Interrupted Pleasures

I was awake very early this morning, so I left the house not long after 7am, bought my coffee, visited the boys at the boat ramp and then reluctantly pedalled to the new boat ramp to check it out.

I had been stopped by about six people, all singing the praises of the new boat ramp. The boys at the Seat of Knowledge were raving about it and four people stopped at the seat to discuss the benefits and the beauty of the new area.

So, before I came home, I rode to the Lions Park to see what all the fuss was about. During the months of construction, as my own private protest, I did not go there to check out the progress the way everybody else in town did.

I admit that I had a negative preconceived idea .. and nothing that I saw today, changed my mind.

The Lions Park and it's surrounding area was THE spot that Adoring Husband and I fell in love with, nine years ago, during our first visit to this town. It's rustic charm delighted our souls and was one of the key reasons that we sold everything in Sydney and moved here eight years ago.

Until they began work on the new boat ramp a few months ago, I visited the park every day, just to sit for a couple of minutes and enjoy the view over the river.

Six years ago, Adoring Husband and I chose that very spot to be married in front of 50 friends and family.

Almost four years ago, the park was my place of therapy after the trauma of the tornado.

I have hundreds of photos of the beautiful sunsets with the glorious natural backdrop, taken directly from the tip of the park.

Now it's surrounded by a massive dark asphalt carpark big enough to accommodate 45 single cars, 3 disabled spots and 48 car-trailer parks. There are concrete paths filling any area that the carpark misses. A huge rock wall juts out from the end of the park, followed by the boat ramp itself and then a long floating pontoon.

The toilet block that was once painted with tacky, but charming pictures of pelicans and sea life and for me was a symbol of the simple life that we chose for ourselves, has now been painted over with dull grey paint.

The barbecue areas and other seating, that were once painted in varying shades of blues and cream are now a dull grey. The shrubbery that once separated the park from the carpark area has now been removed and concrete path has replaced it.

It makes me sad and angry to see it and nothing will convince me that it has value.

This town now has four public boat ramps. According to the Fraser Coast Council website,  two of the existing boat ramps (Ross St and BH Rd) will be monitored, and depending on their use, a decision will be made as to whether or not they remain open. The caravan park also has a boat ramp that is classed as 'public use'.

My opinion means little and there is nothing I can do about it now, except to accept the changes and listen to everybody rave about it. Progress can't be stopped. Trees will be chopped. Grass and dirt will be concreted. Waterways will be manipulated. Landscapes will be altered. Strangely enough, humans look on in admiration and marvel at the changes.

I don't get it.

Anyway, once I recovered from my momentary distress, I pedalled home and retreated to my desk where I enjoyed some very successful website creating time.

Unfortunately, I had to shut down before 2pm because I was due at Chef Pat's house for some eating, drinking and laughter.

In this photo, Mrs Bucket asked me to hold her neck to hide her double chin!

I remained alcohol free for the day and was accidentally fed gluten, which meant an unpleasant evening at home for me and no dinner so that my body could recover.

Considering there were only five of us there for most of the day, it was very noisy! My ears hurt and it was difficult keeping up with all of the conversations as people competed for 'talking time'.

As always, Chef Pat provided delicious food, and her hospitality was warm and welcoming. She's a lovely lady and I always enjoy time spent with her.

Tonight, Adoring Husband and I watched the Aust vs NZ rugby league game that was played in Perth. It was a good game - especially because Australia won!

Now, I am heading to my desk to continue building my website! It seems to be never ending! But I am enjoying it very much!

Nite all.

 

  

A Bit Bumpy

So far, this website stuff has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride!

A good day is always levelled off with a bad day and just when I think I know what I'm doing, something happens to bring me right back down to earth. Two steps forward, one step back .. which is much better than one step forward and two steps back!

Still, after a crappy day at the computer, I got to spend some time with lovely friends at the Bowls Club and then return home to a delicious dinner with Adoring Husband.

In need of an early night because he has a big day of SES training tomorrow, he was soon in bed, so I took the opportunity to come into my workspace, hoping that my luck had changed, and attempted to continue with the site.

Thank goodness the internet gods were much more relaxed tonight and allowed me to fix today's mess. I achieved some positive results with the 'home' page and the 'about me' page ... except it's a bit too late at night to think of an inspiring summary of myself and the website.

Here I am rushing to write the Friday night blog post, so that I can go to bed and dream up something brilliant to write about me, tomorrow.

I recently bought a small box of inspiration cards for myself. I'd sent the same cards in a care package to BGWLBH and I liked them so much, I returned to 'Tinkerbells' to buy some for me.

Today's card read

"Imagine"

Clearly visualise the life you want.

Feel it in your heart and soul and so it will come to be.

It was the perfect card to push me to the next level.

