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Its been a busy week with lots of thrifty things going on as well as family occasions.

We did have 1 hour of rain yesterday and then it stopped – with no more forecast for a few days.

Life is grim some times:(

As I mentioned the other day my cousin and I were due Monday to go and see another aged care facility and this one turned out to be as we hoped it would be. Warm and friendly with ‘happy’ looking residents.

A Pam is going in today for a fortnight to see how she feels – she has the impression its for a rest but we really hope she likes there and agrees to stay ‘cose – as wait for it – she spent most of yesterday in A&E at the local hospital.

She took a tumble at home early yesterday morning and instead of pushing her alarm that hangs round her neck she just lay on the floor so when the personal carer turned up to shower her it was off in the ambulance for xrays and check up.

Its 2pm now and I’m waiting to hear when she will be discharged and then we are taking her over to the Nursing Home and safety.

This is what we have been trying to get through to her about the safety aspect of living on her own so maybe this one time she will see sense and put her unit up for sale.

Enough of my worries – Monday evening Dh and I went to another concert that Shannon was performing in.

School band this time. She’s been learning the clarinet this year and loves it.

This certainly has been the year she’s blossomed, she’s not a girly girl or one of the ‘in’ crowd at school but loves her music, both singing and playing.

Only managed to get one shot of her stint on stage as that woman in front of me would not keep her head still and I gave up in the end. She’s in the front row fourth from the right waiting for her part to start and as it was an early evening performance the kids are still in part of their school uniforms but minus the ties

Click on the photo to enlarge

Frugal days at home meant one day I rummaged through and cleared out all those lost looking veggies from the fridge – we ended up with a marvellous soup.

I actually had visions of another ‘stew’ appearing that day but didn’t defrost the meat in time so parsnip, turnip, swede, carrots, celery, potatoes and half a red pepper made its way in to the pot. I had cooked down and blended a box of tomatoes the other week (one of my $2 finds) and froze it into several amounts so used one of them with water and veg stock powder for the base and just put it on to cook away till soft. Pureed the cooked veg and Voila Lunch………………. as enough in the freezer for another day.

Sounds a bit of a mish mash but it really was quite tasty in a wintery veg sort of way.

Friday I made a visit to a local furniture factory for my enormous free bag of wood shavings to use for cat litter in the garage. Not indoors as they spread it all over the place – its much easier to sweep of the concrete floor than off my carpet lol

Saturday morning I scored another bargain $2 box of fruit and veg at the greengrocers.

Nice mangoes and avocadoes (a bit soft) but perfect for a fruit salad that same day, pears, apples, mandarins, big oversized navel oranges, lemons, tiny butter squash and asparagus, yellow beans, potatoes and onions. Not perfect but useable there and then and I certainly used them there and then.

We ate the oranges over the next few days, stewed and froze the pears and apples, sqeezed the lemons and froze the juice (didn’t like the look of the skins so didn’t grate the rinds) cooked the yellow beans with some green ones for contrast along with the squash and used the potatoes and onions in a shepherd’s pie. I actually gave the asparagus away as neither of us like it.

Heres Shannon and her friends at Sofia’s (an Italian chain) having a good time last Sunday evening at her birthday dinner. This is where the previous photo was taken.

click to enlarge

Theres a real b…………. of a week in my house going cheap if anyone wants it. Its a week I don’t want to repeat in the near future.

I’m not going to dwell on it too much ‘cept to say I don’t want to see the inside of another nursing home, shovel anymore wood chips or visit the vet again for a while.

Somewhere in Melbourne there has to be a nursing home that doesn’t feel like its God’s waiting room, somewhere that looks like it cares for its residents.

I would like it to be warm and inviting, not to be sterile or smelly, to give the impression it feels for its residents no matter what state of decline they may be in. Somewhere that provides peace and quiet, reassurance and also stimulation, its out there somewhere.

We have another appointment on Monday and hopefully this will be the one.

