Let the game begin!

For weeks now I've slowly been getting used to the idea that I'm moving, alternating between tears of sadness and smiles of relief, but now I'm actually packing!  It is an extremely fraught time, I have to admit.  So many memories being left behind yet a new period of life beginning.

Christmas 2010

I have the most wonderful daughter-in-law!  Just look at this Christmas cake she made for our dessert yesterday, with strawberry and cream Santas!!!!!!!  It was our first Christmas in the new house and we sat out on the deck, overlooking the swimming pool surrounded by trees.  The in-laws were there, too, so it was just a perfect family time.

I needed a happy day, as the previous day had been very stressful, with me reading old letters and sorting throughvarious bits and pieces, like the tickets, boarding passes, etc, from when Philip and I went to live in France in 1973!!!!!!!!  I threw them out, but have hung onto the drawings he did when he was in kinder, and all the cards he's ever sent me in his whole 40 years.  There's a tear-bringing card that his Nanny sent to me once when I was holidaying in London and he was about 6:  'Dear Mummy, I miss you more and more as the days get longer and longer.'  Needless to say, I hopped on the next plane home!

Michael, by now you will have received my email and know I did, indeed, get your ecard.  Thanks again.

And thanks to you, Winifred and Frank, for the lovely cards that were waiting for me at the new address.

Sky and sand...

This is the carpet - laid only yesterday - in my new bedroom.  We picked a tough one to withstand Muffy's clawing.  She never did take to her scratch-pole, always preferred the carpet.  However, in her 8 years in this house she never did any damage, so I hope this one will be just as hard-wearing.

I love the painted walls.  Years ago, when this effect was all the rage, I spent a fortune on books showing how to do it but never tried.  Now it's done for me, which is nice.

The previous owner was a plumber but I think he must have had an electrician as a mate as I've never seen so many power points, switches and lights!  It will take forever to work out what all the switches are for.

Now that I have a date for moving I'll really get stuck into culling again.  I did do a bit a while back, but then gave up as I needed a deadline to keep me motivated.

Contract exchange day in November

Friends Bruce and Wendy were with me in this shot, taken moments before Wendy tipped her tea all over me!!!!  My handbag, trousers and shoes were completely soaked and people ran from everywhere to help clean up the mess.  Wendy took advantage of the opportunity to introduce me to them all, telling them I'd just bought a house in the area and would soon be moving in.  So I made lots of friends!

Yes, that pic of Hornsby shopping centre sure looks deserted, Winifred.  I didn't take it myself - found it online.  I'll bet it's full of peope now, just days before Christmas.  You can't imagine how nice it was to read your positive comments about being with the grandchildren.  My 'friends' continue to be extremely negative, so much so that I really don't want to be bothered with any of them any more.

I spent the weekend in Montview, among the dozens of cartons waiting to be unpacked.  Emma and I sat for hours together in the living room bird watching while Hugo snored away contentedly in his rocking cradle.  The view from there is nothing but trees - just beautiful.  We're having a cold snap, though certainly nothing like yours in the northern hemisphere, so were not in the least tempted to try out the pool.

This morning I rang my swimming friend at 7, saying, 'Let's forget about it today!'  I think it was 12 degrees, with a gale blowing.  So Muffy and I curled up and stayed in bed till 10, when I had to get up and get ready to go out to lunch with friends.

Philip has booked a removalist to take my stuff down on 24 January.  I met the young couple who've bought the house - they're both architects, and fell in love with the place after 10 minutes, so I'm very glad to be leaving it in loving hands.

Nice boardwalk near home

This morning I signed my house away.  What a strange feeling...I have to be out by 31 January 2011, but can, of course, go anytime from now.

To celebrate, I bought myself Susan Boyle's Christmas CD, which is playing as I type.  I know I said I'd never buy another thing, but this will be nice to listen to in the car as I go between houses over the next weeks.  Philip wants to borrow my car - a stationwagon - so I'll drive down (with a lawnmower that a friend gave us) and he can use it to move various bits and pieces they don't want the removalist to handle.

I've googled the library, aquatic centre, etc, in Hornsby and am pleased to discover they are only about 4km from the house, as is Westfield, one of those dreadful shopping centres that I don't like a bit, but I suppose I will go there occasionally.  Here's a pic - I'm sure these places are the same the world over:

It seems too good to be true, having both bush and city right on our doorstep!

