October's Something Different!

The differences this month were big and wonderful; and a lot of it had to do with the weather.  Being October, it's supposed to be warm and muggy, but it's turned out to be a cool and wet kind of Spring.  So, I got in to some serious Spring Cleaning, beginning on the first week of this month.  I cleaned up the lounge room, dusted it, vacuumed and made it nice and tidy.  Well, I couldn't do anything else as it was pouring rain for a good part of the weekend!  So, I was stuck inside with my mess crowding me.  What else could I do?

This month was also a different kinda month because I had my birthday.  I prepare for it in what some people think is a strange kind of way.  I write a journal entry in my manual journal on the day before about what I've done and who I've met over the year of being my age; to see what I've achieved, what books I've read and who I've met (if anyone) of importance.  Seeing my memory isn't the best, I think it's the best way to keep it going.

I had a great day though.  I received a $50 book voucher from a wonderful friend (Nick Allott) in the mail, a $50 music voucher from my brother for Rockaways music at Springwood, Mum took me out to lunch at Runcorn Tavern, we sussed out a new home theatre system and we bought some skin care products and other goodies too. 

By the 10th, October, I had tidied up the house completely.  What was beginning to take me over a year to tidy up, only took me a few days out of sheer boredom due to the weather becoming sour on us.  We had had a storm one night and then it just poured rain for almost a week!  So, we were stuck inside again with nothing to do.  So, I cleaned up - and cleaned out - the whole house and it was nice and tidy for about a week or so.  Well, until I used the place again.

On 9th, October, we went out Gabe & Kat's house to celebrate Gabe's and Riley's birthdays together.  Gabe made home made pizza as music played on the stereo while Riley and I stuffed around on the net and Mum, Kat and Dad talked to Gabe too.  It was really cool.  The dinner was great, I gave Gabe his gift of a Jeff Beck vinyl from 1967-68 and he was stoked!  It's titled 'Truth' and Gabe said it was something he's been dying to find and play ... so it looks like he'll be getting out his turntable from storage and hooking it up.

On 16th, October, we went to Uncle Allan's birthday party.  It was so much fun; but freezing cold! So we all rugged up and tried to keep warm, but as the sun went down and wind died down, the chill really hit us.  We were all grateful for the hot food and coffee and tea that was available later on in the night.  However, I had coffee and I was up until all hours.

But that wasn't all, when I had just posted on here, shuffled off to bed and was about to get to sleep, somebody's car horn blared us all out of bed.  Not just a beep-beep sound... one long continuous blare for about 3 minutes!  It drove everyone nuts.  And if that wasn't bad enough, my next door neighbours were up at 6:45am moving their cars around, pulling the trailer out of the back yard and mowing the law by 7am while we were all trying to sleep in.  It was so inconsiderate of her... she slammed all the doors on the place and the cars too.  

Over the last two weeks, I've been getting my nose into my very first book spiral on Bookcrossing and so far - out of 6 books - I've read almost three of them.  I'm zooming through the books so fast it's amazing!  It's a brilliant series and I can't wait until I pick up the book again.  Yesterday I was at the Logan Art Gallery alone (which normally I would have been bummed about) but I thought it would give me time to read more of the third book because there's nobody there with me... strange that.  So, I read about 60 pages of that book!  Wow!  How weird of me; normally, I'm flat out reading 30 pages of a book in public; I'm so self-conscious about how long I sit for in public when I'm reading and how much I concentrate on a book.  But not yesterday.

I've begun looking into getting the house ready for tonight for Halloween.  The two pumpkins are carved, lollies are ready, my costume is aired out and I'm hoping the weather holds for tonight.  I've yet to put a skull on my front screen door, tea candles along the window sill outside and work on decorating inside too.  Otherwise, most of it is done.  I'll be taking photos as usual.  

Until next time, this is my post of something different in my month of October.  What have you done that's outside the square? Until my next post, take care.

End of the Week...

Well, the sun's out and I've got laundry on the line.  Yep, it's the end of another week; and they say it's going to rain all weekend.  That'd be right, just when I want to get out in the yard and pull out all the horrible weeds, it'll pour.

Otherwise, I don't mind the rain.  It'll give me time to get into my most recent vampire romance series I've been sent through Bookcrossing.  It's a 6-book series and I've knocked over book one in a little over a week; and now I'm plowing through book two at 30 - 40 pages in one sitting.  So, I'm going well!  So far this year, I've read 14 books, and out of those books, I've only put down 4 unfinished.  Now, that's not too bad.  Seeing this vampire series is a good one, I'm only too glad to be able to get through it.

Not only that, today is my niece's 11th birthday.  I phoned her at 7am this morning and wished her a happy birthday at her Mum's house and she was thrilled to hear from me!  I said that I sent her gift through Facebook, but I will be sending her a cool gift through the mail early next week; with express mail.  She's so excited about that.  I'm looking forward to getting it to her as I know what I'm going to buy her and have had my eye on it for some time.  I'm also going to include some cool little rings and bracelets one of my friends sent me from up the coast too.

 And speaking of friends, another friend is having a birthday next week.  My Bookcrossing Birthday Buddy's parcel was sent off to her today full of books.  One lot was a trilogy I just can't get into; so I don't see why I should let it gather dust on my bookshelves.  And then there's two paranormal romances I thought she'd enjoy (no not vampire romance; they're something else).  I included a few bookmarks and other goodies too with a lovely card.

