A New Year!

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's been a good few days for me.  My New Year's Eve Party was great... at the Brunswick Heads Bowls Club where we all ate a great meal, and the band was 'Neily Diamond'... yeah, a tribute to Neil Diamond, which wasn't great, but when the guy got out of the sparkly shirts, and into another set of outfits, his singing wasn't too bad when he did other cover songs.

I danced the night away... so did half the place!  Any of the kids there went to sleep on the chairs in the dining area and we all called in the New Year on a John Lennon song... not a bad way to call it in, is it?

The next day was very quiet, as most of the day was a siesta for most people... 

Yesterday, I tried to get a place on the bus to get home.  But on the Premier Buses site, it said there were no seats available.  Bummer!  So, today, we're going to call them and see what's happening with them for tomorrow... or even Monday (or if there's a seat on the weekend sometime, that'd be even better).

Anyway, I'm off to the Tweed Rivers Art Gallery to see if we can look in on the Margaret Otto House which is being built there.  If it's not finished, that's okay, but it'd be great to see it half-finished, and some of her worked there.  

Over the last few days, I've been learning how to work my new tablet that I got off Mum when she bought a Samsung tablet for herself.  She gave me her old one.  There's so many games, jig-saw puzzles and other great little things on it... and I downloaded an app for writing which I've been using too.  However, the battery is so easy to drain, it's not funny... so I'm plugging it in every night to recharge.

The weather has been nice, hot and sunny.  We did get a huge electrical storm the other day, which grumbled on throughout the night, and brought us a nice coolish, overcast day the next day... which was promptly followed by a hot, sunny one.
Unfortunately, unknown to a few of us, Brisbane was thrown a few really stinking hot days while we got the nice cool days.  Not something I wanted to know, seeing I'm heading off up there over the next few days to head home.

So, how did you go on New Year's Eve?  Did you go out and paint the town red?  Or was it a quiet affair for you and your family?  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and remember, I'm always here.

Nine Days In Brunswick Heads

Well, here I am in lovely Brunswick Heads.  It's a historical fishing village which nearly died quietly in the 1990's a little over a century after it was discovered, through nobody really knowing it was here.  But it's been a year since I've been here and a lot has happened.  
The town has been beautified.  Traffic islands have been put in, along with new corner curbs and rules about cycling and skateboarding along the footpaths - which include a $500 penalty - if the signs weren't warning enough!  
There's boutique stores and the same old Brunswick Bakery are still around, so is the century-old primary school and the very cool health store which is on the opposite corner from the primary school... and I love the place, it smells so darn delicious!

I've been photographing like crazy again, but because the wi-fi here is crapola, I'm going to have to wait until I get home to get the photographs up and onto the hard drive - even though I brought along the external hard drive with me.  

So far, I've been to 'Whatever' and bought 2 journals for $37 (and believe me when I say that they are BIG journals!) and then I went back today and bought a wall-hanging of Buddha under his Tree of Inspiration on a Lotus Flower... very lovely... it's got sequins on it and looks gorgeous for just $15.  Then, I had to find out how much it will cost me to get home by bus... as Mum and Dad aren't driving me home.  The lady at the information place didn't know, but she wouldn't look it up either, so she gave me the number for the bus company instead of calling them herself.  While there, I found a great book in their second-hand book pile for $8.00 called 'Freedom'.  I've wanted to read this book for a long time as one of my blogger friends in Chicago reviewed it and Greg Zimmerman said it was a good read.  So far, I like it and I'm only 10 pages in.

I'm halfway through my stay here and I've gotta say that the $100 I brought with me didn't go far... I will have to budget better next time.  I thought I had budgeted well this time, but I didn't.  Oh well, that's what I get for mis-judging my finances.  I didn't think I'd buy anything really.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.  

Christmas At the Parker's

I tried to write a blog post on Christmas Day and to surprise you all with my first post on my Leader, Android Tablet... but that backfired faster than anything I've ever seen.  Within 5 hours of receiving the wonderful gift off Mum and Dad, the tablet malfunctioned and my cousin Kate advised us to return it for a new one.

