Favourite Photos Time - February!

Wow!  It's almost a week into March and I forgot about this post... darn!  Oh well.  Better late than never!  Here we go on my favourite photos from last month! 

Fun, Wet Sunday

Since late last night, I've had songs of Jamiroquai bouncing around in my head.  Yesterday was just like a whole bunch of them... really.  I thought it was going to rain but it fined up and I caught my buses out to Eagle Street Pier and jumped on a City Cat to the Powerhouse.  And I arrived right on midday where the breezes were lovely, summery and warm.  The sun was out and pretty too.  Will was the only one there sitting on the picnic table and he called out to me.  We were all supposed to meet up at the gazebo, but there was a birthday party going on there; so met up at the last place we were at last month.

I joined him on the table and pulled out the cd I burnt for him on Saturday morning of Jamiroquai's 'High Times' and in turn he gave me a necklace he made for me.  I put it on and found it did help me during the meditation; keeping my mind on the visualisation.

Before everyone else arrived, I we chatted and I showed Will some of the gear I brought with me that I wasn't going to show anyone else; like my Witch's Wand and Book of Shadows.  He was amazed at how beautifully-made the wand was and sad that The Crystal Man at the Southbank Markets no longer sold them.  He did say that I got a good deal on it though; considering the size of the crystals and the stone that was attached to it.  But he wouldn't open my BoS; saying it was more of private thing, knowing it was something of a bible for me to read and refer to and write in.  I told him that there were only spells, oils, the meanings of stones and moon phases in it; that's all.  Nothing personal, but I did know a few darker spells and didn't know what to do with them.  Will said to get another BoS and make sure it's got a lock on it to keep the dark spells in; so that they are safer, which makes sense.

He looked at all my crystals and loved the Rose Quartz I had (which is the biggest crystal I have) and said that I had a good little collection so far; and the little bag of stones I showed him were cute.  He could identify most of them, but not all of them.

Before we knew it, a few others showed up and we all put our food on the table and began to eat while Will spread out a tarp and his blanket to put out his massive crystal.  This was when I pulled out my crystals (minus my wand and Book of Shadows and Tarot Cards) to have them placed.  We ate and enjoyed the company of everyone as more arrived - but not as many as last month - and Will, Yang and I stretched ourselves with Yoga on the damp grass before the meditation began.  However before we could all sit, a heavy shower of rain came over and we sheltered under the massive tree.  A few of us had brought along umbrellas and I had fortunately thought to use my Boag's bag (which is insulated inside) and so none of my electronic gear got wet.

Once the shower passed and we uncovered the crystals, put out more blankets, we all sat around and Deb lead the meditation.  She did a Gnome Meditation this time; which involved crystals and personal messages.  It was great for me because I found I could concentrate better.  However, almost as soon as it was finished, and we had talked about our messages, we packed up and took off because it was getting dark and looking like more rain was on its way.  Will and I caught the next City Cat.  I got off at Southbank (as last time when I got off at Eagle Street Pier, it was completely deserted and spooky; and I got lost on the way to Lower Edward Street), and he stayed on board until his stop around the bend of the river.  Then, I walked to the bus stop on Melbourne Street and waited for around 20 minutes to catch a 555 bus to Springwood.  Once on board, I went to sms Mum when she called me and I told her what happened.  

When I arrived at Springwood the sun had just gone down and Dad picked me up.  He asked me lots of questions to do with this new group I was with.  Both Mum and him are concerned about how late I was getting home and I tried to explain that it wasn't my fault that it rained at 3pm when we wanted to do our meditation.  However, when I was on the phone to Mum later last night, I explained where I was in town and she relaxed knowing that Southbank was safe enough and crowded too.  

I tried to get an early night, after my shower and after eating some leftovers from Saturday night.  But, once the rain began (and I got the ABC channels back onto my HD Box - yay!), I found myself in bed by around 11pm.  I was stuffed, but I was glad to get to bed and asleep.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

What Happened To Shine?

Today, it was raining and I looked at the television times to see what old movies were on channel 22 for tonight.  Usually, they put on a double-header of old classics from the 1980's or really old black'n'white ones between 8:30pm - 12:30am... and there's no adverts to interrupt them once they get started; which is great!  I look forward to seeing these movies each week and when I pull the television times from The Sunday Mail.