Anyway, I've been busily washing up, doing laundry, tidying up and making the bed lately; trying to keep the house the way it was last Monday or so.  It's hard when you're not used to house-keeping.  But seeing I've cleaned out most of the place, it's just a matter of keeping a lot of the stuff off the floor and hanging up my laundry when it's all done.  Otherwise, I'm going well!  Most of my bad habits are being replaced by good ones; and that's all it takes really.

This morning, I hammered up some palings of my fence, fed, Little Miss Stevie, put on the laundry and washed up a bit from last night and wiped down the counter before making breakfast.  The two pumpkins that are for Halloween are on the top of the fridge where a plate normally is.  I'm just having a hard time trying figure out where to put the darn plate... I'll find a place for the next week.  And that week will flash by quickly.  Quicker than I can imagine seeing I've got Halloween to organise for, the house to do up, the lollies to organise and my costume to air out from the wardrobe as well as my make up to sort out too... I really need new black lipstick as the one I have cakes up on me and looks terrible.  

Well, that's all from me for now.  I'll keep you all up to date with what's going on my life right up until All Hallow's Eve.  I was going to go to a Samhain art exhibition in Fortitude Valley, but I think dressing up in Goth clothes and going there will be a bad idea; it's just too dangerous.  It's best if I keep my Halloween celebrations around here and that's it.

Until my next post, take care!

The Wet Day Parade!

Last Thursday was a really hot and sticky day; which led to a massive storm late that night.  It was a real light show of lightning and thunder and it left me feeling tired the next day.  However, it also left Brisbane with cool wet days since.  So, I got in and did the only thing I could:  I tidied up the house in a few days.  The Big Tidy-Up became something of a thing that kept me from being bored.

I began downstairs and cleaned up the lounge room, kitchen and kitchen table.  This was on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was pretty basic and I loved being able to vacuum everywhere and ended up having to change the bag over in the vacuum then doing the lounge room floor again.  I dusted too; again.  This place gathers so much dust it's unbelievable.  I had only put together the new Home Theatre System on Thursday afternoon and got it working; and it had already gotten a fine layer of dust on its stand-up speakers!  So, this is something I have to watch.

The kitchen table didn't take very long.  I just kept everything in perspective and what needed to be put away, what belonged upstairs and what needed to be shredded; and it was easy enough.  I also had a rubbish bag that was filled very quickly and put next to the door ready to be taken outside.

 The washing up was done and I cleaned the stove and some of the kitchen cabinet doors and wiped down all the flat surfaces as much as I could.  It was the floor that I didn't get around to and that was a bummer.  But really, I didn't know how long it would take to dry in this weather.

On Sunday, I put way all my clean laundry, hung up anything that was in the chair in my bedroom and made the bed; then pulled the vacuum upstairs and gave the carpet a once over.  There was so much hair!  I couldn't believe I had shed so much of my hair all over the place!  Well, that room was done.  The office was next.

Actually, I had been working on the office since Friday; so there wasn't much I had to do to it.  I had put away a few things and vacuumed it on Saturday after I got the dust buster out and did the stairs, then ran the duster along the skirting of the stairs and the got that clean too.  The vacuum was run along all the skirting of the place and I did the bathroom too.  It was really good to have the hair and dust cleaned up in this place.  

In the office, I cleared the doorway and pulled out two paintings I had gotten framed for when I moved from here; but that never happened.  So, I'm going to look for a place to hang them around the unit.  They look great and I don't want to hide them anymore; so I've taken them downstairs to the lounge room where I've thought of a place for them.  It ought to look good.  I'll let you know where I've put them soon.

Well, last night, Gabe and Kat came over to park the Kombi in the carport for the time they're away.  I offered to start it up every week for them; but Gabe said that the car key was on the house key.  I just want to make sure the Kombi starts when he gets home; that's all and that we don't have to call out the RACQ to get it going.  

Anyway, they had a quick look around, and Kat was amazed how many books I had in this little office and Gabe was surprised that I hadn't moved anything from Grandpa's hand-made desk.  It was rather charming if you ask me... I just bring myself to throw anything out in there.  Kat thought my house looked nice and that Grandma's piano was lovely.  I hope to play it for the family some time in the future; if not this Christmas, next Christmas.  

Well, it's still dull outside.  I've got a hair appointment to get to this morning to get my hair trimmed.  So, I better get going.  Until my next post, take care.

Wet Saturday

Yesterday, it poured rain here in Brisbane and it was chilly; and that's unusual for October.  Usually, it's quite warm and we've put away the Winter Woolies for another year; but not yet this year.  Anyway, I stuck around here on the net for the day as there wasn't much else to do.  I did wish to get my handwashing done, but when I didn't get around to doing it after breakfast, and it began to rain, I was kinda grateful I had been that little bit lazy.  And when it absolutely poured on and off all day, I was relieved I hadn't done it at all otherwise I would have been suck with a whole lot of wet clothes for the next three or four days.

Well, I got off the computer at around lunch time and grabbed something to eat... nothing much; just some cheesybite one biscuits and cheese.  It was lovely.  But I wanted to get some work done before too long.  So, I got into the washing up and tidied up the kitchen enough that all the pots and pans were done, the crockery too and the plates and glasses were clean as well.  It's a great relief when the kitchen is tidy enough to use again; and not messy.  

I moved onto the next place to work on while I watched the AFL  replay of the Premiership Game.  Grabbing the Windex from under the sink, I got a handful of paper towels and cleaned the glass inset of the display cabinets.  They do collect a lot of dust and dirt; even on the inside, and so I clean them once a month or so to keep them tidy.  Then, I grabbed the duster and lifted up the turntable and cleaned under that.  And then moved the stereo speaker and system itself to get the crap from under that; and did it have some dust!  If it sticking to the cabinet was a chore to get unstuck (which has been doing since I bought the silly thing), getting the dust off without the whole thing falling off the cabinet and breaking was another one!  But it's all back in one piece and working again now... no worries.  

