Surprise Saturday

It was a very quiet Saturday in The Happy Abode.

Luckily I had a visit from The Motivator and Mama Mia to bring some interest to the day.

Adoring Husband spent the morning in The Bay.

There was a big surprise party that I had to aim for this afternoon, so I rushed home, wrote out the birthday card, did a quick change and AH drove me to the address.

The guests all had to be there before 3pm because the birthday girl had been taken out for lunch and was returning at 3pm - not knowing that there would be a house full of people awaiting her arrival.

The Blonde Bombshell is celebrating her 65th birthday - and celebrate she should! Considering she almost didn't make it after the terrible car accident earlier in the year. She survived to tell the tale and is still working on her rehabilitation, but always with a smile on her face and a positive attitude.

A good time was had by all and Grumpy Old Fart did a remarkable job keeping the secret and preparing enough food to feed the hoards without Blonde Bombshell ever knowing.

It started with plate after plate of nibbles - crab meat on crackers, layered guacamole dip, cheese platter, home made sausage rolls, asparagus and cheese slice (with a little help from friends).

He cooked up a feast of sticky pork ribs, sweet and sour chicken, beef and beans and fried rice, followed by a huge birthday cake made by Blonde Bombshell's carer and two big platters of fruit.

It was a very successful afternoon and we all had some good laughs and caught up with a few friends whom we haven't seen for a while ...

I arrived home with about thirty minutes to spare before the rains came. There is a storm and lots of rain passing over us as I write this.

I am absolutely exhausted and tomorrow AH and I will be hunting for plants for our pool area, so I'd best get some sleep. It seems so much later than 9.15pm!!

Nite all.

Friday Frenzy

I had big plans for editing wedding photos today.

You know how most of my big plans go.

It was just busy enough in the shop to prevent me from following through or completing any of my plans.

It was another good day of sales. More return travellers. More birthday and Christmas gifts sold. Another milestone birthday announced.

Adoring Husband helped me close the shop and did some grocery shopping, mailed an important birthday parcel before the last mail run and then returned home to construct one of our outdoor settings ...

... pic courtesy of Adoring Husband.

He spent the day in The Bay. He had to drop the car at the repairers to have the rear door repaired. They will keep it there until next Wednesday.

Meanwhile they've provided a car for us that has seen better days. Fraying seatbelts, windows with winding handles (who knew there were any cars like that left on the roads?!), clear glass windows that provide undesirable heating, but at least it has working air conditioning.

He purchased the water feature which will be delivered next Thursday, some boardies and rashies for himself to protect his delicate sun sensitive skin, some coat hangers for our new clothing that should arrive at the shop on Monday, he did a Bunnings stop and plant nursery stop and made phone calls to organise the extras for the Bali hut.

He has been a very busy and productive young man today and is currently snoring his head off in his recliner chair beside me.

This weekend, we will take the time to select some plants for our big plant pots.

It all seems to be coming together nicely and I can't wait for it to be complete so that we can have a 'come and see our pool' party!

Time for me to go to bed. It's almost 10pm and tonight at the club, I was told by some prospective customers that they are coming to the shop bright and early in the morning!

Nite all.

The Second Round

This is one of the fun parts of having The Happy Abode.

Returning holiday-makers who have looked forward to seeing us again on their annual holiday and who are excited to see us still here and doing well.

Not only that, but another travelling couple who are on their way to the Cape, saw us on the Google map when they were looking for accommodation in The Bay and they made a special trip to see The Happy Abode before continuing their journey!

How cool is that?

They spent up big too!

There are some special birthdays coming up in town this week, so I sold quite a few birthday gifts today.

Christmas parties for various social, sporting and crafting groups are about to begin and they all have secret Santas with a maximum monetary value, so I'm guessing our less expensive items will soon be flying out the window.

The Motivator brought her Mum to the shop for a visit. It was lovely to see Mama Mia again. She's a sweetie and obviously excited to spend some quality time with The Motivator while she's here.

It was after 3pm when I realised it was time to close the shop. I was very involved in printing out some important information for tax purposes and the time flew by!

Adoring Husband arrived a little late but we got some groceries for dinner and then hurried home for a swim in the you-know-what.

I love our pool.

I swam, floated, kicked, stretched and noodled for an hour and then imagined how the area will look when everything is finished and we can use the space as a living area instead of just a swimming hole.

