Going Solo

I needed a woollen poncho to ride to work at 6.30 this morning!

It’s not as cold as Melbourne, by any means, but 16°C is a big drop from our more recent minimums.

There were only six of us at meditation this morning. 

I think our regulars have misunderstood the dates we are not meditating, so we need to communicate with them during the week.

It was nice to see The Gypsy and some of our regulars this morning. We did something different and sat in a circle for our class and everyone got involved in the discussions.

Sales were even better than yesterday which was great but my afternoon really dragged on. The last 90 minutes were slow and I was watching the clock, something I don’t normally do!

It was a very windy ride home, sometimes into a head wind which wasn’t pleasant, but I made it safe n sound.

At 5pm I got changed and rode to do Adoring Husband’s job. By the time I’d finished, it was dark and I realised that only the tail light on my trike works. I might have to tape a torch to the front of my trike for the remainder of the week.

Here are today’s bubba pics ...

Now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Back to Play

It’s too much fun to be work, so I call it play.

It was a strange kind of day with LOTS of people through the door, but maybe half of them made a purchase.

Sales were good.

We were light on in numbers for coffee this morning with only four ladies including me. Two of these left early due to other appointments so The Brains Trust and I had an hour together between customers.

Adoring Husband took psychotic dog Colli into The Bay for a grooming session and while he was there he ran some errands for me which included purchasing some printer ink.

My main task for the day was changing the printer ink!

Task successfully achieved!

This afternoon was journaling class which went very well and time flew by.

I accepted the girls’ offer to help me set up the room for meditation so they folded up the tables and the tablecloths while I wheeled in the whiteboard and set out the chairs.

It took another ten minutes for me to turn everything off and pack everything up to go home.

The journey home took a while because I kept running into people I know, and they all wanted to chat.

One in particular was a neighbour who informed me that his wife left him a year ago! I had no idea! They struggled after the tornado when their property received major damage, but they were married for 50 years so this news was a bit of a shock to me.

I also ran into Woman of Many Talents and we chatted briefly before she joined her walking partner.

It was 5pm by the time I arrived home.

AH cooked some lamb rumps on the barbecue and we put salad and the meat on bread for an easy dinner.

Now I’m ready for bed because it’s an early start for meditation and I have to ride my trike for the next week. It might build up my fitness level.

Nite all.

Sweet Sleep

I love my bed.

That is all.

I had a very lazy start to my day.

Before I climbed into bed last night, I unpacked my suitcase and except for the washing, you wouldn’t even know I’d been gone.

Knowing there was nothing to do in the morning meant I could sleep soundly and stay in bed for as long as I liked (as if that’s different to any other day that I don’t work haha) so I remained in bed until lunch time.

Adoring Husband and I watched a movie while munching on avocado/tuna/lemon/pickled onion with wafer crackers after which we shopped for food for dinner and then drove to my happy place to clear the training room of all the art stuff from before I left.

AH reattached a hanging rack to the wall while I vacuumed the floors and cleared the kitchen sink of all the cleaned art tools, cups and cloths from the last art class.

We set up the tables for morning coffee and journaling and all up, we were out of the house for about 2 hours.

After we got home with our snacks, we watched another movie on Netflix and I prepared dinner.

Snapper fillets fried in lemon butter with salad and a hash brown.

Now we are watching Big Brother!

AH has a big day starting early in The Bay tomorrow, so I will be triking to work and opening the shop on my own. 

I’m looking forward to getting back into it.

Now I’ve got some ironing to do for AH before he goes away.

Nite all.

She’s Back

That’s me!

I’m back!

Adoring Husband and I are both exhausted because we’ve both been travelling all day.

AH was in Eumundi almost an hour before my flight even left Melbourne!

We stopped at Bohemian Bungalow in Eumundi for lunch. My online reservation was received but obviously wasn’t necessary because there were only two other tables of people.

There was a solo entertainer playing guitar and singing great old bluesy rock and roll songs from the 60s and 70s. He had a fabulously deep gravelly voice and he made those old songs his own. It was impossible not to sing along and dance in the sitting position.

The food was disappointing and we asked for fresh pineapple juice but received a glass of tinned juice.

Still, the music made up for it.

Apart from the obligatory semi trailer sitting on our butt for half an hour, we had a good run home.