I moved onto the tall stack of shelves next and moved the second speaker of the stereo system, my collector's edition 'Coke' glass and a 1lt 'Coke' bottle (this one I got from Cardwell in the Far North Queensland years ago when I was younger and was still working and traveling.  They still had them up there and recycled the bottles to be refilled in the smaller towns; but didn't mind if I took mine home to Brisbane to keep.  And thus, I haven't seen another like it or given this one away).  Then, I removed my pub-sized Bundaberg Rum bottle.  This is a bottle that I found at a bus stop one time and it was from behind the bar... how it came to be at the bus stop in one piece with its lid still on I don't know, but I put it in my shopping trolley (I was going shopping at the time) and ended up taking it home).  Now, it's a great conversation piece.

I dusted the television, DVD, VCR and HD box; along with the DVD speakers and sub woofer (most of which don't work and the dvd doesn't work; and neither does the remote control).  I got that all done and put everything back, found the back label of the rum bottle and then went onto the window sill and wiped that down too.  My next place was the piano, when the phone rang.  It was one of my friends who hasn't been well in the last few weeks.  I won't divulge details here; it's not right.  She's just not well and has to see some doctors about it all; but we talked for almost an hour.  So, that signaled the end my cleaning up for the afternoon; until the next time I pick up the duster.

But my day wasn't finished.  I decided to get out my art gear and work on the 'Love, Hate and Vampires' collage.  It's looking good so far.  And is going to look better soon... as I've added paint and more work to it while I watched 'Mrs. Doubtfire' on the television last night.  It's such a funny film; and I had a great time working on the collage too.  Then, I watched a show about our universe and how big it was, how old it was and how our galaxy had a massive black hole in the centre of it... but they all do... so that's how they all work they tell us.  And there was more very interesting information about how there was going to be a smaller dwarf galaxy merging with us in the next billion years and we were going to collide with another in about the same time... well, I don't think we have much to worry about.  Not a lot of us from the present will be there to see that occur.  Until my next post, take care. 

Friday At Last.

It's the end of another week; but I've still got a busy afternoon ahead of me.  And the weekend holds a few big events too.  But today, it's raining; even though it started out looking lovely.  Well, at least I got to check the mail and do a few things before it all began to get cool and rainy on us.

Right now, the birds are singing outside while the rain pours again.  The grey clouds are dulling the day down and I've had to turn on the light here in the office because once it get dark here, this room not only gets cold, but it also becomes very dark too.  But I've been busy on here.  I uploaded my photo onto 365 project of an unopened Native Iris, checked both my e-mail accounts and looked around on Bookcrossing.  Then, I harvested my farm on Farmville.  I don't have much money on there, but it's a cool thing to chill out on.

Today, I have plans to get into action before I have two friends arriving.  One of them has to return something I lent him; and the other tagged along to go to IKEA because it's near my place.  So, a quick tidy-up downstairs is needed.  It won't take long, and because the weather is a downer, I'll be using some music to get things going along.  Maybe some B52's or something just as good like 'Santana'.

Well, the toilets up here need to be cleaned, as does the basin and I have to put some clothes away in the bedroom too.  I also need to changed the sheets on the bed (but I'll do that tomorrow when I can wash them).  Then, I might even turn the mattress too and clean under the bed as well; all tomorrow.

The office still needs work.  I still have to put things away and sorting through other things too.  There's books to register on Bookcrossing and the desk here to tidy up completely so I can find things.  But it's getting there; really it is.  I'm finding that this place has to get messy first before it gets tidy and that can stress me out in a major way.  Otherwise, this is going okay.  I've been able to work through bags of stuff and have found up to three 'green' bags (synthetic grocery bags I take shopping every fortnight) and that's great!

With all this being tidied up, I completely forgot that I have been in this townhouse/unit complex for eight years now!  I moved in on 8th, September 2002 and haven't budged from here since.  And has a lot gone on!  

This place used to be so full of problems, Mum and Dad were worried sick about me for a good part of the early years.  We had drug dealers, gun runners and prostitutes and the police were called almost every weekend to deal with something here.  I got into the habit of deadlocking my doors and windows every night out of fear that I'd be broken into.  I didn't make many friends; and the friends I did make I didn't tell them much about me and I didn't let them into my house.  But it was an interesting insight into the slang of what drugs were called (which I won't put up here as this problem is now stamped out here).

We used to get break-ins a lot around here too.  And so, when that happened, we all kept to ourselves and just became spectators as the police did their investigations.  Just before my next door neighbour sold his unit, he was broken into; but I didn't hear anything, even though it was his kitchen window that they smashed and it was Summer when they did it (my back door would have been open; with the screen locked closed).

This unit complex has become a safer place since then.  I feel safe at night to sleep soundly enough that I sleep well; instead of wondering if anyone's going to try something around my place.  I keep to myself and have chosen my friends here wisely.  It's a matter of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer as living in one of these places can really be either a good step or bad one.  It depends on what kind of person you are.  Me?  When I first moved in, this place was drama central; until one day, I decided that if I wanted to join in the drama, it would follow me around.  When I decided to stand back and watch, the drama of the unit complex was like having an episode of 'Neighbours' being played out right in front of me.  All the characters were there, but it was up me if I wanted to be a main character or somebody who stayed in the background.  And being in the background is just as much fun; if not more, until it does really involve me.

