Hot Summer Days

It's only days away from when the kids all go back to school - another year older, another year on in their schooling. Some of them are going onto college and university and some are going into high school, while the younger tots are heading into their first year of primary school.

This year, I've seen a lot for the first month. There's been so much sadness this month; and we all feel as though we've lived a year before the first month has gone by.

David Bowie - our most brightly-coloured of the colour spectrum of singer/songwriters, actors and artists - has left us to make the night sky look so very different in every way. He's even got a star constellation named after him and there's a David Bowie Day now (20th, January - mark that down in your diaries for next year).
Then, Alan Rickman died the next day. What a great loss to the movie world this man was. He wasn't my favourite movie star, nor one of the most attractive ones, but he was a classic star all of his own - a very traditional actor of our time.
And to make things worse, Glenn Frey of the Eagles died. Damn! How much worse could this month get? A mere week after David Bowie, this wonderful guitarist left us without his brilliant riffs to air guitar to; and we all went out to buy Eagles music again and play it all up loud. 

I've been cleaning out the house faster than I thought I could. I'm onto my 3rd Donation Box and it's filling up quickly. I've thrown out a pair of jeans which have a tear in the bum (and I haven't worn them in a year) and so I'm going to look for jeans that fit me this year and give away the size 14 jeans that don't fit me, as they're too big. Why I bought them, I'm not sure, but I will get in and make sure I have clothes I love and will wear all the time. 

This 31-day Challenge has been great. I've done well this year; and have only a few things to clean out before I delve into a couple of drawers around the house and some bags of paperwork, then I'll have a house which is much easier to work with. I don't want to be living in a house filled with so much stuff I don't know what to do with it. And yet, I don't want to be a person who's moving and finding that I have a whole lot of crap I should have gotten rid of moving with me. 

Anyway, this year has been a lot easier to do the first clean-out than in previous years where I struggled with it. This year, I know what I need to throw out, what I need to keep and how to let it go. It's not what my family will think of it all, it's what I think of it all; and that's what counts in the end. Until my next post, take care, stay safe and remember, I'm always here.

A Tad Homesick

If yesterday is anything to go by, I really wished I was closer to home at Logan City right now.  Shopping yesterday was a train wreck and I hated it.  
As I pointed out, Life Line was a complete rip-off; as their prices were dreadfully high for a charity store.  And the things they were selling cheaply weren't supposed to be sold at the cheaper prices, but a little elevated.  The clothes - no matter how nice - should have been discounted more so to be competitive with Target and K-Mart not their equal.  I could have walked into Rivers and bought two dresses for the price of one dress in Life Line here at Sandgate.
And Woolworths was disgusting.  Because they have monopolised the town centre, they have the last say of who buys where.  So, they can put the prices up or down and people have to pay them.  This is very wrong.  Now, what they need to do is put a Coles in nearby and the competition would be equal and people would have a choice.  Sandgate Town Centre would grow and they wouldn't have to cut any bus services.
Yeah, you read right... they're cutting buses here.  They have a few of them running around the area and they are cutting one bus - 310 - and a train to Toombul Shopping Town.  Now, the latter is being cut for 6 months, but that's a long time if you don't have any other way to get to Toombul.  And they're not going to put in a connecting bus service between here and Toombul Shopping Town; which really is bad.

What this area needs is a collection of shops to connect everything together.  There are spots of shops and cafes, but they are in little clumps where nobody goes, buses can't get to them and nobody can just walk to them on a whim.  I spotted a cafe in a clump of shops I wanted to look at, but I can't get there unless I catch a bus - and time it right - and I really, really want to, walk home.  This will suck badly.  So, what they need to do is make it worthwhile to get there.  This place is too spread out, with everything too far from each other and not enough people talking to each other.  I haven't spoken to a single neighbour since I arrived here over a week ago; not even to say hello, and this makes me feel very isolated.  But if I was at home, I'd have plenty of people to say hi to in a morning or afternoon.  

In the last few days, I had a big problem with ants.  They had invaded the guest house and were making themselves right at home.  I fought them off and used cinnamon sticks and vinegar to keep them out of this place.  But getting rid of them initially was hard.  I was going to spray them with insecticide but there wasn't a single can of the stuff in the house.  I knocked on a neighbour's door across the road, and he wasn't home.  However, I found that most people weren't... so I wondered how I'd get rid of them until I found the above remedy online.  
This invasion has really bothered me though.  I don't like the idea of having to battle something on my own when I can't lay my hands on a can of surface spray... even I have some of that stuff sitting around my house just in case I need it.  I've even got Ant Sand for the bigger nests of ants; but not here.