My morning had a bit of a glitch where somehow my Uber ride was cancelled. Luckily I had Vegan Chickie there to fix it for me because I have no idea how that happened and I felt a little bit panicked.

My Uber driver was a rather large man who seemed to have trouble with green lights 😳

We stopped for red lights and when they turned green, he didn’t move! Every time! Only when cars sped past him did he realise he should move! Very strange.

It cost me $85 for the 45 min drive. A taxi quoted $120 for the same trip.

There was very little traffic on the road and when we hit the four lane highway, there was just us and one other car way ahead of us for about 10kms.

There was no human contact or communication to drop off my bag and collect my boarding pass.

I stopped at one machine to print out the luggage tag and the boarding pass then walked to another machine that weighed my bag, accepted it and told me to go to Gate 6.

Very strange.

I found myself a cup of tea, a bottle of water and some mentos to suck on while taking off and landing.

Due to unexpected changed wind conditions, my flight left Melbourne almost 30 minutes late but arrived at the Sunny Coast right on time.

I did get to give my Chicklet a final hug goodbye early this morning. That was important.

We had an easy dinner and are both counting the minutes to when we think it’s appropriate to fall into bed.

I must say I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

It was a lovely week with the family and my BTATT (best thing about the trip) was seeing Chicklet waiting for me at the airport the day I arrived. Overwhelmed.

Meeting and cuddling little Hazie was a highlight and having her sleep on my chest for 2 hours was really special.

Seeing how in love Vegan Chickie and Mr Perfect are, warmed the cockles of my heart.

Meeting his family finished the trip off beautifully. They were a blast and I know my family are in good Melbourne hands.

The WTATT (worst thing about the trip) was the cold weather. Brrrrrrrr. My Eumundi jumper saved my life.

On that note, I’m outta here.

Nite all.

Farewell. Adieu.

In the morning I will wake up bright and early and I’ve booked an Uber for 7am to get me to the airport.

My time with the family passed so quickly but it was precious time spent with my girls and I’ll cherish it in my memory bank forever.

I met Mr Perfect’s family today and they are lovely. I know that my little family are well taken care of with lots of love and support close by. I feel good about that.

I’m looking forward to seeing Adoring Husband tomorrow and I’ve booked a table at our favourite Eumundi restaurant for lunch. I booked online so let’s hope they are well connected with their website and we don’t get turned away tomorrow!

If that’s the case I’m sure we’ll find somewhere else.

My bag is packed and I’m about to set the alarm for my early start.

Happy 11th wedding anniversary to Adoring Husband ❤️

Nite all.

Good Bub Day

🎼 Happy birthday to me 🎶 Happy birthday to me 🎵 Happy birthday dear meeeeeeee  🎶 Happy birthday to me 🎼 

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hazie has been much more like herself today!

A checkup appointment with the district nurse returned good results. A weight gain of 450 gms in ten days and everything else perfect.

She wasn’t a fan of the drive there and she didn’t like being stripped off for her checkup, but once that was all done, she settled right down.

We all bundled into the car and drove to The Hatter and The Hare for my birthday treat. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the cake that I wanted, so between us, Chicklet and I shared a blueberry, lemon and poppyseed cake AND a chocolate cake. 

They were both delicious!

I also had a fresh juice - apple, cucumber, spinach and mint. Chicklet had a smoothie with pineapple, mango, orange, passion fruit and strawberries.

It was a lovely afternoon and we all enjoyed two hours together. The cafe was amazing and very busy with happy noisy patrons. The food choices were extensive and worthy of photographing but I was in too much of a hurry to eat them so I didn’t think of taking a pic. Simply spectacular.

Granny Izzy joined us and presented me with a gorgeous hand made macrame plant hanger (she made it herself!) with a pot inside plus a book “Dear Mum”. I was not expecting that and was very touched.

I very much enjoyed my birthday afternoon.

We all returned home and needed an afternoon rest/break/nap.

I prepared dinner for Chicklet and myself and we followed that with an ice cream - WAY TOO MUCH sugar today!

I’ve received birthday calls from Number 1 Son, Bubbles, J Mac and The Motivator.

Now I’m in bed watching the football on my iPad.

I’m feeling a bit weary so I should sleep well tonight.

Nite all.

Bad Bub Day

Little Hazie had a day of discomfort and was very unsettled today.

This meant we had very short cuddle times together but at least Mum got to have a shower.

Chicklet and I had breakfast together and she explained some more of her gaming apps to me.

