Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday was an awful day. Read all about it here and here

Gale force winds reaching over 100kms in some places – not sure what they got up to at my place but it was deafening and scary.

Lots of trees down. Power lines down meaning no power to a great deal of the state.

Traffic lights out causing chaos for the city, trees down over rail lines, power loss meant no trams running so many many workers not getting home till all hours of the night.

I don’t feel so bad about my power going on and off all day long as there are still some without over 24hrs later.

Sad thing is 3 lives have been lost – a brick wall fell on one person, a steel construction fell over on to a workerr on a building site and then today some young linesman was electrocuted while repair power lines.

Weird sights on the beaches this morning as yachts have been smashed around in the bay.

Its made its way south east of Melbourne now and down to Tassie.

You never know what nature is going to throw at you do you?

I don’t normally talk money to people, not even close friends but one of them asked me the other day how we managed to afford to do the things we do as she was finding it very hard to make ends meet and we never seemed to be short.

So I told her that over the past few years I’ve found there are two things I don’t mind about being a Senior – that is aged over 60.

Shhhhhhhhhh……………. Don’t tell anyone about that last statement I made 🙂

One is the Senior’s card our state government provides for anyone over the age of 60. This can be used to obtain a discount at lots of different places and can come in handy when you are making purchases large or small, as that 10% saved is better in my pocket than theirs.

Public transport in the metropolitan area is cheap for Seniors. We are able to purchase a ticket for just over $3 that allows us to use bus, train and tram for 24hrs. We often have a spare one in our pocket so that if we fancy a cheap day out we do have the where with all to have one without using the car and pay for petrol as well as parking.

The Victorian government has also issued seniors a transport card that gives us access to free public transport on Sundays. Having that card is great as it means we can then take advantage of any free exhibitions in the City on Sundays giving us a very cheap day out.

The other is that my bank also has concessions for seniors – I don’t pay bank fees, don’t have account fees, don’t have to have minimum balances in accounts, and can have unlimited transactions both in the bank, at the ATM and on the Internet.

Because of this I opened several savings accounts and use them like the old envelope system. We use one to deposit our income for the month and then from the comfort of my house using the Internet I transfer various amounts into the other accounts to be used when necessary. We are now on a set income from various sources so have a good idea of what our income will be each month and as we have always worked to some sort of a budget it was quite easy to work out what we needed to allocate each month for different ‘things’

What’s left in that account after the transfers are made is used for regular monthly commitments and food. Any surplus at the end of the month goes into another savings account for lovely things like theatre tickets 🙂

DH likes to buy a beer at the golf club now and again so withdraws a set amount to have in his pocket – like children and their pocket money I tell him – once its gone its gone! He laughs and often has some left to carry over the next month.

Utilities, (gas electricity water rates and house phone) share an account and these are paid bimonthly or quarterly. By moving the money out of the main one into this one I have never had to worry where the payment is coming from. I use another for those large annual payments like car rego and insurances which we used to pay by the month but when the insurance companies upped the extra charges they put on for direct debits I decided to pay in full one year from the reserve we had and then save during the year.

Because our visa cards from this bank are linked to a saving account we have a really low yearly fee, which I don’t mind paying as it can then be used as a debit card and allows us access to cash if we need it. It means we can get cash from the bank, ATM, supermarket and even from selected ATMs overseas.

As I’m not good if I have money in my pocket – I spend it – we have another banks visa card with points attached (transferred regularly to our Qantas FF account and used when necessary) which we use for purchases and bills during the month. I check regularly to see what’s been recorded and then can pay online direct from the relevant account as the month goes by and that way there’s only a small amount to pay when the statement comes in. Haven’t paid interest for many a year.

There’s one account called Grandchildren, we have quite a few so have to put a bit aside each month for birthdays and Christmas and then there’s another for Holidays, which gets a regular payment each month.

Yes for some it could be a problem but for me it keeps me in touch with our spending and cash out of my pocket where it would be frittered away wily nily.

Anyway my friend listened and said she remembered the envelopes her Mother used and she thought it was a bit of a palaver every payday and it was so awfully old fashioned.