I can hardly wait...view from near my new home.

My house sold in a blink to a young couple and now it's just a matter of their doing the paper work and building and pest checks.  I'm stressed out of my brain making decisions on what to keep and what to throw away!  This morning I took a couple of boxes of books to the university, where they have a huge book fair every two years.  I told them two of the books, 'Firing,' by Ninette Dutton and 'Out in the Open', by her (now late, and deservedly so) husband, Geoffrey, must be sold together.  Written in the 90s, Ninette's book was a charming tale of her life with her husband and family and Geoffrey's, 'a disarmingly frank autobiography', revealed years of betrayal with other women.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it.  What an absolute rotter!!!!!!!!!  How could a man so publicly humiliate his wife like this???????  Wikileaks has nothing on this shameless revelation.

I'm listening to old tapes, dating back to some of Philip speaking French when he was 3 and 4.  I can't possibly get rid of them as they bring tears to my eyes.  He was so cute, just the way Emma is now.

I'm also having coffees and lunches with many friends, to say goodbye, though I intend to come back here to Newcastle frequently.  Am also doing a lot of lying on the sofa in front of the telly watching reruns of 'The Bill'.

Queen Victoria Building Christmas Tree 2010

http://www.qvb.com.au/Christmas-Tree

Have made a couple of trips to Sydney lately and both times had lunch in the Queen Victoria Building, gazing in wonderment at this giant tree.  Of course, absolutely everything is online, so I found a video of people putting it up so you can see for yourselves.

I wasn't even tempted by the bling in the shops, though did enjoy looking at it all.  Have bought only one thing for Christmas, a battery-operated mother frog with a baby on her back, which both my grandkids will enjoy in the new pool.  As I continue to declutter, my distaste for stuff of any kind is growing exponentially!  All my visitors must leave laden down with stuff I force upon them!  And in the morning I'll be taking a huge basketful of stuff to a charity shop, the first of many, no doubt.

There has been a lot of interest in my house and yes Winifred, some of the lookers are waving cheque books around, so I'll no doubt be gone by the end of January.  Have lost all sentimentality and am really looking forward to my new home.  It is a hard period, this waiting...

Open House

Selling one's house must be one of life's worst experiences - just squeezes in ahead of buying a new swimming costume.  I was going to sell it myself, but Philip told me if somebody walked in wearing a nice tie I'd offer it to him at half price, and I do have a record of working like that.  So we got an agent and he told me on Wednesday we could have the first Open House on Saturday (yesterday), so boy, did I need to get cracking!!!!!!!!!

I can honestly say any attachment I thought I had to this place has completely evaporated.  After days of dusting, vacuuming, washing years of grime off walls with sugar soap, washing curtains (and hanging them straight from the washing machine), cleaning windows, hosing exterior walls, scrubbing, tidying, packing, giving stuff away, weeding, sweeping, throwing out piles of junk and so on, I absolutely hate the place and can't get out quickly enough.

I am appalled at the sheer volume of stuff I've acquired over the years.  Shopping will have no interest for me whatever in future.  I don't want or need ANYTHING, ever again.  I will be more than happy to live very simply. 

The agent tells me six lots of people came through yesterday, which is good, considering the ad had only been online three days and not yet in the newspaper.  One man wants to bring his wife today.  I wish I could just close my eyes and the next few weeks would go away!

Just to make you envious, Winifred!

After your comments about weather in UK at the moment, Winifred, I just had to put this pic of my new beach towel drying in the sun!  (I'm horrid, aren't I?)  But wait a few weeks and I'll be complaining bitterly about the humidity.  There is nothing worse than an Australian summer, no, not even a UK winter!!!!!!!

Please send me some pics as snow looks really pretty.

I haven't put my house on the market yet, but have been to a conveyancer and it won't be long before I do.  These weeks of waiting are hard to bear, but there's no other way of doing it.  Plenty of time to mentally adjust to the idea of moving...I'm more than happy to be going.  I absolutely love my Newcastle home but will love my new one just as much and will have the added bonus of being with the family.

Soon be there...