However, tonight - at around 6pm - I checked channel 24 for the weather tomorrow.  Then, at around 7pm, I turned it over to channel 22 to watch the show before the movie 'Shine' (which I was hoping to watch tonight; as I love it) when it showed that the channel didn't exist on my HD Box.  So, I rescanned the box and watched it carefully as it went through all the channels; only to find that none of the channels from the ABC were scanned in.  I unplugged and replugged the box, pulled out the antenna and switched off the whole system from the wall and restarted it from scratch (which is really annoying, but sometimes it works)... but no go.  I called my folks to see if they lost the channels too, but they hadn't. 

So, I did the last thing possible:  I called the ABC in Sydney.  The number is a local Brisbane number, but it sends me to Sydney.  They hadn't had anyone from here in Brisbane call them with anything like this tonight and asked if Brisbane had had any storms.  I said no, but we have had rain; but that couldn't have done it because the channels were working right up until around 6pm.  This puzzled the receptionist as much as it annoyed me.  She put me through to the trouble-shooting section (which was a voicemail which wouldn't be looked into until Monday; but she told me that it's best if I report it so they know something's wrong) and I left my name, number and what was going wrong with my HD Box.

I called my folks back and told them what I ended up doing and Dad said that's all I could do.  It was a pity I couldn't watch what I had planned; and I ended up writing down 'Shine' to be a dvd that I put on layby next year so if this happens again, I can just toss it on the dvd player.  However, it looks like I'll be in for a new HD Box next week if this doesn't fix itself up by Monday morning.  I'll just go to Retrovision and get another one and throw this old 5 year old one out.  After all, I only bought this one to clean up my television reception; not because it was the in thing to get.  Now, I need another new one, and the good thing is that it's not going to cost me as much as this first one; it'll be a lot cheaper.  After all, I don't record on these things, I just watch the shows.

So, did the ABC drop out on you tonight?  If so, let us know... this means all four channels disappeared on you as well.  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here.

A Hot Day Out

It's been hot lately, really hot, but it didn't stop me from going out yesterday.  I wanted to see the Matisse Exhibit at the GoMA and so, I packed up my new bag and took off into the city by bus and did just that!

However, as I approached the large building, I found masses of school kids; absolute groups of them.  And I began to count them to see how many I was going to be amongst; and lost count at 16!  From primary schools to high schools, they were all here looking and talking about and sketching some of his works.  All of these kids were getting a better education than I did when I went to school.  I don't remember going to an art gallery to be taught about art at their age as a school excursion.  But I do remember being taken out to a farm near Ipswich and being shown all the different types of erosion there was around... yay, fun!  It wasn't as enjoyable as an air-conditioned, large building full of art and history like this place.  And to add onto the buses full of uniformed children, I found the place bursting at the seams with the public!  Matisse turned out to be more popular than I thought; and this was just for his drawings!  Seeing there was no photography allowed, I took out my notebook and started taking notes about his life, who influenced him, who he worked with and how he lived.  If you'd like to know more, I'm going to do a full write-up on A Natural Background on what it was like at that the gallery.  After I did a 2 - 5 minute sketch of a statue there, I bought some bookmarks and left the large place - which felt as though it had become markedly smaller.  It was real struggle to get outside!  So many people were trying to leave while even more were trying to get inside... and I felt suffocated until I was outside.

Once out in the sun and the heat, I smsed Will, a friend who I had chatted to that morning about catching up.  He didn't reply, so I said that I'd meet him at the lizard soon.  Once there, I found he wasn't.  So, I called him and he had fallen asleep... oops... and told me to meet him somewhere else.  I spotted the bookstore he took me to a few weeks back and told him there. I must have looked at every single book in there twice before I decided to take off and get myself a coffee at 'Rapture' - a little bohemian place off Boundary Street.  I was sitting there for about 10 minutes with a cool book - 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle - when Will showed up.  I was drinking the best ice coffee I have ever tasted when he sat down; and he looked tired.  But we chatted about the exhibition and I showed him the bookmarks I had bought there and told him how many people there were.

