I Do Like Mondays

Today felt very strange.

My first two non-customers came into the shop simply to introduce themselves, comment favourably about the shop and then leave.

Weird.

The weather was a bit topsy turvy with gusting strong winds, surprising heavy showers that gave me no warning that they were coming (hence the surprise).

Weird.

Five boxes of stock arrived at lunch time, so I spent the afternoon unpacking and pricing.

I was interrupted often by tyre kickers so I didn't finish that task and there is still much to do tomorrow - especially because more will arrive tomorrow and the day after and probably the day after that.

We will have our work cut out for us this week.

I've left the shop in a bit of a mess, so I'll need to get there early tomorrow to make it reasonably presentable.

Due to the inclement weather, Adoring Husband drove me to work this morning and then arrived ten minutes early to pick me up, so he closed the shop for me while I finished pricing some of the stock and packed my gear to go home. He also bought us a coffee to take home.

Dinner was a curry out of the freezer.

Easy.

AH is now watching Dr Who, so I'm signing off to head to bed.

I'm feeling a bit on edge, so some meditation might be in order.

Before I go ... some of the new stock ...

Nite all.

Lazy Sunday

Was it really?

I can't remember what order any of this happened, but in a round about kind of way, this is my day ...

My plan was to spend the entire day in bed.

I had lots of projects that I wanted to either do some more of, begin anew, or complete.

At 11am I began gathering all the paraphernalia that I needed, but part of that paraphernalia included my original drawing/plan of the pool area and do you think we could find it?

Not a chance.

I went through every bedroom, every drawer, every box and bag of goodies in the house (I have 4 boxes/bags of goodies that contain journals, study material, paperwork, books, notes, lists etc that come and go between the shop and home) but my precious piece of art was nowhere to be found.

Adoring Husband decided that he wanted hot chips for lunch, so I changed out of my pyjamas and went for a drive with him so that I could check my drawers and boxes at the shop for my drawing.

Still no luck.

We decided to go visit our pool guy to discuss the next stage of the pool and find out what we need to do next.  I also took the opportunity to check out their landscaping, ie the colour of their pool, their fencing, their paving and the plants in the garden area.

After we got home, I remembered that I had taken a photo of my pool plan and saved it in the 'pool build' file on my laptop (sometimes I amaze myself) so I found it and printed it out.

AH and I spent some time in the back yard doing some more measuring and working out the area that the pebblecrete guy needs to work on. He's coming tomorrow to measure and quote.

Of course, by now, I've been out of bed long enough that the appeal has worn off and AH suggested that we watch a movie together. I found one on Netflix and we began watching it - within 20 minutes he was on SES business and I was sitting alone in the lounge room.

Go figure.

He didn't miss THAT much of the movie.

We need to order our water feature now - because if they don't have any in stock, it's going to take 3-6 months to have one made to order.

Gosh, this is the slow part of the build.

Have a great week and welcome to Monday!

Anyway, back to work tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Relentless

The rain was relentless.

Having an iron roof is lovely when it's raining lightly, but when it's heavy and relentless, it's comparable to Chinese water torture!

Being tortured like that, I couldn't relax enough to fall asleep. Meditation didn't help. Playing Words with Friends didn't help. Watching TV didn't help. Listening to a book didn't help.

At 1am, the lightning and thunder began, which stirred up the Psychotic Dogs and Colli was barking and crying and attempting to rip her way through the laundry door to get to us in the bedroom.

So I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and rescued her from a fate worse than death (or so she thought), dumped her on our bed, made my way to the kitchen where I prepared a big bowl of ice cream to return to bed with me and there I sat, propped up with a pile of pillows feeding my face and playing WWF.

Finally, at about 3am, the rain eased and my mind relaxed enough to doze off.

At 6am my alarm went off to remind me that it was a work day.

It was our quietest Saturday since we opened our doors, which gave us an opportunity to make an inventory of one of our artists' stock on hand, finish pricing the stock that came in on Friday, rearrange some displays, begin polishing the glass display cabinets and begin assembling the new glass cabinet that we've had in the store for about a month now.

Even though sales were low, we had a productive morning.

Adoring Husband also had a productive morning climbing the roof of a local business and repairing holes to prevent further flooding.

I left the shop at 1.30pm and came home to make a big fresh fruit salad with papaya, mango, apple, strawberries, blueberries, banana and lemon juice. That was our lunch with ice cream.

We are watching the New Zealand vs Australia rugby league test which is being televised live from Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. A great game so far. Very evenly matched.

AH is cooking on the barbie so I'm off to prepare a salad.

More rain is coming tonight, but as I type this, the big storms are all up north around Mackay and Cairns and inland to Emerald. It will be an early night for me so that I can sleep before the thunder sets off the dogs again.

Have a fabulous Sunday!

Nite all.    

Slipped My Mind

So I was a bit overwhelmed by all the storm activity yesterday and I totally forgot to post here!

Whoops!

I spent the entire day watching the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology website) and following the Higgins Storm Chasers Facebook page where they were updating the storm details every twenty minutes and people who were affected by the storms were posting photos and videos to show how ferocious the weather was.

It was helpful in that everybody in the path of the storm activity could be prepared for the worst.

It was unhelpful in that even those of us who would not be affected by the storm panicked that the worst could happen!

At 4pm both Adoring Husband and I received a text from QFES which read:

"Emergency. QFES VERY DANGEROUS STORM. Likely impact Hervey Bay, Maryborough & Tiaro. Tornados possible. Immediately seek shelter. Avoid travel. Info www.bom.gov.au

At that point, AH had to leave the house to man the SES shed to coordinate crews going to help out in the affected areas.