AH cooked some snags on the barbie and we had sweet potato mash, broccoli, asparagus and onion gravy for dinner.

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

Tomorrow will be another fabulous day in The Happy Abode.

Nite all.

Fabulousness

Today was full of fabulousness!

I woke up bright and early after a solid night's sleep and made it to work with plenty of time to spare before the meditation class began.

We had the usual crowd there and it was another inspiring session with some good tools and advice to  bring more peace, love and light into my life.

The Gypsy only had two appointments booked today so we had lots of time to discuss our lives and the challenges and tests that the universe has put in our paths, the way we handled each of those situations and together we celebrated our successes. Every conversation with The Gypsy is a learning experience and I feel a strong connection with her. I always look forward to Mondays and Wednesdays.

It was a steady day for sales in the shop and I got time to finish our new Christmas advertisement for the next town newsletter. I made a lot of changes to our usual ad and it was quite time consuming, but hopefully it will attract the right attention.

It was well after 3pm when I closed the shop and after Adoring Husband and I did a bit of grocery shopping for dinner, I returned home hanging out to jump in the pool!

I knew that Adoring Husband had already been in for a swim today, so I was dreaming about floating around in the water all afternoon. I feel like a mermaid with a new home! I was in the water for about an hour and all my digits were wrinkled like prunes by the time I climbed out. The only reason I got out when I did, was because I needed to pee really badly!

It's now 9pm and I'm off to bed. It's been a fabulous day and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Nite all.

On The Job

Back to work today.

What a great day it was.

It started with coffee morning and only three of us in attendance until The Motivator arrived to make it an even four.

Fun was had when firstly, I showed the girls our new clothing line and made a sale.

More fun was had when a delivery of stock arrived before the girls left, so we all had fun opening that box, but no sale was made this time.

The Motivator and I had some good chats after the girls left, including some business discussions which make our future look pretty bright.

We made arrangements for someone to come put our new sign on the big wall ...

The Motivator came in on her day off to spend the afternoon supervising the job and it looks fantastic.

While I was at work, the pebblecrete was laid at home ...

I love the finish and I was relieved at the size of the area ... I was worried that my idea of measurements would be way out, but it's just right and I can't wait for the rest of it to come together.

Late this afternoon, The Motivator and I made some big orders which should arrive next week and I think we might need one more order of snap button jewellery before Christmas. Then we'll be done for a while!

Right now, I need to rub some oil into Adoring Husband's back, so I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Freddie and Me

A BIG THANK YOU to Lady Lynn for coming to my rescue today so that I could attend the cinema to finally watch 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

She was able to give me a lift into The Bay and was even able to bring me home afterwards.

Lady Lynn is my champion.

The movie was everything I'd imagined and more. Rami Malek was amazing as Freddie Mercury and of course the music had me wanting to sing loudly! So I lip synched loudly!

While I was gone from the house, the concreter levelled our back yard ready for concreting, which meant that the black powdery sand was blown in all directions and filled our beautiful crystal clear pool.

Obviously no longer crystal clear!

It filled the new kitchen.

It filled our alfresco area.

It filled the house - I could slide on our tiles!

He will be back tomorrow to begin pouring the concreting and we will order the new turf to cover the remaining area of the yard that was chopped up in the pool process. Hopefully, that can be laid on Friday.

We had a little problem with our creepy crawly but with good team work, Adoring Husband and I got it sorted. There may be a few problems until all of our landscaping is finished because there is extra dirt, extra stones, extra pebbles and general mess which is putting pressure on everything.

Meanwhile, we had some clothing arrive at The Happy Abode today, so I had to rush to the shop to check it out. I've already purchased two of the items myself! How exciting!

Now I need to make up the dog food to freeze and then hang my washing on the line before I head to bed.

Tomorrow, it's hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go!

Nite all.

First Swim

Don't ask me what I did on Saturday ... I did not work ... that much I know for sure.

I spent a lot of time waiting for Adoring Husband to decide whether he was going to drive into The Bay to wait in the hospital emergency department to have his back looked at. It was THAT painful.

Instead he lay back on the recliner lounge to keep the weight off his spine and allow it some time to rest and recover.

I climbed into bed early and couldn't find the motivation to write a blog post.

This morning (Sunday) it was after 8am when I awoke.

I made myself breakfast to take back to bed with me and I stayed in bed until lunch time.

That was when I walked outside to check on the pool.

