Two sleeps left …

… and tonight Mum and I are having ‘time out’ :)  I knew today would be a write-off anyway due to my shift times, so we’ve reheated a couple of ‘mystery meals’ from the freezer LOL, and we’re finishing off by drinking red wine, and polishing off her birthday chocolate mud cake while watching House … such simple and enjoyable decadence! ;)  Mind you, it’s so cold in here tonight I’m personally sitting here in my work clothes, with my full-length dressing gown on, topped off with a warm scarf round my neck … I’m also getting very very tempted to go and drag out a winter hat as well, seeing as they haven’t been packed yet LOL.

I was chatting to Mum this morning about everything that has happened over the last six months or so … and that it’s lucky I’m such a strong person.  We both agreed that really for anyone who had a less robust personality, it really could have different results.  We commented that this sort of stuff is the sort that could send people suicidal - perhaps it sounds extreme, but the continued pile of negative issues that have happened really could have a lot worse effect on someone else and enough to send them ‘over the edge’.  Mum reckons I take after her, being a tough cookie and battler herself … I’d have to agree!

I noticed today that I’m still the only car parking in our street median strip … the 2nd night after the road works behind the building I noticed a few more cars parked alongside me - but when we returned to the car later in the day their windscreens had little additions on them … parking tickets under the wipers - all the cars except mine, of course, as I have that little piece of paper power sitting on my dashboard … bless you, Mr C!

I’ve managed to get tomorrow off work, which is sooooo awesome, I’m really and truly thrilled, after last night’s fiasco with the car.  It means we should be able to finish off everything planned, and even might get chance to pop out shopping in the late afternoon.  I’ve found out through work I can get a salary sacrifice option for a laptop from Harvey Norman stores, which means I could spread the payments out over 3-6 months instead of having to save up the cash in advance … which means I have the potential to get an Unwired internet connection sooner rather than later … the sales guy I spoke to on the phone yesterday is suggesting I look at the Toshiba A200/K00 instead of the HP I wanted, so it will be interesting to see them both and work out what the repayments will be to see if it will be viable.  No guarantees it will happen, but it’s worth checking out the options just in case …  I might have to check out salary sacrifice options with cars as well, thanks Tannia - hadn’t thought about that!

Rightio, time to get off here … I’m struggling to keep my eyes open, so time to call it a night me thinks!

More goodies in the mail

But before I show you my other spoils from yesterday, I have to apologise for the many many spelling and grammatical errors in last night’s post.  I’d only had 4 hours sleep the previous two nights, and after spending a few frantic hours packing, I was feeling really exhausted, and could hardly string two sentences together … I think that showed!! ;)  It actually took me a whole hour to write that, when it would normally have taken half that time haha.

We’ve woken up this morning to a freezing morning out here - I was almost expecting icicles forming from the curtain rails in the lounge … Mum has put on her thermal undies to survive, as it’s sooooooo cold in here!  Just being able to close that darned window would be soooo nice.  Oh well, only 2 more nights and the furniture and boxes will all be gone … leaving us with a few boxes of ‘rubbish’ to get sorted through, as well as my stitching (I want to kit up a few more projects and I’ve run out of time to get it done before the big moving day).  Mum and I will be sleeping on air mattresses and sitting on fold-up camping chairs for a couple of nights - but one of the Supervisors at work was concerned for us yesterday and is bringing in a portable TV for us to watch, bless her heart

On Friday after the big moving day Mum’s decided it’s “I’m not doing anything else” day, so we’re having an afternoon/night of R&R and heading out to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 … can’t wait!  Then I’m back at work again on Saturday, so Mum’s going to start the scrubbing and cleaning while I’m away - then we have Sunday/Monday to finish off (I have those days off work), before Mum will have to fly home Monday night.

Anyway, I’d better get off this PC and start getting my clothes sorted into piles before I have to jump in the shower … but before I do, I have to share the rest of my wonderful mail day yesterday …

I want to thank Leslie for sending me her Barnabee’s Quest charts - after me drooling over this project while she was completing the recent SAL, she offered to send them to me once she’d finished with them … and they’ve arrived in perfect timing, so I can kit it up and add it to my ‘future projects box’.  Thanks again Leslie, you’re wonderful!

