I have just looked up Google, to find the origin of this term, and its all a bit odd. According to Google, 'got the bot' is a Kiwi saying that means all is good. Well, my Dad used to use it, being a Kiwi and all, to say he was crook, sick, under the weather, you know what I mean.
I thought I would look up some other words for sick, guess what I found.
http://www.internetslang.com/SICK-meaning-definition.asp says sick means, 'awesome, cool".
Heaven help the English language.
Well I am not feeling awesome or cool, I am feeling sick in the original term, in other words 'got the bot'.
Peter got it first, and in his generous way, handed it on to me. We haven't had the fevers, so its not the real flu. There have been quite a few deaths with the Type A flu doing the rounds this year, it's a nasty one. But what Peter got, and so lovingly shared, is a cold of the inth degrree, and then a cough. And it's the sort of cough that comes from your boots up, and almost brings up the entire stomach with it.
So we toddled off to the doc who says our chests are clear. That was my main concern, don't want to get chest infections. What we seem to have is a head manufacturing tons of gunk, and it's mostly running down and becoming, rather than a post nasal drip, a post nasal waterfall. I tried different night and day pills, which help for a while, and once my head dries up for a while I can lie down in bed, but once the coughing starts again, I have to get up. So last night was my best nights sleep for a few days, three hours in bed then another three hours in the armchair. This house has lovely comfy leather lazyboy armchairs, and they are okay for sleeping in too.
Fortunately, there is still enough firewood left so we have kept the fire going all night to keep the house warm and toasty, and as we are up and down all night, the house is very comfy. But the firewood will come to an end soon. Peter says there is more there, it just needs chopping, but he is still feeling a bit 'bot-ish' still, so no wood chopping for him for a while. Once we get over this,we won't need the fire much, the weather is warming up, and the evenings are not so cold either.
So I will be back in a day or two, once I get over the worst of this thing.
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Wattle flowers, warmer weather.
Summer is on the way. The evenings are getting longer and there is a warmth in the air. Another thing is the wattle trees in flower.
Australia has many different varieties of wattle tree, it is the Australian emblem. At the moment there are lots of this variety in bloom. I have tried to find the name of this particular wattle and it may be the Earpod wattle, but I am not sure about that.
Its not so easy to see the yellow flowers here, they are shaped like a short cylindrical spike. This tree has thousands of them. These trees are a bit spindly, but there is a whole line of them not far from where we are house sitting.
From a distance these wattle trees look pale yellow. You can see the very clear blue sky behind them, we have had a wonderful spell of fine dry weather. Yes, I think summer is on the way.
Oh, and the number 8 wire has been out again, fixing things around the pool, the leak is all fixed the water is fabulously clean and clear, the pump is working well and Peter has even got the old creepy crawly working again. Its quite a big job keeping the pool clean when you have to work with a manual brush/sucker thing on the hose. The creepy crawler is much easier.
And as I write this, just on dark, the kookaburras are up in the tree outside laughing their heads off, telling the neighbouring birds to keep their distance.
Australia has many different varieties of wattle tree, it is the Australian emblem. At the moment there are lots of this variety in bloom. I have tried to find the name of this particular wattle and it may be the Earpod wattle, but I am not sure about that.
Oh, and the number 8 wire has been out again, fixing things around the pool, the leak is all fixed the water is fabulously clean and clear, the pump is working well and Peter has even got the old creepy crawly working again. Its quite a big job keeping the pool clean when you have to work with a manual brush/sucker thing on the hose. The creepy crawler is much easier.
And as I write this, just on dark, the kookaburras are up in the tree outside laughing their heads off, telling the neighbouring birds to keep their distance.
Fabulous view of Manly waterfront
Over the past couple of days I have tried to fit in a few things. Yesterday I visited the company where Peter and I did our TESOL training. Maybe there will be a bit of work for me. I had an interesting couple of hours, then went and stayed the night with one of my sons. This morning I visited Di, a writing friend of mine who also house sits.