Approximately 30 minutes later I received a call on the landline with sirens blaring in the background and a serious male voice advising of the severity of the storms, that tornados were possible, to stay inside etc., but the power suddenly cut mid sentence and the line went dead.

Total silence.

The sky was dark but there was no rain yet and no thunder in the distance or lightning on the horizon ... so absolutely no storm activity at that point. An eerie silence with me feeling the residual fear after hearing that ominous voice with it's warning.

I found the big torch and took it, along with the dogs, into the bedroom, pulled the blinds and went back to stalking the BOM & HSC.

After a couple of my comments on FB, Best Cousin in the World phoned me and suggested that I get my laptop out and watch DVDs to take my mind off it and to pour myself a glass of wine.

So I made myself a pitcher of margaritas and set myself up in bed with my laptop and two seasons of Grey's Anatomy.

Our power was out for three hours.

It was around 8pm when I cooked up some dinner for myself and then returned to the bedroom for more Greys.

The rain and thunder were loud and quite frightening at times, but I didn't even look outside, just minded my own business trying to bury my head in the sand and pretend that it wasn't happening.

Today, as I type this, the rain is very very heavy and it's expected to rain all night into tomorrow. A low is forming and there will be strong winds and storms across south east Queensland. Flash flooding is expected and Emergency Services are, once again, on standby.

It seems that we should have put the pool in front of our garage because that's where all the water is pooling at the moment!

I've spent my second day off work, cooking, washing clothes and doing a 'little' bit of cleaning - you know how I feel about cleaning.

I've opted to remain at home tonight. I hope the club and my friends notice my absence.

Happy weekend!

Nite all.

So it Continues

Remember yesterday when I said that my PTSD had waned and that I can cope with storms now?

I lied.

I didn't realise that I was lying ... until tonight when another bigger, wilder storm hit us.

It left me feeling a little fragile.

There are a couple of storms building out west so it may not be over yet.

More storms are forecast for tomorrow and apparently they will be much worse than tonight.

Ugh.

I have two days off now, so if necessary, I can close the windows and blinds and be safely holed up in my bedroom until it's over.

Today was fabulous at work for many reasons.

There were some new faces at meditation this morning which made for an interesting class and the message that The Gypsy shared with us really resonated with me. Her messages always do, but especially this morning.

The Motivator was at work and we had the day together in the shop, so we sat at her desk and made three big orders for stock leading up to Christmas.

It means that over the next couple of weeks, we'll have orders coming from seven different suppliers!

At 1pm today we had only made $6 in sales, which was thought provoking, but things certainly picked up after that and the final two hours were very satisfying.

Both The Motivator and I took advantage of having The Gypsy in the shop today.

I took the last appointment of the day and enjoyed a very intense Zen Shiatsu treatment. It was amazing, as always, and she gave me some stretching exercises to improve some issues that I have with the energy path to my liver. It's always my liver!

We received the quote for our gazebo and decking today.

Gasp!

You know those shows on TV where they do up old houses and they work out a budget before they start? You know how they blow the budget all the time and we sit in our couch criticising them and wondering how the hell they could get it so wrong?

We are those people.

By a lot!

At our current rate of mis-guesstimations, we will have doubled our budget by the time we hold our first social event.

We have been breathtakingly wrong on all counts.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to every TV home renovator and builder who copped our ridicule and judgement over the years. We were clueless.

Another storm has just hit so I'm off to quietly cower.

Nite all.

  

Stormy Evening

There have been nasty storms building all over Queensland all afternoon and evening.

They have been severe and fast moving causing damage with hail, wind, heavy rain, lightning and thunder.

The Higgins Storm Chaser's Facebook page has had live streams of the storms as they glided over Maleny and people have posted photos and videos of the hail, rain and wind in various locations that were in the path of the storms.

As I type this, we are experiencing some heavy rain, wind and loud, close thunder.

There is no denying that we desperately need some rain. We DON'T need any damage from the storms though, so our fingers are crossed.

It's nice to not be suffering the full blown symptoms of PTSD. Since the tornado and with each storm that has hit us since, those symptoms have waned. There is still a little niggle there for me, but generally speaking, I can more easily tolerate a storm these days.

But NOT if I have to pedal home in it!

I was worried this afternoon that the storms would build and reach us before I had a chance to get home.

A non-customer entered the shop at 2.55pm and wandered around for 30 minutes. She told me that she was in town to clear out her mother's house and needed a break. She obviously didn't realise that we close at 3pm and spent her 'break time' in the shop.

After thirty minutes, she walked out the door empty handed and called "thank you".

Prior to her walking in the door, I had gathered my goods in preparation for a quick getaway. I had to go to the butcher first and then try to beat the storms home.

Luckily, even though there were some dark clouds about, there were no storms at that time of the afternoon so I made it home easily.

Obviously, Adoring Husband's role with the SES requires the he watches the BOM, and we watched closely as the colours of the storms darkened and joined together and moved towards us.

It's almost over and the huge mass of storms has moved out to sea.

I wonder how much water is in our pool now???

Aside from the rain and storms, the day left me a bit discombobulated.

I didn't feel like I was in control of anything today.

A representative of a few of our suppliers came into the shop and I felt like she didn't really want to be there. She was more than an hour late and The Motivator had a previous engagement, so she could only join us for twenty minutes. I wished it could have been a more relaxing and friendly encounter because ordering should have been more fun for me.

You KNOW how I love to shop!

I finished pricing the stock that came in last week and displayed them.

