Super Saturday

It has been a super Saturday.

The shop did well with sales.

The workshop was full of creativity and joy.

After we closed the shop, we released our inner arty farty-ness.

... and these photos, taken by The Motivator, to show my painting in sections. I love the colours and all the cells that came to the surface, but it's not as I imagined.

I can't share The Motivator's work without her permission and I didn't take photos of the other artworks yet, so that will all come ... if I remember lol ... you know how I keep promising to share things and then completely forget 🤪

I love how different and beautiful everybody's work is at the end of the sessions.

I love hearing the laughter and frivolity from the training room on the mornings when the workshops are happening.

I love when our customers want to know "what's going on in the back room?"

I love going in there every hour or so to see how each piece of art is progressing.

I love how inspired The Motivator is after each session.

I love how the participants always want to return for another session with new ideas and to try something different.

I love having a go myself.

It was 2.15pm when I arrived home and of course the pool called to me, so I lolled around in the water for about an hour and a half, then sat under the Bali hut listening to meditation music while I dried off.

I watched some Super Saturday football.

I watched "Little Women" and "Legends of the Fall" on TV.

So it's been a super Saturday all round.

Now I'm going to sleep. I have big plans for GF pancakes with banana and bacon and maple syrup for breakfast by the pool!

Nite all.

In the Drink

I worked for Adoring Husband early this morning and upon my return home, I found a text from The Motivator, offering to give me the entire day off.

The original plan was for me to open the shop and do the morning shift and then TM would take over at midday to do the afternoon shift.

So she very generously offered and I very gratefully accepted.

At 7.30am I was floating around in the pool enjoying the early morning light and feeling an overwhelming happiness for my life and everything and everyone in it.

I was dressed and ready to leave the house by 8.45am to go help set up the training room at the shop in preparation for the Paint and Create workshop that TM will be leading on Saturday morning.

I returned home well before midday and headed straight back to the pool. I swam and floated and exercised to the sweet sound of meditation music, I sat in the sunshine for 15 minutes, I lay under the Bali hut listening to my audible book and then I went back into the pool for some more swimming.

At 2pm I began getting ready for my Friday night at the club.

I washed my hair and made myself presentable in time for the 4pm bus to pick me up.

The Motivator arrived just as I was leaving so that she could spend some private time in the pool, enjoying the peace and tranquility,  just as I do.

There was no winning to be had for me tonight and only one of our group won a prize in the raffles.

I was lucky enough to get one of the last seats on the bus to return home.

Unfortunately I forgot to leave a light on for the dogs and one of them pooped in the darkness and then in the excitement of me arriving home, one of them jumped in it and then left little poopy footprints all over the family room floor!!

Obviously, my first priority was to clean the poop up and mop the floor.

Ugh.

Not a pleasant way to end my evening.

I made a light dinner and waited for Adoring Husband's phone call. He is safe and well and happy.

Now I'm off to bed to watch the end of Pretty Woman.

Nite all.

Togetherness

For the first time in a long time, The Motivator and I spent the entire day together at the shop.

It was a really nice day.

There were no deliveries and only a few customers, so we got to chat and relax and make an online order during the blackout.

Yes we had a blackout for about 90 minutes. That's not a problem for us because we can still play music via bluetooth and our cash register works via our phone. It took an hour for the shop to warm up without air conditioning, and then, just in the nick of time, the power returned.

I attempted to get a coffee before I rode home, but because of the blackout, my local turned off the coffee machine to take the pressure off their generator and I had to go elsewhere to get my caffeine hit.

Luckily the local cafe came to the rescue.

I invited The Motivator for a swim this afternoon, but as I arrived home, I discovered that one of the dogs had used the hallway as a toilet - big time - and it took me a good 15 minutes to clean that up!

By the time TM arrived, I hadn't had a chance to set up the pool area or change into my bathers. The umbrella was still folded down, the covers were on the chairs, the cushions for the Bali bed were still in the storage room, the kitchen was locked, there was no music playing.