Di has been house sitting for several years, although soon she plans to put her life into the boot of her car and travel around Australia. She is also a blogger, and you can read her blog here:
http://housesitdiary.blogspot.com.au/
We have known each other for quite a while now, did our Masters Degrees together and she was a teacher in China too, so we have a lot in common.
The house sit that Di currently has is in Manly, and the house overlooks the beach. Peter and I went down to the beach after leaving Di and had a milkshake. This was the view as we sat by the sea. How stunning is this place?
This view is looking towards the Brisbane airport. The sea is very calm today.
The Brisbane Port is in the background. Look at the lovely cloud formation.
The tide was coming in as we sat and enjoyed our milkshakes. It is quite shallow here, and there were a number of fish jumping. I don't suppose it was the same fish, there must be quite a few out there, and they were quite big too. Because of the cloud cover, the water is a wonderful calming steely blue/gray, with hardly a ripple to be seen. There was a zephyr of wind, which you can see on the waters surface here, along with the calm patches were there is no wind at the moment.
On the horizon you can see some islands. Many of the small islands just off the coast are sand island. One of them is Morton Island, a long narrow sand island that protects the whole bay.
The Manly foreshore here is very popular with walkers and bike riders. This concrete path goes for miles right along the waterfront, so it is safe and easy walking. Mothers with pushchairs run along here, people in the early morning and twilight run or walk, many people bike along here as the path goes for about 9 kms, and often there are families walking, running or biking along here.
It looks like there is a second concrete path being laid here, so that will make it easier, probably having one path for walkers and one for those on bicycles. It is a really beautiful spot.
One of the lovely things about house sitting on the Gold Coast is that it is close to all the Brisbane beaches too, and of course Brisbane city.
Di has been house sitting for several years, although soon she plans to put her life into the boot of her car and travel around Australia. She is also a blogger, and you can read her blog here:
http://housesitdiary.blogspot.com.au/
We have known each other for quite a while now, did our Masters Degrees together and she was a teacher in China too, so we have a lot in common.
The house sit that Di currently has is in Manly, and the house overlooks the beach. Peter and I went down to the beach after leaving Di and had a milkshake. This was the view as we sat by the sea. How stunning is this place?
On the horizon you can see some islands. Many of the small islands just off the coast are sand island. One of them is Morton Island, a long narrow sand island that protects the whole bay.
It looks like there is a second concrete path being laid here, so that will make it easier, probably having one path for walkers and one for those on bicycles. It is a really beautiful spot.
One of the lovely things about house sitting on the Gold Coast is that it is close to all the Brisbane beaches too, and of course Brisbane city.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Billions of bees buzz the almond trees.
Wherever we are in the country, we listen to the ABC radio. Our current house sit has the radio tuned into a local station, so we listen to that sometimes, but you can always find the ABC to listen to at night, and on Sunday mornings. We often listen to Macca on Sunday all over, from early morning to 10 am.
He had some very interesting snippets on his program yesterday. There is currnently a whole bunch of trucks moving towards farms in North West Victoria full of bee hives. They travel at night when the bees are quiet and stay put during the day, giving them a little bit of exercise and water. They are all going to pollinate the almond trees.
Here is a direct quote from the ABC website http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201207/s3547385.htm
"The annual pilgrimage to pollinate 11,000 hectares of crop, this year will involve about 180 beekeepers, with 110,000 bee hives.
He had some very interesting snippets on his program yesterday. There is currnently a whole bunch of trucks moving towards farms in North West Victoria full of bee hives. They travel at night when the bees are quiet and stay put during the day, giving them a little bit of exercise and water. They are all going to pollinate the almond trees.
Here is a direct quote from the ABC website http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201207/s3547385.htm
"The annual pilgrimage to pollinate 11,000 hectares of crop, this year will involve about 180 beekeepers, with 110,000 bee hives.
And the man who knows where every hive is, is pollination coordinator Trevor Monson.
