Month: February 2016

So it’s been a couple of weeks since I came by to say hello – two sort of blah nothing weeks.  Really they were just 14 of the usual run of the mill days I have sometimes but somehow I didn’t want to share them so I thought if I changed the blog to private I could go on my merry (unrecorded) way until things bucked up a bit.

Well, you wouldn’t believe what happened.  I received some emails via wordpress from readers asking for access to the blog.  What the?? Was my reaction lol. I realise now, because I was still logged on I didn’t actually see what appeared on the screen, that was, an invitation to do just that 🙂

Anyway all should be back to normal now – it’s Friday and we know what that means. Fun – Fun – Fun.  Irish Fun at that !  All my ancestors were Irish so I’m well aware (and have no hesitation at laughing at) how daft things can get at times 🙂

 

Here’s hoping your Friday has some funny moments you can laugh about.

 

 

It would appear the mystery may have been solved

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Oh the things you think about on a Thursday lol

The Golfer has gone off on a 10 hour drive across The Western Highway to Adelaide today

and I wondered if he would see many Galahs eating the spilled grain on the road outside Kaniva.

A lot of them end up splattered on the roadside 🙂

I found this funny little poem about such a Galah
It starts:

I was a little pink Galah
Just sitting on the highway tar.
Just sitting, eating on the road
Wheat that spilt from someone’s load.
source

The politicians returned to Canberra last Monday.  The House is now sitting.  It only took a hint about a Federal Election later in the year for our house phone to start ringing.

‘Could I speak to Catherine’, not ‘could I speak to Mrs So and So’,  just Catherine.

Up goes my back – call me old fashioned but it doesn’t matter who you are, I tell (or let you know in one way or another) when you can approach me informally.

She introduced herself as a volunteer from our local member’s office all nice and gooey like asking if I’m fine, am I happy with things at the moment, anything I need a hand with.  No contact with any of his constituents in the past years and then she asks do I have email, would we like kept up to date with progress, oh and would I like to tell her who I voted for in the last election!

Yes -no – and no!  It’s nobodies business but my own, I don’t tell anyone else, not even The Golfer, who I voted for!

With that it was, thank you and the line went dead.

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Two nights later The Golfer gets someone asking if he’d like to help with a survey. About what? he asks.  ‘The upcoming election’. No indication of where this person was ringing from at all.  Then when The Golfer mentioned ‘how did you get this number?  We are on the do not call register’ he put the phone down.

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Looks like the wheels are starting to turn (churn?)

 

We started the day (last Tuesday) with the intention of it being a ‘no spend day’ as lots of bloggers call them – a day when we would try not to use any money.

Not too far from us (about a half hour drive) is a very (very) large shopping centre/mall filled with all the regular stores and lots of new very exclusive (read expensive) ones that are added each time the centre is updated and consequently enlarged.  It was one of the first ‘big’ ones here in the eastern suburbs and even though more and more of the smaller ones are being ‘revitalised’ with just about the same tenants (which as you see in this recent link – as in past 12 months – is causing a bit of concern to the management) it does hold it’s own in the popularity stakes.  Westfield Doncaster, originally known (and still is to me and my friends ) as Doncaster Shoppingtown. it always seems to be the ‘classiest’ of them all.  You feel you have to dress properly when you go there to shop lol

And joy of joys, they have red and green lights in their huge carpark to tell if there is a space available.  Drive in and the little overhead light goes red – reverse out and it turns green.  No driving round and round with a crook neck looking up and down the rows for empty spots – these can be seen quite clearly from the end of the rows as you drive past.

Anyway this is one to the few places you’ll find an Apple store in Victoria so when we heard about the recall on the thingy that plugs in the wall and charges your iPad The Golfer and I planned a quiet morning exchanging our chargers and maybe doing a bit of window shopping at the same time.

Beautiful window displays means lots of thinking and talking about clothes and discussing whether to or not and usually deciding we have enough to keep us going and if it really was a ‘nice frock/blouse/shirt/pair of trousers etc ‘ possibly we could find the same style garment at a slightly less extravagant price elsewhere

Key points:

• Australia included in mass Apple adaptor recall
• Adaptors with four or five characters or no characters on inside slot should not be used
• Adaptor can break and may cause electric shock
• Customers can take faulty AC wall adaptors to Apple store or authorised supplier

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-29/apple-issues-worldwide-charger-recall-amid-electric-shock-fears/7123946

Apple stores are so bright and airy and yet so basic I always feel a bit disoriented when I go in the big wide doors.  Of course you don’t get far because there is usually a young earnest staff member there armed with iPad on arm to greet you.

I was surprised when the actual part was just exchanged without even a glance to see if the ‘characters’ tallied with the ones mentioned above, ours did or we wouldn’t have even have been there – a young girl stood at a counter with a box of new parts and a bag for the discarded ones.  Hand over old one, accept new one and be on your way – except we lingered a while and checked out the new editions of our tablets.  All I can say is that the new ones are expensive 🙂

Up and around we wandered, (this is one shopping centre that seems to have mountains for walkways and you certainly get that missed workout as you walk around) and then I spied it – a chinese bread and cake shop called Breadtop.  ‘Thought you said ‘no spending’ was what The Golfer said.  ‘But I only want to ‘look in the window’ is what I said.  It’s no surprise I’m sure if I tell you I’ve looked in their window before and come home with all sorts of goodies.

