Card holder

Coming home from work the other day, darling daughter says "Do you think Dad could make something for Aidan?"
"It depends what it is and when you want it"

She wanted something that Aidan could put his cards into to and she would like it before they left on holidays in a week's time.

They had been playing cards and Aidan was having a hard time putting his cards into a fan and so she thought of a card holder for him. She was going to ring Dad and ask him.

I mentioned it to Warren so that he could be prepared and he said that it should be easy! Way to go.

A bit later he was in the kids room looking at DVDs, I thought he was going to make the card thingy but asked if he was going to watch a movie. Apparently not.

He used two DVD's that we didn't want to watch again, we have plenty of those, stuck the bottom half of them together, leaving a little gap at the top, wrote his name on it so he knows which way up and its done, ready to go.

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.

Shopping at Costco

Costco opened down the road last month (actually in May as we are now in July), we dropped in on our way down south the day after it opened. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes to join up as a member (costs $60 a year to shop there) we decided to leave and sign up on-line.

Warren signed up on-line a couple of weeks later and one Saturday we called in on our way home to collect our cards. If we both want a card, we both have to go the first time to show that we have the same address and get our photos taken. That time we got to the lights and cars were banked up from there, still about a kilometre or more to the car park so we continued home again, thank goodness we hadnt made a special trip.

I intended to shop on Monday but as I hadn't shopped for a month and there were a few things that we needed, we went Saturday afternoon. It was slow going to get into the car parks and then we were trolling to get a park, luckily we saw someone pulling out not too far away so only had a hundred metres to walk to the entrance.

We saw the line up for new members and felt a bit smug as we had done ours on line, however we had to line up as well to get the phones done, thankfully our line was only half as long, but they were taking alternate from new members and people collecting their cards. It was interesting to watch and see what people were buying and it helps to pass the time as well.

Finally we were at the front of the line and had our phones taken, very attractive of course, in B&W on another plastic and then we could enter the hallowed doors!

It was all white good at first and we took some time to find the food, eggs were the first thing I bought, 30 for $6.59 and usually I pay around $4 for a dozen, I wanted some chicken and mince, got chicken drumsticks, they were packaged  three and then in packs of three so nine in all for $6.99, again pretty good price. Mince was premium at $6.99 and smallest amount to buy was 3 kilos, I cooked some for dinner Saturday night, made tacos and there was very little fat so a bonus.

On my list I did have toilet paper, the cheapest package was about $38 but it held 70 rolls, probably a years supply, as I had several rolls, I crossed them off my list. Toothpaste and soap were in packs of three large and eighteen bars so we are set for them for awhile.

We got out of there with a full trolley and $290 less in the bank account and both freezers are full. There were still a few things on my list that I didn't get, don't know if they didn't have them or we just didn't see them, there were thousands of people there and it was definitely only one way traffic inside the store.

Long life milk and yoghurt pouches are things that we use all the time nd I had to go and pick them up yesterday. On the way home at our little corner store, we got fresh milk but after a day it tasted "on the turn" so using it for cooking. Many many years ago Warren and I both both go sick on off milk and now we are very sensitive to milk and so we tend to use the UHT milk or cardboard milk as Warren calls it, never been sick off that, plus it doesnt need to be refrigerated until opened..

Card Night (and Dinner)

Years ago we had young kids and very little money, we used to meet with friends for dinner and then our entertainment was a game of cards. When the kids bedtimes came, they would be put to bed in the lounge while we continued. We probably did this once a fortnight and alternated who's home would host.

Years later with many states, houses and moves in between we find ourselves living in the same suburb as our card playing friends and we still play cards.

Some things have changed, our kids all have children of their own, dinners are a little bit more fancy and the host supplies the wine as well now. Used to be that the guests would bring the wine, now the guests just turn up and enjoys the meal without having to do a thing. Our game playing has gone from three or four games in a night to only two and we only get together about every six weeks or so as even though we are all retired, we are too busy to meet more often.

Last night it was our turn to be the guests and it was nice to have roast pork and vegetables plus lemon pie and no dishes yay.

Costco

Costco is coming to town just down the road, well about 17kms down the road. I have been meaning to sign up but it is still a couple of weeks away from opening so of course I haven't done anything about it yet.

Wednesday or Thursday, they featured on the news as the petrol side had opened that day and petrol was 20 cents a litre cheaper than anywhere else. On Friday in our local free paper there was an application form and Warren asked me if I wanted to join. We decided to go  a little earlier as we were heading that way later on in the afternoon. We filled out our form and went, there were cars everywhere and a line up of about a hundred people in front of us, we waited for twenty minutes and had only moved a short way. Warren went up the line and there was about another twenty or thirty people inside. If people had paid on-line, they were in a different line and just picking up the cards. We left and decided to sign up on-line. Must have taken a lot of money that day, and no goods sold. Sixty dollars to become a member but the savings are said to be very good.