Other than that, we had a very quiet day.

Vegan Chickie took this great pic of Chicklet, Hazie and I...

Adoring Husband phoned me this afternoon and we chatted for about ten minutes which was nice.

I had pre-sleep cuddles with Chicklet and we planned our day for tomorrow.

I brought my portable clothes steamer with me in the suitcase and used it for the first time this evening. For $50 from Good Guys, it works really well! I’m very happy.

Now the cloths that I’m wearing tomorrow are steamed and hanging up ready for my birthday outing tomorrow. We are going to The Hatter and The Hare (https://www.hhcafe.com.au/menus/) where I’m looking forward to trying this ...

accompanied by freshly squeezed juice called Gryphon’s Cure!

Vegan Chickie and Mr Perfect have an appointment in the morning so Chicklet and I are going for a walk to catch some Pokémon.

Now it’s time to sleep!

Nite all.

The Grannies Meet

It’s bloody cold!

The woolly jumper that we purchased in Eumundi is deliciously warm and toasty so that was a good buy!

Little Hazie seemed to like it because she curled up in her snuggle ball shape and slept for almost 2 hours on my chest at lunch time and then again for about 30 minutes later in the afternoon.

Chicklet helped me catch some more Pokémon today and educated me a little more on the workings of Pokémon Go.

I made chicken, shiitake mushroom and pak choy soup for lunch. It was delicious and I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

I almost burnt the house down and set the smoke alarm off while MR Perfect was in the shower and Vegan Chickie had just been puked and pooped on.

The smoke alarm is connected to the security alarm and needed a code to turn it off - since both occupants of the house were in compromising situations, the alarm was going off for quite some time before MR Perfect came flying out of the bedroom half naked to save the day!

At about 3.30pm we received a visit from Granny Izzy. It was our first face to face, in person, meeting and it began with a long squeezy hug and was followed by lots of chatter and laughter.

She took her turn getting Hazie cuddles and we agreed on how lucky we are, not only for our adorable grandchildren, but for the fact that Vegan Chickie and Mr Perfect found each other.

Before she left, we invited her to The Hatter & The Hare cafe for my birthday on Friday.

My dinner tonight was just dessert - vegan ice cream in a GF cone.

I took Mama’s place for night cuddles with Chicklet before she went to sleep, which I really enjoyed and we talked about her favourite book (Cat Warriors) and how she and Mr Perfect went for a drive this afternoon and captured two Pokémon gyms in battles.

Norman the cat got a mention, as did ice cream, which we are going to have for lunch tomorrow with berries!

It’s very cold and my hands need to get warm under the blankies so here is where I sign off. This large huntsman is living outside my bedroom door and Adoring Husband suggested that I get a gun. 🥴

Nite all.

Warm Welcome

It is as COLD and WET as you would expect it to be in Melbourne.

I’m in strife for naming the cat Morgan in my last blog post haha. His name is Norman and clearly he is definitely a Norman and I need to train my brain to see Norman and not Morgan. I can try.

It was a nice lazy start to the day, just the way I like it. I don’t think I got out of bed until 9am and Chicklet and I had breakfast together before Mum, Dad and Bub appeared.

Today I’ve been learning all about Pokémon Go. I had deleted the app from my phone after the last visit so I had to reverse that decision. Today I have caught 36 Pokémon! Chicklet is very patient with me - although sometimes she uses big words that I don’t even understand.

How can a ten year old using her normal every day language make a 60 year old feel like a dill 😳

Easily ... is my answer.

I had a long cuddle with my little Hazie this morning, after which MR Perfect took me grocery shopping at the nearby supermarket.

This afternoon we’ve all been resting. I had an hour with Chicklet in her room and she showed me all the apps that she plays in, the creatures and avatars she has created and the rooms she has designed. She showed me an animation she created and made my brain hurt. That’s why I needed to rest.

The sun is now setting and I’m about to exit my room to see if there is any action in the house. It really is the perfect day for lying in bed under the covers, catching Pokémon and watching Netflix.

After a short rendezvous with the family and sharing our ‘Best thing about today’ stories, I am now in my jammies and snuggled under a double doona trying to get warm. It’s currently 11°C and moving south to 8°C overnight. Tomorrow’s max is only going to reach 15°C so I’m really pleased that I purchased that big woolly jumper at Eumundi yesterday!