Nearing the Week's End

Today, I wasn't hungry, I wasn't feeling to be in any urgent hurry to be anywhere and I felt still tired from having a good night's sleep.  This was unusual; but true.  Yet, I had a lot of things planned that I wanted to do that never got done; some did, but a lot of it will have to wait until tomorrow.

This morning, I grabbed the camera and took off to the post office.  It seems that I'm taking it everywhere with me as I always find a photo opportunity wherever I go now.  And when it's not with me, the best ones are always around; and I'm kickin' myself for leaving it behind!  The sun was shining and there was a lovely breeze going while I walked out of the unit complex and to the curb to wait until the traffic cleared to cross the road.  I didn't have to wait long for that photo

opportunity to show up.  I spotted a tow truck with its unfortunate cargo of an ambulance on its tray.  This was a shot I couldn't let by!  So, out came the camera, and I quickly took a photo!  It was really good!  I could read the towing company's name and even see the Mercedes Benz emblem on the front of the brightly painted vehicle on the back.  What a shot!

Well, I didn't have any mail, so I left the post office empty-handed and bought some milk on the way home.  When I got home, I opened the place up, made my milk drink, changed the radio station and headed up here to the computer.  I had some books to register on Bookcrossing and I thought to use some of my labels some of my BC friends had sent me last year... they're so very cool for making them; and it was time to use them.  So, I did some of that after I harvested my farm, checked my mail, uploaded the photo of the ambulance (properly cropped on picnik of course!) and then Mum called and we chatted for almost two hours about everything.  I sent her the other day's blog entry (Tueday's I think) and she thought the place was looking good.  She does follow my blog, just doesn't get time to read it.

Well, that leads to what I did today.  But I'll begin with yesterday afternoon.  My backyard isn't looking too great.  Well, the potted plants are seeing I've repotted a good lot of them and put away the shade mesh and cleaned up the fence a little with a few new nails.  But the green stuff on the ground isn't lawn... it's a creeper that takes over the lawn and kills it.  So, yesterday, I got in and pulled out two of my rakes and pulled out half of it.  This turned the soil over and made the place look a little chewed, but got rid of a lot of the weed.

Today, I got in and did the rest.  It was pretty tough going because I had to work with the plants and around some of the sewer lids, but I got it done.  My bin is half full of the creeper and I'm ready to get on with the next step of getting my lawn back to what it looked like last year... beautiful.  This is to spray it with some pretty bad-smelling stuff to kill off the creeper completely and then after that, put down lawn seed and food and water it in well.  I know it sounds a lot, but it's what I did years ago to get the first lawn I had.

Once I put everything away, I washed my hands and practiced the piano for 45 minutes.  I felt like I fumbled over everything!  but I have to practice to get better at it all; even if it sounds like crap.  Tomorrow I will get better.  At least I have the patience for it all.  After that, I had a nice hot shower, washed my hair and felt nice and clean from working in the garden. 

Then, the office got another look at after I opened the house again and turned on the television.  I put a whole lot of things to look at in one bag, the stuff to be shredded next to the shredder, my life history stuff with the rest of my life history stuff by the door, lined up my handbags that can't be hung up and saved a few things I had missed.  

Then, while I was booting up the computer, I began doing out the desk a little starting with the section to my right.  It was good look into it all after so long... I found so much there!  And now, it's time to go after an afternoon of tidying up this part of the house.  

I still have a long way to go with cleaning up.  It's an on-going process and I still have to throw out a lot too.  Wish me luck in this as I do in your Spring Clean and tidy up.  Until next time, take care.

An Afternoon of Work

Well, yesterday, once I got off here at around 2pm, I felt really sick.  I had another dizzy spell; not pleasant, I tell ya!  But I drank some water and at something and tried to feel better and kept going.

And the next place I wanted to do was the home office... like I mentioned the other day.  Well, this place had to get better before it got worse.  I had books, a blanket, scarves, clothes, old documents and papers absolutely everywhere!  Like I said, it was beginning to look like something I did want it to look like and less like an office.  So, I began with picking up all the handbags that were sitting around on the floor; and made a vow to myself to stop buying them.  I had enough in the collection; coin purses are easier to contain anyway.  

Once I had them sorted out, I moved all the green bags out of the way and the portable stereo put back into the top shelf of the wardrobe, I started sorting out how much stuff was in these bags exactly.  Most of it was just bank statements.  So, I pulled out the little things I could work with and left the papers; which ended up going into one bag anyway.  The shredding bag was the same and so all that needed shredding went into that.  I found a few things I hadn't been looking for, but I thought were worth keeping for my writing; and added them to my bag of life history stuff (and I really have to sort that out too!  But that will be another day).

Then there was the chair near Grandpa's old writing desk.  It was almost unrecognisable.  So, I folded up the blanket and put it away, pulled all the stuff off it, put the old video tapes, scarves and other things into a bag and found a poster about reading and stuck that up on the end of the medium-sized bookcase just inside my door with Command sticky strips(each time I've put it there with Blu-tak, it's fallen down).  It's been overnight; and it's still there!  Usually it's not.

I sat down after a little while and drank more water as another dizzy spell hit me.   I hate them.  I've been getting them for a while now and they're not good.  I'm seeing a doctor next week, don't worry.

Anyway, it was time to clean up, but first, I had move something.  I moved the three-draw chest of draws in front of the left door of the wardrobe so I can see the bookcase from the door.  I looks better and neater; even if there's a few of the bags still on the floor and the clothes basket in here temporarily. 