Last, but certainly not least, was a lovely generous parcel from Andrea.  This was totally unexpected, and I was blown away by the contents.  Andrea stitched me a divine scissor fob - how could I not start drooling with that scrummy turquoise colour?  Even Mum was eyeing it up … I’m going to have to frisk her before she leaves to make sure she hasn’t pocketed it! ;)  This was in thanks for sending a DT chart to her, but personally I think I got the better part of the deal Not only the fob was there, but I was also spoilt rotten by a few items off my wishlist - the SB Schoolhouse needleroll, and threads, as well as some really scrummy blue fabric … I’m seriously blown away by everything.  That NR is another project that is getting kitted up this weekend so it can be stitched sooner rather than later.  Thanks again Andrea for a really wonderful and unexpected gift!

 

Rightio, time to head off and pack … now I’m awake

Sod Murphy and his bl**dy Law!! ;)

After being so incredibly positive yesterday to Mum, saying we were going to have a marathon packing effort today because it was my last early shift and we could stay up later packing as I could sleep in, my plans were of course foiled.  I should’ve known Murphy and his sodding Law would come and interfere with our perfect plans!!

The last couple of days my car has been playing up … yet again … I do have to admit that I even used the dreaded “F” word in front of Mum tonight in my sheer frustration with it - but she was feeling magnanimous and didn’t offer to wash my mouth out with soap for a change LOL.  Anyway, those of you who’ve been reading my drivel for a while now may remember I had some ‘electrical’ problems before Christmas, when I had to buy a new battery, continued to have problems, and had a ’supposed’ auto electrician look at my car, who couldn’t find anything wrong.  Since then I’ve been leaving my car alarm off overnight, so just the disabler was operating, and my battery has been OK since then and remaining charged up.  Well, a couple of days ago it started playing up again by making ‘chirping’ noises from the alarm when switching the ignition off …

Today it finally fell into a heap when I got home, and the central locking died, with a really sad noise emitting from the alarm.  Seeing as my car is pretty critical this week, I had no choice but to call up a mobile auto electrician who came out to look at it within the hour (bless him!) … it turns out I was right the entire time, and the problem was that the alarm was ‘taking over’ my electrical system - so we agreed to just disable the entire thing.  Of course, today Melbourne decided to break the huge drought we’ve been having, and we got stuck in such a deluge of rain that my trousers with literally squelching wet - because of the laneway access still closed, we couldn’t put the car under shelter to be fixed … in the end we opted to drive down to St Kilda to the Coles carpark, which is undercover, and the mechanic spent an hour ripping disassembling the wiring of my car alarm - he also fixed another wiring problem with the dashboard light not operating as well.  Anyway, $200 later (didn’t really need that this week, but c’est la vie - at least there are no other big bills yet to come this payday), and my car is behaving perfectly for a change.  I’m not even going to guess how long it will stay that way, but for now I’m going to enjoy that bit of bliss

I do have to say, though, that if you haven’t heard it before, I soooooooo HATE my car!!  Even Mum suggested while I’m off housesitting that I should save up and get a new one … which is something I’ve been considering myself over the last couple of days!

Anyway, the day wasn’t entirely all bad … we got evacuated from our work building today while we had the Police, fire trucks and an ambulance in active attendance - it turned out to be an air conditioning motor burning out and polluting the entire building with fumes, so we had 1 1/2 hours off work … and because it was so cold out there today (we’ve had gale force winds across parts of Victoria) they even let us head off to the shops for a coffee to warm up … we pushed the boundaries and sat and had a cooked breakfast (it was 9am by this time, and time for my lunchtime anyway, so it was perfect for me!).

After we’d eaten, I managed to quickly duck across the road to clear the PO Box before heading back to work, and I had a wonderful parcel of goodies waiting for me (actually there were a couple that arrived today, but I still have two thank you emails to send yet, so I’ll post those tomorrow and keep you in suspense LOL).

I have to share with you today a most wonderful bag that KarenV stitched for me - isn’t this the most gorgeous fabric ever?!!  I just ADORE it!!  As soon as I opened the envelope, it put a huge grin on my face :D  I told Mum I’m going to take it with me housesitting to add some cheer to my day every day - it’s just lovely.  Thanks so much Karen for a gorgeous gift - it’s absolutely perfect for me!