But our Christmas was a 2-day affair.  

On Christmas Eve, Mum and Dad and I drove from their place to Everton Park to pick up Mum's Christmas Present at Anaconda (it's the only one there which had her particular style of present, all the other stores were out of stock).  Then, we drove to Gabe and Kat's place for Christmas Dinner.

Well!  Gabe had built a pizza oven... a real pizza oven from plans!  It was fantastic!  He made some dough and - as fate would have it - made the water too hot to make the dough rise.  Well, the oven wasn't dried out enough (as we were the first people he had cooked in it for) and so it took time to heat up.  And the dough didn't rise and rolled out really thin.  We made up our own personalised pizzas and by around 8:30pm we were all fed!  Yummo!  What a great meal!
Then, we had dessert of my home-made fruit salad and Mum brought around some cream... aaww... double-yummo!
Then, came the presents.  Riley was going to forego her present-opening until the next morning.  But when she saw us all ripping open our pressies, she folded and started on her presents... it was funny!  She loved everything she received.
Everyone loved what I bought them - from Mum and Dad loving the flat vase and Gabe enjoying that I got him 'Moonflower' by Santana on vinyl (which I had 2 copies of and so thought to give him one of the copies) and then Riley totally loved her tree earrings I bought from the Creative Markets at the stall which was across from me in November.  And finally, Kat adored the Magna-Pegs I gave her too.  

The next morning, we were all off after a gorgeous breakfast of eggs, ham and toast with coffee.  We packed up our stuff, hooked up the trailer and headed on home for Christmas Lunch... and that was the most relaxing time we had.  This was when Mum and Dad gave me the Leader Android Tablet.  I wasn't too sure about it, but then, I began reading the book and hooked it up to charge it properly and while it was charging, I fiddled with a few things to figure out how it worked - just to look at it - and this is when it began to stuff up.  
First it began to scroll on its own.  Then, during a blog post, it resized and stopped typing, wouldn't save and wouldn't let me do anything.  So I gave up on the blog post.  Then, I tried to download an app... nope, it didn't like me doing that and flipped out on me, scrolling, scrolling and changing the screens on the deskfront on me... grrr.  I sat there looking it feeling very fed up with it and wanting to just put it away and leave it.  But Mum and Aunty Helen said that my cousin Kate was going to be around and she'd help me out... and she did!  I signed in to Google and got a gmail account and Kate helped me pick out an app so  I could write on it, and then it began to take screen shots without me touching it.  At first nobody believed me because nobody saw it happen, until Aunty Helen watched and she said I didn't touch anything, that it was doing it when I had my hands nowhere near the screen.  Kate had gone home to check on their dog and get changed, and when she returned, we told her what was happening, and she said it was a sensitivity thing... so she looked at the tablet, and it began to take photos of the screen and flicker bright pink - strobe-like flickering, which really put me off - and I asked if she could turn it off for me.  She did that and told Mum to return it to the store and get another one as it wasn't going to work pretty soon; and it's not supposed to scroll.
Mum thought she was doing well by Australia by getting an Aussie made tablet... I did too. However, it seems as though I got a dud tablet by chance.

Now, I'm down at Brunswick Heads and rushing through this blog post as I have limited time on the net here... phew!... I hope I can post this!  Anyway, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

The Day Before Christmas....

It's the day before Christmas Eve and I've been out on the roads already and seen two cars clean each other up... with the police, two tow trucks and an ambulance all cleaning up the mess.  All I was doing was getting some petrol and collecting the mail.

It's the day before Christmas Eve and I'm packing the last of my goodies to take to the coast.  There's my iPod, a book or two, a journal I've been keeping when I travel to Brunswick Heads (it's an experiment I'm conducting) and a sketchpad too.  I'm not planning on buying anything from there this year, just kicking back and enjoying my time by the sea.

It's the day before Christmas Eve and I don't want to go to the shops to get anything - not even for Mum - because of the famous Christmas Crush.  I've done it before, and don't wish to do it again.  I am going to the bank to get money out, taking food to their place and hopefully having the oil checked in the Pajero, but I don't want to go grocery shopping for Mum... not now...

