Sad Sat

Only two customers all day and it was lucky that I stayed open for an extra hour so that the second customer could enter the shop!

It was so quiet in town today.

It gave me the opportunity to wrap some gift packs for display.

The Motivator came in like a whirlwind, did a few chores and then left quickly, with a big family evening planned.

I finalised another stock order that The Motivator had started.

Our new concrete guy came to the house and gave us a very reasonable quote for our concreting.

Our pool guy came and installed the magnesium filter system.

Adoring Husband researched some Bali huts and our budget is now looking a lot easier to manage. The stress levels have reduced somewhat and we are feeling a lot better about our new pool and landscaping.

I arrived home after 2.30pm and plonked myself, exhausted, on the couch. I've been awake since 4am and as an old-ish bird, I definitely require more than 5 hours of sleep at night.

We watched The Greatest Showman before I made a creamy smoked cod casserole for dinner.

My day is done and now I am going to bed where I will watch 'Breaking Dawn Part 2', until I fall asleep.

Here is some of our stock that came in during the week.

Nite all.    

Tri-pools

Adoring Husband and I had an appointment this morning to meet the Pool Gal in The Bay to view three different pools that they've built.

Two were brand new, only recently filled with water and one was a couple of years old with established landscaping.

We loved the first pool. The surface colour was very beachy and they had installed the same brand of umbrella that we've ordered.. The water was a lovely soft blue colour that reminded me of the water around the Pacific islands. We could easily picture our pool looking just like that.

It gave us hope that it will be completed soon!

We immediately returned home because AH had SES duties in Scaryborough.

I rode to the shop to pick up some cushions that I'd added to one of our stock orders. They will go nicely on our outdoor lounge.

I shouted myself some lunch at the cafe and sat inside to enjoy it - I forget how nice it is to go solo sometimes.

The worst moment of my day came when I tried to book my train fare to the Sunny Coast so that I can catch my flight to Melbourne on Wednesday - only to discover that there is no early train on Wednesdays and the late train won't get me there in time.

Rethinking my options.

Psychotic Dog Ruby needed a haircut desperately, so I did that, clipped her claws and gave her a bath. It took three lathers to get her clean, but her belly looks like the dirt is so ingrained, it's tattooed!

The Pool Gal then arrived with a selection of little coloured glass beads to choose from - they go into the mix that gets sprayed onto the pool shell. I decided that I wanted all of them, so there will be little sparkles of different colour throughout our pool.

That gave me just enough time to make myself beautiful for the club.

I won a meat tray in the very first raffle of the evening (which I've just realised I left behind! Oops)

That is my day.

Done and dusted.

It's after 10.30pm so I'm off to you-know-where.

Nite all.

Pain again?!

Not sciatica this time.

My neck.

It seems that I have the weight of the world on my shoulders and my neck and shoulders are suffering greatly.

It's all the bad energy rolling around my house at the moment.

I have a big hole in my back yard and piles of fine dusty dirt blowing through the house and absolutely no satisfactory progress from any trades person. The builder is now out of the country due to a family medical emergency and we have a new concrete guy coming tomorrow to give us a quote because the last guy can't do it now.

The only real progress that I can see, is what Adoring Husband has done, otherwise there's been a bunch of guys scratching their heads trying to work around problems.

Having done some research tonight, I've found exactly what I want for much less money than we've been quoted for and I'm rethinking the whole deal.

So anyway ...

The Motivator gave me two very deep neck and shoulder massages today and I'm feeling a lot better, BUT I also feel bruised and battered haha. I couldn't even turn my head left or right this morning so it was very tricky riding my trike not being able to look for cars properly when I had to cross a road!

I have much more movement now.

I spent a couple of hours at the shop today but I didn't do any work. I'd planned to help unpack the stock that arrived on Wednesday afternoon, but I don't think I was capable of much at all. I spent some time sitting by myself in the training room on a beanbag resting after my first massage.

Tweedle Dee (new name yet to be announced) came in to talk some business and then the Pool Gal came in to organise a trip into The Bay to check out some pool colours, so it was lucky that I was there.

Adoring Husband has had a busy SES week and tonight is no exception, so I'm climbing into bed for another early night - I was a bit restless last night, but I think that was my late coffee yesterday afternoon.

I have another day off tomorrow.

R&R

Nite all.

Fabulously Fun

The Royal Chaser and her husband arrived very early at the shop today, so we got to chat and catch up before Best Cousin in the World arrived.

When BCITW arrived, we all walked to the cafe and sat down, but realised that it was only 11am and we were not ready to eat yet so we decided to go for a walk along the river and sit in the park to chat.