Speaking of inspiration, I just have to Congratulate Vegan Chickie for her semester results of High Distinction AND her invitation from the University to join the 'Honours Program', which is only available to the top 7.5% of students.

She also received amazing feedback from her teacher acknowledging her brilliant work.

I am a proud Mum.

Well, it's rapidly approaching 1am so I really must end here and get some sleep.

Nite all.



 

Progress at Last!

I feel that I have moved ahead in leaps and bounds today!

A wonderful young man from Melbourne created a step by step video, which he shared on Youtube, teaching the clueless (that's me) how to create and build a website.

I play some of the video, pause it, follow the instructions, play some more of the video, pause it again, follow the instructions etc etc etc. It has taken me three hours to get through one hour of the video, but I have achieved so much in that three hours!

He provides four websites that give you access to free stock photos. He provides a website that gives you computer codes for every shade of every colour and it allows you to try different colours together to see how they work. He also provides a website that tells you the psychology behind each colour, so that you can choose appropriately - whether you have a business site, a food site, a health site etc etc.

So I achieved more in three hours today, than I achieved in the last seven days!

I will go to sleep tonight feeling both satisfied and eager to wake early tomorrow and get started on the next stage of the process.

Yes, I banished Adoring Husband and the psychotic dogs from my workspace, so AH decided the next best thing would be to remove an old hose reel and replace it with a new one on the outer wall of my room.

The other distraction for the morning was the water pressure in our sprinkler changing so suddenly and with such force, that the water sprayed through my window, drenching the side board, along with my scarf curtains, two framed pictures and my timber box of essential oils. Oh and my yellow dream catcher. It just missed my salt lamp.

Luckily I was in the room and closed the window fairly quickly. I hate to imagine the disaster that would have been, if I was in another part of the house when it happened!

It has been a beautiful day, but it seems the weather is changing and there is some nasty stuff coming up from the south. This is a good thing because the delicious strong breeze is wafting through the bedroom window.

For a change, it is just after 11pm and I am off to bed!

Nite all.  

The Girls

Ours was an extended coffee date this morning.

There were nine of us in attendance, which meant LOTS of people talking at once, which meant plenty of noise and also meant it was difficult to focus on single conversations! But we had lots of fun and plenty of laughs. Beauty handed out lovely holiday gifts to us all and it was almost 11am by the time the last of us said our goodbyes.

A visit to the butcher and a stop to pick up some egg cartons before heading home to make an early lunch for Adoring Husband.

I fried up some onion, garlic, shredded cabbage and fresh asparagus, then added some chicken broth, mashed pumpkin and some leftover beef curry sauce. I cooked up some beef sausages and then added them to the mix.

It was quite delicious and AH enjoyed it.

The chicken bone broth was ready, so I filled the storage containers and loaded them into the freezer and then I had some more time in my workspace to work on the website.

This did not last very long. I think I need to lock my door and banish all psychotic dogs and Adoring Husbands from the website creation area! I CURSE my easily distracted brain and it's poor ability to focus for extended periods!

Here are some of my purchases from Office Works on Tuesday ...

I confess that I am feeling overwhelmed with my 'to do' list for getting the website up and running. I keep finding more elements that I need to take into consideration and extra components to improve the effectiveness of the site.

If only I had more tortoise-like attributes and less of the hare's - this challenge would seem less intimidating!

I just need to breathe.

There is no rush.

I've set a date of 1st December - THAT is the date that I hope to be finished.

There! I've said it! Now I have to be accountable!

Nite all.  

What Did I Do?

We all know how dangerous it is for me to step foot inside 'Office Works'.

All I wanted was a small set of coloured calligraphy pens. Instead I bought one black calligraphy pen (because they didn't have any coloured ones), two packets of coloured felt tipped sketching pens, two sketch pads of differing paper types, an A5 sized 2017 diary, a small purse sized 2017 diary and a large packet of AA sized batteries.

I'm not even going to tell you the cost of that little bundle, but it was quite shocking!

We'd already spent a small fortune at the Go Natural store.

After that we spent another small fortune at Coles in Stocklands.

We were home by midday.

I unpacked the groceries.

I chopped up a whole pumpkin and put it in the pot to cook, so that it will be ready to make the dog food tomorrow.

I put two of the six organic chicken carcasses in the slow cooker with carrot, onion, celery, garlic and ACV to do a batch of chicken bone broth.

I hung out a load of washing and put another in the machine.

I thawed out a big container of beef curry sauce (from the last time I made curry) and then chopped up and added two big grass fed steaks to the sauce and slow cooked it on the stove for dinner.

I unpacked my Office Works goodies and sat at my desk doodling and attempting to create a logo design. So far, not successful.

I added some more to my 'Welcome' blog post.

I watched a few episodes of 'Big Bang Theory' with Adoring Husband (he'd bought the latest series on DVD today).