I am fed up shifting all that mulch – basically thats it. Dh helps for which I’m grateful but its a big task.

Theres a satifying feeling of watching the pile get lower and the garden beds being covered over which will help if theres no rain during the Summer but my back aches each evening and theres loads more to shift.

I do have plans for a lot of it but the remainder will be heaped behind the garage and left to decompose and then added to the compost slowly. In the meantime its sitting in my driveway and can’t just get up and walk round there lol

My Vet or rather my cats’ Vet has been a good friend to me and the animals for many years and this week had to pass on some unpleasant news. My darling Leroy has Lung Cancer. When I gather some photos together I’ll write a post about him. He is a 16 year old Chocolate Burmese Cat and has lived with us since he was 3 months old.

If your cat has a cough and keeps gagging don’t just assume its got a fur ball problem – get it checked out.

Now there has been one good thing happen this week – I’m going on holiday again in November.

Not planned but welcomed.

Dh and I have our birthdays in the same week and the kids have put in and shouted us both a week in Numurkah (northern Victoria) late October early November.

The unit sleeps 6 so our friends from Adelaide (the ones we met up with in Bowwen) are going to drive up and we’ll spend some time together, the men are especially looking forward to the week as the nearby golf course gives free rounds for those staying at the resort.

Lots to do before then tho’ – physically and emotionally. So I’m off for a bath now.

Nice warm water and some Lectric Soda Crystals will most likely do the trick – (even tho’ we have really soft water here in Melbourne I use them in the washing machine as it helps get the clothes cleaner) – and I won’t be bent over in the morning.

A couple of my friends didn’t get the joke when I told it to them.

Its a groaner, Look at the words.

It sounds like a couple of old fellas comparing operations – having a circumcions – its not the most comfortable thing for the male species but look at their ages. 5 years old.

The first one says ‘I had it done right after I was born, I couldn’t walk for a year’.

Of course he couldn’t – it usually takes a baby 12 months to learn how to walk.

Nothing to do with the op at all lol

Been busy these past few days – have had grandchildren over this weekend so its a short post tonight with this funny (to me) joke. Will be back another day

Two five year old boys are sitting in a hospital waiting room,while their respective mothers are signing them in for surgery.

One leans over to the other and says,”What are you here for?”.

The other boy says,”Circumcision”.

The first boy says “Oh man! I had that done right after I was born. I couldn’t walk for a year”!.

Ok so it’s like this, I’m fed up watching and listening to all the gloom and doom in the financial news and wondering if there’ll be anything left in our pension funds at the end of all this debacle so I’m going to talk about what happens at the other end of the news bulletin. No not the weather – we could talk all day about that particularly as I live in Melbourne – but the Sport.

Changing seasons mean changing sports and Melbourne is reputed to be the sporting capital of Australia so heres what’s making news around the place at the moment.

The Winter football games – Aussie Rules and Rugby League are over for the year.

Manly won the ARL Premiership

Hawthorn won the AFL Premiership

I’ve been home a few weeks now and must mention a couple of awards that have been given to me.

I’m not really au fait with all these awards that seem to be out there but its was nice to think someone thought about me and enjoyed reading my blog.

Anyway thank you to Denise at An English Girl Rambles and also to Laura at Frugal Domesticity for passing them on.

They are supposed to be passed on to other bloggers but I know so few so feel anyone reading this can be nominated for them anyway.

Denise is/was an An English Girl who has lived with her Dh and son in the US for many years – but look what happened to her in September – congratulations Denise. She’s a bit like like me in that she talks about anything and everything – she also shows us some wonderful photographs.

Laura talks about her life as a homemaker, her writings always give me something to think about, whether its about living life in a simple manner and using her resources to the best of her ability, economical recipes or the way the price of goods and services in her town are rising theres always something of interest there.

So Thank You to both these bloggers and I certainly encourage any of you to drop in and see what they have to say.