But I have been homesick because of all the above things.  I'm so used to having a green grocer down the road all the time.  It's so good to know that if I ever need anything at home, I can just take a wander down to The Big Apple and all I need is right there for me to pick up.  I've missed eating at 'Rocky's Bakehouse' too... yeah, I really have.  I miss the bus ride to Logan Central to do my shopping where everything is very cheap and I can walk everywhere and catch a cab home that is under $15. 
Most of all, I'm really missing my place.  I miss books, vinyls, kitchen, garden, piano ... everything about my place... in particular, my bed!  There's something about having your own place that really makes it real.  I don't mind living like this; but if there was a green grocer and a few things that were of interest nearby, I'd have more fun being here.  However, there isn't.  It takes money to get anywhere... whereas I could walk to a thrift shop or across the road to the post office or just 10 minutes to the chemist or 5 minutes to buy the Sunday paper.  It takes much longer here.  Well, it's just homesickness... and I hate it.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm/cool and remember, I'm always here.

Busy Monday Morning

The weather has turned nice and warm around Brighton; and for this, I'm glad as I can get in and do some laundry.  So, this morning, I slept in a little as I couldn't sleep last night.  Bummer... dunno why, I just couldn't.  
By around 8am I was up and had fed the chickens and changed over their water, then made sure they were happy by giving out some pats to a few of them.  They didn't seem to mind.  I programmed the computer in the house to be on Triple M for the day and ate breakfast, washed up everything and wiped down all the counters after I opened up the front blinds and door to let through the lovely breeze.  
It was around 9am by this time and I grabbed all the towels in the bathroom - except the hair towel - and put on a load of towels; then sorted out what needed to be washed from my room, then collected together all the clothes pegs I could find on the deck from the clothes horse (this meant pulling the laundry from last Thursday).

It took me about an hour or so to do all the rest of the laundry.  The sun is out and the wind has picked up nicely; without a single spit of rain coming from it!  How good is that?  What a lovely day for the laundry to be done.

While that was being done, I made sure I had everything on my shopping list on my iPod.  Now, this shopping list app I have is brilliant.  You get it off iTunes for free and it's called shopshop.  You can have up to 4 shopping lists and call them whatever you want.  I have all 4 of them used up, calling them: Garden City, Shopping List, Fruit'n'Veggies and Brighton.  It's a great way to keep my shopping lists separate and working... and yes I have an on-going list too called: List for 2013 which is a list of items I want to get for my house for this year.  Pretty cool, eh?
Well, yeah, I got my shopping list done, the house tidied up and some of the paper read - eventually.  Then, I watched an old classic movie of 'Goodbye Mr Chips' with Pete O'Toole in it - the 1969 remake of the original black and white version; which I like the best.  But O'Toole does a pretty good job anyway.  

For the rest of today, I'll be hopefully getting my laundry dry and keeping an eye on the weather so it does dry in some way.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm/cool and remember, I'm always here.
  

Shopping Day

Today was one of my many shopping days; it was also a day to get myself organised for the next few years.  So, I left the house with my iPod in hand - which has a shopping list app on it - and my trolley and umbrella at the ready.  I was hoping to get myself a good few hours of shopping, organising and banking done this morning.

My first usual stop at Life Line was lucrative and I found a nice little bag, a lovely denim skirt and a really cool Dr Who mug from 2006.  How cool is that?  Well, I went to Woolworths, bought my Witackers and then headed off to Logan Central Plaza where my main bit of shopping was going to happen.
The first stop was Suncorp.  I had to increase the amount of money going out to my bill-paying account next pay.  This was easily done; and I'm glad I remembered to do it as I have finally figured out that I can afford a little more this year.  Then, I stopped off at Woodys' and began putting money onto my next layby of 'Angel' boxset.  This show is a spin-off of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (which I've got the series of from Gabe as he burnt me the whole lot years ago).  Steven was all excited about the set and went out the back and showed it to me!  It's come in a Collector's Edition dark blue tin!  Wow!  How cool is that?  He said he's never seen anything like it!  I said that Gabe bought the set for his last girlfriend, but it came in a cardboard box - like Supernatural - but this is going to be very cool!
After Woodys' I was off to K-Mart to put in two rolls of film I found in the door of my fridge.  I don't know what's on them... but I'm sure to find out in a couple of weeks' time. 