He says the logistics of it can start to blow his mind, but it's all worth it.
"You know the stress gets at you every now and then, but then when all the blossoms come out and on a warm day and all the bees are happily buzzing around, well then, then you forget about it all and just all comes together." "
There are a couple of photos on the website too, and a couple of mp3 files with more information. I thought it was amazing that they would transport thousands of full behives all over the country to pollinate fruit trees like that. I guess when it is finished they pack up their hives and take them home again. Maybe they visit other places too? I don't know.
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Havoc on the highway.
This has been one of those days. A bus crashed on the motorway, heading south, not far from Beenleigh.
Today started off badly, with me having bad nights sleep, supposedly leaving home by 9am and my being woken up at 9am. Whoops...a bit late already.
Our current house sit is close to our youngest son. He and his partner bought some new furniture, but didn't realise it was all in flat packs. They spent hours putting it together, but ended up with piles of cardboard boxes, big ones, and lots of left over packing. So in his kindness, Peter offered to take our trailer up and take it all to the dump, hence the 9am departure time. We got on the road about 9.45am. He lives not far away so in 20 minutes or so we were there.
I looked a bit of a mess, not having time for a shower or anything, basically throwing on some clothes and having a couple of bits of toast. My hair needed some quality time spent on it, but didn't get it...lol.
It took two trips to take all to the dump, but it was all done in an hour or so. While the boys were doing the heavy work, my sons partner took me to the Hyperdome for a foot massage and pedicure. I just love a good foot massage, having been used to the real deal in China, and we felt really relaxed once they had finished with us. Then we all met up for lunch at Sizzlers. From there we could see the motorway and knew it was going really slowly. About an hour later we headed for home. Bad move.
We got into the traffic, heading for the motorway. But there was no action. The lights went red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green and we just sat still. It was the traffic jam from hell....We turned the motor off for a while, then decided to get into the left lane and try for the service road that runs alongside the motorway. Unfortunately they were diverting all south bound traffic from the motorway onto the roundabout we were heading for, so the whole place was almost at a standstill.
This traffic was moving, but at a snails pace, and we were a bit low on gas. After spending about 30 minutes going half a kilometer, we turned off to get petrol, and headed for a Macca's for a coffee. At the same time we phoned the info line 131940 and were told there would be further delays.
A bus had rolled, and blocked all lanes going south. It was a busload of Indonesians heading off to Dreamworld for the day, and changing lanes had contacted another vehicle and rolled over. From the website information possibly the bus driver was not to blame for this. I gather there were no seious injuries, so that was amazing really, the speed limit there is 100 or 110km per hour. But it sure did some damage to the traffic flows.
After our coffee, and with more petrol we aimed for the motorway again. This time they were allowing traffic onto the motorway, they had cleared away all the wreckage, but everything was very slow and stop/start. A trip that normally takes us about 20 minutes took just under 3 hours.
If you want more info check this link.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/pacific-highway-reopens-after-tourist-bus-rolls-en-route-to-dreamworld/story-e6frfq80-1226453113271
I'm very pleased the olympics have finished, I've got my nights back. But the Bledisloe cup is on now, there's always something. Go the All blacks....
Today started off badly, with me having bad nights sleep, supposedly leaving home by 9am and my being woken up at 9am. Whoops...a bit late already.
Our current house sit is close to our youngest son. He and his partner bought some new furniture, but didn't realise it was all in flat packs. They spent hours putting it together, but ended up with piles of cardboard boxes, big ones, and lots of left over packing. So in his kindness, Peter offered to take our trailer up and take it all to the dump, hence the 9am departure time. We got on the road about 9.45am. He lives not far away so in 20 minutes or so we were there.
I looked a bit of a mess, not having time for a shower or anything, basically throwing on some clothes and having a couple of bits of toast. My hair needed some quality time spent on it, but didn't get it...lol.
