Quietly

Just quietly, nothing much to talk about today.

Up at 9am.

Did two loads of washing because there is rain forecast for all of next week so I figured I should have my washing up to date before the wet hits.

Had breakfast under the Bali hut.

Made a batch of spicy tomato sauce out of the giant bowl of cherry tomatoes from our garden using my old recipe…

Problem was, instead of using 6 chillies as stated in the recipe, I used quarter of a teaspoon of the ‘f#@&ing’ hot chilli sauce that I purchased from the Maryborough markets a couple of months ago. It comes in a test tube and it is HOT. A little bit goes a long way and this is only the third time I’ve used it.

Quarter of a teaspoon in 1.5 litres of sauce and the heat lingers for a good 30 minutes from one small sip!

I have frozen four containers and put one in the fridge. BGWLBH and Adoring Husband were too afraid to taste it.

I made an avocado and tuna dip with veg sticks and a smoothie for BGWLBH for lunch. AH and I had a smoothie too.

We lazed in front of the TV all afternoon and I made curried vegetables with crispy skinned chicken for dinner followed by fruit whip.

We played trivia for an hour then AH and I watched ‘Notting Hill’ before coming to bed.

Once again, it’s almost 11pm so sleep time for me.

Nite all.

On Hold

Today I did something that I’ve been procrastinating over for weeks.

Both Ergon Energy and Telstra OWED ME money from when I finalised the shop accounts.

Of course they don’t just give you the money. They send you a final letter advising of the credit and tell you to contact them to arrange payment.

I misplaced both of the letters with the credit details and today was the second time that I’ve searched the house looking for them. With no success, I decided to make the phone calls anyway.

I started with Ergon Energy because they owed me the highest amount.

They put me in a queue and told me the wait time was 2 minutes. 16 minutes later I was speaking to a very friendly and obliging woman in Townsville. She processed my request and inside three minutes the money  was deposited into my account - to be received next week.

Next was Telstra. I was put in a queue with a wait time of 35-40 minutes 😳

I was encouraged a number of times to hang up and do my business via the Telstra app but I knew this would be my final contact with them and that I would still have to wait for them to call me, so I waited on hold.

Surprisingly, my call was taken at 30 minutes! I spoke to a friendly gentleman who conducted the interview efficiently and I could hear his fingers clicking away on a keyboard as he processed my request and then advised that my money would be in my account in 5 working days. 

I’d like to know WHY it takes five working days, but anyway, job done.

Not as painful as I expected and I didn’t have to jump through painful hoops.

I enjoyed breakfast under the Bali hut, did some photo editing, spent an hour searching for my paperwork and another hour on the phone, picked up a parcel and some mail from the post office, watched my quiz shows, made the sauce for tonight’s chicken wings, made a fruit whip for dessert, played trivia and watched Field of Dreams.

The weather was nice, unlike the dreadful floods in NSW and VIC which, apparently are forecast to get much worse in the coming two weeks, with forecasts ranging from “disastrous” to “catastrophic”.

I’m not certain where this tree is located (either southern NSW or VIC) but it shows the flood levels over the years. If it reaches the 1956 level, it will be classed as catastrophic …

There are some serious forecasts for QLD in the coming months with serious flooding predicted in the Bundaberg, Maryborough and Gympie regions yet again. Somewhere in the region of 300mm could fall.

At this stage, I don’t have anyone in a danger zone.

I’m off to watch the end of the movie Twilight now.

Nite all.

Bad Start

I got up at 3.30am to visit the bathroom and at 3.45am a dirty stinking plover decided to start squawking outside my bedroom window.

For over an hour!

Usually Adoring Husband lets not so psychotic dog Colli out of the laundry before he goes to work but this morning he decided to leave her there, so at 5.15am she began shrieking through the door!

Both AH and BGWLBH were out of the house for their morning walk so I had to get up to the dog.

The trouble was that she’d had an accident in there so I had to clean that up. While I was doing that, she went outside and didn’t quite reach the grass so she peed on the concrete. While I was cleaning that, she came inside and pooped in the hallway!

Ugh!

By the time I got back to bed there was no way I could fall back to sleep so I finished a movie that I’d started the night before.

At 10.30am BGWLBH invited me into the Bay so we got ready and drove in for some shoe shopping. No luck today but we’ll return next week when the new season stock comes in. We did the rounds of Pialba and sat at Su Jus with a coffee and a juice.

Believe it or not, we came home with nothing!

Thursday is “fend for yourself” night because it’s SES night but I still ended up sharing my fish with AH and preparing a smoothie for BGWLBH.

*rolls eyes*

We played a bit of trivia after dinner and I watched Gogglebox and The Real Love Boat - great trashy TV.

It’s almost 11pm so sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Getting Arty

I started a sketch this evening.

I served dinner (zucchini slice and spicy chicken with roasted cherry tomatoes) to BGWLBH, left Adoring Husband to create his own pizza with the toppings that I prepared for him and I settled into the lounge with my little sketch pad and pencils while they ate.

This is the beginnings of what I hope will be a very realistic sketch … almost photographic … if I can manage it.

You know what I’m like. I could find inspiration over the next couple of days and finish it OR it could go onto my ever growing pile of partly finished projects. Who knows, but I quite like it so far.