I then sat down on a seat to sort myself out and cross off a few items from the shopping list on my iPod.  An elderly gentleman was next to me and I showed him how it worked and he was amazed at it; asking if my husband enjoyed the technology as well, or my kids.  I smiled and said I'd never been married or had children.  He was amazed that nobody had snaffled me up (his words not mine), a pretty young thing like me (again his words not mine).  I said that a lot of guys I've met have always treated me as though they were out to turn me into their Mum or try to keep me from having a social life, a personality or my own interests unless it was to serve them.  His eyes widened and he wondered where I met these guys and what they were thinking.  I shrugged and said that I'd love to meet somebody and fall in love, but to be turned into a Stepford Wife just isn't worth it.  He looked around and we saw his wife walking toward him, he said that he'd never do something like that to his wife and she smiled asking if he had finished his things before her, then said good morning to me.  They were just a lovely couple.

The rest of my shopping day was good.  I found everything I needed in Coles and decided to give the self-serving computers a miss this time around (as they frustrate me to no end).  And when I got outside, I found 3 cabs lined up ready to be called on.  
Yep, today turned out to be a lovely day.  I still have my fruit and veggie shopping to do tomorrow as well as a doctor's appointment to go to and the chiropractors as well.  But that's another post for another day.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm/cool and remember, I'm always here.     

Discoveries

Don't you love it when you discover new things?  Yep, same here.  I absolutely enjoy it.  It's that wonderful feeling you get when you find something you had hoped would happen, but you didn't think it would, but it did.  I got that feeling yesterday while I was out shopping.
I was at 'Woodys' at Logan Central Plaza looking through their vinyls to see what they had when I came upon a 'P!NK' vinyl of last year's cd.  I turned it over and saw it was a double vinyl for $35.00!  Now, that's at the same price as a single cd, but with two vinyls... very cool!  So, I looked for more of her but there weren't any.  Oh well, next time!  I put it on layby and will pay it off over the next month.  I'm totally stoked that I found this vinyl and it's a current vinyl by a current artist. 
Another thing I found yesterday was in the school section in K-Mart.  It's almost time for the kids to go back for a new school year!  So, parents are getting new things for schoolbags, lunchboxes and pencil cases.  However, what I look for in this section is how to cool down a lunch.  I searched through the 'Smash' cool blocks and found some new ones they just put out on the market to keep lunches and drinks cool.  You put them in the freezer and then put them under the lunch and drinks to keep them nice and cold until lunchtime; and they're small and slim too.  So, I bought a 3-pack of the pink ones for when I take off to the gallery and I want to keep a few things cool and don't want the bulk.  Not a bad idea.

Today, I was at the Big Apple when I found 'Griffin' Gingernut Biscuits sitting on a shelf below the nectarines.  I haven't seen these in around 20 years; since I moved out of home and lived at Runcorn.  I lived with my boyfriend at the time and a flatmate - who was from New Zealand - and he bought those from a shop he knew stocked them.  He often bought lots of packets and we'd scoff into them on the weekends.  After we all went out own ways, I never could find them again.
So, to find them on the shelf at the local fruit shop was a wonderful surprise!  I picked up a packet and added it to my trolley happy in knowing I'd be scoffing into a biscuit I haven't eaten in so long!  

So, what wonderful discoveries have you found lately that have really made your day?  Were they right under you nose and you didn't realise it?  Or did you stumble upon them in your travels and they were total surprises?  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm/cool and remember, I'm always here.    

Chili Peppers' Influenced Clean-Up

I love cleaning up the house to good loud music.  It puts me into the mood to enjoy what I'm doing as well as to rock-out to some great tunes.  So, I grabbed some early RHCP and pumped it up.  Little Miss Stevie hung off the side of the cage and sang to it, blowing kisses as well (yep, she's a typical heavy-metalist deep down; and isn't scared to show it!).  While it was playing, I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and moved the coffee table and lounge around and slowly cleaned the lounge room carpet.  This took around an hour as there was so much crap and in-ground dirt in the carpet and I had to keep going over it a few times.  But once it was finished, it felt so nice under my feet.
After that, I set about tidying up the lounge itself.  I put away some bags, the AFL footy I had sitting around the the footy season, took upstairs a hat, scarf and a few other things too.  Then, I sorted out the coffee table and went to put somethings away in the green box I keep on there (this is to keep the coffee table from being too cluttered from leftover coasters, clothes for cleaning the tv set and other things like hair ties, pens, bookmarks and tiny bulldog clips).  But when I opened the box, I found it was full.  So, I sat down, emptied the box out and found it was mostly filled with bookmarks people had given me or I had picked up from places.  And I put them into it to get them out of the way and I forgot about them.  So, I put them in my office to use or to give away to friends online.  Once the box wasn't so full, I put it back where it was supposed to be and put my box set of 'That 70s Show' on the sub-woofer next to the entertainment unit as well.  The coffee table looks so much tidier.
I didn't get around to looking through the second pile of paper on the kitchen table.  But I did get to clean the windows around the place with some Earth Choice window cleaner.  The problem with the stuff is that you have to go over it twice to get rid of streaks... oh well, at least the windows are clean.  