 

To finish today’s post/drivel I’ll end with what will be my final progress piccie of Bordeaux for a wee while - I’ve managed to put a few grapes into it, and as you can I’ve finally decided to just stitch the grapes in each ‘gap’ rather than the date.  I think, instead, I may add a very small backstitched initials and year in the bottom left and right corners of the sampler at the end.  The next time I get access to posting piccies it’s likely this will be finished (at least I hope so!)

 

And now it’s time to hit the hay for the night.  There’ll be precious little packing happening tomorrow thanks to my shifts, and only two nights left … but I’m trying not to think about it ;)  In the meantime I’m going to enjoy a good night’s sleep, as I’ve had two real shockers the last two nights, and enjoy the last few days of our week :)  It will be nice to cuddle under the duvet tonight, as our lounge room is back to being like the Arctic Circle (I have my work clothes on still, complete with dressing gown over the top, it’s so cold!).  Mum and I are counting down the sleeps to the official handing back of the keys … poor Mum was quite scared in the flat today, as the wind was quite strong and making the walls creak and groan more than normal … I have to say, too, the cracks are definitely worse in here now as well, if that was possible!  Oh well, only 6 more sleeps …

PhotoHunt - Colourful

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is “Colourful” - I’ve taken a photo of my wooden tulips in a bright turquoise vase. I fell in love with the bright colours of these tulips on a visit to Brisbane years ago, and now they’re residing back in their mother country here in Melbourne. One of my absolute favourite colour combinations is bright red and yellow roses in a vase together - just stunning! I was originally going to use this shot for the upcoming theme of “fake”, but I thought it was very appropriate for the theme of “colourful” as it’s so vibrant and bursting with colour! If you check out the bigger piccie, just ignore the film of dust sitting on the tulips - they’re been sitting on top of my bookcase, and I always forget to dust them!

Happy Birthday to the Dragon!!

Just a quick post to wish Mum (aka the Dragon) a wonderful birthday … not sure yet what we’re going to do to celebrate, but we may go out to dinner somewhere nice over the weekend.  It’s a bit boring as I gave her birthday gifts to her when she was here visiting last time, so I picked up a couple of deli treats from the Camberwell markets for her before work yesterday.

 

As I mentioned earlier, my stitching time has pretty much finished now as the packing is taking shape more and more (this weekend will be the most frantic as we try to get the bulk of it totally finished) … here is what may be the final progress piccie of Bordeaux for a while (depending whether I manage a couple of stitches over the coming week or not, when most of the packing is finished).  In the centre row the the middle four blank ’squares’ are supposed to have the year stitched, with one numeral in each square, but I don’t think I like how large the date will then be.  I’m thinking of stitching A on the left, and S on the far right, with 20 and 07 sharing the centre two blocks.  I might wait until everything else is finished before I totally decide … the alternative is to ignore the date altogether, and just fill the gaps with yet more over-one grapes as the original chart thumbnail shows (you can just barely see that in my sidebar).

 

I can’t believe that in exactly one week I lose my computer access - I don’t know how I’m going to survive!!  There are no internet cafes near to where I’m moving to for housesitting, so it’ll take a while before I get an internet fix.  If nothing else, though, it’ll give me more chance to get some extra stitching time in as I’ll have no other distractions (other than Foxtel yippee!).

  A quick reminder about the RAK Registry - I’ve sent my work email to everyone that is a current member of the Registry … if you didn’t receive that email, please let me know and I’ll re-send it to you.  Also you can continue to send to my original email address, as it is still active, but there will be a delay in my responding to you depending on how often I can get to an internet cafe. 

Fingers crossed I’ll have a laptop sooner than later, especially as I’ll be saving a load of money from house-sitting … the one I’ve pretty much decided on (HP Pavilion dv6304TX) will cost me about $1800-$1900, though, so it will still be a wee while away before I do manage to get it.  My 2nd choice is the HP Pavilion dv6302TU … the only difference is the 6304 has 160GB of memory, as opposed to 120GB of the 6302, and the graphics card is better.  Not entirely sure whether I really need the higher capacity or not, though … if anyone has any recommendations I’d really love to hear it, as I’ve never owned a laptop before

I also want to apologise as I’ve been reading blogs only for an hour each day when I first come in from work, but I haven’t been commenting much - I’m trying to read as much as I can before I lose my access, but next week it will be more of a struggle to even keep up with reading.  Please don’t be offended if I don’t make a final comment on your blog before I head off into the big blue yonder. 