I wrote the labels for my photos and attached them.

I emptied our inside bins and fit as much old packaging as I could into the sulo before parking it out the front.

I made myself some lunch of avocado, mango, shallots and lemon juice. It has to be one of my favourite meals. I always feel so energised after a bowl of that goodness.

There were a small number of customers through the doors, and the ones who did come in were strange (except for you Lady Lynn lol), and by strange, I mean odd and I spent a lot of time frowning even after they had left.

While Monday passed really quickly, today seemed to drag on.

I'm ready for sleep now.

I woke up in the middle of the night Monday and needed three long meditations to fall back to sleep. So I slept from 9.30pm - 1.30am and then from 3.10am - 6am.

Let's try for a full night's sleep tonight.

Nite all.

Culling Big Time

I just sorted through my wardrobe and pulled forty two items to cull.

Aside from those 42 items, I also have a huge number of Suzanne Grae/Katies/Rockmans/Target/Crossroads clothes to go to the op shop.

The only person I know who has more clothes than I do, is Adoring Husband!!

Anyway, the 42 items will be ironed, tagged and sold in The Happy Abode, while the others will, as I said, go to the local op shop.

Right now, I'm off to bed because I'm feeling quite poorly. I'm having a familiar bad reaction to food. This afternoon I purchased a packet of Kettle Salt and Vinegar chips. They are gluten free, but this reaction is from a flavouring or some kind of additive.

It's dreadful and uncomfortable and I need to sleep it off.

So this post is short and to the point.

Perhaps I'll see you at coffee?

Nite all.

Over Cars

They spend crazy amounts of money on a fast car to drive round and round and round and round and round a mountain road.

The men cry because they make a mistake and it costs them the race.

Seriously dudes!! Priorities!!

A fraction of all the money that all the teams spend every year on racing those cars could end homelessness in Australia.

Not just car racing, but all the sports.

End rant.

Adoring Husband dozed in front of the television (just like most men on this day) while watching the "Bathurst 1000"

I spent the first half of the day in bed drinking coffee, eating toast, reading, playing, writing and watching videos.

The second half of the day was for doing the washing. Three machine loads and NINE (yes I said NINE!!) items of hand washing. Each one needing to be washed separately because the colour ran a little. It seemed to take forever, but at least it's done now.

The lesson I've learned from today is that I MUST check the labels of the clothes that I plan on purchasing. Unless I have fallen desperately in love with that item, if it requires hand washing, it goes back on the rack.

I made a batch of chicken broth and spent some of my evening putting it into containers and into the freezer. I'll make another batch tomorrow because I bought two organic chicken frames and the other one can't be refrozen.

We think our pool will be sprayed with colour this week. Our choices are 'midnight' or 'pacific'.  I prefer 'midnight', but both colours are fine.

It's after 11pm and I need to work tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Have a great week.

Nite all.

Market Madness

It wasn't really madness at all.

Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay this morning to attend the Pier Markets, but first, we dropped in to pick up the framed photos from 'Outside the Square'.  The Framing Magician asked for some business cards for our shop and they are now on display in his shop.

While we browsed all of the stalls at the markets, we didn't buy anything other than food/drink.

We bought a cup each of home made lemonade from one stall (which was delicious) and lots of fresh fruit and veg from a couple of other stalls. We ended up with a box full of food.

From there we found our way to Coby's Coffee Shack on The Esplanade and shared a container of prawn and avocado sushi and enjoyed their coffee.

What a great little place! (I wish I'd taken a photo)

It is set up in the front yard of a guy's house. The flooring is a deck made of mismatched railway sleepers. The tables are the end plates of big spools of wire. There is a cut off kombi van in one corner with a bench along one side that you can sit at, on stools, to drink your coffee.

There are approximately ten big umbrellas to create shade and some old retro decor items like a wireless, an old vesper sitting in the garden, some old surfboards leaning on the fence at one end - it's just a fabulous little meeting place with a great atmosphere and music playing in the background.

It's right in between the Holistic Healing Haven and Maddigan's Seafood on The Esplanade.

I decided to visit Fire n Ice and even though I tried on nine different items of clothing, I purchased just one lovely colourful top.

Go Natural was our next stop where the shopping list included organic celery, frozen dragon fruit, organic chicken frames and some kombucha.

I visited Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves next door, but the clothes that I wanted were too expensive for the contents of my purse or bank account today.

Bunnings was next in line but Adoring Husband was unable to find what he needed there.

We drove to Stocklands where I did some networking in a couple of stores and left our card.

Unbeknownst to Adoring Husband, he bought me a pair of shoes and the lady in that shop is coming to visit us at The Happy Abode with her sister next week.

The Motivator had a good morning in the shop and will be open on Sunday morning for a few hours.

I roasted a chicken for dinner which I served to AH with a mixed salad.

Here we are at 9pm on a Saturday night ... no football (boohoo) and nothing of interest on the telly, so it's off to bed for me and probably some reading, writing and meditation before sleep.

Nite all.  

Where is the rain?

We've been watching the BOM for about seven hours and a very slow moving string of storms has been approaching us over that period of time. As it reached Childers, it seems to have separated into two and one is moving north-easterly and the other is moving south-easterly.

It seems that the rain will miss us.

The day was glorious and I spent the first half of it in bed.

I made myself some celery juice and some breakfast, while Adoring Husband got my coffee and then I climbed back into bed to enjoy it all and to read, study, play games etc.

Adoring Husband had some official SES business to attend to, so at 12.30pm I got up to embrace the day, and pedalled down to check the mail and visit the shop to discuss some business with The Motivator.