After that, I more or less just did small things.  You know, sorted out some money, looked through a book about Fred Astaire and then put away some empty coat hangers and figured out the laundry I have to do tomorrow.  Then, I organised myself something to eat before I sat down and put on some television and relaxed.  All I had done for the last few hours is look and read things or clean.  

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of laundry, dusting upstairs, sorting through paperwork, washing floors and mowing my lawn (that will most probably be done on Tuesday morning).  Then, I've got a friend coming over on Wednesday for coffee and a chat and - well, I'm not sure what I've got on for the rest of the week.  I still have some Spring Cleaning to do for Endoes and want to save up more money for my garden again.  However, I'll be doing that a lot easier now seeing I'm not going to layby anything until the New Year; and I'm only allowing myself three or four Christmas presents this year.  Anyway,  I must be going soon as it's getting late and I wasted my evening away on watching dvds of a tv series.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Other Passions

Have you got passions that others know little about?  Or that family members know of yet friends don't.  I have a passion for classical music that family members know of and yet my friends know so little about that when it comes into a conversation, I surprise them with how much I know.

In particular Mozart.

I have had a passion for W.A Mozart since I was very young and so has my Grandpa.  He collected together a scroll of photocopied information which I was given when he passed away.
But well before he did pass on, I was beginning to collect Mozart vinyl and cds.  There was something about his music that was brilliant and showed that he had a type of genius about him.  I enjoy listening to his music and can usually pick it out in stores and - annoyingly - movies that use it as background music.

However, I surprised myself at just how much of Mozart's works I have on vinyl and how much of it is hard to find now compared to around 6 or 7 years ago.  I've been looking around at Rockaway and The Record Market in the city and it's becoming harder and harder to find good quality Mozart vinyls that don't have that many scratches on them - let alone ones that just have play scratches on them.  
Play scratches are those that you don't make yourself; the stylus does it due to you playing the vinyl over and over.  This is something you see on a vinyl from a radio station and these are harmless scratches which spiral from the centre of the record outward; and you can only see them in very good light.  You don't hear them during the playing of the record and it's just through use that these scratches occur.  However, I have seen some pretty bad damage to vinyls; and wondered why the people who had them didn't take better care of them.

Along with Mozart records and cds I have also collected a couple of books on the man.  There was one titled 'Mozart: His Character, His Work' by Alfred Einstein.  It's been translated by Arthur Mendel and Nathan Broder and it's a first edition; printed in 1946.  This book is not only rare but out of print.  I found is little beauty in The Book Barn in MullumBimby along with another book - which was sitting underneath it - titled 'Mozart: A Cultural Biography' by Robert W Gutman.  This one was published in 2000 and covers ever other aspect of Mozart's life.  
The funny thing is, whenever I'm listening to a show on the radio or watching a research show on Mozart, people come back time and again to Alfred Einstein's book.  This has caused me to want to read it; not because I own it, but because of their references to his notes of this great composer.

But there are other types of music I do love besides classical.  For example, I remember my first 3 vinyls and who they were by... and I still have them in near-new condition and have had one of them signed! 
My first vinyl was 'Be Yourself Tonight' by The Eurythmics.  I got it when I was on holidays with my family at Caloundra on my 12th birthday.  I still play it and love it as it still plays just the same as it did when I first got it - and the stylus still skips in 'Adrian' because of a manufacturing fault on the vinyl. Funny how that kind of thing happens in vinyls and yet we never worried about it.
Then, my next vinyl was Madonna's 'True Blue'.  I bought that out of my own money and I loved it!  At that point in her career, Madonna was very popular and all the songs on her vinyl were being played on the radio... very cool.  I sometimes play this vinyl, but it's more or less a museum piece now.
My third vinyl was one where I was looking for a classical mentor for my own needs.  I had picked up the flute and needed somebody to look up to; somebody to emulate, and that somebody was James Galway (I didn't put 'Sir' on his name as he hadn't been Knighted when I first found out about him).  I bought 'The James Galway Collection' and in the same year - after driving my family nuts with his music - Mum took me to see him in concert in 1986.  I met the man and he was inspirational!  Twenty-four years later, in 2010, he came back to Brisbane for a one-night-only performance.  And this time, I took along my 'James Galway Collection' for him to sign and a book as well as a photo which I had with me where Mum took of us when I was 13 years old in 1986.  When he saw it, he was so please I had come back to see him and delighted that I had also kept my original flute after all these years!  He was also very happy to see somebody with a vinyl - and told me he made cds.  I said I knew but music always sounds better on vinyl; at which he agreed and he pulled out his pen and signed not only my vinyl but the book he had written titled 'Flute'. 

