Busy Days Out

As Christmas nears everyone will be working on finding gifts for their family and friends.  Christmas cards are going to be sent out in the mail, carols are going to be heard everywhere - in every style - and each time we enter a friend's house, they will have a tree up and decorations.  

I've already begun getting into the busy Christmas Spirit of things.  So far, all my Christmas cards have been posted, I've picked a card off the K-Mart Wishing Tree to give to a person who has less than I do.  I have two presents already picked out and wrapped for the Big Day and I'm planning on doing something big and special for my front garden to make it look festive as well.
However, this week has been a busy one for me as well.  On Sunday, I was out and about very early and driven to the Logan Art Gallery.  Us volunteers were going on their annual Christmas Party that the Logan Logan City Council pays for.  We had a pink bus show up and were loaded on board and driven to Mt Warning first off.  There's a little cafe not far from it called 'The Rainforest Cafe'.  It's a lovely little retreat of a place - a little expensive - but very pretty, quiet and restful.  There's massively tall trees which have paths winding through them and a brook nearby under some shady trees - just in case you don't feel like walking around.  The owner's dog - Tia - wanders around and loves to have a pat; she so wishes it (otherwise she'll yap and bark at you if she gets spooked by a skirt or anything too weird that looks like a skirt) and there's chickens walking around too.  
But too soon, we had to leave; swapping the coolness of the shaded trees for the air-conditioning of the bus.  We were on the bus for a little while and we were driven to the Murwillumbah Visitor's Centre.  Here, we walked around, enjoyed the art made by the local artists and had a chance to stretch our legs more before lunch at the Murwillumbah Services Memorial Club, where we were given a banquet room of our own and served up a delicious lunch!  There was choice between roast pork or roast turkey (both with all the fixin's) and then there was a vegetarian selection too, of a wonderful salad!  This salad had English Spinach, roasted Eggplant, capsicum, chickpea and herbs, with pepper and salt and some thick soy sauce.  However the more we ate, the more there seemed to be of this salad; it was the funniest thing!  Oh well.  I ate as much as I could and left it.  Dessert was a choice between sticky date pudding or pavlova... both wonderful and very filling.  Then, we could all sit back, filled with great food and have a cup of tea or coffee and chat to each other. 
After a little while, we were off again to our last place:  The Tweed Rivers Art Gallery.  I do love this place, as it's just so wonderful and has the best views and a cafe.  This is where I also bought Mum's Christmas presesnt too.  I also wild released a sci-fi book while I was there in memory of on my dear friends who passed away recently on Bookcrossing.  Online we had all agreed to wild release one of these books (or as many as we wanted) in memory of Tom Mailloux.  I managed to release it without anyone calling out that I had left my book behind... or the people who ran the cafe telling me not to litter. 
Before long, it was time to go.  However, we also got our group photo taken and the pink bus, which we had nicknamed 'Priscilla', with all of us on board was taking us back to the Logan Art Gallery.  We arrived back home in the car park where our adventures had begun.  Dad picked me up and I told him what I bought Mum for Christmas; and he said it was good of me because it's useful and she can take it down the coast.

Then, on Monday, I was packed to go to the coast to help them both set up the caravan.  With Mum unable to hold the poles of the annex or pull anything heavy, Dad needed me to help him with all of the heavy-lifting whereas Mum would be sitting down a lot and waiting to be able to unpack the van.  Once the annex was up, along with the walls of it, Mum was able to work on unpacking the other things.  Soon, though, it was time for dinner.  We had fishh'n'chips from the only place still open after 8pm at night.  We went to bed early, a,  after a nice hot shower, and we all had problems sleeping.  At around 3am, a Char (a small bird with a really loud song) sang for about 2 hours and I was woken up by it.  Dad and I both wanted to shoot it because it wouldn't shut up until the next trawler came in from fishing.  Then, an hour and a half later, my alarm went off.  Not a full-nights' sleep at all.  
So, last night, when I went to bed at around 10 pm, I was asleep in seconds.  It was bliss!  I woke to my alarm and feel I still need another early night, but I'm better than I was yesterday.  Until my next post, take care keep safe and warm, and remember, I'm always here.

Tuesday's The Day of Rest

Yesterday, I had a massive, full-on day!  It was so full-on, I thought to give today a bit of a rest, once I got a few things done around the place.

After I got offline yesterday, I didn't seem to stop.  First I pulled out my Hawks Traveling Bag, which I take everywhere on holidays with me (and is an Official Hawthorn Hawks Travel Bag from the AFL in Melbourne), took it out in the backyard and shook it out.  Seeing it's been in the bottom of my wardrobe, you never know what could have been hiding in it since last December.  Usually I'm expecting a Huntsman Spider, but none ever runs out - for this I'm forever thankful.
Once I established that nothing was living in my bag, I took it back up to my bedroom and left the double-zip open and began packing my good skirts, favourite shirts and jeans; and began organising which books I was going to take with me (this includes any journals and notebooks).  I also have to put in prescriptions and battery chargers for my camera.  I then wrapped my birthday present and put it into the bag and looked outside.  It had begun to look really dark out there.  So, I stopped packing and began unplugging appliances.  The computer was first - seeing I was upstairs - and then I opened the bathroom window and got myself downstairs and unplugged the tv, stereo system, dvd player and vcr as well as the antenna and then grabbed the torch from its spot and the battery-run radio and turned it on too.  
The storm hit just as I sat down to finishing off a scarf for Mum.  I had pulled out a crochet hook - the biggest one I could find - and the tassels I had cut for the scarf and began pulling them through.  With the torch near at hand, I was ready for the lights to go out; but fortunately, they didn't and the storm was gone within the next hour or so.