It took two trips to take all to the dump, but it was all done in an hour or so. While the boys were doing the heavy work, my sons partner took me to the Hyperdome for a foot massage and pedicure. I just love a good foot massage, having been used to the real deal in China, and we felt really relaxed once they had finished with us. Then we all met up for lunch at Sizzlers. From there we could see the motorway and knew it was going really slowly. About an hour later we headed for home. Bad move.
We got into the traffic, heading for the motorway. But there was no action. The lights went red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green and we just sat still. It was the traffic jam from hell....We turned the motor off for a while, then decided to get into the left lane and try for the service road that runs alongside the motorway. Unfortunately they were diverting all south bound traffic from the motorway onto the roundabout we were heading for, so the whole place was almost at a standstill.
This traffic was moving, but at a snails pace, and we were a bit low on gas. After spending about 30 minutes going half a kilometer, we turned off to get petrol, and headed for a Macca's for a coffee. At the same time we phoned the info line 131940 and were told there would be further delays.
A bus had rolled, and blocked all lanes going south. It was a busload of Indonesians heading off to Dreamworld for the day, and changing lanes had contacted another vehicle and rolled over. From the website information possibly the bus driver was not to blame for this. I gather there were no seious injuries, so that was amazing really, the speed limit there is 100 or 110km per hour. But it sure did some damage to the traffic flows.
After our coffee, and with more petrol we aimed for the motorway again. This time they were allowing traffic onto the motorway, they had cleared away all the wreckage, but everything was very slow and stop/start. A trip that normally takes us about 20 minutes took just under 3 hours.
If you want more info check this link.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/pacific-highway-reopens-after-tourist-bus-rolls-en-route-to-dreamworld/story-e6frfq80-1226453113271
I'm very pleased the olympics have finished, I've got my nights back. But the Bledisloe cup is on now, there's always something. Go the All blacks....
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Beautiful Dalian by the sea.
Beautiful Dalian
Dalian city. Not really all that beautiful.
I will indulge myself in one more nostalgic trip down memory lane from my time in China. Dalian is a city in northern China and has a top-notch reputation as a tourist destination. I decided a trip there before I came back to Aussie for good was a good plan. This is the story I just pounded out on my computer on my return, but not edited.
Well, three days in Dalian
This beach would be full of people in the summer, but this was a very cold spring day. The windows needed cleaning too.
Back on the bus and on to the next thing, a trip in a boat. BUT, the boat trip is not included in the price. 110 rmb to do this, but we get to see the Japanese headquarters etc, a good place to visit we are told. The price also includes a cable car gondola thing to a look out up the top of a high hill. Ok everyone pays up. Muggins us. Anyway, the boat has a long queue so we go to the cable car first. This is a scary thing, it’s a garden slatted seat on a little pole attached to a wire that takes you up the steep hill. I was wavering thinking “I don’t think I can do this!” when the seat came up behind, hit me in the knees and I was sitting swinging in this garden seat on a wire! The only good thing was that it wasn’t that far off the ground, if I fell, I would break some bones, but probably live.
I got to the top and looked around, and what do you know…other buses drive up…free of course!!! The scene is quite pretty, need the loo again, down lots of steps to a similar one as before but only me, so I indulge myself.
From the top, the swinging garden seat brings everyone back down to the bus and then we go to the boat trip. We are lined up like little ducks, and given the obligatory life jackets. Well, they were two slabs of polystyrene incased in bright orange material with long long tapes to tie up around our waists. If the boat did actually have the audacity to tip, we would be trapped inside, all of us, floating against the ceiling like little dead ducks. We get going, it is a little ferry like I used to use in
The final thing is a visit to Xinghai Plaza ,
the biggest one in Asia . On reflection I don't know if I have got this name right, because according to the internet Xinghai Plaza is in the middle of town, and we drove around it, a completely different place. We never did get to see it, or the Polar place that was on our itinerary either. It was closed for the day...haha... Actually it is a very large piece of flat green
grass with some trees and roads etc. We
just drive round here. Then, thankfully
its home time. The news is on, there’s
been a big earthquake in Qinghai , not far from
Tibet
There’s time for a rest before everyone gets picked up for the night tour. The brochure promises two and a half hours to see the sights at night. We get in the bus and go to the Russian area of town, just a few buildings with lots of tacky shops selling tacky souvenirs. Back in to the bus, and round the town, which is okay but nothing like
The beaches around the edges of
I won’t bore you with the next day tour, suffice it to say that the three holes of golf turned out to be hit three balls at a driving range. The hunting adventure turned out to be fire two bullets at a firing range. The beach turned out to be beautiful, well it will be when it’s finished its construction, although it’s all stones, no sand, the convention center will probably be nice too when its finished and there is a whole new city out there, one hour from town and it will probably be really lovely when the shops open and they actually get people living out there. In the meantime it’s a ghost town.