I have other vinyls in my music collection - which keeps growing all the time.  I love to play Santana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, INXS, U2, AC/DC and other great bands... and I also have comedians on vinyl too like Wes Harrison and Bill Cosby.
 So, what are your other passions that not many people know about?  Do you keep yours secret?  Or have you let people know your passions and astounded your family and friends?  Do they like your passions?  Or are you the kind of person who likes to surprise people?  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

My Weekend

My weekend has been busy and tiring.  However, it's been great fun too.  Yesterday, I was up bright and early after a warm night's sleep.  I woke to a lovely, clear day for the Home Festival here in Brisbane.  It was around 9:30am before Mum picked me up and we were on our way to Pineapple park at Kangaroo Point where Sinclair Street was packed with parked cars already and there were still another hour and a half to go until the festival was to start.  Mum dropped me as close to the drop-off spot as possible and I found my way to the other artists who waved at me - greeting me with hugs saying it was great to see me.  Mum showed up after finding a parking spot, and I introduced her to them all and she said it looked like it was going to be a great day.

After I strung up my red pages in the tree with fishing line - and lost my green-handled scissors - I positioned my altered book so people would read it; with the Darren Hayes ipod music collection.  While people were listening to his tracks against the wall comfortably, they could flip through my book and read it; like they would if they were reading in bed or on their lounge - and you know - it worked.  People sat down, plugged in the earphones, and spotted my book and began reading.  Very cool!  And I mentioned my other blog - My Reading List - in the book and looky-loo's there have jumped from 10,985 to 11,009 overnight!

There was a jumble and suitcase sale going on all afternoon; which I went and had a look at with Riley.  And I loved seeing things I wanted and found them at the right prices.  We even took off and did some screenprinting and painted up our own bags with a printing of our choice!  I chose a typewriter in purple and Riley chose a Deer in orange... how cool!  But Gabe, Kat and Riley couldn't stay.  I gave them a bag of Paprika that I found was hot instead of smokey and they took it off my hands and thanked me very much for it.

Then, next to the installation, there was a stage where performance poets took part and entertained the crowds; as did the local choirs.  They were great!  Meanwhile, we found that the sun wasn't as bad as we thought it would be as the shade moved over us and cooled the day down.  None of us got sunburnt and were cooled down instead of being dehydrated.  It was a great day to be outside yesterday and I didn't want to be anywhere else.

By around 3:30pm, I smsed Dad's phone, saying I was going to begin packing up.  So, Mum smsed back and said she was on her way to get me.  I was stuffed and ready to go to sleep and was getting a headache; not that I wanted to complain.  But I really wanted to head off home before it got cold.  About half an hour later, I had packed up my book and cut the pages off the tree, and Mum had shown up.  She wanted to have a look around a bit and I said it was a good place to be.

As we walked around, we found the place was packing up the daytime markets and it was beginning to shift into night-time gear with the music and food.  The shadows began to pull long, the breeze started to turn cooler, and it was time to let the night-time part of the Home Festival to take over... we had done our part and enjoyed our day there.  I will most definitely do it again.

Today, I woke and found I didn't want to get out of bed; but I pushed myself to.  After getting the paper and milk, I washed up a little and made myself some not-bacon and eggs and jumped online.  As I was about to, Gabe called and said that the Paprika wasn't Paprika.. it was chili.  He said I was right in thinking it was very hot and to take back all the packets I've bought.  I said that I had put a liberal amount on some cheese last Wednesday and had copped blisters long my gumline... well he laughed and said that could happen with this Paprika.  I said I jumped up so fast and grabbed the yoghurt and milk I had it running down my chin before it stopped burning, then I started sneezing.  He laughed again and said that he felt bad about my experience but said to take it back and get the guy to taste it and that it had been labeled wrongly.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.  

Home Festival 2012 

My Weekend

This past weekend has been interesting, entertaining and disappointing.  I've also had a fair bit of fun through watching some great movies from the 1970's of 'Planet of the Apes' and I now know why people enjoy it so much, while others don't.  