Before long, I had finished my drink and we were off next door to the crystal shop.  When we opened the door, I found this place was full of crystals of all sizes and at all price ranges.  I loved this place.  We got chatting to the owner and then looked at the crystals and stones; amazed at some of them and wishing we could afford them.  About an hour later, we left and walked to Grill'd - around the corner - for something to eat.  We both ordered hot chips and chatted about all kinds of things; from what was in the paper that day (which was nothing of interest to us) to traveling to how we got our scars to music, we talked and laughed and ate the piping hot chips.  Before long, it was time to walk to the bus stop at the old Museum and Art Gallery.  On the way there, we chatted - which made this walk all the more shorter - and we didn't really want to part, but had to.  We had different buses to catch which took us to different places.  So, while he caught one that took him to the Gabba, I caught the 555 that would take me to Garden City and beyond.  

I got to Garden City and went to grab a bottle of water - my second one for the day - and by the time I came back, my bus had arrived.  However, the school kids were right up there waiting to be let on first.  The bus driver had other plans.  He stood at the door - after the people on the bus had gotten off - said that adults were to board first before students.  And so, all us adults got to get on board the bus and found a seat first while most of the students were forced to stand up.  Now, that's the advantage of not being a school student these days; you get to have a seat on the buses.  

I got home at around 4:30pm and I was absolutely stuffed!  I didn't know what I wanted to eat, so made myself a basic pasta dish without tomatoes (didn't want to have the acid bugging me all night) and ended up turning off the television at 9:30pm and getting to bed by 10:30pm or so.  However, my Hotmail account crashed (as it has for hundreds of others over the last 24 hours) and so I thought to leave it alone for a while and see if it can be fixed by them over in the US... if not, I'll keep bugging them on Facebook.  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember I'm always here. 

Leap Year!

It's a Leap Year!  And what a year it has been so far!  As of yesterday, I have been free from an abusive relationship for 13 years.  This number is my lucky one; and for it to fall on this year of 2012 is great!  So many changes are going on this year and I'm looking forward to them as well.

Today, I went out shopping and picked up the mail.  However, my mail was my phone bill... which wasn't as cheap as I hoped it to be.  How unfortunate, but I'll pay it on Friday and it'll be back to normal again next month.  I caught a free bus today to do my shopping.  How this came to be is a long story; however the short version is easier to tell.  On Monday, Roma Street Station had a power outage which caused everyone who had paid for their tickets to be stuck there with no real way to get to or from work easily.  It took hours to fix.  So, today, there was free Translink travel from first service until midnight to make up for the inconvenience.  How's that for great?  I took full advantage of it too.

Once at Triple C, I stepped off and then - only then - remember I had no money.  Yep, I had forgotten to put money across to my account... damn!  So, I did phonebanking on a public phone, transferred the funds needed and then phoned for a cab a few times and hung up.  Public phones have a buffer on them that when other people get onto the phone after you, they can find out who you called - and if you did any phone banking - they can try and get into your account.  A very dishonest thing to do, but it's something that does happen.  So, if you ever have to do this, always call another number after you so the phone remembers that last one you put in - even if nobody picks up or if it's your home phone number and you call it just quickly a few times.  At least the bank's number has been wiped.

Well, I headed off to Life Line and bought a lovely Boag's Draught Bag that was insulated and nice and clean for only $6.00!  What a deal!  For more information about it, jump over to my other blog Coin Purse Obsession there's a photo and more about it there.  I was off to Woolworths next and found plenty of food for the next fortnight and even bought a couple of apples for Little Miss Stevie to nibble on too.

Once that was paid for, I went outside and sorted out my groceries for my long walk between shopping centres.  I also had to make sure I had enough money in case too.  While I was doing that, a man sat next to me and rolled a cigarette, then lit it.  He puffed out smoke right in my face!  Disgusting!  I coughed but he didn't seem to notice until one of his friends told him what he did and he shrugged.  What an awful person!  I guess some people have no forethought about their actions on people around them.

Well, I walked off and bought myself a bottle of water and headed toward the Logan Central Plaza.  I thought it was going to be a horrible hot day, but there was a lovely cool breeze blowing and it took the edge off the heat.  I photographed a gorgeous plant in the middle of the carpark and then kept on walking.  