OK pity party coming up 😦

This past week has flown by, lots of stress associated with my elderly aunt meaning along with my cousin I have to start looking in earnest for a nursing home with a dementia unit attached. Even tho they are becoming the norm its not easy to find one with a space available in the near future. We will just keep on looking and hoping.

Luckily we had some good weather during the week and over the weekend so I’ve been able to get outside and prepare some more ground that had become a bit over grown.

I’ve begun to cover some of that ground with the mountain of newspapers I’ve been hoarding in the garage and will cover that with mulch from the trees that are being taken down and chipped next week.

At the moment it looks like a sea of soggy grey white (wet from todays rain) covered in broken house bricks, needed them to hold the paper down so it doesn’t blow around in the wind. lol

With the dry weather washing has dried and been put away by the afternoons and I have even managed to sit down some of those afternoons and do a bit of knitting which seemed to ease the worry.

Its funny but I can knit and listen to the radio and relax but digging the ground didn’t seem to do that, the hard work didn’t clear my mind and it was always thinking of her and wondering what she was going to get up to next.

I don’t want another repeat of last weeks episode with the gas stove.

Change of mood 🙂

Daylight saving started this past Saturday night.

Unlike many people I have no problems with it as it means I can spend more time outside in daylight during the warmer days of the year ‘cept at the start it has a down side as to begin with I have trouble judging what time it is outside first thing in the morning.

Daylight at the moment is/was about 6am so I’d got into the habit of waking slowly, once my eyes were open I had the choice of getting up then and maybe doing some early jobs (more like take advantage of the computer before Dh got up) or just lying there listening to the radio.

So – as it wasn’t light this morning when I woke I lay there for a long while, didn’t look at the clock as I was trying to go back to sleep. When it did get light and I finally looked at clock………….yes you guessed right…………….putting the clock forward meant it actually was 7am so I will have to be on my toes for the next few days and check the time when I wake up lol

Now Dh uses those huge great bath sheets for his shower but seems to soak them each time – his skin tends to hold the water (hairy monster that he is) and for ages I’ve been trying to get him to form the habit of doing what we were taught (mainly because it took ages for towels to dry in England and Mum would complain all the time) that is to ‘wipe down’ with a flannel/face washer when he’s turned the tap off and before he gets out of the cubicle.

I even gave him his own little pile of old flannels that the grandkids had when little (don’t throw anything away in my house lol) but it didn’t seem to sink in – that bath sheet would be in the wash basket after 2/3 uses.

Well, he finally seems to have understood what I meant and is now in the habit of taking a clean one out of the drawer and dropping that in the wash basket when finished. They are far easier to launder and dry and the big bath sheet lasts for the week – unless something untoward happens to it.

Bye for now

About this time of the year I begin to think about how we have managed on our ‘pays’ during the year and whether we can move along at the same pace next year or whether I’ll have to rethink all the finances and money allocation in the new year.

We live quite simply these days, our bills are no where near as high as they were years ago – in relation to the amount of energy used, goods bought, food consumed and number of people living in the house – so for the two of us living on the age pension and other monthly pension payments hasn’t been such a problem I thought it was going to be.

When friends start complaining about the price of things I tend to agree but not make as much of a fuss as them. I look for lots of bargains and try to find a cheaper alternative at the same standard if I can.

However I wasn’t too happy when the Shire Rates arrived last week and they have risen by nearly $100. That’s for home owners on concession rates so goodness knows how much they rose for those paying the full amount.

In with the yearly ‘Valuation and Rate Notice’ (thats its proper name, we just call it the Rates) we get sent us a lovely coloured brochure detailing where the money is going to be spent which you can believe it if you want……………………..

Somehow I don’t think much is going on vehicle maintenance as the bin men wake me at 6am every Monday morning ‘cose the brakes on the truck squeal every time they slow down in front of each house so the long bendy arm can jump out the side of the truck and pick up the big wheelie bin and upend it. lol

Now as we pay them on a monthly basis that means I’ll have to find an extra $10 each month, for us that isn’t too much of a problem but will be for some. But thinking about it that $10 is what we spend if we go to our local cinema – $5 a head for seniors – or one of our admissions to the folk club concert we go to each month .