However, it was Friday where I'll begin, as that's the day when my weekend began.  I had had the whole week of being out and about and not a single day to myself at home; as I usually would.  And on this day, I started up the computer to see if I could move all my photos and a few files to the external hard drive Mum had lent me to save myself problems on Saturday.  However, the keyboard and mouse wouldn't connect, so I was hunting around the house looking for a pair of old keyboard and mouse to hook up - ones with cords so I could still use them.  But I remembered 20 minutes into my search that I had given them back to Dad... darn!

Well, I was exhausted and didn't want to go out again.  So, I stayed at home and decluttered a few areas around the house, read a couple of chapters of a book and pretty much lazed about the place.  By that evening, I had decluttered the area next to the pantry, my phone cabinet, the area next to Little Miss Stevie and the coffee table; and I was bored out of my head too much to do much more of cleaning up around the place.  Truthfully, I have to be in the right zone/mood to clean and that day wasn't it. Anyway, I missed my day being on a computer and let Mum and Dad know I was going to their place the next day.

On Saturday, they dropped around in the late morning and we replaced the battery in the hard drive. However, by this time, the computer was now not talking to the monitor as well as the keyboard or the mouse.  Fortunately, I have been doing a lot of research in the last few weeks looking for a computer - a new one - to replace this old one so, when it did die on me, I was ready.

Well, yesterday, I was out in the afternoon to a concert put on by the Southern Cross Singers; a choir I used to sing with years ago.  It was to celebrate their 20th Birthday as a local choir.  And what a concert!  Mum and I were both singing the songs all the way through it all.

Today, I caught a bus to Mum and Dad's place.  However, I dropped in to 'Rockaway' and found a couple of very nice vinyls for a good, cheap price of $2 and $4; not bad if you ask me.  However, I am looking forward to the day when I have my computer up and running; soon.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and well, and remember, I'm always here.

Long Weekend

My weekend started out earlier than it normally would for most of you.  Mum, Dad and I took off to Toowoomba for a day to visit a friend who is living in a nursing home.  He's not going so good, and has been moved from one home to the next - and this one's a good one.  We stayed with him for about an hour and then went out to lunch at the Toowoomba Golf Club.  And what a place to eat!  It was beautiful!  But it was also hidden away so well, you didn't know it was there until you found the driveway to the car park... strange but true.  

We caught up with our friend's wife and daughter - who didn't know I was coming up to see them - and we had a lovely chat with them.  Too soon, they had to leave and pick up children and be on their way; pity, there was so much more to talk about.

Well, we left too soon after and drove out to Allora - where my Grandma was born and brought up - and we visited the Allora Cemetery where Mum knew most of the people laid to rest there.  The township was next and Mum found a lot of the houses were still there and the main street of Allora was a typical small, country town.  The one thing I noticed about the place was that there were no bars or large steel roller doors to protect the fronts of the businesses; unlike ones that are here in the city.  It was so quiet and pretty and the people were lovely and in for a nice chat about anything.

Soon, it was time to head off home as the day was becoming late and we were feeling the cold as the sun had turned west.  We found our way to Old Talgai and Glengallen Homestead where some of our family used to spent time and live.  We knew this place when it was a ruin and visit it when I was young; and it wasn't all that attractive to anyone and people drove past it without casting an eye to it from the road.  However, now the Heritage Society has been looking after it, Glengallen Homestead has become a tourist attraction and a place to drop into on the way out to Warwick, Allora or Toowoomba.  It's a historical place to see and costs a little bit to see it.  But we were too late and we arrived when it was closed to the public - after 4pm - so Dad parked the Pajero outside the gate and Mum and I walked in through the back gate where it was open and had security pads (and we had to know codes to get through).  We took some lovely photos of the house with the sunset reflecting off its back wall as the temperature dropped dramatically to 11 degrees Celsius and we still walked around in the cool of the night before climbing back into the car and getting back onto the highway to drive to Cunningham's Gap and through to Brisbane.

On the way home, we stopped off at a truck stop to have dinner and chatted with a truckie who was eating his meal.  While he ate we all chatted to him about things and travel and how he said the the roads are never wide enough.  I found a cool thing about this truck stop, and that was the toilets were spotless!  They didn't stink of anything but an air freshener and were totally clean in every way!  I was amazed at this.  Our meal was brilliant, hot and lovely.  However, the lights in the restaurant needed to be fixed as they flickered all the time down one side of the place and - after a while made me feel sick.  I let the owners about the lights - they know about it - and then we went on our way.  Dad got some petrol and we plugged in my ipod and found some Ella Fitzgerald Greatest Hits to play on the way home.  Her music filled the car and the time all the way back to Brisbane nicely; and I got home at around 8:30pm.