So I invited her to make herself comfortable in the pool, while I got myself changed and then did all the 'things' that Adoring Husband usually does!

I appreciate you AH 😘

It was very easy, just an inconvenience really.

We spent over an hour lolling in the pool and almost an hour sitting under the Bali hut listening to meditation music, which was just soooooo relaxing. We had our feet up on the ottoman and just stayed there until the sun set.

We were reluctant to move from that position, but I had to return an earlier call from Adoring Husband and TM had her own 'stuff' to attend to.

I've been in bed now, since 7.30pm writing this, among other things, and I can't believe it's almost midnight!

Best get some sleep because I have to be up VERY early in the morning to do AH's job.

Nite all.

Full of Fabulousness!

My day has been full of fabulousness!

I was up bright and early because I had parked my trike in the middle of the shop yesterday when it was too stormy to ride home, so I needed to remove it before everyone arrived for meditation. Adoring Husband drove me there and helped set out the flags, signs and chairs so we were all set with plenty of time to spare.

Due to holidays and specialist appointments, there were a few absent today, so eight of us were sitting in the meditation class and, as always, it was a good class.

It was my day off, but a customer who had left at 3pm yesterday without completing her purchases, had returned to do so and I felt obliged to serve her.

I left soon after because Aggie and Lady Lynn were due to pick me up at 10.20am so that we could then pick up The Brains Trust and all head out to Childers for some shoe shopping and some lunch.

I'm not certain if it was peer pressure but I prefer to think of it as supporting and encouraging each other to spend money on things that we really didn't need, and possibly didn't even want, but it felt good at the time so we did it.

I purchased a pair of shoes and two tops and everybody finished the day with something lovely to take home. I think we were honest with each other about how we looked as we tried on both clothes and shoes at two different shops.

We made friends with the shop owners and talked about The Happy Abode and how horrible February is every year for them too ... which was comforting.

We walked across the road and ordered our lunch at Kape` Central. This was my lunch ...

... because I'm a grown up and can order sweets for lunch if I want to!!

The coffee was absolutely delicious too!

From there, we checked out the gift section in the Post Office next door. They had some lovely things in there, some similar to what we have at The Happy Abode.

After our shopping spree, we drove to a little coffee shop further up town and the girls ordered coffee while I ordered a fresh juice of mango, ginger and mint. It soothed my upset tummy a little.

The Garden Guru had put in an order for horseradish peanuts, so the peanut van was our next stop and while we were a little concerned about the possibility of driving through a storm, we were lucky enough that it remained to our left for most of the drive home.

We had a glorious five hours together with lots of laughing and joking and spending and eating and drinking.

Adoring Husband was not at home when Aggie dropped me off. He had gone to get coffee and he had unsuccessfully attempted to phone me to ask if I'd be home soon. Luckily for me, he came home with a coffee for me anyway.

I took the washing off the line, put some more in the machine, ironed AH's jeans and shirts to take on his trip to Armidale, sewed a button on one of his shirts and then made a quick nosh up dinner of Jamaican Chicken.

As I began to write this blog post, I received a call from Vegan Chickie and we talked for almost 90 minutes - there was a lot to catch up on.

Here it is, almost 12.30am and I have to work tomorrow. I can hear my pillow calling my name and I believe I will set my alarm an hour later than usual!

Nite all.    

More Please!

I had a lovely day at work.

I couldn't get to sleep until 2am so it was difficult to get moving when I was rudely woken by my inconsiderate alarm at 5.55am.

A warm shower was enough to get the blood circulating and I got to work with plenty of time to go buy my morning coffee and then open the shop.

The girls all arrived for our coffee morning and there were seven of us in attendance, including an interstate visitor in the form of Care Bear. She even enjoyed some retail therapy in the shop.

We took delivery of another order today, so I checked, priced and displayed everything straight away. Here is some of our new stock ...

I paid some bills, stapled our cards to our carry bags, emptied the indoor bins so that the big bins could go out to the street and I served a LOT of customers, so it was a good enough sales day to put a smile on my dial.

