Month: October 2016

Years ago when i was a ‘teenager’ we lived in a small village in Nottinghamshire.  My father was stationed at the airforce camp so I wasn’t classed as a local but via the school bus, church and youth club I did get to know some of the youngsters.  Saturday was the day (because nobody went out on school nights except to the youth club on Wednesday evening) I’d meet some of them in a cafe on the High Street.  Not a greasy spoon type but not posh either.  It’s one deciding factor as a meeting place where my generation was concerned was that it had a juke box 🙂

Not that far from where I live now there is a nice little coffee shop.  It’s a lovely place to meet with friends – there’s an assortment of seating indoors and out in the garden.  Inside you’ll find little round bistro type tables and chairs, comfy couches with low tables for your food and drink ( ideal for little kids) there are wooden benches and solid tables that cater for ‘groups’ as well as along one wall there are upholstered benches with tables that suit some of the larger sized ladies because they can ‘spread out’.  And because it’s at Montrose, set in the foothills of The Dandenongs there is a wood burning heater that feels so good and welcoming when it’s cold and chilly outside in the winter (or a spring that has been feeling like winter)

Now as well as coffees and teas of all shapes and sizes catering for all needs and wants they have snacky type goods (cakes pastries sandwiches) – things you can enjoy with those teas and coffees BUT their claim to fame are the handmade chocolates the little company has specialised in for years.  In fact they describe their coffees shops as ‘cafe style chocolate shops’   And along with your order you are offered one of their delights – ooh yummy.

So as I said it’s a great place to meet up with friends – not so much for ladies who lunch but those who enjoy good company along with a few laughs.  Manners are adhered to – small sips from the cup, small nibbles taken of food and especially no elbows on the table. 🙂

Some days we have company – more than can sit at our little table so they have to spread out onto one of the large wooden ones. Yes,  we let some of the old fellas come along – they enjoy their own company, happy and relaxed talking of shared times gone by!  Usually about ‘when we were young lads’ – mainly all things air force with flying thingies thrown in for good measure.  They don’t always stay in the past, sometimes up to date topics arise.  Aches pains pensions – oh and what’s going to win the Melbourne Cup (which will be run next week) Not sure about the manners part – look at all that slouching and elbows on the table.  Some mothers would not be happy if they saw that LOL

One of my friends mentioned this ‘us and them’ look that day and said her parents would not have been happy at us (ladies) being excluded as it wasn’t like that in their day.  It might have looked that way but it certainly didn’t feel that way.  Oh and that group in the background isn’t me and my ladies but another lot of ‘mature age coffee drinkers’lol

That need to meet and communicate with other like company seems to be relevant no matter what age (or sex) we are.

What are you musing about on this Monday

We are very lucky in that the area where I live has quite a few swimming pools within a half hour drive.  I have a full olympic size one just five minutes from home and a slightly smaller one in the larger leisure centre complex about ten minutes away.

As well as use of the gym and fitness rooms my membership at the leisure centre gives me the option of a warm water exercise/recouperation pool; whereas at the local pool that’s just what you get – big long indoor pool, plus outdoor medium size and children pools – at a much cheaper cost then the leisure centre.  Guess I’m greedy in that I utilise both of them.

One day last week I decided late morning to get the togs and towels out and go close to home – the early morning ‘oldies’ and the preschool swimming classes would be finished so there be plenty of parking close to the building.  An absolute necessity on a day of pouring rain – nothing worse than getting wet before you have to.  Of course in the summer time it’s trees we look for – nothing worse than driving home in an overcooked car lol

In I go through the revolving door and stopped dead in my tracks

Lanes sectioned off, kids everywhere, and the noise was deafening.  I looked at a lifeguard standing near the door and made a face before muttering ‘ Oh that’s just not fair, I was so looking forward to a peaceful swim’

Then asked why there were no buses outside to warn me I’d have company.

Term four she said, our busiest for school swimming lessons. (For those that don’t know, that’s the spring leading up to summer term) The buses drop one grade, turn around, go back to the school to pick up the next grade by which time this lot will have had their lessons and be ready to go back to school where another grade will be ready to board – and so on.  I suppose our kids were lucky in that living so close they just walked there and back each week.

Thinking about it later I felt quite guilty – swimming lessons are a very important part of our schools curriculum.

So with a bit of digging around I discovered that as early as 1916 learn to swim classes were introduced by the Victorian Education Department, then the Herald ‘learn to swim campaign’ began in 1929  

I’m sure our kids still have their original 25metre and life saving certificates.  As well as learning to swim learning to help others in need is also taught.

Now this handy dandy website tells me the current population of Australia is about 24 million – plus lots of other interesting facts and figures.

http://countrymeters.info/en/Australia

And in the year June 2016/ July 2017 there were 280 deaths by drowning in Australian waterways.  All these statistics and more are in this really easy to read very enlightening report.  (Swimming pools refer to backyard pools)

Click to access RLS_NDR2016_ReportLR.pdf

In a fit of pique I moaned about all the school kids at the pool – I still can’t believe I did that.

