Sad and Sorry

Sad and sorry that Bubbles left today.

I really enjoyed having her here for 12 days. She has matured so much in the 13 years since we moved here and her confidence has grown as she has taken on more responsible roles with her employment. She’s also very funny and gives great hugs. She seems a lot calmer and she has a lot of love to give. I’m glad I get to receive some of it.

Sad and sorry that I had zero sales today! 

Twenty six people came through the shop and not one of them looked like they might buy something. They all looked like browsers from the second they walked in the door. It was very strange.

Sad and sorry about tax time.

Although I have been very good at keeping my records and filing up to date, tax time has my brow furrowed as I gather it all together and decide whether to tackle the task myself or recruit a professional.

Sad and sorry about the end of life.

The Brains Trust lost someone important in her life and the sadness in her eyes is very evident. I wish I could hug away the hurt.

Sad and sorry about the end of marriage.

I discovered today that an old friend of mine is going through a tough marriage break up which takes it from what seemed like a partnership made in heaven to the extreme opposite. I pray that the outcome is positive, common sense prevails and loving peace shines through in the end.

Sad and sorry about getting ripped off.

Vegan Chickie had a bad experience today that left her feeling quite shaken. Nothing physical, but something none of us want to experience. I like to think that most people are honest but unfortunately there are some out there who take advantage of good people. We can only hope that there was an acceptable reason for the deception.

Happy and grateful for Winter weather.

I love to wake in the morning to feel the cool winter air on my cheek and have the luxury of snuggling under the doona and waking up slowly and gently.

Happy and grateful for visits from friends.

It’s so nice to have my day interrupted by friends, hugs and good conversation.

Happy and grateful for safe journeys.

Bubbles arrived safe n sound at her destination and now gets to spend an extra day with her bestie.

Happy and grateful for warning dreams.

I dreamt about my friend which triggered me to make contact and learn of her marriage break up. Even though I am a distance away, I can now offer her some much needed support.

Happy and grateful for Adoring Husband.

Friday night is AH dinner night. I can come home on Friday afternoon and put my feet up knowing I can totally relax and I have no responsibility except to find my way to bed at a reasonable hour.

We are watching a great game of footy right now. AH’s team is currently winning against the Cowboys but the Cowboys are making a comeback. I’ve tipped the Sharks! Fingers crossed.

Sharks have won!! Woot woot!!

Nite all.

Little Ones

I made lots of little sales today but it was still a below average day.

The glass cabinets full of jewellery received a ‘going over’ from me and I rearranged some of the displays, changing the levels of some and displaying them differently so I was left with a whole shelf free for my next order when it arrives.

I made some new signs and laminated them. Now I need to figure out where around town to put them to help lure customers to the shop.

Some new jewellery display stands arrived in the mail but I’m not sure where they’ll go yet. They were very easy to assemble but are a touch too big to fit in the glass cabinets. Adoring Husband should be able to remedy that by chopping about a cm off each end of the shelving boards.

The weather has warmed up again and the temperature reached 25°C which is warm for winter! I had the fan on in the bedroom last night.

AH and Bubbles both arrived to close the shop but before we closed, Bubbles had to post some of her clothes home to make enough room in her suitcase! 

AH got his afternoon coffee and promptly dropped the entire cup right inside the door of the shop! What a mess!! 

Ugh!

As he was returning from buying a second cup, there was a commercial carpet cleaner parked outside the real estate, so he grabbed the guy and asked him to provide a quote. He will be cleaning my carpets on Tuesday afternoon.

I did the banking and we were home before 2.30pm.

We played trivial pursuit all afternoon - I won 🙌💃🏼🤗

We munched on my version of guacamole dip while we played and I also made my way through four mandarins so I was not in the slightest bit hungry for dinner. I cooked up barramundi, leftover mash and salad for AH and Bubbles.

Now I’m in bed watching my team receive a thrashing in the first footy game of this round.

I should save myself the pain, turn it off and go to sleep!

Here is a photo to show how much my little Hazie has grown … 

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

The Lull

I’ve realised today, that school holidays begin at the end of next week.

It means this is the lull before the storm.

There was a thick pea soup kinda fog this morning. The type of fog that hid everything from view - the sky, the river, the bush, the road … it was especially bad for The Gypsy who had to travel for an hour through it.

We all arrived safe n sound where we had to be, but we hope there won’t be too many mornings like this one.

