I love parcels!

Packing, packing, packing, where for art thou packing? I should be, but yet I'm not. Not yet. Wow. Once upon a time I would have been sorting my clothing about three weeks out from a trip. But I'm heading out next week but no packing yet. I'll get MOTH to get the suitcase down later.

This marks the first week of five hours back to work. I'm coping ok but still taking my work slowly. I'm not pushing myself too hard. My Super still hasn't put me back to a full workload and Admin2 is away so things are still progressing slowly. I am doing ok though despite the fact that the work itself is boring. Super has left me alone on the most part so that is making things better.

*huh. i put perfume on this morning around 7:30am. Thierry Mugler "Angel". a little on my arm and some on my skirt. it's now nearly twelve hours later and i can still smell it on my arm*

MOTH has been having a lot of trouble with his phone. It's a Samsung Galaxy S3. It keeps freezing and he has to pop off the back and remove the battery to get it to restart. It's becoming very frustrating. We check when he can update the phone. It's only been just over twelve months since he upgraded to the S3 so no, not yet. Not without a $900 penalty for early termination of contract. And the phone is out of warranty. Typical! Thank you Optus. And at that price, it would be cheaper to buy a new phone outright. One of the other options is to downgrade the plan to a lower level and make repayments on the new phone plus installments on the penalty. Sigh. Never ends, does it. It's something to think about anyway.

My eyes are getting worse. I finally bite the bullet and have MOTH book me an eye exam. When we look, my last eye test was 2009. Oops! No wonder my glasses are no longer working. So I need to get the lenses upgraded. It's only going to cost me $387. Ouch! Poor wallet. And that's using my own frames. Last time I had two pair of glasses with frames and lenses for not much more than that. These however are the extended focus lenses which means I can use them for close work on the computer and for reading without having to change. A single focus will give me one or the other to best effect but not both.

I have a party invitation lined up for this coming weekend. A friend is turning 50 and has decided on a Bollywood theme to celebrate. I've given some thought to whether to get a saree from eBay. Or a costume? I don't like costumes because wearing something that someone else has worn previously and often doesn't fit properly is somewhat of a turn off. Who am I kidding. It's a total turn off. I've browsed eBay and not found anything that takes my fancy. I look at a couple of web sites that sell sarees and finally find one. It needs to ship from overseas somewhere. I choose the prestitched option - that means the petticoat and pleats are stitched and I don't have to tuck and fold it - and it turns out to be expensive for something that I may only wear once. I think the result looks alright though.

I speak to Mouse and it turns out that a mutual friend who didn't want to go by herself asked Mouse to attend because she likes to dress up. So, looks like I will be attending with my sibling! It will be interesting as I ask Mouse what colour her saree is. Ummm ... a golden orange. I laugh. Wonder what the third member is wearing. She asks. Umm ... orange! We had better not stand too close to each other. I haven't seen my friend for some time and it looks like she has invited all the party animals she knows. She's gone crazy with the decor and decorations so I am really looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

I've been toying with the idea of buying another car. The only drawback is that my budget is very small so I'll only be able to afford an old one. The biggest problem is that I am very, very, VERY fussy about the interior of my vehicles. Not so much the outside, a few scratches or a minor dent or some paint off doesn't bother me. Torn upholstery though ... that's another matter altogether. Just lately there seems to be a few cars parked on the side of the busy road. One of them is an older model BMW with a tag of $3500. After passing it a few days I stop for a look. A bit of sun damage, some scratches, nothing major. Then I peek in the windows. EEEEEEEEEEEK! It's dusty. There are crumbs on the front seat. The steering wheel is peeling. The upholstery on both front seats is worn through to the foam. Nope. No way, no how. Not ever. I drive on.

I browse through carsales.com.au. There's an Volvo S40. Looks pretty good. I talk MOTH into an inspection on Sunday afternoon. They reverse the car out of the garage for us. I look at the outside. Oh, a missing blinker cover. I'd have to replace that. A few scratches on the duco. Nothing too bad. Pop the door open and .... oh dear. It's not been looked after as well as it might. There are tears in the upholstery. MOTH asks if I want to take it for a test drive but he tells me later he can see I don't want to sit on the seat. We drive it though. It feels very heavy compared to the other Volvos I've had. We notice small things. The rear window doesn't power up. Nope, not the car for me. The price wasn't too bad but much more than I would have been prepared to offer because I'd have to fix all the other things.

At a loose end we drive out to look at the car yards. It's been a long time since I've done that. This time however we only look at the wholesaler yards. Pretty limited because they are few and far between. Still, it's a nice way to spend some time. There's nothing in the yards we look at that piques my interest as a possible consideration. Of course, it doesn't help that I keep gravitating to the more expensive ones! Never mind, no rush. If I'm meant to have a new car I'll win the lotto, right? ... Right?