It's the day before Christmas Eve and the days are hot.  So, I'm up early to get as much as I can done before the heat strikes me down as useless after 10am.  After that, I'm usually found at my craft table next to the back door painting my Crafty Pegs.  And I'm getting a lot done too!  Yay!

It's the day before Christmas Eve.  I've organised what most of my house, tidied up as much as I can, begun writing again and am reading another few books as well.  Yes, I'm working on getting into the New Year with a few books read, some art to look forward to and other little things to work towards.  And they are just in the planning stages.  

It's the day before Christmas Eve... you know what I'm up to... what's on your agenda?  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.  And... Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and stay safe wherever you are in this world.

Last Grocery Shop Before Christmas

Today was my last shopping day before the New Year... yep, I braved the crowds and headed out earlier than usual today to get my shopping done as soon as I could and avoid the crowds.

I hate the crowds at this time of the year.

Well, on my way out, there was a white van that's been dropping around to pick up the Islamic ladies to take them wherever they go each day.  The driver zooms around here at 20km/hr when the speed limit is 5km/hr.  Well, he picked up one of them, while I had to squeeze past his van illegally parked outside the unit, and I putted around the place at the right speed limit (as I've seen some families around here with small kids; and those kids just seem to pop up out of nowhere when you're driving a car).  Anyway, he was suddenly, right on my tail.... itching to get out.  I kept my speed slow and he kept revving the engine.  I almost stopped the car to just tick him off, but didn't.  Instead, I just went on my way and minded my own business.  His time will come where somebody will stop him from speeding; but it won't be me.

I found a car spot under the shade of the trees at Woolworths today... and that was wonderful, and rare!  And I also went off to Life Line to see what lovely things they had on offer there.  They had an original Prada handbag which looked a little worse for wear; and then the man at the counter went out the back room and brought out a brand new Charlie Brown bag... he said he looked it up online and found they were being sold on e-bay for around $65 each.  So, they put that price on it.  I inspected both bags, and picked up the Charlie Brown bag for $55 because of my Life Line card discount... very cool.  I know it sounds like a lot to buy a bag for; but when I looked at this bag, and I mean, really looked at it, it hadn't been used.  It still had the Charlie Brown perfume in it... so, instead of thinking it over, I jumped in and bought the lovely thing; and I don't regret it a bit.

My shopping at Coles was good.  I had a few calculating problems at the self-serve checkouts... I'm just not a mathematical person... then I got a few messages from Mum.  But when I went to answer them, my mobile wouldn't let me type anything, let alone read the message.
This had been happening to me a lot lately.  The smart phone Gabe gave me last year has been screwing up over the last month - at first it was just little things, like the battery going dead within a day, then it was becoming more annoying things.  For example, I'd open the phone to see if I'd miss any calls while I was out and it would say: 'Sending text'... um... when did I send a text, let alone write one?  I'd get a message back from Mum asking me why I sent her text with no message and I'd call her saying that phone did it on its own and I didn't.
But today, it screwed up royaly!  I had left the message alone until I was out of Coles, then Mum messaged me again (it was about Christmas Day and where we were going to have it and with whom and she wanted to know if I was cool with it).  Well, I couldn't answer her because the phone wouldn't let me text anything, or call anyone.  So, I waited until I got out to the car, turned the phone off and on, and it still wouldn't let me do anything unless I pushed on the screen so hard I thought I was going to crack the glass!  And to make it worse, I was halfway through my text and the stupid damned phone sent my message to Mum without me touching anything!  So, I kept typing until I was finished - telling her what had just happened, and that the phone is acting up and I need a new one before I break this one - and so she got 2 messages from me (an incomplete one and a finished one).  I very nearly smashed the damned thing on the ground right there because I was so mad at how it was performing - or not! - but I didn't.  I got a message back from Mum: 'Hmmmm...' I hope to find a solution to this phone problem soon, as not too far into the future, I won't have a phone because this one will just stop working.