Oh by the way, I really enjoyed the bit when the bus left some of us behind at the rock garden because we didn’t pay the 170 rmb extra to do whatever it was the others paid to do. I still don’t know what they did, but I sure gave the tour guide the length on my tongue about leaving us in the freezing cold, nothing to do, no shelter, and no loo (Oh, such an important thing) for an hour and a half!!! Pity she didn’t understand a word of my English, but she got the point!! Umm, another hours visit to a shopping centre, that turns out to be another version of yesterdays dried fish and jewelry. To help my flight home, a phone call comes to say my flight has been cancelled back to
To finish off, I think Dianna and Margaret Thatcher would be mortified to see the waxworks of themselves, neither of them recognizable, and Dianna would be terribly miffed at the straw hair wig she was wearing, it was just dreadful, but that was free, along with a visit to a museum next door about rocks and we got to go to the toilet on the edge of some newly developing fabulous resort area. At least this was a lovely western loo, and clean. It was worth the whole 150 rmb on its own!!! Ahhhh….. This is
It's pretty dry out here!
Moving from place to place and from state to state, it's interesting to see the ways the different seasons unfold.
We had a very wet early winter here on the Gold Coast, and now it is nearly spring, we have gone about a month without a drop of rain and everything is getting really dry. With some strong northly winds, we are having fire warnings in the south east, especially around Ipswich way. The whole south east is drying out, so I hope we are not in for a bad fire season round this way.
We know from living here some years ago that the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast can get some pretty severe storms. Around October/November, most afternoons, a thunder storm will build and pass through. These are good for the ground, apart from the fact that lightning combines with the raindrops to provide good fertilising for the soil, the showers are often pretty heavy but short, so the gardens get a good drop of rain, and then the sun comes out again not long after.
But the thing that really impresses me, coming from the green, cooler, wetter NZ, is the grass and native plants around here. They have the ability to withstand the drought conditions with style. Often in the summer there are watering restrictions round this area, so no one can water their lawns. And in this house sit with an acre to water, it would be out of the question anyway. (The owners have lots of pots which we water, but the general garden usually waits for the rain.) But the grass is amazing. So many times I have seen the grass wither during the summer, go dry, actually go quite crunchy underfoot, and then appear to completely die. It can be like that for quite a while. If the storms come regularly, its not so bad, they get a drink often, but if the storms don't drop water on your little patch of land, the grass can appear to be absolutely beyond help.
And then it rains, maybe for a day or two, or maybe lots of showers, and all of a sudden in just a few days, its back. You can almost see the green returning as you watch it, and before you know it, your lawn is back. Its the same with the trees, especially the gum trees, that look half dead when they go without water for a long time, but give them the rain, and they are back, good as new. These types of grass and trees must have wonderful self preservation capabilites built into them for survival. Amazing really.
We had a very wet early winter here on the Gold Coast, and now it is nearly spring, we have gone about a month without a drop of rain and everything is getting really dry. With some strong northly winds, we are having fire warnings in the south east, especially around Ipswich way. The whole south east is drying out, so I hope we are not in for a bad fire season round this way.