The good thing about yesterday was that all the laundry I had on the line had dried - well, except one item which I put on the clothes horse.  And seeing the storm had come and gone by 6pm, I thought to get in and do the towels and other t-shirts I had missed.  It all fitted on the clothes horse - well, only just.  And this morning, I put Little Miss Stevie's covers in the wash and hung them out on the line to dry in the windy weather that greeted us today.  And the laundry is just about all I've gotten done today - except checking the mail at the post office - otherwise, I got to meet Mum out the front in the car park and she gave me my jeans and a baby blanket she promised to get a border put around.  The other one I've knitted is being done by Aunty Helen tomorrow.  I gave Mum a HGG of the scarf I was doing up with tassels and she loved it!  She's loved that scarf since I began knitting it last year and I thought to give it to her now.  And I also gave her 'Dandelion Wine' by Ray Bradbury to read while she's in hospital over the next week or so; as she'll be there for a while, and this is a good book to read.

Well, tomorrow is my half-shop day.  But for a day where I only get half the things, I'll be doing an awful lot.  There's my birthday present to pick up from 'Woodys', photos to order in at K-Mart (and then pick them up on Friday), medication to get from the chemist, a milk crate to buy from Dollars and Sense and then I'll have the few things I'll need at Coles and Woolworths.  Otherwise, it's going to be a complex day out where I get to run around and hope to get everything.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

If I Thought Friday Was Busy.....

Man, oh, man... did I have a busy weekend!  Friday was just the tip of the iceberg. I woke from a deep sleep on Saturday, made myself some pancakes and scoffed into them - even though two of them were undercooked - and drank some lovely plunger coffee and thought to take the day to relax.  I had this weekend to myself for the first time in 5 weeks!  And also  the Home Festival wasn't on, so I was sitting pretty for the weekend - wasn't I?

Nope.  I had forgotten something.

Mum called at around midday and asked if I was still on for that night and I drew a blank.  She reminded me of an art opening at her hairdressers and I then remembered it and accepted the invite. So, I started sorting out what I was going to wear, which bag I was taking and all that kind of thing and made sure my camera had fresh batteries (nothing worse than taking along your digital camera and the silly thing dies on ya!).  So, after eating two eggs on toast, Mum picked me up at around 6pm and we were off to Holland Park and found the opening was well under way with the bar outside, the paintings well-displayed inside and music playing as well.  It was a great array of colour, fun and portraits by the new up and coming artist Sandra Hosking who uses mixed media to produce her work; and I loved her stuff.  So I asked her if she'd like to put in an application for the Logan Art Gallery - to see if she'd get in there.  She was thrilled I offered; but I said I only volunteered there and seeing her collection was complete, it may be the thing they'd go for; and it would be up for 6 weeks instead of only 2 days.  Her secretary took down the details on how to get onto the Gallery's site and thanked me very much.

Mum and I left around 8pm or so.  So, it wasn't a late night, but I was very tired; and got to bed around 10:30pm and was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

Yesterday, I was up early again; but I had my usual porridge instead of bacon and eggs.  I was also dressed and ready to leave the house by around midday with everything to take into the city.  Mum and I were out again together!  We were heading to a Bookcrossing Meet-Up at O'Malley's at the Wintergarden on the Queen Street Mall.  I met Mum and Dad out the front of the unit complex and they picked me up with my blue trolley and Dad dropped us at the bus station.

All the way into the city, I was sitting there on the bus next to Mum thinking I had forgotten something.  I didn't know what it was, but I knew there was something I had forgotten.  As soon as I got off the bus, I wondered if I had my keycards and other cards to get around the city with; and when I looked inside my Bookcrossing Briefcase, I was really mad at myself to find that I had left those cards in my other 'Beatles' bag hanging off my kitchen chair nearby!  How dumb did I feel doing this?  Yep, very dumb!  I felt dumber asking her for money. 

O'Malley's was a nice place to meet.  The atmosphere was lovely.  There's an area called 'The Library' where you can have a pint and read as well if you want some peace and quiet; and that's where we all met with our books.  There were 4 other ladies who had brought along their books to swap.  I was glad to have brought along my trolley as it carried two tote bags (one for me and one for Mum), 6 books, Mum's book and it still had enough room for a jacket and a bag if needed.  We all enjoyed ourselves, got some drinks and had lunch; which was Guinness Pie (this was a beef and Guinness Pie that was the size of a dinner plate!  All 4 ladies ordered one each - and that was the small one!).  I ordered a small bowl of wedges and I couldn't finish those!  But they were very moreish as they didn't have that dreadful seasoning on them that most do - which gives me mouth ulcers - and all they had for dressing was sour cream and sweet chili sauce; yummo!  

We arrived back at Springwood at around 4:30pm not wanting to eat dinner.  I ate 2 pieces of raisin toast for dinner and that was it; but I still had my tea and bit of chocolate with ginger cordial and mineral water... just habit I guess.  But I did turn off the tv at around 9pm and head off to bed around 10:30pm.  Yep, a very busy weekend; which has led into the beginnings of a busy week. 

Today, I got in and did two loads of laundry - including one load being hand-washing - fed the pets, checked the mail, put the wiping up away and made breakfast; then I got a chance to read yesterday's paper.  Now, I'm just hanging out online before I get in and read more of 'The Gunslinger' by Stephen King and hopefully get closer to the end of it (by another 30 or 40 pages).  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.