Out of the frying pan - into the fire

Tomorrow we must take a trip interstate.

We are going to – wait for it – Adelaide.

Flying there and back the same day.

The funny thing is the fact that if we haven’t had enough heat for the week we are about to have some more ‘cose Adelaide is suffering the same way Melbourne has this past week. Have look here for what's forecast for tomorrow Sunday. 40c/104f

Because of the latitude/longitude of the city, Adelaide’s climate is Mediterranean which means they have hotter drier summers than we do with our temperate climate here in Melbourne - but heatwaves are heatwaves and days of abnormally high temps are not good for anybody or anything.

The folowing news reports are about Adelaide but they are so similar to the ones I linked to recently about Melbourne

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/28/2476483.htm

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24978392-421,00.html

So as I said – and sorry about the pun – tomorrow -its out of the frying pan and into the fire

I haven’t done much this past week ‘cept for the essentials and one of those has been to drive a 24km/15miles round trip each day to see A Pam who has now moved from the hospital into a temporary high care nursing home. Once again a change in environment hasn't helped and she has been very confused and disorientated.

All I can say is that there have been an awful lot of angry drivers out there who from necessity have been on the road. My car has airconditioning which mean't I have been cool and comfortable but I heaved a sigh of relief each time I turned into my driveway and left them all behind.

Another day - another ??

Seems its going to be another stinking HOT one!!

We set a new record today, the heatwave is causing train lines to buckle, power cuts all over town and fires too many to mention.

So all I want is the cool change to come through and a good nights sleep. The temps next week are going to be in the 30s - 80f and higher but no mentionof 40c.

Thank goodness . Now I'll quietly return to the TV screen and watch the Tennis.

Last night I saw Roger Federer win his way into the final last night and then watched a 'fun' celebrity match between Pat Cash and Mats Wilander.

They play the tennis I like - non of this base line ping pong - they are in, out and around the court. Good shot :))

You must pop over to Frogdancer's blog and read this post.

She lives in Melbourne so along with several million of us is trying to cope with the heat. If you've ever raised boys you will understand completely.

And wait - theres more

The 98-year-old Mother Superior from Ireland was dying, so the nuns gathered around her bed, trying to make her last journey comfortable.

They gave her some warm milk to drink, but she refused.

Then one of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen.

Remembering a bottle of Irish whiskey received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened and poured a generous amount into the warm milk.

Back at Mother Superior's bed, she held the glass to her lips.

Mother drank a little, then a little more and before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass down to the last drop.

'Mother Superior, the nuns asked with earnest,' please give us some wisdom before you die.'

She raised herself up in bed and with a pious look on her face, said,

' Don't sell that cow.'

Picking on the Men Day

THE BOTTLE OF WINE

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married.

This is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine

Sally was driving home from one of her businesstrips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman.

The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail,until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

"What in bag?" asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:
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"Good trade....."



THE COWBOY BOOTS

An elderly couple, Margaret and Bert, moved to Texas.

Bert always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots, so, seeing some on sale, he bought them and wore them home.

Walking proudly, he sauntered into the kitchen and said to his wife, 'Notice anything different about me?'

Margaret looked him over. 'Nope.'

Frustrated, Bert stormed off into the bathroom, undressed and walked back into the kitchen completely naked except for the boots.

Again he asked Margaret, a little louder this time, 'Notice anything different NOW?'

Margaret looked up and exclaimed, 'Bert, what's different? It's hanging down today, it was hanging down yesterday, it'll be hanging down again tomorrow!'

Furious, Bert yelled, 'AND DO YOU KNOW WHY IT'S HANGING DOWN, MARGARET?'

'Nope', she replied.

'IT'S HANGING DOWN, BECAUSE IT'S LOOKING AT MY NEW BOOTS!!!!'

Without changing her expression, Margaret replied,

'Shoulda bought a hat, Bert.

Shoulda bought a hat.'

More Hot Days to come

It is summer here in Australia and it’s supposed to be hot. We've had some hot days recently but the forecast for this coming week is getting a bit out of control.

If this was the back of Bourke it might be the norm but here in Melbourne historically we only get a few days of temps over 40c/104f and they are usually scattered here and there. My suburb doesn’t have a weather station but there are two close by and this is what the weather forecaster has predicted for this week coming.

