I learnt a new word today.

No its not a swear word. Its Farkles, I am guessing this is how to spell it. Tonight after spending all day in the house cleaning and then sewing I suggested we go somewhere, it was 8pm so our choices were limited. I suppose there is always the pub but as we are not pub people, we headed to the service centre on the highway and had a coffee and shared a slice.

Warren made the statement "I'm going to get some farkles for archery" I looked at him and said "What did you say?" thinking that I couldn't have heard right as it was a bit noisy, he repeated his statement and sure enough he Did say "Farkles". My next question was "What are farkles?"

He then went on to explain that it/they are bling for blokes. Something eye catching or showy to add to men's things like motor bikes or arrows or even cars.

I think the "farkles" that he wants to get for his arrows are different and bright colours so he can pick them out quickly from others.

"Farkles!" must check out the dick tom and harry

On line shopping.

I know some people love it but while I dont dislike it, I am not a fan. Having said tht my new tablet arrived by courier just now, it was an online buy but Warren did it.

Anyway my experiences this morning with online shopping, I have entered a few challenges for the up coming year, one being no clothes shopping, so this morning I thought that I would have a quick look at Millers online, the challenge doesn't start until the new year.

Its probably been three or four years since I ordered anything from them although I do like to shop there. Yes! they had 80% off, I only look at the sales! Merrily ordered a few pieces and proceeded to the check out area, just like in a shop. However, the site then asked me for my account number, I guess I had one from when I ordered before, not to worry I will go in as a guest, thats fine until I put in my email address whereupon the site says "You are a member, if you cant remember you password, click here and we will re issue" FINE!

Back to hotmail account and there is a new fangled password which I had to write down as no way I could remember that! Back to order and its disappeared. Buggar, quickly go thru the whole catalogue again as there were some good bargains. Get to the checkout and entered bank card details and hit enter, then it tells me that I have nothing in the shopping cart What the? disappeared again.

Too much time spent on the computer and by this time I was rather annoyed, house got a good vaccumn and washed floors while thinking that i will go to the store. Made a coffee an did some online banking (that I can do with no hassle!)and saw that there was an amount pending for Millers, again what the?

Sat down to reorder as I had obviously paid for it, got everything organised and about to enter my back card details again and then I had a light bulb moment (I didn't want to double up on items) so i found a phone contact and rang to ask if they had received an order from me. Yes they had and it should be here on Friday. Apparently as soon as I pressed the button on the money, it deleted the order as it had been sent. Just as an aside I have nine (9) items coming and it was $104, free postage over $60, so of course need to knock off the postage, so no more clothes buying for me for a whole year, not even a tshirt (no winner shirt from Nanowrimo).

Boxing Day Sales

Not one to go to these sales however we did brave the crowds as we decided to finally buy a small Air Con for our bedroom. It has been on the cards for awhile and after a night of having trouble sleeping because of the heat, we thought that it was  time to spend the money and get comfortable.

We did toy with the idea of a portable A/C but the salesman said that we might as well take the money and throw it out of the window, he also told us that the 1.6 that we were thinking about wouldn't

be big enough so we went up to 2.5, which meant it was heavier and harder to install. This was the window where it was to go. Warren cut out the window tract and then put a base plate in.

Warren cutting the base plate in marine ply as it will be outside in the weather.

The bracing etc outside.

All done and now to do something with the thick curtain. Warren suggested putting the curtain on rings so we could pull it across when in use and closed when no longer needed. A trip to Spotlight to buy curtains and they had massive sales so I did pick up a few other things as well. I washed the curtain while I was shopping which turned out to be a mistake! As the curtain was block out when washed the block out stuff stuck to each other and warren and I got a good work out pulling it apart. I trimmed the curtain and then cut a small piece to cover the top, it looked okay.

This morning though the curtain looked awful as where the block out had stuck and come away the sun was shining through it and it looked like gun shot had gone through it. Back to Spotlight and luckily the curtain materials were still on 40% off.  

We now have two curtains, one short to cover the wood work above the unit and another one on rings that we can pull  across in summer and in winter it can be pulled right across the unit. As I bought more material than I needed, I replaced the curtains in the on suite as well. No longer have curtains in our bedroom that match but at least the the little windows do match.

Stinky potatoes

I bought a bag of spuds a few weeks ago but we don't use potatoes as much as we used to, if we have rice or noodles or corn then I don't cook potatoes as well. Anyway the bag was in the bottom of the pantry and when Warren opened the pantry this morning he was hit with a smell!

There is nothing like the smell of potatoes that have gone off. Luckily he knew what it was and quickly grabbed the bag out and found the culprit, it was only one and he washed the rest of them but kept three out that had been close to the off one.

I cooked them and mashed them with some left over dip to use that up, there was some spring onion and smoked salmon, it made an interesting mash rather than using butter and milk.

This was lunch. Some Turkish bread spread with mashed potato, add a few spinach leaves and topped with smoked salmon, half a kiwi fruit and a coffee, yummo!

What to do with pashminas?

Last week I was clearing out some cupboards and looking through my clothes and came across my pashminas. I had bought them in China and had given several away as gifts and had my favourites but these were two that I had not used. Queensland doesn't really lend its self to needing pashminas but I didn't really like the thought of just throwing them away.

The feel of them is incredible and I wish that I could use them in the manner that they were designed or made for but I came up with an idea.

I made a bag! I probably don't need any more bags either but it will get more use now than before. Couldn't bear to get rid of the tag stating Pashmina so I have stitched on. There was enough to line the bag with very little waste.

I also had this pink and black one and I made this bag a little bigger using side panels, again I lined it by making two bags and turned one inside out and placed inside it, added the shoulder strap and sewed around the top to enclose it. I had to add a piece of black and that is on the bottom. Quite pleased with these.

Christmas gifts

Warren bought me a Jamie Oliver recipe book and a necklace, and has been drooling ever since he picked it up to read. The pictures do look good! but he won't be getting any fare from there today. We are about to get ready to go for Christmas lunch at a venue, never been out to a venue for Chrissy lunch before. It will be nice to have everything done and then just walk away with no dishes or cleaning up to do.

I had received a gift from a student that was a sleigh made from candy canes and chocolate bars and tied with a festive bow but the photo has disappeared into the gallery and I cant seem to access it.

Christmas Eve

Why is it that it is instilled in us (or me anyway) that the house needs to be readied for Christmas? This morning I thought to myself I should refresh the sheets on our bed (for Christmas). It was not even the day that I usually wash on but I started the washing machine anyway. Then I decided that the floor of the bathroom should be washed so took everything out and swept and washed the floor.
Ended up washing all the floors in the house, ready for Christmas!

We are not even having anyone here for Christmas or maybe it was that nothing else was happening. I went to the library yesterday and the post Office (No, not sending anything for Christmas but a birthday present for next week)

I only had one gift to wrap for tomorrow which I did buy yesterday although I had known what I was going to get Warren for his birthday. We had said that our trip to HK next year would be our Christmas present but then he suggested that we should buy each other something.

Anyway the house is all ready for Christmas even though we are going out for lunch.

Merry Christmas and stay safe.

I fried my tablet!

After having it for 30 months and travelled with it many times, I fried it by mistake of course. Visiting Melbourne and I took both tablet and charger but Warren had his charger plugged in so I decided I would use that. Bomp bomp!

Apparently his is 12 volt and mine is 5.5 volts, it doesn't work any more. He told me that he had said that our chargers werent compatible but I had either forgotten or not really taken it in.