Which brings me to my next point … I want to thank each and every one of you that continues to visit and read my drivel, even when it’s been negative as I’ve been going through an emotional turmoil - an extra special thanks go to those of you who take the time to comment, especially when I’m not commenting much in return.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again many many times I’m sure, that blogging has sure changed my life - it’s made it a much warmer and friendly place, and I’ve made some incredible friendships over the last 18 months or so … I appreciate each and every one of you very very much, it’s been an honour to get to know you!

Rightio, time to get back into packing mode for a couple more hours before I have to get ready for work.  It’s my last 4pm shift start today, and I’m soooooo happy!  But I’ll close with piccies of our ‘imaginary’ road works (it’s OK, Mr C, I no longer have desires to boil your bunny, so you’re safe! LOL).

Game … set … and match!!! :D

No ticket on my car when I surfaced out of bed today … but also no word from Mr C by the time I was getting dressed to go to work - that guy will be just loving the fact that I have his personal mobile number!  Yes, I got to chat to him again today, for an update … he said he’d been speaking to the works manager and apparently we can access the lane from the other end so you really have no problem with access - um, actually you probably can, Mr C, if your apartment block is at the other end of the lane, but I can most definitely assure you that you can’t at OUR end … in fact, if you’d like I can pop down to your office and show you photos, as I’ve just been down to take some - there’s no disputing physical evidence!

I can just picture Mr C starting to quiver in his boots at that point (actually, I’m just being cruel now, ‘cos he was actually very helpful and pleasant today in the end LOL) … he then asked about how I went with my parking last night, and I said parking in the median strip was fine, and it was very helpful being able to park right outside the building, thank you very much.  He then asked how much longer I’d like to park there for … my answer, if it’s OK to get approval to park there the entire time the works are being done, that would be great, which would take the last day to next Friday.  Mr C then shocked me senseless by saying he’d draft a letter up for me on Council letterhead and he’d pop it over to my letterbox personally so it would be sitting there for when I got home, then I could pop it on my dashboard for the week and I wouldn’t get hassled by anyone … why, thank you, Mr C, I’m very grateful that you’re coming to the party, and I appreciate the lengths you’ve taken to rectify the situation.  And to top it off, Mum called me at work to tell me he even hand-delivered it to our front door on the 3rd floor of the building to make sure it was received … hehehe, must’ve really scared him!  I think he was worried I’d continue to stalk him for life on his mobile phone if he didn’t appease me LOLOL.

Regardless, I’m now a very happy camper … you see, every now and then the “little man” wins … even if it sometimes takes a bit of determination, drive, and a lot of bloody-mindedness!

Ding ding ding - Round 1 goes to Shackles in the blue corner!

Today I was on the opposite end of a complaint call … geez it felt good! haha.  By 2.40pm Mr Councilman still hadn’t phoned me back, and I had to leave home to head to work before 3pm, so I called them back … the operator tried reaching Mr C, only to apparently have him start screaming at her and saying he’d told me he’d call me back.  My response was that I would no longer be on the home number, could you please give him my work number, but that wasn’t an option as apparently after abusing her, he’d hung up, and he was on the road.  No problem, I said, in that case can you give me HIS direct number and I’ll call HIM, and if he wants to start abusing me he’s picked the wrong customer.  I think she was a bit scared of the repercussions, but she gave his mobile number to me quite happily in fact and asked if I could just not call him straightaway.  I was happy to agree, and when I hadn’t heard from him by 4.30pm, I called his mobile … and the fun began!

He was confused why I was calling from work and no longer on my home number … um, because I’m starting my night shift now, as I told you this morning on the phone.  Oh, and what time are you getting home?  Just after 1am, I reply, would likely be the earliest.  Oh … and where are you going to park?  Well, Mr C that is the precise reason why I called this morning … and I must apologise because I must have accidentally slipped into speaking in Swahili, as you obviously didn’t understand a word of what I said to you this morning … I honestly thought it was English, but I must have been mistaken … my sincere apologies, what a terrible oversight!

