Yesterday we picked up our new car: the dark green Mazda Premacy. We took it for a test drive on Friday morning and arranged everything. Because of the APK that still needed doing we couldn't take it to the EE weekend, so we drove to Nieuw Milligen with Cora and Rene. Thanks guys!

Matthijs already changed the radios. The one from the Kia is now inside the Premacy. The old radio from the Premacy was one that could only play cassettes and it had a cd changer in the back (inconvenient). The one from the Kia can at least play cd's. We will also be collecting the battery from the Kia this Saturday after the Kia has been sent on transport to some poor country. They payed us € 125 for it!

The parting with the Kia was only a bit emotional. When we drove off with our Premacy I didn't feel anything. But then we went back to bring the spare key (which we had forgotten) and after that drove past the Kia, standing there lonely on the parking lot. I got tears in my eyes! Such a weird thing. It feels a bit (but less severe) like leaving a beloved pet at the veterinarian and knowing you'll never see it again. Even though this is just a piece of metal on wheels.

I do hope the Kia will make someone else happy. Sometimes old cars get transported to poorer countries where people drive around with dents, rust and all kinds of defects longer than we do here in 'the West'. It's either that or the scrap heap I'm afraid.

So, we're now the proud owners of a 'real' car. It does not even stand out in the row of cars that are parked in front of our block of houses. The Kia kind of mocked the Mercedes of our neighbour, with it's light color and the worn down look. Now we fit in. ;-)

My personal work-in-and-around-the-house-hero Matthijs has finished the toilet downstairs! After quite some setbacks (leakages mostly) everything is now in order and working properly. All that's left to do is buy and install a toilet roll holder, towel hook, soap dispenser and toilet brush. Oh, and put some toilet paper in there. ;-)

We still don't have a new car. We're waiting till tomorrow or the day after when a certain dealer opens again after his holiday. He has a Mazda Premacy that we'd like to take a look at and probably do a test drive with. We've been inside a similar car; same brand and type but with all kinds of fancy options we don't need. That one was also above our budget, but the fact that the three back seats can be taken out individually looks really promising for the cargo space. And that is what this all comes down to: we need as much or even more space than our current car has. Certainly not less.

This weekend is the annual EE mission weekend somewhere in a bungalow on a resort. Then we have a weekend with no plans yet. Amersical klusdag, possibly a birthday party and the Sumdag all on Saturday, but we've not decided what to do with it all yet so it looks like we're not going to do anything. We may be excused from the klusdag because we will be sewing 20 hooded capes. That Sunday is still empty. Weekend after that, first of February, we have the rehearsal weekend for Amersical. Weekend after that we go dancing and learning in Enschede (yay!) and that's as far as I want to look ahead now.

We were too late (10 hours or so...) subscribing for the balfolk dansstage this year (again in Enschede) but we put ourselves on the backup list and now we're in! Yes!!!

I do hope we can get accomodations in the hotel Logica, with our own shower and toilet. Last year I checked out the bathrooms with the cabins but they are filthy and old. Yuck. We do have the money, so let's hope Logica is better than the cabins and that they still have room for us.

Whatever the accomodations; the weekend of 10 - 12 Februari we're in Enschede dancing!

Happy new year to 'all' my readers. Hope all your plans will turn out great this year!

As for our plans... we still do not have a toilet downstairs but we're getting pretty close now. The ceiling is done, the joints of both the walls and floor (including hall and pantry) are done (what a mess that makes!), Matthijs has started finishing up the corners where walls or wall and floor meet with kit. Next thing on the list is finishing those corners, hanging up the fountain and toilet, putting back the (freshly painted) radiator in the hallway and give the doorstep a new color. When that's all done the toilet/hallway project is finally finished. We broke out the old stuff at the end of September last year...

Then we move on to the heating system of the house. We want to have control over every single room, instead of having to turn on the whole system and thus heat rooms that do not need heating. The only thermostat we have now is in the livingroom downstairs, but we spent most time in the workroom on the first floor. This project will take approximately half an hour per radiator.

We still have a stray bookcase in the living room that needs sawing in half and repositioning. We still don't have skirting downstairs. The attic needs to be cleared out some time soon for the dormers to be placed. So still enough te be done. As we Dutch people say: Omdat je huis nooit af is!

Oh, and we spent our old year's eve dancing in Zeist. Was lots of fun and sure as hell beats couch sitting. ;-)