Wed
Sunny
40c/104f - low 22c/72f
41c/106f - low 19c/66f

Thur
Sunny
40c/104f - low 23c/73f1
41c/106f - low 20c/68f

Fri
Sunny
40c/104f - low 23c/73f
42c/108f - low 20c/668f

Sat
Sunny
41c/106f - low 22c/72f
42c/108f - low 19c/66f

If I had to move I'm not sure which one I'd go to - the one with the higher day temps and lower nights or the other:)

Adelaide is having hot days as well and our weather seems to follow their pattern so there will be more to follow after the weeekend.

Down here we tend to be insulated from the very nasty northern hemisphere winters especially the one you are 'suffering' this season so when our weather gets 'nasty' we know all about it.

A heatwave it is and I gave in yesterday, turning on the airconditioning early afternoon - it did mean we were able to go off to sleep in a relatively cool house.

Somehow I don't think I'll be doing any gardening lol

The Letter Meme

The other day Gill at That British Women was sharing her Letter Meme with us so I asked for a letter from her. Pop in and see her some time.

She suggested the letter T so here in no particular order are my answers - I have given my likes but I'm sure it could be played with dislikes as well

TAP DANCING - I love all types of dance style but tapping has to be my all time favourite. I tapped as a child ( I think most of us did) and then whenI heard about a local studio starting adult ‘lessons’ I was there banging on the door lol That’s me in the red shoes







Dance concert 1985

TREES – Lovely to sit under, fun to climb., and you don't even have ot be a male to do so lol My idea of time well spent is to be on my deck and just watch the trees blowing around. Must be a memory from my babyhood ‘cose it seems Mum would put us out in our prams under trees to watch the world go by and as we got older she would talk about the leaves blowing in the wind and how they gave out oxygen for us to live. I used to do the same with mine

Caitlin tryingot reach the boys

THONGS – these I love and by these I mean the sandals with a piece of strap that goes between the big and first toe. When the Temperature rises they are on the shoe rack all the time and if it dips I’ve even been known to wear them with socks lol

THYROXIN - This is a must take each day - my Thyroid Gland doesn't work correctly so I have a daily dose of this hormone or strange things happen to my body. I get fat, extremely tired, and am grumpy with mood swings. and thats just a few lol

TENNIS - Love it. Haven’t played properly since High School but have racquets here for the grandkids to take down the park. Australian Open is on at the moment, thinking of all those people going through the Turnstiles at The Tennis Centre has me jealous (lack of cash, not cheap to go these days) –Roger F is doing well this year, lets hope nothing goes wrong.

TABBY CATS - These are a favourite of mine. They are either feisty and prowl the neighbourhood becoming known as That Cat or they are soft and sooky like this one here. We inherited Tox from one DD - named so because she says she was in'tox'icated when she saw him at the roadside.






Tox 2000

TWELVE – I always have felt the number twelve is my lucky one. I was born on the 12th, and have lived in various houses with the number 12 or a number divisible by 12, also became engaged to my Dh on the 12th.

TEA – I love a cup of Tea and I love to sit down at a Table to take Tea. For me to enjoy a cup of tea I have to have it served from a Teapot into a ‘proper’ china teacup and I’m not going to enjoy it if I have to be careful where I put the cup. I’m not a snob but have friends who serve their tea in mugs, I just can’t take that so I rarely drink tea outside of my house.

TELEPHONEs – These I like ‘cose I like to Talk. I don’t like mobile/cell phones so don’t have one but I love the cordless/speaker phone we have at home. There’s so much I can do while using that phone, wash dishes, make beds, hang washing out –what you mean to say you’ve never done that??

Does anyone remember the public phone boxes that had a door. Even tho there were glass windows it felt as if you were in a world of your own.

TRAVEL - Put me in front of a railway/train station with a ticket office close by and I'm raring to go :)






East Retford Station 1985 Dh, me, Dad and sister


Doesn't have to be the biggest - this one will do








Puffing Billy 1974

But then this will do





The Ghan 1992

And this is ok as well









The Canadian 2000

click on thephotos to enlarge them

Now if you want to play along there are a few rules:

1. Leave a comment on this blog and I will assign you a letter.
2. Write about ten things you love that begin with said letter.
3. Post the list on your blog.
4. When people comment on your list, you assign them a letter, and the game continues.

Cows for the looking at

With all the hot weather making it uncomfortable outside , especially as yesterday along with the high temps we had gale force hot Northerly winds to contend with - but not as bad as other places close to the city who had bushfires as well as well - I have been spending some time indoors looking at lots of blogs

Yesterday Mary at Milk and Honey was talking about painting her cow Blue and I had visions of a blue coloured cow wandering about the paddocks of their Bosky Dell Farm lol

Which reminded me of our week in Numurkah early December last year and the day we went to Shepparton, where window shopping in their main street mall my friend and I came across this display of cows painted to represent Santa's reindeer. We laughed and shrugged our shoulders.

