Autumn

This is, without doubt, my favourite season of the year.

The chilly mornings, often with a bit of mist or fog. The clear, sunny days where the sun still has a bit of a bite if you stand in it. The still air with a sense of everything slowing down. Woodsmoke, changing colours in the trees (although not as spectacular as the northern hemisphere) and the smells of casseroles and soups wafting from windows.

Today was one such day although the casserole smell was in my house and it has made my mouth water all day! We are looking forward to dinner tonight and I am looking forward to making more of these slow cooks both here and in the new house. I don't know why I haven't made them before in this place as they are easy to prepare, don't heat up the house and don't require the range hood which has gone to god.

This morning I had my history session with U3A. It's as much about the chit chat before hand and we had a good talk about the tragedy in Sydney, the problems that face children adopted from other countries and potential hip replacements. 

This afternoon we took the dogs to the vet. We saw the lovely vet who treated Jinx for her girly problems and she was thrilled to see how well she has done. They both got a good going over and their vaccinations and Jinx got something to treat a bit of a rash and Murphy got some medication to deal with his anxiety. Himself isn't too sure about the latter but I have assured him we will give it a few months and then reassesss. Hopefully things will settle once we have moved but if he has to stay on it to keep him calm and content then so be it. As the vet was explaining about serotonin I put my hand up and she did the same!

Tomorrow is another U3A day although I have withdrawn from the Qigong - I am in too much pain. The teacher rang me to say I could do it sitting down but she didn't seem to get that pain is pain sitting or standing and I don't enjoy the exercises at the moment. As the criminology class is right after Qigong I shall make sure to hobble in with my bright pink walking stick although it won't be an act.

In the afternoon we have an appointment with the landscaper - we got his quote over the weekend. It was a triple scotch quote but not unexpected. Himself started talking about what he could do. NOTHING was my reply. This is why we are paying someone to do it and the odd bit here or there is not going to make that much difference in the overall scheme of things. We can play with the plants but we are NOT playing with the infrastructure. Yes, we will have to dip into our super which is a bit scary but once the house is done we will be able to live quite efficiently. We don't travel. We don't eat out a lot. We don't have expensive hobbies (shush) and we don't have expensive taste in clothes.

The yarn has been dispatched from Denmark but I haven't heard from the loom people. I shall send them an email tomorrow as I haven't had acknowledgment of the purchase other than the Paypal receipt.

Time to stir the casserole and make the house smell even more divine.

NOT AWOL!

Yesterday was a bit of a nothing day so I didn't get around to writing anything.

Himself went up to the block and did some work on the storm water drain (he has permission and supplies from the developer but they obviously can't be bothered doing it themselves) and then did a bit of a tidy up of the building site. Strictly not allowed but it was bugging him. The trades (young fellas) do tend to leave a bit of a mess so Himself just went around picking up drink cans and offcuts of this and that and put it in a neat pile.

The estate is really coming along. There are now three houses completed and lived in, one nearly done (CW's and her builders are going around touching up all the things she found fault with so she shouldn't be far off finsihing), us and another couple well on the way to finishing and another three at slab/frame stage. At least one of those will more than likely be a rental. It is the same design as ours but a bog standard version and the owner is an Indian solicitor based in Melbourne. Andy (site supervisor) says he has overseen a few lately that have been built by Indians based in Melbourne and they are all investment properties which, I hope, will help the long term rental market down here and not just the short term, holiday rental market. As far as I am aware, the other houses will all be owner occupied (apart from one of the completed three which is currently housing CW and will then be a short term rental with the owners using it as a holiday house - it is right up the other end of the road from us so any party types won't bother us).

The topic on everyone's mind is, of course, the awful situation at a shopping centre in Bondi in Sydney where yesterday, a man went on a rampage with a knife and killed 8 people - mainly women. He was shot dead by a police inspector who happened to be in the area and responded to the call. It is believed he had severe mental health issues for many, many years. I wish the bloody media would stop sensationalising this. It is a sad situation where nobody wins. At least we learnt from Port Arthur after which our gun laws changed or it could have been so much worse.