There were three empty seats in meditation this morning and The Gypsy provided a great class but couldn’t stay afterwards because she had a class to run at the Bay library.

There were seven ladies hanging about afterwards for a chat which was quite enjoyable and we had some good belly laughs between us all.

A couple of regulars came for a visit and we chatted for quite some time.

I attempted to print out my PayPal transactions for tax purposes, but my printer didn’t want to play the game and would only connect for one out of every three or four requests which was very annoying so I gave up and will try again tomorrow.

I received a Peter Pauper catalogue in the mail so I browsed through that, marking items for my order Wishlist. I recruited Bubbles to find the prices of all my picks and mark them accordingly so I can figure out what I can afford.

It was a below average day of sales.

Adoring Husband and I very efficiently closed the shop and rushed home so that I could bake some GF cupcakes for afternoon tea and prep the potatoes for a big batch of mash - which Bubbles loves.

We played Five Second Rule all afternoon. I won two games and Bubbles won one.

I crumbed some chicken tenderloins with a combination of GF breadcrumbs and almond meal which were delicious.

I was too full to even have my daily ice cream in a cone for dessert!

After my Big Brother fix, I came to bed and suddenly it’s almost 11.30pm!

Time for sleep.

Nite all.

Two Timer

I’ve worn a dress two days in a row!

Unheard of!

It felt good.

Morning coffee with the girls was loud and unfortunately I was interrupted often by pesky customers, most of whom didn’t make a purchase, so I missed a lot of the conversation. I still love to hear the girls chatting away while I’m serving people.

Today was an average day of sales.

The Happy Hippy came to clean.

The Landlady (for those in the know she was once Mrs Bucket’s landlady) came by with her crafty work. She creates animals, candles and other beautiful things out of books and their pages. 

These are not hers, but something like this …

Her work is quite lovely and I’ve kept some to sell in the shop.

I paid a bill.

I received a bill.

I cleaned the kitchen of all the art mess from Saturday.

I vacuumed the floors.

There was no journaling today, so I set the room up for meditation and got an early mark.

Bubbles, Adoring Husband and I played Yahtzee this afternoon and I made butter chicken for dinner - I had my delicious soup.

I got my Big Brother fix before bed and now it’s already 11pm!

Time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Mother Daughter Day

Bubbles and I planned on catching the bus into The Bay today, but it was raining when we woke up and Adoring Husband offered to drive us in. 

We were especially grateful for his offer when we passed the speeding bus that would have taken us. Crazy driver!

I wore a dress today! 

I know right!? Me!

We all started at Su Jus Cafe for breakfast. I had a chicken crepe with mushrooms and avocado and my drink of choice was a green juice.

AH had a healthy roast pumpkin, poached egg, halloumi and cashew cheese with a giant coffee.

Bubbles had the standard bacon, poached egg and avocado with a fresh tropical juice.

It was a good start to a busy walkathon, shopathon kind of day.

AH left us there and we checked out the shops in the mall. I got a couple of things at Truckloads for the art classes, we looked but didn’t purchase at Shoe Frenzy and then decided to get our hair done at the hairdressing salon.

My hair hasn’t been touched by a hairdresser in 18 months! I’ve been allowing the ‘ala natural’ greys to grow out but it was looking long and dry with straggly ends and desperately needed cutting.

I asked the woman to slightly layer it so that my natural curl could be seen.

She told me, ten minutes in, that until six weeks ago she was the Manager at Just Cuts.

To me, that’s exactly what my hair looks like … like I’ve been to Just Cuts.

Not completely happy, but I’ll wash it tomorrow and allow it to dry naturally. My natural curl might actually make it more acceptable.

We couldn’t find anything we wanted in Big W or Rivers but there is a ladies fashion store near them where I found a hippy duster jacket in black. I bought one the same at the Childers Multicultural Festival two years ago in a cream colour which I have worn often so I was excited to see this one.

The shop had a lovely range of linen blend clothing. Tops and pants in different colours and designs which were very tempting but my wardrobe is already bulging at the seams so I refrained.

We attempted to Uber from there to Stocklands but the 3 Ubers that were available earlier all inconveniently disappeared when we needed them so we called a taxi instead.

Stocklands had nothing much to offer either. I was lucky enough to nab a white short sleeved shirt with a collar - something that I’ve been looking for - and a couple of t-shirts from trusty old Kmart.

I got a Boost juice because I desperately needed a boost!