Well, I arrived home to find two kids from across the road - who don't live here in the complex - using our swimming pool.  The moment the gate opened, I drove through, paused, looked over at them and they got this terrified expression on their faces.  They know who I am and that I will talk to them if they're found here again.  Children under the age of 10 aren't allowed to swim in the pool unsupervised - and if you don't live here and are children under the age of 10, you're tresspassing and the police will be called to report you.  I've told them this, and this has scared them enough to know that the next time they see me, to be gone.  I know which house they live in too... so it looks like there's going to be a report to police soon about these kids as they're not allowed here, especially when they lie about living here to us all (yeah, I'm not the only one to see them running around here). 

Well, that was my day.  It was good, bad, ugly and everything else in between... but most of all, it was my last shopping/grocery day before Christmas.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

A Week Out!

It's a week out from Christmas Eve and I've got a few things I really need to get done.  There's still some cleaning to happen around here, packing for the coast and I have to re-charge my re-chargeable batteries for the digital camera.  Otherwise, there's the top-up shop and I have to make sure I only buy enough food to see me over for a week instead of 2 weeks... as I'll be at the coast for a few days.

I'm looking forward to being there as I'll be able to get over my virus there.  Yep, I've had a sore throat lately and was off to the doctors where they told me to just drink a lot of liquids, get plenty of rest and take it easy.  Then my doctor asked me what I've been up to and I told her about what my activities have been over the last 6 months and she was amazed I've been so busy, and I gave her a business card for Crafty Pegs.  She was thrilled to see I was on Facebook about it all and took it to look at it.

I've been working on pegs to get them ready to varnish at the end of January next year for the Creative Markets in February and then I'll have another lot of work to sell.  I can't wait!  I'm looking forward to getting my butt out there to sell to the public.  This time I'll be more organised and I have a few more ideas to work with too.  

In the last week or so, I've finished up my Christmas Shopping and I'm currently waiting for two items to arrive in the mail from some online shopping I've done last Thursday and Friday.  I hope the items arrive before Christmas so I can wrap them up and they'll be ready to give on the big day/night.  It'll be great to see them when they arrive... I know one will arrive this week, I just hope the other one arrives before Christmas.  If not, well, I'll see it in the New Year and use it to my heart's content, as it's coming all the way from Canada.

So, what have you been doing to get presents together?  I shopped online for a couple of things, went to second-hand stores, the markets and Garden City to get some of my presents... and then wrapped everything up and it's all under the tree waiting to be handed over and opened by the people I love and am closest to.  However, between now and then, I'm hoping to get my bag packed, work on making sure I have enough stuff to take with me and enjoying myself while I'm at the coast for the few days I am.  I'll be working on the last chapters of the Fry Nelson Book 3 and am hoping to wrap it all up.  I'm not sure to make it an open ending or wrap up all the loose ends and complete it totally... I'll see what happens when it comes.  Might see what other writer friends recommend.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

My Christmas Newsletter!

This year has been one of changes, one of strange weather and one of interesting things to happen to me and for me; as well as one of great growth too.

I spent the first few months of this year getting a lot of rain.  The neighbours moved out of the townhouse next door and it was empty for a while.  And I did some house sitting for Gabe and Katrina while they were away on holidays out at Emerald.  This was in March… and before I knew it, April had come around – so did the 25^th anniversary of World Expo ’88.  This brought back so many memories for me.  This was the year I spent the least amount of time at my high school because I had a season pass to the place.  Strangely enough, I passed pretty well that year, and really badly the following year; and yet I knuckled down and studied hard in year 11.

The first year of Uncle Allan’s passing came and went and I was reminded of how he helped us all in our lives at Garden City.  Two girls had chosen a box of ‘Golden Gaytimes’ by Streets and were standing in line to buy them and I remembered he worked on making sure those factories were working properly in Sydney and Brisbane to keep the ice-creams looking normal… it makes me sad he had so many great ideas that were always going through his mind and yet he didn’t have enough life to be able to put them all out there.