I found this pic online.  It was taken somewhere near my new home, in the national park.  Not much is happening at the moment - I'm really just waiting till I can actually move.  Have been reading old diaries and deciding which ones to throw out.  Interestingly, not a lot has changed in my life - Philip, home, friends, Molly then Muffy and of recent years my daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.  Life is steady and there have been no real changes apart from stopping and starting a business.

I've always stuck to the same hairdresser, dentist, doctor and so on for as long as possible, and I'll go back to the doctor I had in Sydney when I lived there if he is still taking patients.  Here in Newcastle, many doctors have closed their books and, even when you can find one, you often have to wait weeks for an appointment.  I'll come back to Newcastle for the dentist, hairdresser and masseuse.

Yippeeeeeeee!

It's ours!!!!!!!  Yesterday I drove a couple of friends to see the new house and of course had to take a photo of the SOLD sign as I find it so hard to believe!!!!!!!!  We couldn't go in, as tenants are still living there, but were satisfied just to look from the outside.  A man was walking with his daughter, grandson and dog, so asked if we were the new buyers and introduced himself and had a long chat.  He's lived nearby for 30 years and loves it.

We drove all round, admiring the beautiful homes and gardens, then went to the very end of the street the school is in and found this:

Next stop was coffee and cake here:

This is the Wahroonga shopping village, one of my favourite places in the world, and it's not 10 minutes away from the house!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we went to another one of my favourite places, Parkers Nursery, where we had another cup of coffee:



Talk about being in Seventh Heaven!

Must go swimming now, then have my last piano lesson before starting with a new teacher in Sydney.

It's on!

Lina the Tosser is coming tomorrow, so I'm going to be one jump ahead of her and made a start on the study about 5am and have already binned about 10,000 receipts.  What a waste of money, buying all that stuff in the first place!!!!!!  Oh dearie me, what to do with old photos, old cards (I have an entire 7-drawer chest full), letters (I have some written by my late father to my late mother from Papua New Guinea about 60 years ago), ornaments, pictures and wall hangings, CDs, spare paper, etc, etc, etc??  I also have an entire row of diaries in the bottom of a cupboard.

Some things, like records of all the private students who passed through my hands, will not be so hard to throw out.  I got rid of my uni notes a year or so ago.

From now on, as I promised yesterday, I will only buy things that can be eaten or drunk (except for packing boxes, five of which I bought early this morning).

The best swim of my life

Have just started back in the ocean pool and when I arrived about 8 o'clock this morning, there wasn't a soul in the water!  It wasn't a fine day like this web photo  - it was raining and the water was choppy, just the way I like it.  It was absolute heaven.  One or two other people joined me after a while, and 20 or so police arrived to do water rescue drill.  They dived in fully clothed, shoes and all.  It was interesting to watch them.

Great to have you back, Frank.  I've been missing your comments for a long time.
Sensible advice about getting rid of stuff.  I have things I haven't used in years!!!!!!!!!  It will be a great feeling to start afresh and I swear to you all I'll never buy another thing unless it can be eaten or drunk.

Open Garden

Visited this open garden this morning, invited by a friend who knows the owners.  What a magnificent property it is, with hectares of garden.  My favourite pic is this one of the pool.  Check out some more photos if you'd like to:    http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2010/11/10/3062646.htm?site=&xml=3062646-mediarss.xml#bigpicturepos.  Of course, I'm very much into houses now, as you can imagine.

My thoughts on how to manage my move are evolving.  Had a furniture removalist come the other day to do a quote but have since decided to get rid of almost everything I own and make a fresh start in the new house.  Getting rid of piles of junk will be such a load off my mind.  Also thought I'd sell the house myself, bypassing an agent who would charge 5% commission for doing what I can do.  Houses round here sell like hot cakes.

At last...

If you are a good customer, I've already emailed details of my new home-to-be.  This will be my sitting room, and we'll put a kitchen in at the opposite end.  I know I said I wouldn't move with the family, but this house and area are to die for (which I will no doubt do, in due course) and the temptation was too great.

Good advice, Winifred.  I've actually rung an electrician who is coming this afternoon to fix the broken light fitting and attach the remaining rice paper shade.  Will need to attend to various little things each day now, till the house is in tip-top condition.

The things that frazzle me:

I am inordinately pleased with myself if ever I manage to do the least little thing round the house.  Today I have managed to put up two out of three rice paper shades.  The third connection is broken so I will have to send for an electrician.  I'm sure most people would think nothing of doing such a simple job, but I agonise over such things, thinking they must surely be beyond me, and get a big thrill and surprise when anything turns out right.

