Another day, another downpour

This is becoming monotonous - drains cleared out; new pump bought; towels; buckets.

And still more storms are forecast...

Yes, we're lucky to have our grandchildren so close, Winifred.  Ours are pretty good eaters, even greens.

More storms

Luckily the plumber solved the problem by cleaning tree roots out of all the drains!  Let's hope the one outside my bedroom won't overflow any more.  Yes Winifred, bringing the sunshine inside would be a very good idea - much cheaper than hiring that big blower.

This is a fabulous shot, a long exposure taken by a Sydney man.

More storms to come.  This is like February weather.  Not hard to believe the weather all over the world has changed.

It's raining at the moment, and hot and humid.  Emma has come down for her Saturday night with Nanny and the big countdown to Christmas.

Storm

Yesterday about 5:30 pm I was curled up on my bed reading when an almighty wind blew up, followed by torrential rain.  Poor Philip had just got off the bus a few doors down the street and was soaked. He burst into my bedroom, exclaiming that all was awash.  I'd been so engrossed in my book it hadn't entered my silly head that water might be lapping round the bed as had happened once before in a dreadful storm.

The problem is my granny flat is very low - too low - to the ground and the paved path outside slopes towards the building, instead of away from it.  There are several drains along the wall, but when there is an absolute torrent of rain in a few minutes, they can't cope, so the water flows into my bedroom and bathroom.

Philip put a hose into one of the drains to siphon some water downhill on the other side of the pool and we both then scooped bucketsful of water and threw it over the side fence. The whole downpour was over in about 10 minutes, but caused a huge problem.  We had to move a chest of drawers into the bathroom and put all the drawers on the bed, and put blocks under the piano. Once we've had a new drain put in we won't put carpet down again, but tiles.  For the moment we'll do nothing, as the carpet, in spite of two drenchings, is reasonable (and Muffy likes to eat lizards and vomit on it).

At 6 am this morning Philip hired the industrial blower in the photo and we left it on all day.  (Last time he got two, and left them both on for four days and nights.)  During the day I spent a long time sweeping leaves and bark from the deck, and scooping stuff out of the pool.  It was all very stressful and exhausting.

Unfortunately we're told to expect more summer storms.

10:30 pm  Oh no, another downpour.  Philip, Manami and I bailed out and were successful this time.  No water came inside.  Plumber will be called in the morning.

Friends everywhere

This mosque has been in the news lately, with the visit of Pope Francis, and I've put it here for you, Feyzi, (an online friend who is actually studying in Istanbul at the moment). 

Lovely to hear from you, Michael, and to know you are still looking at the blog.  Haven't heard from Olga for a while - are you about, or gallivanting round the world with Wadim?
And Bianka, what are you up to in your exciting life?

Winifred and Frank, you are both is constant touch, which is good.  And of course I often see Lina, who lives not far away.  Various other friends dip in and out of my life, but never disappear.

Summer tomorrow

I think Sydney's jacarandas get better and better every year.  I got this photo from the internet, but could just as easily have taken it myself, as this is what it looks like all round here.  This morning I took Emma to my favourite French patisserie for breakfast and now she's at a birthday party and I've been sitting by the pool reading the papers.  She's decided she wants to learn French, so we have a short lesson once a week and I've suggested she Skype her French grandfather (in LA) frequently, to keep her motivated.

I've just cooked some risoni, a new type of pasta - well, new for me - which I'll make into a salad and have with lamb cutlets for lunch.  Then I'll do my Christmas cards, play the piano and read some of P D James's last novel, 'The Private Patient', since she died last week and I'd never read any of her books. So far, I'm really enjoying it.  Will have a swim later in the afternoon.

The weather today is quite pleasant, though who knows what's ahead this summer.  I think I'll be staying inside a lot, where it's always about 10 degrees cooler than upstairs.

Winifred, I like the sound of that double expresso and some chocci biscuits!!!!  (You should have seen what I had at the patisserie this morning!  I'm depending on you, Frank, to peddle the extra fat off for me on your exercise bike!)  But who cares what I look like!

Oh what a feeling!