More than two hours later, after much fun and laughter and getting to know each other a bit more, we headed back to the cafe for lunch.

We all parted company just before 3pm.

It was a good day and I really enjoyed spending time with them. If we lived closer, I think we would be great social friends with The Royal Chaser and her husband - she is a real laugh and a half and has no fear - up for almost anything!

Sadly, none of us thought to take a photo so there is no proof that today even happened!

After they left, I returned to the shop and helped The Motivator finish installing the lights in our glass cabinets. She's the brains of the operation. I'm the trades assistant.

Four boxes of stock arrived while I was out today, so she will have fun unpacking it all while I have my couple of days off.

Adoring Husband had SES duties this evening so I had another pleasant evening alone watching Gogglebox and The Bachelorette.

I've found a fabulous meditation for sleep called 'Deep Sleep Hypnosis'

It goes for about 20 minutes.

I was in bed listening to it for the first time two nights ago, and after ten minutes, I thought to myself "this isn't working".

I don't remember anything after that because I fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up for more than eight hours!

Last night I listened to it again and after ten minutes I thought to myself "last night was a fluke. this isn't working"

I don't remember anything after that and I woke up seven hours later.

So I believe I am onto a winner.

It's now almost 9.30pm and I'm off to bed for another sound sleep.

Love it.

Nite all.

Miss Me?

Surprisingly, I was in bed by 8.30pm and asleep before 9pm.

When I woke this morning, I remembered that I didn't do my blog post!

To anyone who cares ... sorry about that.

After nine hours of fairly solid sleep, I woke feeling refreshed and lay in bed thinking what a fabulous day I was going to have.

Then Adoring Husband began getting ready for SES and couldn't find his shirts - stomping through the house swearing - then he couldn't find his belt - stomping through the house swearing - then he couldn't find his garage remote - stomping through the house swearing.

By the time I did everything to tidy up his loose ends and then get myself ready for work, I had just enough time to grab myself a coffee and open the shop right on nine.

The ladies all arrived for our coffee morning, but so did a whole stack of customers and for the 2.5 hours that the ladies were at the shop, I only got to sit with them for about twenty minutes.

Not that I'm complaining!

The whole day was busy until we had a blackout at around 2.20pm - a few people came in during the blackout but only one of them made a purchase. Without power, we could only make cash sales but some items were put aside for customers to return tomorrow to make payment.

All round, it was a very good day as far as sales go.

Three lots of deliveries arrived, so in between customers, I priced and displayed the new stock.

I left the shop some time after 4.30pm - just as the power came back on.

Adoring Husband had more SES stuff tonight, so I made a quick chicken curry for dinner and then had a couple of hours to myself while he attended his important meeting.

Tomorrow, I get to spend time with Best Cousin in the World and The Royal Chaser.

I met The Royal Chaser about seven years ago in Toowoomba when I attended a photography course at the University there. It was the first time I'd seen BCITW for about 30 something years and we did the course together.

The Royal Chaser is holidaying in The Bay this week while her new house in Toowoomba is being tiled. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (The Duke and Duchess of Sussex) were in The Bay and spent a night on Fraser Island - so The Royal Chaser went chasing.

She was disappointed that she got just a fleeting glimpse.

We will all (NOT the Duke and Duchess) have lunch together tomorrow and I'll take a couple of hours off work to make the most of their visit.

It's already 10pm so I'm off to bed.

Early start tomorrow for meditation.

Nite all.

Sixty One Already!

It's that time of year again, where Adoring Husband turns another year older.

The greatest birthday gift was having the impending storms go around us to the north and to the south.

I made a chocolate brownie slice but there are no matches or lighters in the house to light a candle.

We contemplated driving into The Bay to have a birthday lunch somewhere, but eventually we decided to go to our local cafe and get take away to eat at the park. Unfortunately all the tables were taken at the park, so we returned home and parked ourselves in front of the telly with our nosh.

It would have been nice to sit around the finished pool for this private birthday celebration - next year!

Adoring Husband was happy with his gifts from me - a convection cooktop for his new kitchen, a metal welcome sign for his new area and a further completed diary of 'Reasons Why I Love You'.

In 2004 I began writing in a small, thick, purple bound notebook. In it, I list all the reasons why I love Adoring Husband. The first time I gave him the book I'd only made it through about a quarter of the book and I made him return it to me so that I could finish it.

I didn't add more to it until 2011 and then I added more again this year. It's still not finished but there isn't much else to add now plus I want to get a bit arty farty with the pages that I've purposely left blank.

Right now, it is fourteen years in the making! Who knows how long it will be before I present the finished product!

So all I can say is Happy Birthday Adoring Husband.

I love you.

Nite all.