All I need is to win $20million Powerball. I would like that very much.

I ordered our personal Uber (Adoring Husband) to come back to pick us up. We were at our last stop in the supermarket when he arrived and we were able to get home before the sun was low enough to risk our safety on the road. It’s a bad time of the year because the sun sets directly into our eyes in some sections of the road.

Dinner was Peking duck with vegetables for AH and Bubbles. I enjoyed some of my soup.

It’s been huge and I loved our mother/daughter day but I’m  exhausted! My feet are aching from being on them for six hours and I need to sleep.

Work tomorrow! There will be coffee with the girls but no journaling for a couple of weeks. 

I just realised that I still need to clear up from the art class so we’ll need to go in early! Ugh!

Nite all.

Feeling it

My age … I’m feeling my age.

As much as I love the Winter weather, my bones are aching from the cold.

I haven’t had a Sunday in bed for 4 weeks and I think it will be another week before I can enjoy that luxury.

No days for relaxation, rejuvenation and regeneration which is wearing me down a bit.

Today was very busy in the shop  with good sales + the art class which was a lot of fun.

I prepared an avocado dip for the girls to have with their crackers while we enjoyed our beverages after art. We also savoured some spicy carrot cake.

There wasn’t too much mess and we were finished the class much earlier than usual. We all chose an easy technique with pretty good results.

We were home before 5pm.

We bought frozen snapper from the fisheries freezer but the weather is so bloody cold, even putting it outside failed to help it thaw. I threw my hands in the air and declared “you can just fend for yourselves!”

No dinner for me - I just couldn’t be bothered and I wasn’t hungry.

I am in bed typing this and I expect to be asleep in about 30 minutes.

Have a happy Sunday.

Nite all.

Hurt My Brain

Thank goodness, after a good nights sleep, Adoring Husband was feeling much better this morning.

It was another chilly start to the day and I left it til the last minute to get out of bed and prepare myself for work. I had a quick hot shower to make those preparations a little more comfortable.

It’s strange for me to be feeling the cold and I think I’m very under prepared for winter! I possess one jumper, two long sleeved t-shirts and two very old and daggy zip up sloppy joes. Winter is usually very short lived up here so hopefully it will be a ‘typical’ season.

My morning was good for sales and my customers paid cash, which meant that I was unaware of a problem with my square reader until the afternoon when I had a customer who’s only option was to pay by card.

There had been an update the previous evening as well as a 6 hour period during the night where the internet was down because of Telstra upgrades.

This caused me hours of mental anguish as I attempted to find a fix. I tried a dozen different fixes that were suggested online and nothing worked. 

I lost a decent sale.

Then Bubbles arrived.

It took her ten minutes to rectify the problem.

Thank you very much.

There is a big lawn bowls competition for men in town this weekend which means there are approximately 300 wives and partners looking for a shopping experience which I hope I can provide. My devices need to be in working order for me to have a successful day.

I sent all my tax info through to the appropriate human, so that’s an important task marked off my list.

Tomorrow is art class day so AH and Bubbles helped put the drop sheet down and set up the tables and plastic covers. Two of the art girls usually do the rest on Saturday morning.

We played two games of pub trivia this afternoon and Adoring Husband won both! 

It’s now almost 8pm and I’m feeling very weary - I hurt my brain with all that problem solving today and it needs to rest.

Oh and a lovely family pic … 

Nite all.

Tax Time

And so the fun begins.

It was a slow day in the shop for sales.

Mrs Bucket visited me for about 30 minutes, followed closely by The Brains Trust who is recovering well from her cold. No hugs til the germs disappear completely though.

I spent a good portion of the day gathering all the paperwork for the end of last financial year. I was Roz’s Happy Place for exactly 24 days and oopsy… I didn’t do my taxes yet!

Got that sorted.

Last night, Bubbles priced and bagged about 45 pieces of my old jewellery so that I can sell it at the shop as ‘pre-loved’ so I found a display case and made a sign.

Queensland lost the first State of Origin game by an embarrassing margin.

Adoring Husband called me a loser.

Today was freezing! Just 4°C this morning which I believe is the coldest it’s been since we moved here 13 years ago. For the first time, I wore a jumper in QLD! It reached 18° maximum.

We played Trivial Pursuit this afternoon. Nobody won but I had all my pieces of pie so I was heading in the right direction.

