A timely reminder that it’s not just snakes that can get over a 6 foot fence 🙂 Something tells me the neighbour’s chickens are in for an interesting afternoon.
30 Saturday Sep 2017
11 Sunday Aug 2013
I’ve spent my day doing “what if’s…..”
What if I followed this old wives tale and used a pair of tongs with half a kitchen sponge rubber-banded to each side and dipped it in strong tea solution to clean my blinds? (A: it worked)
What if I just planted some bat plant seeds without researching if that’s how you propagate bat plants to see I they will pop up?
What if I planted a seed in each leftover Nespresso coffee pod to see if they’ll germinate?
What if?
11 Thursday Oct 2012
It never fails to make me feel better to smell a freshly mown lawn. My mower went under in the floods so I’ve splurged on a mower man who comes once a month. On a weekday morning, I hear the whippersnipper fire up when I’m in the shower. The mowers are going when I’m blow drying my hair. And by the time I am dressed and walk out to the kitchen – I look out on my lovely, looked after backyard. Somehow it looks more ‘clean’.
17 Monday Sep 2012
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It’s been a long time since I’ve had a Siamese Fighter. I had quite a few, one after the other – Kostya, Ali, Lionel and Clay – and they were amazing. But when Clay died I didn’t have it in me to get another.
Well now, in my new home, I dragged out my old tank and went looking for a new fish. Caboolture Markets hosted the Betta Australis International Betta Show a few weeks back and I put my name down for 4 of the non-placers (assuming I’d be able to afford one of them). Then, by-the-by my brother says he can make me a new tank – with compartments for a couple of fish. DILEMMA!!! Now I had to wait to see whether my ones were still available and if I got the call to give me their prices. As it turned out, I got the chance to buy up to 3 of the ones I’d liked, but could only afford 2, so I grabbed my favourites and have a third section in my new tank to use for water changes or maybe even a boudoir for a little lady. *wink wink*
“Artie” is named after the late, great Artie Beetson. He’s both NSW blue (where Beetson had to play to make a buck) but the Queensland Maroon surrounds him and shows through. “Sith” has his name because he’s black and vibrant red and the first of the two to fire up.
If you’ve never kept fish, they can seem quite sedate, but they honestly have their own personality and attitude that you see in them. It’s been a couple of days now and they are both settling in, starting to respond to feeding time and are not scared away from my hand at the top of the tank.
I think me and my boys will be just fine.
04 Monday Jun 2012
03 Sunday Jun 2012
01 Friday Jun 2012
I’m looking forward to moving in to my own place – but the thing I’m most excited about is painting one single wall in a room. That’s all. It’s the only thing that would make me happier in the place. Strange by true. It’s currently a happy and bright blue colour – a cross between Valleys Diehard and French Royal – but it’s too bright for my idea of a bedroom. My perfect bedroom is dark and cosy – so paint will be the order of the day. I don’t want fancy shmancy, no tricky techniques, just a deep and calm colour. I was tossing up a purple, but think I’ll go a dark storm grey … kinda like this…how exciting. 🙂
28 Monday May 2012
For those playing along, I’m wending my way through the maze that is home ownership. What a stress-filled time it is. I’m certainly learning a lot about what people are comfortable with – and what I’m not comfortable with. The biggest shock of late has been the barefaced bluff made by real estate agents – even in answer to my direct questions. It’s quite confronting for me to have someone persist in fudging vague information about something when I’m standing there looking at it. Unbelievable. Weak. Entirely unimpressive.
26 Saturday May 2012
A salute to Jeremy Piven for this photo. Ain’t it the truth though? “Oh woe is me” has never been so prevalent…First World Problems they’re called. Where’s our sense of perspective gone? Have we forgotten where we come from? We grew up in houses – not in mud huts. We were dry and clean and warm. Do we not look at those around us – all struggling with problems of their own – or do we look straight through them?
I refuse to believe Australia is getting to the point where everyone who has more “haves” than “nots” doesn’t give a stuff until it’s them that loses out. There’s a lot of community spirit around, I see it everyday. I’ve been in workplaces where it’s the lowest paid members of staff who always “bring a plate” to celebrate life’s milestones. I’ve been in workplaces where the top dog earning nearly $200k a year can’t put a bottle of plonk on the table – because the tank in his beemer is nearly empty.
What’s the minimum you need? A roof, a job to pay for it and you and your family healthy. Period.
20 Sunday May 2012
Wow. What a shitfight house hunting has been. A thoroughly demoralising process. I’ve suffered long – as have all the people around me 🙂 But finally today, a victory.
I’ll be writing all the notes I can about all the hoops I’ve had to jump through and the reasons why the process has been a nightmare. Most importantly, I want to document how to beat the mongrels at their own game. I want to be prepared for the next time we do battle.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t “get a bargain” – I am sure I paid more than I should have for the home I’ve signed for. But I feel like I spent so long figuring out the rules of this game, that it’s like I started from scratch again just recently.
Now I know there’s a month or so of documents, finances, filling in forms and boxes to tick – not to mention the boxes to pack. But soon, it’ll be over – for a while anyway.
28 Saturday Jan 2012
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Very very tired of looking for a home. It’s an effort to look, choose, schedule, and get to open houses each weekend…assuming they actually have inspections. These days it’s by appointment mostly – 10 times the work for agents and a royal pain in the whatsit for me. So many calls and emails to see if you can schedule a look through. How the hell do you sell a house if you won’t let people view it? FFS!