On Saturday morning I went to the gym and then the Superstore as I usually do, and arrived home to be told by Nicky Luke was arriving later that day.  This always puts me into a bit of a tizzy as Luke’s got the appetite of a right whale and I need to know before I go shopping, not after, that he’s coming.

In any case, he arrived mid-afternoon and said he wanted to leave for Thailand within the next two or three days.  Another tizzy.  I raced to the thrift stores and looked for suitcases, as Nicky’s going with him and I’m loading them each with 80 pounds of gifts.

I know that sounds like a lot, but when you get a bed full of boxes of chocolate, toys, clothes and soaps, you soon realize you need a lot of luggage for all of this stuff.  I got a dozen boxes of Belgian chocolates at Costco as they’re wrapped so adorably and of course the price is right.

Nicky’s staying in Thailand for one month, and Luke’ll get a visa at that point to extend his stay, probably for another month and so he’ll be back mid-May.  Then he has some hare-brained scheme of renting my gramma’s old house in mom’s orchard in Osoyoos as his home base when he’s off from the oil rigs.

When you’re in Thailand for two months of the year, and at the oil rigs in Saskatchewan for ten, I fail to see how you need to rent a house in Osoyoos year-round.  There go mom and her handyman Alan’s dreams of renting the place by the week to tourists.

But apparently there are currently 70 homes listed as vacation rentals in Osoyoos, so maybe there wouldn’t have been a run on the little place anyway.  I’m staying out of it, but have the feeling somehow I’ll be dragged into the midst of this arrangement.

It’s kind of interesting when you’re given a square half the size of a bandaid and you choose your exterior house colour from this.  Then when the hapless painter begins painting, you realize your house is going to be mauve.  I was pretty sure I was choosing a pale cafe au lait colour, but apparently not.

Perhaps when all of the coats are on, and it’s completely dry, there’ll be less of a pinkish mauve tint to the house.  If not, I’m going to tell everyone I chose a pinkish mauve because that’s my favourite colour, and as you know, being different is what life’s all about.

The rather interesting handyman who came to look at the deck project and give me a quote has disappeared.  Normally that wouldn’t bother me, but he drove off with one of the screens for my sunroom and never returned it!

I noticed when he was here his hands trembled and when I googled him I read an article that said he was a formerly homeless person who turned himself around.  He may have, but I sure wish he’d answer my e mails and bring back my screen.  Sadly, I don’t think he’s the right man for my deck reno and other odd jobs, do you?

However Mitch, a retired carpenter, is going to build the railing for me.  Then Mike will paint all of it mauvish pink and the place will gleam like an opalescent pearl.