Later ...

Himself has walked the dogs. I am so envious. I try to walk but the pain makes it impossible. The appointment with the surgeon can't come soon enough (8th May) and then I have to wait for an opening in his theatre list. I just hope that the issue is the hip and not something that can't be fixed. Yes, I am catastrophising but pain makes you do that.

We went to the supermarket. The hip/back/knee was so bad today I had to use a trolley to lean on. Steak for dinner and the makings for a slow cook which I will prepare shortly and then turn on in the morning and dinner will be ready in the evening. My favourite kind of cooking!

I am sorely missing my weaving and although all the looms I have could be considered small and portable they still require setting up and take up a bit of space and time to use. Yesterday I found an Australian company that sells pin looms and showed great constraint in only buying a 4" square and a 4" hexagon. This afternoon I went to Hobbii and bought some variegated cotton with which I plan to make some place mats for the new house. It comes from Denmark but they ship very quickly and I used them a lot during Covid. The yarn will probably arrive before the pin looms!!

It should go well with the colours we have chosen. 

Later still ...

I have prepared the ingredients for tomorrow\s slow cook. Beef which I tossed in flour, pepper, salt and dried herbs then fried off. Added onion and garlic to the pan and fried them off. Deglazed the pan with 500mls of beef stock (no, I don't make my own!) then a couple of spuds, some onions, butternut pumpkin and carrots. A squirt of tomato paste, a handful of bay leaves and a good slurp of red wine. It will sit over night then I can turn it on when I get up and we should have a lovely rich casserole/stew for dinner with plenty for leftovers and hopefully the basics for a soup. If I had my own kitchen I would bake some bread but I'll get some from the bakery tomorrow to mop up the gravy.

Speaking of tomorrow, U3A is back and I am looking forward to it. I am going to have to pull out of qigong for now as I can't stand for the half hour the class goes for but I should be able to go back once the hip is fixed (see ... thinking positively).

I did a load of washing earlier and it is still on the line. There is a controlled burn happening close by and the air is full of smoke. I have a feeling I might have to rewash my clothes. Or walk around smelling like an old fashioned Autumn where everybody burned the dead leaves in the gutters and had open fires and incinerators. 

How many Aussies remember those days? 

The brick incenerators in the back yard where if it wasn't composted it was burnt. The piles of leaves smouldering down the street. The smoke whisps from chimneys as the first fires of the season were lit with the promise of chilly Winter evenings to come. 

Your weekly bin collection was a couple of old fashioned metal bins with lids that would clang as the garbos tossed them off and threw the contents of the bins into the truck that never stopped but slowly kept moving up the road. Not that there was much in those bins. Very little came in or was wrapped in plastic. Meat came from the butcher wrapped in paper. Veges from the greengrocer in paper bags. Water came from the tap. Drinks came in glass or cans that went into a black recycle bin as we embraced the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra.

Oh those garbos. Fit young men (often off-season footy players) wearing short shorts and singlets running behind the truck. Many is the time I was stuck chose to slow down behind them. 

Memories ...

Take 2

I deleted the previous post. Something went horribly wrong. I shall play around with the new phone as I think that was the problem. I will probably repeat a bit of what I said so sorry if you read it before it went into the naughty bin.

Today we went into Bairnsdale to get kitty litter and to talk to Telstra. 

***For the non-Australians out there we have three main mobile networks: Telstra (who used to be Telecom and before that the Post Master General's Department and were, once upon a time, owned and run by the govt.) Optus and Vodaphone. Other companies buy bandwidth from some or all of the three and sell them on to the public with varying degrees of coverage.***

If you live in the sticks (or even some metropolitan suburbs) you do not want to be with Vodaphone. Trust me on this! Optus has had some issues lately with data hacks and major service outages so we were looking at Telstra.