Then as we were driving over to Mooroopna to the SPC place we saw all these other painted cows on this open block of land

How do you fancy a Bananas in Pyjamas Cow?

Or what about How Now Brown cow?

Finally I saw this sign and that explained it all to us.

I've seen painted bears in Vancouver but never painted cows :))

If you click here you'll get lots more information and also the name of some of the artists

Fun in the Mud

All those Mums fed up looking after their youngsters during this long hot summer holiday time spare a thought for Stoney over at Musings from a Stonehead and see what he has to go through.

You must go over and read this post - it had me in stitches as I know it will you.

All you can say is that Two Legs as he calls himself must really love his pigs and their health and welfare is No 1 priority to him.

Pay him a visit - You won't be disappointed

Beach days

Well today is going to be warm, a gentle warm not excessive like the last couple of days so loads of kids will be pleading with parents to go to the beach.

When I was a child we lived in the south of England and all the beaches there seemd to be made from pebbles. You know lots of tiny round stones and not a speck of sand to be seen.

This is me at 3 years with a cousin on Southsea beach - see all those stones! How do kids make sandcastles with all that there??

Circustances - meaning where we lived at the time and the fact that Dad didn't drive and we had to use public transport - meant I didn't go far from home - so all the years I lived in the UK I never knew there were beaches like this until our last trip to England in 2006.

This is Scarborough, in Yorkshire on the east coast of England. Look at that long wide expanse of sand - looks miles to the sea.

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We'd been staying for a while at my sister's place in Retford and one day decided just to go where ever the road went and this is where we ended up. I had vague memories of donkeys at the beach but hadn't actually seen them in action and was thrilled at this sight.

The next year I heard they had won an award for being the best beach donkey resort - read about it here I must say they looked great the day we were there, so placid and trusting.

Imagine all those kids (as well as some adults) climbing over you hanging on for dear life as you amble over the sands

Wonder what these two are saying to each other lol

click on pictures to enlarge

Golf joke

As you know Dh plays golf so some 'mate' sent this his way.

Open minds please


... Golf Balls ...

A man entered the bus with both of his front pockets full of golf balls and sat down next to a beautiful (you've guessed it) blonde.

The puzzled blonde kept looking at him and his bulging pockets.

Finally, after many such glances from her, he said, 'It's golf balls'.

Nevertheless, the blonde continued to look at him for a very long time, deeply thinking about what he had said.

After several minutes, not being able to contain her curiosity any longer, she asked
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"Does it hurt as much as Tennis Elbow ?"

New look

Well its January and Summer down here and I'm also after a new look so I've decided to give the blog a new look as well.

A cool blue look, blue being my favourite colour and the colour of the sea and the sky. It's called harbor and as I love being outdoors and also by the beach this is it.

Went off for a long walk today something I hadn't done all week. I had a funny feeling the first time I started out when Dh was away and came back home. I had a crazy feeling about there being no-one home if something happened to me in the street, - yet I happily went off to the Leisure Centre with no qualms at all. I put it down to the fact there that outside I'd be at the mercy of whoever came by but there'd be trained staff at the Leisure Centre. Funny I know.:))

Bye for now

He's coming home

Dh has been interstate for the past four days and nights. Hel'll be home later on this afternoon complete with lots of hugs and dirty washing. :)

I've enjoyed being on my own, being able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, also eat whatever I wanted and on those very hot nights not have to share the bed with another body.

He is HOT - Lol in more ways that one - yes, he has a hot body and warm feet and on those hot nights that can cause a problem. 'Move over' seems to be the cry half the night as I can feel him radiating heat from near and far.

Not on cold ones tho - not like the one we had last night.

Seems a bit daft to be mentioning cold nights after all the heat we had the past few days but I woke last night about 4am with freezing feet.

Tried looking in the dark for some of my knitted slippers but ended up hauling a small crocheted blanket into the bed and wrapping my feet up in that. It did the job very well 'cose when I woke again at 7.30 they we really nice and toasty and warm. In fact it seemed a shame to put them out into the cold.

Anyway this made me think about and laugh again at a little post I read earlier in the week on David McMahon's Blog called War Footing.