I think I might need to find some woolly slippers somewhere tomorrow - if my feet are warm, everything is warm.

So far I’m having a lovely time with my family 😍

Nite all.

I Am Here!

It was an easy drive from home to Maroochydore.

Adoring Husband stopped at Eumundi for coffee so I took the opportunity to shop next door for some warm clothes. I selected a long sleeved t-shirt and a jumper but when I got the counter, AH took out his wallet to pay for it. I hadn’t even looked at the prices so it was a shock to both of us when she rang up the total. More of a shock to AH than me lol.

Thank you darling.

I checked in at the ‘drop off’ point at the airport because I had already checked in online and selected my seat. When I looked at my boarding pass I had been allocated a different seat and commented to AH that it was pointless choosing your seat online if they’re going to change it when you got to the airport. He suggested that I say something, but I didn’t bother.

We killed over an hour eating sushi, drinking an immune boost smoothie and sucking in our own carbon dioxide behind our compulsory masks until my flight was called.

We said our goodbyes and I made my way to my new allocated seat. I had barely made myself comfortable when an attendant asked me for my boarding pass - then she pointed to the name on the pass and said “That’s not you is it?” I looked at the name and it was something like Angelina Brettschneider! “Oh! No it isn’t” I replied.

I hadn’t even looked at the name when I was discussing the seat number with AH 😳

She led me to the back of the plane to the seat that I had originally selected but there was a man sitting in it. I should have made him move but instead I sat in the aisle seat.

A baby sitting on his Dad’s lap just across the aisle from me screamed from the tarmac until we reached altitude, then was as cute as a button and we played peekaboo and other giggly games, then he screamed all the way as we descended into Melbourne airport.

Chicklet and Mr Perfect were waiting for me and I had tears of happiness as I hugged Chicklet as tight as I could without crushing her. Mr Perfect and I gave each other a hug of introduction and then chatted easily until my baggage arrived.

It was a long drive from the airport - almost 2 hours with peak hour traffic - normally about 45 minutes.

The conversation was comfortable and Mr Perfect’s driving was skilled.

I got to half hug Vegan Chickie because she had a babe in arms and then ‘I’ had a babe in arms ...

I got to meet Mr Perfect’s Dad and his wife and the crazy cat Morgan who sits in a box, climbs cat poles, bounds through the house and hugs Chicklet often.

Now I am lying in a very comfortable bed ready to doze off into a deep slumber. It has been a long exciting and tiring day.

Nite all.

Ready Or Not

I made a list.

I checked it twice.

I’m three quarters packed.

I can’t wait to see this face in person ...

... she’s cute as a button!

I’m not sure that I’ll be able sleep tonight and it’s going to be a huge day of travel tomorrow.

2.5 hours of driving to Maroochydore. 2.8 hours flying. 45 minutes of driving from the airport to the house. It’ll take me a day to recover!

This is short and sweet because I’m off to watch the final episode of MAFS and then I’m crawling into bed.

Watch this space!

Nite all.

Breaking Records!

Today, I smashed my sales record.

Smashed it like I didn’t think was possible!

This morning I was looking at April sales and thinking how much I needed a good day to help ease the loss of a week with the doors locked.

Saturdays are historically the worst day of the week for sales.

I remember back in the 70s when my mother owned a small record shop in the Brisbane suburb of Morningside and Saturdays were so busy she needed three staff and the queue at the counter were four deep all morning. It was crazy!

It has never been like that here.

In fact I’ve considered not opening on Saturdays because sales have been so mimimal.

Not today!

It was a blinder and has covered what I will miss out on next week!

To add to that, I ran a fantastic art class this afternoon with ten ladies who all produced some beautiful art. These are some of their efforts. I didn’t get pics of them all, but I will tomorrow.

We sat around drinking beverages until after 4.30pm and there was plenty of laughter and fun. They are a great group of girls.

We stopped at the local cafe to grab some chips to have with dinner and talked to the owners about the fact that they have sold the business.

What a relief for them because Covid has destroyed them and their piece of mind. The locals have really given them grief and I hope that their future is full of success and happiness because they are hard workers and they deserve a better deal.

My Melbourne family are mourning the loss of their pet cat Maggie tonight. I send them healing hugs.

I think I’m done for the day. Tomorrow will be huge as I pack and prepare for my trip to Melbourne. Just two more sleeps!

Nite all.