Month: October 2019

Posted on

Do you ever wonder…

Cars never played a part in my life until we came to Australia.  There was always a bus at the end of the road or you walked.  We (well The Golfer) did own a car…..which went with him to work so the option for me to use it wasn’t there.  Or the funds to buy another one just for me!

Andrew has just retired and did what many new retirees do,  bought a new car, trading his reasonably newish one for one higher of the ground (easier to get in and out of)  which made me think about one of the cars I owned back in the 1980/90s

Not new then, couldn’t afford a new one, but I treated it like a new one and it certainly was a well loved one.  Sleek and shiny, compact with everything close at hand (remember I’m only a little lady with short arms), a heater that worked (usually) certainly no aircon (unless you wound down the window) and a manual drive….none of this automatic stuff that’s the norm these days 😎

I loved my little Holden Gemini coupe that…..if I’m remembering rightly….no pictures were taken to remind me….looked like this white one….’cept it was coloured this exact shade of yellow.  Fairly low, with two doors and a detachable black louvre across that sloping back window, room for me and my parcels, it went like a bomb.  Or at least that’s what it sounded like before I had a new exhaust put in.

Then in 1994 The Golfer accepted a position interstate and treated me to a ‘brand new car’ – my first Lance(r).  Of course I couldn’t say ‘no thanks darling I’d rather drive my 20yr old one instead’ so he was accepted gratefully.  I will always remember Lance mark1 with fondness – I wrote about the day we said goodbye as a sort of tribute.

Yes I know a car’s a car, it’s just there to get me from A to B, safely and in reasonable comfort, such as is expected now in 2019

BUT I do wonder what happened to my little yellow bullet.  Was she looked after by the young lad who bought her from me all those years ago.  Would I be comfortable to drive her today- never mind be able to get into her 😎

What about you- do you have memories about previous cars…..share the good, the bad and the ugly if you dare….or care to remember 🚕🚗🚙

 

Posted on

I had a little chuckle…..

The time in some of our states and territories here in Australia changed a couple of weekends ago.  Here in Victoria we are now running on Daylight Savings Time ….or.Summertime as I like to call it 😎

Not a favourite move for some people but you’ll hear no complaints from me – until it’s time to return to Eastern Standard time because that means Autumn and Winter are on their way.

i know the UK (not sure about other northern hemisphere countries) will be altering their clocks this coming weekend.  So taking into account our springing forward and their falling back the time difference between me and my next sister and baby brother stretches out to 11hrs….which believe it or not causes me more confusion (what time is in England??) than during our winter when it’s 9hrs.

Anyway this little ‘guide’ is what I’m chuckling over.

Let’s just say I’m in agreement with the car radio sentiment.

Because it’s such a faff trying to change the clock in my car, it stays the same all year round- I just have to remember when it’s showing the correct time!

Which it is at the moment – I think 😊😊

Posted on

No wonder I couldn’t find it…

Or possibly – The reason I’ve never been able to find it

A long time ago I read a book by Joanne Harris called Chocolat.  Thoroughly enjoyed it and noticed (on Goodreads) a few years later the author had written a sequel.  Nope not in my library but I could always live in hope of finding it in a second hand bookshop or an op shop.

In the meantime I’ve read and enjoyed more of her books but could not get my hands on the Chocolat sequel I’d been hunting for.  This is what I’ve been looking for  –  The Girl with No Shadow.   

The Girl with No Shadow
(Chocolat #2)
by Joanne Harris (Goodreads Author)

The wind has always dictated Vianne Rocher’s every move, buffeting her from the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and baby Rosette, safe.

Shaky Internet yesterday (thank you NBN linesmen) so I popped down to the library to use theirs – had a browse along the shelves and found this – The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris which was put on the pile that came home with me.

The Lollipop Shoes
(Chocolat #2)
by Joanne Harris (Goodreads Author

The wind has always dictated Vianne Rocher’s every move, buffeting her from the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and baby Rosette, safe.

What I’ve added is the Goodreads  ‘book blurb’ for both books  – notice anything familiar?  It would appear the same book was published under two different titles.  The first one (the one I’ve been hunting for) was the title in the US – the second one was the title in the rest of the world.  It would have been a real fluke if I had found it here in Australia!

Anyway I’m pleased I found the book I’ve been looking for all this time……even if it was by chance  – let’s just hope it lives up to its reviews and I enjoy it.😊

Posted on

I’ve been thinking…..

Thinking about how quickly this month is going by.

Here we are into the third week already, there’s something marked on most of the  upcoming days and I’m still trying to get to grips with things that happened during the first week!

  • Thinking about how most of Victoria must be fed up with our changeable weather.  What we think of as Spring weather (dry sunny and pleasantly warm) seems to be taking a long time to arrive – cold wet and windy are the order of the day with a teaser thrown in here and there.
  • Thinking about the days we spent with no landline and consequently no internet courtesy (it finally turned out) of the NBN line layers working in our and nearby streets.  The Telstra technician who came (read that as finally turned up days later) to ‘find’ the fault……over $100 to pay if it was on our side of the socket (entry point) nil if on the other……mentioned it could (more than likely, would) happen again if ‘they’ had to work in the pit opposite our house.
  • Thinking about for one reason or another I seem to have spent an awful lot of time waiting  these past weeks.  So many queues – so many waiting rooms.  Luckily I plan for delays and take a book (or knitting) –  good for some situations, a bit awkward in some 😊
  • Thinking about a CT scan and how previous findings marked moderate are now read as severe.  How changes happen without you really noticing until, bam, they are very noticeable.
  • Thinking about other readings (BP) and how they have suddenly changed.  Family history and pain can do that, the GP said.  We’ll change your medication- ‘cept the chosen one may have side effects.  Like what, I asked.  Oh swollen ankles, nothing to worry about.  Well we’ll cross that bridge when or if we get to it.