Yesterday, I was off to the Logan Art Gallery to do my shift there for the afternoon.  I worked with a young man named Rys.  We chatted while I knitted and then laughed at a few things on his computer and the played a computer game or two before he went home.  We were both tired from the night and day before because - in our own ways - we had tiring days and nights.  

However, not many people had showed up for the afternoon; and only two or three showed up to ask where the Logan Central Library was.  It's funny, it's been down near K-Mart Plaza since around March 2011 and people still don't know where it is... and the place is massive too.  Well, I guess people don't notice things as much as I do.  

Today - Sunday - I'm at Mum and Dad's place using their internet as mine is playing up. I think it's the Olympics coverage online doing it to my Broadband as I just can't get into my hotmail account.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

A Weekend of Busy

This weekend has been coolish and sunny; what a change from the last week of rain!  The good thing is that the sun has helped dry the altered book faster than it normally would; and the best thing of all is that my laundry has finally dried on the clothes horse.  Now, I can do more laundry and get it dried.

It seems that clothes horse is always up, isn't it?

Well, it doesn't matter, so long my clothes dry and nothing is wet for long.  I have gotten a lot done this weekend; and I'm happy.

The kitchen has been in some sort of messy disorder of either having the washing up just finished, or just about to be done, or the rubbish just emptied or about to be put out... the place never looked tidy for more than a few hours; and that was a pity.  But I really needed to eat because it's been so busy and I've been nibbling on cashews and cranberries and eating yoghurt as well because I've been working on my art project too.  And working on that has made me eat more because I work for around 2 - 3 hours each afternoon non-stop with my book and glue and paint and other things, then look up at the clock and the next thing it's almost 4pm!  Wow!  And my stomach is grumbling at me. 

On Saturday night, 'The Sound of Music' was on channel 99 and I watched some of it.  This was my Grandma's favourite film of all time.  She once told me - when I visited one day - that if given a choice, she would sit and watch it all the time and never become tired of it.  I think that's wonderful for a person to enjoy a movie like this so much.  I think it's how the songs really get into your head, the storyline, the scenery, the people in it and the way it was produced.  Personally, any type of musical from that era could be played for me and I'd love it.  Ones like 'The King and I' and 'West Side Story' all have wonderful, memorable music in them that - when we hear them - bring back scenes of them into our minds in full colour!  And I think that's what my Grandma was getting at about 'The Sound of Music'.  Since she's passed away now, I find it hard to watch the whole movie as it reminds me of her so much.

Today, I made pancakes and read a bit of the Sunday Mail before making myself a coffee/Milo drink and jumping online.  But I wasn't on here for long when I took my first sip of my drink and it tasted like.... garlic!  Blech!  So, I took the lid off (thinking it was the lid that had only the problems), but it was the all through the milk!  I had cleaned the container with a scourer that had been soaked in garlic all night (or had garlic in it when I washed it) and it had permeated throughout the milk!  Oh My God!  How disgusting!  So, I tossed out the container of milk and made another one instead... what a waste!

Well, I washed it again and it didn't stink of garlic.  I had used a new scourer and it's okay - I think! - to use again.

I hope!

Well.  This afternoon, I got offline at 1pm and worked on the Altered Book for 2 hours straight while listening to the 'Fame' soundtrack and W.A Mozart as well.  The latter is a great type of music to help artists and writers to focus on what they need to do.  I listened to two concertos and loved it because by the end of it, I found the book cover had been finished and it looked better than I thought it was going to turn out!  How brilliant!

I turned off the television early tonight as most of the movies were repeats and I didn't want to be stuck watching any of them.  So, I got in and washed up, put out the rubbish, said good night to Little Miss Stevie and locked up everything before turning out the lights.  It's been a good, busy weekend.  And I'm looking forward to the week being just as busy.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here!

Altered Book Cover 

 

Dull Wet Weekend

Wasn't Saturday lovely?  Not too bad on the cool front, but lovely and sunny, yep, we had that in spades.  Then, overnight, it turned, dull, cold and windy.  Today, it's Monday - the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend here in Australia - and it's not the best time to have a BBQ.  But people are out there in force trying to make the best of the bad weather.  I suspect, they're taking the kids to the movies because they are sick of them complaining that they're bored.