Warren jumped on-line and he has ordered me a new one but it wont arrive until 29 Dec, so I am sure that I will be having withdrawals from not playing my games.

Bikers Christmas

Yesterday as we were driving thru Melbourne, there was a cavalcade of bikes coming onto the road that we were on. There were police cars to assist them to enter the road. It was the bikie run.

I had heard about these bikie runs but had not seen one before.I would say that there was about 500 bikes in all, some had pillions and some had toys as pillions.

The bikers collect toys and deliver them to worthy causes, some had skate boards strapped to the back of them, we saw several with teddy bears along for the ride, some had santa hats or tinsel on their helmets.

Everyone was smiling and friendly and most of them waved as they rode past.

Men!

Last week I drove Warren to the shopping centre so he could buy some sweets. He had a headache (rather indulged at the morning tea, lots of cakes and biscuits).

He ducked inside to buy lollies and I parked and waited, while waiting I saw an ATM (Its not a centre that we go to often but it is closer to home).  I had one more gift to wrap to take to Melbourne and so when Warren came back I asked him to go across to the ATM and get out $50. I didn't go as I wasn't sure that he had taken his keys.

I had only bought a couple of small things for grandson and had decided to put in a $50 note. Warren came back and said "You can have either $40 or $60" He had taken out $60 as that was what the machine was offering, he didn't think to key in 50.

Oh well, I had two books and I put a 20 in each and wrapped them. I guess he had saved me (us) $10 and said grandson was rapt as he had two notes. Last of the big spenders anyway, he spent some of it while we were visiting $2.95 on footy cards and then he gave some of those cards to Aidan as he already had them.

Gotta to love Ebay

A couple of weeks ago, we were having coffee near a furniture shop. We had been discussing up grading/updating out table and chairs and decided to go and see what what available and the prices that are being asked. Our tables and chairs were a small set as one house ago,our current dining suite didn't fit so we bought a smaller round table that did extend to an oval and four chairs. Fine for us but with family visiting we really needed six at least.

Many nice suites some in white or glass and i liked them but when it boiled down to it, they just wouldn't have worked with our existing furniture. There was one that ticked all of the boxes for both of us, wooden, six chairs, would fit and the price was not too bad. Then a saleswoman came over, always at the wrong time, we explained that we were just looking and she said that is was a pretty good deal for $XXXX, less than we had worked out. She said that our price was as indiviual pieces but buying as a set was her price. Hummmm, did seem a good deal, she wandered off to see if they had one in stock. We have bought a couple of things from there before over the years and it was a six week turn around, but they did have one in stock.

Oh bugger, its only money and not too much as that, trouble is what to do with the existing table and chairs. Warren had the bright idea to put it on Ebay, starting price $10. Some-one bought it at that price and came and took it away, bonus.

When our Christmas breakfast was diverted to here, I thought well at least more people can sit around it food, plates cutlery were placed on table but kids went outside and adults mainly sat in the lounge room.

Sunday drives

Last Sunday Warren suggested we go out to lunch when I asked him what he wanted for lunch. Not one to knock back a meal out with no preparation or cleaning up afterwards and off we went to a seaside tavern. Very pleasant meal, I had Nacos and they were a bit different that I have had before. It was more like a light sauce made with tomatoes, onions and a meat sauce.

Today we had lunch at home and I started to do some sewing in the sewing room but didn't really feel like it, even though the weather was cool. I think my sewing room needs a lot of tidying and that makes it a bit depressing. I said to Warren that I felt like going somewhere just for a drive so we found ourselves on the road to Wamuram, we went the back way and it rained all the way. The back way is windy and a smaller road but of course less traffic and through country side rather than city driving. A cup of coffee and a shared treat set us up for the rest of the day.

Since being home, I have tidied a couple of cupboards, so just what I needed a change of scenery.

A Mug Bag

Last year  I was given a mug mat thank goodness it was explained on the card as I didnt know what it was. Basically it like an over grown coaster but about twice the length big enough to put a mug and a biscuit or a piece of cake on it. I use it every day, it sits on the coffee table by my lounge chair, mostlt though only for a coffee cup.

During the week, a friend of mine came for coffee and gave me a gift, saying that it was not a Christmas gift (we decided years ago not to exchange gifts). Inside was a mug bag with a mug inside.

We often go to places and need to take our own mugs and she had made one for herself and also made one for me. The fabric is like crazy patchwork, complete with fake stitching, but looks very real.

Christmas shopping!

I try to avoid the shops a the this time of the year but I did have one gift to post so toodled off early yesterday,phew not early enough. There was a line up at the post office that went out the door. Luckily they had some-one who was helping to use the self service booth and as I only had one thing to do, she took me over there and did that for me. Jumped about five people in the queue.

Had a few other things to do to finish Christmas shopping, in all I visited five places and it took me two hours  any other time of the year, it would have been 30 minutes.

Actually the bank took the longest, I just wanted some information and was expecting to be able to pick up a brochure but they were in crisis as the terminals were down and there were lots of staff helping people to use the ATM's and laptops inside the bank to assess accounts on-line. I didn't realise that the info I wanted was on-line. Cant remember the last time  I went into that bank, as i use ATMs

Wrapped Chrissy presents yesterday and thankfully it is all done except for food shopping.

Family Christmas get together

We plan to have our Christmas early to avoid the rush and hassle of fitting in seeing both sides of family and so yesterday Dec 13 was the date chosen. Again to make it easier we picked a beach and for something different, breakfast, far more cost effective and then the boys could have time in the water before it became too hot. hahaha!

Warren and I left home early, our contribution was eggs and ham plus pancakes (we had even managed to buy  Canadian maple syrup). Rather windy when we got to the place and we sussed out a few tables and chairs looking for sheltered spots. I set everything out, we had lots of sauces and throwaway plates, cups and cutlery while Warren started cooking pancakes, only to find it was too cold and windy for the cooker and it was starting to feel cold, very unusual for Queensland weather in December.

Made a couple of phone calls and diverted everyone to home. An enjoyable time was had but just not at the beach!

Tomatoes

We bought four plants back in Sept and we realised that the bushes were healthy and big but no fruit. Bugger that I'm not watering flipping bushes, so I pulled them,luckily the one we put in our new vegetable bed is doing well and does have fruit and flowers on it although won't be picking for another few weeks yet.

Saturday we bought two more tomato bushes, one is black and the other small yellow ones, planted them out yesterday and they are standing tall this morning so it seems they like where they are, we also bought some strawberry plants, never been very successful with them before so we will see how they go.

Last night I wanted to make a light dinner as we had been out for lunch. I made salsa to go on turkish bread and we had some steamed seafood yum cha, different to our usual fare but light and filling.

Christmas lights

Last week Aidan stayed over for a night and he wanted to go out and see Christmas lights. Years ago when he was about three, there was a house not far from us who had a magnificent display and he wanted to check it out. They moved but he still wants to be sure so we drove around and we did find some but not many.

This particular house that he remembers had a Santa with a gift box on one hand and the lid slowly opened and closed. When we got back from our drive he noticed that we did not have any lights up. "Come on Grampy, I'll help" so at 7.15pm they were out putting lights around the front of the house.

The next morning as we were driving away on our way to work and school, he called out to Grampy, "You need to put more lights up Grampy, make sure you do it today okay?" When I got home that night sure enough Grampy had put more up, the ones around the gutters and out the back.

So far we are the only ones in our street to have any lights and tey are on a timer so on at seven and off at ten, it does look very festive.

