Sprummer ... let's try it out

The Teen has coined a new name for our current season. It's not summer yet, and waaay too hot for spring.

So I think I've mentioned that the Teen has been away for a couple of weeks. Well, yesterday the quiet came to an end. Her holiday didn't seem to be working out quite the way she planned so I arranged for her to return early.

It seems the last four hours of the train trip were uneventful; the first couple however were fun filled extravaganzas of cousinly delight.

The last week has been pretty uneventful. The never ending cycle of working. And watching telly. Not that there has been much on mind, but I'm getting so bored I'm even watching the news bulletins on all the channels. Well, most of them. Haven't quite gotten to watching World News Australia on SBS yet. But that's coming, I'm sure. I watch one of the commercial stations. Or at least, it's on in the background. Then there isn't much till 8.30 so to fill up the time, I switch to different news bulletins across all the stations. Heck, you'd think with all those HD channels, there would be SOMETHING I'd like. *dangit think i missed dr who*

Oh wait, there was something I wanted to watch one night. On Thursday, while unpacking the groceries, I had a faint stirring in the background of my teeny tiny mind that there was something I wanted to do. I brushed it off and continued with my boring life.

Turned out it was Glee. I wanted to watch that.... Obviously important!

Wednesday midmorning brought with it the dust. A dust storm blew in; nothing like Sydney's though. It was thick enough to reduce visibility and drive asthma suffers indoors. I had ventured out in it to run an errand. It wasn't too bad when I started, but worsened a little by the time I finished my errand. I had planned to attend a thai chi session during lunch, but wasn't keen to go out again.


I took the photo above from the bridge. The camera has an auto adjust so it was actually thicker than it appears here.


This one adjusted the light settings to darken the foreground as I pointed it directly at the sun. Just to give a little idea of the fact that the sun was a hazy disk through all the dust.

MOTH had closed up the house so it wasn't too bad but you could still feel it on the tiles.

The weather report brought news of another impending dusty day though not as severe as Wednesday. We didn't bother to clean up much.

Saturday morning, I convinced MOTH it was now or never. Time to use the magnum Gold Class upgrades. I had a small boost in my pay this week, so thought Yes! This will cover that nicely. We checked the screenings. Bugger, District 9 wasn't showing gold class. Well, that just left .... The Surrogates. But the shorts for that looked interesting anyway. So we caught the 10am screening of the Surrogates. It wasn't a bad movie. I think there may even have been a wee social message in the film as well. But that kind of thing is totally lost on me....

Saturday afternoon brought the rest of the dust. A lot still hadn't settled from Wednesday, and still it goes on. I am so tired of smelling dust!

Sunday before I went to meet the Teen at the station, I finally finished the room. The remaining wall was scrubbed. The remaining boxes of Elder junk were sealed and transferred out to the garage. The carpet was vacuumed. And one small part of the hallway had a wall washed, the tiles vacuumed and mopped. Of course, I'm still to finish that part of the hall. MOTH had been doing some patching on the walls so I will be needing to clean them before he paints, won't I?

The Teen greeted me with various bits of news; among them the fact that Elder would like to receive, via the post, a pair of sandshoes she left behind. Oh. Oh dear. Well good luck with that one. All boxes and stuff that Elder left on floors have been sealed and moved out to the garage. Actually, moved to the topmost shelf in the garage. I showed the Teen where they all were now. Oh. Well, she said, She ain't gettin those sandshoes...

*goes back to singing in Braithwaite voice* one sprummer .... nah don't think it will work....

Hmmmm cupcakes!

They're yummy. Even if slightly overcooked.

That week has just flown so quickly. MOTH and I have discovered that it's hard to feed only two when you're used to feeding so many more. Even though I've cut the vege serves back, there is still too much! The house is quiet. And there isn't enough laundry to do a load a day.

Apart from slogging along to work every day, I've managed to do a bit of housework. Yes, I hear you cheering. Not too much though; don't want to ruin the record.

Saturday I had decided that I would finish cleaning the room that Jawsome had emptied. When MOTH took down a couple of things that had been put on the wall, he also took some paint. Silly. So he had to patch those. Before he paints them he asked me to wash the walls. Because they were filthy. This is one of the rooms that didn't get washed when we moved in.

So, I started. Good intentions and all that. I didn't finish. There were a couple of boxes of stuff belonging to the Elder still on the floor. I got the walls in the entry way washed. Behind the door and the side of the builtin wardrobe. That was it. Quittin time! MOTH occupied himself shifting boxes around in the garage. All the stuff we could identify as belonging to the Elder has been moved to high shelves. One half of the double bunks will be tossed, and the other has been put into the now spare room.

For lunch I decided to cook some mini quiches. They are a favourite of Jawsome's and I had some left over pastry. But oh! No recipe. I hope that the Elder still has it tucked away somewhere. I had to remember the ingredients and quantities by heart. Luckily the recipe is simple; I think I got it right. MOTH thought they were pretty good anyway. He ate most of them.