Today, Mum, Dad and I went to Uncle Allan's house.  This was the first time for me since his service; and there's a lot to go through.  I was allowed to have the vinyls and any of the books.  So, now, I'm home and they are all stacked away under the stereo system waiting to be searched through, cleaned, played and thought about and sorted.  The ones I do sell will be ones I don't know much about; and the money will go back to Mum.

I look forward to hearing the music Uncle Allan played years ago and I hope to share them with Mum and Dad when I've made my selection of vinyls.  There's about 4 box sets that I will keep; as you don't find them anywhere anymore.  And there's one vinyl where there's traditional Greek music on it; and I love that kind of music.  So, I can't wait to play all of them over the next few weeks and see what they're like.  The great thing is that they weren't laying down; nope, they were all standing up, none of them are warped as far as I know.

As for the books, I found a few good ones that I brought home.  I grabbed all the gardening ones (as I need as much help as I can get with my garden, seeing it's in its infancy.  And then, there were some sci-fi books and poetry books and a book written by a cleric I found interesting.  This all came home with me too. 

Now, I'm back here looking at all of it as it waits for me work on it and listen to it and read it.  How exciting is that?  Very cool, and yet very sad at the same time that Uncle Allan isn't here to give us what he wants us to have in person.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Busy Week....end

My busy week didn't stop at Friday, it just kept flowing right into my weekend; and finished today.  It'll start up again tomorrow when I have to go out again and return something to Dick Smiths at Logan Central.

However, yesterday, I was out all day right up until the late afternoon, but I didn't plan it that way.  I was out the door just after 9am and catching the bus before the chill was out of the air.  I had my new Beatles 'Abbey Road' bag with me to take to the Logan Art Gallery for my volunteer work and something to eat while I was there.  And the bus was early, so this made me 10 minutes early as well!  How good is that?  But my partner in crime at the desk didn't show.  She was down with a stomach bug; so I was monitoring the desk on my own.

The morning flew by filled with families coming in to see the exhibitions for the schools done up by the students for the competitions for Environment Week.  And there were other works of art there as well.  I took phone calls and tried to knit, but kept losing count and had to unravel my work about four times before I gave up.  I found an advert about collectors.  So, I'm going to look into that; seeing I'm a collector of quite a few things and have worked on an artworks of one of them.

Then, before I knew it, another volunteer showed up.  He was an hour early and so we chatted until another one showed and I found I still had another 40 minutes to kill before I had a bus to catch.  It was then, I thought it was a lovely day to go and walk down to Logan Central.  It took around 10 minutes or so and I took some photos while I was looking around.  And just before I came to the large shopping complex, I heard some music coming from a community centre across the street.  So, not having much to do for the next few hours, I crossed over and thought to see what was playing.  Switch 119.7 was there with a few live acts to raise some money for the community centre.  They had a sausage sizzle going and face painting and hair colouring all kinds of raffles too.  And I sat in on a solo guitarist who had the crowd dancing:  Richard Turner.  He was giving away his cd to everyone and I scored a copy from him as well as one on one conversation.  It was cool.  He writes all his own material and lives down at Victoria Point.  Once we finished chatting and he gave me his cd, we parted ways and I needed to go to Dick Smiths to get a booster for my tv.  

I spent around $60 at Dick Smith's Electronics.  And once home, I disconnected the tv, antenna and opened the packages and then followed all the instructions to the letter... and... nothing.  The tv had everything in the guide, but no signal.  I re-read the instructions - all 3 sentences - and it made no sense.  So, I undid everything and put it all back the way it was and the tv worked!  Boy, was I peeved!  Now, it's all gotta go back to the place and I have to get my money back.  All this to get better reception.

Anyway, by the time I did all this, it was around 4pm.  Little Miss Stevie was a little chilly and I pulled the curtains and closed up the house.  It was time to get myself ready for a cold night; as the temperature had plummeted quite a bit since I had gotten home.  I had also smsed Dad and told him that the booster hadn't worked.  It took him some time to reply; and now we have to work out another way to get the reception to work better.  

Last night, there wasn't anything worthwhile on any of the stations.  So, I made up some sweet popcorn and watched a John Hughes double of 'Sixteen Candles' and 'The Breakfast Club'... haven't seen those in ages.  Great movies and funny for their time.  I washed up late and put out the rubbish then was off to bed by around 11pm or so; after I checked my e-mail.  

Today, I've got most of my washing out, cooked up a nice hot, big breakfast and read some of the paper.  The sun is out, but it's still a bit chilly.  Yep, Winter is most definitely here and I love it because of the comfort food and the warm sunshine.  And today, it's the first time I've been able to slow down and relax in about five days.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm, and remember I'm always here.