Super Saturday

It has been a super Saturday.

The shop did well with sales.

The workshop was full of creativity and joy.

After we closed the shop, we released our inner arty farty-ness.

... and these photos, taken by The Motivator, to show my painting in sections. I love the colours and all the cells that came to the surface, but it's not as I imagined.

I can't share The Motivator's work without her permission and I didn't take photos of the other artworks yet, so that will all come ... if I remember lol ... you know how I keep promising to share things and then completely forget 🤪

I love how different and beautiful everybody's work is at the end of the sessions.

I love hearing the laughter and frivolity from the training room on the mornings when the workshops are happening.

I love when our customers want to know "what's going on in the back room?"

I love going in there every hour or so to see how each piece of art is progressing.

I love how inspired The Motivator is after each session.

I love how the participants always want to return for another session with new ideas and to try something different.

I love having a go myself.

It was 2.15pm when I arrived home and of course the pool called to me, so I lolled around in the water for about an hour and a half, then sat under the Bali hut listening to meditation music while I dried off.

I watched some Super Saturday football.

I watched "Little Women" and "Legends of the Fall" on TV.

So it's been a super Saturday all round.

Now I'm going to sleep. I have big plans for GF pancakes with banana and bacon and maple syrup for breakfast by the pool!

Nite all.

In the Drink

I worked for Adoring Husband early this morning and upon my return home, I found a text from The Motivator, offering to give me the entire day off.

The original plan was for me to open the shop and do the morning shift and then TM would take over at midday to do the afternoon shift.

So she very generously offered and I very gratefully accepted.

At 7.30am I was floating around in the pool enjoying the early morning light and feeling an overwhelming happiness for my life and everything and everyone in it.

I was dressed and ready to leave the house by 8.45am to go help set up the training room at the shop in preparation for the Paint and Create workshop that TM will be leading on Saturday morning.

I returned home well before midday and headed straight back to the pool. I swam and floated and exercised to the sweet sound of meditation music, I sat in the sunshine for 15 minutes, I lay under the Bali hut listening to my audible book and then I went back into the pool for some more swimming.

At 2pm I began getting ready for my Friday night at the club.

I washed my hair and made myself presentable in time for the 4pm bus to pick me up.

The Motivator arrived just as I was leaving so that she could spend some private time in the pool, enjoying the peace and tranquility,  just as I do.

There was no winning to be had for me tonight and only one of our group won a prize in the raffles.

I was lucky enough to get one of the last seats on the bus to return home.

Unfortunately I forgot to leave a light on for the dogs and one of them pooped in the darkness and then in the excitement of me arriving home, one of them jumped in it and then left little poopy footprints all over the family room floor!!

Obviously, my first priority was to clean the poop up and mop the floor.

Ugh.

Not a pleasant way to end my evening.

I made a light dinner and waited for Adoring Husband's phone call. He is safe and well and happy.

Now I'm off to bed to watch the end of Pretty Woman.

Nite all.

Togetherness

For the first time in a long time, The Motivator and I spent the entire day together at the shop.

It was a really nice day.

There were no deliveries and only a few customers, so we got to chat and relax and make an online order during the blackout.

Yes we had a blackout for about 90 minutes. That's not a problem for us because we can still play music via bluetooth and our cash register works via our phone. It took an hour for the shop to warm up without air conditioning, and then, just in the nick of time, the power returned.

I attempted to get a coffee before I rode home, but because of the blackout, my local turned off the coffee machine to take the pressure off their generator and I had to go elsewhere to get my caffeine hit.

Luckily the local cafe came to the rescue.

I invited The Motivator for a swim this afternoon, but as I arrived home, I discovered that one of the dogs had used the hallway as a toilet - big time - and it took me a good 15 minutes to clean that up!

By the time TM arrived, I hadn't had a chance to set up the pool area or change into my bathers. The umbrella was still folded down, the covers were on the chairs, the cushions for the Bali bed were still in the storage room, the kitchen was locked, there was no music playing.

So I invited her to make herself comfortable in the pool, while I got myself changed and then did all the 'things' that Adoring Husband usually does!

I appreciate you AH 😘

It was very easy, just an inconvenience really.

We spent over an hour lolling in the pool and almost an hour sitting under the Bali hut listening to meditation music, which was just soooooo relaxing. We had our feet up on the ottoman and just stayed there until the sun set.

We were reluctant to move from that position, but I had to return an earlier call from Adoring Husband and TM had her own 'stuff' to attend to.

I've been in bed now, since 7.30pm writing this, among other things, and I can't believe it's almost midnight!

Best get some sleep because I have to be up VERY early in the morning to do AH's job.

Nite all.

Full of Fabulousness!

My day has been full of fabulousness!

I was up bright and early because I had parked my trike in the middle of the shop yesterday when it was too stormy to ride home, so I needed to remove it before everyone arrived for meditation. Adoring Husband drove me there and helped set out the flags, signs and chairs so we were all set with plenty of time to spare.

Due to holidays and specialist appointments, there were a few absent today, so eight of us were sitting in the meditation class and, as always, it was a good class.