Cuckoo clocks

How has one these days? My neighbours that's who! During the day with other noises around I dont hear it but it goes regularly at night every hour on the hour. Don't know where it is in their house but our bedroom is about one and  half metres from our fence line and their is about the same distance away. Our house is more forward than theirs and our bedroom is in the front of the house.

Its possibly new as I have only heard it in the last few months, seems quite loud at eleven o'clock, midnight or whatever. I don't know how they can stand it being in their house but maybe they are used to it or deaf. At least I know what the time is when I cant sleep but I do wonder if that is why I wake after a short sleep, maybe I should wear ear plugs.

Tiredness

I know I know, its gets to all of us sometimes. I had not slept that well on Thursday night, something had woken me after about 40 minutes of sleep and then of course the body thinks "Hey, you're been asleep, wakey wakey" and I couldnt get back to sleep. Finally at 1am I took a sleeping tablet but that didnt do any good, I last remember looking at the clock at 3.30am I must have gone to sleep after that. The alarm woke me at 6.15 (I have a second one at 6.23) and I got up then, it did seem a long day luckily there was cloud cover for most of the day so not as hot as it had been.

On the first leg on the trip home it rained and looked like hail again so I stayed for a coffee until the rain had passed. Note on the table when i got home "I'm out, cooking dinner"in code that meant that house husband was out buying take away for our evening meal and ten minutes he turned up with a very nice Lamb Korma and naan bread.

I was watching Bargain hunters on TV and decided that the couch looking rather inviting and unfortunately I missed the end of the show  to see if they made a profit or not.Bummer!

Went to bed at 8pm and slept til 5.30am this morning, hopefully I have caught up.

nano no 2

It was the last day of Nano yesterday being the 30th of Nov and Nano being National Novel writing Month. I wrote 3k words of Saturday afternoon leaving me just under a thousand to make the deadline of 50K but I had come to a standstill. Sunday morning I was up early (for me anyway) as on waking i knew how I was going to finish. In an hour I had done the required amount to become a winner but my story wasn't finished so I did another 800 or so to tie  the ends together and finish where I wanted to be. 50,764 words in the end.

I don't intend to look at my novel until Jan giving me a month away from it. Although the organizers advise not to edit as you go, I do a little but there will be a lot more editing that needs to be done.

This is the third book in a trilogy and I want to get them published as one book, making around 160K words over the last three years.

Perfumes in the garden

Around about this time of the year as we walk through gardens or car parks a pleasant smell wafts past.

This is a gardenia flower from our front garden, I brought this one inside and it lasted several days and gave a pleasant smell in the kitchen far better than any air freshener that can be bought. Unfortunately the sun is too hot for them at times as can be seen in the next photo.

They burn in the sun.

Yay,The tennis is coming!

Warren and I are volunteering at the tennis again this year, that's the Brisbane International. We have been in this morning leaving home at 6.30am for a induction morning of three hours. The uniforms have been done by a different group this year and they feel good.

Instead of unisex shirts and men's shorts I was able to get women's sizes, the women's are fitted but I was quite comfy in it. We get two shirts and two shorts plus a hat.

Five weeks until it starts 2015 will not be going over New year but starting on Fri 2nd Jan, We have our passes and our rosters plus our timings, we are both in the same group as last year so its nice that we know them already.

When is a senior not a senior?

My passport had expired and while I thought about it, I decided that I should do something about it. Today was the day as these things get forgotten and until suddenly one might need it and oh dear,dont have six months on it.

Used the trusty computer to see what I needed to do, Warren said just go to the post office and get a form, but mine was a renewal not a new one.

Typed in passport renewal and there was a form, I could do it on-line! Yep that's right do it on line but then had to print it out and go to PO with two photos. Fine, I could do that form asked what type of passport, Ordinary, Ordinary with lots of extra pages, or senior, lower fee, yay I go for the senior one and then a Senior is some one over seventy five (75)

For some things I have been classed as a senior since I was fifty but now when there is a lower fee, I am suddenly not old enough! Damn! Passport renewal was $244 ouch! but it only hurts when it has to be paid, after that don't even give it a thought.

A Weekend Writers Retreat

For two people! daughter and I did this last year and it is just nice to get away from everything and concentrate on writing. Of course there was a fair bit of chat as well and we enjoyed a couple of meals out that we didn't have to plan prepare and clean after either that was a bonus.

We left our b n B early this morning to try to avoid the heat, its 41 degrees on our back patio. I haven't done any writing since I arrived home, we did do a timed sprint after breakfast so I have 400+ already for the day four more of those and I am done!

I think we achieved 9K and 15K for the weekend, my aim was to do more than last weekend so got that and now I am three days in front. (and out of ideas where to go atm)

"There's been a fall"

Warren went bike riding last Sunday, he hasn't been since we went to Jandawee in July, due to either weather or other things on or no-one to ride with him. Far better if they have a "buddy" if there is a fall or worse then some one knows they are out on the track, although the organizers do a good job of clocking each rider out and back in again.

Anyway, this ride was only a couple of hours away tops and it was a one day rather than a weekend and I decided not to go (I needed to stay home and write!) .

Some one who will remain nameless had a fall off his bike and the bruises have been coming out all week. A scrape on his upper arm, a stiff finger, a cut under his chin probably from the helmet strap and a sore knee. I said to him when he got home "I suppose you won't be playing tomorrow then?" "of course I will, I'm sore on my left arm I don't play tennis with my left!" oops sorry I asked but I gathered that the injuries weren't all that bad then.

He had apparently gunned it up a slope and it was turning to the left and got into some loose gravel and the bike started to go and he knew that he just had to go with it. He said that he was out in front so no-one actually saw him fall off.

5K

This month being writing month "Nanowrimo" I am feeling the pressure of working as well as writing but I will get it finished and do the 50,000 words required. Last week I was falling behind schedule only wrote 700 on Wednesday and 1000 or so on Thursday, so one days worth over two days. Cant remember what I wrote on Fridays but I was looking at challenges and saw one for 5K in a day, OMG! I think the most I have written in a day before has been about 2500 and this was double!

I did know that I needed to pull something out of the bag so I decided to go for it. 7.30pm I closed the lid of the computer after I had done my final word count 5028, I had done it, Warren had kept out of my way for most of the day bless his little cotton socks. Did another 3k or so on Sunday and around 2 and a bit on Monday and Tuesday putting me two days in front.

Currently sitting on 23000 words I took a night off last night, I have got to a bit of a standstill but I usually wake up with ideas of where to go next in the story. I did have a story line but I didn't really like it so I scrapped that one. Today the writers are off for a weekend of writing so I am challenging myself to write more than the eight thousand that I did last weekend, we will see what happens.

a themed party

Last week for melbourne Cup our Red Hat group decided to have a "dress up" party as it was in a members home. The theme was to dress as something r some one starting with the letter M.

It was a lot of fun, only two declined to dress up and one said that she was coming as herself, her name starts with an M and the other said she couldn't think of anything.

We had a magician, a maid, a mistake (woman had odd shoes and generally mismatched) a Marilyn Munro, two Morticas, Mum the Masterchef, a matador and Minnie Mouse, I dressed as Miss Marple and was pleased that most people worked out who I was.

We had sweeps and watched the Cup when it came on I was lucky enough to win third place in a sweep, got $10 but I had spent $18. We had a pooled lunch.