Anyway, after a rather lengthy discussion we confirmed that what I was requesting was to have the option to park on the medium strip without getting towed or receiving a ticket from their parking officers … oh, he says, that’s not really my area, so I can’t help you … at this point the fuse on the Shackles time-bomb is having the match brought up to it, ready to commence burning …  Well, perhaps, Mr C you could have told me that when I first spoke to you this morning at 10.30am - we have now wasted an entire day, I am at work, and I have no further avenues to go to tonight to have this resolved.  Quite frankly that’s appalling!  I reiterate I’m not happy that I’m dragged out of bed by one of your workers, with no advance notice, to be told I have to move my car out into the street, and having to possibly walk up to 3 blocks in the wee small hours of the morning as a single female - my personal safety is being put at risk, and it’s up to you to give me an alternative, seeing as you’ve removed my private parking area with no warning.  When he argued a bit, I said it was fine, I was more than happy for them to provide me with a taxi to and from work so I could travel home in safety - I dunno why, but he said that wasn’t an option

I then said, so give me an alternative solution … his answer was that if they let me park on the median strip, they’d start getting complaint calls from people that I’m parking there.  My response, in actual fact you’re receiving a complaint call right now from a customer, and you should be dealing with it, I don’t give a damn about future people complaining!  Eventually he said he’d have to check a few things out, and he’d give me a call back …

When he called back an hour later, he had the gall to say to me he’d checked and there was no record of works being done out here, as if I was imagining things.  Can you see that fuse moving fast along the wire now?  Oh yeah, someone just poured kerosene on the flame to speed things up … Rightio, Mr C, if you like I can bring you in bl**dy photos of the imaginary road works - I most definitely didn’t imagine the great big pile of rubble now sitting in the car park of our property, along with the cordoning off tape, and the driveway all dug up, not to mention the signposts out in the street saying “road works in side road” … quite frankly, Mr C, now you’re getting downright bl**dy ridiculous!! 

Luckily he eventually realised he’d met his match for the evening, and fixed the situation by finally asking what my car rego/make/model etc was and said I could park on the median strip for tonight only, and we’d have to reassess the situation tomorrow … thank you Mr C, it’s much appreciated.  And if I don’t get approval for the next two nights, expect the “look” in person, ‘cos I’m coming down to visit!!!

I have to say I’m usually a pretty even-tempered person, but when I lose my rag, I seriously lose it!!  And I normally have a valid reason for losing my temper.  I couldn’t believe it when he implied that there no works being done … bureaucratic moron!!

Phew … vent over and done with!!  Now for Mr C’s sake he’d better hope that I don’t have a ticket or, especially, that my car hasn’t been towed in the morning …

And on that note, I think I’m off to bed

Bring it on … part 2!!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … oh sorry, that was a different story …

Today I had an early wake-up call from a council worker knocking on the door asking me to move my car out of the carpark so they can do some works … “oh sorry, the Council was supposed to let you know it was happening” … hmmm. An Annie without sleep is a deathly combination, I can wither a grown man at 20 paces with one look … luckily for the council worker I was too half-asleep to conjure up just the right expression, so I grumbled and scowled instead as I wandered downstairs with my tracky pants on and a thick cardigan on over my PJ top (’cos I was too lazy to get dressed!).  Anyway, as it turns out they’re kindly digging up the entire access lane to the property … and to about another half dozen apartment properties on the block.  We will have no carpark facilities whatsoever until at least the end of next week … great!!

Street parking around here is at a major premium anyway, and the roads are always full of cars without having an entire block of buildings (especially of apartments where each one has approx 10-12 cars each block!!) now trying to find parking space.  I’m particularly unimpressed that I’m on late shifts and will now have to start walking the streets in the wee small hours of the morning on my own after parking lord-knows-where.  The bad side of this is that I may get raped or murdered on my way home … of course, there’s always a good side … and that is that I will no longer be parking under a possum-infested tree, so from now on my car will be forever poo-free

You see, there’s always a silver lining!!!  (Can you tell I’m starting to feel a bit like my old self again? LOL).