It was quite warm outside, so I sat on the edge of the pool and dangled my legs in the very cool water. I moved down one step and sat in the water.

That was the moment that Adoring Husband decided to jump in the water. Luckily, I had an inkling that he was about to jump and I reminded him to take his glasses off!

That would have been a big OOPS!

I was still fully clothed and decided to go 'all in' myself.

After a while, the psychotic dogs became curious and wandered to the edge of the pool, so one by one, we introduced them to deep water and watched them swim for the very first time. They seemed to enjoy it!

Ninety minutes later, we decided that it was time to get dry.

Of course ... we were in the water ... in the middle of the day ... without shade ... for ninety minutes.

We are both a brighter shade of pink for the experience.

I'm looking forward to the umbrella being installed so that I can float in the shade.

I'm looking forward to the Bali hut being erected so that I can sit out there in the shade and give my pruned skin time to reach plumpness again before I dive back into the pool.

I'm looking forward to the pebblecrete being laid so that dusty black sand doesn't float all through the house, through the pool, coat our feet, change the colour of the psychotic dogs from white to black.

After their swim in the pool, the psychotic dogs played in the black sand and I had to bath all three of them - it took a lot of work to get them clean.

I figured I should use my dirty situation to clean the toilet straight after that haha.

We considered swimming again this evening, but the air temperature dropped considerably, so that was out of the question.

Tomorrow, I am off to watch Bohemian Rhapsody (at last) but I'll be alone. Adoring Husband's back wouldn't allow him to sit in the cinema seats for that long ... and he needs to be here for the concreter in the morning. This will be my only day off for a while because The Motivator will have her Mum here for an extended period and I don't know when the movie will be removed from the viewing list.

BUT you know how I enjoy solo movie dates!

It's 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Achey but not Breaky

I have felt a little the worst for wear today after the big fall yesterday.

Not just the bits of my body that I landed on, but all of my muscles and joints have been reminding me of the jarring from yesterday's mishap.

Ugh.

Adoring Husband was capable of fulfilling the minimal requirements of his job this morning, so even though I was awake and heard him drive off, I didn't have to get out of bed early for work.

The Pool Guy arrived bright and early to clean the pool and demonstrated to AH how the filter worked and how the light in the pool changed colours on a timer.

We can now swim in the pool and tomorrow's maximum will be 27C - that could be high enough to take our first dip!

It was a much better day in the shop today with lots of happy customers, some new ones in the mix. We also took delivery of two lots of stock which is always fun.

The day passed quickly and The Motivator came for a visit and shared in the joy of opening new stock.

Adoring Husband arrived at the end of the day and helped me close the shop - of course he was a bit limited in his movement so he couldn't do all that he usually does, but it was still helpful.

I pedalled home and made myself presentable for the club where the only winner was Grumpy Old Fart who won $50.

Dinner was ready when I got off the bus even though AH had spent the entire evening on the phone organising SES members for a land search tomorrow to look for a missing person.

I MAY have to work for AH tomorrow morning but I don't have to work at the shop until Tuesday so I hope to spend my time editing the wedding photos and doing a bit of work around the house.

It's 11pm so I should get some sleep, just in case.

Nite all.    

What a Day

My day began at 5am when Adoring Husband woke me up with a painful groan to tell me that he was incapable of working this morning and that I would have to take his place.

AH hurt his back while whipper snipping on Wednesday and is now in excruciating pain. It takes him a good five minutes to stand up from his chair and he is suffering.

So I dragged myself out of bed and off I pedalled to work for AH.

By the time I returned home, I had two messages for him regarding the plumber and the pool guy who both planned on spending time and effort at our house today.

I showered and prepared myself for work, made AH some breakfast and put a snack, some water and some pain killers beside his chair.

After I opened the shop, I checked the mail and two large boxes of Ivy's bags, wallets, purses and scarves were waiting at the Post Office for pickup. I needed a trolley to carry them to the shop!

Seven people in total walked through our doors today and not a single solitary cent was spent.

I broke our record for the least sales!

At 3pm I walked out the back door of the shop to collect our flags when my right foot slipped out from under me and down I fell with an almighty thud. The only part of me that didn't slam into the ground was my face ... although I felt my forehead touch the ground ever so slightly!

I lay face down in the driveway for a while praying that I hadn't broken any bones and hoping that somebody saw me and would momentarily arrive at my side to rescue me.

Or not.