The shop became very busy while I was there and an hour later, it had proved to be another very successful day.

I left while it was still busy and arrived home in time to get ready for the usual Friday night at the club.

Only one of us was lucky tonight.

AH had again cooked dinner and I followed that with a bowl of banana, mango and strawberries.

We watched the movie 'Wonder' with Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. It was a real 'feel good' movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We climbed into bed at 10pm and turned on the television only to discover that 'The Notebook' was playing. I simply had to watch the final hour of that one ... you know ... Ryan Gosling and all.

Now I'm sitting up in bed, having remembered that I'd forgotten to do tonight's blog post ... so here I am!

Another uneventful day.

Tomorrow's plan is to head into The Bay for the Pier Markets and hopefully pick up some framed photos from the framers, if they're ready.

I got a bit of a giggle from this ...

... and now it's time for sleeping!

Nite all.

Day off/Day on

So I woke up this morning feeling incredibly energised and motivated so I jumped out of bed, made myself presentable and pedalled to the shop to fulfil my cleaning plan.

It was a busy morning in the shop!

I didn't even get that much cleaning done!

I left at 1pm, bought some groceries, some meat from the butcher, some take away lunch and some coffee and returned home to Adoring Husband.

We made some more decisions about the pool landscaping.

He left for SES duties.

I watched The Bachelor NOT choose a woman on the final show.

I know right!!??

Now I need to iron some clothes for Adoring Husband so that he can look all official tomorrow for an important day.

Then I'm off to bed.

A pretty straight forward kind of day really.

I hope that tomorrow is as beautiful as today because I think I'll get out and about with my camera.

So welcome to Friday!

Nite all.

My Friday on Wednesday

Wednesday meditation was another great experience. I love it.

Today, at The Happy Abode, it was our best day of the week so far and the first sale of the day was one of my photos which gave me a real buzz.

The sales were spread out, so there wasn't a busy period at all, however, there was never a long enough pause for me to get anything else done ... and there is plenty to be done.

During my days off, I'd like to go in and do some cleaning. There just isn't time within the working hours to dust and vacuum at the moment and it desperately needs doing, so I'll take a couple of hours to do that and it will probably be tomorrow.

It was good to spend some time catching up with The Gypsy, though her day was quite busy, so our chats were short.

By the time I'd tied up a few loose ends, it was after 4pm when I left the shop and I popped in to visit The Motivator on the way home.

I got to see the progress she's made with her beautiful art work and also to see how much more she had done in setting up the back room as her office and art studio. The area has a beautiful feel about it and she's done a great job creating a wonderful space for herself.

It was quite late when I pulled into our driveway and by the time I'd inspected Adoring Husband's handiwork in the new kitchen area and cooked an easy dinner, it was about 6.45pm. I was feeling pretty relaxed and ready to chill for the evening, when, at 7.10pm, I checked my phone to find a message from Tweedle Dee (new name yet to be announced) which read "Where are you?"

This immediately triggered my memory and I suddenly realised that we were supposed to be at trivia, which commences at 7pm!

AH was dozing in his armchair at the time, but we were able to gather our wits and we rushed out the door to the car and found ourselves walking into the club to sit at our table at 7.39pm. We'd only missed 2 of the 6 rounds and our team had done pretty well without us.

It would have been easy to pike out for the night, but I'm really pleased that we made the effort because we had a good time and there was some snorting laughter to be had.

After all of that, it's now after midnight and I'm off to bed. Thank goodness I have tomorrow off work and I don't have to get up early.

I'll be having a late snooze!

Nite all.

Sweeping Winds

Gale force conditions in town today.

Even though I tied our sign to the shop, it still blew down and at one stage, almost landed on a child coming through the door! That could have been disastrous!

It was busy except for the last hour, which is when I took some photos to post on the Facebook page.

Morning coffee with the girls was nice, with our numbers down, but a fresh face in the mix with Tweedle Dee's (new name yet to be announced) friend visiting. It was also lovely to see Lady Lynn's smiling face return to our fold!

A couple of our customers from last week returned to say their farewells before they left town. Another brought her two daughters in with the last of their holiday money to spend before they returned home to Brisbane. It's nice that we make the kind of connection that brings people back to say goodbye before they leave town.

The blind fell off our back door and Adoring Husband fixed it.

The 'gift shop' sign fell off the front door and Adoring Husband fixed it.

I was searching through my library for photos to put into a calendar when I come across these ...

It certainly looks a lot different now!

In a few week's time, I'll have a similar series of photos for our back yard!

I'll leave you with something inspiring and then I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Publicly Holidaying

It was a public holiday and our town was a hive of activity today. There was another constant stream of people through our shop and snap button jewellery was again the focus of everyone's attention. There were even return customers from Sunday to buy Christmas gifts for family.

It was busy enough that The Gypsy and I only had about fifteen minutes to chat!

I stayed open for an extra hour because at 1pm, the shop filled with people who all wandered around for quite some time but failed to open their wallets. They were obviously killing time until their food was prepared at the cafe, so at 2pm when I closed the doors, not one of them had spent a solitary cent.

Ah well.

We had an appointment with Kiwi Bernie this afternoon to discuss the decking and gazebo build. He brought Woman of Many Talents with him and we all spent time outside around the pool measuring, brain storming, choosing colours/sizes/styles and trying to picture the finished product.

Actually, none of that is true. I made all the decisions myself, so I only have myself to blame if it all turns pear shaped.

I didn't wear any shoes or thongs, so I came inside with the blackest feet you've ever seen. Nothing that two minutes in the shower with the spray nozzle couldn't fix.