I hung out the second load of washing.

I made some cauliflower fried rice to go with the beef curry.

We ate dinner and AH cleaned the kitchen.

I watched X-Factor and the movie 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'.

It's now rapidly approaching midnight, so I feel the need to sleep.

Coffee morning with the girls tomorrow.

Nite all.

Bed Sitting

Not really.

I'm actually sitting up in bed writing this blog tonight.

I brought my laptop into the bedroom and placed it on the bed while I tidied things up in the lounge room, but as I walked out of the bedroom I heard a crash and turned to see the laptop on the floor! Heaven knows how that happened!

I picked it up and the screen was black. I touched a few keys and the touch pad, but nothing happened. The light was still on where the cord was attached, but that was it.

I did what we always do when something is not working - I turned it off and then back on.

That was a relief! Except for that blue screen that first appeared and reminded me of the blue screen of death on the old PCs!

Obviously, my laptop is still working.

I spent most of today learning more about setting up websites and began writing my welcome page. I'm still a long way off completing the site and I'm glad that tomorrow I will have a day in The Bay away from my desk. I need some space to clear my head and will press the 'reset' button for my brain on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I have to create a logo! I have to find that little seed of creativity that has been lurking beneath the surface and come up with something that represents the wonder that is me! I have the beginning of an idea, but I'm not sure where to take it yet.

I also have to build an image library specifically for the website.

Even though my brain hurts from the intensive learning process, I really am enjoying this little challenge and I can't wait until it's done so that I can share it with you all! Don't hold your breath though! I'm taking my time and I'm doing it properly, but once I'm finished, you will be the first to know!

Oops! It's just about to hit midnight! I'm off!

Nite all.

Slow and Steady

That is my new mindset while creating the website. Slow and steady.

I usually go at things like a bull at a gate and I always want everything finished 'yesterday'. I have little patience during long detailed learning processes, but in this case, I have to make an exception. There are no short cuts if I'm going to do this on my own and do it properly!

I didn't get to spend much time in my work space today because we had a lunch date with Mrs Bucket down the road.

We were supposed to take our own food because she doesn't cater to anyone's dietary requirements. I planned on taking some marinated chicken wings and some devilled eggs with crab, but then I decided that I wanted to spend what little time I could, working on the website and NOT in the kitchen preparing food that everybody would eat.

Instead, I chucked the chicken wings in the oven and cooked them early, so that we could eat our lunch BEFORE attending the lunch!

So we attended the lunch empty handed - aside from half a bottle of wine that I had in the fridge.

It turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon. I really enjoyed catching up with Woman of Many Talents and The Reality TV Queen's BFF, Care Bear. The rest of us had some good laughs over nibbles and drinks.

We returned home at about 3pm, in time to feed the psychotic dogs and in time for Adoring Husband to watch the end of the Bathurst car race.

I spent a little time in my workspace,

but after that half a bottle of wine and a couple of bites of food that doesn't usually hit my tummy, I was left feeling well and truly 'done in', so I caught myself a short nap in bed until it was time to prepare a quick bite for dinner.

I hope to spend the entire day at my desk tomorrow and hopefully will have achieved something worth bragging about here!

In the meantime, I think I'm ready to continue that nap.

Nite all.

Brain Explosion

So ... I'm attempting to build a website.

I think my head is going to explode.

I spent the morning at our local markets. I like to support our local stall holders, but always get carried away, spending way too much money.

This month, I decided to go with minimal funds. I intended to buy a couple of home-made cards and a hanging stained glass animal (I buy something from this lady every month).

Unfortunately, I have no self control and unfortunately, some stalls use eftpos machines. Two necklaces, one bracelet, two notebooks, five cards, a hand towel, a stained glass owl and a 'no fracking' sign later ...

After all that spending, I had to withdraw money from the supermarket ATM so that I had cash to buy the sand crabs that I had ordered from The Motivator!

From The Motivator's house, I had to rush to the chemist to pick up Adoring Husband's script and while I was there, I found a beautiful little box of note paper with a meaningful quote on the box. Of course, I had to buy it!

By the time I arrived home, it was lunch time, so I reheated some Hainan Chicken for Adoring Husband, and for myself, I stood at the kitchen sink shelling my sand crabs and filled a container with the meat. I took that and a bottle of kombucha to my workspace, where I spent the entire afternoon learning how to create a website.

There was one short interruption when Mrs Bucket came for a visit. She was actually next door having a social afternoon, when she decided to pop in and see Adoring Husband and to confirm that we were attending her lunch tomorrow (Sunday).

I returned to my workspace and spent more time frowning at my monitor, trying to understand the website jargon that the course teacher was describing. By 9pm I decided that it was in my best interests to remove myself from the room and have a long break until tomorrow.

A rested brain and a fresh start tomorrow might help.

Nite all.