You have to read it to believe it - I certainly hope my Dh doesn't read it tho' as it might give him ideas :))

More hard work ahead

Now I'm going to be really brave here and show you something that will be gone in a few months time. Positive thinking here lol

You may not know it but I've been putting on a bit of extra flesh here and there around the body. When it came to not losing it I have had all the excuses in the world - lifes been a pain this past year, no time to cook properly, gym membership never used (time element again) too tired (and lazy) to walk etc etc.

Ever since we came back from Bowen in September I have been giving myself pep talks and it worked for a while, but I knew it wouldn't last so it was down to the local Weight Watchers I trotted.

Nothings easy in my house but slowly a few of the kilos are moving on - I've been working at it and have given some away since this was taken at a function in early December last year - Not sure where they are going but they are leaving my house:)

So you might see this outfit again but not that amount of - well what ever it is under those clothes.

Goodness don't I look old, tired, weary and frumpy, not a good look:((

I am realistic to know I won't be wearing a bikini again - at least I realise if I did I wouldn't look like I did back in 1975.

Funny to think that this little lad is 42 years old now, you'll have to guess at my age :))

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click on photos to enlarge

Day in My Life January 2009 (2)

Hello again - Blogger played up and the first part published so here I am with the afternoon. These are a couple of shots of the road home from Boronia. Thats part of the Dandenongs with the TV towers in view. Visible from many parts of Melbourne, including my back deck.

And of course its amazing what you see driving down the road so close to suburbia - logging trucks at an intersection.

Had a quiet afternoon, so hot didn't even go outside to sit in the shade of a tree. the breeze had dropped and it was 'orrible:) I did have a lovely chat on Messenger with a friend in Nova Scotia, I love the intenet and being able to contact others without the cost of the phone. We do have Skype but it can be tempermental at times and as I mentioned this machine is not behaving itself at all so we clung onto the connection we had. Told her about the very hot day we were having so she laughed and told me they were expecting more snow to go on top of the last lot from the past weekend and did I want to come and visit, the only hot place would be in her house :)

I have a friend who grows fresh flowers for the trade and she often tells me her hands get cold some winter days, she wears cotton gloves to pick - needs them to feel the stems but not crush them ) so I gave her some of the fingerless mittens as a gift telling her when the weather cools down to wear them under the cotton gloves and see how she goes. She turned up yesterday with a huge bag of green beans from her garden so I spent this afternoon blanching and freezing them. A very welcome gift as mine haven't flourished in the garden at all this summer. My tomatoes aren't having a good time either so they may be going in the compost - can't waste good water on bad stock.

Its finally cooled off, I have made the bed up clean and opened the windows. Maybe I'll gather up my knitting and have a short time outside before it gets dark. Certainly not a busy day at all but then who knows what the next one will be like:))

Edited to say - I don't know why Blogger is showing my photos so large - hope its not a problem for anyone

A Day in My Life - January 2009

Today has been a hot one - so consequently I didn't get round to doing any gardening as planned

I hadn't expected to sleep well last night, mainly 'cose Dh is out of town. Another factor was because we'd a very warm day yesterday the bureau had warned us about and extraordinarily warm night. When I woke about 7am ( after sleeping sound all night!) it felt like it hadn't cooled off at all - heard the news and realised for once they had got it right. Didn't go below 28c/82f at all and it was up in the 30s by 9am.

There are bush fires raging in other states and the likelihood of them in Victoria was quite high, so today had been declared a Total Fire Ban Day. A Batten down the Hatches Day - close all the doors and windows against the heat and find something to do indoors.

After breakfast, still in my nightie and with tea in hand I started up the computer warning it not to play up like yesterday. You'd have thought it was in the Antarctic the number of times it froze - stopped dead in its tracks - that is not a good thing to happen when Dh is away. Not good mentally as I hate those questions - what did you do to it, where had you been, did you open something or download something??? Checked the emails, did some online banking the banks and turned it off.

Stripped the bed and got a load in the machine, decided that after this hot day I'll sleep well this evening in fresh sheets. With the heat and the breeze I also took the cotton blankets off as well and gave them a birthday, then had my morning shower to freshen up.

Rummaged through my craft cupboard for some supplies and started making some Beaded Angels to go on a stall. Haven't done any beading for a while and was surprised at how much paraphernalia I actually had, look at all that beading wire - Now what can I make to use it up:) These are easy things to make and I'd finished 5 within an hour. The group suggested just 10 to begin with so as I needed more heads finished up then.

On the table you can also see I've knitted several pairs of the fingerless mittens Rhonda talked about in her blog, she got the idea from Heather and adapted it to come up with a really simple pattern. They are so easy to knit, depending on how much time you have a pair can be finished in a couple of evenings.