Soon, I was inside and I had paid $10 off my layby and was on my way to the chemist to buy what I needed there.  It wasn't long before I found myself at Coles and the lady at the front doors offered to mind my blue trolley for me (she often does so I don't have to drag it around with me; but when she's not there, the other greeters don't offer).  I let her and I was on my way to my usual shopping when I came upon a family who was going through their shopping list bit by bit as they put their Mum onto a special diet.  The husband was there with the son telling her what she could and couldn't have.  The son was being more restrictive than the husband; poor woman.  When it came to the dried fruits, they were looking at the dried apricots and dates when I reached for the Cranberries and suggested them as they weren't anything but dried and that's it.  The family looked at them and read the back and the son was really happy with what wasn't in them - salt and excess sugar - and they grabbed a packet of them.  I said they were great with meausli, in porridge or just as a snack on their own; and they were all impressed.  

However, it wasn't until I went into the next isle that I found I wasn't impressed with a few things.  A lot of the brands I'd normally use for porridge have gone to Quick Oats... and to me it just tastes like cardboard.  So, I looked at Uncle Toby's and that was $6.00 a box!  What a rip-off; and that's just for some swanky packaging when you think about it!  So, I looked down and found Quaker Oats; traditional oats.  Seeing I've never tried it before - and it was half the price of the others around - I thought to grab it and give it try.  My usual Rolled Oats by Lowans wasn't there (only in quick oats) and so I thought to try out this one.

Well, the rest of my shopping went well.  I bought some black seedless grapes, plenty of milk and all of my essentials such as shampoo condition - and I thought to try out Sensodyne toothpaste again because I the tooth that's ultra-sensitive is still playing up, so thought the new toothpaste they've put out recently might help it - and toothbrushes and other things a well.  

Once I was ready, I was out the doors with my groceries and went to the bank to cash something... I had counted up my bag of 5 cent pieces.  It counted up to $10-worth; and the teller at Suncorp gave me a $10-bill.  This is going to go toward my garden.  It may not be much right now, but it's something.  I do look forward to fixing up my yard with the money I am saving up.

When I got home and put everything away, I found in the back yard that my Blue Tongue had been and gone.  There was an imprint of where he had laid next to the pot plants; where he was yesterday.  How sweet is that?  He must have been there for hours blissfully snoozing there... how cute.  I walked to my Gloxinia bulbs and found two of the buds that had been sitting there two days ago, were now fully open!  This makes is around 10 blooms this year!  How wonderful is that?  

This has been a wonderful Leap Year for me in more ways than one.  I have enjoy this day.  It has been hot, sunny and very beautiful.  And I have enjoyed it to the very end.  I know the day isn't over yet, however I know it can only get better.  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here. 

Organising My House

Over the last few weeks, I've been doing a fair bit of cleaning out.  However, organising is also a part of cleaning, don't you think?  I spent a good part of my mostly wet weekend organising my house.

Friday was a wet old day and I thought to get in and wash up everything in the kitchen and do a load of laundry; hanging it on the clothes horse next to the piano.  However, the day turned cold and the rain was heavy, so the house stayed closed for a good part of the day.  I also spent a good few hours on the internet stuffing around until I turned it off and decided to pull out some art books and organise them.

I had gotten these off my late-Grandma's cousin, Shirley, in the last year or so when she and her husband moved into a retirement village and they couldn't take them with them.  They knew I was into the arts; and these were the first type of how-to books you could buy from the newsagents.  There's seven folders with about ten or twelve magazines in each.  Pretty nice folders too.  I just had make sure the magazines were in numerical order and the numbers on the folders were right and clearly marked.  This didn't take very long.

Then,I looked next to where I kept them and found three old books, which to pulled out and took upstairs to store in my bookshelves.  And next to those, I found some other books about World Expo '88 and other folders and art books - really old ones - that will come in handy too.  I put them back where I found them and began cleaning up the kitchen table.

Now, on there, I had dumped a Gardening Journal along with two other gardening books that I use on a regular basis.  This year - as you know - I'm going to do up my garden and make it look and feel like a place I can escape to.  It'll be something I can move too when the time comes when I need to (when that'll be, I'm not sure).  But I'm hoping this garden will probably take about a year or two to accomplish; and I'll keep you all posted with its progress too!  Anyway, worked with the yard between the heavier showers of rain and began moving things around looking at the yard more as how it'll look as a finished product than how it looks now; and you know, I like it!