Telstra have just advised us that line rental will be rising and in the post today is a letter from TRU telling us that gas prices are about to increase. We use gas for heating, cooking and hot water.

Guess its my turn to complain loud and clear.:))

Heres another of DH’s corny jokes

Why did the golfer wear two pairs of trousers?

In case he got a hole in one

Boom Boom!!

Since we got home I have been finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things. I just drop everything and have taken that many breaks during the day it’s a wonder anything has been done at all.

Hopefully next week will be a bit better and I’ll get back into the general routine of life as it was before.

We have had some rather nice weather these past few days, which meant I spent a lot of the time outside – not just gazing into space but doing fruitful jobs. Or least I hope they will be

This patch of ground at the bottom of the garden has evolved slowly over the past few years. From a wholly grassed back garden – that way ‘cose both of us were working full time and it was easier just to mow than tend to ‘flowers’ – to a ‘pretty’ garden has taken a while mainly because of the water shortage and lack of finances 😦

The first photo was taken in October 2003, then October 2004 and the last in December 2006 so it has filled out slowly. October is Spring and December is summer so you can see how the grass suffered from the years when there was no rain at all. We were lucky with rain this Winter – we actually had some, so its green at the moment but that will most likely change once the hot dry days of summer arrive.

This particular day DH wasn’t happy ‘cose the aircraft museum he had planned to visit was closed so we had a change of plan and he soon got into the swing of things when this little one came over to say hello 🙂

This funny looking fellow is a Rock Wallaby and lives near Mareeba in Far North Queensland

Going out from Cairns beyond Mareeba where coffee is grown there is a place called Granite Gorge Nature Park where you can walk about and climb the enormous huge granite boulders that just seem to be strewn all around the place. DH and I spent the best part of an afternoon there. Part of the fun is being able to hand feed some ‘wild’ rock wallabies.

‘Granite Gorge, a privately operated nature park on the outskirts of Mareeba. Here the endangered Mareeba Rock Wallaby stages its last stand; it maintains a strong foothold at Granite Gorge where they congregate each afternoon to be fed, stroked, caressed and photographed by the daily throng of visitors. The mammoth strange shaped granite boulders of the gorge offers grand opportunities to explore the valley below. Picnic sites, natural swimming holes and overnight camping are all available at the gorge’

Click on the link to find out more about the park, also on the photos to enlarge them

Been home a week now, its been a busy one and I’m feeling a bit jaded.

Wish I were here

Its certainly not shorts and t-shirt weather here in Melbourne yet. Bit chilly overnight and warming a little bit during the day, never the less we live in Melbourne so it will change there’s no doubt about that.

Now this is where I would still like to be and we have already marked the weeks on next years calendar for a return visit. Go in and look at the site to see the view from the golf course, well that’s just how it was. No wonder DH was loath to leave 🙂

We aren’t part of the grey nomad brigade that tootle along all winter pulling a van behind us so DH and I stayed here while our friends were across the road in the caravan/trailer park.

There’s a button marked attractions where it mentions Murals. These are painted on buildings all round the little town depicting life as it has been over the years. This is one DH photographed – wonder why?

Bowen played a big part in the WW2 especially during the Pacific and the Coral Sea Campaign so all round the town there are plaques on little old tumbledown houses telling who used it and for how long. Click on the photos to enlarge for a better view

I won’t go on about all the ins and outs of our time away ‘cept to say as well as the restful time we had here we wandered further north up to Townsville and Cairns which I’ll talk about some other time.

Anyway life is going along ok at the moment. I emptied (as in ate all the food) the fridge freezer before we went away as it desperately needed defrosting and cleaning so have spent this week looking for bargains in any form to freeze and use at a later date.

I have to tell you about the best deal of the week – for me that is.

We have a fruit and veg place nearby that has started boxing up odd bits of maybe bruised stuff or bigger/smaller items that are still edible but would need to be eaten sooner rather than later.

