Wednesday, March 30, 2011

March Is Something Different

This month was a big month of getting in and doing fun things.  I began cleaning up the unit and putting things away.  The washing has been getting done on a regular basis and the floors are swept.  I'm folding my laundry and I enjoy having the whole kitchen table to myself on Sundays now I can actually see it!  
But then during the first week of March, I had some serious fund-raising to do for the World's Biggest Shave.  It was a lot of fun.  I went out to Vivienne's 30th Birthday party and had a ball.  We enjoyed the night; even though it turned cold and poured rain.  I met a few people I hadn't met before and we all ate too much food... but could sleep it off by midnight.  I also scored a very cool book from Bent Books at West End titled 'Catch-22' by Joseph Heller.  I'm finding it hard going, but interesting.
A few days later, I bussed it into Brisbane City; my first trip in since the floods.  And I was amazed at how much has changed.  There's bus routes that have been changed around because a lot of the streets were left undriveable by the buses and then if that wasn't bad enough, it poured rain all day!  I had a good day of looking around for a book, had a gander at a vinyl store and then bought a New York-style pizza slice; and loved it.  About an hour before I left to go home, I dropped into Gloria Jeans at Borders on Elizabeth Street and had a coffee and watched the rain.  It was so nice to know I only had to cross the road to catch my bus; but such a pity that Borders wasn't going to be around for much longer.  I also took photos of the city and had a good day.  I got home by around 2pm or so.
On 12th, March, I attended a free event put on at the Centro at Springwood to colour or shave my hair.  I coloured my hair and had to register at the place and wait my turn.  It was great.  Riley was there; as was Mum and Dad.  Mum took the photos and the MC was really good; getting people to donate as they walked past.  He ended up getting a cop to get his head shaved as well as his legs; and the cop wasn't planning on getting anything shaved off... just dropped by to watch on.  But somebody in the audience paid for his legs to be shaved and his head, then he had to get up there to do it.  The main problem I had with my hair colour was that the blue stained my shirt and underwear, took three washes to get out and then when I soaked the shirt, it transferred from the back to the front.  Once I decided how to get the colour off that, I sprayed it with Preen and gave it gently scrub with a soft brush and all the gold came off my shirt!  Aaargh!  I couldn't bloody win!  So, I have a nice brown shirt with a white transfer instead of a gold one.  Bummer, dude!
During the week of St Patrick's Day, I had the Tuesday afternoon to myself.  It was a lovely hot afternoon, my laundry had been done, washing up finished and I didn't want to waste my time online.  So, I grabbed three books I was reading and went out into the carport and read for four hours... and it felt good to get through between 25 - 40 pages of each book.  It kicked me along in them and helped me with their plots; giving me a reason to keep on reading them all.  Little Miss Stevie was out there with me, taking a bath in her drinking water and talking and singing to all the birds around the place as she enjoyed the breeze that came through from the back of the place.
Then, on Friday, 18th March, Mum and I took off to Garden City to go to Angus & Robertson to watch on as they sold off the rest of the books there at a 75% off sale.  Well, I really didn't mean to buy anything; but I did.  Mum?  Well, she had to pick up a book from there.  I ended up buying five books for $24.00... not a bad deal when they were priced at around $27.00 each.  And I've read one of them already... a Stephen King one which was really creepy.
Last week was a dreadfully long week... and last Saturday; only because I was at Mum and Dad's from around 9am due to a Body Corporate meeting here at the unit complex which included my next door neighbours.  And seeing I didn't want to be in her firing line when it finished, I decided it would be a good idea to stay away.  So, I went to Mum and Dad's for the day and greeted Gabe, Kat and Riley when they arrived and we snuck around to sign the card for Dad and gave him his coffee grinder as a retirement gift.  It was wonderful to see Dad so happy over it.  Gabe showed him how to use it and then Dad made some coffee for everyone and he went back downstairs to his lathe and Gabe showed him how to use that too.  Riley and I hung about and we had lunch, Riley did some of her homework, practiced her French Horn and we enjoyed an ice block and then we were about to go to Target when Mum put on 'How to Train Your Dragon' (a movie I didn't have any interest in seeing; but she tried to get me to watch anyway) and we wasted about an hour looking at that.  Anyway, we got to Centro, where I walked to Rockaways and said I'd meet them back at their place.  Well, twenty minutes later, the place closed!  I couldn't believe it!  I walked back to their place with only vinyls under my arm of 'The Glen Miller Story' and 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtracks and I had to wait another hour until the rest of them got home.  Then, Dad brought me home in the Rolls Royce Limo he had driven that day to a wedding.  You should have seen the reaction from the neighbours!  It was absolutely priceless!
Last Saturday was also Purple Day for Epilepsy.  This is a day where you wear purple to remember people who have this condition and know it's not a thing that will go away like a cold, but a permanent condition that affects a lot of people in many different ways.  Last Saturday was also Earth Hour; which I also did.  I turned off all my appliances - except my fridge - and sat in the dark with my candles and drank my tea and ate my chocolate and wrote in my journal.  A nice way to spend Earth Hour.
Sunday was a typical Sunday.  I read the paper, ate my breakfast and sat online for a good part of the day editing my erotica books and began looking at my vampire stuff.
Yesterday, I was having a normal, ordinary day.  Then, I opened an e-mail from a friend's nursing home to find he had passed away the previous morning.  Norm Clark was a dear friend who was past 90 years of age; but had gotten himself onto the internet to keep up communications with friends like me.  Last year, he had to be moved into a nursing home because he had a fall and couldn't get up; and stayed by his letterbox until some kids walking home from school later that day found him when he called out for help again some hours later.  He kept up with the times, was a great poet and wrote ballads too.  I will miss his weekly installment of 'The Good Mail' in my inbox horribly.  Rest in Peace, mate.
So, that was my month of differences.  I had some fun, parties, met people and lost a great friend to the Pearly Gates.  I hope you had a great month of differences like I did.

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