We have had a couple of visits from this interesting bird recently. Yes, it may be ugly and noisy, but we love seeing different things in the trees outside our loungeroom window. What our bird book says (abridged) about this bird is:

A huge cuckoo, with huge bill giving more the appearance of a hornbill. This is a migratory species; breeds in Australia in spring and summer and migrates to NG, Indonesia and other northern islands for the winter. On arrival in Australia about Sep-Oct, the Channel-billed Cuckoo makes its presence obvious with loud raucous calls. The Channel-billed Cuckoo uses currawongs, magpies and crows as hosts. With the huge bill extending the body length forward, in flight this species looks from below like a flying cross; the body is well over half a metre long and the wingspan approaches one metre. Channel-billed Cuckoos feed principally on fruit, but also take insects, espeecially large insects such as locusts; they have also been reported to feed on eggs and nestlings of other birds.

Our visitors used to sleep on our sofa bed in the loungeroom. We had a couple of problems with this: 1) neither Andrew or I really liked the sofas, we were constantly adjusting the cushions to make them comfortable, and 2) when people used the sofa bed it meant that the loungeroom was a bedroom, and I was wondering how we’d manage to have visitors in our flat once baby arrives….particularly in the middle of the night if the lounge/kitchen area was a sleeping area for others. We were spoilt at our wedding and received a number of cash gifts, and so we decided to buy a nicer lounge suite with the money. We are very happy with the leather lounge that we got, but there is no sofa bed. So our solution was to purchase an Aerobed that would fit into the baby’s room. It’s probably easier to move the baby elsewhere when there are visitors than to have visitors sleeping in the lounge!

The Aerobed is an inflatable bed with an inbuilt pump. The bed we got rises to 2 feet off the ground, so that it’s like a real bed. We thought that would be easier for our parents to use than one that is little more than an air mattress on the floor. The bed pumps up in around 3 minutes and is really quite comfortable. Yes, it’s a bit squishy in the baby’s room with little space on either side to walk, but hopefully it will be acceptable to our guests. We recently had Aurelie and Nico stay 3 nights on it, and they said it was good.

Oh, as you can see from the photo above, the wardrobe has now been finished as well!  Andrew complained about the amount of inconvenience in getting it to this stage (something like 9 installation dates set, 4 when work was actually done, we had to do a lot of running around to make sure we would be home all of those times and rearrange the room each time they were supposed to come, and the job was finished 2 months late), and got us out of paying the final 10%!!

I never realised I could get excited by a clothes line. I worked out that I’ve lived for around 4 years without one, and now with a baby on the way I was dreading the thought of trying to get everything dry on clothes horses (I try not to use the drier unless absolutely necessary).

Technically, we’re breaking at least two bylaws by installing the clothes line (not allowed to dry clothes on the balcony, and not allowed to change the external appearance of the building without permission from the owners corporation), but we figure that not many people can see onto our balcony and therefore it was worth the risk of being told to take it down. The other thing about this clothes line is that only a couple of brackets are permenant, the actual clothes line itself can be removed when not in use. So, the photo above shows the clothes line in use (we had to go buy some pegs before we could use it!), and the one below shows the brackets in the wall with the clothesline removed. I think it’s brilliant!!

Project Baby’s Room has been (almost) completed. At least all the bits that Andrew and I can do are now finished. It’s taken a long time too! We started getting quotes for changing the study into the baby’s room in September. First we decided to put in airconditioning. We thought it would be an easy job, to put a unit on the wall and attach it to the compressor on the balcony. Wrong!! We couldn’t get quotes because noone could find the correct unit.  Andrew finally contacted the Mitsubishi distributors in Australia only to find out that the gas used in the system is no longer allowed to be imported into the country, and so they would have to try to locate a second hand unit for us. They successfully managed to find a unit, but then it took ages for them to give us a quote for installation, and every time Andrew rang to talk to them the cost (verbally given) went up, until we finally got the quote. They finally installed the unit in late November, though that was also a drama that took several days to complete. We then had to argue with the company when they sent us the bill, as we were charged for an item that they didn’t install, and we were also charged for some other things that we didn’t agree with. Andrew discussed it with the company and they ended up reducing the bill a little.

Next was the wardrobe saga. In October we got quotes for the wardrobe, and chose a company to do the work. They asked 10% to be paid when we booked the job, and another 30% when the job went to production. We didn’t have any issues with this practice. The idea was to pay 50% when the installer came to install the wardrobe, and a final 10% when it was all done to our satisfaction. The first installer never arrived because the doors were made the wrong size and had to go back to be remade. The second installation date set saw the installer turn up, so we paid our 50%, but he didn’t manage to finish the job, and he also broke the overhead cupboard so it had to go back to production. The third installation date arranged was cancelled the day before, and rescheduled for 2 days later which was their last working day before Christmas. Unfortunately they didn’t manage to make it that day either. The next installation date set in mid January saw a guy turn up, do some work for a few hours, and then tell us that he had to get some more things remade….the draws were the wrong size, as were the doors. The next installation date set was last Wednesday, and once again the wardrobe and overhead cupboard couldn’t be finished. Our next date is on Wednesday this week. So we’ve paid 90% of the quoted amount for a job that was supposed to be finished by the end of November last year, we’ve had people turn up 3 times to install it, and we still don’t have a completed wardrobe. I’m sure it will be finished…one day!

To turn the room into a proper room, Andrew and Gabe built a door frame in the Christmas break. The door frame was built to match the others in the flat, but it was taller than a standard sized door, so we’ve decided to get a lead light window to go above the door. Gabe showed us how to fix holes in plaster board, and so Andrew has been busy trying to repair all the holes created when the aircon went in. The door frame was built further into the room than the light switch, so Andrew moved the light switch and plastered over the hole of the original switch, and then we painted the entire room and door frame.

For now we’ve finished, though there are still two jobs to do. 1) get the wardrobe finished, and 2) design and get the lead light window made. It might have taken us 5 months to get this far, but I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in our 1 bedroom plus study flat.

Presenting….the baby’s room!

We just need the baby to go in it now.