As of this morning, my thumb has decided to re-ignite it's infection and I used colloidal silver gel with a bandaid to tide me over for the day - it wasn't good enough - so this afternoon I have alternated between colloidal silver spray and super strong saline solution made with half a bucket (I exaggerate) of Himalayan salt with boiled water.

It is swollen and tight and hot and throbbing (I'm talking about my thumb...) and very unpleasant.

Woe is me.

Adoring Husband wants me to make an appointment with a doctor, but you all know how I feel about doctors. Of course, if or when I feel like I'm losing the battle, I will make the call.

We bought some pork chops from the butcher this morning and AH cooked them on the barbecue - they were the biggest and thickest pork chops I've ever seen in my life! They almost filled the entire surface of the dinner plate and were more than an inch thick!

AH had to eat his chop first and then go back for the salad because there wasn't enough room for both on his plate! My chop has only one bite taken out of it because I ate a sausage with salad.

Now I'm off to bed to nurse my thumb to sleep - perhaps drugs are in order to ease the pain?

Nah.

Nite all.

Weathered

The weather dictated my hours at the shop today.

The morning was quite glorious, though a little warm and there was a steady stream of people through the shop, all of them in the first three hours buying snap jewellery.

The final hour was adults and children buying small items like fridge magnets, turtles, owls and geckos.

I would have stayed open for an extra hour because there were plenty of people out and about, but the weather closed in and I knew people would be seeking shelter, so I closed the shop and parked my trike inside as the rain and wind and thunder picked up and Adoring Husband came to pick me up.

We did some grocery shopping and grabbed our afternoon coffees before heading home.

The rain was quite heavy for a while and the winds were strong. The thunder frightened the psychotic dogs and they were invited onto the storm chair in the lounge room.

We were very lucky that the centre of the storm skirted around us, but Childers copped the full brunt and received heavy hail and strong winds that toppled trees and removed roofing. The Higgins Storm Chasing Facebook page showed lots of video footage and photos of the damage.

Adoring Husband was called out to a SES job in Craignish. Being a long weekend, the SES is short on available crew members, so AH filled a gap.

We are watching the NRL Grand Final as I write this and the Roosters are winning by 14 points in the first half of the match, which is surprising - but I suspect that Melbourne Storm will be fighting a bit harder in the second half.

There are three movies that I want to see.

A Star is Born - Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga/Sam Elliot (looks amazing!)

Ladies in Black - Rachael Taylor/Angourie Rice/Julia Ormond

Bohemian Rhapsody - Joseph Mazzello/Rami Malek/Mike Myers

I'm feeling a bit weary this evening so I might watch the end of the footy in bed.

I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend!

Nite all.

Saturday = Sunday

Today was Saturday but I called it my Sunday because we are opening The Happy Abode tomorrow, which is everybody else's Sunday.

Again, I have enjoyed my three days off, though I was not the slightest bit productive and have nothing to show for my time, except a very relaxed demeanour.

The pool has been curing nicely in the back yard so there are no updated photos to share.

This is what my bath mat looks like ...

... it's what happens when your entire back yard consists of fine black sand.

The Motivator had a very successful day in the shop today and I'm hoping that tomorrow will be equally successful for me.

It's been a warm day and we turned on the air conditioner for a while, commenting that it would be nice to go for a dip in the pool right about now!

Won't be long now.

Commiserations to Adoring Husband whose footy team lost the AFL grand final today by a lousy 5 points.

I hope that Melbourne Storm win the NRL grand final tomorrow - although it really doesn't matter that much to me. Both teams are worthy opponents.

I'm feeling a bit peckish, so I think I'll have some papaya before bed.

Nite all.

Moving Fast

Early this morning, our yard was full of workers waiting for the big yellow truck to bring the concrete.

Not a lot was happening for a couple of hours - just double checking the formwork and plenty of talk and laughter.

Once it all started, it was full on! It was loud and messy and busy ...

... the 'blind' guy arrived an hour after the concreting had begun so that he could take the measurements for the indoor/outdoor kitchen. We selected colours before he left and then Adoring Husband had a meeting at SES and I had a meeting at The Happy Abode.

The Motivator and I did some catching up and I checked out the new stock that arrived yesterday. I served a couple of customers when it got really busy and a little after 2.30pm I met up with AH who had come to buy coffee and we left to rendezvous at The Motivator's house to pick up some cardboard.

When I arrived home, we inspected the pool site and I took some photos before making myself presentable for the usual Friday night at the club.

It was an unlucky night for all of us and the club was very busy and full of tourists and very loud. Having said that, the bus was relatively empty for the first trip home so the drive was short.

Can you believe it's already after 11pm?

Time for bed.

Have a great weekend.

Nite all.

R & R

While I had intentions of at least visiting the shop today, those intentions faded to insignificance as the day wore on.

I spent half the day in bed and the remainder of the day searching for the missing parts of the editing screen that I sent No 1 Son last week. I found half of it. Perhaps the other half is at the shop. It's the last hope.

Here is Day 3 of the pool build ...

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

That was my day.

The Motivator and The Fisher King got busy doing this ...

Wahoo for one new sign where it should be. One down, one to go!

Bed time for me now.

Nite all.

Messy Business

Did I mention the disaster area in our back yard?

It is unrecognisable as our garden.

The sole avocado was lost from the tree on day one, but I discovered a new one right at the top of the tree. It may be safe there. Time will tell.

I started today with Meditation.

The Motivator returned to work with a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her dial.

