Sisi continues to recover from her ordeal of anaesthesia and major organ removal a week ago. She is not yet her usual hyper-active self but we know she will return to ‘normal’ in time.
We continue to visit the chata every day, at the least Scott does. He tends to his little tomato plants in the greenhouse, making sure they’re watered. And today he plants potatoes.
Jo is convinced that Sisi thinks it’s weird going ‘home’ but not being allowed to actually go inside. But she’s getting better in the car, knowing there are more places it goes than to the vet. We hope two months of daily jaunts in the car will see the three of us on a road trip south to Croatia.
It’s strange to live on one floor again. After almost two years negotiating spiral stairs, it’s nice to be able to cook and eat on the same floor.
We’ll have that luxury in the chata once all the work is done and our luxurious new kitchen is built. That doesn’t look very close at the moment.
The hole’s been cut in the living room floor and the raw brick edges are cemented up in preparation for the new staircase.
The bathroom has been gutted. The old toilet and sink sit in the kitchen waiting for the rubbish skip, and the clunky shower wall is gone.
It is exciting to see how much larger the bathroom will be with a corner shower and a corner sink. Jo is sort of sad to forego her dream of glass bricks, but she knows this is a better solution to a small room.
The other major change to the ground level room is the installation of a six by six vertical beam replacing the center pole of the spiral stairs, that held up the living room and top floors. Right now they have trees holding things up.
Scott wishes they’d keep those. They’re more fun.
We think Sisi is getting comfy here in the flat. She really likes sleeping on the bed with us at night. She is still anxious when we go out, however; no doubt worrying about another attack by monster dog. And sure enough we had another close encounter with him today. Jo was prepared, though and stood fast between the monster and the empress. He's a bully but without much bite, being muzzled.
We try to keep our tradition of making really good food each night, though the resources here in the flat aren’t as good as they are at home (no sporak!). We’ve done Scott’s best fried chicken, Jo’s best Chicken Kiev (we cheated on this because there were two in the freezer she did up a week earlier); with a Jo concoction of zucchini, onion and Roma tomatoes dusted with reggiano and popped in the oven.
We can do this because we brought our really good friends:
Jo did Scott’s best braised short ribs last night, and even Scott admitted they were the best so far. He also did the dishes, bless ‘im.
Tonight we’re having tacos using filet mignon tips. It doesn’t seem quite fitting to think of tacos and Scott’s best salsa while watching snow fall outside.
It is amazing how quickly the demolition work can be done. Brant and I were able to completely dismantle our first house in the Poconos, down to the studs, in one week, and it only took us six years to put it back together.
Posted by: Angele Switzler | 04/14/2011 at 01:23 PM