The other day I amazed myself by putting air into the tyres of my car.  Once upon a time driveway service was the norm, but for years now - about 30- you've had to do it yourself.  I tried once and the hose made such a hissing noise I was afraid I was letting more air out than was going in, so abandoned all hope and simply drove for 30 years without ever checking my tyre pressure.  But the other day when I was filling up with petrol, I saw a bloke putting air into the tyres of his motorbike, so went over and asked did he mind if I watched, as I wanted to learn how to do it myself.  These days there is a kind of box where all you have to do is enter the number you want, attach the hose and it all happens automatically!  Easy peasy.  I was up to the fourth and final tyre when a big black car pulled into the area and a Pakistani bloke got out and took the hose from me and finished the job for me!  I said, 'Oh for the days of driveway service.'  He said, 'Ask me.'  When I asked him where I was likely to find him in the future he pointed to the building.  He must have been the boss.  (Most of our service stations are run by Pakistanis, don't know why.)  But I won't need to, as I can now do it myself, Clever LIttle Sausage that I am!

I just amazed myself!

You all know how much I loathe and detest paper work - well, when I got back from swimming in the rain this morning I came into the study, put the heater on, and decided to actually do some sorting out.  I'd received a brochure in the mail offering 25% discount for house and contents insurance with the same company that insures the car.  So I decided to look into it and have actually saved myself $394!!!!!!!!!!!!  Amazing.

I also managed to burn some CDs of my reading workbooks for a teacher friend, something I've had no luck with for ages.  One particular book, Part A, for some incomprehensible reason, would corrupt itself and not allow itself to be printed.  I tried to trick it by copying an old one and burning this onto a separate CD.  I'll post both CDs to her and see if it works.

Winifred, I'm glad you had success with pelargoniums and geraniums in sunny Spain - mine are being eaten!

Michael, I have indeed received your mails, for which I thank you and apologise for not having acknowledged them sooner.

That black hose in the background of the photo is my vacuum cleaner, waiting to be used...I can't do everything today, so it will just have to wait.

Keeping it simple...

Always enjoy your comments, Winifred.  Had a good talk to Philip just now and I think we're all pleased to be staying where we are for the moment.  They'd be better off in a townhouse in their same suburb, really close to the harbour and the CBD.  Houses with backyards are of course preferable, but most people these days don't have that option if they live in a city.

Went swimming this morning, which was delightful. It's wonderful having an Olympic pool just for me and my friend!  What a luxury!

Will spend the rest of the day playing the piano and cooking...

Staying put

I can announce to you all right now that my house-hunting is over and I am going nowhere.  I'm afraid the young ones will never make a decision and I can no longer live with this incertitude so have made my decision to stay right here.

I really love my home, conveniently close to the swimming pool, the ocean, the CBD, the hospital, the doctor and dentist, shopping centres, library, and everything I need.  It is full of friends and laughter and that is very important.

And what do you think of the snapdragons in the front garden I photographed just now?

I feel like glowering like this leopard

Nothing in particular is wrong, I just feel like glowering at the entire world.

Glad to read you are still alive and kicking, Michael, and it's nice to know you are always there, Winifred, but still no comment here from Frank.  House-hunting goes on, and does become terribly frustrating, though we are both thankful we already have a roof over our heads - not like some folk who are on the streets.

Don't envy you the approaching winter at the top of the world.  Though it's spring here, we're having droughts and floods and soon the bushfires will be back, but basically Newcastle is OK.  I swim most mornings, which is lovely.  Right now it's pouring rain.  Some things in my garden are flourishing while others have been eaten.  Fighting the bugs is a never-ending occupation.

Just had a phone call from a friend who is popping over so I'd better do a quick tidy-up.
Have already practised the piano and made a lemon tart for a Breast Cancer morning tea tomorrow.  It doesn't look nearly as good as the one I put on my last blog and I have completely forgotten what recipe I used then.  (Apparently that blog has gone off into cyberspace...)  Not to worry, it will probably taste yummy.

My oasis

I have been all over the place lately, metaphorically speaking.  My whole life seems to be in disarray.  I need some discipline I now realise.  I go from one task to another at the drop of a hat, and never succeed in finishing anything.