This afternoon, a huge storm swelled overhead which made me nervous enough to park my trike inside the shop and get a lift home with Adoring Husband.

He had taken our psychotic dog Jack to the vet to have his claws clipped today. Jack won't allow me anywhere near his claws and we figured that he would need to be put under anaesthetic to have them done.

AH sat in the waiting room listening to Jack's screams (Jack is the biggest sookie lala on the planet and screams at the slightest thing) while the vet clipped him.

His claws were so long, they were curling sideways and were obviously causing him discomfort, if not pain.

When I got home this afternoon, Jack was jumping around and wagging his tail like an excited puppy instead of the 14yr old cranky pants that he usually is. It was so good to see and really made me laugh.

The vet gave him a good going over and declared that Jack is in excellent health with a strong heart, so that's good to know.

I have a bit of an upset tummy tonight which is causing me some discomfort, so I'm off to bed and will hopefully sleep it off.

Lunch and shoe shopping in Childers with the girls tomorrow, so I need to be healthy and on the ball.

Nite all.

Perfectly Finished

Well, thank goodness, I found some motivation and energy at the end of my days off!

Believe it or not, I had not completely unpacked my suitcase from my trip to Sydney! So I did that today.

I cleaned the main bathroom, the toilet and the laundry. I sprayed the shower tiles with oil of cloves mixture and it needs to stay like that for at least 12 hours to kill the mould. Bleach doesn't kill mould - it just bleaches it so that you can't see it. Oil of cloves actually kills it, but it means that some scrubbing will be involved tomorrow.

I swept and mopped some floors.

I got the washing off the line and folded it. I hung out three more loads of washing.

I made a fresh smoothie with dragon fruit, pineapple, lime and coconut water.

I've been promising to issue an invitation to Lady Lynn and The Brains Trust to share the experience of our beautiful pool area for such a long time ... and today was the day!

They had both arrived by 2.30pm and we sat and chatted for a little while before plunging in.

Well ... 'I' plunged in.

There were some tentative gasps as the girls entered the pool via the steps and I sensed some hesitancy as they questioned my description of the water temperature.

Once they were in, they agreed that the water was perfect!

We bobbed around on our noodles for a good 90 minutes, chatting and laughing and enjoying each other's good company.

Adoring Husband arrived home from The Bay and then, at my request, drove to our 'local' to purchase coffee for everyone. He delivered our coffee and then disappeared for 15 minutes, returning with a big plate of fresh fruit that he had sliced up beautifully for our eating pleasure!

What a legend.

He sat chatting with us for a while before the girls decided it was time to return to their own husbands.

It was such a lovely afternoon.

After they left, I lay in the Bali hut listening to my audible book for a while ... until I checked the BOM and saw the line of nasty looking storms heading in our direction, so I called for AH and we packed all the loose stuff into the outdoor kitchen, put the  covers on the lounge, folded down the umbrella and took the clothes off the line.

Within about half an hour, the rains came. We could see lightning in the distance and could hear the distant rumble of thunder, but the storms missed us again, thank goodness and we received some good rain.

We took a Hainan Chicken out of the freezer and heated that for dinner, so it was nice and easy.

Now it's midnight!! Far out!! Time for bed.

Nite all.

Peace Light and Love

A very opinionated farmer posted a long winded comment on FB about all the young people marching for climate change.

He began his rant with this ...

*TALKING OR WALKING ?

Give up mobile phones or devices
Do not use Air conditioning
Walk or bike from within 10 k of destination
Do not drink any bottled liquids
Buy unpackaged goods/foods

What are these? These are just a few ways the kids who protested yesterday can actually do something themselves about their impact on the earth.
BUT THEY WILL NOT. Nor will their puffed with pride parents.*

His rant continued to until it created a post four times longer than what I've shared here. It was followed by lots of other older people supporting his rant and bagging out young people from every angle.

He doesn't (and nor do the others) know any of these young people, but they choose to put them in a box and criticise not only the kids, but their parents as well.

So, in all my misguided wisdom, I responded with this ...