It was a quiet morning and a busy afternoon with lots of kids wanting their pick of the snap jewellery and their grandparents wanting to make them happy. Quite noisy at times.

I'm taking a couple of days off now and plan on getting out with my camera, walking on the beach and having at least one lazy morning in bed.

Time for bed.

Nite all.

It's Here!

Look what happened today ...

When I announced that this was going to happen, a friend of mine said to me that whatever mess I imagined would happen with a pool build, multiply it by 100 to get close to how messy it really is.

She was right.

Not just in the yard, but through the house and through the neighbour's houses! Luckily, one of our neighbours will be working for the pool guy, so at least he gains something from the experience!

So the day started with the heavy machinery arriving in our back yard at 6.30am and the psychotic dogs going 'OFF' with all the strange faces and machinery and noise.

The pool guy asked us where we wanted everything as far as landscaping went, so that he could figure out where to put the pool. He gave us a rough idea of the pool size by laying out his tape measure in the freeform shape that he suggested.

Before I'd left for work, they had levelled the raised garden beds and were able to show us properly where the pool would go.

After I'd left for work, there was a problem with a sewer pipe that had to be redirected and luckily (again) the local plumber was available to do the work immediately!

Next, we remembered the giant pool umbrella that needs to be concreted into the ground beside the pool, which we hadn't organised or ordered yet, so Adoring Husband contacted the umbrella guy who, luckily (again) was going to be in our area this afternoon, so he added us to his list of visits.

After he spoke to AH and our pool guy, he came to the shop so that I could choose colours. The umbrella should be ready in three weeks.

My last customer for the day came into the shop just before 3pm and didn't leave until 3.30pm and didn't even make a purchase (which makes her a non-customer!) so I had time to grab a coffee just before the umbrella guy arrived.

He stayed for about 30 minutes and then I made a quick trip to The Motivator's house to look at all the lovely work she has been doing in her house and to tell her about our pool.

Knowing that AH would be at home waiting impatiently for me to come see the progress in our back yard, I finally made it home at around 5pm.

By the time we looked at the hole and discussed everything that had happened and everything that is yet to happen, it was almost 6pm and I hadn't got anything out for dinner so we decided to go to the local cafe to get take away.

While we waited for the food to be prepared, we went for a quick walk along the beach. It was very windy and very cool and the water was cold, so we only lasted for about ten minutes - which was just right because by the time we returned to the cafe, our food was ready.

Best decision ever.

The food was good and I didn't have to do anything.

It's after 10pm and I'm exhausted. It was a busy day in the shop and a busy afternoon and I'm done.

Nite all.

"P" Day

As you read this, the hole for our pool is being dug!

It's "P" Day!! "P" = Pool

Our outdoor lounge and rug were delivered from AMart this afternoon and thankfully, it's all boxed so it can be stored in the new kitchen until we are ready to put it all together. Hopefully, it's sealed well enough that all that dirt and grime doesn't find it's way inside the box.

My new macrame hammock arrived from Venezuela and looks beautiful. I can't wait to hang it and relax in it with a good book.

The Gypsy was in house today. We had some good chats again. On Saturday morning she visited the shop briefly with her daughter and partner who were up for the weekend, so there was plenty to talk about.

I accidentally charged a lady almost double the price of an item this afternoon, so I'm hoping she realises my error and comes to the shop tomorrow to yell at me!

My final customer for the day came in just before 3pm, which meant I was late leaving the shop. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be a problem, but we needed to drive into The Bay so that I could pick up some photos from the framers.

I had all but one photo framed with mat board and one sunset photo professionally framed with a nice rustic white frame. I've still got five more photos to have done and I'll get one of them framed with a nice white frame too.

A customer came in to the shop to request a copy of the duck photos that I took last week, so I had them printed while I was in The Bay.

Adoring Husband and I pondered over the barbecues at Harvey Normans, for the third time in a matter of weeks, and still did not come to a decision. We will come across the perfect barbecue when the time is right.

There were a LOT of tyre kickers in the shop today, which made it busy but not profitable. Hopefully, all those ladies who came in with their husbands, will return later this week without them - as the ladies tend to do.

It's now 8.30pm and I'm off to bed. I'm going to read myself to sleep.

Nite all.

Productive Duo

Adoring Husband completed the kitchen cabinetry before I'd even got out of bed this morning.

He stopped to bring my morning coffee and then returned to work.

I got up and made some breakfast to eat with my coffee and I did a bit of reading and chatted with the multitude of engineers that I'm playing Words With Friends against at the moment.

Lots of males play WWF claiming to be engineers, mostly working in California, but a couple in Canada, one each in Greenland, Iceland, Romania and somewhere else in Europe.

They all tell me that they were born in one country, experienced some devastating loss eg parents killed tragically when they were a child OR their wife left them for their best friend OR their wife and children died in a car wreck OR ... well, you get the drift, and because of that tragedy, they move to another country to study and become an engineer.

After they chat for a while, they ask me to join some chat room (I can't remember the name of it right now) so that we can chat more easily - I always decline and they soon lose interest. I can only assume that they are attempting to con some lonely woman somewhere else in WWF.

It's now at the point when a male introduces himself, I say "Let me guess. You are an Engineer right?" and he is always surprised saying "How do you know that?"

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

At lunch time I decided to make my way into the day, got dressed and was immediately dragged (not literally) outside to have a look at the progress of the kitchen. It's looking amazing and I really like the colour that AH chose for the doors.

After that, I hung out some washing, brought some in from the line and put on another load. I cleared the lounge chair that I've been using as a storage unit for journals, notebooks, paperwork, catalogues, study folders, hats and other bits and pieces.