Halloween

As it was on a Friday this year, i bought more treats to give away. Quite difficult to buy decent wrapped lollies without going over the top so I opted for small packets of chips, getting away from sugar but of course more salt, cant win really. I also bought small chocolates so each child got a pkt of chips and a choc. We had many less than last year and they were all little kids except one. I didn't go to the door warren did and he said it was a girl on her own, no parent in sight and he was a bit worried about her, he said she looked about 14 or so.

The ones I saw were dressed up well and loved telling us what they were, they were so cute, most of them I know were from around the area, occasionally we see them in the street but not often. That's why I like the idea of Halloween.

Some grumble about its bad for kids with all the sweets they get given but once a year doesnt hurt anyone.

Nano!

Its that time again, National Novel Writing Month, Nanowrimo or Nano for short. I am writing the third book in a trilogy and not sure if I have enough material to write it but I will give it a shot.

First day and I only wrote 860 words but I have always started off slow so wasn't fussed about it.

Woke up at 4.30am and I was wide awake and thinking over the satrt of my story and how it could be better. At 5.30am, I got up showered and dressed and wrote a thousand words before Warren woke up at his usual time around 6.45am.  he was very surprised as I am NOT a morning person.

Ended up with 2500 words written for the day so a little in front. Its 50,000 words to write in 30 days to achieve a win in Nanowrimo which breaks down to 1,667 words a day.

I should be writing now but I keep finding things to do instead. I have done just over 600 today. Looking at FB last night and some one wrote "Just hit 10K". My fingers wanted to write back "but do they all make sense?" but thought that would be rather unkind.

Melbourne Cup fever

Its that time of the year again weird fashion, hats and horses. Our red hatter group are having a luncheon, we don't often have our gathering on the same day as there is many lunches and other things on, this year we thought we would. It is a themed get together dressing as something starting with an M. I am going as Miss Marple from Agatha Christie fame.

I did offer to do a quiz with a horse theme, thank goodness I was reminded this morning but its all done now, ten questions and I have left over lollies from Halloween as prizes. No chocs left though!

Have to remember to take gold coins as there will be lots of sweeps, I might win something!

Japanese Knot Bag

One of the forums  that I belong to, were discussing this the other day and it was a free pattern. It looked good and pretty easy so  downloaded it. First one I made, it didnt seem to work and I wasnt sure why. I asked Warren to come and read the instructions to me while I pinned it together.
This is the result

I made the pink and grey one first it was a bit small so I increased the pattern. The red one is silk and I will use it for red hat by putting by bag insert into it. The grey one is just big enough for toothpaste and brush, shampoo, soap and hair brush so it will go into the caravan to take to the shower block.

Once I go the diretions right, they are quite easy to make with no fastenings. So the story goes Japanese women use them for craft work, looping them over their arm leaving both hands free to craft. I remember seeing women in China walking along the street knitting, these bags would have been ideal. I have tried standing and knitting but they used to walk and knit, that takes a lot of skill.

Sold a bike today

After trying to sell the unregistered bike for awhile, Warren decided to put up both bikes for sale and he would kept which ever bike didnt sell.

He had listed it on Gum tree and had lots of interest and even phone calls and arrangements to come and see but they never turned up. Gum tree ads run for a month.

Last week he put them on a Bike sale web site and still nothing until yesterday. Some-one contacted him and offered a thousand (it was listed at $1450) I said tell him no lower than $1250 and we would make up the difference. (No longer his bike but he was selling it) Arrangement to view was for Friday. last night the phone goes again, some-one else wants to look at it and could come on Saturday. Warren told him that some-one was coming on Friday and it may be sold.

Today while Warren was at tennis, a guy rang him from the same town, he wanted the reg bike, came over and looked at it put down a deposit. We need to get a road worthy done on it.

Warren then had to text the other two guys to tell them that the unreg bike has been withdrawn from sale. I guess they were a bit miffed but he did put up that he wanted to sell one of them.

Gardening

I am not a great gardener or even a good one but I do like fresh produce and have dabbled in things in the garden for some time.

That's all about to change (fingers crossed)

Last year when we came home from China our house sitters had ginger and parsley growing up the side of the house as well as tomatoes. We have grown a few more tomatoes in the same spot and that is where my egg plant is doing well. Have had beans got a few of them and we did have a couple of lots of corn but I think it is out of sight out of mind and the plants around there probably didn't get enough water.

My recent buy, garden beds even delivered free. This morning we set the small one up in place, the one on the left will end up there and the other three probably along the fence line further to the left.

Bunnings was very busy this morning , We had to queue toi get into the place! Seemed that everybody was doing some work in the garden. Cardboard in the bottom to keep the weeds at bay.

Headed straight to the garden area and picked up four bags of potting mix, another four bags of soil and then a special one with growth hormones etc and finally some cane mulch. Then the plants, what to select? Went with another tomato we have four already doing well, capsicum green and some small red ones, spinach and silver beet, and climbing beans. Added the soil etc and watered it in and retired to the lounge as it was to be 33 degrees, plants would go in later.

Didn't fill it but allowing for good growth?? They even got a good drink so off to a good start.

5 pm and there is movement!

Its been a hot day and since about 10am, the TV has been in use. car racing and a movie and a travel doco was taken in as well as a Nanna nap.

It all changes around 5pm, TV no longer holds our attention and we emerge from the cave (house in this case) and venture outside to soak up the cooler air and give the plants a drink.

The orange tree has many many buds of new little oranges and alongside, two lemons were ready to be picked. Also lots of egg plants and herbs.

Now I just need to decide what on earth am I going to make with them. We had steak sandwiches for lunch so I was planning to have potato rosti for dinner, (no meat). Not sure how to spell that, it is a Jamie Olicer recipe with potato and carrot grated and then baked with poached eggs and peas in a creamy sauce on top. I love his way of cooking although don't use all the oil and chili that he does. I guess I take his recipes and put my own slant on them.

Hummm, think I will go and get two more egg plants (will need a knife to pick them) and add to grated potato (found that we are out of carrots).

A warm night

A couple of nights during the week, we had decided that TV held no interest for us. That seems to be happening more and more of recent time, is that a sign of the times or are we being more choosy? Not sure but it was too early to go to bed so our patio got some use.

I was gifted a bottle of port a few weeks ago.

 A glass of port a few crackers and the candles lit makes for a nice cool off before bed and of course we solve all the problems of the world and closer to home as well.

Warren bought some candles holders  few months ago and drilled them into the wall,they have coloured glass panels and give off just enough light to see to pick up a biscuit or the crystal glass (they are crystal too, probably the only crystal that we own). While flickering candles sound so romantic, the aim is to keep the mossies at bay which does work.

Tumeric

While we were in Kingaroy and chatting to someone in the visitors centre about soreness in Warren's thumbs. I think its a form of arthritis, anyway, one of the guys there said "Use Tumeric for aches and pains".

We have googled it and apparently it is a mild anti imflammitry, works better with black pepper.
We bought some and sprinkle on food, very little taste so it doesnt change anything, looks good as it is a yellow/orange colour. Warren says that his thumbs re not as painful as they were, so a win/win.

An early morning walk

I haven't been walking for some months, not just for the sake on walking. Too busy, too hot,too tired, I have been known to come up with any and varied excuses over time. Funny thing is that I enjoy it once I am out there, so figure! The complexity of human nature.