"Yeah let’s bag out the kids who are trying to make a difference. Just remember, we can’t all do everything, but we can all do something."

I figured somebody might respond, so I prepared myself to NOT get into an argument, but instead respond with love.

• Love and light to you.
• Peace and love to you.
• Feel the love.
• Warmest hugs from afar.
• Wishing you love and kindness.

He responded with this ... "I have seen people put up arguments that have valid debating points. I have also seen your inanities. Its an age old technique, believe me you are not the first. It highlights someone that is unable to validly refute those points and thus tries to make out they are morally the better person and by extension anyone else is lesser. I repeat, not original, not that clever, extremely pompous, and quite la'ughable. I know what your reply will be because you tread a well worn and tiresome path."

(My thoughts which I did not share - Pot - Kettle - Black)

and then he provided this ... "not original, not clever, pompous, and oh so passe"

Somebody else responded with "Roz is cute"

To which the farmer replied "Roz is not bad I suppose.... if you sorta screw your eyes up a little and just glance quickly. I prefer the more thoughtful sincere articulate types myself"

So it seems that you cop a gob full if you do argue and you. cop a gob full if you don't. In fact, spreading love and light seems to trigger some unexpected frustration and anger from the masses - he wasn't the only one who commented or got frustrated with my responses!

It was an interesting experience.

I learned years ago to NOT comment on posts like this and to NOT read the comments because social media is full of 'effed' up people and I want my FB feed to be my happy place.

I've either blocked or hidden friends or family who constantly share disrespectful, bigoted, racist, sexist or angry content on their pages. Out of 286 friends, that leaves me in regular contact with about 30 of them.

Today's experiment turned into an excellent opportunity to practice some of the 'powers' that I've been learning about in the meditation classes. 

The power to withdraw - which is the ability to step back and disengage.

The power to pack up - which is the ability to bring things to an end and stop wasteful thinking.

The power to tolerate - the ability to respond to external and internal events positively, yet not be affected by them.

I probably won't put myself in that position again on social media. Self inflicted I know, but I obviously triggered something inside those people and it escalated into something I wasn't expecting.

You live and learn.

Aside from that, I had another uneventful and unproductive day. I don't even know what happened to my morning - it just disappeared before I even knew it.

I had a quick swim this afternoon while Adoring Husband went for a drive to get us a coffee. In that short time, probably 30 minutes, I took myself through a quick journey and then did a brief meditation. The mind is an amazing and intriguing thing.

I spent the afternoon listening to one of my audible books and cooked a corned silverside with cabbage and mash for dinner.

My hope is that tomorrow, my motivation returns, because I have a lot to do around the house and I'd really like to feel that my time away from the shop was at least partly used to reduce the housework load.

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that my number one father-in-law, Gentleman Jim, turned 90 on the 13th March. Considering that almost 40 years ago, he suffered a heart attack that scared the wits out of us, turning 90 is some achievement. I suspect that Granymus should take a lot of the credit for that! 

Happy birthday Gentleman Jim 🎈 I'm sorry that I don't have any chocolate coated ginger for you on this occasion.

To everyone else, I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend.

Nite all.

Held Together

Yes. Today was one of those days ...

I held it together while sitting up in bed ALL day. My only achievement was putting together a salad to have with the protein that Adoring Husband cooked on the barbecue.

There was no swimming, no cleaning, no cooking, no washing, no studying, no reading ... I simply lost myself in social media all day long.

Tomorrow is another day.

I'm going to try this ...

I'm not sure if I can give you photographic evidence, but I'll try 😁

The Brains Trust sent me this pic from our High Tea date last week ...

Though the subjects in this picture are quite lovely, credit goes to the amazing photographer for creating something very special 😉 My phone camera couldn't see this well in the shadows!

Adoring Husband got hooked on the Binge channel and spent many hours watching Grey's Anatomy today. A nice change from his usual Sci-fi binge watching!

We've had some good rain this afternoon. I emptied our gauge before the rain came but I haven't checked the outcome of the downpour yet. I know that The Bay received about 46mm today, which is fabulous.