I'd say we've missed out on that house with the lovely pool and garden as it's going to auction on Sat and I have the feeling it will be passed in as the owners want $970,000 for it.  Another similar one was listed the other day, and it's a bit cheaper, so all is not lost.

Went to Sydney on Sat then again yesterday.  My sister, Kay, and I visited the new baby then revisited the block of flats where we lived till I was 5 and she was 9.  Amazingly, not a single improvement has been made - everything was exactly the same.  We drove past our old primary school, the church where Kay was married, then the homes of two maiden aunts.  Quite a sentimental journey, it was.

Gold star to you, Winfred (and a silver one to Lina).  You two are only ones commenting.  Frank, have you lost the key to get in?  And Michael, where are you?

See how my bamboo has grown.  I just adore this little oasis outside my kitchen window.

(Hardly anybody picked Cate Blanchett.  I would have, even if Philip hadn't put her name, as I saw her interviewed recently with this new haircut.)

Who wants to be famous?

Philip snapped Cate Blanchett when she, husband and kids were in his shopping centre (Crows Nest) yesterday.  The price one pays for fame is pretty high...

Have been in Sydney a bit lately myself, visiting the family and looking at houses.  Yes, still looking at houses.

I agree with you Winifed, computers are the dizzy limit.  They are the greatest time waster for the very reason you mention (as well as many others) and drive me to utter distraction.  I am extremely frazzled lately and yesterday stayed in bed all day because I just couldn't face the world.

Oh dear, life is funny...

I haven't blogged for ages because I'm all of a-twitter, what with the new baby and house-hunting.  Baby is doing fine and gaining weight as he should be.  Can't concentrate for more than one second at a time.  Will keep you posted re the house as an offer is being considered.

I took this photo years ago when Philip gave me my first digital camera, and entered it in a competition and it was posted online somewhere.  A few weeks back I found it on some Italian guy's blog!!!!!!!  Am very flattered and should write to him in Italian - I will one day...

From one mess to another...

I knocked this little number up for Emma in about 27 hours yesterday!  (I hope you understand this Australian idiom - it means I made this dress.)  As you can see, it involved converting the kitchen to a sewing room and dragging out from under my bed a huge plastic bag filled with thousands of things to do with sewing.  Hopeless!!!!!  But while the place looks like this I might as well keep going...

Don't bother telling me there are not 27 hours in a day as it felt like it to me!!!!  I am not naturally talented at sewing.  Some poor woman in a sweat shop in Asia would have done it in about 10 minutes.

Winfix, you are very clever to be able to twitter!  I can't cope with any of those social networking things I'm afraid, the main reason being I can never remember how to get into them.  Yes, Kipfler potatoes do look just like sweet potatoes, but taste like ordinary ones.  I had never heard of them before this latest recipe.

I did it! And gave myself a reward!



What a huge relief to be finished with that dreaded tax stuff!  After all my searching for missing statements, and in the process spreading copious amounts of miscellaneous paperwork over every horizontal surface in the study, I decided it was easier to simply refer to the online ones.  Could have saved myself all that bother and mess (though, to be honest, searching for my username, password, magic number, etc to get into my online bank account was almost as traumatic).

I dropped a big envelope off at the accountant's office yesterday, on my way to a wonderful French restaurant called 'Le Chat Noir', about an hour and a half's drive from here at Terrigal, a seaside village.  Friend and I had one of the best meals ever - I had roast pork, apple strudel and a glass of wine for a mere $35.  I'll be back!!!  What a fantastic deal.

On the way to the restaurant we popped into a gorgeous gift shop, where I bought several sundresses for Emma and - wait for it - a pair of earrings for myself!!!!!!  I don't have pierced ears (well I did have them pierced when I was 40 but the holes nearly made me sick so I had to let them grow over) and there was only a very brief period in my life, about 18 years ago, where I ever bothered about clip-ons, as I think I look silly in them.  They still make me look silly but when you're old that's an eccentricity you're allowed!

Now, in answer to your question Winfix - wow, what a cool name!!!!! - here is a pic of Kipfler potatoes:

If you google Kipfler, you'll find everything you never wanted to know about them.  Was a time when a potato was just a potato...Remember the good old days?



For heaven's sake, JUST DO IT!!!!!!!