Finished sorting and tidying at last and all set to do my tax return tomorrow.  Clean, sweet-smelling sheets on the bed.

It's been a very hot day but here inside I don't feel the heat at all.  It's always cool in my home.  During the day I read the paper, had a swim, played the piano and listened to Radio 4.  Now I have some potatoes roasting in the oven with salt and rosemary, and am doing jigsaw puzzles and drinking a beer while I wait.

You'll notice I'm still standing at the computer - you can see it's on a box on my desk. Much healthier. But unfortunately I think all my breaststroking laps have affected my knee.  I went to a physiotherapist on Thursday and have to go back next week.  The knee cap seems a bit wobbly.

You exercise to stay healthy, and in the process do yourself an injury - you win some, you lose some!

Getting there...

Trouble is, I do have a filing cabinet, Frank, as well as the coloured drawers you can see in the last photo, but stuff arrives at such a rate I never seem to get round to filing it. And like you, Winifred, I come across lots of stuff to go through and can't quite work out what to label it as for filing.  Until I started this current tidy-up, the yellow container was full of unsorted stuff, but now it's stuff ready to throw out!

There's stuff from World Vision, International Fund for Animal Welfare, philosophy online courses, my late mother's purse containing the change and keys she had in her purse just before she died, cards written and drawn on by Emma, old diaries, bank statements, examples of children's handwriting and dictations, hundreds of receipts, old postcards, new cards, bookmarks, old letters, bills, spare buttons, etc.

At least now that I'm doing the blog frequently I can still remember how to do the photos.
As you can see in this one, Hugo has given up waiting for Nanny to play with him and has fallen asleep on the bed.

I usually print and bind a calendar each year but didn't do one last year, so of course couldn't remember how to do it this morning.  Philip printed one for me and after a bit of a wait I managed to dredge up from the bottom of my memory bank the way of binding it.
That's after I managed to find the binder in the storeroom...

Looking for something

How hopeless am I!!!!  I need a couple of receipts for my tax return and this was my bedroom last night!

Actually, it's the same this morning, and I will have to spend the entire day sorting things out.  It's the thing I hate most.  Into the bargain I have a swollen, stiff knee, which makes it very hard to get up and down.

Feeling miserable

Just now when I went to do the blog I held my camera in my hand and had absolutely no idea of how to get the photos out of it, into Picasa, the laptop and finally the blog!!!!!!!!! For several minutes I stood here racking my brain until eventually the solution came to me.  I had assumed there must be a cord to attach the camera to the laptop, so searched vainly for one, then it occurred to me that there was no cord, I simply had to take a little gadget (no idea what it's called) out of the camera and insert it into the laptop.

Since I've been feeling irritable and down for quite some time, I had planned to put in a photo I took the other day of a hailstorm, which pretty much illustrated my mood.  But none of the hailstorm photos had come out, and for some incomprehensible reason, about two thousand other photos, all of which are already in Picasa anyway, downloaded (uploaded?) themselves.

I have come to the conclusion that my moods are just as changeable as the weather - sunny and bright at times, then down in the dumps.  And for no apparent reason.

Anyway, with no hailstorm photos I chose this one (which might brighten me up).  I made these decorations for the Christmas tree last year.  (This year I've made some felt and sequin balls, but have not yet photographed them.)  I love sewing on sequins!

Winifred, the beautiful sculptures in the last blog are in the garden of the home of this man:  http://www.ulric-steiner.com.au/steiner/steiner_home.nsf  He lives a couple of km from me and I've only just discovered him.  The house is in the bush, on a steep slope, and the swimming pool is furthest down the slope.  That day Lina and I (and another friend) drove round the area to look at various exhibitions by Arcadian Artists.

Beautiful sculptures

Yesterday Lina and I visited some local artists and were most impressed with these sculptures.  Some people are just too clever!  The bushland setting was just gorgeous, as was the house itself with a swimming pool below the deck.

It's a while since I've made an entry.  Time flies too fast for me to keep up.  We retired folk always say, 'How did I have time to work?'

Still exercising or swimming six days a week and eating watermelon, rock melon, cherries, strawberries, mangoes, oranges and apples.  We are so fortunate in first world countries.