Good intentions ignored I picked up a pair of tongs and a tray to load my ‘stash’ onto and started out.  You know (if you were a lucky child) when you saw a pick ‘n mix display of sweets sometimes your mind went blank not knowing which to choose – well, moving along in front of that nice clean looking display behind those sliding glass doors my mind did exactly that.

Although not for long tho’ 🙂

Looking at the business link Breadtop you will see their bread goods are all chinese favourites but they do sell other products as well and, don’t laugh, but  like chinese food (and I don’t know about you) but to me it always seems like I will eat one of their buns and not long after I’m ‘hungry again’ and feel like another. 🙂

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/from-100-in-his-pocket-to-a-sprawling-bun-empire-20120529-1zgm1.html

Nearly mid morning when we arrive at the food hall and I wasn’t going to say no when The Golfer suggested a coffee.  Now this is a very upmarket food court – not the usual run of the mill food outlets, lots of comfortable seats, huge high backed chairs to lose yourself in.  Which is exactly where I enjoyed my coffee and chocolate waffle from Planet Chocolate, tucked down away from the noise and goings on around me.

Home by lunchtime wondering where the morning went.  It had turned out to be not quite the thrifty outing we planned but so what if our good intentions went by the wayside and we spent on a ‘non spending’ day – we can make another day for that – it’s good to have an unplanned treat now and again 🙂

February 1st 2016 – our Big Girl’s birthday. Happy Birthday J.   Born (at home) during one of the worst winter England had experienced.  Know as The Big Freeze of 1963 all I can say is central heating was still a luxury – we had poky little coal fires in the big old house we lived in and it was cold!  But we survived lol

So here we are at the start of the second month of this year – time to start the year proper.  All the Christmas and New Year festivities are definitely over and done with, people are back at work, business’ are trading again, our dollar is still sinking, the school bus is going past a 8am which means the schools are back after the long summer break.  That fact was reinforced last week by the the usual tv coverage of 5yr olds, some putting on a very brave face as well as many sets of twins, making their way into class rooms for the first time.  Oh and Federal MPs returned to Canberra today after their long summer break – wonder what unknown surprises they have in store for us there ??  Raising the GST ??

The Australian Open tennis tournament finished yesterday, no surprises in that Novac Djokovic beat Andy Murray (who might get more support if he spent more time thinking about his game and less mouthing off at all and sundry) and a big surprise win for Angelique Kerber over Serina Williams (who was very gracious in defeat).

Cricket seemed to come good towards the end of the season – there were many visiting overseas teams (West Indies, India, Pakistan,New Zealand), there were Test matches which included a first ever day/night Test and also some very ho hum matches which seemed to go on for ever, followed by some very good T20 against India who proved they certainly could hit that ball for a six and succeeded in beating Australia in all three games.

And of course there was the entertaining Big Bash league – all good fun, which isn’t how I viewed it when it first to began – ‘loud noisy bash and crash, no proper thought to how they played the game’ – until I came to understand it isn’t the same sort of ‘pure’ game like in Test matches or even the shortened day nighter T20 (20/20) games but is a form of its own.  And like it or not it appears to be here to stay.

‘The Big Bash not only attracts the best players in Australia, although many will be on Test match duty, but the best players from around the world. That includes some of the West Indies best players who have decided to forgo the Test series against Australia to play in the Big Bash’
http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/12/15/who-are-the-big-names-in-your-team-for-the-2015-2016-big-bash-league/

With all that cricket and tennis, oh, and the cycling road racing that was on in South Australia (which I forgot to mention) looking back over the past two weeks it seems like I watched a lot of sport on tv lol but I wasn’t just sitting there oggled eyed, I did do (what else??) a lot of knitting at the same time.

I know I have them (and I’m sure most knitters do as well) those favourite simple, ‘could almost do it blindfold’ knitting patterns.  The one above I found quite a few years ago and the v neck style is my ‘go to’ for a lot of the under 12 months charity cardigans I make.  Knitters know once the basic size is there the world is your oyster and with the aid of pen and paper for ‘workings out’ my oysters come in all colours and designs.  These coloured ones below are some from last year – and yes, I know I made a mistake in the yellow one (Only I didn’t discover it until after I’d delivered the big box and decided to look at the photos I had taken 😦 )

KOGO has a ‘Give a baby a warm start’ programme where struggling new mums are given baby packs containing knitted items, so as well as coloured cardigans, I knit lots of new born baby sizes in white which can be used for either boys or girls.  A couple of weeks ago armed with a huge 200gm ball of 8ply I made a start.  It’s surprising how quickly it knits up and as these are only the 3-6 month size they are finished in no time.

 

So at the moment it’s 2 down and another half finished.  I’ve read a bit of the book I mentioned previously but even tho’ I’m good at doing some things at the same time, I don’t seem to have mastered the art of knitting watching tv and reading at the same time 🙂

The sun is shining today and it’s not raining, we had oodles this past week but scratch below the surface of the ground and you wouldn’t know.  Still it’s soft enough to do a bit of weeding so that’s where I’m off to now – maybe I’ll have a cup of coffee and read for a while later.  It would seem my tv binge watching is over for a while and it’s Hello to the Year Proper 🙂