Anyway after two dinners out in a row, warren decided that he wanted to go for a walk and asked if I wanted to come. I was quite snuggerly in bed but thought I should go especially when he said that I could choose where we went and for how long. Bonus! Often he wants to go for 5 to 8 kms first up and as I wrote before, I haven't been walking for ages

Although it was 9am before we got going, (I had to have breakfast first) it was very pleasant, the sun was shining not much traffic on the road and not too hot. We did a short trip around back in just over 30 minutes which i thought was a decent time to start. I have great intentions of walking three or four times a week and building up to an hour a day, which is what I was doing 3 or 4 years ago and I was 6 or 7 kilos lighter. Onwards and upwards!

Dressing gowns, does anyone wear them anymore?

Just putting away my clothes from the last washing day and while hanging up my pants and shirts, I noticed a lump on the floor of the walk in robe. It was a bright pink dressing gown!

Last year I bought a winter set of PJs and included in the set was this dressing gown. Its big, its fluffy and I have never worn it. It ad been on a hanger at the end of the row and I guess had fallen off the rack sometime or other.

These days I like to wear pjs, (detest nighties)and as they look more like a comfy pair of loose pants and a T shirt, I don't need or want to wear anything over the top. I head down to the shower block at caravan parks wearing these in the mornings.

Very rarely do I step out of the bedroom, without showering and dressing so never use a dressing gown in the mornings.

Yep I think this one will be heading to the salvos at the next available time. I do have one silk light dressing gown if say I found myself in hospital which is the only time I could see myself wearing/needing one. The silk one was made and given to me by friends in China so I wouldn't give that away.

Challenges

After my success with my holiday challenge, I am continuing on, in my four days off from work I have made three pairs of pants and four tops for a three/four year old, using up three pieces from my stash. I have emptied one plastic storage box and I am filling that to take to the Salvos.

I also set a challenge to get the car/house loan under a certain amount by the end of October and that is done now with two pay days to go, maybe I should have made it lower. Will elect a new number for the end of the year.

In my Simple savers forum, many people talk about $21 for a weeks worth of food and I have thought for a long while that its not possible but  have trimmed off my food bill so this month I am trying to shop for only $21 each week. Three shopping days into October and my amounts are $19.40, $20.20 and $20.10 and we haven't starved yet!

I am starting to see a few spaces in the pantry but not much in the freezer as I made a meat loaf on the weekend mainly for my lunches and that filled it again.

Last nights dinner was meatloaf and salad, tonight we are having marinated pork chops with veges including an egg plant from the garden, so we are eating well.

Next month being November will be the big challenge again of a novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days.

Its funny (or maybe its just me) ut I seem to work better of there is a plan in place such as my own challenges.

Christmas Decorations

Last month I went to Costco and was surprised to see Chrissy decs for sale, the shop wasn't decorated yet but plenty around to buy.

Shops and everything seems to be earlier every year so just wondering when they will be about. I did buy one present while we were away last week, it was a request and I did wonder where on earth I was going to get something to fit the bill and was going to put my trust in Mr Google when we saw it and a plus it was under budget, needless to say we bought it there and then.

This year we are only buying for grandkids and adults dont need anything and it seems just buying for the sake of it. We toyed with the idea of Kris Kringle for adults then went one step further and decided no presents.

Now just need to decide where and when to celebrate Christmas and food to have, I'm pumping for the beach a couple of week ends before, have to see what the rest of the family think.

Blasted mobile phones

Very rarely do I get a phone call on my mobile, not that i am complaining about that and I don't like to be without it, (usually I don't quite know where it exactly is anyway.)

This morning I went to get my hair cut and then across to the libary, I could have walked but 800m carrying heavy books doesn't do my shoulders any good so I drove. As I am driving and the radio is on, there seemed to be two songs playing, thought to self "Some-one has stuffed up". I like to listen to a local station thats a further up the coast and I think it is a community station. As we both worked on community radio, its easier to tell now when there is or has been a stuff up. I parked and turned off the car, music still playing oh, sh.....its my phone! Now to find it in my bag, I now have a handbag insert with lots of pockets, brilliant except when one doesn't know which pocket the phone is in. Got it just as the music stopped.

It was a message from Telstra telling me that if I use 10 minutes of text time in the next week, i can get 150 minutes free, yep like I need that! Seeing I send about one text every month and my phone is paid up for the year, well $70 worth for up to a year, doubt if I will use that.

Got my next fix of books and did the groceries for the week, finally on the way home and blow me down my phone rings again, at least this time I did know what it was but I was driving and figured tat it was probably another deal. As i arrived home, Warren is out the front with a back pack on, he is heading to the bus stop to end up at a hospital, he had tried to ring me to say he was going. A friend had been admitted on the weekend so he was going visiting.

Mobile phones are good and handy and Murphy's law says that they will ring when doing something else. Very hefty fine if phone is picked up while driving but it is a big temptation to do it.

Nicknames are funny things

Its Bathurst day and we had breakfast in front of the TV for the prelim stuff. Warren will probably only move from the TV today to go to the loo.

They are interviewing drivers and talking about past races etc etc. The winner from last year was Mark Winterbottom or Frosty is his nickname, at least its not "Chillybum"

Nicknames dont seem to be used as much now as they were years ago. During the week, year eights were reading a novel and all the boys had nicknames in the story and one of the students asked why did they have other names and I realized that the kids (students) only use their given names, no nicknames.

My dad used nicknames quite a bit, growing up he often called me Agatha or Brigette and I dont know why, I know that I loved Agatha Christie books from quite a young age, maybe from that. It never bothered me so he couldnt have done it to annoy me, maybe he wanted one of those names but Mum won out on my name.

Growing up, dad used to talk with my grandfather and I would often hear "tin shed" mentioned, it puzzled me as we didn't have a tin shed, we had a wooden one and a garage attached to the house. Curiosity got the better of me so one day I took dad to task over our wooden shed rather than tin.

It turned out, he explained after they stopped laughing that they were talking about a state politician  whose name was Steele Hall, people referred to him as Tin Shed. The opposition leader at the time was Don Dunstan and some people referred to him as Donny Dunny.

Dad sold some land to a guy called Woodcock and of course to Dad he became known as Splinter dick. There was some hassles with the sale or money or something and it seemed to take a long time to settle with lots of correspondence back and forth. dad would announce when he spied a letter, "Splinter dick wants something else now!" I think it was inclusions or exclusions to the land sale, I know dad was rather relieved when he finally had a cheque for the property

Jacandras

This time of the year, many of these are in bloom. On my drive to work this week, I have seen several and it always makes me realize that it is October. So big and pretty, not sure that I would like one in my yard though as I would imagine a lot of mess when the flowers die and fall. Just one of the things that I really enjoy about living in Queensland.

The photo is a bit blurry, not mine as I am driving and cant stop when I see them.

Cook up

I had already planned to make a pizza for lunch and while I was refilling our cereal container I read a recipe on the back for biscuits which sounded interesting plus I had everything that was needed. I could make them while the oven was on.

One thing lead to another and now I have the crock pot on with dinner cooking, a recipe from a blog that I follow call My Abundant life, a woman who feeds her family of four, Mum,dad and two teenage daughters, on less than $100 a week. As I don't really follow recipes, it will only loosely resemble hers. Should get dinner and a couple of lunches for the freezer.

I made the biscuits first, cut down on sugar and the cereal other than that, the recipe is the same! supposed to make 14 or 15, I got 21 and would make them smaller next time. I like  biscuit with my coffee but two to three bites would be enough, so I imagine that I could get about 30 by going smaller.