I know I would rather use my system, in fact any system, than have to try to divi up everything from one pot!!

Busy thats what lol

Life’s been very busy these past few days so haven’t has time to talk.

Plus I’m trying to finish some knitting to take away in a couple of weeks so that’s been No1 time user and not the computer.

Its definitely cooling down at night so changed the bedding during the week and now have the woollen blanket and a warmer underlay on, ‘cose I can’t sleep if my feet are cold I find being warm underneath helps as much as being warm on top. We have the window open slightly at night and on really chilly nights I lay another blanket across the foot of the bed to keep those chilly draughts off my tootsies.

Have lit the pilot of the heater and had a test run to make sure its working ok.

We were quite nice and toastie the other night but can’t let it become a habit until the really cold days and evenings start.

It certainly was very cold this morning at 5am when we – DH and I – left home to drive to the city.

Why you ask are you out at that very early time……………….well we were volunteering at the Run for the Kids which was a fun run to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Last weekend – Easter weekend (Good Friday) in Melbourne is traditionally the culmination of the fundraising year for the Children’s Hospital and this was part of that Appeal. Run the week after but still a fundraiser event for 2008.

Over 27,000 runners and walkers (actually 27,498 entrants) took part with a long course (14.5kms) for the diehard runners and a short one (5.5kms) for families and others to run or walk. The organisers were able to give a donation of $378,941.43 to the Good Friday Appeal which was fabulous news.

Can you see the fabulous passage of the balloons over the skyline just as we arrived at our spot. These can been seen as dawn each Sunday morning and one of these days if I can persuade the family to give me a ride as a treat for my birthday I’m going to be in one.

Our role was a Drinks Station Assistant and basically we helped man the drinks tables you see along the roadside of these events. Not only manned them but set up the trestles, laid out, filled several layers of cups and handed them out as the runners passed by.

Then just after the last stragglers went by we had to take it all down and clear the roadside up and leave it as tho we had never been there. lol

FINISHED – Well we managed to finish clearing out the garage yesterday. It now looks fabulously tidy and quite spacious:))

In the end it was untidy more than overcrowded and apart from some computer boxes (metal not cardboard) there wasn’t a lot of rubbish in there. Unfortunately the shire won’t take computer parts so we have to find another way to get them recycled.

Dh was really good about the whole thing and agreed that hanging on to stuff he’s not going to utilise elsewhere is silly and if someone else can use them by adding new innards he’ll let them go.

I’ve given him some time to try to find a new home for them so he’s going to ask around if no joy they are going to a recycle place close to the city – if I can remember the name that is.

We have Burmese cats – they are adorable and over the years when I was breeding we had quite a few queens as well as pets – no entire males tho. My girls always went out for mating.

However they have one trait that has always caused a little friction in our house – they think they are human and where I went they wanted to go. Right from kitten they assumed they slept on the bed with us and no matter that they had lovely beds all round the house sleeping on and in our bed was what they wanted. When there was just one or two it was no problem but as the population grew DH put his foot down.

Closing the bedroom door meant nothing to them, they scratched, howled, whined, ran round like hairy monsters and were absolute pains so during the summer they all began to sleep in the outside runs. When the girls were on call they weren’t in the house anyway but were penned outside so it didn’t bother them and those with kittens were inside with their babes and otherwise occupied.

Winter time I began to utilise the garage, no car in there and so they had big beds, cardboard boxes, heating pads, litter trays, water bowls………………they had all mod coms and were warm and DH was happy ‘cose he got a good nights sleep.

Now to the FRUGAL bit

There are some very good paper litters that can be used inside that are fantastic for removing ‘bits’ and controlling odours and I used these when I had kittens however they are expensive so for the others I would loook for a cheaper alternative and talking to other breeders found out about a furniture factory not too far away that put huge bags of sawdust out side for anyone to go and take away.

For FREE yes FREE – for nothing – so you couldn’t knock that back.