Oh woe is me!  These papers have been lying about in my study for weeks while I've been in Sydney becoming a grandmother for the second time, then back home playing the piano, swimming, gardening, reading books and even cooking.  (Unbelievable but true, I actually did a pork roast with Kipfler potatoes on Sunday, from a new cook book I bought to add to the 756 that I already have.)  My latest desire is to make some sundresses for Emma, but I won't allow myself to do it until I've cleared this mess and got things ready for the accountant to do my tax.

Pleased to see your comments, everybody.  I can just imagine you, Winifred, dodging the cyclists in Bristol - do you have trouble with oldies scooting round, too?  Michael, I didn't think Soehnle was a German name - seemed like Swedish to me.  My scales are working again with their new batteries, but I think I'm having your trouble, Lina, as they are telling fibs.  Reminds me of the joke where a person got onto her new scales which said, 'One at a time.'  That's screamingly funny, isn't it!

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, but it takes me ages to get back into routine after I've been away.

 

Diane the homebody

Washing on the line and another $60 worth of new plants in (and you can't even see them).  Kitchen, toilet and bathroom vacuumed and mopped and my bedroom in the middle of a thorough dust and clean.  (I sacked my cleaning lady recently and the place has never been so clean!!!!!!!)  I actually enjoy housework as I adore my little house and garden and it gives me great pleasure pottering around.

Winifred, you and I have the very same disease and that's why I started this blog again.  I was forgetting everything to do with the computer.  It's good to find your comments again.  Last night 'Escape to the Country' featured a couple from Bristol, so we got some good views of your city.  There are lots of things about Bristol on the telly here.  I keep expecting to see you walking along the street one day, Winifred.  I just adore English houses - they are so cute and quite different from ours.

Had another d'uh experience yesterday.  I am the proud/silly? owner of a very expensive set of bathroom scales made in some foreign country.  A bit like mobile phones, they will almost cook you a casserole, convert dollars to cents and lots of other things you are most unlikely to ever want to do.  I wanted simply to be able to read my weight in kgs.  Well, some months ago - and I blamed the unfortunate cleaning lady - it stopped giving me this information and started saying 'Lo' to me.  I banged it and pressed all the pushbuttons over and over, but to no avail - it still kept registering 'Lo'.  While I was searching for my bank statements yesterday (and I have put that job on hold) I also looked for the user manual - I mean fancy having to have a user manual to weigh yourself in your own bathroom!!!! - and when I couldn't find it, hit on the bright idea of googling the improbable name, Soehnle, and asked for help.  Can you believe my relief when some kind employee emailed me the user manual almost immediately.  And can you imagine my embarrassment when I read that 'Lo' means the battery is running low!!!!!!!!!!!!  I didn't have the remotest clue that there would be batteries in there for some strange reason.

So, this morning I popped off to the local battery shop and now I know I am very fat.

Tax time again...

Actually, all I'm doing is looking for some bank statements and while I'm at it, I'm going through everything and throwing out hundreds of colour brochures and various other bits of rubbish.  I've already made three trips to the recycling bin and have about 100 to go.  I've written on a birthday card for Salome, my World Vision daughter in Malawi and paid for her whole village to be educated and vaccinated for 12 months.  Then I came across a half-filled in form that will entitle a poor pensioner-woman to no Credit Union fees and finished filling that in.  While I'm posting this stuff at the Post Office I might as well pay a couple of bills there, so I've got them ready.  And I need to take a script to the chemist and buy some food.

I still can't find the statements I started out searching for.  If my printers were working I could, as a last resort, print the missing ones from my online account but of course that would be too simple.  The fact is, they are not working.

While I'm struggling away here, Michael, you and your wife are swanning round the world in a VERY GLAMOROUS ocean liner!!!!!  Life is NOT FAIR.  Thanks for the wonderful photos.  And no, Muffy fell asleep before she managed to get into my swimming costume the other day!

Another day

Just had a phone call from a friend, incredulous that I find life difficult.  Mind you, she's in the minority, as most people also find it difficult and the other day I watched Oprah on this very topic.