I had used half a tin of tomatoes earlier in the week and wanted to use the rest too much for the pizza so I made a made loaf again loosely based on a recipe from My Abundant Life, I made one of these to take away last week in the caravan and it was good, can heat it or have it cold with salad.

I made the pizza base with half SR flour and half gluten free, the GF had "bits" in it which we like. I make our pizzas in a quiche tray and then its finished in one meal rather than the pizza tray which is too much but not enough for another meal. I had some seafood mix which I added and corn topped cheese, basil and parsley and tomato slices.

So biscuits are made and put away some in the freezer, pizza made and eaten, bonus was time to clean up kitchen and pack the dishwasher while it was cooking, meat loaves are using the last of the heat in the oven and dinner is on the way. I am about to head to the sewing room and see what else I can make in there. This weekend is Bathurst!!!! so there will be the sounds of cars for most of the weekend and the TV stuck on one channel, not that I mind really its only one weekend in the year.

My holiday challenge

I set myself a challenge for the holidays and as my work week starts to tomorrow, I guess it is the finish of the challenge.

I wanted to make one item per day out of my stash of materials, I did go and buy some patterns, I wanted one but as they were on sale for $5 I bought several.

There are three pop over jumper, two had been made/knitted but not sewn up and there was a pair of pants waiting for hems, I have included those.

Tally is seven pairs of long pants, three silk pjs, four pairs of shorts, five dresses and one jacket (this was an UFO) and the three knitted pop overs, one I knitted at night and it not in the picture so I think that is 23 items. Another dress is half done but will not be finishing it until the weekend. 

A good challenge and one that I enjoyed and I have emptied one of my boxes of fabric, only six more to go.

Kingaroy Kitchen

This is a factory that makes biscuits and is open five days a week and they run tours free three times a day. We arrived just before the second tour of the day and it seemed that it was morning tea for the workers, We were invited to help ourselves to tea or coffee and a biscuit until the tour started n about ten minutes.

The supervisor took us around, we did have to don attractive looking hair nets, we went into the kitchen were the workers were making choc chip biscuits. That was their four batch of biscuits for the day at only 10.30am.

Its run by Endeavour and was set up by a lady in the 80's to employ some of the disadvantaged people in the area, now there are 28 workers and it was great to see that they all had their own work to do. One guy likes to work on his own and he was stamping the mounds of biscuits ready to go into the ovens. He proudly showed us that he has fifteen on each tray.

The trays then went into an upright oven, wheeled in and out, ten minutes and then wheeled into another unit to cool them, from there they are placed in boxes ready for packing.

The kitchen supplies biscuits to major hotel and motel chains, they also have a contract to supply lunches to the mines around the area, that was done in a separate area and they also have another kitchen which wasn't operating just then which is a gluten free kitchen.

We bought a few packets of biscuits on the way out, one pack that they do is six different biscuits and there is six to eight of each in a large pack. We had to wait for one to be prepared for us as they had sold the ones that were on the shelf when we went in. I think that pack was about $8.

Joh's Place

After the lavender farm, we had booked a tour in the afternoon at Joh's Place. $12.50 for a tour  and the famous pumpkin scones. It was the only tourist thing that we paid for over the four da

ys we were there, we figured that scones and coffee would take up most of the fee.

The place is called Bethany and it is where the most famous Queensland politician and Premier lived. His son John and his wife now run the farm and it was John who conducted the tour. Joh (pron Joe) was in Parliament for 40 years and Premier for almost 20. He ruffled a few feathers while he was in office but he also got a lot of things happening for Queensland.

Lady Flo (Joh's wife) became a senator by default really so John told us, she was nominated to go against another woman to counteract and because she was well known as Joh's wife, she won the poll and stayed in office herself for bout ten years. She made the pumpkin scones famous as they would be served at every meeting that she ran or preceded at.
The family have lived on this farm for just over a hundred years. Sir Joh died in 2005 and Lady Flo is is now 94. The name of Bjenke-Petterson (not sure of spelling) came from Holland apparently Petterson is a very common name and the family was known as the Pettersons who lived on Bjenke street and then was reduced to Bjenke-Petteron. I had always wondered how it was a double barrelled name as this was long before double names were popular.

We were taken up onto the ridge and a wedding was to take place later in the afternoon, the scenery was fantastic. John was very interesting to listen to and with the afternoon tea, it lasted about two hours, he talked about his fathers early life as well as the district and what things they were doing on the farm to survive.

The tours are run from March til Nov, twice and week and it is by bookings only. Warren and I both agreed that it was the most interesting. The name Bettany means Peace or resting at peace.

Lavender Farm Kingaroy

We saw this farm on the way into Kingaroy and as I like Lavender I was keen to pay the place a visit. It was disappointing, I'm not sure what I expected but it was really only two shops and the saving grace was a coffee shop. Could buy lavender plants there but they were very expensive.

The gardens were okay

This was taken from our table outside we were had gourmet sandwiches? I had a pot of lavender tea and Warren had a milk shake, the gourmet sangos were turkey, cranberry sauce and cheese on pretty ordinary white bread. An hour later we were looking for something more to eat!

I guess not everything is a success, I'm sure that some people would love it but I just found it over priced and disappointing.

A missing key

Last month when we went away in the caravan Warren on our first toilet stop handed me a small key on a boot lace, It was the key to the van. He had put a new lock on it. As I was about to walk to the litte girls room, I dropped it into the console in the Jeep, it has a cover on it so couldn't be seen.

A couple of days into our rip he asked me where it was, I hadn't used it, damn damn and blast, I couldnt find it and thn remembered where I had put it, I hung it on the hook inside the van after that and thought no more about it. He used his key that was on his key ring if we needed to lock the van.

Going away last week, Warren asked me if I had found the key, oh no the bloody thing was lost again. Not in the console, not hanging up, not in the glove box or in my handbag. My key ring is already too heavy to add it on there. Nope, its lost either again or still!

Finally he remembered taking my key off the hook and taking it to the showers (didn't want to take his whole set of keys) but he couldnt remember what happened to it after that. I feel sure that he left it there, he decided not to lock the van anyway as I was asleep inside.

His punishment was to go to Bunnings and get two more keys cut, one for me and a spare in the car, mine is back on the hook inside the van. Men! I spent a lot of time looking for that key!

A sewing storm

I set myself a task for the holidays to make an item for each day to donate to charity at the end. First day and I completed four, these didn't need much to finish but they did need finishing. A button to sew on, a couple of op over vest that I had knitted but not sewn up. I always seem to want to get on with the next thing hence some are left with just a little to do.

Many of my patterns are old and bits missing so really unusable. I knew that I had some brushed cotton that I had bought to make myself a skirt and jacket,it was a while ago and I really don't wear skirts these days plus the colour and pattern! what was I thinking at the time!

I did a trip to Spotlight last week to buy a pattern for kids pants as that was what it was suitable for and there was heaps of it. Well, my $20 trip to Spotlight ended up costing me around a hundred bt for that I got seven patterns, they were on sale for $5 and as always there was some nice materials. see why I try to avoid going there.

I had been making my one item a day using the dress pattern that  had and then the weekend came and I thought that I had better do some housework, then we had people drop by and some for dinner so no sewing.

I had cut out one of the patterns and yesterday I ended up making three pairs of PJ pants, the silky type with teddy bears on them. I had probably bought the material to do something with it but it hadnt happened. Then I finished a dress, I put fancy stiching around the neckline just for something different and then I attacked the brushed cotton and make three pairs of long pants from that, in sizes 4,6 and 8.

