but not set a date yet nor acted upon our deepest desires to become part of the club of tired young parents. Partly because we have the other big Project and weren’t sure if we could handle two Projects at the same time. But mostly, since both of us find it incredibly scary to go through the treatment again. But we decided that we are ready for it. We are ready to stick lots of needles in me, to support each other in dark moments that will undoubtedly come, but most importantly, to also laugh about it. I think I am on the verge of turning soppy myself now….

First hospital appointment: Wednesday 14 June, 8:30.

Another reason not to wait any longer: we don't want dwarfs for kids!

Sparks are flying

 
I forgot to post this picture... Flo took it with her mobile and she's really proud of it. Bless. 

Floor heating

We popped around the house yesterday in order to meet up with Scott the Scott, our friendly carpenter. He needed to measure up the stairwell in order to order the stairs that he's going to fit for us.


We arrived to find the floor heating had been installed, as you can see above. The warm water will flow through plastic tubing, which will in turn heat the floor. We're not allowed in the house over the long bank holiday weekend since today they should have come and laid cement over the floor, burying the plastic tubing.


Downstairs, they've now bricked up the wall where the cupboard beneath the old stairs used to be.


They've also installed the last wall in the back of the house, forming the downstairs guest bedroom. This room has turned out to be a bit larger than we imagined, but we decided not to install a built in cupboard in this room, instead leaving the space open beneath the new stair case to give the study/hall a more spacious feel and to help lighten things up a bit.


We now have a ceiling upstairs too! The ceiling turns out to feel higher than we anticipated, again helping to give a bit more of a roomy feeling, which is good since we were concerned that the rooms upstairs were going to feel a bit small. As it turns out, they don't feel too bad, although once the furniture is brought in it may start to feel a bit cramped. But that's just a good excuse to keep a minimalist feel.

Kitchen ordered

Yesterday we placed an order for our new kitchen. It's going to be a refurbished/restored original 1950's kitchen, made by the factory that manufactured Spitfire fighter planes during the 2nd World War.


As you can see in the picture above, the kitchen is made from alluminium, based on the alluminium forming skills that the factory developed during the manufacture of the planes. This kitchen was the first of it's kind to utilise a modular unit kitchen design.


We just need to decide on a colour, but rest assured it won't be pink as in the picture above, but rather a colour that fits into the pallette that Flo has chosen for the house.

Just need to figure out how we are going to get the kitchen over to the Netherlands once it has been put together (since it's made in the UK), but the supplier seems quite excited by the prospect of a jollie over to continent.