Anyway back to today, spent a while on the phone with granddaughter, she's (and Ds and the rest of the family) up holidaying up on the river at Echuca. She turned 14 and was thrilled with the books (always a good choice for her) and the cash (also a good choice) She surprised me by saying it was going in the bank towards their trip to Thailand later in the year. Maybe she's growing up after all - she's a bit like her Dad and her Grandma in days of old as normally it would have been spent within the week.

Popped out just before lunchtime to Theo's in Boronia to get the large pearl beads for the angels' heads. Have to practice lots of self restraint when I go in there - things are literally hanging off the rafters at times just waiting to be popped into my shopping bag. Was very careful and only got what I needed for myself but did find some lace at a good price for a friend.

A Redhead Joke

On a vey hot day here in Melbourne this is all I have the energy to do - pass on a joke that found its way to our inbox this morning.


The Redhead

A gorgeous redhead goes into the doctor's surgery and says her body hurts wherever she touches it.

'Impossible' says the doctor. 'Show me'

The redhead takes her finger pushes on her left breast and screams, then she pushes on her elbow and screams in even more agony.

She pushes her knee and screams, then she pushes on her thigh and more screaming.

Pushes her ankle, more screams - everywhere she touches makes her scream.

The Doctor says, 'You're not really a redhead are you?'

'Well, no', she says, 'I'm actually a blonde.'

'I thought so', the doctor says,
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'Your finger is broken'.


I didn't say it was funny:))

Quiet days

Wednesday and Thursday have been quiet lazy days – cool but sunny days – ideal for pottering in the garden, listening to the cricket and washing the last of the Christmas linen (not from Christmas Day) festive doyleys and tablecloths before putting them away for another year.

All the decorations are now out in the garage safely packed in their containers and this year I actually labelled the outside of the boxes. For the last 5 or 6 years I've used some big 44 ltr plastic boxes to store the individual containers which are great ‘cose they have wheels and also stack, the only drawback is they are a solid blue colour and not see through so you know what happens in December don’t you – yes, I have to check each one to actually find out what’s in them.

Its the same each year - don’t need the tree lights before the 'ornaments' so wonder which box ‘they’ are in lol

Don’t need Christmassy BBQ crockery till later – wonder which box they are in?


So as I say come December this year I will know what’s in each one – bet you I still have a little look to check tho'

Tomorrow is going to be cool again and as Dh will be off at the golf course I’m going to start reading one of my Christmas presents.

Have to nip to the hospital and see my Aunt first and sort out of few other things, then its settle down in the chair time.

The Islands by Di Morrissey – Di Morrissey is an Australian author who writes easy to read novels with Australian characters.


This one is set in one of my favourite places The Hawaiian Islands and the main character is called Catherine - so it has to be a good read lol

Anyone got any matchsticks

Today has been lovely and warm - as it should be in January - which helped my mood in some ways but I've had heavy eyes all day due to Dh playing steam trains via his mouth and nose at various times during the night as well as two huge great fire trucks careering past the house at 5am bells, whistles and lights going like crazy - putting it politely I had a fractured nights sleep and will be off to the land of nod quite soon.

Back in the swing of things now so took a walk first thing to wake me up and then popped down for an early visit to see A Pam - she 's still in hospital - and as the Dr hadn't done his rounds the nursing staff just say she coming along ok and no decision has been made about when she can be discharged. Now Pam would love to be out and about and it is so hard trying to convince her she has to stay there. We watched some of the cricket and that seemd to pacify her - we (Australia) didn't do too well in the first two tests so we have got to pull our socks up on this one or our reputation will be well and truly shot.

Washing and clearing out some kitchen drawers took care of the afternoon and then I nipped down to the gym for a body pump class. Guess who forgot all the usual timetables are on hold at the moment as its holiday time and lots have gone away so I went down into the gym and found all the treadmills and equipment were in use (so much for people being on holiday!) came home feeling very dejected, there I was all raring to go and couldn't so went for another walk up the road instead.

Bye for now, See you tomorrow

They've been having us on

For all you fans of the King I thought you’d like to know Elvis is alive and well in Australia

This is the week all those Elvis impersonators make their way to Parkes, a smallish town in country New South Wales for the annual Elvis Festival.



You can read all about it here

http://www.parkeselvisfestival.com.au/







As well as all the benefits of a great country lifestyle and the Elvis Festival Parkes also has another claim to fame.