It turns out that one of the, shall we say, budget companies is actually owned by Telstra. Boost. Think Jetstar and Qantas. Apparently if we go with Boost we get the coverage as if we were with Telstra but none of the benefits - like concert tickets and free this and that. A bit of a no brainer, really. Anyway. We forked out the grand sum of $4 for two sim cards and Himself is tasked with setting things up. Worst case we will blow a month on Boost ($22) and go to Telstra. The challenge is moving our numbers from Vodaphone and cancelling the direct debit. That is a Himself job.

Andy, our site supervisor extraordinaire, showed us through the house today. Oh my giddy aunt the place is looking so good. The walls have been painted. Most of the cabinets are in. Doors have been hung. The bathroom cabinets need to be replaced and that will slow us down a bit so we are now looking at a mid June handover. I don't mind. I have so much space. So many cupboards and drawers in the kitchen I won't know what to do with it all. I might have to buy some more appliances! It is very hard picking colours from small samples and I am thrilled with the way everything is coming together. I knew the walls would be OK as the scheme is similar to that which we had in Langy but the kitchen cabinets were a bit of a risk and it has paid off.

We popped into my favourite cafe for a late lunch and they had sticky date puddings to go. So guess what we are having for dessert this evening? It will be left over spanakopita (from Aldi and bloody delicious) and coleslaw for main. 

Last night Himself lit the wood heater. I was concerned I would have to call the fire brigade as anything is possible in this house but it worked really well and was very pleasantly efficient. I understand why wood heaters appear to be the heating of choice in all the older houses here. You used to be able to get wood from trees that had fallen in the bush but nowadays that is not allowed. Also the powers that be don't want us burning any sort of fossil fuel so new houses are forbidden discouraged from having wood or gas heating. (Sending it overseas is OK apparently but that is a political conversation I ain't having right now).

There is a glorious sunset ouyt there. I shall go and take some photos on the new phone so you may or may not get to see them!

Progress

The scaffolding came down today so you can see the latest progress pics.

The interior is still being painted hence the overspray on the windows (which are protected!). There is still some exterior touching up that needs to be done but you get the general idea of how the outside will look. We are very happy with it.

This is our bedroom window

This shows our bedroom on the right, the front door in the middle and my room on the left. 

We have decided not to have a path/steps up to the front door but will access it from the driveway which is off to the left. I plan to have a bench outside our bedroom window to sit and enjoy the evening sun in winter and a tree where the green stuff is. We will have rocks on the sloping bit and I want to get some hydrangeas in there somewhere. I am still not convinced that I have chosen the right colour for the front door but will need to see everything finished before I change anything. It will have a security door in front of it which I think will make it work.

We are very lucky to have lovely next door neighbours. They keep to themselves but always have a wave and a chat if we are outside. I will miss them when we move but we have some lovely neighbours in the hew house (bar one, of course!) 

Mrs Nextdoor gave me some glorious home grown tomatoes not long after we moved in and the other day she rang the doorbell with some soap and a cat bed. They don't have pets but a friend of hers was getting rid of stuff and she knew we had cats so she took this for us. Minnie loves it - her pissed off face is because a) she is a cat b) I was taking her photo and c) she is a cat.

Coffee group was lovely. There were only four of us but we laughed and sorted out the problems of the world. I bought a couple of vanilla slices for dessert. I have been eyeing them off for weeks and today I succumbed. 

Himself has been building me a desk for the new house. It has been frustrating because his tools are packed and hard to find (see previous post) but he said how much pleasure it is giving him.

This has made me think that maybe I need to drag out my small RHL and warp it up for something. Anything. My knitting and crocheting don't seem to be doing it for me right now. 

The dogs are going to the vet next Monday so that has been ticked off the list. 

Quiche again tonight (one does us two meals) and vanilla slice for afters. 