Once all that was done, and the rain really settled in, I changed into my painting clothes and looked at the self-portrait I needed to work on.  It needed some Sacred Lotus' at the bottom, however, wanting them there and drawing them on were two different things.  I tried tracing them on; but it didn't work.   So, I just drew a few of my 5-petal flowers there and they worked a treat!  It looks great!  And the colours work really well with the other colours I've chosen for this painting; very bold and beautiful.  

Today, I was online after I read the paper a little and ate breakfast and got the house opened up.  Yep!  The day had turned out to be nice, sunny and hot, so why not let the breeze through and air the place a bit?  I stuffed around online for a bit when Mum called me and told me that Dr Bloomer - our family GP - had passed away last month.  It was a shock as I hadn't heard anything about him for a long time; and yet he had known me for as long as I could remember.  It's sad that his wife hadn't called us after we had known him for such a long time and Mum and Dad still lived down the road.

Anyway, after that sad news, I went downstairs and cleaned all the walls with sugar soap where it was grotty.  The front and garage door were scrubbed down too.  The place looks good, but I do have to clean the stair well and upstairs rooms as well now; and they'll be done tomorrow, just to keep the place clean.

Then, Little Miss Stevie's newspaper was all changed over - much to her disgust - and I gave her some fresh grass seed from the back yard!  Boy! Did she love that!  I grabbed as much as I could and she ate the lot!  What a great way to spoil my little budgie!   Well!  Did she sing and blow kisses all day or what?

This afternoon zoomed around faster than I realised and before I knew it, it was 4pm.  I closed up the curtains and made myself some cheese and biscuits with some grapes and sat down to get some of the scrap scarf done while watching some reruns of 1980's sitcoms.  It's always great to watch old shows we used to watch; it shows where the television networks went right - and sometimes wrong.  Well until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here. 

Downpour

It's late - a half hour away from midnight - and I'm hearing the rain pour from the darkened Logan skies as I sit here in the silence of my unit complex.  Today, it rained all day, as it did yesterday and last night.  I have put it down to me planning out a new garden for my courtyard; what do you think?  

You see, whenever I do something out of character, it begins to rain or a storm hits and I have to wait until it's all over to get in and do anything about my plans.  Or I forget and it all clears up.  And then, once I remember again, well, it starts raining again.  Does this ever happen to you?

Funnier still, I have had times where I've gone on holidays and asked neighbours to water my garden.  When I've come back, they turned to me and said that all it did was rain the whole time.  It seemed I took the sunshine with me on my holiday to the coast; funny and true.  I took off to Brunswick Heads - where it was pouring rain at the time - and from the time I arrived to the time I left, it stopped raining and was sunny the whole time.  When I returned home, the sun returned with me.  It was amazing and weird.

But now, I want to make some seriously big changes in my garden and the rain is making it difficult.  So, I'm catching up with a few other things around the place; like unravelling some knitting I did two years ago.  I balled up that yarn and am going to use it all in my scrap scarf.  I have also caught up on my self-portrait; which is going really well.  This afternoon, I jumped in and did the purple background and my hair very quickly.  Now, I have to draw in the lotus flowers that I'll be sitting on with the little leaves.  Just have to make them all different shades of pink and rose; and it'll look great!  Then, I'll work on the detail work of the whole thing over the next month and it'll be ready.  I hate to rush my paintings.

I'm also catching up on reading.  There's a few books I'm currently getting my nose into right now.  'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Atwood is a good one that I've had for a week and I've read almost 100 pages and I'm still interested in it.  Then, there's Stephen King's tome of a book '11-22-63' that I'm still struggling with; but the writing in it is amazing!  So, I'm reading bits and pieces of it once in a while and can still catch onto what's going on.

Otherwise, there's cleaning to do around the house; normally just washing up, sorting out the bills and putting out the house hold rubbish to keep myself from going batty.  I just hope this rain goes away soon so I can get to the Smart Tip soon and pick up something really good for the garden... maybe an old gate to use as a frame for some Jasmine; now that'd be nice wouldn't it?  Well, until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here.