Nothing is broken but it ALL hurts!

That was my crappy day.

On the bright side, our pool is full!

It's 10pm and I'm off to bed because I have to work for AH again tomorrow morning.

One day soon, I'll tell you all about Melbourne haha.

Nite all.

Trivia Treat

Tonight we celebrated the 50th trivia night, which, since they are only held once each month, means that they have been running for five years.

Of course, Adoring Husband and I have only been attending these trivia nights for about 18 months, so we missed all the early excitement and apparently our team's original members made the highest score EVER back in 2015.

A prize was presented to our team tonight and we were happy to accept the credit!

In light of that award, we came 10th out of 12 teams tonight! We only scored 2/10 in the first round and never recovered after that!

Adoring Husband injured his back today, so it was a struggle for him to be there and he suffered through most of the night. It was difficult for him to get out of the chair and walk to the car when the evening was over.

I put some oil on his back before he went to bed tonight, so hopefully that will help him get up in the morning, but I fear that I will be the one getting out of bed early in the morning to work AH's job, then go to my own job after that.

Anyway, the pool is filling quite quickly so we should be able to swim soon!

On that note, I bid you adieu. Just in case I have to wake up at 5.30am to work, I should try to get some sleep now.

Nite all.

Rain Check

My Melbourne story is still to come.

Tonight we attended a birthday party for The Beast. Beauty did the cooking and other family members assisted with serving. The food was amazing (as always) and it was great catching up with so many friends in one spot. The weather was very kind with a stiff breeze keeping the temperature down and the fire pot keeping the midges at bay.

I brought a container of sticky rice home to eat with our GF ice cream. Delicious.

Adoring Husband and I were the first to leave. He was exhausted and I wasn't that full of energy myself. We did stay to sing Happy Birthday to The Beast who turned 70 today.

I had coffee with the girls this morning and before I left, a delivery of stock arrived, so I simply HAD to stay and help open the boxes to see what surprises were inside. I left the shop at 1.30pm and stopped to grab some lunch on the way home.

I missed the Melbourne Cup race - not that I had any bets.

Our pool is filling as we speak ...

... with our minimal water pressure, it's going to take some time to fill. You can see the temporary fencing which is a legal requirement until we've erected the real thing.

Anyway, it's almost 10.30pm so I'm off to bed.

Hopefully, my Melbourne story will eventuate soon.

Nite all.

I'm Back!

So much to talk about. So much to tell you.

But it's rapidly approaching midnight and I need to sleep.

I have just this minute gone through the photos of the wedding and I edited a few to send through to the happy couple, just to tide them over until I've got the time to get through them all.

As soon as I sent the pics, they immediately used one of them on their facebook profiles.

That makes me very happy ...

... it was a special moment when they walked onto the dance floor for their first dance and Zoe was so overwhelmingly happy, she burst into tears.

It was a beautiful ceremony. Not on the beach as planned because of the gale force conditions, but when you're surrounded by only the people who truly love you, it doesn't matter where it happens.

So far, so good.

Adoring Husband drove all the way to the Sunny Coast to pick me up from the airport today and we arrived home at around 7.30pm.

Dinner was a bowl of raspberries with boysenberry ice-cream.

I didn't fall asleep until 3.30am Monday morning, so I have some catching up to do.

I'll catch you up on all the juicy details tomorrow!

Nite all.  

Change of Plan

So my plan was to go to the movies to see ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and then do a train trip to Brighton Beach to check out the location for this wedding.

I began walking, stopped on Vegan Chickie’s recommendation, to purchase a coffee, which was delicious and served by a very happy and friendly gentleman.

I walked some more, approximately two blocks, when I came across Spencer Outlet Centre.

I thought to myself “Self! This looks like the place for you!”

I found the entrance and in I walked.

I was warmly greeted by a very friendly woman who told me I was tiny and scoffed at my choice of size 10 pant that I first tried on. I swear Melbourne sizes are very different to Queensland sizes!

Of the dozen shops that I entered, only one had a less than friendly attendant.

I was rudely reminded of my age when I was chatting to a woman whom I considered my equal, commenting about the clothes and I offered her a top that I was holding and that she was obviously admiring. When she tried on the top, the male attendant asked her if she wanted to show her mother (me). I looked at her and realised that she was about 30, so yes, I could easily be her mother.

Ugh!

I was feeling so young and vibrant until that point!