AH and I have also used our dining room table as a storage unit for laptops, cameras and camera gear, folders, paperwork, jewellery, re-usable grocery bags, handbags, pens, SES stuff, essential oils, letters and bills, books etc etc., so I cleared all of my stuff from the table.

I did a bit of decluttering and rearranging in the back bedroom, but then decided that it was all too hard, so I gave up and did some more washing. I did a little tidying up in our bedroom and then I planted my butt on the lounge, where I stayed until I made AH's dinner.

Yesterday evening, I caught the last twenty minutes of this show on SBS and after the credits rolled, it was announced that it could be viewed on SBS On Demand. I haven't had a chance to view it yet myself, but it's definitely on my 'to do' list.

Here is the link if you're interested ...

Sugar Crash on SBS

I think it's time to sleep now. I have three books on my bedside table that I want to read, so I'm going to start them tonight. Two of them were written by The Gypsy, so I'm keen to get onto them.

Welcome to Monday! Have a great week!

Nite all.

Man of Many Talents

It was such a quiet morning at the shop that I was able to completely rearrange one of the cube stands before the second customer even walked in the door.

At midday, I was wondering what had happened to all of those holiday makers and it looked like being our worst Saturday morning on record, but just as I began to wallow in my mini puddle of negativity, the shop filled with people and the last one didn't leave until 1.45pm. We usually close at 1pm!

So the first day of school holidays was a success - though not without difficulty - the square reader that acts as our cash register decided to freeze the scan option, so the only way I could complete any of the transactions, was to manually input all the numbers on all the visa and master cards.

That was annoying and I tried everything except shutting down the iPad, which I will try on Monday if it's still causing problems.

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to pick up the kitchen cabinets which came flat packed. The progress so far ...

He's a talented man.

After I arrived home, I had just enough energy to get the washing off the line, put another load in the machine and check out Adoring Husband's effort in the kitchen before I collapsed on my lounge chair for a well earned rest.

I took a meal out of the freezer - spaghetti bolognese sauce to which I added zucchini noodles - for AH's dinner.

I'm watching the football and hoping that Souths win so that Adoring Husband has a chance at winning some cash in the footy tipping competition. If not, we'll have to try again next year!

It's not looking good at this point.

I'm not sure what Sunday will bring. I may open the shop for a few hours, but it depends on how I'm feeling. I may spend the entire day in bed! Or I may be motivated enough to do some housework. Who knows.

Wait and see.

Nite all.  

On the Up

After a very quiet week, and a very quiet morning today, the afternoon picked up considerably as the holiday-makers lobbed into town and the day was a success!

I was so busy in the last two hours of the day, I didn't know which end was up!

Adoring Husband helped me close shop and I was home in time to make myself beautiful for the usual Friday night at the club.

Our table was a little bit lucky and I was very lucky on the pokies.

Adoring Husband had dinner ready when I arrived home and sadly his footy team lost their semi-final tonight so they are out of the comp - however - his AFL team Collingwood won their semi-final so they ARE in the Grand Final next week.

Here are all the photos taken in stages before the pool installation and what we are up to at this point.

Look at the time! It's heading towards 1am! Time for bed.

Nite all.

Equally Calm

We made the same amount of money today, as yesterday, almost to the cent! Weird.

The Real Estate Agent gave us a list showing the number of holiday-makers arriving on the next three Saturday mornings and the first week should be our busiest of the next three.

A strange man came into the shop and told me to be on the lookout for a selenite tower because he had a vision of me receiving one (I already have three so I don't know why I would get another) and he told me that The Motivator might need a 'reading'.

Thank you strange man. Have a nice trip back to the Gold Coast.

It was another one of those days where nothing much got done. I even bought two coffees and both of them went cold before I drank half, so obviously, I was busy enough to let the coffee go cold.

We got news from the pool guy and "P" day is Tuesday!

I promised to post pics to show the progress so far and I've taken three lots of photos since we made the decision, but they are still on the camera, so I'll try to post them here before "P" day.

Adoring Husband has spent the day painting some more in the kitchen, but he'd best stop soon, because the dirt and dust from the digging might cause a bit of mess since there is no door to the kitchen for protection!

My thumb is almost healed. It's taken a week of colloidal silver gel baths and it looked even too horrifying to take more pics earlier in the week, but it's looking and feeling much better now.

Now it's after 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Calm Before The Storm

That's what it feels like in the shop.

The school holidays commence this Friday and the tourists will all be arriving thick and fast, but at the moment it's very quiet.

The caravan parks are about 1/3 full and there are only overnighters filling spaces leading up to the permanent bookings for holidays.

We are now seeing our first customers from when we opened last year, returning for their annual holiday, so it's nice to welcome them back as they walk through the door.

Those overnighters come into the shop for a browse or to fill in ten minutes and then leave empty handed.

Having said that, today went so fast and I don't feel like I accomplished anything!

We had three new faces, including our first male participant at meditation, which made for an interesting morning. The subject that The Gypsy chose to discuss today resonated very much with me so I especially enjoyed the session.

We have a new table in the centre of the shop, so we can display a few more items there PLUS a new glass cabinet which I have to put together some time over the coming days.

Our signage is still leaning against the wall in the training room too, so that needs action soon.

The tiler finished tiling the floor of our indoor/outdoor kitchen and the electricians finished the wiring, so we now have lights.

We are very close "P" day!!

"P" = "Pool"

The pool guy is coming in the next couple of days to make sure we have cleared enough in our yard for them to start.

