Acheivements of the day

Yesterday warren woke me with a cup of coffee, nothing unusual about that except that he followed it with a request! he needed help to lift the bike on the camper. What time is it was my question, just after 8am, I grumbled that the bike ride didnt start til the next day. My job is really just to hold the bike and make sure that it goes and stays in the slot. That done, I go back inside for my breakfast. "Err, I need some help to put the camper on the car" I wasnt dressed at this stage and figured that i couldnt care who saw me in my PJs.

Finally he left at 9am. i did some dreaded h/w, annoying but no-one else to do it. Then started on little jobs that i had wanted to get done. By the end of the day when I sat to watch the footy, I had tidied the guest room, vacced the front rooms, unpacked a box that was delivered during the day and put everything of mine away, it was mostly my stuff. Found and did some more mending, decorated my hat, striped another camper mag on the interesting articles, pulled some weeds from the garden. Prepared another strip for my quilt and handstiched that. It was really nice to be able to do things on my time and not have to worry about anyone else.

Hope to have another day where I get a lot done, a vest for me and some carry bags for Operation shoebox is on todays plan.

Afternoon tea at the beach

We received an invite to a friend (and recently discovered cousin's) house for afternoon tea, I had an idea that it was her birthday as it did turn out to be. There were six of us altogether, some other friends did not show. Fresh sandwiches and a sponge with cream and strawberries, yum! She only moved to the area about six weeks ago. Nice place, very open plan and can see the water from the back garden, its only a few metres away.

As we were out and about, I did a few things on the way home, went to the libary while Warren went to the bank. He needed cash for the weekend which usually cars or ATMs are used but not this time. then I went to Spotlight to buy a piece of material that I plan to make this weekend, finally I drove to another friend's place to pick up the pattern. Just as well, I was driving and he was a bit amazed at where and why I was going to different places. Just got to get as much done while out as possible. The less times I leave the house the more money I save!! well thats the therory.

Fifteen minutes.

Its amazing what can be acheived in fifteen minutes. I have been trying to get my sewing room into some sort of order and spent most of Sunday morning opening boxes and rearranging it. I emptied a set of drawers thinking that I would get rid of it and then had a brain wave, why not put it in the wardrobe? shame i hadnt thought of that because I had emptied it but it made sense, only trouble is that the wardrobe was full of boxes of material! The main reason to empty it, was so I could put up the table to cut on it (usually theres too much stuff to cut anything on it but thats the idea). However there is enough room to put up the table under the window until some stuff is lessened and the drawers can go into the wardrobe but thats certainly not yet.

I had unearthed a couple of cushions that needed fixing, one the zip had broken and the other had a seam split. They had been there for well over a year and I thought that maybe I could mend them while watching TV tonight. Went to get things ready and decided to sit down in the sewing room and do it right then and there while dinner heated in the oven.  Fifteen minutes was all it took to mend them! Why the hell had they sat there for so long, so are now back in the lounge and looking good.

Soccer

On Saturday we went to see Declan and Benny's soccer games. For a change they were playing at the same venue and one after the other, apparently thats a rarity. Lucky for us, it was the day that we decided we would go and watch. Benny's game was on when we got there and it was funny to see him in orange and one of the biggest kids on the field. He had already scored one goal and had two trys for goal that we saw, he also got a kick to the leg which hurt he said.

Declan's game was a couple of field over, it was amazing the difference in skill level, from under 6's to under 8's, wow. The coaches were great, very positive comments and full of encouragement, it was good to hear. Declan's team ended up winning four goals to one, Benny's team also won but they played against their own team members so it didnt really count.

We went back to Ja and Fi's for the boys to clean up and then out to lunch at a Yum Cha place. They couldnt believe that we hadnt had yum cha before. It was good but very little vegetables, I did have egg plant wrapped around a prawn, yummm!

The Heat

Last week we went out to dinner and a movie, cost was $16 each, pretty good value. the meal was at the local bowling club and there was plenty of it, I had roast pork and vege but couldnt eat it all. It was a nice meal but I didnt think it was worth raving over. The movie however was a different kettle of fish. I was loving the ads on TV and had also seen an interview that someone did with Sandra Bullock. often though the best bits are shown in the shorts and that is all there is, but not this one! I would have to say it was one of the funniest movies i have seen in a long time. The two women really compliment each other and with out the intent really play the bad cop good cop roles. I would go and see it again. Lots of four letter words but it fits with the theme, no sex and very little drugs. Top movie.

International visitors.

Last week we had a brother and sister stay with us for a few days. I had not met them before but it appeared that the girl, Rita had been one of Warren's students five years ago. She had been to Australia before and was bringing her brother to help improve his English. Had a busy week with trips out each day, its amazing what is in our own backyard (or within an hours drive). They went kayaking, to the zoo, a dairy, Ginger factory, the beach to see kangaroos in the wild, a local agriculture show where they saw wood cutting and sheep dogs plus racing pigs.

Visitors

Its nice being home and having friends and family drop in and also take phone calls from others friends.
So, yes, friend from Tassie rang this morning, now it appears as we have pencilled in a trip to visit, we have been to tassie before, twice each, once together for a conference and we took two days after to have a quick look around. One thing about having the camper is that the only thin g is fuel and parks so pretty cheap, (its going to have to be!). Possibly next march or April. Just printed off a calendar that we can pencil things in on.

Jason phoned and asked if we were home, he and the boys were only twenty minutes away, could they come for lunch. I had the doings of sausages rolls in the freezer so quickly prepared them and got them into the oven, just coming out as they arrived.

Later I found a couple of things in the house that I needed so that was good, I can rest easy now and stop looking.

Back to Driving.

That was a bit scary after not driving for nearly five months. at first it was a little different but didnt take too long to get used to it again, love having the opportunity to go where and when I want. Cant seem to get the size of meals right, made soup the other night and have so much left over, thank goodness for the freezer.

Retirement!

Its the first work day of retirement and we took great delight in paying out the home loan. Still have a few steps to do like, stop our regular payment which is at another bank but the home loan bank will do that and then we will cancel that. Dont need so many bank accounts. As I get older its harder to remember all the blooming pass words.
Its raining so cant do what I planned but did do a big grocery shop, i was surprised that it was only $204, did a small shop on Saturday of $130 odd but with almost nothing in the pantry, I knew the first shop was going to be big. Have a big pot of soup on with dinner and I will make some cheese scrolls to go with it.
Cant beleive how much "stuff" we have around the house! Def will be de-cluttering over the next few weeks.
My weight increased a little with so many farewell lunches and dinners out so need to peg that back, New Zealand trip is in ten weeks and I want to have lost 6 kilos by then, just over 500 gms a week.