Now it's time for some meditation, followed by more sleep to heal my brain.

Have a great Sunday!!

Nite all.

Here Comes the Rain

There have been severe storms pounding Queensland all afternoon and evening but they have only just hit us as I type this.

It's raining quite heavily, which is great because we need it ... let's just hope that there is no damaging wind or hail in the mix.

We cleared the necessary furniture from the pool area and hopefully the lounge is protected well enough by it's cover so that we have somewhere dry to sit tomorrow!

WOW!! That was one hell of a crack of thunder!! It was close!!

I had a nice slow and easy start to today with Adoring Husband providing my coffee bedside. Before I rode to the shop to cover for The Motivator while she attended a meeting, I decided to jump in the pool for an early morning heart starting swim.

I did some exercises and swam some laps for half an hour before making myself presentable for work.

It was lunch time when I left the shop so I stopped at the cafe and bought some grilled fish for my lunch. AH had last night's leftovers.

Before getting ready for the club, AH and I watched some episodes of a new series on Netflix called "After Life" by Ricky Gervais. I'm enjoying it. He's a smart man who thinks outside the box.

AH accompanied me to the club tonight which was nice.

One of our group was celebrating a birthday today, so almost everyone left our table at 6.30pm to make their way into the restaurant for dinner. While AH and I were invited, we chose to decline the offer. I'm not a fan of the food there and we already had a casserole waiting for us at home.

There was just AH, The Brains Trust and I left at the table to sit out the noisy raffle draws, of which, none of us won a prize.

I had a small win on the pokies earlier in the evening and then another small win on Keno, so now I have a purse full of cash to take with me to Childers on Wednesday when the girls and I plan on browsing through the shoe shop there and then partaking of a meal for lunch.

I'm looking forward to a lazy day tomorrow. Perhaps I'll be energised enough to do what needs to be done in the house as far as housework goes, but perhaps not. That's the joy of being a grown up ... I can choose to do as I please depending on how I feel at the time! 🤗🤗🤗

I think I might head to bed now. The rain is so heavy that we have no connection for Foxtel or digital TV right now.

The rain sounds so lovely.

Nite all.

Just Stop

I had the perfect opportunity to sleep in today but I was awake just after 6am.

Luckily for me, Adoring Husband bought me a coffee so I got to sit up in bed drinking coffee until I decided to visit The Motivator at the shop to bring her up to speed on what had happened in her absence ... which wasn't much!

There was, however, a lot happening in the shop today. The Motivator had already taken delivery of one box of stock and an hour later, a truck arrived with a whole pallet of stock! It was hard for me to leave and NOT stay to help price and display everything, but I was tired and my brain didn't want to function at the level that was required.

In the pallet of stock was a chair that I had ordered for beside the pool and a beautiful lamp which I won't show you until I get a globe for it - you need to see the full effect.

It took AH and I long time to put together the chair - even though there were only three pieces to it. The two parts for the base of the chair were wrong - like they had provided 2 x left hand pieces instead of a right and a left. It took a lot of manoeuvring and pushing and pulling and imaginative pulley work to get the pieces to fit together. I will contact the company to advise them of their error.

It certainly tested our patience!

So I didn't get to spend as much time in the pool as I'd have liked nor did I get to lie on the lounge to listen to my book because I had to make dinner - Parsee Chicken (a medium strength curry) and rice with pappadums.

Tomorrow, I'll be spending an hour or two at the shop while The Motivator attends a meeting but after that I'll have a few days off.

I'm looking forward to listening to my book, finally finishing the photo editing, decluttering the back room, catching up on my washing and spending time on the lounge under the Bali hut.

Right now, I'm off to bed. I can't believe it's after 11pm!! There is a storm brewing out to the west. I hope it dumps some precious rain on us. I just went out to the pool area and took all the loose cushions off the Bali bed so they'll still be dry for me to lie on tomorrow. I just hope the winds don't get bad because the bar setting is still out in the open and it's quite light.

Anyway, it's bed time for me now.