Spencer Outlet Centre captured my attention for five hours. I spent a lot of money and now have my entire wardrobe sorted for Spring/Summer.

Lunch was lovely in the food court and the coffee was divine.

I must say that the walk back was not as pleasant as the walk there. Walking uphill with a dozen bags of goodies at the end of a tiring shopping day was hard work!

I stumbled upon a fresh juice bar just around the corner from Vegan Chickie’s apartment, so I bought myself a celery, apple and ginger juice which gave me a perfect boost of energy.

Vegan Chickie had made a deliciously spicy butter chicken with brown rice for dinner, so a perfect end to the day!

My gear is all packed and ready to go to the wedding tomorrow.

The maximum will only be 20C so I bought myself some boots to wear in place of the Summer sandals I brought with me. Hopefully I’ll be running around so much that I won’t even feel the cold.

It’s after 11pm. Best get some sleep.

Nite all.

In Melbourne

My flight on Wednesday was delayed an hour which kind of threw all of our well laid plans out the window and caused a bit of stress and anxiety at this end, but we recovered well.

The flight seemed long. We left Maroochydore at 12.30pm and arrived in Melbourne at 4pm (remembering Daylight Savings). 

I watched a movie on the Virgin App - Oceans 8 - which I’ve seen, but still enjoyed it the 2nd time. I tried to watch Young Sheldon too, but the app decided to freeze and I couldn’t get to work, so instead, I listened to one of my audio books.

Because the flight was late, my booking for the shuttle bus from the airport to CBD was missed.  I had changed the booking when I knew I would be late, but we were even later again, so I had to wait 25 mins for the next shuttle to arrive. At least they dropped me right at the front door so I didn’t have to drag my luggage through the streets.

Chicklet had already left the apartment to spend Halloween with her Dad, and Vegan Chickie was at an appointment, so I let myself in and relaxed, listening to more of my audio book.

It was nice to spend time alone with Vegan Chickie and we sat up til quite late - we’ll it felt late because we were both exhausted - then Chicklet was delivered home at precisely 5.50am! VC took her straight into her bedroom where she spent quite a bit of time before bounding into the lounge room where I’m sleeping to finally give me my hug hello. She welcomed me with her fabulous loosy toothy grin.

We spent the entire day at home, eating and drinking and watching a movie on Netflix called ‘Coraline’, playing a little Dragon Sim and drawing some pictures.

Tomorrow has some rough plans surrounding it, but nothing concrete yet. Maybe a movie, maybe a trip to Brighton. We’ll see how the motivation moves me.

Very warm weather here today and tomorrow will be only slightly cooler. The day of the wedding will be very cool so I’m glad I brought something a little warmer to wear - at least it has sleeves!

That’s about it for me. I’ve typed this on my phone which is kind of awkward and I have just 1% charge left so I’d best sign off fast! 

Nite all.

The Night Before

Here we are at 8pm the night before I fly to Melbourne and I'm still not packed.

We leave at 7am tomorrow.

I've gathered my camera gear, put it all in a small suitcase with wheels and weighed it.

This is the suitcase that I want to carry with me onto the plane because I don't trust that it will survive a trip in my check-in luggage. I figure it could be stolen or damaged, so I need to keep it close to me.

So two camera bodies, four lenses, two batteries and a charger weigh 10.8kgs.

That's too heavy for carry-on luggage.

So I removed a camera body, two batteries, the charger and the 2nd largest lens.

It STILL weighs 7.6kgs. I'll take my chances.

I currently have many items of clothing spread over the bed. I need five outfits. They need to be lightweight. They need to be crush proof because Vegan Chickie does not possess an iron. They need to be presentable enough to wear in public because there is something planned for every day. They need to be suitable for all weather situations because ... Melbourne!

I need to make a list to check, otherwise I'll be under pressure in the morning and I'll forget stuff.

We had a good coffee morning with the girls, though we missed Lady Lynn, Tweedle Dee (new name yet to be announced) and Maid Marian. We welcomed the return of Reality TV Queen after quite a few weeks away and The Whinging Pom who returned from her month long holiday.

It was a slow day in the shop.

Adoring Husband and I put the new glass cabinet in place and I filled it with jewellery displays.

AH took all the cardboard boxes because the shop recycle bin is full and The Motivator's recycle bin is full, so the boxes have now filled our home recycle bin.

I wrapped another gift box.