On the same day we all hung out at Stones Corner for brunch, I was invited to the Kingston Butter Factory to help launch Ged Maybury’s new book: ‘Nosebleed’… and what a great book and honour it was to be invited to do this a mere few months after he friended me on Facebook.  Anyway, once I got there, and we were both up, I found out why I don’t do public speaking!  I’m such a nervous person in front of people!  I even tried that good old ‘picture them all in their underwear trick’… nope didn’t work, I just started laughing nervously and blushing to boot!

In May, analogue television disappeared forever around Brisbane.  Yep, they switched it off and kept on the digital signal.  However, instead of making it as stable as possible, they added on more stations and made it unstable… so the whole thing of making our television viewing is just crap really.

By June, Mum and Dad had been to Karumba in Far North Queensland and I was house sitting their place.  And I still had the fishies to look after.  So, I put a feeder in the water – after cleaning out the tank – and took off to their place.  But when Dad dropped me home a few days later, we walked into my house to a strong smell of ammonia… yep, one of the fishies was floating on top of the water with the other on the bottom!  I rushed up, opened the lid and pulled the dead one out.  But within 48 hours, Fred died too… How sad.

This month, I went furniture shopping with Dad.  Yep it was time to buy something new.  I wanted to get a new bedroom suite for myself for my 40^th birthday.  So, I asked Dad about it and he said it sounded like a good idea… so we started shopping around and found a bedroom suite I liked – and I mean, really liked.  It took a bit of talking places like Harvey Norman to tell us of other places, but they eventually did.  And within 2 weeks of purchase, my new Queen sized bedroom suite was delivered for free! 

Within a week, I was in hospital to get an operation done at the Greenslopes Private Hospital.  I was getting an ovarian cyst removed and an IUD put in to help me with my cycle.  I had Mum look after me for about 4 days and help me around the house and do my shopping… then before you know it, I was off to Brighton to house sit and recover properly at Gabe and Kat’s place while they took off to New Zealand!  Wow!  What a way to go to recover!

By the beginning of July, I was back home and ready to tackle the cleaning out of my house head on!  Mum and Dad had headed off overseas and I had the use of the Pajero!  Mum’s Pajero that is… yes…I was allowed to use her car for the first time ever – instead of just taking care of it!  When I heard I was allowed to use it, I found all the plans I had for this place flood into my mind… it was amazing what I had put off until they gave me the use of it!

And so, over the next four months, I did a major project I called ‘The Four-Month Makeover’ and it took up a huge part of my life and pension… and you all got to read about it and see photos of how much my house changed too.  Very cool!  I injured myself while I fixed up my front garden, organised the plumber to fix the taps and put a cover on the sewage vent out the back yard and he wrote report for the landlord next door to get him to fix the plumbing up so I don’t hear water hammer anymore (this part of the project took longer than I anticipated, but it did get done).  Over July, I cleaned out the home office, the kitchen and the bedroom…  and then I gave away a lot of stuff to charity and worked hard on making sure my house is tidy.

In August, I had finished the front garden and started on the back yard; which I had neglected until now.  The craft area was being worked on too.  I wanted to be able to have all my painting and craft stuff in a place where it was nice and neat and where I could get to it if I needed to; which makes sense.  Then, I had the best idea!  What would happen if I made my Crafty Pegs a small home business?  Well, I bounced it around at the Art Gallery and they referred me to the Kingston Butter Factory and when I was rejected there, I jumped on Facebook and created a page… and the rest, as they say, is history.

Over the first weekend in September – which was Father’s Day – I created my Crafty Pegs business.  But I spent the next month working on my Craft Area, where it was going to be set up, business cards and advertising… this was stressful, I was broke all the time and I found it exhausting.  I crashed all the time at night as soon as my head hit the pillow and I was always tired… but I loved doing what I did.  And September zoomed by remarkably fast!

By my birthday, I was so close to finishing my ‘Four Month Make-over’ it wasn’t funny.  I had everything in place, the Crafty Pegs business was on its feet and my front and back gardens looked wonderful.  I had earned enough money to buy an outdoor setting to finish up my backyard and give it that finishing touch!  I loved it… and my plants were beginning to blossom too!