It has one drawback tho and that is because it is fine it seems to go everywhere, its all over the floor near the trays and gets into their beds. This is what made the place out there look so messy, after seeing to the trays each morning I then had to go and sweep, and shake or change the blankets in their beds most days. These cats are creatures of habit and when they are inside the house they ask to go out and then use the tray in the garage instead of scratching around in the dirt lol. I’ve seen them run from the bottom of the garden and use the tray in there.

At the moment I’ve put sheets of newspaper under and around the trays to try and catch the rubbish but I’m contemplating going back to the paper litter which isn’t messy for a change and a break from the constant housekeeping in the garage of all the places – even tho it will cost me a fortune – I can get the biggest bag for about $20 in a fodder store close by and even tho we are down to 2 cats now with daily changes its gone quite quickly.

Decisions Decisions

FANTASTIC news – it rained and rained and rained last night and the sky today ( Tuesday) is threatening with huge great black clouds and there are gale warnings out for various bays.

It did more than rain last night – it poured and the thunder roared and the lightening flashed and it was glorious. Kept hitting the nearby hills and rolling back over our place. I jumped a mile one time with the huge bang and expected the power to go off. Several places seemingly had cuts but not our area.

Sometimes the weather man does get it right :))

See how you go – remember put down the first thing you think.

As if on cue the weather changes the day the winter football season starts!!

Last night and today I have had warm clothing on, socks and slippers as well. It’s quite cool outside and – guess what……………………..last night it tried to rain.

Not heavy, just simple drizzle, enough to wet the paths but not penetrate the soil but look, we aren’t going to give a D for effort rather an A for trying. Seemingly next Tuesday is THE day for rain or so the weather bureau says so I’ll let you know if they get it right or not:)

It’s the start of the autumn equinox here in the southern hemisphere, we have the hugest moon outside and it’s becoming noticeable now, that the length of the day is shortening; at the moment there’s almost equal day and night but the long days of summer are leaving us and things are shutting down before winter. It’s only just becoming light about 7am, which on a cool morning like today made me want to stay in bed a bit longer.

I decided instead of a shower to have a bath this morning, so nice when its cool as it’s an easy way to get warm. So with book and coffee for company I step in and probably close to half an hour later I get out. 🙂

Only one thing wrong with doing this is that I then because I use so much more water than a shower – remember, we are still without rain and most of the country is still in the grips of the longest drought on record – I feel I have to give it to the garden.

So after a couple of hours drying off and lazing around the bucket and me become friends and up and down the hall I go giving a drink to the roses out the front. It certainly makes me think about whether I want a bath or not – I suppose if we had hooked up the diverter this year I wouldn’t have to do that but then I can’t have it all ways because it only took the water to the back garden and not the front.

Judging by the traffic reports and camera footage on TV there can’t be many people left in Melbourne this weekend. For those not involved in religious activities the long Easter weekend is usually a fun one; visiting family and camping seem to be the number 1 thing to do although from the amount of people in Bunnings yesterday I think home maintenance and renovations is also high on the list of things to do lol

We used to be known as the Land of the Long Weekend but various governments and changing work practices have put an end to the amount of public holidays and time off that once was the norm.

So when there is one we Australians make good use of it:))

Anzac Day (April 25th) – which is a National Public Holiday – is on a Friday making it a 3-day weekend and then the next one here in Victoria will be the Queen’s Birthday Holiday in June, which is also the start of the ski season.

Not going to think about that one as its the first day of winter here and usually cold by then 😦

I think I have just about persuaded DH the garage is top of his To Do list for tomorrow, with my help of course.

Its good to have him home again – he makes nicer coffee than me and I was getting fed up drinking tea:))

Tuesday March 18th

Nine o’clock in the evening and all is well

The cool change finally arrived and it is 16c/62f outside my back door

All the doors and windows are open and it is heaven.

Might even have to put a nightdress on tonight

Oh that’s too much information isn’t it :))

Wanted a little bit if fun this morning and Lightening pointed me in the direction of this.

Called Unconscious Mutterings or Free Association – After each of these words you write down the first thing that enters your head.