We know from living here some years ago that the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast can get some pretty severe storms. Around October/November, most afternoons, a thunder storm will build and pass through. These are good for the ground, apart from the fact that lightning combines with the raindrops to provide good fertilising for the soil, the showers are often pretty heavy but short, so the gardens get a good drop of rain, and then the sun comes out again not long after.
But the thing that really impresses me, coming from the green, cooler, wetter NZ, is the grass and native plants around here. They have the ability to withstand the drought conditions with style. Often in the summer there are watering restrictions round this area, so no one can water their lawns. And in this house sit with an acre to water, it would be out of the question anyway. (The owners have lots of pots which we water, but the general garden usually waits for the rain.) But the grass is amazing. So many times I have seen the grass wither during the summer, go dry, actually go quite crunchy underfoot, and then appear to completely die. It can be like that for quite a while. If the storms come regularly, its not so bad, they get a drink often, but if the storms don't drop water on your little patch of land, the grass can appear to be absolutely beyond help.
And then it rains, maybe for a day or two, or maybe lots of showers, and all of a sudden in just a few days, its back. You can almost see the green returning as you watch it, and before you know it, your lawn is back. Its the same with the trees, especially the gum trees, that look half dead when they go without water for a long time, but give them the rain, and they are back, good as new. These types of grass and trees must have wonderful self preservation capabilites built into them for survival. Amazing really.
Had to get out the number 8 wire.
There has been lots of bad flu around this year, and I think I have had a touch of it, not badly, but enough for a few days rest. Headaches and sore throat was as bad as it got fortunately, and this house sit has a lemon tree, so lemon and honey drinks are always good when you feel a bit blah like this.
We, well Peter really, had to get out his number 8 wire. This house sit has a lovely pool. Pools always take a bit of your time every day, keeping them clean etc, and lately we have had quite a bit of wind and with all the trees on this block we get quite a few leaves in the pool when there are high winds. But our main problem was a leak. Its been slowly leaking for quite a while, I think I mentioned it to the owners before they left. Its wasn't a lot, but there was constant puddling at the wall at the base of the pool. After consulting with the owners, who asked us to see what we could do, Peter made a start.
The pool has a wooden deck around it, at the filter end, so half of the deck had to be lifted up first. The it was a matter of breaking away some of the concrete around the skimmer box, which is where the leak seemed to be coming from. After digging up the soil around the base of the skimmer box, and exposing the pipes, sure enough, there was the leak. It wasn't pouring out, but a solid heaving drip, certainly enough to warrant some repairs.
One of our sons is a builder and knows lots about repairing pipes etc, so after a little consultation session with him, Peter bought some fibreglass boggy stuff, that is supposed to dry in a few minutes, be completely waterproof and fix anything to do with pipes. He partly emptied the pool, getting the water level down so that the skimmer box would dry out properly.
He spent quite a bit of time over the last few days working out there, making sure the pipes were ok, fixing it, leaving it to dry, and double checking everything. He knows about motors and pumps and stuff, it is all completely out of my league, but we have had pools in our homes in New Zealand, so he knows how these things work.
Satisfied that the leak was fixed, he put some flour underneath the pipes, and left it overnight. His theory was that any leak would show up in the flour the next morning. Not a drop to be seen!
The motor for the filter had been switched off for a couple of days, so when he went to turn it back on, the switch, which I think must be have been installed when the pool was built some time ago, fell apart in his hands. After another trip to Bunnings, which opened not long ago down the road, and has already extracted a few dollars from our purses, he tried to replace the switch. But something was not right, so we had to get a qualified electrician in. He came the other day, fixed it all up beautifuly, and the pool is now full again, sparkling clean and all the pooling from the leak at the base of the pool has gone. All nice and dry.
So today he is off for a couple more lengths of wood to replace a couple of old bits from the deck and make the deck supports a bit stronger underneath and he can put his number 8 wire away for a while.
Now all we want is some nice warm weather to enjoy the pool.