Sunday I looked at the yard. It's dying and the bindii is taking over. It really needs mowing. With the current water restrictions, you aren't allowed to water an established lawn. But I protest my lawn is not established. It's very patchy, with the soil gone hard from lack of water, what little grass there is turning brown, and weeds and ants taking over the bare patches. Soon I won't be able to use the clothes line without running the gauntlet of the flesh munching insects.

I scrubbed some more walls. I vacuumed some of the carpet in that room. I scrubbed my shower walls. Except the glass ones. I dunno why I didn't do those. Got distracted washing my hair I suppose.

I baked cupcakes. Just because I felt like it. Plain ones with mocha icing. The recipe is one I've picked off the interwebs. I like it, it's basic and easy. But I overcooked them slightly by about 5 mins and you can tell the difference. *note to self ... 20 mins next time!*

And come the afternoon, MOTH and I washed the car. He has a high pressure water hose which hasn't seen much use. Except Sunday afternoon. By the time we finished that, it was our water restriction nominated time to water the garden. Not the lawn mind! Thank heaven I have a high fence. I watered some of the lawn near the clothes line. Gotta give those ants a good drowning every so often or they get too complacent!

Sunday afternoon and evening, after sitting on the couch for a while, I discovered muscles I had forgotten about. I didn't think I'd be moving too well on Monday. Monday dawned and it was like I hadn't been doing any work at all.

Dangit! There went my stay at home immobile in bed day..... Hello work, here I come.

Opportunities!

Argh! I hate opportunities!

The boss comes along and tells you, boy have I got an opportunity for you! And there it is. A big nasty job. That they want done quickly... *dies*

So, this will be a quick one. Cause you can guess where I am.

Most of last week was spent in prep mode to get the Teen underway and set up for her holiday to visit the Elder. And calming some ruffled feathers because of stress.

I had decided to be generous and lend her my suitcase to take with her. It's cool, covered in purple and white spots. Then she came to me, Mu-um, how do I get my shoes to fit in? Why I asked. You only need two pairs of shoes? She nearly died. Of course, what was I thinking? One pair of casuals, one pair of sandals, one pair of dress shoes, and a couple of spares. Oi! *rolls eyes*

Eventually I thought about including a small 'care' package. Just a couple of things. So what could I put them in? Here, Teen, take the honkin' big suitcase and I'll just tuck these into a corner. Sure, they'll fit. Won't they?

Friday afternoon, I thought I would pop by on the way home and get her shoes for the *ahem* Formal. They don't call it Prom here.... I put them on layby and apparently, as luck would have it, they were the last of that style/colour in her size. w00t! Sometimes you can win.

Friday night I arrived home and MOTH was standing on the front lawn. Uh oh. Ummm so why are you out here? Just looking he said. Did you get a lift, cause I thought I heard a car door closing. Nope, I said, someone just got picked up. Ah. Well he says. The car is broken. Broken. Yep, broken. Gave it a degrease, and a bit of a tidy up, and one of the bolts holding the distributor cap broke. Oh..... But he'd gone to Paulie and picked up some replacements. All he had to do now, was try and remove the broken bolt. It was inside the part somewhere. Great.

Ah well, I guess it doesn't matter because I use public transport more than the car.

Saturday morning was a little lazy. MOTH spent a bit of time working on putting the car back together. I tootled about the garden pulling bindii. A lot of the grass is dying - MOTH is terrible with yard work - and the bindii is moving in. I'm going to have to find out when our watering times are. Getting the grass back in order seems to be the only thing that will keep the bindii at bay.

*dammit, thinks there was something funny that MOTH did I was going to include but can't remember what it was*

Sunday we were up relatively early to get Teen underway. She's not usually up at this hour and staggered about for a while. She finished off the last of the packing and we drove to the station to catch the train in. The train left on time and I was sad to see her go.

Since we were now at a bit of a loose end, I thought I might be able to convince MOTH to spend a little time in the city while we were there. He agreed, and we wandered down to the mall. I had a little money, so asked what he wanted for a late father's day present. He didn't know, so Teen and I took him to lunch and bought him Darrell Lea licorice and rocky road.

Sunday afternoon was quiet, so I wandered out to check the telly viewing. Gods, I hate weekends. How can you have so many channels to choose from and all of them are showing sport of some description? It's pathetic! So I chose to watch a dvd - Romeo Must Die ... again.

And it's still quiet. I'll notice again tonight, when she's not there to make noise and ask How long till dinner's ready?

What the heck was that?!

I was staring out the bus window on the way to work this morning. And going the opposite direction was a scooter. One of those little communter scooters. It had TWO front wheels......

So, a wrap up for the last week. As you can see from my previous post, there was a little bit of activity. But not much!

The Teen had Tuesday and Wednesday off school. They were sitting the QCS tests, and she wasn't one of the 'lucky' ones required to sit them. Wednesday morning, MOTH took her to sit for her learners.

I wasn't feeling too great so asked MOTH to pick me up from work when they were finished.