Here goes:

Homicide: Police

Divisive: Nasty nature

Flash: Photography

Steaming: HOT

Crunch: Cornflakes

Look out!: Lovely view

Anticipating: Waiting

Slim: If only

Navel: Oranges

Help: I need somebody

The list changes each week and can be found at LunaNina

Have a go and see what you come up with – if not this week, try next week.

Bye for now

Well now where do I start in telling you about my day – oh yes at the beginning lol

My friendly motorbike alarm clock woke me as usual at 6.30am. We have a neighbour who leaves for work each morning at that time and for some reason can’t move off when he starts the bike but leaves it running waking everyone in the surrounding houses.

I lay there for a while listening to Red on ABC 774 (the old 3LO), let the cats out, thinking about the stinker of a night it had been, looked at the thermometer near the back door (27c/80f) and thought about how hot it was going to be later in the day.

The radio weatherman said A Total Fire Ban Day and a forecast of 40c/104f and that definitely wasn’t what I wanted to hear so I made a cup of tea, brought that, some cereal and yoghurt back to bed (Dh is out of town so I can do that lol) and read for a little while.

My book of the moment is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, a very different book about several women during the 1940’s and how their lives were interwoven both during and after the war.

Stripped the bed and put the sheets and other washing on and then started on the dishes.

Flylady would not be very happy with me, as I’ve been a bit busy over the past couple of days and certainly hadn’t shone my sink the night before.

Consequently there were a few (well more than a few) possibly most of the cups (plus a few plates) we own sitting there all nicely stacked but unwashed. Doesn’t happen when DH is at home but I tend to get sidetracked and involved in other things and dishes are the last thing I think about.

Washing on the line and freshly showered I remembered to pull down the outside blinds and I was off to my Friday volunteer commitment.

I am involved with a programme that comes under the umbrella of Sids and Kids Victoria where we provide layettes and other items for families who lose a baby pre-term. A volunteer myself I co-ordinate the volunteers who make all these tiny items and also give some time to the newsletter so it can be quite taxing most weeks. I give 2 days a week to the programme but as I said sometimes it’s a lot more than that in actual time.

Had a busy morning helping to size garments and adding new names to the database. One of ‘the girls’ had a birthday so we had a fabulous morning tea, which meant I didn’t need much lunch when I got home 🙂

I remembered to pick up my coffee grounds from the little café close by, had two containers waiting so the roses will be happy but I wasn’t happy to find a very very HOT steering wheel waiting for me outside – guess who forgot to put the shiny cover on that sort of keeps the heat off it 😦

Hot as it was I walked up the drive to the post box for the mail and brought the washing in as soon as I got home. Put the dishes away while the kettle was coming to the boil and that certainly made a difference in the kitchen. A clean sink area and bench top really helps give the kitchen a calm appearance. My kitchen can sometimes be like a war zone as I’m not the tidiest cook but less said about that the better lol

Once I’d had lunch I typed out a personal carers’ roster for my aunt. There’s so much information on the weekly sheet they send her, she doesn’t understand it all and becomes confused so to make things easier I give it to her in a simpler form.

I moved on from that to putting together a new shoe rack to go on DH’s side of the wardrobe. The one he uses now is getting rickety and the Reject Shop had some nice white metal ones that will look good when the wardrobe is refitted soon. Its slightly longer as well which means the shoes aren’t touching and he can get an extra pair on each shelf. He’s worse than me for shoes and runners!

3pm and 35c/95f, decided I really needed to turn the cooling on.

Still in the bedroom had to make up the bed or I would have been sleeping on the uncovered mattress tonight. Since my moan the other week about the chest of drawers never being tidy I have made an effort to keep it clear and pick up clothes each morning which means I’m not getting as stressed about it now – all I had to do was make the bed up fresh and the room was finished. I love a bed with fresh sheets so am looking forward to getting in there later on with my hot Milo and book.

