Monday, August 6, 2012

Ack!!

Mad rush this morning to get going.  Finally we charge out the door on the exact dot of leaving o'clock and make our windy way to the bus stop.  Half way there and what do I spy coming towards us, not the right way at all, and turning at the corner juuuust too far away? Yep, our bus.

M dropped his chair into 2nd, revved up the engine and charged towards it, waving wildly.  I attempted to break into a jog, break being the operative word.  This is what we saw:


THBBBB!!

Right.  I gather the route has changed then?? This has made a good 7 minutes difference to the timetable.  Enough for us to miss it easily and thereby f*ck up our day quite comprehensively.

..sooo... we went back to the flat and reorganised everything.  And rang the bus company who said 'nup, not us, nothing's wrong, have you had your tablet today??''.

Sighhhh....

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Speechless, again..

.. what with one thing and another.  But this is not a whinge!

Our back yard, before the builders started:





And now look what's happening!! Only 5 weeks in and wow!

Ok, ok, these *may* not be an accurate representation of the work. They are certainly an accurate representation of how I feel about it though!  The builders have been considerate, extremely fast, considerate, masterful, considerate, expert, thoughtful, and considerate. They re-jigged the schedule of works to allow a major tweak to the timing so we don't find ourselves homeless in November.  They 'get' all sorts of things about how to proceed after the house is divided into 'ours' and 'theirs' (ie we will live in part of the renovated house while they finish the other part) and in general are proving to be very fine gentlemen indeed.

My best example of this is that we realised that our wonderful lemon tree, she of at least 30 years hard work providing vitamin C and delight to our home, had to be taken down.  She had, sadly, fruited one of her very best crops this summer and we were all loathe to do it.  But time is not on our side and the expense and disruption of working around one tree was too difficult, and down she had to come. But BEFORE she was cut, the builders picked every lemon on her and saved them for me (in the bassinet!) so we can distribute them to friends (and anyone who wants 5kg of lemons and hasn't realised it yet).  GENTLEMEN, I tell you.

We will have a ceremonial new planting of a lemon tree when we are resident.  I think it should be the first act of recovering the garden.  I am looking forward to it immensely.  I miss gardening very much, as much for the foolish and naughty cat-based activity as much as anything. Recently St Alice of the Garden helped me move and rescue many of my pots so that all the empty ones are safe from droppages and the rest are ready to come and live in our teeny courtyard and be (over) nurtured by me for the rest of the winter. Nurturing is such a strong imperative..

Our pusscat has gone to live with her grandparents* and is living up to her reputation for being strong-minded, feisty, very very insistent, and occasionally quite rewarding.  Early activity included spending 16 hours a day under the bed, followed by (of course it was during the middle of the night!) extreme sports in the form of opening every cupboard, scrabbling at every door and window, jumping where cats don't go, and my favourite, getting into the corner cupboard and riding the lazy susan flinging cake tins off as she went.  This at 3am didn't endear her to my father but my mother just goes 'awww..'. When she pleases, she is accepting pats and sitting on laps, and apart from ripping my mother's thumb off (an ill-advised attempt by ma at soothing a fwighted puss) she's keeping her 'Winning the Crusades One Claw at a Time' side to herself.

I am still here.  Yesterday a perfume sale said "Two orange dot specials for $40".  What was I to do?  Succumb, of course. I picked up these: Hugo Boss 'XX' which is slightly musky and very spicy, and Guess 'Seduction' which is slightly sweetly spicy-warm.. it's so impossible to describe scent.  I die laughing at the descriptions of wine flavours for the same reason - I've seen 'grape-y' (I should hope so); 'hints of earthy chocolate and burnt leaves' (mm, tasty), and 'evokes a sense of limpid summer'.  It does?? Does that mean it's long, humid and sunny?

But I digress.  My M is running on a High Distinction (81%) average for his first semester.  All those dire predictions of mere Passes are of course just nerves talking.  I was allowed to proof-read his final assessment piece and apart from the bits I didn't understand (about 90%) it seemed like a very good piece of work to me.  And I'm right!  His course has changed a little during his absence, so he's thought about upgrading it to a Masters. He was very chuffed to receive an offer to do just this, a couple of weeks ago, and he's accepted.  I'm not sure how many more semesters/subjects this means, but I'm delighted he feels he can achieve this. Of course he can!

