There You Go

Sadly, my position on the footy tipping ladder has already dropped to third place.

Adoring Husband has caught me and we are equal third together. We are two points behind second place and four points behind first place.

There is still a slight glimmer of hope.

My team is playing right now and I've tipped against them. I'll be happy if they lose. If they win, yet another tipper will catch AH and I on the ladder!

Adoring Husband damaged himself today.

I think we need to set up a camera to record his activity in the back yard over the next two months, because his story about today's injury sounded very much like Wile E Coyote attempting to set up his 'ACME' equipment to catch the Road Runner, which is then followed by the domino effect of disasters!

He lifted the frame of the chook pen to move it, realised that he wasn't going to be able to do it so he dropped it, forgetting that there was a six foot long crowbar on the ground (which he had used to lever the frame up). The frame then landed on the crowbar, flipped it in the air and the crowbar landed on AH's foot.

AH, whose career included many years as an OH&S trainer was NOT wearing protective work boots, just some canvas shoes. He also lucky that the crowbar didn't land on his head!

This afternoon, he has been unable to put any weight on the foot and it's in quite a deal of pain. It's slightly swollen but as yet, there is no bruising. He sat with an ice pack on it for a couple of hours.

This is very inconvenient because he still has some work to do 'on' and 'in' the shed before Kiwi Bernie begins construction next week. I guess it means that the onus is on me to GSD on my Sunday off.

*Sigh*

*Groan*

*Whinge*

*Bitch*

*Complain*

*Mumble*

You get the gist.

It was a very quiet Saturday morning at The Happy Abode. Lots of people, but most wanted to chat or just browse while they waited for their fish and chips.

I decided to try manifesting. I chose from our stock, an orange and purple Cenzoni backpack and wrote it down on a piece of paper. It's value was $128. I said out loud "somebody will come into the shop today, fall in love with this bag and buy it".

A little over an hour later, two ladies walked into the shop together and spent quite some time browsing and pointing out all the things that they loved. After about twenty minutes, one of them left and the other remained in the shop for another ten minutes or so. She picked up the orange and purple Cenzoni backpack and brought it to the counter. She announced "I just love the colours in this bag. I have to own it!"

And WAHLAH!! Manifestation successful!

I'm going to try that trick every day!

I doubt that my Sunday will be relaxing or peaceful, but I guess that's the price I have to pay for manifesting my pool!

I hope YOU all have the perfect Sunday.

Nite all.  

A Good Friday

MORE stock arrived today!

Between the many customers who entered our premises today, I unpacked the new Serenade stock and went through the process of checking the invoice, pricing and displaying all the lovely products, then cleaning up all the mess that was left behind.

Yet another local came through our doors saying "I didn't know you were here! How long have you been open?"

I wonder if, in five years time, there will still be locals uttering those famous words?

By the end of the day, I was feeling absolutely exhausted - but I think it was the prawns that I bought for lunch that did that to me. I've noticed that when I eat shellfish, I have an overwhelming feeling of physical tiredness a couple of hours after eating it. Shellfish don't have a very good filtering system in their bodies, so toxins tend to accumulate and effect we humans - and some of us are more sensitive than others.

I still found the energy to attend the Bowls Club for the usual Friday night raffles and socialising, but I was a big loser. I think everybody in our group won something except me!

The first football match of the evening did not go my way so I have slipped slightly on the footy tipping ladder. I still have one more chance to return to my second spot this weekend because the leader has chosen one more different team to me.

Fingers crossed.

I just looked at the clock and can't believe that it's already well after 11pm! Gotta work tomorrow, so I'd best get some sleep!

Oh and I just thought you would like to know that there are just 123 days until Christmas!

Nite all.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It's off to work we go.

It was a steady day in the shop.

Somebody, who I met many many months ago ... probably about ten months ... and who I ran into at the hairdressers last week, came into the shop to order a large photo from my sunset collection.

We sat in the lounge area and had a great conversation which lasted about thirty minutes before her illness began to take it's toll and she had to leave. She is pretty amazing and it's a bit sad that her illness prevents her from spreading her laughter and joy through the community because she could bring happiness on a daily basis!

There are still quite a few holiday makers in town and some of our regulars/locals came into the shop knowing that we had lots of new stock arrive last week. There will be more tomorrow and we have to order some more hemp hats because we are running very low.

I left work at around 3.20pm because Kiwi Bernie was at our house to discuss the build and landscaping in and around our planned new pool.

Adoring Husband had already shown him the plan that I had sketched, so he had a fair idea of what I had in mind, but he still had some questions to ask and it was interesting that he brought up some necessary things that we hadn't considered so our expenses may be a little higher than we originally thought. Having said that, I think we both expected that there would be costs that we hadn't thought of.

Obviously, this is not to scale and we haven't firmly decided on the pool shape yet, but this is a rough idea of what I have in mind ... aside from this, Adoring Husband has an outdoor kitchen planned to the right of the pergola which will be built into part of the existing shed. You can't see it in this plan.

It will be interesting to see how it pans out!

The pool still seems like a long way off and the reality of it hasn't really set in yet.

I must remember to take a photo of the next stage now that the trees, fence, chook pen and passionfruit trellis is gone and the timber has been removed from the raised garden beds. Adoring Husband has been working very hard and is well ahead of his planned work schedule/time line.

It's now 11pm and I'm feeling a bit weary, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Day of Ms

It was another day off work for me and it started with Meditation, which, as always, I enjoyed.

Meditation.

Straight after meditation, I asked The Gypsy if I could take her first appointment for the day and I spent an hour on the table enjoying a Zen Shiatzu Massage.

Massage.

It certainly slowed me down for the day because it took me 90 minutes to get ready for the lady's lunch and that didn't even include a shower! I was totally Zenned out!