I'm concerned about our avocado tree because it has just one avocado growing (still many more buds appearing - just not fruiting as yet), but the single avocado is on the pool side of the tree and it's highly likely that it will be knocked off by machinery. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Ok, 10pm, must get some sleep.

Nite all.

Timed Out

My time off has timed out and I'm back to work tomorrow.

I've enjoyed my week off, but I'm very much looking forward to returning.

We had a long morning coffee with the girls this morning which lasted for more than two hours and there were lots of snorts and giggles.

I followed that with a twenty minute bare-foot walk along the beach before I met up with Adoring Husband to drive into The Bay to get some office supplies for The Happy Abode, to buy some more organic celery for my morning juicing, and to purchase some more crystals ...

... that is a very large rose quartz natural rock which I intend putting in the garden beside the pool ... I also plan on purchasing more of those!

AH and I also enjoyed a delicious lunch of Creamy Garlic Prawns at Aquavue on the waterfront.  It feels like forever since we lunched out together!

I stopped to browse some lovely tops in a clothing shop, but the only one I liked was the most expensive one there and I feel that I spent my self imposed limit for the month last week while we were there. Probably two month's worth actually. So I refrained.

Even my lotto winnings weren't enough to cover that expense, but $33 was a pleasant surprise and more than enough to buy a ticket in the $30million Powerball this week. Fingers crossed for a bigger prize that I can brag about and share to make a few lives more comfortable.

Meditation tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. I will listen to more of my book before I doze off.

Nite all.

Felt Like Sunday

I forgot that it was Monday and enjoyed it as if it was Sunday!

Not that it matters.

I had fresh celery juice for breakfast, which, I must say, tasted pretty disgusting! In past experience, celery juice was quite watery and a bit sweet, but this one was bitter and I struggled to finish it. I know it has amazing health benefits, especially for my struggling liver, so I can put up with it.

Adoring Husband brought me a coffee quite late in the morning and I enjoyed it as I listened to my Medical Medium book while I sat up in bed.

The tiler man came to tile the floor of the outdoor/indoor kitchen and the tiles look amazing. He will grout them tomorrow. Adoring Husband is feeling pretty pleased with himself for a great selection of tile.

I made a big nosh up of bacon, eggs, mushroom, onion, tomato and zucchini for AH's lunch. I pinched a couple of bacon rashers for myself and we drank the leftover slushy juice from yesterday - pineapple, watermelon, pawpaw and lemon.

An afternoon coffee was also enjoyable.

AH had a toasted sandwich for dinner followed by blueberries and ice cream for dessert.

Almost all of my day was filled with listening to and taking notes from my book.

I also realised halfway through the morning, that today marks 27 years since I began my working life as a Public Servant, so I posted on Facebook. While my original thought was just to announce the fact, I kind of got carried away and posted this instead ...

Due to a very early marriage and having children, I was a late starter, but today marks 27yrs since I began work as a public servant at CES in Griffith, where I made some great memories and great friends.

That was a huge step for me, from being a single Mum on a pension and living in a housing commission neighbourhood where Molotov cocktails and police sieges were the norm, to being a working girl in a secure job and soon owning a home. It took a year of full time study and some soul searching and confidence building to get there, that’s for sure!

The Roz then and the Roz now are two different people.

After some very questionable life choices, a bit of hard work, some much needed personal development, and a very generous and loving Universe which was completely open to my wishes, I feel blessed to have manifested a life that is filled with comfort, love and happiness and is much more than I ever dreamed (back in those days) would be possible.
I am a very lucky human 💖

(Who knew that a simple work memory could trigger so much gratitude?)

... I had a pretty big response from my FB friends and while that wasn't my intention for posting it, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the nice comments and who posted them - especially a couple of old workmates.

Now I'm going to listen to more of my book.

See you girls in the morning for coffee!

Nite all.

Visions

I did a meditation tonight - in my lounge room - with the TV going - beside Adoring Husband - with my head phones in - and was interrupted by AH when he said good night (ugh, but in his defence, he had no idea what I was doing) - but DURING that meditation, while my eyes were closed, I had a vision!

A young man in his mid 20s was walking up the driveway to The Happy Abode and beside him was a little girl around the age of 4 or 5 and she had her hands cupped and outstretched in front of herself. As she approached me, she partially opened her cupped hands and there inside was a tiny little dead bird.

I gasped and said "awwww" and looked at her sad little face.

With that, the vision vanished.

No idea how to analyse that one!

The other thing that happened was my vision was like a blank canvas that turned turquoise blue and I could feel water lapping at my feet.

That might relate to the pool???

Anyway, my day was spent at home.

I juiced some celery for breakfast and I reheated a coffee that I'd bought on Saturday afternoon and had put into the fridge so that I wouldn't have to leave the house today.

I listened to my Medical Medium book which told me a lot about Epstein Barr Virus (the virus that the naturopath told me I had when I was at the Canberra Health & Wellness Festival last year). It also offered some good advice to help clear it from my body.

I removed myself from the bed mid morning and prepared dinner for tonight - actually there are four meals of spaghetti bolognese sauce now in the freezer.

I made a slushy of pineapple, watermelon, papaya and lemon. Yum.

I removed the bedding and replaced it with fresh new bedding ...

... took washing off the line and folded it. Did a couple of loads of washing before deciding to make some prawn toast for lunch. It was delicious but I ate too much and had to have a nap afterwards!!

I watched a couple of rom/com movies while I waited for AH to return home from Fraser Island after a very successful SES training exercise.

Now my Sunday is over and I'm off to bed for even more sleep.

Nite all.