Guess I’ll have to leave them to it – and get to pool early morning.

Say about  8 am 🙂

So I’m trying to use up  more of the ‘stash’ – you know, all the stuff you gather over time because it looks good and you know just what you are going to do with it.  Given time to come up with an idea that is 🙂

Pretty pink wool needs a pretty pattern to show it off and Catherine has loads of pretty patterns.  She also has loads of plain simple easy to knit patterns.  It’s usually easy to take one of the plain simple ones and with a bit of time and multiplication meld the two together

One back knit, one front knit and one sleeve – which for some reason I decide to sew together -my reasoning being it will enable me to get a better idea of the sizing because when you are playing around some times what the book says, what you actually do and then what actually happens can be very different things.

With several things on the go at one time I chose to work on something else over the weekend and come back to the pretty pink baby cardigan this morning.  Just one  problem, I did a bit of a clear up and the whereabouts of the piece of paper with all my calculations on is nowhere to be found

Note I said piece of paper and not the exercise book I usually use for this sort of thing.

It is not the easiest thing in the world to count stitches on lacy patterns especially when they are joined together so after much cursing and swearing  muttering, out cames the fine scissors and I set to work to take the pieces apart.

Patience is a virtue – one I obviously don’t have – especially when it comes to locating the wool used to sew seams together; made worse by the fact some seams joined pieces with holes near the edge.

Result – yes you guessed correctly.  Catherine ‘snipped/cut’ the wrong strand and had holes where there weren’t supposed to be holes.

Now to count cast ons,  rework the pretty pattern of one front, then get on and knit the other front and sleeve.  Oh and write my ‘workings out’ in my notebook – and perhaps next time (if there is a next time) add another stitch to each end to provide a wider selvedge.

I’m thinking that to save me all this hassle from now on I’m going to jot those figures and thoughts down in my iPad notes as well as my handwritten notebook.

What do you think?  Double or nothing sound like the way to go?

Looking at her antics today there are times when I think our Kiera has an attitude problem. Here’s what happened.

As you can see below wet and wild was what we woke to this morning.  Now we shouldn’t grumble because the weather man did tell us more was coming but there are times when, well, there are times when he doesn’t quite get it right.  Hence the surprise when he does lol

After breakfast I looked out over the back garden and it didn’t seem to be too bad.  The sun had broken through but the rain was still coming down.

I must explain to you that those two pens you can see there are from when I used to breed Burmese kittens – as they were house raised once they were running around I needed safe places for them to spend time outside  So some days I’d pop a litter in them along with their ‘mum’ to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine then bring them back indoors later in the day.

We now use one as a ‘shed’ and Kiera (as well as in the past previous feline friends now departed) has the use of one further down the garden  If I’m going out, rather than leave her indoors all the time or trust whe doesn’t wander from the deck whilst I’m away, pop her in there and I know she’s safe. A room with a view full of home comforts, several comfy beds plus a big box bed for if it’s windy, litter tray food water and even power (for electric blankets) so she really can’t grumble can she?!

Would you like to see our little madam’s reaction to the suggestion she spend a little time outside.  Now I’m not a mind reader but this looks to me like she’s saying:-

You want me to do what?  You want me to go where?

Thank you very much for asking but I’d rather stay here!

Now clear off while I get some shut eye 🙂

It’s nearly lunchtime and the rain continues to fall.  In an on again – off again pattern.  Blue skies for a while then dark ones for a while.  What will be will be seems the order of the day I suppose 🙂

How’s your Saturday going?

Spring popped in to say hello on Monday The sun shone – Kiera took up residence in her hammock on the deck and I picked the first rose of the season from the garden.  ‘Julia’s Rose’

Then things started to go downhill.

Storm clouds gathering on the horizon mean’t one thing for Kiera

A change in accomodation to a nice comfy chair further over beside the blind protected from the wind and the rain.  And who said cats are daft ??

She never fails to entertain me – If she didn’t have a name already I’d call her smiley – because that just what she does.  Makes me smile  🙂

Oh and Spring said she might be back on Thursday, is going to take the weekend off and hopes to pop in again next Monday. We live in hope !

(photos enlarge with a click)

Life this week has been good.

Legs and hips have behaved themselves.  The warm water pool was warm.  I managed a short walk.

We watched ‘Sully’ at one of the local cinemas – my birthday treat.  It is one that has been fitted out with lovely big reclining seats plus footrests and big arms rests you can share.  They’ll be comfortable enough to nod off in if the movie isn’t that crash hot.  No fear of that with ‘Sully’  Thoroughly enjoyed it – a real ‘ feel good ‘ one.