We, well Peter really, had to get out his number 8 wire. This house sit has a lovely pool. Pools always take a bit of your time every day, keeping them clean etc, and lately we have had quite a bit of wind and with all the trees on this block we get quite a few leaves in the pool when there are high winds. But our main problem was a leak. Its been slowly leaking for quite a while, I think I mentioned it to the owners before they left. Its wasn't a lot, but there was constant puddling at the wall at the base of the pool. After consulting with the owners, who asked us to see what we could do, Peter made a start.
The pool has a wooden deck around it, at the filter end, so half of the deck had to be lifted up first. The it was a matter of breaking away some of the concrete around the skimmer box, which is where the leak seemed to be coming from. After digging up the soil around the base of the skimmer box, and exposing the pipes, sure enough, there was the leak. It wasn't pouring out, but a solid heaving drip, certainly enough to warrant some repairs.
One of our sons is a builder and knows lots about repairing pipes etc, so after a little consultation session with him, Peter bought some fibreglass boggy stuff, that is supposed to dry in a few minutes, be completely waterproof and fix anything to do with pipes. He partly emptied the pool, getting the water level down so that the skimmer box would dry out properly.
He spent quite a bit of time over the last few days working out there, making sure the pipes were ok, fixing it, leaving it to dry, and double checking everything. He knows about motors and pumps and stuff, it is all completely out of my league, but we have had pools in our homes in New Zealand, so he knows how these things work.
Satisfied that the leak was fixed, he put some flour underneath the pipes, and left it overnight. His theory was that any leak would show up in the flour the next morning. Not a drop to be seen!
The motor for the filter had been switched off for a couple of days, so when he went to turn it back on, the switch, which I think must be have been installed when the pool was built some time ago, fell apart in his hands. After another trip to Bunnings, which opened not long ago down the road, and has already extracted a few dollars from our purses, he tried to replace the switch. But something was not right, so we had to get a qualified electrician in. He came the other day, fixed it all up beautifuly, and the pool is now full again, sparkling clean and all the pooling from the leak at the base of the pool has gone. All nice and dry.
So today he is off for a couple more lengths of wood to replace a couple of old bits from the deck and make the deck supports a bit stronger underneath and he can put his number 8 wire away for a while.
Now all we want is some nice warm weather to enjoy the pool.
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Erosion along the beach - and - Petrol prices are nuts.
Being fond of the beach, and house sitting close to Surfers, we like to have our little jaunts to the beach and see how things are. We heard there were big seas affecting the sand dunes along the beach so went to have a look.
The waves may have been bigger yesterday, there has been a southerly blow working its way up the coast, and the waves are certainly quite big, and the damage done to the coast over the past little while is substantial.
We went firstly to Burleigh Heads, our favourite spot. There were heaps of surfers enjoying the swell, but it didn't seem to be too bad out there. Then we drove along to the beach just north of the Surfers shops. It is more noticeable there.
Then we drove along further north to Main Beach close to the main surf club and it is amazing how much sand has been washed away. This hasn't happened in the last week or so, but over the last few months we have had some big seas, and it's certainly washing lots of the sand away.
This picture is looking south towards Surfers central shopping area. There is one area at the top where the water level used to be, and now you can see it is much lower.
At one place we saw where it seems trucks are trying to replace some of the sand, but it's going to be a big job.
Just a change of subject here, petrol prices in Australia are crazy, they can change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, and whenever someone, (and no one knows who this is) suddenly decides the price needs to change. We are told the prices are governed by international demand and pricing, but it does stretch the imagination to follow how that works. But as we, the man and woman in the street, or in the car, has no control over this we try and shop around for petrol.
Even though we are told the prices are governed by international trade, somehow, Tuesdays are usually cheaper than any other day. Maybe the Arabs (who provide much of the world's oil) work on Tuesdays, so we have a mini glut, bringing the prices down. Of course, the prices are always much higher on Fridays, and certainly whenever there is a long weekend when people might want to travel, therefore using more petrol, then the prices must, by international pricing principles rise. I guess it is possible that it's just a fluke, and that every long weekend there is some sort of genuine spike in petrol prices?