One small example is the way begging charities drive you mad.  Over the years I've been having direct debits for various charities taken from my account.  This, of course, means they bombard you with colour brochures and magazines that are delivered in plastic sleeves which have to be slit open so you can drop them into the appropriate bins - one for plastic and one for paper.  Needless to say I never read the stuff.  And if you have ever thought you were giving a one-off donation you are dead wrong - they keep at you and at you.  They pester you by phone, email and snailmail, or personal visits to your door.

There's Amnesty International, Salvation Army, Save the Children, Animal Welfare, Bushfires, Cancer, Heart Research, Red Cross, World Vision and so it goes...for years I've been sponsoring a child through World Vision and they regularly bombard you with reminders it's her birthday, or nearly Christmas and would you please pay for a card and a gift and while you're at it, how about buying a goat for the family next door or providing a well for the village?  They are all oblivious of the fact that my main charity is a school in Africa but neither would they care if they knew.  You'd think I was a member of the Rupert Murdoch family with an endless cash flow!

I wrote to Amnesty International the other day, asking them to stop taking direct debits as I am but a poor old woman, and will eventually get round to the others.  You just about need a private secretary to attend to charity-related correspondence alone.  That's not to mention the dozens of colour brochures with pie graphs and useless information that accompany every bill you get.  (I actually have one friend - a former tax lawyer - who not only reads this stuff but actually enjoys it.  I kid you not.)

This morning friend and I set out for the indoor pool as we had done all week.  It was about 5 to 8 when we got there and were asked by the receptionist did we know the pool closed to casual swimmers at 8, when children's lessons began.  I was secretly very happy, as I always have to force myself into the water in an indoor pool (when you think of all the nasties in the water), so we ended up back at my place, having our coffee in the garden.  (Not that I think for one second the water in the ocean baths is any better - worse even, when you consider the fish wee in it) but it is easier to forget in the ocean pool when you get carried away by the beautiful view.

When I took my swimming costume off I dumped it on my bed, much to Muffy's delight.  You can see her in the photo trying to put it on!

Life's a struggle

I ventured into the garden this week, for the first time in ages.  Was really shocked to see how expensive plants are now - the first day I spent about $60 at the nursery, the second about $50 and today about $20 and you can hardly see what I've done.  This is a geraldton wax, quite tricky to grow, so I won't hold my breath.  It's an Australian native and if it does survive will hopefully attract birds.

Use it or lose it is what prompted me to start blogging again.  I'm really struggling to cope - what's new! - and becoming more and more grumpy every day.

No house or second grandbaby yet.  I've gone off the idea of moving to Sydney as I really don't see how I would cope with a move, given that I've got so much stuff.  Anyway, I love my little house and want to see the trees grow.  Am trying to slow down but there is always something to do.

Muffy has just climbed onto my lap and is purring very loudly.  In my next life I'm going to be a cat.

Thank you, Lina, for reminding me who you are!  By the process of elimination, since you're the only person I've told I've started blogging again, I had managed to work it out for myself, anyway. :-)) 

Starting again again...

I've had a very bad week and come to the conclusion that my brain is seizing up, so thought I'd force myself to do some more blogging while I still remember how.

Thanks for this gorgeous pic, Michael.  There's no doubt about it, sleeping cats are so very cute.

This is my kind of backyard...

    
    
     But will I ever find it?

Back to the drawing board...

     We missed out on the house we wanted.  It's hard to believe somebody has gone through all this hassle to buy every single property on the planet!

Waiting...

     We're still house-hunting, which is very stressful and exciting at the same time.  Meanwhile, life goes on.  Not surprisingly, since it's winter, it's been fairly cold - well, cold for us - and Muffy and I have been spending a lot of time under the doona on the sofa, watching telly.  I still manage to practise the piano every day and have a walk now and then so I don't completely seize up.

It has to be a better day today.

 

     I'm trying to smile and so far, so good.  Yesterday I came so close to throwing the printer - and the computer - away.  I have wasted so much time and money on both since I've had them and year after year continue to be utterly frustrated.
     As you can see, I've given up on trying to centre the picture frame - if  you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  And while I was at it, I changed the whole thing.