There's still a lot to do in this office.  Even after I put away the box of unsoaked stamps, sorted out my birthday cards from last year and put them away and organised a file to put all Bookcrossing postcards and other things into over the next year or so.  It's still going to be a tight squeeze for a few things.  I'm still going to need a few storage boxes for some things here until I begin throwing things out again.

Later, at around 4:30pm, I decided to skip watching the news.  It was cool enough outside to get in and begin raking up the weeds from the back lawn.  Yep, my whole lawn had turned into a massive lot of weeds; a creeper in fact.  So, what I want to do over the next few weeks is pull them all out with the rake and put down good lawn seed, lawn food and make the lawn come back nice and lush just like last year.  I want to be able to mow my lawn and be proud of it.  Seeing I've gotten my pot plants back into order (which didn't take all that long), I'm trying to get my lawn back too before Summer comes along... now that shouldn't take long either.  Until my next post, take care. 

Tuesday Afternoon Tidy-Up

Today, I spent my morning on here and found my TSB was on the Urban Smart Projects site... what thrill it is to get that kind of recognition!  I also talked to a friend of mine on Facebook who was home from work sick as his back was killing him... not a good thing for anyone.

Well, once I had uploaded a photo onto 365 project and checked all my mail about three times, then harvested a few things on Farmville (God, that's a cute little game!), I jumped offline and decided to get into some tidying up.  The very first thing I did was take a few photos of what I wanted to get tidied up.  Another first was, I thought, some music would be good.  So, I put on Santana's 'Moonflower' vinyl that I bought a few weeks ago for $20 at Rockaways and it played wonderfully!  I loved it!  It made dusting and cleaning around the television and stereo that much more fun because I had a beat to go to.

Then, once everything was back in place, I noted down what I had dusted and then got back into it.  The next thing was the storage unit under the stairs.  I put all my unfinished paintings into it and pulled out two empty boxes that went straight in to the wheelie bin for the pick-up tomorrow morning.  Once all that was packed away neatly, I had a clean hallway to the kitchen.  I used the dust buster and vacuumed all the dirt and dust off the floor and skirting and it looked better.

Then, I tossed out two weeks' worth of weekend papers!  Yep, I had accidentally kept the last two weeks of Sunday Mail without meaning to.... oops!  Oh well, it all went in the bin very quickly; along with an

empty tissue box and a broken seat cushion from my kitchen chairs (it's one of the types you buy and tie to your chairs from Sam's Warehouse... not too expensive; just worn out).  Once that was done, I found that I had pulled out a Bunnings canvas bag I had bought some where along the line from the storage unit.  Well, I moved everything that I was going to give to a charity into that bag and found I had more space in that bag and had obtained one of my green bags back!  How good is that?  So, now, I can give more in one go instead of using up all my shopping bags.

Well, that's all I got done this afternoon; as this morning, before I got on the computer, I had done three loads of washing and had to pull it in.  By this time it was 4pm and a good few hours of work had been done.  So far, I'm pleased with my progress of tidying up.  But as I look around myself here in the home office, I'm finding this place a little too messy for what I want it for.  So, this place might be next on my list.

The Big Tidy-Up Returns!

For one reason or another, I didn't quite finish the Big Tidy-Up this year.  I think it was because it was the weather; and how cool it became.  So, it's now come back and I'm into it again.

This morning, I got into my housework early with the laundry being hung out by 9:30am.  Then, I gathered together the newspaper from last week, junkmail from the PO Box and the street letterbox and a pile of books from the Children's Book Cull from earlier in the year that has been sitting around the place for the last 5 months and tossed it all in the wheelie bin.  Then, I put away my shopping trolley, vacuum cleaner and shoes too. 

Then, I turned to the kitchen table and gathered up the paper from today and tossed it onto the floor next to the garage door (ready to be tossed out at the end of the week) and then sorted out the empty envelopes, dead batteries from the digital camera and cleaned down the table with a damp washing up cloth and gumption.  Once it was clean enough, I gave the table a wipe down - as well as the chairs and folded up the kitchen towels and put them away.

The washing up was next.  I washed up everything except two pots with wooden spoons.  Why?  Well, they had to soak for a bit.  Then there was the cutlery from this morning that I forgot to wash up.  Otherwise, the cupboard doors are clean, the bench is clean and the rubbish was taken out from the last few days.  There's still a lot to do around the house; as per usual.  I have laundry to put away, paintings to store, books to find places for and dusting to get into (and believe me, there's dust in places in this townhouse that you wouldn't believe there is!).  So, until my next post about The Big Tidy-Up, get into your Spring Cleaning and let us know what you've done to jump into it.

Weekend Plans

Well, if this week isn't finally coming to an end!  And about time too!  I'm so happy about it... however there's so much housework to do, I thought to start on it today.  So, the Big Tidy-Up begins yet again!

 

This morning, I put on the laundry and watered some very thirsty plants; as it's been pretty dry lately (even though we had some rain a few nights back, it's not going to keep anything alive for long with this Winter being so dry and cold).  Then, I ate breakfast and started the washing up and then changed out Little

Miss Stevie's cage.  She happily climbing around the inside of the cage when I did that!  But still tried to drop a poo on me while I rolled up her old paper to throw away... cheeky little bird!