I tied up a couple of the coaster sets.

I selected one of my photos to donate to the local pub for their Melbourne Cup raffle and wrapped it accordingly. AH delivered it to the pub this afternoon.

My last customer of the day bought up big on our selection of unicorns including fridge magnets and snap buttons. His purchases totalled almost half of our sales for the day and I'm pretty certain that his two young daughters are going to be wearing wide grins when he offers them the gifts he took from the shop.

By the time I tied up some loose ends and did a small grocery shop, it was almost 4.30pm when I arrived home.

Adoring Husband showed me the progress that he'd made with the pool landscaping today - the pool is so close, I can almost taste it!

Anyway, best go pack.

Happy Hump Day!

Nite all.  

Surprisingly Busy

For a Monday, it was surprisingly busy at the shop today.

There is a large group of ladies in town, without their husbands, for a week long holiday. Half of them came into the shop today, did not buy anything, but promised to return with the entire group on Tuesday. They are excited to be without their husbands!

Just four of them were VERY loud, so I can't imagine how loud they will ALL be when they are in the shop together. That will bring an interesting energy into the space!

The Gypsy returned to work after her two of weeks off. During that time she ran a couple of successful retreats on the Gold Coast, so she was positively glowing.

There was a steady flow of customers in the shop all morning, the last sale was made at about 1.30pm and then I think it was the weather that kept people away because storms were building with lightning and thunder and quite a bit of rain.

I had asked Adoring Husband to cover for me at the shop for the last half hour so that I could have my hair done, but the storm meant that I couldn't ride my trike, and because The Motivator happened to be in the shop, we decided to close the shop half an hour early so that AH could drive me to my appointment.

I love my hair. Future DIL did a wonderful job again.

The storm passed without issue but it's still overcast and there is more rain to come tonight. Storms are forecast for tomorrow and possibly Wednesday ... as long as I can fly out from the Sunny Coast on Wednesday without issue, I will be happy.

I made an easy dinner by baking a butterflied chicken in the oven and serving it with a simple salad.

I'm still not packed for my trip to Melbourne ...

It's almost 9pm, so I'm off to bed. I'm thoroughly enjoying my new sleep regime and I'm feeling good!

Nite all.

Hibernation

Total hibernation today.

I felt a little discombobulated and totally unable to face the world, so I remained in bed until after 4pm.

I watched hours of Trevor Noah and Ellen Degeneres and Graham Norton. Informative, feel good and funny.

Adoring Husband delivered food and water when necessary and left me alone when necessary.

On Friday night I was talking to Baker Hater about my trip to Melbourne and she asked some relevant questions about my trip and attempted to give me advice about what I should do at night - just quietly, the only nightlife that I participate in is raffle night at the Bowls Club - so I scoffed at her suggestion of going to the IceBar one night.

She told me that the 'brown trams' in Melbourne were free and I told her that all trams in the CBD are free ...

"FREE Tram Zone – Melbourne CBD. Since January 1st 2015, the inner city CBD has a new FREE Tram Zone. This means that any tram trip you take that starts and ends within the City Centre (designated Free Tram Zone) will be free. This is a new initiative to assist visitors staying in the city to move around."

I told her about the wedding that I'm photographing in Brighton and she told me how dodgy Brighton was and that I shouldn't leave my bag or any valuables lying around.

So I did some research and discovered that it is ranked as the 4th best suburb in Melbourne and has a 5 star rating for safety, eating out, families, schools, parks, clean environment, night life and the many reviews that I've read have been outstanding.

I told her that I was photographing the wedding on Brighton beach where the colourful beach huts are and she told me that there weren't many of them left now.  I felt a bit sad and disappointed about that because I had big plans based on their existence!

I discovered that there are actually 82 beach huts currently on Brighton Beach.

Baker Hater ... I know that you don't read my blog or even know of it's existence for that matter, but ... WERE YOU DRUNK????  Crazy woman!

Adoring Husband has spent the day in the back yard doing pool preparation work so he's been much more productive than I have. He's also been much dirtier and required two showers throughout the day. He made a quick trip into The Bay to visit my favourite (not) place, Bunnings.

Having done nothing all day, I still feel quite tired, so I'm off to bed. It's just after 8.35pm. My daily practice of meditation is training me to go to bed at a reasonable hour every night and create a habit of sleeping soundly. Except for a couple of hiccups, so far, so good.

Nite all.

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.