I can't think of a word that begins with the letter 'M' that describes the lady's lunch!

How about Midday Meal!! There were about 18 of us gathered at the pub for lunch. I ordered Lamb Loin Chop with salad and GF gravy. 'Something' wasn't GF because I spent a good portion of time in the bathroom after I got home.

However, I had a good time with the girls and it was my first lady's lunch for a few months. I'm glad I got to attend this one.

Midday Meal.

Adoring Husband spent the entire day at home waiting for the repair guy to arrive to fix our oven. We've only been waiting for about five weeks for this 'part' to turn up from overseas and it was terribly nice of the guy to turn up at 6.15pm to take over our kitchen - right on dinner time!

$380 later!!

Mad.

At the original service call, he told us that it wouldn't cost too much. His idea of 'too much' and my idea of 'too much' are completely different 'too muches' obviously.

Much.

Now I'm off to bed because I am BACK AT WORK TOMORROW!! WAHOO!!

Makes me happy.

Nite all.

Day of Bliss

After five days off, I had a great return to the shop today.

It started with big hugs from The Motivator, followed by setting up the second attempt at birthday morning tea for Tweedle Dee (new name yet to be announced), then we enjoyed our morning tea with the girls before the day went crazy.

So many customers and so much to do, with all the new stock, some of which is still waiting to find a home, some to be stored out the back until another day, some to be tidied up and some to be rearranged or redisplayed.

We, with Adoring Husband's help, re-organised the the storage cupboard. AH took away all of our empty cardboard boxes that had accumulated over the week with new stock arrivals. We opened up the box containing the brand new vacuum cleaner and cleaned the floors. I did some dusting. We priced most of the new Cenzoni bags, wallets and purses. We selected a new tote bag each from the Ivy's collection.

We had to clear the training room, which had been used to unpack some of the stock, so that The Motivator could run a training session for laptops this afternoon and also for the meditation class tomorrow morning.

It was a little bit frantic for most of the day, but not frantic enough to cause stress.

A gentleman (and I use that term loosely) had been in the shop while I was away and returned to ask where he might find some birdlife in the area for him to photograph.

His main question was "Do you buy your photos?" When I asked him what he meant, he asked "Did you take the photos yourself or do you buy the images from somewhere else and claim them to be yours?"

That's when I knew that I wouldn't waste much time with him and I certainly wouldn't give him any credible tips about where to find birdlife.

Then he asked "How much does it cost to frame your $90 photos?" I replied that I didn't know because I'd never had one of them professionally framed, but probably between $150 - $200. He then said, with an air of arrogance, "So you're selling them at a loss!"

"No" I replied "I sell them backed with mat board, not framed."

"Oh" he said and then turned a walked away.

"And don't come back!" I though to myself!

We left the shop after 4.30pm and even though I have another day off tomorrow, I think I will attend the meditation class in the morning before attending our monthly lady's luncheon. I've missed the last three lunches, so I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone this month.

Here is Monday night's sunset ...

Best get some sleep now.

Nite all.  

I Refrained

It's Monday.

It was another day off for me.

As difficult as it was, I refrained from visiting The Happy Abode.

I stayed in bed listening to my book and continued to have my mind blown.

I made a concerted effort to get out of bed, have a shower and go visit The Blonde Bombshell for the first time since she returned home after her accident.

We did spend an hour or so, standing in the ocean water a few days after she returned home, which was some months ago.

I DID go to her house with all our friends to attend an essential oils party last weekend.

But I haven't been to her house just to visit as a friend, so today was my day to do that.

I met her carer, Shane, for the first time, who obviously loves Molly almost as much as The Blond Bombshell and Grumpy Pants.

Molly ...

Two glasses of wine and a bowl of potato chips later, The Reality TV Queen and I left.

I rode to the beach and took some photos of nothing much ...

It was dusk when I arrived home and not realising that I hadn't zipped up my camera bag properly, I picked it up to hear an almighty crash as my camera fell onto the concrete floor of the garage.

Ugh. (I said a word much worse than 'Ugh')

It still works. (Thank goodness!)

Phew!

I'm going to have an early night so that I can return to work refreshed tomorrow!

Nite all.

Booked it in and did it!

I told you that Sunday was going to be my day.

I spent about five hours listening to my book "You are the Placebo" which is absolutely blowing my mind and I feel like, by the end, it will change my life!

I did get out of bed to make myself some breakfast of crispy bacon and toast to have with the coffee that Adoring Husband brought to me and I took it all back to bed with me so that I could listen some more.

At about 1pm I got up again.

I cut open the 30 passionfruit that had been sitting in a plastic bag on the kitchen bench for a week - some from Best Cousin in the World and some from one of our customers - and put the flesh into a number of small containers to put into the freezer.

Then I mixed up a small batch of dog food. I mixed the 500g of beef mince with an egg, a handful of finely chopped spinach, a handful of shredded broccoli, a small grated carrot, a teaspoon of turmeric, a teaspoon of hemp seeds and some Himalayan salt.

That made up two days of food for the three psychotic dogs.

THEN I watched the second half of the football. Canterbury Bulldogs defeated New Zealand Warriors, which put me in clear second place in the Footy Tipping comp! Of course there are still a few weeks to go, so I could lose that position BUT right now I can brag about it and enjoy the moment!

I drew up a rough plan of the pool and the surrounding landscaping.

I made dinner for Adoring Husband and crunched my way through the remaining crispy bacon before watching one of the saddest movies I've ever seen "A Little Bit of Heaven". My face was very wet at the end of that one.

Monday is my last day off, so I still get to sleep in and I'll probably finish the book.

Before I head to bed, I'd like to wish Adoring Husband luck on this special day. Not that he needs it. I'll expand on this in a few days.

Happy Monday! Have a fabulous week!

Nite all.