Life could be worse!

ccccccold

We heard back from the specialist that Himself needs to see. They can't bring the appointment forward so it will be mid-June. He will stay with the Mermaid and she will drop him off and pick him up. The hospital is not far from her so it makes sense.

I have checked the diary and there may be an overlap with my surgery and his procedure. The cats will be OK on their own for a couple of nights but the dogs will need to go into kennels so I had better make an appointment at the vet for their vaccinations. It is also around the time the house will be finished and the landscaping and fencing going in. Hey ho. It's feast or famine.

Himself went to the Shed this morning to cut some timber for a desk he is making. Unfortunately their equipment is not in the best of nick but as the new boy he cannot really say anything that could be construed as criticism. The Shedders are very proud of their wordworking prowess. We will, therefore, be going into Bairnsdale to buy a saw. He can have it as our anniversary present which is in a couple of weeks. I will need to think of projects for him to make to justify it (in his mind). It's funny that I can make something because I want to see how something will turn out or because it's something I've wanted to try. He needs to have a practical reason to make something.

My washing machine is singing. I had better go and hang it all out before the cold change comes through. At least it's windy.

Later ... 

This is what is heading towards us.The speckled bits are cold, Antarctic air and it goes from left to right. We are roughly above the 4 in the 2024 time stamp. 

We didn't buy a new saw as Himself found one in his boxes of tools but he did have to go to Bairnsdale to get screws and glue and stuff. It's a Bunnings thing!

Quiche and coleslaw for dinner. It will be a cold day in hell before I eat certain foods again. As Himself said this morning, it's getting harder as the end of the build gets closer. 

I am struggling but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So much going on and I could talk about it but not right now. 

Coffee Group tomorrow. Such a great bunch of women.

This and that

I will try writing bits and pieces through the day and then hitting publish at the end. We shall see if that makes things easier.

HImself has taken the dogs up to the block for their walk. I wonder if he will run into CW. When I had another look at the messages she sent yesterday it was as if we had come in at the middle of a conversation. She must talk a lot in her head. It can't be fun in there.

Later ... well CW did her thing of following Himself around when he was walking the dogs. I guess she is back into defending her property from us. Apparently we have copied her interior as well as her exterior. As I have no idea what her interior is like (and couldn't care less) I wonder if she has been peering into our windows!

The aunt rang. She was feeling very lonely and miserable. Tomorrow is her 55th wedding anniversary but her husband died 27 years ago and she still misses him terribly. She was also worried she might be getting dementia because she forgets things. I told her I forget things at 67 so at 92 she's not doing too badly. I made her laugh a bit and she went off to make herself a tuna sandwich for lunch at my suggestion. I wish she was closer but it is too far and too expensive to just pop up to see her. It would take two days of travel to get there from here.

While I was on the phone Himself took himself off to the Shed. He has been gone nearly 3 hours. I will take this as a good thing.

When I last stayed with One he introduced me to Broadcastify. If I get an alert on the vicemergency app or hear the siren go for the local volunteer firebrigade I listen in to the local area and can hear what's going on. Quite interesting and, I would imagine, quite valuable if something serious was happening. 

My parents lost everything in the Ash Wednesday bush fires in 1983. They were lucky they didn't lose their lives. Mum had gone outside to put something in the car and heard a call to evacuate from the end of the street. The whole thing was poorly managed and nobody seemed to be prepared or know what to do. We learned a lot from that but, sadly, not enough to prevent the shocking loss of life and property in the Black Saturday fires in 2009. Finally, with technology, we are getting more warnings and there is the ability to target people and areas more specifically. We live in a bush fire prone country and there is always the threat and worry of another big one (like 2019 which burned for weeks). More and more people are moving to country areas (like us) and newcomers need to have a fire managment plan. Also the greenies need to pull their heads in and stop hindering the various efforts to reduce the fuel load in fire prone areas. Very few seem to live in the areas and aren't well thought of but they do have the power of keyboard warriors from the safe inner suburban dwellings.