Of course the washing that came in off the line had to be dealt with, sheets and towels folded and put away, clothes that don’t get ironed hung up and put away, all the other stuff folded and put in the ironing basket. And there was also some other washing from the other day on the couch waiting to be folded – told you DH was away and I’d been busy with other things 🙂

After all that I was glad the phone rang and gave me a chance to sit down and do nothing:)

Heard from DH in Penrith where it reached about 29c, quite pleasant he said. ‘Slept like a log, nice and cool’. Little does he know these hot days are supposed to extend right into next week ha ha.

Made a small naked ham salad for dinner – ‘naked’ coming from the hilarious waiter we had one time who told me thats what he called a salad without a dressing and that’s what we’ve called it ever since. I’m a very plain eater, sometimes I’ll have a bit of English Salad Cream on the side of the plate but a tossed dressed salad is not for me.

There you are, Friday 14th March in my house. If you got this far I commend you – It’s been a long hot day for me as well.

It was a very hot Monday yesterday – top of 37c/nearly 99f so I think you could say it was hot and this is what I did on a hot Monday here in Melbourne.

I took part in a parade – well – rather me and my other Red Hat friends took part in a parade. A few people from several chapters came to town to show Melbourne that turning 50 doesn’t mean you have to give up on fun.

The annual Moomba Parade as well as other festivities and world class waterskiing events on the Yarra take place during the Labour Day weekend. We walked down Swanston Street and over Princes Bridge right here in the heart of our lovely city.

Click on this link or on this one to find about the fun weekend we call Moomba.

Sorry its a rather small photo – taken by another person’s DH so I can’t grumble but if you click it will miraculously enlarge itself (or at least I hope it will ) and you will see us in all our glory.

I’m on the front row over to your left with the red runners on, sorry not looking at the camera. Jen is the lovely lasy having her picture taken at the time.

We were so glad to be near the front of the parade, it must have been scorching for those who came later and I was so glad I put my capri pants on even tho they weren’t quite the dark purple they should have been. :))

The glucosamine and Tiger rub as well as time seemed to have worked

The Dr said don’t sit around as I would sieze up so I have done lots of things standing

I can now manage to get out of a chair in one movement :))

No stopping half way to go OOOH !!

Can get out of bed like a lady without having to slide out onto the floor

Don’t have to have an xray :))

Life is nearly back to normal

Weather is fabulous – unfortunately – I do so want to turn some ground over but don’t trust myself to be sensible and not end up back where I started :((

See you soon

Well I did a bit of cleaning out today.

Its 2 years since I first started my writings here, at that time I was more concerned about my weight and thought this would be a way of keeping track of any exercise I did and a way to see where I was going wrong with my diet.

I spent hours reading other blogs written by people concerned with their health weight so had a huge blogroll I would check each day. That led me to reading other kinds of blogs, crafty ones, recipe ones, full on exercise ones and I was spending so much time on the computer DH said he felt like a Blog Widower!!

I then discovered Bloglines and realised I didn’t have to check each one every day as it would let me know when they had been updated. That saved me hours and maybe ‘the marriage’:))

Life in my house is never the same from week to week and I’m like the child in the class who can’t keep quiet so my blog has become quite dynamic in that it changes as my interest changes and has evolved into a chatty one where (like my header) I now talk about anything and everything.

So back to the decluttering mentioned above.

Bloglines is great but I had so many blogs listed I was finding it hard to read all the updates and I was losing interest in some of the blogs I did read.

Some blogs only have a portion of the post show up and it means opening the whole blog to read the complete post. I get annoyed if this happens and feel the time I had saved is being eaten up by having to do this.

So I had a good long hard look at what I had earmarked as blogs I wanted to keep in touch with. Some of the ones who only had partial feeds have gone and also some I have lost interest in. A lot of these were ones I listed after seeing them linked on other sites and wanted to see more of but decided it was just that – more of the same.

Hopefully this means I will be happier with the ones I do keep in touch with and will have more time to make my presence known by making comments.

It’s going to be cool here overnight – the forecast is 9c/49f – so it looks like summer is not going to hang around for much longer. The past couple of weeks have been quite changeable with some hot days and some much much cooler ones.

Looks like Autumn is on its way and I think it’s nearly time to add another blanket to the bed.