Once that was done, I wrapped up the whole rubbish bag and put it into the bin outside, then got ready to go and check the mail.  Once home from there (I got an invite to an art opening and had to buy some milk at the service station), I had to hang out the second load of laundry and put in the third load.  By this time, it was around 9:30 or so.  The sun was out and warm; but the back yard was in the shade and freezing.  So, I had to wear a jumper/jacket to hang out my wet laundry (hope and pray it didn't rain like they said it was going to last night; not even a little bit!).  Then, I came inside and made my drink and came upstairs.  Pretty soon, the third load of laundry had been finished and I went

downstairs to get it hung out when I saw a green bird in a the tree over the back fence.  So, I raced inside, upstairs and grabbed my camera and tried to photograph it.  Such a shy little thing!  I got some lovely photos of it hiding amongst the greenery and branches, then one of it's butt!  Shy?  Yeah, sure... it was being cheeky.  Once I got the laundry out (after it flew off), I checked in my bird book and found it had been marked there by me last year.  It's an Australian Green Figbird.  This one is a young female, but has the most lovely voice.  I was fortunate to have spotted it as they're very shy normally.

Well, today, I've still got some tidying up to do.  There's a list I made yesterday and last night that I need to get at least half of the jobs on it done.  So, seeing the laundry has been done, Stevie's cage has been tidied up and the rubbish up out, there's three jobs off the list done already.  That leaves a few others I have to do.

There's also my garden to fix up - now that the cooler weather has caused my plants to become dormant.  I have to repot a few plants and find homes for a couple of other ones that are all sharing pots together... not a good look for them.  And my Large Leaf Jade needs more soil in it seeing it's now massive and needs more room to move around.  

So, there's my plans for this weekend.  I hope I can get some of it done.  If not, well, next week will have to be it... before I paint the TSB across the road.  Wish me luck with that too.  It ought to be fun!  Well, until my next post, keep warm - or cool - whatever your case may be.

Weekend's Here! Well, Almost.

I'm so thankful I had my day out yesterday; because looking

out at the miserable day we have here in Brisbane today isn't very encouraging.  Actually, the only thing I've done today is go and check the mail across the road and that was it; it was straight back home for me.  Once home, I photographed a sketch I did for a design for a TSB and then I prepared a slow cook meal that's been wafting up the stairs and into this office for the last

few hours now.

Otherwise, besides some loud noises coming from the rebuilding of the Woodridge Fire Station next door, there hasn't really been anything to do today because it's cold and grey.  So, I've been bumming around on here for the day and reading a few posts by people on Bookcrossing, uploading a photo onto 365project.  Then, smelling what I'm going to have for dinner come in every so often; and I'm really looking forward to it.

This afternoon, I do have some piano practice to get into and some cleaning up for the weekend to get done.  So, once I have it all under control downstairs and have vacuumed the lounge, I'll be coming upstairs again to have a go at the office and my bedroom as well.  The bathroom is another place I'll be doing out too.  I've got some products there that have been in the cupboards for a while and so it'll be time to toss them out.

Otherwise, I'm thinking of catching up on my reading this weekend once I've gotten some laundry done and other bits finished up.  I haven't really done all that much reading; and 'My Reading List' shows it.  Even though I have a lot of books on Mt To Be Read, I haven't been zooming through that many books; and I have been trying to do just that and failing miserably.  Oh well, you can't control what your mind's into all the time.

For the rest of the School Holidays, I'll be hoping to finish up a few other things on this computer.  This includes doing a complete de-frag and compiling a few other things on this desk.  I really do have to tidy it up and spray it with Glen-20 seeing I've been a little under the weather with this thing that's a cold-but-not-a-cold... a weird thing really.

Anyway, I best be going.  I have a piano that needs playing and a few other things that need putting away not too long after this is posted.

End of the Month...

You wouldn't believe it... it's the middle of Winter, and usually it's not that cold here in Brisbane, but we're freezing our butts off.  Today it's going to be 18 degrees Celsius and yesterday it was only 16 degrees Celsius!  And what made things worse was that I've come down with a head cold... blech!  Not my favourite time of year to be sick.  Well, I don't really mind it, so long the sun is out and I can sit out in it and sweat out the virus until it's gone.  But I can't, so here we all are freezing instead.

Yesterday, I was supposed to get some tidying up done, but with a runny nose and sneezing all the time, I played some piano and made some raisin toast with a hot cup of ginger tea instead.  The heater was brought out of hibernation and wiped down and switched on for a good part of the afternoon and into the evening until around an hour before I went off to bed.  And even then, I put on an extra layer of warmth onto the bed... my Grandma's heavy orange bedspread (that thing will keep anyone warm) before I put the feather-down duvet on top.  Well, once I hit the pillow, I didn't move until 5:30 this morning!  Yep, I was out like a light.

This morning, at 9am, while I was walking to the post office, I could still see my breath as I walked there.  I was wearing a beanie and all my warm clothes and I could still feel the chill seeping through!  And now, I'm on here in what has got to be the coldest room in my house!  I'm still rugged up and rubbing my numb hands together once in a while to keep them warm (nope, typing does nothing to keep them going; and what's more is that I have bad arthritis... and that's horrible in any weather... which more often than not effects only my hands).  I hope it all gets better soon.

In the past day, I have had two boiling hot showers a day, been eating enough garlic to keep even the most vicious vampire away and making sure I get enough sleep at night... with the help of Polarimine.  It's a great antihistamine that makes your nose dry up but also makes you drowsy too... so is best taken at night an hour before bed.  Clarentine is being taken during the day and that's been working okay for now; I still need the odd few tissues once in a while, but I'm okay.

All I want is to get over this cold, the weather to warm up a little bit and the sun to come out for a few days.  If that can happen for just a little while (especially in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide too; as Brisbane isn't the only city shivering away here), that'd be wonderful.