At $2 a box I often wondered if it was worth parting with the gold coin for what I thought was rubbish – anyway the other day I took the plunge and here’s what I got.

Enough small potatoes for an army, several onions, half a cauliflower, some bruised apples, a punnet of strawberries, lots of tiny mandarins, a whole cantaloupe and 1 huge pear. After discarding the big strawberry on the top that looked a bit off I cleaned them up then cut up the cantaloupe. Not much wrong with them that I could see so they are in the fridge for those ‘I want something to pick at’ moments.

Some of the spuds and the cauliflower we used for dinner last night, I’m going to lightly cook the apples and the pear to have with yogurt for dessert this evening. Not sure what to do with the mandarins as they are a bit tart, possibly just have them with ice cream or yogurt after a curry which will come from some of the beef I managed to get at a good price 🙂

Sounds like the machine has stopped so I’m off to hang the washing out.

Yes I’m home again. Weary after driving nearly 3oookms/1865 miles in 3 days but looking forward to Spring.

Its just a memory now but we had the best fun for a long time.

Just doing nothing.

For nearly 4 weeks I did just what I’m doing in the picture below. It snowed at home (quite a rarity where I live) and here I was enjoying 27c/81f

Walking on the beach at Bowen North Qld. – enjoying the fact that apart from dh and me (and the person behind us) there was no one else to be seen along the whole shoreline.

This is what Dh and his friend did on most of those mornings.

They reckoned they could take on Tiger Woods any day lol

The golf course was at the end of the van park and the beach right there also.

During the first week away we went to see the grand-daughter who lives in Brisbane – and what do Grandmas do with grandchildren – they teach life skills.

This little one can’t knit and her mother doesn’t either so as there was wool and needles in the car we did a little bonding in the park close to her home.

I don’t when we will see each other again so I treasured every moment that day.

We went to other places and I’ll talk about those another day. Will be back soon

Click on the photos to enlarge

I’m not sure what happened there but this half didn’t get published.

We were going to leave it a few years till the next trip but there were weddings, anniversaries and reunions we wanted to attend so after a couple of years at home saving furuiously we fly off again in 2006.

The idea was to spend a lovely July in England catching up with more of Dh’s air force friends, visiting lots of friends and family and in particular some of Dh’s older relatives and doing the family history tour. We spent some time going round cemeteries looking for ancestors and spent more time in queues at Births, Deaths and Marriages waiting for various certificates to be supplied.

Apart from the terrible traffic we encountered each time we went on to the main motorways provong that the standard of driving was almost a rock bottom in England nothing out of the ordinary happened until August 10th.

That was the day we were due to fly once more cross the Atlantic to Halifax, and guess what happened on that day?

Heathrow had a terrorist alert and its bedlam – that was the day when the liquid bomb plot was foiled.

After waiting in several of the longest queues I’ve ever seen with no idea of what was happening ‘cept there had been some sort of bomb threat we finally get airside with only our passport and travel documents as everything else had to go in the hold.

Family waiting to pick us up from the aiport had no idea what was happening, they knew there was a problem in London but not how big it was so were happy to see our plane land. We were some of the lucky ones as our Air Canada flight was only delayed by 3 hours but after that most of Europe came to a standstill for days on end.

I began to wonder about the merits of air travel but as it’s the easiest way to get from one end of the world to other cursed the lot of them as I walked very quietly onto the aircraft. Then when we landed there was no hanging around waiting for people to get their things from the overhead lockers. We were off the plane in no time – there was nothing in there as we had to put it all in the hold lol

The day after we arrived we went to a wedding in a field on a cliff top and froze. Another double wedding – it was so casual I swear a lot of the ‘ younger guests’ had just left their back yards and come as they were lol

After that it seemed like 4 weddings and a funeral but in reverse. There were 3 deaths within a couple of weeks of each other.