It was my day off, but a customer who had left at 3pm yesterday without completing her purchases, had returned to do so and I felt obliged to serve her.

I left soon after because Aggie and Lady Lynn were due to pick me up at 10.20am so that we could then pick up The Brains Trust and all head out to Childers for some shoe shopping and some lunch.

I'm not certain if it was peer pressure but I prefer to think of it as supporting and encouraging each other to spend money on things that we really didn't need, and possibly didn't even want, but it felt good at the time so we did it.

I purchased a pair of shoes and two tops and everybody finished the day with something lovely to take home. I think we were honest with each other about how we looked as we tried on both clothes and shoes at two different shops.

We made friends with the shop owners and talked about The Happy Abode and how horrible February is every year for them too ... which was comforting.

We walked across the road and ordered our lunch at Kape` Central. This was my lunch ...

... because I'm a grown up and can order sweets for lunch if I want to!!

The coffee was absolutely delicious too!

From there, we checked out the gift section in the Post Office next door. They had some lovely things in there, some similar to what we have at The Happy Abode.

After our shopping spree, we drove to a little coffee shop further up town and the girls ordered coffee while I ordered a fresh juice of mango, ginger and mint. It soothed my upset tummy a little.

The Garden Guru had put in an order for horseradish peanuts, so the peanut van was our next stop and while we were a little concerned about the possibility of driving through a storm, we were lucky enough that it remained to our left for most of the drive home.

We had a glorious five hours together with lots of laughing and joking and spending and eating and drinking.

Adoring Husband was not at home when Aggie dropped me off. He had gone to get coffee and he had unsuccessfully attempted to phone me to ask if I'd be home soon. Luckily for me, he came home with a coffee for me anyway.

I took the washing off the line, put some more in the machine, ironed AH's jeans and shirts to take on his trip to Armidale, sewed a button on one of his shirts and then made a quick nosh up dinner of Jamaican Chicken.

As I began to write this blog post, I received a call from Vegan Chickie and we talked for almost 90 minutes - there was a lot to catch up on.

Here it is, almost 12.30am and I have to work tomorrow. I can hear my pillow calling my name and I believe I will set my alarm an hour later than usual!

Nite all.    

More Please!

I had a lovely day at work.

I couldn't get to sleep until 2am so it was difficult to get moving when I was rudely woken by my inconsiderate alarm at 5.55am.

A warm shower was enough to get the blood circulating and I got to work with plenty of time to go buy my morning coffee and then open the shop.

The girls all arrived for our coffee morning and there were seven of us in attendance, including an interstate visitor in the form of Care Bear. She even enjoyed some retail therapy in the shop.

We took delivery of another order today, so I checked, priced and displayed everything straight away. Here is some of our new stock ...

I paid some bills, stapled our cards to our carry bags, emptied the indoor bins so that the big bins could go out to the street and I served a LOT of customers, so it was a good enough sales day to put a smile on my dial.

This afternoon, a huge storm swelled overhead which made me nervous enough to park my trike inside the shop and get a lift home with Adoring Husband.

He had taken our psychotic dog Jack to the vet to have his claws clipped today. Jack won't allow me anywhere near his claws and we figured that he would need to be put under anaesthetic to have them done.

AH sat in the waiting room listening to Jack's screams (Jack is the biggest sookie lala on the planet and screams at the slightest thing) while the vet clipped him.

His claws were so long, they were curling sideways and were obviously causing him discomfort, if not pain.

When I got home this afternoon, Jack was jumping around and wagging his tail like an excited puppy instead of the 14yr old cranky pants that he usually is. It was so good to see and really made me laugh.

The vet gave him a good going over and declared that Jack is in excellent health with a strong heart, so that's good to know.

I have a bit of an upset tummy tonight which is causing me some discomfort, so I'm off to bed and will hopefully sleep it off.

Lunch and shoe shopping in Childers with the girls tomorrow, so I need to be healthy and on the ball.

Nite all.

Perfectly Finished

Well, thank goodness, I found some motivation and energy at the end of my days off!

Believe it or not, I had not completely unpacked my suitcase from my trip to Sydney! So I did that today.

I cleaned the main bathroom, the toilet and the laundry. I sprayed the shower tiles with oil of cloves mixture and it needs to stay like that for at least 12 hours to kill the mould. Bleach doesn't kill mould - it just bleaches it so that you can't see it. Oil of cloves actually kills it, but it means that some scrubbing will be involved tomorrow.

I swept and mopped some floors.

I got the washing off the line and folded it. I hung out three more loads of washing.

I made a fresh smoothie with dragon fruit, pineapple, lime and coconut water.

I've been promising to issue an invitation to Lady Lynn and The Brains Trust to share the experience of our beautiful pool area for such a long time ... and today was the day!

They had both arrived by 2.30pm and we sat and chatted for a little while before plunging in.

Well ... 'I' plunged in.

There were some tentative gasps as the girls entered the pool via the steps and I sensed some hesitancy as they questioned my description of the water temperature.