I hope you are all enjoying your holidays in one way or another.  Until my next post, keep warm (or cool); whatever your case may be.

It Begins Again!

As the Winter School Holidays have begun, so has my Big Tidy-Up begun again.  Actually, I began it yesterday after I got offline with the washing up of absolutely I could get my hands on in the kitchen.  It felt good to have it all nice, neat and tidy.  Then the cupboards got wiped down and then the stove was attacked by my cloth (and a new sink of hot water too).  Even the fridge got a good wipe-down.  So, by the time I was thinking about dinner, I had a reasonably clean kitchen.  A stir-fry was in order for dinner; and after I finished that, I washed up, put away the left overs and then watched television.

This morning, I was up early at around 7am.  Despite it being freezing cold, I bolted downstairs with my cothes, pulled out the heater, wiped the dust off and plugged it in.  Once it was hot enough, I warmed my clothes up on it and got dressed.  This happens every Winter when it gets this cold as upstairs is just far too cold to get dressed; even if I close the windows up there.

Once that was done and my last bit of medication was taken, I did the hand washing, hung it out and cooked breakfast after feeding Stevie (who wasn't too pleased that I was interrupting her warmth of three covers this morning).  But after I fed her, I placed the covers back over and left her alone until the morning got going a bit more and I had finished breakfast.  

After I had checked the mail, put away all my backpacks, handbags and other kinds of bags, shoes and magazines, I cleared up the lounge and put out some of the rubbish.  Then, I sorted out the washing up and left it on it sink until lunch time; for when I'm going to wash up next, and I

thought to make my coffee drink I normally do to take to upstairs for the morning.  Well, as I pulled the thermos down I used for this, the lid toppled off and landed on an angle on one of my favourite mugs; breaking two big chunks out of the side!  This is a mug I received for my birthday last year from Mum and I was mad about how it broke!  I phoned and told Mum; asking where she got it from and she told me to relax, that she bought it at a chemist and she'd get me another.  This is a lovely mug that holds the heat of tea really well... I do love it very much.  Also because Mum gave it to me.

After we had a chat about things that have happened over the weekend and what she's going to be up to this week, we said our goodbyes.  It was good to talk to her again (even thought I spoke to her only last night).  Anyway, while I was on the phone with her, I changed out Stevie's cage.  It really needed it as the newspaper was covered in poop, feathers and seed husks.  And boy, was there some feathers!  Little Miss Stevie really changed over her coat in a big way!

Well, this afternoon, I'll be washing the kitchen floor, tidying up the kitchen table and taking out the rubbish and recycling too.  I might even mow the lawn for the last time for Winter; before I really get into the garden and repot everything that needs attention.  Until my next post, keep warm (or cool) whatever your case may be.

June's Something Different!

Wow!  What a month!  It seemed from the very first day to the last, I didn't have a single day free to scratch or to myself; and once I went to bed, I zonked quickly into the dreamworld... only to be awoken by my alarm or my neighbours slamming their way out of their house to go to work at 6am.

On 1st, June, I was off to Doug Cartwright's house bright and early to help him design a blog for an interstate artist.  Once we got it under way, we ate lunch with his house mate and another visitor who had dropped by and Doug let me into his lead lighting studios to make a gorgeous little jewelery box from his design.  It took all afternoon, but the end result is absolutely wonderful and I use it to house my rings and Grandma's watch.

Within the first week of June, we had some really cold

weather.  But that's okay really.  I like the cold and enjoy getting out into it.  It makes me work harder to keep warm and keeps me going at what I want to do for the day.  And one of those thing was to go out and see the Ron Mueck Exhibition.  I had heard about it on the radio and television and resolved to go and see it when it came to Brisbane.  And so, I did; taking my camera with me.  What an exhibition!  I loved it!  Actually, I had a pass-out stamp on my hand in case I had to go back in... luckily I got one because some of the photos were blurry and I wanted to look at some of the stuff again.  

By the 8th, June, I my fortunes had turned around and things were beginning to happen in a positive way.  I checked the mail that day and found I had won a double pass to see 'The A-Team' the night before it opened from Triple-M radio!  And I took Mum with me.  It was so much fun!  She loved it that I chose her to come with me.  

But on the previous day, I had picked up 'The Golden City' by John Twelve Hawks from QBD at Garden City and by pure chance brought home a 'Clifford' dog with me... he just looked so cute and bright red by the register that I knew he'd find a good home amongst my books!  And now, he's guarding my Mt TBR with vigor; making sure I read as much as I add to it.

Also, my 'Mixed Favourites Book Baggie' came home from its extensive trip around Australia.  And a lot of books arrived home in it that I wanted to read; as well as the pencil case I sent off in it being so full I couldn't repack it once I had opened it!  What a lot of stuff there was in it!

I began 'The Big Tidy-Up' around my house.  This is

happening due to the success of 'The Big Clean-Out' in February.  And so, I've cut up my big jobs into little jobs and put things away in such a way where they can't get messy anymore.  It's a good way to do a clean out and a tidy up at the same time where I may have missed a spot in February.  But this has turned out to be a little harder than I first expected.  Downstairs is going okay; but upstairs isn't.  I think I have to look at it from a different angle up here as a lot of things don't get moved around here for a while and then suddenly they do.

During the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend, I had a good go at cleaning up downstairs.  It was good.  The kitchen was three-quarters there, as was the lounge room.  Then, I jumped on the piano for about an hour or so (I lost track of time to tell the truth).  And I decided to try out the new book full of exercises for both hands to follow each other.  Well, not long into them, I found them really challenging and my neighbour went off her block about me stopping playing (which I didn't until 10 minutes later when I realised I wasn't going to be a genius at them immediately).  I went for a walk and she watched me leave and watched me come home... what a creepy person to live next door to... really creepy.