My morning has since been spent chewing the ear off of a chap at the Council … I’m asking for authority to park on the medium strip in the centre of the road (it’s concreted, and wide enough to take loads of cars parked diagonally) … I’m still awaiting the verdict, as he’s got to check some things out before calling me back.  He’d better come back with something good, ‘cos I’m now more awake … even though I can’t give “the look” over the phone, I’m sure I could somehow express the look just as easily, and if not I can always drive down for a visit

So now we have more construction works going on - the next door neighbour has had building works going for over a week now, which has been increasing the sales of Nurofen in this household 10-fold over the last week … they’re currently using the circular saw over there, which is a change from the pneumatic drill from yesterday.  Now we have bl**dy great diggers out the back of us … if nothing else it’s starting to make me really look forward to moving.  I was still quite sad to be leaving the area, as I truly do adore the location of where I am … but right now I’m starting to count down the days with glee …

But there is already that one bright light … if you missed it earlier … NO MORE POSSUM POO!!!!!!!!

Bring it on … !!!

Today the day started quite auspiciously … the Dragon (aka Mum) was kind enough to offer to stitch some calico strips to some ornies etc I have kitted up, so they’re ready for stitching while I’m housesitting (that way they fit in my Q-snaps, ‘cos I can’t stitch in hand).  While I’m snoozing away in the bedroom due to my awful shifts, it gives her something to do until I finally surface again … she’d been overlocking the fabric edges when she decided to change the thread colour but then killed the overlocker - the threads now keep breaking, and she can’t get into the thing properly to fix it … anyway, we figure that’s no biggie, we’ll just use the sewing machine to zigzag the edges and then stitch the calico on … no problem …

Yeah, right … it died … kaput!  Nothing will get the darned thing to operate again … it was a bit dicky when Mum was using it during the last visit, and apparently wouldn’t wind thread onto a bobbin etc.  Well, nothing worked today - winding on, stitch selection buttons, or anything … as the Toyota adverts says, it was definitely a “B*gger!” moment!!

Personally, it didn’t surprise me in the slightest … if there’s nothing else that I’ve learnt over the last 6-7 months, it’s the fact that when you think nothing more can go wrong, something inevitably will!  The good news is that today for the first time I’ve got a smidgen of my old fighting spirit and good humour back again … mainly, I guess, because I made a big decision today - and conquered a difficult and potentially conflictual situation.

Today I finally decided that I am going to go housesitting for perhaps 6-12 months if I can last that long!  I’m so disappointed in the fact that Sheree has had no regard for my feelings, or any shred of common decency, by not telling me she had possible intentions to leave me in the lurch and stay where she is currently instead of going flatting together.  I actually don’t blame her at all, but it would have been nice to have been told to my face.  I brought it up with her today at work and said how disappointed I was, and that I’ve pretty much decided while driving into work to go housesitting instead, because I have no idea how long I can trust her to hang around for … apparently she was not looking at going flatting again because her car had been ‘keyed’ twice in the last week, costing her over $1,000, so she can’t stay where she is staying as her car needs to be in a more secure living arrangement.  She’d already mentioned previously that she may not stay in Melbourne longer than another 12-18 months, so I may have been up for another move for finding another flatmate then too.  I have to admit, I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders after making that decision, and discussing it with Sheree … whether or not it will turn out to be a good decision, only time will tell, but for now it feels good!!

Mum and I spent a short time this morning checking out mobile wireless broadband options, and eventually I think I’ll pick up a connection with Unwired … although if I’m going to be housesitting permanently I’m also going to need a laptop, which will take me a while to be able to afford - but it’s a good option for further down the track