AND

So you don’t think I’ve only had ‘pain in the a****’ things to think about…..I’ve been

  • Thinking about how pleased I am that choir rehearsals have begun again (for me that is). There is a U3A promotional concert tomorrow morning so it’s been hectic but fun catching up on songs learnt and practiced while we were away.
  • Thinking about how lucky we are here in Melbourne to attract international exhibitions at the NGV.  The decision we made to leave The Terracotta Warriors until the last week was so well worth the long wait in line.  A late afternoon slot meant there were no crowds, giving us room to move and look at things from different angles.
  • Thinking how glad we checked the pile of gift cards languishing in the bedroom – we forget when they run out – and there was a Gold Class (cinema) one, obviously a present from last year because it was due to expire this month.   The Golfer signed up for a new seniors scheme run by the cinema chain which meant we received discount on the seats as well as food; and you know how they charge like a wounded bull so we were able to have more to eat than originally planned 😊
  • Oh and Downton Abbey was what we saw.  I didn’t watch the tv series so not knowing all the back story, to me it was just a grand showy film about the goings on in a ‘big house’ – twists and turns and what seemed to me an ending that left a way for another production about the same characters.

And then there was someone and something I’ve been thinking of for a few weeks now.

Not long after my dear friend died last month her daughters popped in with a gift.  They’d been ‘spreading their mother’s love’ around her friends and would like us to have something of hers.  A bag of mill ends  from Spotlight 😊  Their mother knit for various charities and that was what they wanted us (the recipients) to do.  No problem where I was concerned- I was to knit something for charity and they’d drop in again sometime to see what I’d come up with.

They did pop in again- Just the other day – And this is what I showed themTwo small cardigans (size 3 months) and enough wool left for two more 😊

Are you willing to share the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in your life at the moment?

Posted on

Do you know what today is?….

Today- the first Friday in October is World Smile Day.

Started in 1999 by Harvey Ball the creator of the smiley face (😊) who thought that we, all of us worldwide  should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts  source

The weather today was the opposite of the past two days, cold and damp so I didn’t go far, just down to the local woollies to pick up a few bits.  Even though you really want to, trying to smile when your aching doesn’t always happen but I did succeed in making someone else smile.

There’s a promotion on at the moment where the supermarket chain is giving away gardens  (little containers of seeds/soil) in an attempt to get children interested in growing their own food.  Well, not quite giving them away – spend so much and then you get one (or two or more!)

There was a mum standing behind me In the lineup at the till and the children with her were getting restless (slightly understated there lol) so as my ‘few bits’ ended up being quite a few bits and i usually say no thank you when offered the giveaways I decided to offer them to the family instead.  Well you’d have thought all their Christmases had come at once – lots of smiles all round.  Which had me smiling as well 😊  We all need to remember:-

Posted on

There once was a time….

Oh yes, there once was a time when I could do lots of things without making a noise 🙄

They really were good times 😊

After groaning  outloud and following up with a quick ‘ouch’ trying to put my shoes on at the GP’s yesterday I ended up having another CT scan on my lower back.  It’s a few years since the initial diagnosis so we’ll see what changes have happened in that time.  Spinal Stenosis can be a pain- in your back, hips, legs, even your bumalumsky lol

October has arrived- dry and sunny and quite warm at the moment…..although I do believe the weather gods have plans to change that.  I changed some of the bedding, removing the ‘spare’ queen size quilt that is used for really cold nights;  since we came back it’s been sitting on the chair looking very forlorn so today I thought a bit of sunshine to air it off would be good and then pack it away for ‘hopefully’ a very long time!

There once was a time when I’d bound down the back steps to hang it over the big line in the back garden but today I got The Golfer to drape it over the little whirligig on the deck.  It was an easy option to get him to do it before he tootled off to the city – I’ll be able to bring it in later without getting tangled up in the line – sure as fate if it was on the big one I’d end up with it over my head as I tried to dislodge it, then fall flat on my face trying to get up the steps!

October means birthdays – mine and The Golfers.  It also means a frantic look through the gift cards in the cupboard to see if any expire this month!

There was a time when businesses would acknowledge customers on their  birthday- you’d get cards in the post, discounts on lots of services, I remember (many many years ago) one of my hairdressers gave a free shampoo and set.  Mine just texts a Happy Birthday greeting now.  One place The Golfer does get a gift from is the club…..at one time it was a free meal and drink for himself (plus a tiddly little birthday cake) and similar value meal for a guest.Not these days now – just a monetry voucher.


I received a little ‘card’ from the optician the other day.  Oh that’s great, I thought until I turned it over.  Always a catch isn’t there.  Spend $400 to get $100 off – yes 25% – there was a time when I would have jumped at the offer but no good to me now, my days of dressing to impress are long gone lol

Oh dear, look at the time  – it’s nearly 2 o’clock – I spent some time fiddling about on here this morning changing my theme again.  Hopefully I’ll settle on this one even if I can’t get the photos to enlarge if they’re ‘clicked on’

Bye for now.

Cathy

Website Built with WordPress.com.