On 24th, June, Mum and I attended the Epilepsy Symposium at the P.A. Hospital.  It was a completely full day of information from researchers, professors and neurosurgeons and neurologists alike.  Also, I got the chance to talk to people who were living with the disease/condition and parents who cared for children with it.  So, it was a good day, but very tiring.  The best thing about this kind of day is that you can talk to the guest speakers about your medications, operations, the Ketogenic Diet, lifestyle and other things that may improve on what you're already doing free of charge (well it does cost to go to one of these, but not as much as an appointment with one of these people).

The shortest day of the year was yesterday... a day after Michael Jackson died last year (and the television stations played all his movies and concerts) and Mum and I went out to a photo course at Photo Continental on Creek Road.  But when we got there, it had been cancelled and it seemed that us and on other person were the last to know.  That put us in a bind.  We could've stayed home and slept in.  

Instead, we hung about at the shops across the road and waited for the Life Line to open.  Here we found 3 handbags that I loved and bought.  Mum found all these winter tops that I tried on and they fitted!  There was even a jacket that looked awesome!  So, all up, we spent about $70... I did put in $20 of that and mum bought around $44 of the rest... it was lovely of her to buy the clothes.  But she kept on saying that I had to stop buying handbags and coin purses.  When you're a collector, it's an obsessive thing that makes you look at them and buy them... then you have to find a time to use them all! 

Then, last night, we had our partial Lunar Eclipse for this year.  And what wonderful night for it!  Even though it wasn't the clearest night, I took some lovely photos of it and was up until midnight to watch the moon clear up completely.  And did it get cold!  Wow, it was freezing!  

Well, that was my month of something different.  It was most definitely a lot fuller than past months; and I'm hoping my life gets a little less hectic in the next week or so.  I want to catch up with some reading.  I've only read 8 books this year... not a good score compared to last year's 27.  Until next month!

Shortest Day of the Year

Today, here in the Southern Hemisphere, is the shortest day of the year.  Yep, after today, our days will be getting longer; but that doesn't mean they'll be getting warmer.  We're still suffering through our Winter, it just means we're exactly halfway through this particular season.

Well, today, I woke at 6am and snoozed until 7am when I got out of bed, dressed and readied myself to go out to a camera course put on by Photo Continental at Upper Mount Gravatt.  They do these  things for people to get better at photography and to know their cameras.

Anyway, Mum and I arrived while it was still coolish.  The low cloud and fog was still touching the top of Mt Gravatt and hardly any shops were open when we parked the car.  Well, we were the only people - along with another lady - to show because the guy who was conducting the course was horribly sick.  The man who came out to greet us said that they had been trying to call us since around 7:40am but couldn't get through; yet we were there before the course was to start.

So what now? 

We decided to go to the shops across the road and look around the post office there.  I knew of a Life Line store there and so waited until it was open to look through its supply of handbags and coin purses.  They didn't have much in the way of coin purses, but their handbags were just lovely.  So, I bought three and Mum looked around the shop at other

things.  We then looked at some of the clothes and I tried on a collection of clothes that didn't look much; but they were just beautiful once I had them on!  I even spotted a jacket (after Mum spotted it) that was brilliant once I put

it on over one of the shirts Mum got me to put on.  And in the end we scored the three handbags (which I paid for) and about 5 or 6 tops and a jacket.  My handbags came to $20 and the clothes came to under $50.  Not bad for an hour's shopping in a charity store if you ask me!

We took off to MacDonald's for a coffee and some raisin toast.  I asked for a standard De-caf latte.  What came out was a very tall glass of hot coffee milk... so big it was that I couldn't finish it.  Normally, coffee from Macca's makes me feel a little bloated, but having this much milk would make me ill.  So, I drank around half of it and left the rest saying it was too much.  Mum said we could stay a little longer, but I said no, it was far too much for me to drink in one sitting; and besides we had our own things to do.

On the way home, we dropped in on Aunty Heather.  Well, she's not really my Aunt, she's my Mum's best friend from school; and they've been such wonderful friends that my brother and I have called her Aunty Heather for as far back as I can remember; and so we still do.  Well, Aunty Heather has been very sick for the last few weeks and Mum had to drop off some things to her house; and after around half an hour of chatting out the front, we wish her well and drove off.

Mum drove me home and I unloaded my gear into the lounge, took a look around and realised my house was really messy so I began cleaning up and putting things away downstairs.  It'll take a little while, but I'll get it all done and back to what it was before Gabe arrives next week.  

Also, I was expecting a friend over.  So, I jumped online, uploaded my daily 365 photo, checked the mail, fiddled on Farmville and did some things on 'My Reading List' and then jumped off by around 1:30pm.  I cleaned up a little more and practiced some of the piano until Geoff arrived; and we chatted for about 2 hours until he had to leave to pick up one of his friends from a bus station to play cricket before the sun went down.

What's really gotten to me is that I've let my Big Tidy Up fall by the wayside.  I hate it when I want to finish something I've started and I don't.  It's just sheer laziness, I tell ya... really it is.  So,  got back into it again today just before Geoff arrived; and I'll keep at it if there's nothing else to do tonight... otherwise, tonight, for me, it's going to be a nice quiet night.  I might watch a movie or a dvd yet.  I'm not sure.   But it's going to be an evening of making sure my house is nice and warm as next week is supposed to be getting really cold!