I am busy (trying to) choose tiles and taps and benchtops and floors and a vacuum cleaner and windows and sarking (something to do with the roof which is incredibly expensive) and .. such.  I am( almost) amused that tile salesmen can say in the same breath 'oh I LOVE this job, people come in and choose such interesting things' and 'but we don't HAVE coral red and teal'.  I do like contrasts.  I could easily fill a house with amazing colours that bounce and clash and catch the eye and generate energy and warmth and calm and comfort and humour.  I can't see why not!  But the trend (I assume it's a trend) is for tiles to be stuck onto boards in a 'colour story' which is bugging me because a) you can't move the tiles (and therefore try different things), and b) it's someone's idea of a theme which is fine if you like it exactly as is.  Naturally I don't.  I should hastily add that many of the 'stories' are very beautiful, especially the natural stone and terracotta samples.  It's just that I want to use a neutral background and add a bit of 'wow' with my colours, and people keep telling me I can't.  I will, though.

I might stick some photos up of colour ideas in the next post.  It always helps to hear what others think.  Meantime, off I go to save our world again.  Hope you are all warm, well and achieving your wishes, one Wendy at a time..

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

'Finally' doesn't cover it at all..

Lookie:

Our back gate, showing signs of builders. Note the glimpse of someone wearing a High Vis Vest.

















Yep, work started yesterday on our house mods.  To the best of my research into email archives, this marks 2 years and 2 months since the subject was first raised by the local government services.  BEFORE the whole insurance company/third party/compensable thing interfered.

I should be excited.  I should be thankful.  I should perhaps be looking forward to the end result.

I did promise elsewhere to work on raising a grin.  That will do, for now.


Monday, June 18, 2012

Oh noes!

.. poor lil puss is in the wars.

A marauding infidel has got into our home, where she lives alone, and there has been some serious biffo.  I found her hiding inside our bed last night, in pain all over and most unhappy.

We feel terribly guilty; she's stayed faithful to us during our absence for the last two and a half years.  She hasn't strayed, gone feral, scratched anything important, or turned the library into a late night jazz hangout for cool cats.

But marauding infidels is a step too far.  We've been havering about what to do with her once the house mods start (and don't ask about that) - the answer is one of these less-than-tempting three options - board her, find someone who will take her for six months or so, or (sob) find her a new home.  We can't really fix this by getting a magnetic cat door, as that wall will be demolished when the mods start, and there are few options for an alternate position.  Also that solution requires her to wear a magnet on a collar, and collars are not much success on her.  So we're a bit stuck.

This week she will stay at the vets, recovering from surgery and being safe while we try to work out what to do.  We absolutely can't have her at the flat, it is forbidden and we are so incredibly grateful to the uni people for allowing us to stay longer than their usual leasing period, we are not going to upset anyone.  M said even if we could have her here, he'd be worried about running her over!

So for now, we are sad and worried and in a big bother about what is the best thing to do.  Saint Libby the vet reports that she is recovering from surgery well, and her sooky mama can visit tomorrow afternoon all going well.

Sigh.

M's accident has led us into some strange places, but this is a hard one.


















Update: Mrs Puss had surgery for two nasty wounds, and is now recovering.  I'm doing a hospital visit shortly to apologise for everything.  Meantime my M is in hospital too... a strange week is unrolling...

Monday, June 11, 2012

Another four-letter word..

is

L
O
N
G.

As in, long weekend.  Lots of time to read and enjoy the sun that pours into the flat.  I have to shield my eyes in the morning as I open my bedroom door - the courtyard door faces east and the sun is almost too bright to penetrate.  Only the thought of coffee (which I can make with my back to the light, phew) gets me through.

It's also divinely sunny in the afternoon as the sun slants over my bed.  Very tempting place to lie and read if feeling slothful.  An inadvertent trip to a bookshop yesterday fuelled my sloth nicely!

Tomorrow is mine all mine.  Sadly I fear the long in tomorrow will be 'long time spent on paperwork', but that's worth it to get it done.

Sort of.

..

Almost.

Here's a picture to take my mind off that!