Well, she didn't mention anything when I got to the car and I let it ride for a little. She and MOTH started discussing something which quickly degenerated into an arguement. Uh oh.

So ... you didn't get it then? No, she said. She had all the give way questions right, but got too many of the others wrong for a pass. Oh dear. She had to wait 24 hours before she could sit it again.

When we arrived home I went to lay down for a little while and awoke two hours later. MOTH was nowhere to be found. Alright then, he's left the house. He came back sometime later with .... boxes.

Okay. It turned out to be a desk. And a chair. We laid out the contents, I checked them off against the 'homework' sheet and lo! All the pieces were there. And all were numbered too. VERY handy. It took most of the afternoon to put together. Once the desk return was assembled, I thought it would be too big to keep in the bedroom where is current desk is. When placed against the wall there was only a small amount of room between the end of the return and the end of the bed. Well, that wasn't going to be any good.

Eventually we positioned it in the formal dining area. Then MOTH moved it again and now he sits at reception, facing the formal lounge area. Which is the waiting room. Perfect!

Thursday night we met a friend down visiting his Doctor for surgery followup. We haven't seen Rob since he was a young man. This weekend was his birthday and he would be turning 31!

Rob asked if we would join him for dinner at a place to close to where he was staying. None of us had been there; but he knew where it was! I met up with Rob when I finished work; we had an hour to waste before joining MOTH and heading to the restaurant. Rob likes to play the tables so he took me to the Casino. I've been living here for 6 years or so now, and this was the first time I've set foot in the place. Whoo! It's easy to get lost in there.

Dinner was up a very steep hill. I wasn't sure that MOTH was going to make it! I'm not fit either and I was somewhat overheated and gasping when we hit the crest. It turned out that the Mill is a small pub; open, airy, and modern. The meals range in price from $15 to $30. Two mains and a coke for MOTH cost $48. But the food was very good, and service was pretty fast.

Friday afternoon MOTH took the Teen for another try. A pass! Whoa! My baby can now get behind a wheel. I took one look at the log book her driving supervisors must complete. Hooley Dooley. That's no fun at all! It requires completing a log book, signatures, calculating minutes, taking odometer readings and making lesson plans. Not looking forward to this at all!

Friday night MOTH and I stayed home, as did the Teen. She was joining us for lunch on Saturday. I think she wanted to go out for a walk, but I had managed to get MOTH away from his desk to join me to watch Transporter 3.

Saturday morning was raining and I thought it would last all day. Which would have been typical! It had cleared by lunch time and the day turned out to be beautiful. A lovely breeze blew as we sat near the chosen venue and waited. Rob was also meeting a cousin he hadn't see for some time. He hoped he recognised him!

It seemed he was running late. And when he did finally step through the door, phwoar! He's a personal trainer. Buff!

Saturday night was quiet as the Teen headed off to Wogboy's place. She didn't take her wallet. Heaven forbid - Wogboy's mother might try to get her out in the car.

Sunday, Sunny dropped by. We had a date to work on his tax. I had suspected it might take a while, depending on how much I had to read/research. It didn't take anywhere near as long! We got it finished and lodged; went to have lunch, and he napped. The Teen and I dragged ourselves along the way to the shops so she could buy hair dye for her extensions. They arrived earlier in the week. Her bribe? If you come with me I will buy you a chocolate!? Well, okay. I couldn't argue with that.

Sometime later, I went to sit in the rumpus room to read. Sunny was still napping in there as well, and the Teen was colouring her hair. Sunny awoke and I watched him for a while untill the Teen came in. She plonked herself down and spoke. Sunny twitched but didn't say anything. Then I replied, and he just about died. Heh. *evil grin* The Teen smiled. I was looking all over for you too she said, looking at me. Then proceeded to point out a blister she was developing, telling me it hurted and she wanted it popped. I wouldn't do it though, but did kiss a finger and put the kiss on her sore blisser...

MOTH decided to shift the remaining packaging from the desk. I had shifted a big one earlier that had fallen during the night and was blocking the front door. From the rumpus room, I heard him drop it; Sunny mumbled something. A pause, then Sunny spoke again; this time I got a clearer understanding of what he said. I went to the back door, and sure enough, MOTH had tripped going out the door and fallen. He was still laying on the ground and I was a little worried as he hadn't gotten up. He told me afterward that he had let himself go down as a preferred option against possibly breaking his ankle.

Pfft! No sense of adventure some people......

Please take a number from the reception desk!

Just lately, MOTH has been a little dissatisfied with his computer set up. Time for an upgrade says he!

Off he trundled to Sam's Warehouse - his fave shop for all things - and home he came with a flat pack. A desk no less. And a new chair. Since I was home sick that day, I decided to follow the assembly progress...



The stranges part was that ALL the holes were drilled in the right places. ANNND all the parts were there. Not bad for a cheap shop!









etc..... Now you have to walk past it to get to the back of the house. Please report to reception on arrival!