I think I am up to twelve items made so far I will take knitting away and have almost finished another pop over vest. I hate sewing up knitted pieces so I knit it in one piece then only need to sew up two side seams and its done.

I am trying to get my sewing and knitting down to one tub each instead of six, have a ways to go but can see gaps.

An exciting afternoon

We sat down with our daughter and planned our trip around Australia! (She and I planned we figured that we will just tell hubbies what and when we are doing something).  Its a while off yet but we want t get an idea for how much time we will have to spend at different places. I didn't think we would have enough time to go to Cairns but its in the plan Woo hoo!

I have even worked out a budget that we will/may need.

Watching a DVD of a family who went with two small children and the stuff they took, we each have said we are NOT taking that much stuff. We have already bought a washing machine between us as the washing for six will add up but don't want to take a lot of clothes so washing will need to be fairly regular.

Going on our second little shake down tour in a couple of days, again to see what we need and what we dont use. Ugh going in school holidays as it costs more damn!

Batteries

Warren has been looking on-line for batteries for the caravan. Once we have some, they will enable to caravan's fridge to run when not hooked up to electricity. Last night he found a couple on Gumtree so this morning saw us head off to South Brisbane to see if they were any good.

These days with cards available to purchase most things, its always a bit of a worry to know if we have enough cash on us or do we need to go to a bank/ATM first. Luckily we had cash between us and off we went for a 150 km round trip.

To a suburb that neither of us had herd of before but a trusty map book showed us where it was, pretty close to our eldest son place but they were away for the weekend. The GPS worked well and we got there and yes, batteries were very suitable so we exchanged 60 bucks for them.

Warren had installed them in the van and yikes they work, we can chose now between electric lights or 12 volt batteries. I had to do the oh argh! after he was finished. (When one of us competes something and we show the other we always call it an OH/Argh!)

We will get a solar panel at a later time to top up the batteries but for now we are set. This week we have bought little things to add to the van, Like a dishdrainer, to hold the dishes while we travel so that hopefully we wont have breakages, got a small thing to dry clothes on we used them all the time in China and will be suitable for small stuff. I also bought a small frying pan, we will cook mainly outside but it rained and I couldn't (didn't want to) cook vegetables outside on the camper stove. Had fish to grill in the oven so there was no other thing to do but to buy chips from the cafe.

Well surprise surprise!

Warren's team won, they didn't really look like losing. It was also the biggest margin in a grand final for many years but thankfully both teams played as though they were about to win.

Grand Final day

Warren's team is in the final. Neither of us think they will win though as they had a very hard fought game to win the chance at the final this week. It should be a good game though, I hope so, its disappointing when the grand final which should be the best game of the year turns out to be a run over by one team.

As we are having visitors for dinner, we needed wine and cream, Warren had been to get them and brought home some snacks to chew on while we are watching.

The game was scheduled to start at 1.30pm but its all the prelim stuff with the first bonce happening around 3pm. The TV is warmed up though and ready to go. Tom Jones (thats The Tom Jones) is entertaining the crowd at the moment.

I have corned silverside cooking in the crock pot and I'll prepared the veges for the oven at half time. Cheating with dessert, pulled out a cheesecake from the freezer.

After 5.30pm tonight , footy will be over for five months, what on earth are we going to do on Sat and Sun afternoons with no games to watch?

Stormy weather

Yesterday when we went to Redcliffe, Warren was wearing shorts and said when he got out of the car that he should have worn long pants as it was a bit cool. At the time it was cloudy.

Sun was shining after we had lunch and it was very pleasant. Drove home in sunshine and two hours later, there was no sun and on the news there was talk of thunderstorms in Sydney. Overcast here and then the rain started. Oh my, it was heavy.

Probably hard to see but the driveway had about an inch of water on it. We had been sitting outside but the rain started to be blown in under the patio.

Water is streaming off the annex of the caravan and running down the post, already tere is puddles on the grass. Twenty minutes after this the rain had stopped and the sun was out!

Headache

I woke up yesterday with a headache and that's unusual for me, I would be lucky/unlucky to have a headache once or twice in a six month period. I realized that I had not been out of the house for three days except to hang washing out or go to the bin. Thought a drive would/could/should solve the problem so suggested to Warren to go somewhere.

Still trying to locate a cafe in Redcliffe that I met some GFs a couple of months ago so that was our plan of attack. I knew that we parked in a shopping centre and walked up a rise past the jetty, Warren found an area that he thought was probably it. Last time the GPS kept telling us to go North when I knew it was South.

Nailed it and oh dear the cafe was called The Rustic Olive not the Soul Food Cafe! I guess not much wonder the GPS was confused.

Food was good, ended up having an early lunch rather than morning tea. On our walk to it, Warren saw a shop and said to me "Look its an Yi Wu (E woo) shop!" Sure enough it was an Yi Wu shop. Yi Wu is where small commodities are made and sold mostly wholesale in China and we had two Yi Wu shops in Shaoxing. It was the place to go to get the little things for our apartments to make them more homely without spending a fortune. We spent quite a bit of time wandering the aisles and looking at things that had been available in China, quite like a trip down memory lane, Warren did buy some occy straps.

Cant leave the sea side without a walk out on the jetty. Wandered past the Bee Gees walk and their statue but I couldn't see what I was taking (it was into the sun so deleted that photo)

Beautiful sunny day our lunch cafe was to the left and I was intrigued by the orange circles in the middle of the photo, they were like a windmill but circular.

Bloody Jeep

Nice car but its costing money. First there was the initial cost, then it cost almost $500 to change the rego. As it had done 82,000kms it was due for a service, apparently the 80k is a big one and yep! $900 odd dollars. At least we knew that everything was A okay.

Rego was due 26 September, another 500 and then, then the battery decided to die. New battery was $320.

Of course there is the extra insurance and road service as well. Don't want to work out how much another car is costing.  

I drove a friend home the other day, she has never driven and now she is a widow and reliant on buses and friends, how glad I am that I have a vehicle to drive and can choose to go where and when I want.

Fingers crossed that no money out except for fuel for that Jeep.

Shocked!

Last week when I was applying for my position, I sent an email to each of my referees, I also had their written refs but I got in touch with them to advise them that I was using it and may be contacted.

Karen who we saw in June and Brian who we visited at year replied the next day. Jason from Western Australia, I didn't hear from and thought that maybe he had moved jobs as we hadn't been in contact for a couple of years. Jason used to visit the school in China and he was the overseer that the course was being taught and marked correctly as the students if they passed would receive a certificate from WA TAFE. When he was in China we spent quite a bit of time with him both work wise and socially.

Last night I received an email from his wife to inform us that Jason had been diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and had died last June. It probably was 2010 that we ad last been in contact. What a shock, I think he would have been about eight to ten years younger than us.

Shocks were the order of the week as Karen, again I have known her in a work capacity for about ten or twelve years, replied that I was too young to retire and she is the same age as me. She is Chinese and as such if some-one had asked me what age she is, I would have thought mid forties.

The first shock was through a phone call on the weekend. A friend from Red Hats asked me abut the house sitters that we had had. I said that I couldn't fault them and arranged to put her in contact with Lesley. The sit was for three weeks, finishing on Friday. Apparently the house was untidy with nuts and washers in the passageway, car had been damaged and she had unpaid tolls. She was not happy. I felt awful but all I could say was that wasn't our experience.

Due to people overstaying on a previous sit, they split up and one did one sit and one the other. We were going to get them back when we go for an extended trip next year, now we are not sure if we will or not.