The temperature tomorrow is going to be bright and sunny 21c/70f.  Sounds good – only drawback is it’s going down to 4c/ about 39f tonight.  Last night it was 2c/35f. Come on Spring, get your act together.  This messing around is not funny!!

And as promised, here’s the best. I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our family.  Meet Gt Grandson number 1.(name unknown)  He’ll be arriving early next year in a maternity ward in Brisbane.  Something to look forward to now  🙂

How’s your week been?

I don’t know about you but as I’ve got older I just want things to flow along smoothly.  No unexpected changes or surprises.  That doesn’t mean I don’t instigate changes myself, just don’t like having them ‘forced’ on me

For more years than I can remember we have been associated with two phone providers. There is the national carrier T who provides the landline to the house and who we use for local calls and there’s the other carrier O who we use for long distance which on the bill are just termed as National and International. The old terms of STD (subscriber trunk dialling) and ISD (international subscriber dialling) that first appeared when subscribers could place their own calls without going through the operator seemed to have gone by the wayside now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_switchboard

We split from T many years ago when the new carrier came on the scene and ‘special rates’ for long distance calls first appeared – at one time we used to makes lots of interstate and international calls and ‘these rates’ were much better than what we were paying.  These days because of other ways of keeping in touch those calls vary month to month – there are still some we know without internet and others who don’t like emails and would run a mile rather than talk on skpe lol

So we receive two sets of accounts, line rental and local calls from one and another from the other company for everything else. Yes, we do have mobiles but we don’t feel about them the way so many do these days. We use the internet at home, mine is prepaid and The Golfer is on a very old low cost plan. It was a very good arrangement that as far as I was concerned suited us – until recently.

Fast forward to last month and we get a very nice note from the national carrier advising of a(nother) rise in the line rental.  A necessary evil because we need it for our internet provider (another company unrelated to the other two)

So I start investigating other options and you’d never believe what I found.

Right under my nose as well  🙂

For less than the cost of the new monthly line rental I can now get (from T) a plan  covering said rental plus unlimited local calls and lots of other low cost call charges and because we are pensioners (shush, we don’t always admit to that) there is a monthly allowance that will definitely cover those national and international calls we make using O plus various other extras.  So we’ll basically be paying line rental and everything else will be free

How good is that  🙂

How daft (and pleased) did I feel when I realised that by returning to a full service with the national carrier I would be getting a bargain and saving myself some money as well.

Now I realise all businesses welcome new clients with open arms these days but I left the ‘shop’ feeling very content after the ‘very young girl – ‘almost a child’ – I spoke with to arrange this change looked me in the eye and came out with a variation of a very old expression

‘Welcome back to the fold’

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/return+to+the+fold

It has been a glorious day, sunny dry and warm, much drier and very much warmer than all the days since we arrived home four weeks ago.  Pity about the gale force winds we had all day wreaking havoc in our suburb – mind you they did dry the overnight load of washing I did within half an hour of it being pegged on the line 🙂

I was really looking forward to an extra hours lie in this morning until I realised it is Spring here in Australia – and what happens at clock changing time in Spring?  Yes, we spring forward so we lost an hour!   Changing the time in my car is such a hassle I didn’t do it six months ago – guess I’ll be able to relax now and won’t have to remember it’s a hour fast lol

Of course those of you who know me will know this is one time change I actually look forward to (when I get the forward/backward movement right) because it means there will be more daylight hours at the end of the day – which is when they are of more use to me.  And from that statement you will be right in assuming I’m not at my best first thing in the morning and extra daylight at that time would be a waste 🙂

And going by our overnight temperatures at the moment they (the extra hours of daylight) most certainly would be a waste.  They (the overnight temps) have only risen a degree or two since we went away.  Oh, what a shock to the system that was – arriving home to weather that wasn’t much different to that we left seven weeks earlier!  Of course I’m stretching it a bit, we have some warmish days coming up this week but the overnights are only just going into double digits.  10c is 50f and that or below is not my idea of fun to wake up to lol

The change of season is noticeable in the garden, the roses obviously appreciated their annual haircut along with the record winter rainfall.  Lots of new growth but bit early for flowers yet.  I’ve pottered around out there and taken a couple of short walks on days when we had some respite from the almost constant rain but that’s about it as for some reason after months and months of not giving me any trouble my back has been playing up.

My friend called ‘Sciatica’ (courtesy of the Spinal Stenosis I have) has been visiting recently – numb tingling legs along with that awful sharp electric shock feeling making me jump out of my skin doesn’t make me the easiest person to live with so I’ve been taking it easy tidying up all the loose ends associated with the knitting I did up north and staying out of harms way until things have subsided and I can move about without fear of being ‘shocked’.

And of course you know who has been most willing to help – when she’s stayed awake long enough that is.

It’s good to be back – I’ll pop in and say hello to you as I work my way round blogs.

Bye for now

Cathy