I triked my way to the park this morning to enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with four of the girls. The middle aged hippy and I traded our goods, me coming home with a dozen eggs, her with $5 and some butchers paper for her ant farm.

We all had plenty to chat about and it was midday when I arrived home. AH had just returned from collecting the FROG box and BGWLBH was nowhere to be seen.

I decided to use the leftover cooked rice to make fried rice for AH and I for lunch. It was delicious.

I plonked my butt on the couch and watched mindless TV until it was time to make dinner.

Now, it’s after 11pm! How did that happen?

There has been some scudding showers this evening and there may be a little rain during the night. It’s nice and cool anyway.

Nite all.

Bad Food

That seafood from Craignish was BAD,

I had a very uncomfortable and disturbed night up and down to the toilet and today my stomach continued to cramp right up until about an hour ago.

No more seafood from Craignish … I’ve said that before … but now I will keep the memory fresh.

At 5am Adoring Husband woke me to advise that the small fridge in my art space had packed it in and there was water all over the floor.

So while he was at work, I got up and threw some towels around to mop up the water.

It seems that when BGWLBH used the heat gun yesterday, she unplugged what she thought was the kettle, but in actual fact was the fridge, to use the electrical outlet and when she finished she plugged the kettle back in but didn’t turn the switch on (because you only need to switch it on when you want a cuppa) and so the fridge freezer defrosted overnight and water leaked everywhere.

Some art paper got a bit damp and there was a little water damage to the timber bench seat which will swell a little but shouldn’t be a problem. The rug got a bit wet on one corner. So no big deal. 

BUT after my horrible night, I didn’t enjoy being woken up to deal with something that he could have dealt with and which BGWLBH would have been happy to deal with had she been given the opportunity.

Never mind. We all survived.

When I was mopping up, I noticed that the plant on the cupboard was drooping and in need of water so I watered it.

Thirty minutes later, BGWLBH noticed it was drooping and also watered it - this was bad because the extra water had nowhere to go except onto and into the cupboard!

It was a tricky watery kind of day!

I wonder if that can be analysed?

I got up three times today. Tea and toast for breakfast. Half a mandarin for lunch. Detox tea and toast for dinner.

I’m looking forward to waking up tomorrow feeling as good as new and having morning coffee with the girls.

Nite all.

Windy Misty

What a digital passport will look like - compared to current banking

With plans for a drive into The Bay, I set my alarm for an early start so that we could find a nice spot for breakfast but the original plan went awry and we left later than planned. BGWLBH had already eaten a hearty breakfast, so I missed out and settled with a green juice from the Stocklands Su Jus Cafe.

We had a list that included Coles, newsagent, chemist, bank, Choice, Bunnings, Spotlight, Maxine’s and four op shops.

The weather was not pleasant for gallivanting all over town with misty rain, gusty wind and very cool temperatures.

We didn’t get everything we wanted but we stocked up on macrame rope for some projects that BGWLBH has in mind and a diamond drill bit for another project.

It was a long busy day and when we arrived home at 3.30pm I headed straight to the kitchen to prepare a Massaman curry for dinner, complete with rice and papadums. 

I was hoping to enjoy a crab sandwich but the two crabs that I picked from Craignish were dry and tasteless and very little meat. The prawns were equally tasteless so I seasoned them heavily with salt and pepper. Very disappointing. I won’t purchase again from Craignish. It’s not the first time their produce has disappointed.

The curry was a success and for dessert we had picked up some goodies from Su Jus. Mini peach and passionfruit cheesecakes and a blueberry muffin. They too were a success.

We are hoping for another cold wet windy day tomorrow so that we can laze around in our rooms reading and binging and maybe doing some art.

I know that I am exhausted right now and need to sleep.

Nite all.

First Swim

The weather was very odd today.

Rain was forecast but none came.

It was mostly overcast with an unreliable breeze which made it warm and muggy and quite uncomfortable.

I was up early and helped BGWLBH cook poached eggs and bacon for breakfast for the three of us.

I returned to bed for an hour while Adoring Husband stacked the dishwasher and settled in front of the TV for the Bathurst race.

BGWLBH moved into the art space to finish the treasure chest and work on some frames.

After about 90 minutes, I headed out to the Bali hut where I found BGWLBH relaxing on the lounge.

I dipped my toes in the water, then stepped in up to my knees and after two minutes decided to change into my swimmers and jump right in!

I must admit it was a little chilly but I swam three laps and then floated on my back for about ten minutes before climbing out and wrapping myself in a towel. My first swim of the season complete - five days later than last year.

The air temperature was warm so I was quite comfortable sitting under the Bali hut for an hour and didn’t need any distractions like electronic devices. Just sitting and enjoying the moment, taking in the sounds of the birds, the new wind chimes under the hut and the neighbourhood activity.

After another hour, I returned once again to my bedroom where I turned on the fan and dozed in the cool air.

At 4pm I sat with AH watching the the last 20 laps of Bathurst but there was an accident which slowed the cars down so I decided to start dinner.

Bangers and mash with tomato and onion gravy, snow peas, asparagus and carrots.

It’s been a decent Sunday. Not even a little bit productive but very relaxing and I enjoyed my swim.

Nite all.