Nite all.

Signs of Strength

It was difficult to get motivated this morning but I got to the shop early enough to open for meditation  and I have to say that meditation was exactly what I needed. There were ten in attendance and the gratitude at the end of the session really brought a lot of light and joy and energy to the shop which in turn transferred to me.

Thanks to an amazing hour in the afternoon, it was a very good sales day which added to my joy and energy!!

We took delivery of some Sassy Duck handbags ...

... and not long after that The Motivator made an appearance. It was so good to see her face and feel the 'team' emerge again. It's going to be fun with both of us here as all of the deliveries arrive during the next week!

*happy dance*

Because last Friday was International Women's Day, there has been story after story after story about all women and every aspect of every woman's life.

Steering away from the stories about great women in history and looking at ways that we women can become stronger figures in our own lives, these are the bits and pieces and snippets that I've related to the most and the ones I thought I would share:  

Respect yourself and others - stand tall and don't let the behaviour of others drag you down.

Be independent - don't rely on anyone else to get you through life but recognise when you need assistance and know that it's ok to give others the gift of helping you in times of need.

Don't allow your emotions to control you - don't dwell on situations or feelings. Feel the emotion and then move on. Instead of allowing others to control your energy, flip it and put your own more positive and loving energy out into the world.

Take risks - as adults, we put up walls and believe that we "can't" do certain things. We create an image of ourselves and it becomes "fixed". Believe that you can bend and mold yourself into something new whenever you want. Don't let fear control you.

Remain positive - live a positive life because positivity can take you from the depths of despair to the highest altitudes of joy. It helps you make the best of all situations. Become a source of light. Instead of fixating on problems, focus on solutions.

Be in control but also know when to let someone else shine.

Be creative and use your imagination.

Stay away from shallow people who thrive on drama and gossip.

Tell it like it is and respect others who do the same.

Take care of your own health and happiness. Don't expect others to do it for you.

Surround yourself with positive empowered people. Negativity has no place in your life.

Learn new things.

Test your limits.

Believe that you can do anything you want in life.

Know your worth and value and know that it's ok to rock the boat occasionally.

Give yourself time to recharge after using and emitting all of this positive energy!

A tough challenge that requires a conscious and concerted effort, but eventually the effects are amazing and it can annoy the crap out of people when they can see that you don't want to look at the negative and can see something positive in every situation.

That's it from me.

I'm positive that I'm off to bed and that I will begin my day by writing in my gratitude journal in the morning before I put my two feet on the floor.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Nite all.

Winning Habits

What an interesting day!

Morning coffee with the girls was a cack as usual. The girls alone made the day in sales more successful than any day last week, but sales in the afternoon brought it to a level that gives me hope that the 'quiet' period is over.

As they day wore on, the sky grew dark with smoke from the big bushfires on the other side of the river at Woodgate ...

but just when the fieries got the fires under control, the sky grew dark with storm clouds and we caught the edge of a severe storm that headed north and hopefully helped completely extinguish the fires.

I left the trike at the shop and came home in the car with Adoring Husband.

We folded the umbrella over the pool and tied it near the fence and put the outdoor bar setting into the  outdoor kitchen - just in case the storm got out of control.

Luckily it missed us, but we could have done with some more rain.

I also put dinner into the oven early - just in case we lost power during the storm - so we ate dinner at about 5pm.

I'm off to bed super early so that I can be up early for meditation tomorrow.

Thought I'd share this with you - so interesting and something that The Motivator and I are both working on at the moment.



I hope you enjoy Hump Day!

Nite all.

Self Discovery

Self discovery is not easy.

It can be painful and shocking and requires continued commitment and practice.

The results can be freeing and inspiring.

One day I’ll write about the processes that I’ve been through, but I found this and it struck a chord, so I’m sharing it here.

I had a good day at the shop, met some new people who are on holidays and I made a phone sale from a previous holiday maker.

I did some study.

I repaired the blind on the back door.

The Gypsy did not attend today and I really missed her and our chats.