Then, Mum and Dad came home from overseas.  After 4 months of traveling they were coming home to a house full of food.  It had been cleaned, vacuumed, washed and dusted within an inch of its life and Mum was amazed how much fresh fruit and veggies I had bought for them… and she said it was great that they didn’t have to go shopping for about a week or so. 

And when they visited my place they were amazed at how much my house had changed.  The front garden just changed the appearance of my house completely and my backyard was simply something else!  Dad was proud of me that I had discovered lawn food… and that I had bought him some for his place.  But it was far too dry for him to put it onto his lawn as it would kill it.

As November loomed, I was working my butt off at my Craft Table/Area up to 6 hours a day and around 3 hours at night.  I had put my name down for the Creative Markets and had to work up some serious stock.  In between any free time I had – or what little of it there was – I had doctor’s appointments and visits to my folks’ house to pick up some things and borrow stuff for the market.  By the time a week before had arrived, I decided to have around 4 days to myself to get a haircut, do some cleaning up, grocery shopping and working on making sure I knew how to set up and clean up my area.  Then, get myself some serious sleep… and this was something I did get fortunately.

The Creative Markets were fantastic!  I had a great time and enjoyed myself.  Despite the really early start, I found it was a great experience and will be doing this again next February with a smaller stall.  I only just broke even and made a profit of $3.00.

However that time of year has come around… yeah you know the one.  Christmas.  I don’t really feel very festive as it was around this time of year last year that I had to break the news that my little sweet ball of fluff died of heart failure after suffering a stroke.  She was such a sweetie and I loved her dearly too; and she was such a member of the family too… I still miss her very much.  But this year, putting up the tree without her was very trying and I just kept on falling apart every time I went anywhere near the damned thing.  So, this took a few days to do… I had to feel right to get it done… and so it took me around 3 days to get it all finished.  I hope next year is easier for me.

And to add to this emotional problem, my next door neighbours were asked to move out for a few weeks so their landlord could fix their house up and fix the plumbing so that I didn’t hear water hammer in my house.  I’ve suffered through 3 years of this noise knocking through my house since 2010 and now, it’s over, I’m getting a great night’s sleep and I’m able to work on my books and craft as much as I want to.  And I have absolutely nothing to do with my next door neighbours whatsoever.

However, when they returned, they decided to have a 12 hour party… not the most desirable thing to do to the neighbours, but they did it.  Our caretaker told them to pack it up before midnight.  At 1am I asked them to pack it up and then, finally at 2:30am, I called the police after screaming at them to shut up rather rudely.  An hour or so later, the police did show up as they decided to go inside… which was a little too late, but they had a word with them anyways.  And I told our caretaker about how long the party went for eventually… and that they got rude and some of their friends told me off.  Well, long story short, the caretaker made sure there’s no more parties and the people involved were informed to not do that kind of prank again on the neighbours; no matter who they were really trying to prank (which was me actually).

But I’ve had a great year.  It’s been busy, fun, difficult, interesting and, did I mention busy?  Yeah, I did.  However, it has.  Currently, I’m preparing for the Christmas Holiday period and totally enjoying it.  I’ve finished my present hunting/purchasing and now, it’s a matter of making sure I have enough money to take to the coast and that I just hang about there and enjoy myself; which I will.

So, what’s been going on during your year that has made it interesting?  I know we have lost many people who were brilliantly famous and made our world different in so many ways.  Nelson Mandela and Doris Lessing were just two of them I really looked up to and they both passed away over the last month.  Then there was Paul Walker, from the Fast & the Furious franchise… and his death could have been avoided; but then, fast cars, fast lives and rich people seem to be have destructive effect on people in certain cities and places.

Anyway, this is my Christmas Newsletter for 2013.  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading… it’s taken a long time to write it as there was a lot going on in my life.  So, today, I thought it would be a good idea to finish this newsletter before it turned into a novel or a trilogy... hehehe.. only kidding.  Merry Christmas to you all!