Once they were in, they agreed that the water was perfect!

We bobbed around on our noodles for a good 90 minutes, chatting and laughing and enjoying each other's good company.

Adoring Husband arrived home from The Bay and then, at my request, drove to our 'local' to purchase coffee for everyone. He delivered our coffee and then disappeared for 15 minutes, returning with a big plate of fresh fruit that he had sliced up beautifully for our eating pleasure!

What a legend.

He sat chatting with us for a while before the girls decided it was time to return to their own husbands.

It was such a lovely afternoon.

After they left, I lay in the Bali hut listening to my audible book for a while ... until I checked the BOM and saw the line of nasty looking storms heading in our direction, so I called for AH and we packed all the loose stuff into the outdoor kitchen, put the  covers on the lounge, folded down the umbrella and took the clothes off the line.

Within about half an hour, the rains came. We could see lightning in the distance and could hear the distant rumble of thunder, but the storms missed us again, thank goodness and we received some good rain.

We took a Hainan Chicken out of the freezer and heated that for dinner, so it was nice and easy.

Now it's midnight!! Far out!! Time for bed.

Nite all.

Peace Light and Love

A very opinionated farmer posted a long winded comment on FB about all the young people marching for climate change.

He began his rant with this ...

*TALKING OR WALKING ?

Give up mobile phones or devices
Do not use Air conditioning
Walk or bike from within 10 k of destination
Do not drink any bottled liquids
Buy unpackaged goods/foods

What are these? These are just a few ways the kids who protested yesterday can actually do something themselves about their impact on the earth.
BUT THEY WILL NOT. Nor will their puffed with pride parents.*

His rant continued to until it created a post four times longer than what I've shared here. It was followed by lots of other older people supporting his rant and bagging out young people from every angle.

He doesn't (and nor do the others) know any of these young people, but they choose to put them in a box and criticise not only the kids, but their parents as well.

So, in all my misguided wisdom, I responded with this ...

"Yeah let’s bag out the kids who are trying to make a difference. Just remember, we can’t all do everything, but we can all do something."

I figured somebody might respond, so I prepared myself to NOT get into an argument, but instead respond with love.

• Love and light to you.
• Peace and love to you.
• Feel the love.
• Warmest hugs from afar.
• Wishing you love and kindness.

He responded with this ... "I have seen people put up arguments that have valid debating points. I have also seen your inanities. Its an age old technique, believe me you are not the first. It highlights someone that is unable to validly refute those points and thus tries to make out they are morally the better person and by extension anyone else is lesser. I repeat, not original, not that clever, extremely pompous, and quite la'ughable. I know what your reply will be because you tread a well worn and tiresome path."

(My thoughts which I did not share - Pot - Kettle - Black)

and then he provided this ... "not original, not clever, pompous, and oh so passe"

Somebody else responded with "Roz is cute"

To which the farmer replied "Roz is not bad I suppose.... if you sorta screw your eyes up a little and just glance quickly. I prefer the more thoughtful sincere articulate types myself"

So it seems that you cop a gob full if you do argue and you. cop a gob full if you don't. In fact, spreading love and light seems to trigger some unexpected frustration and anger from the masses - he wasn't the only one who commented or got frustrated with my responses!

It was an interesting experience.

I learned years ago to NOT comment on posts like this and to NOT read the comments because social media is full of 'effed' up people and I want my FB feed to be my happy place.

I've either blocked or hidden friends or family who constantly share disrespectful, bigoted, racist, sexist or angry content on their pages. Out of 286 friends, that leaves me in regular contact with about 30 of them.

Today's experiment turned into an excellent opportunity to practice some of the 'powers' that I've been learning about in the meditation classes. 

The power to withdraw - which is the ability to step back and disengage.

The power to pack up - which is the ability to bring things to an end and stop wasteful thinking.

The power to tolerate - the ability to respond to external and internal events positively, yet not be affected by them.

I probably won't put myself in that position again on social media. Self inflicted I know, but I obviously triggered something inside those people and it escalated into something I wasn't expecting.

You live and learn.

Aside from that, I had another uneventful and unproductive day. I don't even know what happened to my morning - it just disappeared before I even knew it.

I had a quick swim this afternoon while Adoring Husband went for a drive to get us a coffee. In that short time, probably 30 minutes, I took myself through a quick journey and then did a brief meditation. The mind is an amazing and intriguing thing.

I spent the afternoon listening to one of my audible books and cooked a corned silverside with cabbage and mash for dinner.

My hope is that tomorrow, my motivation returns, because I have a lot to do around the house and I'd really like to feel that my time away from the shop was at least partly used to reduce the housework load.

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that my number one father-in-law, Gentleman Jim, turned 90 on the 13th March. Considering that almost 40 years ago, he suffered a heart attack that scared the wits out of us, turning 90 is some achievement. I suspect that Granymus should take a lot of the credit for that! 

Happy birthday Gentleman Jim 🎈 I'm sorry that I don't have any chocolate coated ginger for you on this occasion.

To everyone else, I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend.

Nite all.