Adoring Husband arrived before 3pm, ordered our coffee and then helped close the shop.

I arrived home, immediately changed into my bathers and slid into the pool for an hour long floating/swimming/wading session. AH even joined me for a while. Then I sat under the Bali hut for half an hour until it was time to make dinner.

Now I'm ready for a good night's sleep.

Nite all.

Time Out

This was pretty much how my entire day went ...

I started in bed til about 9.30am.

Adoring Husband was waiting for me in the pool, so we swam for a while and then I decided to lie in the Bali bed for a few hours.

Gradually the sun moved and made it too hot to stay there, so I slid into the pool again to cool down and decided to shift all my gear to the Bali hut beside Adoring Husband.

My only achievement for the day was cooking a corned silverside for dinner with cabbage, mash and white sauce, of which Adoring Husband ate two whole plates full! It must have been good!

I needed to chill out, relax, wind down, regenerate, shut down my brain and rest.

Monday is going to be a GREAT day and it will be the beginning of a FABULOUS week.

Just watch!

Now for an early night to top off my day perfectly.

Nite all.

On a High

It has been a big day.

I was motivated to get out of bed early and make myself presentable for this full day ... with no time for showering, changing or beautifying between engagements, I had to pick my look and make it stretch for the entire day.

We opened the shop early, hoping to take advantage of the market crowd and even though a few came in, they were mostly tyre kickers. Support from the locals is what made the morning a success.

I found out some interesting town/community information and I took the opportunity to tell the Progress Association that I wasn't happy about their lack of support for local businesses.

I paid some bills and responded to some emails, tidied up the desk and sideboard and did some accounting.

Adoring Husband arrived at 12.30pm and we began closing at 12.50pm. We pulled out of the driveway at 12.59pm.

This gave me enough time to freshen my make up and put some things into a handbag and be waiting for my lift to take me to High Tea at Arkarra Tea Gardens ...

The food for the non-GF people - that would be The Brains Trust, Lady Lynn and Beauty, looked delicious and included mini quiches, croquettes, sandwiches, mini wraps, lemon custard tarts, macaroons, cherry ripe tarts, mini muffins, pumpkin & olive scones, normal scones with jam and cream and fudge.

My GF plate consisted of a crepe with ham and slaw, a raspberry custard tart and a pear and walnut muffin. I have to say that the crepe was delicious and I could have eaten two or three of them! Our tea was too strong and not hot ... but at the end of the afternoon we ordered cappuccinos and lattes, which was not part of the deal and they were offered 'on the house'.

The best part of the afternoon was spending time with my girls. I love you girls 🤗

Beauty dropped me at home around 4.30pm and I had time to, once again, freshen my make up, brush my hair and change bags before climbing into the car and heading to the big 70th birthday bash at the local pub.

We were a little late, but there was already a big crowd and it took a good 20 minutes to get through the room saying hello to everyone as we went.

AH got me a drink and I found a seat between Chef Pat and Whingeing Pom sitting across from Blonde Bombshell and Mrs Mack. I signed the joint birthday card, tasted some (apparently) GF food - but most of it had already been eaten by the non GF eaters, so sadly, all I got was some tater tots. Luckily my tummy was still full from High Tea.

Everyone was so excited to see AH out and about, he was kept busy chatting with every man and his dog.

I had a football conversation with Mr Bronco, a Sydney conversation with Angry Angry Lady, a pest control conversation with Chef Pat, a cleansing conversation with Woman of Many Talents, a jewellery conversation with Mrs Mack, a Chardonnay conversation with Reality TV Queen and so many others.

At 6.30pm AH decided it was time to leave. I have to say that I was ever so grateful that he did!

We said our goodbyes, drove home, made some tomato on toast and planted our butts on our recliners feeling every bit our age tonight!

I'm now looking forward to climbing into bed and sleeping soundly for a good number of hours.

Nite all.    





 

Low Down

The battery on my laptop is at 9% and I have left the charger at work, so I need to make this really fast ... no dilly dallying.