One of the reasons for this trip was see a lovely lady who was in her 100th year. She was quite ok living in a nursing home but we’d been up to visit her one day and when we got home a phone call tells us her son in his early 70’ that we’d just left had just had a heart attack and died.

Then we heard that two other relatives that we’d just seen in England died. The lady didn’t make her 100 in the November but passed away soon after we left. Seemed like we were a jinx lol

We did lots of new things that trip, one of them was going to Anne of Green Gables house on Prince Edward Island and we also drove the Cabot Trail all the way round this time with my ‘email’ friend.

The 3 lovely weeks we spent in the Annapolis Valley were over in a flash and then we flew over to Vancouver for an Alaskan Cruise. Had been saving for this treat for a few years and it was fabulous, had lots of very late nights and ate far too much of the freely available food. Back home to Melbourne and it was non-stop into the rush of Christmas preparations.

So this year we are staying in Oz and deciding on things on the spur of the moment. Well there are a few times we have to be in certain places like first of all babysitting in Sydney before we actually start travelling (everyone loves their Mum and what she can do for them)

We are meeting up with friends Bowen and also in Cairns and apart from that its only me and Dh, 4 wheels and the open road. I have been warned that its to be a restful holiday so theres no laptop either :((

It funny but I just can’t get away from the Dh’s airforce life all those years ago as both of these friends are from his time in the RAF. The one in Cairns stood behind him in the line the day they joined up – his old service number is the one after Dh’s lol

Friends Reunited as well as Forces Reunited has done that to so many people – reunited them after many many years.

I think this will be my last post before we go away. I’ll be off the air for at least 7 weeks and will pick up the pieces again when we get back at the end of September.

Every couple of years we have a long trip away; over the past 10 years for various reasons – family celebrations and Dh’s RAF reunions being the main ones – it has been to England and North America (USA and Canada) however for this year I said no to overseas and yes to seeing more of Australia.

So if you’ll hang on (might be an idea to make a cup of tea as well) I’ll tell you why.

The past two trips have been doozies. To get the best from our airflights we buy a Round the World ticket. Can travel a set distance and stop off in lots of places only stipulation is you must travel in one direction only. East to Europe via Asia and then across to North America and home via the Pacific is the direction we seem to take although we have done it westwards. It’s an open- ended ticket valid 12months so you can take your time and get to see lots of people.

For some reason I found these two trips very tiring, so many things just seemed to happen and each time I was glad to get home to Melbourne.

2004 was a lovely summer in the northern hemisphere, my sister’s girls had a double wedding, it was a leap year and they surprised their partners by asking them to marry, there was the sadness of visiting my Mother’s grave – when I last saw her in 2000 she had been hale and hearty – more sadness on leaving England as I knew I would never see my darling brother in law again, (his prostate cancer was very advanced by then).

It was hot in Nova Scotia and we had a great time with rellies and friends. I met an Internet friend for the first time (a cousin’s square dancing friend who I’d been emailing for a while) and was pleasantly surprised that we clicked, laughing and chattering in real time same as on the computer.

We caught up with long time air force friends in Toronto and Calgary and then spent another very wet week in Vancouver. It always seems to rain when we go there lol

As well as visiting indoor attractions we watched a lot of baseball that week – I think it was something called World Series and from recollection a New York team and another one with Red Socks were playing.

After rubbing the U.S. Immigration Officer up the wrong way at 9am the day we flew out of Vancouver to Los Angeles to pick up the flight across the Pacific to home – well he asked me where I was going and I answered ‘Home’ – he wasn’t amused and made it very apparent by calling me by my full name and telling me to stand in front of his desk and not move – I wondered what else was going to happen

The flight from there to LA was bumpy – we met up with a storm along the way and ‘cose we went miles out of our way to try and avoid the storm we had to land at Las Vegas to refuel, oh yes, that was after we got hit by lightning.

The plane sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours whilst they got someone out to check it over and give it more avgas. We could see all the casinos in the distance and these huge great limousines parked outside the terminal but it was classed as an international flight so we weren’t allowed off and had to stay put.