I have spent way to much time faffing around on the computer so will go and make a cup of tea and do something a bit more productive.

Later still ... Himself had a lovely time at the Shed. I wasted an afternoon. I was going to fiddle around with knitting but couldn't find the mojo. We went to the shops then up to the block. The site supervisor rang to say there was a hitch with the bathroom cabinets. The installer wasn't happy with the quality and wouldn't put them in. Can't complain about that. We are still ahead of schedule and the painting is steaming ahead.

I looked at a youtube on how to power up the new phone. I don't want to transfer data from one phone to the other. I want to treat it as a virgin phone so will have to transfer my contacts across one by one. A good opportunity to cull. 

So how did the wittering through the day go? Not sure that it made me any more erudite but at least it got fingers to keyboard and brain cells sputtering into life.

Butter chicken from a packet for dinner. Nothing like the curry I had last Friday but I fancied rice and spice.

Blah.

Yes, I have been MIA again and I apologise.

I need to work on my time management and maybe write here in the mornings.

Apart from that, though, nothing much is happening Chez Merlot worth writing about and I seem to have lost the ability to waffle creatively. 

I firmly believe that living in this house has a lot to do with the general sense of malaise that seems to affect both of us. I wouldn't be surprised if there is mould or some other nasty hiding in the woodwork. Add the constant pain from my hip (and then knees and back etc) into the mix and I am not a happy or pleasant person to be around right now.

The Man Flu lasted about 5 days and then, of course, Himself came down with it. It was a virus that hit hard and heavy and then disappeared leaving a nagging cough. 

I was able to catch up with Other Brother and Fave Sis in Law in spite of the lurgy. Fortunately we live in such a lovely part of the world that they were able to enjoy their time here without my constant presence.

Sally came to stay last week. I collected her from Stratford which is about an hour from here. Three et al had been camping at Dargo with Amy's family and friends and Stratford was the most logical pick up point. Unfortunately it was Easter Monday and the traffic heading back to Melbourne was horrendous. I managed to get completely lost in the back of Bairnsdale trying to take a detour but did discover some lovely countryside! 

I returned the child on Friday and whilst in the big smoke bought myself a new phone. I found a deal where I was able to get the 512GB version for less than the 128GB normally retails. It is still in the box as I need to learn how to drive it! Actually it isn't a phone that takes photos, it's a camera that I can make calls with - and a hand held computer. We need to stop calling these devices phones. 

We are going to change our service provider as the one we are with currently (and have been since mobile phones became a thing) has shocking coverage in the sticks and their customer service has gone to the dogs. We just need to decide which devil to go with. Optus or Telstra. That is a job for Himself. He is the seeker and negotiator of deals in this house (ie he talks to people and I don't).

On the new build front things are coming along really well. The exterior is nearly finished and I am so pleased with how it is looking. Once the scaffolding is down I will show you. The interior is also zooming along. We think we have chosen the landscaper and all things going well we should be in by some time in July. 

The Crazy Woman went quiet until today. We had stopped to chat with her immediate neighbour (Bee) as you do. As we were getting back in the car she drove around the corner, saw us and stopped and glared. Had she been a minute earlier she would have seen us chatting to Bee. Within half an hour Himself got a text from her telling us to stop snooping around her house. I replied and told her we were talking with Bee, couldn't care less about her house, were fed up with her behaviour, to mind her own fucking business and keep her nose out of ours. I was a tad pissed off. She has since sent a couple of other messages which we are ignoring.

My craft has been limited to some basic knitting. A crochet project ended up in the bin. The local yarn store has closed down but I did buy some lovely stuff for future projects. I just need a happy place in which I can create.

So. You can see why I haven't been updating or even commenting on my blogging mates. I am a bit of a misery guts and have been hibernating. Time to put on my big girl pants, pull up my socks and get over myself. Feel free to suggest other metaphors!