Garden Review

At the beginning of this year, I pulled my potted plants into the car port and did a major clean up of the yard.  I'm pleased I did this because it gave me a chance to look around and realise that my garden really needed a big change, a big turnaround to make it look better.  It's looked the same for the last three years; and this is not good.  

So, last week, I did some modeling and the money I was paid for that has been put away to start saving for a facelift of my garden.  However, the first thing I did was buy a new Garden Journal.  I've been looking for one of these for a while now, and found a good one at 'The Book Warehouse' at Springwood for $4.95.  It's hardcover, sectioned off and covers kitchen gardens, potted plants, plants that love neglect, smalls gardens and other areas of the garden.  And the best thing is that there is plenty of blank pages for me to fill in for when I've bought a plant and want to keep a history of it.  It's a great book!  What I've noticed is that in each section, where the title page is, there's a good thick pocket where I can put newspaper clippings, seed packets, dockets or anything else I have kept for gardening.  So, there's no bits and pieces being stapled to the book, it's all inside it, in each section, nicely and neatly held together by an elastic band.  How good is that?

Now, for my garden.  I have $30 so far - untouched - and so what I'm going to do is put my change from each shopping day in my change jar and save up big to get some plants, pots and soil from Bunnings and spend a weekend enjoying my garden... getting it right.  And then sitting back and watching it settle.  And seeing we don't have a crazy neighbour running around the place telling people what they can and can't do right now, I think this year is a good year to begin working on my little bit of privacy; bit by lovely bit.  I'm going to get it looking and feeling very nice and pretty.  It will be every bit my place to escape to by the time I've finished with it as well.  

I love statues and wall hangings in gardens as well as water features.  So, what I'm hoping to do is find all kinds of different things to make my garden as creatively beautiful as possible.  A trip to the Smart Tip may not be out of the question at some point next year to see what I can find there to use as pots.  even if I find an ornate, rusted gate gate, it'll still get used against the fence as something for a plant to climb (as I love things like climbing roses or Jasmine).  

However, this is all just me thinking about what could be in the way of how my garden looks in my mind.  I want it to look a particular way and so, to have it looking like this, I have to work on my yard little by little.  When I have the money, I'll go and get what I'd like in my yard and plant it, so it's there looking great.  Well, wish me luck with my garden - and yes, I'll keep you updated with any improvements I make on it with photos and post entries as time goes on.  I just hope the fences around here get fixed up while my garden does too.  Now, that'd be a great thing!  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here.

A Busy Week of Doctors

This week, I finally got in and did what I was supposed to get done from last week.  On Monday, I called up my GP and made an appointment with Dr. Kent Fu for Tuesday, called my dentist and made an appointment for today and cancelled Little Miss Stevie's vet appointment as I couldn't afford $100.00 or so to have her looked at.

With all that done, I thought my Monday was to myself.  I stuck around on the net, put away the shopping trolley, did the hand-washing and all the towels around the house and then decided to spend around 2 hours on the self-portrait that's sitting on the easel downstairs that afternoon.  At around 2:30pm, I received a phone call and it was the lady from CRS asking me if I had forgotten the appointment we had... and you know, I had!  So, we rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon, before my dentist appointment, and I wrote it into my day diary.

Well, Tuesday came around and I was off to the doctor's with my scans and health book to talk to Dr. Kent Fu.  He specialises in Women's Health; and when he looked at my book and the scans, he agreed that what occurred in November must never happen again and asked who I'd like to go and see.  I asked for Dr. Stephen Cook; and he agreed saying that he could find one over at Sunnybank.  However, when he looked on my records, he realised I had been to the lady (and I told him that Mum and I were not treated well there).  So, he wrote out the referral and got me to have a blood test for my hormone levels so I was ready for the appointment.  I went and got the blood works done, and then went home and made the appointment.  I will be seeing Dr. Cook in early May.

Today, I was off again to see another doctor.  This time, it was about my mouth; a particular tooth in question.  Peter Caswell is my dentist and he knew exactly which one I was there for.  He took an X-Ray and saw that I have no cavities but this tooth was next to a molar that was removed and it's known as a Virgin Tooth; which is a tooth that has no decay or fillings.  This tooth has always been in my mouth like this and the molar behind it was removed however the gum around it has receded and so it's become very sensitive over time; and once in a while it'll give me hell when I eat cold things.  Not great!  