Apart from it being very uncomfortable inside the cabin we didn’t bother too much as it was cutting into the 6hrs waiting time we were supposed to have at LA and when we finally arrived there it was funny to see people getting off planes from all over and standing around the terminal watching the game in progress instead of hurrying off home as is usual. I think some of the bars made a profit that day. 🙂

Arrived back in Melbourne after the long Pacific flight to be bailed up by customs who wanted to search our luggage. ALL of it lol

Everything out of cases and lots of fossicking and digging around and when I asked a question all the officer said was that the dogs had picked them out and ‘Madam somewhere your luggage has been in contact with narcotics’.

Tell you what you could have heard a pin drop – I was never so scared in all my life and so pleased to see family when we came out the doors after being told our bags were cleared.

Could you see me as a drug runner? – the very nice man said they come in all shapes and sizes and not to laugh at the idea of a middle-aged woman being one.

The weather has been freezing and today has been no exception so it was ‘do things round the house where it’s warm’ time. Yes it’s been a clear up and tidy day today as I’ve been trying to sort out some loose ends before we take off next week.

But first thing I had to sort out the book that’s been waiting in the bedroom for something ot happen. It’s been waiting to be returned to Kmart for a few weeks now – turns out DGd I got it for had already read it and as they are good at refunds I had that on my list of to do’s. Note to anyone returning things to Kmart in Australia – Kmart used to be good at refunds; they now have a 28 day policy.

Seems they changed things back on May 1st so I couldn’t get a refund or even an exchange voucher, as it was more than 28 days since I bought it.

Time goes by quickly in my house and I forget things easily so it looks like I’ll have to watch that from now on. Its not very often I have to go back with a return but I certainly don’t want to have various things hanging around that don’t fit the bill ‘cose I forgot how long they’d been at home.

I then cleared out of some blogs I have listed at Bloglines. I have some favourite blogs listed there and I check them daily. I’m sure lots of you know that Bloglines is a feed reader and will supply you (the subscriber) with updated posts of your listed blogs. Saves you clicking from blog to blog trying to find out if the author has said anything new.

Feed readers must be the talking point of the blog world at the moment as all these blogs – Simple Mom, Lightening at her blogworld and Move to Portugal – have posts on that topic today. Each of them explains all the in and outs and also the way time can be saved by using them.

I’m curious by nature, I’m a sucker for wanting to know what others are up to and like to know what other blogs people read (call me nosy if you want lol) so some days I spend a lot of time here on the computer going from blog to blog on blogrolls reading one after the other. So what I do if I find a likable blog is to subscribe to it at Bloglines, read for a while, then decide whether to follow it all the time or whether I not really interested and delete it.

I asked someone the other day how they generated so much traffic to their blog and they said read as many as I could and comment.

I think that’s the bit I’ve been doing wrong.

My Mum used to say it was rude to stare and it wasn’t nice to be nosy so I tend to stand on the sidelines and take it all in without saying much. I do lots of reading but quietly without any fuss via Bloglines – I don’t comment a lot so nobody knows I’m there.

Maybe I’ll have to start talking lol

I have had this baby pattern – Robin 15210B – for quite a few years.

I knit it recently to go into a CWA exhibition. Each member of our branch was set the challenge of entering one thing that we enjoyed making.

Only stipulation is that it must be finished in the last 2 years.

This was entered in the Knitting Baby garment section and guess what lol

I received this

Before I start I should say hanks for all your thoughts and well wishes. I don’t usually catch colds and this one came as a surprise but its just about gone now, never to be seen again LOL

Now the grandkids sometimes use the word wicked to mean something really good – well – that musical called Wicked, the one Dh and I went to see yesterday was really WICKED.

We decided to save a bit of cash and took the train courtesy of our free Seniors Sunday transport card. We’ve used this quite frequently but I’ve never seen the train packed like it was for a long time and when we actually arrived at Flinders Street Station there were people everywhere.