The radio telescope outside the town played a part in space history especially during the first mission to land a man on the moon. If you ever in that part of Australia it is well worth a visit

Look here http://www.csiro.au/org/VisitParkesTelescope.html to see the place that inspired a funny movie made of this time called The Dish – try to get a copy; most of it’s the way it was but I think they used a bit of poetic licence for some scenes.


Not sure it’s big enough for a game of cricket and I think it would have been too valuable to let a lot of people just walk about on let alone chuck balls about.

Now hands up if you knew there was another Elvis visiting our country

The international fire fighting helicopter/crane known as Elvis is now on duty Down Under for the fire season. This press release tells us about his coming and that he has several mates here with him; I love that one is called Elsie :)

They have been worked quite hard on their recent visits so I'm sure they are hoping to have an easier time this year. Lets hope it turns out that way

Photos courtesy google and Flickr

Those beginning of the year jobs

As it is supposed to be the second month of summer here I’m not sure what is going on with our weather.

With so many of our industries closed during this time from Christmas to the first Monday in January lots of families are away on holiday and I don’t think they would be appreciating the weather we have had these past few days.

This week it’s been cool below average temp days and cold needing another blanket on the bed nights – for the best part of today I have been walking around in a winter top with fleecy tracky pants. The one good thing is that its rained on some of the days but if you are camping down at Rosebud foreshore with the Bay two steps away from the tent that’s the last thing you want. lol

So, to keep myself from thinking about the fact that to save a little bit on the gas bill we turned off the pilot light on the gas heater just before Christmas and it would be a real pain to try and light it again (that’s Dh’s job as he can see the writing on the side of the frame) I found a job to do in the bedroom.

No Dh was a the golf club all day so you can get that idea out of your mind :)) – I did my beginning of the year job in the wardrobe.

Each January for the last few years I’ve turned the coat hangers round the other way. Normally my hangers hang over the bar – not under the bar – so now when I use anything they will be rehung the ‘usual’ way.

I’ve pared my clothing down a lot since I retired, its mostly casual clothing now but doing this gives me a way at the end of the year to see if there is anything I haven’t worn. I do get some idea at the end of seasons, Melbourne has a temperate climate without an extreme temperature range, coldish winter and supposedly hot summers but you know we can have four seasons in one day here so I don’t do that Northern Hemisphere thing of packing clothes away at the end of winter or summer. They all live in the wardrobe and get worn at all times of the year not when the date on the calendar dictates what should be worn. Lol

Part of the day was spent looking at finances. We have been fine-tuning a few things for 2009 and once again I used the free budget spreadsheet from this site.

http://people.aapt.net.au/~lynwood/tracking.html

Downloading this spreadsheet is easy, its in two parts, one for your budgeted amounts and another for actual monthly expenditure over the year. It shows you know visually where you are overspending; I try to record what we spend so we can see where it all goes, they have lots of categories for that to happen. Doesn't provide us with more money but satisfies my need to know we are able to survive (and also save a bit) on what we do receive :))

One down, how many to go?

Today has been quite a productive day, I managed to get lots of odd jobs done as well as a major one. I started out this morning with just the biggy - called tidying the garage - in mind and it sort of flowed on from there.

When I get into a cleaning/tidying up/decluttering mood I have a terrible habit of filling bags and boxes with all the 'stuff' I don't want in the house and yet am not prepared to give up just at that moment. One year I tried really hard and did the 'in the bin or charity bag' with gusto and was so angry when I regretted tossing a craft book I now have to have a holding pen. So yes, you are one step in front of me - it all lands up in the garage.

They have to go somewhere till I get round to making the decision, I'm a Libran and I have to look at both sides of the story and unfortunately unless its something I really don't like or have finished with I can't do it instantly. Of course when we have company I 'clean' through, enjoy the clear look then realise I do need half the stuff I put out there so have to go and retrieve a lot the next week. lol

Anyway as it wasn't too hot today I thought it would be good to find out how much tinned goods I have out there in one of the cupboards, sort out a couple of the boxes and give the floor a bit of a sweep as well. I am pleased to tell you our bin is a lot fuller than it was this morning and there are bags in the car to go down the road and apart from some knitting patterns that must have walked out there by themselves and jumped into one of the bags 'cose I'm not sure how they could have got there nothing came back indoors again. There are however still a couple of boxes to go through - but thats for another day. :))

Oh and guess what, I was going through some old paper work and found a $10 note - so it was worth while my double checking instead of just tossing.

Now the next decision - do I save it or spend it ??????