I cooked crispy skinned chicken for dinner, served with salad. My dinner was strawberries, blueberries and banana with ice cream and cream.

Adoring Husband was not well after dinner and climbed into bed at about 7pm. He was snoring very quickly.

I think I might be snoring myself very soon!

Nite all.

Painful

It has been a painful game to watch.

The first State of Origin game is being played tonight in Townsville and Queensland is losing in a convincing fashion.

It really was expected but I hoped that the Queensland team would dig deep and find that strength of character that they are famous for and make us Queenslanders proud.

There is still 26 minutes of the game remaining but we are losing by 20 points and I don’t hold much hope.

Sad but true.

Work was enjoyable today, starting with meditation which Bubbles attended and enjoyed. She had some aha moments and got to meet the regular girls.

Bubbles stayed for the entire day and we spent a considerable amount of time talking shop and comparing customer stories.

The day passed quickly.

The three of us spent the afternoon playing ‘music trivia’ (which I won) and ‘categories’ (which I won) but third time wasn’t lucky because we are now losing State of Origin by 38 points!!!

Adoring Husband is sitting very smugly in his chair enjoying this win - considering how many losses he’s had to endure over the last ten years, I guess I have to let him have a win every so often.

I think this will be a big series win for the blues this year. I have no faith in the lousy coach QLD selected, nor do I have any respect for our captain, Daly Cherry-Evans who is one of the most inconsistent players and rarely performs well under pressure.

But don’t get me started 😬

I believe I shall put my tail between my legs and prepare for bed.

Sucks to be a loser 🤪

Nite all.

Recovering

After our big Monday outing, I was still in recovery mode today.

Even after a full nights sleep, I could feel that my body was not functioning at full capacity, so it was working on autopilot for most of the day.

Four of us for coffee, but it was loud and animated … looking forward to a seafood party at Blond Bombshell’s house!

A delivery of Intrinsic stock arrived but it didn’t take long to check, price and display.

The Happy Hippy came to clean.

Bubbles came for a visit.

The Journaling class went well.

The training room is set up for meditation.

Sales were good.

It’s now 11pm and I need sleep 😳

Nite all.

Roller Coaster Monday

We left the house at 6.50am to begin our journey south to Nambour where we were picking up Bubbles from her friend’s workplace.

The trip was uneventful until just after the Maryborough turnoff when a big red warning light appeared on the dashboard telling us to check the DPF (diesel particulate filter). 

We stopped at a service station and checked the manual which told us to drive at 40kph for twenty minutes.

Instead, Adoring Husband called the Mitsubishi service centre who told us not to drive a long distance without having it checked.

We drove the short way back to Maryborough only to discover that there was no service centre, only a showroom.

Our only alternative was to drive to Hervey Bay to our usual service centre.

As we drove through Maryborough, the warning light disappeared! We must have been driving slowly enough to fix the problem … just as the manual suggested!

So we decided to take our chances and continue heading south.

Fifty seven kms from Gympie, the warning light returned! As luck would have it, there was a long stretch of roadworks which forced us to drive for extended periods at 40 kph. The light went out.

Ten minutes from the Eumundi turnoff, AH was having trouble with neck pain and tremor, so we decided to stop for a short break and a coffee.

That’s when we realised the car key was missing.

It was obviously somewhere in the car but we couldn’t leave or lock the car without it.

We searched and we searched for about 10 or 15 minutes, until I decided to double check everywhere that AH had searched. I found it in a secret pocket of his jacket that was lying on the back seat. He had already checked the jacket 🙄

Almost FOUR hours after leaving home, we made it to Nambour. According to the GPS, the trip should have taken 2 hours and 16 minutes.

We found Bubbles and after hugs hello and hugs goodbye (for her friend), we dove a further 5 minutes to Wildlife HQ Zoo at the big pineapple.

This is some of what we did …

Bubbles and I fed the meerkats and then AH joined us to feed the Emperor Marmaset Monkeys. What a great experience. They are SO adorable.

We left, exhausted, at 2.30pm.

Again, we stopped at Eumundi for AH to have a break and some coffee. I purchased some Deep Heat to rub into AH’s neck to help ease the pain for the journey home.

It was a tough drive for him after such a big day, but we made it home safe n sound just after 6pm.

We also stopped at Beefys Pies and grabbed some GF frozen pies because we didn’t plan anything for dinner.

We are all exhausted and look how late it is already!

Nite all.