I won a big meat tray in the club raffles tonight, but swapped with Blonde Bombshell for her prize of a Corned Beef because my meat tray was full of crumbed meat - gluten. Ugh.

It was a winning night for me on the pokies too, so I'm a happy Chappy.

We had a crazy quiet day in The Happy Abode, but I noticed this afternoon, that a lot of vans filled the caravan park and the Bowls Club was FULL of tourists tonight, so things may be picking up!

Our local markets are on in the morning and that usually brings a few people to the shop afterwards.

I'm excited that NRL football starts again next week! Yay for footy season!

Adoring Husband and I have joined the club footy tipping comp and I've opened the family comp again. There are six of us who compete every year for the prize of 'dinner at my place'. My sister has still not claimed her prize from a couple of years ago.

It's going to be a big day for me tomorrow.

Work in the morning.

High tea at Arkarra Tea Gardens in the afternoon.

A 70th birthday party tomorrow afternoon/evening.

I can't believe how social my life has been this year! It's exhausting!

Sunday is going to be a complete day of rest and I'm going to need it.

Right now, I'm off to bed. I need plenty of sleep to get through tomorrow.

Nite all.

Second Act

It has been a big couple of weeks for me and the last two nights just about did me in.

A week in Sydney, working the shop every day, travelling into The Bay after work for the last two days, socialising with all the lovely people and sleeping poorly in the strange bed.

I feel 'peopled' out and very tired.

Not that I have any regrets because Sydney was fabulous, I always love being at The Happy Abode and being with my girls is one of my favourite pastimes!

The first afternoon and evening were pretty big, but the food was terrible for we GF girls - thank god for the chocolate cake dessert that redeemed the restaurant - but the company was good and the drinks afterwards were more than acceptable.

The entertainment value of watching the drunk girls tripping over the bi-folding door tracks over and over again back at the apartment, was worthy of an entrance fee, but best of all was the dancing. Dancing on both nights was spectacular - especially the impromptu dancing. The planned dancing was full of errors and the girls were lucky I wasn't holding a paddle with a score on it!

There was some great story telling about concerts we attended in our youth, famous people we met, our favourite shows and the pommies told some funny stories from their country of origin ... as they do.

There was swimming in the pool.

There was marathon walking ... because it was SO FAR between one apartment and the other! Of course, there were advantages and disadvantages to that!

There was a lot of tag team situations as people arrived for lunches (not me) and all stayed for varying lengths of time and one lady only stayed for one night instead of two - but she had a lot of fun for the brief time she was there.

On the last night the five of us in our room watched this movie ...



It was funny and there was much raucous laughter from our lounge room. We had attempted to watch the movie 'Colette' first, but it was slow and had a couple of us dozing in the chair, so we changed it up.

So, congratulations to Blonde Bombshell for cheating death and getting to spend so much more quality time with US 🤩 We are very happy to have you still with us and equally happy that you invited us to your celebration of being alive.

It's 9pm and I'm ready to catch up on some sleep.

Let's hope that tomorrow is a busy day to end a very quiet week in The Happy Abode.

Nite all.

OH! Thank you to my Adoring Husband for going above and beyond, driving me into The Bay every afternoon and then driving in to pick me up and bring me back to work every morning. He is my champion. I think I hit the jackpot when he found me all those years ago in the MSN chatroom. Feeling very blessed.

Early Lodgement

I'm here early today.

I'll be closing the shop very soon and heading into The Bay to spend an evening with the girls. All ten of them!

There was no coffee morning in the shop. I was all alone ...

This is a celebration of the survival of The Blonde Bombshell from her horrific car accident last year and she plans on making this a yearly event .... but in different places.

Everyone has already arrived at the celebratory location and the partying has begun.

I'm pretty sure that there might be a few empty shelves at Dan Murphy's ...

I believe that there will also be a surprise visitor who I'm VERY EXCITED about!

Some of my girls getting the party started ... too early for alcohol.

Now it's time for me to shut the doors and join the party before the fun really begins!

I hope to have some interesting stories to tell you in tomorrow's post!

Nite all.