The forecourt was teeming like rush hour during the week and once outside and down the steps you wouldn’t have thought it was a Sunday as we tried to cross the Young and Jackson Intersection. No policeman with a whistle in the middle of that intersection these days and even with Swanston Street being a Mall there seemed to be just as much traffic as before.

There was a Footy match on for a start – so many people in the train covered in red and navy scarves, beanies and clothing hoping for a good game. When we realised the game was on at Docklands we wondered how we’d get a seat on the way home, Happily luck was on our side later tho’ as the train went out and via Spencer Street to the loop after leaving Flinders Street.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Walking up Swanston Street we saw a huge line at the front of St Paul’s and also other long lines when we got to the beautiful restored Regent Theatre. There were placards and brochures around with the words Melbourne Open House – reminded me about this event. Lots of places open to the public, this was the first year of this event and hopefully I’ll be able to get to the next one.

Have a look here to see more – what it was all about.

There was a demonstration in the City Square – something to do persecution in China. Lots of noise and colour, banners, drums singing and talking, shame we couldn’t take it all in but we’d timed the train to get there without having to wait too long in the cold.

Now on to the fabulous Regent Theatre and the show, which was much longer than I’d expected. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, mind you I love the theatre especially if it involves singing and dancing lol

It’s a funny but sad story about what happened in Oz before Dorothy’s Day Out in the storm. Supposedly about how the characters were conceived and the aftermath of it all. Fun show and will be a good drawcard for visitors to Melbourne – local and interstater and maybe International. I don’t think its going anywhere else and have heard its here in town for quite a while.

At the end I wished we’d saved the money I paid for Guys and Dolls earlier in the year so I could have put it towards seeing this again. Like The Phantom I felt it was one that could be seen again and again to take in all the set designs and the costumes, which were fabulous, especially in the Emerald City scenes. They were sort of weird and way out like some runway high couture.

We were in the Dress Circle, with a reasonable view – ‘cept when the woman in front of me moved her head a certain way, which she did quite frequently as the one in front of her was bobbing around, so mine was going from right to left trying to find that elusive clear view and I’m sure annoying the people behind me anyway as noise travels I found it very noisy in some scenes and at times hard to hear what the ensemble were actually singing – thought it was me but dh made mention of it during the interval. Half their words were blurred and indistinct so the crowd scenes just came over as noise.

Not needing to ‘be seen’ we stayed inside in our seats during the interval and there were sellers in the aisles with little trays round their necks just as in the old days. Went to get a Magnum ice cream and nearly had a fit at the price $5 – then saw someone come back from outside with a Choc Top (like at the cinema and which I love) and heard them complaining about the price as well. Dh just laughed and said if you are willing to pay over $100 for a seat to see a show why would you complain at the rather inflated price of the ice cream.

Hmmm – Point taken – next time I’m going be dressed to kill and take a shopping bag filled with chips and lollies and we’ll see if he walks in beside me lol

Got crushed in the train coming home and loved the sight of the rain as we got further east. Our garden must have been drenched during the day and yet there was none in the City.

Today is cold but clear and now its time to look out some shorts and t-shirts to launder and get ready for next week. Must get the cases out and start gathering things together – Sunny Queensland here we come.

Here we are end of day4 and true to form my Dr always said when the children had colds – after day5 usually you are on the way home.

Eyes are clear, nose has dried up, sneezes have disappeared, throat is lots better thanks to salt gargles, coughing well, theres lots of info for you there…………….maybe too much LOL

Colds are a virus so unless some infection develops antibiotics aren’t necessary. I have an aversion to buying pharmacy brand pills and potions e.g. Codral cold thingys, think they are just made from chemicals and a waste of money so have used up lots of fresh lemons and spoonfuls of Honey in hot water and yes the odd Paracetamol for fever.

So its the end of a quiet week and theres something nice to look forward to on Sunday. Dh and I are going into the City to see the musical Wicked.

Must get better – must get better – must get better

Bye for now………………………See you next week