I don’t spend a lot of time in the big shopping centres these days so just glance at the store catalogues like Target and Big W when they arrive in the letterbox. Nothing better than a cup of tea and half an hour reading the junk mail to see all the stuff I don’t need. The most recent ones have been full of autumnal clothes and I began to think about whether I needed another pair of bedroom slippers.

Short answer is NO…………………………………………after scouting round the house looking in various places I discovered 2 pairs of flat slip on ones, 2 pairs of soft ones, another thicker similar sort, another pair styled like boots and a pair of sheepskin slip on type with proper soles that I bought last winter in the sales.

I also found 2 pairs of knitted ones that hadn’t been worn for a few years so I scouted out the pattern and knitted some more. The pattern calls for 8ply or double knit doubled and they are really easy to make, comfy and easy to wear almost like walking around with nothing on your feet yet there is. I see ones in the Mary Anne style are all the rage so I have hunted down a free pattern on the web I might try some time.

Back to the collection of grubby ones gathered in my laundry – on one of those really hot days I put the lot into the washing machine for a full cycle and then hung them on the line to dry. They were almost like new, even the sheepskins ones so as I said before I certainly don’t need any more for this winter.

With the coming of the new carpet to cover the polished boards sometime in April we are trying to relearn the habit of taking our shoes off when we come indoors no matter which door we use. At the moment its still warm and I wear bare feet but as the floors cool down I’m going to need to put something on my feet in the house so if there are several to choose from on each of the shoe racks it won’t matter if there are some at the front door or at the back, means I won’t have to go looking for them.

Well in theory that is – sometimes I take them off and wander about and then put a different pair on leaving the others where I left them. That sound very Irish but I’m sure you know what I mean. Could be by the armchair, by the bed, under the bed, by the computer, in the bathroom, in fact anywhere.

Shouldn’t be telling you these things should I, you are learning that I’m not the tidiest person in the house.

We are going to start with a joke this evening

An oldie but a goodie 😦

What’s Your Name, Again?

Two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades.

Over the years they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures.

Lately, their activities had been limited to playing cards a few times a week.

One day when playing cards, one looked at the other and said, “Now don’t get mad at me.

I know we’ve been friends a long time, but I just can’t think of your name.

I’ve thought and thought, but I can’t remember it.

Please tell me what your name is.”

Her friend glared at her.

For at least three minutes she just stared and glared.

Finally she said, “How soon do you need to know?”

This is how I’m feeling at the moment – Its all in there but seems to be taking its time to come to the surface lol

Trying to organise hand surgery for my aunt (courtesy of the horse knocking her over back in November) The surgeon won’t do it unless theres some back up home care. Could be a day case but as his list is in the afternoon I feel it better she stays overnight.

Trying to organise a mammogram for yours truly but things keep cropping up and I have cancelled twice and I’m sure the Breast Screen receptionist doesn’t quite believe me when I ring and say I have to be elsewhere on the day she suggests.

Like wise with the tradesmen who are coming to give me quotes on refitting the wardrobe in our bedroom who think I should cancel all other commitments and be prepared to stay home all day long on the off chance they will turn up.

One of those other things that just happened to get in the way was a funeral 😦

The built in wardrobe was very basic and used to just have a shelf and long hanging rail, I first had it fitted out with long and short hanging rails and shelves etc about 20 years ago and now needs doing again as the white melamine covering on the shelves is looking gunky and awful.

The original doors that just opened out were replaced with 2 large sliding mirror doors but they are becoming a pain to open. I think 3 would be better and that way we’ll be able to get to the clothes in the middle more easily.

The carpet man finally arrived (after 2 appointments were cancelled – one by me and one by him ) measured up the house and nearly gave me a heart attack when the quote arrived – thank goodness we have been saving and I won’t need to rethink the type of carpet I took so long to choose.

Have to get the wardrobe in the bedroom done first before the carpet can be laid tho’

Its funny but when you talk to tradesmen or others about appointments or about renovations etc one of the first things they ask “How soon do you want this done?” and I always think of the joke at the top. :))