Aside from that, Mum and I popped out to Spotlight at lunchtime, before I went to work, to price up cheap sewing machines … we figure my machine is nearly 20 years old, and how much it’s going to cost to fix may not warrant the money … so we’ve unexpectedly got a machine on hold - yikes!!  We were originally only going to price them up, to work out whether it would be worth getting my old one fixed.  The pleasant surprise we got was a Brother BM-2600 and it’s dirt cheap at only $199 (left over specials from Mother’s Day, it was originally retailing for $279) - admittedly it’s only a very basic model, but I no longer do stitching with fancy stitches, so for now this will suit me very well.  It’s also extremely light and portable, so I could even take it with me housesitting (my old Janome 6000 is like lifting a ton of bricks!!)!  Mum and I were very excited to find something so cheap … and Mum’s being very good at helping me spend that first pay cheque that’s coming soon when I don’t have rent to pay - it’s the last thing I expected to be buying, but I use my old one all the time, even if it’s just to attach those calico strips! It’s not going to be great for machine quilting a queen size quilt (the actual quilting of the batting etc), but it’ll be a long time before I get to that stage, so for now I think this will be just perfect!  And the salesperson was really really helpful, and very knowledgeable about the machines … she’s even told me she’s happy to give me a 1/2-3/4 hr lesson if I need it after I’ve moved out!  So yes, Mum and I are definitely sold on it I guess

As for everything else, I haven’t touched a needle since last week, although tomorrow I’ll post a piccie of my Bordeaux progress I did earlier.  We picked up some smaller book boxes from the storage place today, as the ones we’d got basically could barely be lifted - and this way all the boxes will be a uniform shape … tomorrow we’ll attempt to take the dining table apart to give us more packing space both in the dining area and in the storage area when we move.  This weekend is going to be full-on packing-wise.  Next week I’ve managed to get some shift swaps to 5am starts on Mon/Tue which will give me the afternoons free for packing.  I can’t believe the official moving date is now only 1 1/2 weeks away … yikes!!

I have to say I’m looking forward to a non-ventilated home - it was a sultry 12C in our lounge last night (56F for those of you ‘up north’) … Mum had on about 5 layers of clothing, and I’m now sat at the PC with my outdoor coat on.  Mum has been spoiling me, though - this week I’m on 4pm shift starts, so I don’t get home until 12.30am-ish, and get to bed about 1.30am … last night I staggered into the bedroom freezing cold only to find my electric blanket already on, with the bed toasty warm, and my PJ’s under the duvet so they were toasty warm to jump into … my Dragon rocks!!!

Talking of which, I suppose it’s time to go jump into that toasty bed again … it’s so nice to have a bit of pampering right now! Such a small thoughtful gesture has such a huge impact … I love my Mum!!

All is quiet on the homefront …

Probably because I’ve spent much of the last 48 hours sleeping my head off!  I actually fell asleep in an exhausted heap on Friday night and slept solidly for 13 hours!!  Worried that I was wasting half the day when I should be up packing things, I set my alarm clock for 8.30am this morning … but I woke up twice and went back to sleep each time, and ended up sleeping for nearly 11 hours yet again … crikey!!  As Mum said, my body obviously needed it, as it’s very unusual for me to do that!  I actually woke up really bunged up, but I think it’s partly to do with the fact that it’s like an icebox in my flat at the moment.  Mum thought I was winding her up when I told her how cold it was before she flew over … last night, though, she was bundled up in her clothes, with her dressing gown on, and then put some leggings on up over her knees - it was so funny!  My hands are like blocks of ice, and I’m very tempted to walk around with gloves on, if I didn’t need them free for packing ;)  It would be so wonderful to be able to close that darned lounge window!!

No stitching has been done over the last couple of days.  I did some more on Bordeaux a couple of nights ago, and finished all the gold stitches on band 6 … I probably won’t get much chance to stitch now until I move out, but I’ll hold out showing a progress piccie until the official SAL night this week (which might be the final progress piccie for a while).

Mum and I spent an hour this afternoon choosing photos for the upcoming three months of the Photo Scavenger Hunt - and my posts are all loaded up for that whole period seeing as I won’t have access to my computer or photo files … so if you see me posting regularly over the next couple of months, it’s not that I’m physically sitting at the PC, just that I’m being super-organised with trivial stuff

Talking of which, time to go back to my packing again - I’m going through my XS charts etc and packing all my ringbinders into archive boxes and emptying the bookcases … the perfect job while catching up on TV viewing and clearing all those videos that have been piling up for ages. 

I should get loads of stitching done while I’m housesitting as I’ll have no PC, and they have Foxtel … how awful! At least it means I’ll have plenty of viewing to keep me busy, seeing as my DVD’s will all be in storage (although I have downloaded some audiobooks to my iPod as well)

Rightio, no more yapping … time to move into the refrigerator lounge and do a bit more …