Oh dear, frazzled again

   

     Nothing's going right!  Didn't like either of the houses we looked at in Sydney on Saturday - one is under a sharp curve on a mountain and the other suffers from loud noise from the freeway.  Google maps shows neither of these detractions!  The last house has enough space for an indoor soccer field on what would be my level, which is a waste of about $200,000 if you're a Scrabble player like me.  (On the soccer topic, I KNEW Spain would win, even without help from Paul the Octopus.)  I've just replaced four cartridges in one of my printers and yet everything is coming out green.  I'm trying to print something I made for Emma and it comes out one third the size it's supposed to be, on both printers.  The clothes dryer is making a funny noise so I've switched it off and have mounds of wet clothes following days of rain.  I don't even have a slice of bread in the freezer so haven't been able to have breakfast.  I HATE food shopping.  And OF COURSE the above frame is still refusing to centre itself.  After inexplicably delaying getting tickets for Andre Rieu in Newcastle in October, I went online last night and could only mangage to get the two worst seats in the house.  I just opened a letter that's been lying round for a few days, only to discover it's an Overdue Notice for my electricity account, threatening to do evil things to me!!!!!!  It's their own fault, as I was quite happily paying another supplier by direct debit when somebody knocked on my door one day, begging me to change over to them.  I reluctantly agreed but obviously didn't fill in enough forms for direct debit.  When you ring up to pay by credit card they hit you with an extra charge!!!!  For goodness sake - I was quite happy where I was for the past umpteen years.  I'll never open the door again.  You're not even safe inside your own home.  As this morning's final indignity, when I just pressed the 'Publish Post' button this blog tells me I have to sign in all over again!!!!!!!!!  At least it worked, after I searched through my mile-long list of user names and passwords.

Just look at the expression on the dog's face!

  

     Isn't it an absolutely beautiful shot!  Thanks, Michael, it's one from the PDF file I got this morning from you.

     It's been raining for days and I'm happy to stay inside reading and playing the piano.  Think I'll pop back to bed with a book right now.  No word on the house situation, which is very frustrating, but all I can do is wait...
     The picture frame is being disobedient again.

The real Australia

    

     Honestly, the other blog has had its last chance.  We'll have to stick to this one from now on.
     This photo was taken on a cattle station in Queensland, and shows the granddaughters of one of my friends.  I think it's a wonderful shot, typifying Australia.  I'm a country girl and used to have horses, though now I have serious reservations about rounding up cattle to be slaughtered!  When I was 7 or 8 I used to go with my grandfather who worked at the slaughterhouse and that sent me into the first of many periods of vegetarianism.  I never feel comfortable eating meat, especially if I think about what I'm doing!
     No movement on the house front.  It's very stressful.

     I've just noticed the picture frame has centred itself, as I've been telling it to do since the beginning.

The old blog is working again!

Try it, but I don't guarantee it's here to stay:
http://www.blognow.com.au/thinkingoutloud/

Oh dear...

 

...why is life so difficult?  I was so used to the old blog and now I have to learn a whole lot of new things to get this one to work.  If even you had trouble, Michael, how am I to cope!  I understand so little of how these things work, it's amazing I get anything up at all!

It's funny - last night as I was sitting in the living room struggling with the remote (I've only very recently discovered one can do all sorts of things with a remote!), it occurred to me that I have something to struggle with in three rooms of my home:  the computer in the study; the piano in the bedroom; and the TV in the living room!

It was good to find your comments, Michael and Winifred, and to get an email from you, Karin.  It's a nuisance for you to have to register, though.  I now realise Google is the host, not Picasa, though maybe Google owns Picasa, too.  I used to get an email when a comment was made in the old blog, so maybe these will go to my Google email address, which I seldom use.  Another thing I have to look up to find my user name and password!

I've enlarged the photo as I always love my photos, but I can't get the frame to move to the centre.  I've tried and tried, to no avail.

Fingers crossed!

After months of wondering if the old blog will ever come good, I've given up hope and am trying a new one.  I'd completely forgotten this Picasa blog, which I obviously tried four years ago.  Unfortunately I'm having a lot of problems, so bear with me.

I chose this picture as I've just finished reading Jonathan Balcombe's book, 'Second Nature' (that I've mentioned before) and have a renewed interested in nature and the fact that we are so cruel to animals really upsets me.  I'm trying my hardest to be a proper vegetarian.

Over recent days we've been rocked by the back-stabbing of our former PM, Kevin Rudd.  I was appalled, and sent him and his wife a card.  Mind you, he did the same when he came to power...politics is a dirty business.Picasa. I won't write any more till I see if I can get it up.