Well, I'm grateful that I didn't have any fillings, but I'm also grateful that this tooth didn't anything major wrong with it either.  So, there was the last two days of doctors and problems.  Onward and upward... the next two days of this week are free for me to continue cleaning out the house and tidying up.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Busy, Big Weekend!

My, my... what a busy weekend I have had!  And when I found my way home, it just seemed to keep on going!  My weekend didn't start on the usual Saturday morning in my bed.  No, it began on Friday afternoon.

I bussed it to Garden City at around midday on Friday as I had a few things to pick up and meet Geoff outside the library there by 1pm.  I took my time and wandered around the place and found myself right where I needed to be at the right time.  

He arrived and we walked to the other end of the shopping complex to find the car and pick up Vivienne who was out at Sunnybank at a lunch.  It didn't take long to get there and pick her up; however she wasn't feeling all that great as she had eaten a fatty lunch and they had been on a healthy diet for a while.  This kind of thing wasn't good for her.

Once back at their place, and settled in, I checked my e-mail for the first time in about four days and had to clean out my accounts of junk mail and other things I didn't need, do some communication with some friends on Facebook and other forums I'm normally on and found that the guy from Optus had arrived to fix my phone line.  He kept on asking if I was home; and I kept saying I wasn't.

After this, Geoff and I went out to look at some parks and places to use as backdrops for our paintings.  I took along my camera and we photographed the areas well while we had the good light; and I also posed on some rocks and while the ideas were there with us.  We soon headed off back to their place to make dinner and upload our photos and think about other poses I could do that night for the main paintings.  Both of us found that one of the half-lotus poses was our favourite... and so we're both painting it.  How's that for funny.  But as all artist's know, it's all in the interpretation.

By this time, we had eaten dinner and helped Vivienne edit her cover letter to a job she was applying for with the Royal Brisbane Hospital.  And by the time we were finished with it, it sounded great and she sent it off with her application; so all she needed to do was kick back with a few glasses of red and a movie.

The next morning, I was woken by a Magpie outside my window warbling at a morning shower.  It was nice to see him hanging out in a tree swaying back and forth... very nice.  But the funny part was that he kept on overbalancing and nearly falling out because he was big and fat!   I had had a weird dream and so for about forty-five minutes, I sat there in bed writing it in a notebook as I woke up fully.  

By around 8am, I was dressed, packed and ready to leave the house.  All I needed to do was eat breakfast. Geoff was just sitting down to a wholemeal English muffin and I pulled the rolled oats out of the cupboard when Vivienne came downstairs not looking so good.  She had been feeling awful all morning and now she was very sick and couldn't keep anything down.  So, I began making breakfast.  Geoff ended up taking her to the doctors by the time I had finished breakfast and was online for a few minutes.  But he hadn't been gone for ten minutes when his phone rang and Viv said she needed him to pick her up and bring her home.

Well, long story short, Geoff picked me up, took me to the Gallery for our shift, explained what happened with Vivienne and ended up staying home with her.  Poor Viv had an anxiety attack later that afternoon and was taken to hospital where she was cared for there.  She had had such a stressful week and such a fatty lunch and a very late night that it all caught up with her.  This could have happened to anyone; and it's happened to me many times over my life.  I've learned to live with my anxiety over time and it's hard to live with it.  However, it takes time to live with; and facing your demons takes time too.

Anyway, once home from the Gallery, I was so very tired.  I looked around, made myself something plain to eat and watched a few things on television and went to bed by 9:30pm.  Even though I didn't sleep until around 11pm - just laid there in the dark resting - I felt good yesterday.  

I got a lot done yesterday.  I read the paper, did three loads of washing, caught up with a lot online, wrote in my offline journal and did some knitting.  And this morning, I got done a fair bit more than I did last week.  I called all the doctors I was supposed to last week, washed all the towels in the house, did the hand-washing, put out the recyclables, checked the mail at the Post Office, fed the pets, put away the dirty laundry basket and my shopping trolley (with all my shopping bags in it) and then, I checked on what I had to do on my new painting.  It's looking pretty good.

So, there you have it... my busy, big weekend!  It was busy and big... and I can't believe it was only two days long!  So much happened. Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here.