BBQ pork buns

I took Sheridan to Costco well she drove but I had the magic card to get in, which had cost me $60. She was interested in seeing if buying a membership card would work for them. She bought  few hings and we bought some things which we went halves in later as too much for each of us.

I love the Asian aisle and have bought a few things from there before but bbq pork buns I had not noticed before. They looked like the ones were sometimes had when we had a dinner in China at the school. Just had to have a pack, worked out at around a $1 for one.

OM Goodness they are good! One minute in the microwave and they are perfect. Another plus, they are actually made in Australia, something that is becoming rare these days.

First day of holidays

I feel a little at a loss as house is tidy, thanks to Warren doing the housework when I am at work. Of course there is stuff like bed making, washing that always needs to be done but that doesn't take that long.

I wandered into my sewing room to finished making our dirty laundry draw string bags that I started last week and only got one done. There on my table is at least three projects in various stages plus new material that I haven't done any thing with yet except to wash it.

There and then, I vowed (just to myself) to make and finish at least one item a day, two weeks holiday so should be fourteen articles.

Before lunch, I finished a pair of pants, just needed the hems and the elastic put in the waist band. I sewed up two small jumpers that I had made while watching TV and added a button to a jacket. Four things already!

Now I am on the computer considering what next to make.

Fans

Earlier in the year we bought ceilings fans for the bedrooms, lounge and dining room. It was very hot and I didn't like the idea of some-one having to get up into the ceilings. Winter came and we didnt need them, suddenly the weather is getting warmer so I tod Warren that I wanted them fitted by the end of September.

His great nephew is an electrician and we had spoken to him before about doing a job for us, we wanted other things as well around the house. Well, what do you know, he has moved from fifteen minutes away from us to five hours away, buggar, there's goes the mates rates!

Warren contacted some-one from the local paper and they came and gave us a quote, ekk! a bit more than  expected but Warren did ask for an extra point that we hadn't discussed and it didn't have a corresponding one already behind it so that put the price up. Phone call and two days later he arrives to do a quote and fans were done the following week.

All up we had six ceiling fans installed, two points replaced, two new one that backed on to another, a brand new one and an new TV port for the cost of $1453. Each fan has a remote control and a light, very comfy to sleep undet the fan with a doona.

Silent Movies

As part of our weekend, we took a bus to Pomona to the local Majestic Theatre. It is the only silent movie theatre in the world that is still operating. I was surprised to see single chairs set out in rows and thought that the original seats must have been replaced at some stage but not so. We were entertained by a short history of the place and some-one had the idea that if they had seats that could be removed the area could be used for dances and sports as well.

The gut who did the history also did the music, in his top hat and tails he at down to play and the organ music accompanied the silent movies. The first one went for about 30 minutes and was so politically incorrect and I have always though that I don't worry too much about that but it really was just so wrong and only mildly amusing. There was however several of our women who were almost on the floor laughing so much.

The second one was very slapstick but acts or things were repeated many times which I found rather boring. I used to say to my kids once is funny, twice is amusing third or more times just annoying and the same with this. The third movie went for about fifteen minutes and was Laurel and Hardy which I do remember from my childhood days of going to the pictures every week. My dad was one of the film operators so we had to go each week whether we wanted to not. They were a bit funny but not roll around the floor laughing my head off type of funny.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to have been and seen but probably wouldn't go again. We did get Jaffas but on the packet there was a large sign to say they were not suitable for rolling down the aisles!

I have a clever car

so my seven year old grandson tells me. I was driving him home from school last week and we turned off the main road and he remarked, "How does your car know that it can turn the corner Nana, it must be very clever"
"Yes" I agreed being a bit distracted and wondering what he was talking about.
He went on to say "If there's a car coming does the light shine red?"
My brain is scrambling to think what is he on about, suddenly like a light bulb it hits me, from his car seat he can see the indicator light and it is green.

 When he was three I taught him that we couldn't drive on until the light was green (his favourite colour!) Of course he has put two and two together and came up with five. I had to explain that it was me pushing the lever down for right and up for left which makes the light go on and no its doesn't change colour if other cars are coming, The person driving just had to watch for cars and go when it was safe.

I explained that there were also lights on the outside of the car for people to see and know what I/we were doing, I had to show him once we got home.

I think he was a bit disappointed to learn that the car wasn't as clever as he thought, maybe one day!

I took the Jeep on the weekend.

The car (Hyundai) did a bit of a shudder on Thursday morning as so Warren suggested that I take the Jeep for my weekend away as it was an hour and a half drive.

He cleaned and fueled it while I was at work and also added the addresses that I needed for said weekend. I had packed on Thursday night so had a coffee with him, showered and put my stuff in the back. As I hadnt driven the Jeep at night I checked with him where the lights were as the indicator stick is opposite to the Hyundai. That was all good and so I set off.

Arriving at the RSL where every one else was for dinner, one of the other girls had picked up the keys to my room.

The function room was packed and everyone had finished dinner but the wait staff brought me a meal, good music but too loud to chat so after dessert and a quick turn on the dance floor, we set off for our accommodation.

I took two of the girls back with me and when I went to open the back of the Jeep, it wouldnt open, tried again and finally gave up and hauled my bags over the back seat and out the back door.

In daylight I took my keys and checked at the car, thought that I had locked the car and that was why it wouldnt open, no further problem.

Arriving home with more stuff than I left with, the bl....... door wouldnt open again! Then I actually look at the key unlocker thingy and to open the back door, need to press it twice! DUH!

I guess that it was a small hassle and easily fixed or got around but I certainly wont forget that it needs two presses!

Roadside stops

These are wonderful and on our shake down caravan trip we stopped at one on the way about two hours from home. I had prepared some lunch and a flask of hot water and we sat in the van and had lunch. It made a nice change as with the campervan, we have to find seats or stand up. Getting too old and want/need our comfort.

This is a very popular place to stop called Chatswood park, Can even over night as the length of stay is 20 hours. Toilets but no shower or electricity. As we walked back from the toilets about a hundred metres or so (couldn't park the van closer because of the numbers) there were even a couple of blokes lying on the grass sun baking, it was quite warm out. 

There is plenty of parks and there is even a turning circle so no need to back around. Behind the toilet block is a small lake/dam and heaps of ducks and birds can be seen there.

This was the spot that we took a break on the way back, Nice open spaces not too far off the highway, tables and benches and a toilet block, all that it needed for a short break. 

Bollywood

I spent a fab weekend away with Red Hatters. The theme was Hollywood and dress for Saturday night dinner. The six of us who were going weren't real sure what we were going to do and I suggested a play on words Bollywood. Ideas came thick and fast, as it happened one of the girls was going to India and she offered to buy sari's for us and the head jewellery. We were able to buy glitter slippers and we were set. Cost of outfit was $30 for sari, $6 for jewellery and $5 for the glitter slippers bought at a local chemist.

The above photo is not us but another group before they went for a limo ride, can see the red carpet, the tiaras are out in force.

This is the girls from our group, one joined us late and so there were seven,

just a lucky number as that was how many the limo took. Sari's dont do a great deal for the figure esp if one has a bit of a tum as lots and lots of pleating needs to go at the front.

Seven to nine metres of material are in a sari, we had two dress rehearsals to try to get them right and we starting dressing an hour before the dinner and all helped each other to get into them.

Many of the old actresses made an appearance, they was Cleopatra, Liz Taylor, De Ville and two of her puppies, batman, Lot of laughter and fun.