For someone who claims to "like blogging" I sure have a measly output.

Today is Monday 13 August 2018 and I have the day off work. My dear friend Mars is visiting from Australia and I took some time off to spend time with her.

Mars is a friend I met, worked with, and spent a lot of time with when I lived in Melbourne. She's down-to-earth, smart, funny, goal-oriented and hard working. All the things I aspire to be. It's been nearly two years since we last saw each other but that really didn't matter at all. We spent ages at Grangers over wine and coffee, catching up and fulling right back into that familiar grove of talking together.

Of all the smart things she says, when we talked about working hard to buy a house, she said something that is really sticking with me.

"It's all the things I've done over the years, all the work I've put in to be able to afford my house. Choosing the cheaper item on a menu even though I would rather have the more expensive one; it's the getting one more season out of my wardrobe rather than buying a cute new jacket; it's going home to my crappy leftovers rather than going out for a drink with friends. That's the hard work of saving over the years so I could buy my home; make my payments on my mortgage."

Turns out that was just-as-well I had time off today as well because as we discovered a problem with the kitchen (we're renovating it) right at the last major task.

Look we're at the last few items to finish the kitchen. It looks gorgeous. It's such a pleasure to work in and on Saturday the tilers came to do the last major piece of the puzzle. Trouble is they found that the wall behind the stove is bowed so they couldn't tile over it. They put the tiles in over the opposite wall and it looks amazing. 

The builder is coming over at lunchtime to look at the bow and arrange to have it fixed. 

The tilers are going home (Malaysia, I think) for a month so that's how long it might be before we get them back to finish once the wall is done.

Also, my beloved Pot Filler is due by courier from Wellington today and so I'm super glad to be here to receive it.