Woolworths and Coles, the two biggest supermarkets in Australia have pretty much cornered the market in petrol anyway, having their fabulously economical prices (forgive the tongue in cheek) and giving us the benefit of coupons for cheap petrol when we go shopping with these supermarkets that care for their customers.
So on our way home from the little sortee along the beach, what did we find? One of the Woolworths petrol stations, giving the motorist the benefit of 4 cents a litre off, if we spend $30.00 or more on food, would sell us their petrol at the magnificent price of $1.49 per litre, after the 4c comes off. So really they are charging $1.53 per litre for the poor unsuspecting mugs who need the gas.
About 2 kms further along the same road, is an independent petrol retailer, and I can't remember their name, but they would sell me their gas, with no special discounts, just the man off the street, for $1.30 per litre. 20 cents per litre cheaper!!
And another couple of kms along the road was a different independent petrol retailer selling exactly the same stuff for $1.38 per litre.
Now, I am no economist and balancing the weekly budget for bread and water is about my limit, but something tells me that $1.30, $1.38 and $1.53, for exactly the same stuff, on exactly the same day, on the same road, somehow, ain't quite right.
The waves may have been bigger yesterday, there has been a southerly blow working its way up the coast, and the waves are certainly quite big, and the damage done to the coast over the past little while is substantial.
We went firstly to Burleigh Heads, our favourite spot. There were heaps of surfers enjoying the swell, but it didn't seem to be too bad out there. Then we drove along to the beach just north of the Surfers shops. It is more noticeable there.
Then we drove along further north to Main Beach close to the main surf club and it is amazing how much sand has been washed away. This hasn't happened in the last week or so, but over the last few months we have had some big seas, and it's certainly washing lots of the sand away.
I took this picture standing at road level. You can see that there is a drop of about twenty feet down to the water level now.
This is looking straight down from the same spot. You can see from the size of these people walking along the beach how far down they are.
This picture is looking south towards Surfers central shopping area. There is one area at the top where the water level used to be, and now you can see it is much lower.
At one place we saw where it seems trucks are trying to replace some of the sand, but it's going to be a big job.
Just a change of subject here, petrol prices in Australia are crazy, they can change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, and whenever someone, (and no one knows who this is) suddenly decides the price needs to change. We are told the prices are governed by international demand and pricing, but it does stretch the imagination to follow how that works. But as we, the man and woman in the street, or in the car, has no control over this we try and shop around for petrol.
Even though we are told the prices are governed by international trade, somehow, Tuesdays are usually cheaper than any other day. Maybe the Arabs (who provide much of the world's oil) work on Tuesdays, so we have a mini glut, bringing the prices down. Of course, the prices are always much higher on Fridays, and certainly whenever there is a long weekend when people might want to travel, therefore using more petrol, then the prices must, by international pricing principles rise. I guess it is possible that it's just a fluke, and that every long weekend there is some sort of genuine spike in petrol prices?
Woolworths and Coles, the two biggest supermarkets in Australia have pretty much cornered the market in petrol anyway, having their fabulously economical prices (forgive the tongue in cheek) and giving us the benefit of coupons for cheap petrol when we go shopping with these supermarkets that care for their customers.
So on our way home from the little sortee along the beach, what did we find? One of the Woolworths petrol stations, giving the motorist the benefit of 4 cents a litre off, if we spend $30.00 or more on food, would sell us their petrol at the magnificent price of $1.49 per litre, after the 4c comes off. So really they are charging $1.53 per litre for the poor unsuspecting mugs who need the gas.
About 2 kms further along the same road, is an independent petrol retailer, and I can't remember their name, but they would sell me their gas, with no special discounts, just the man off the street, for $1.30 per litre. 20 cents per litre cheaper!!
And another couple of kms along the road was a different independent petrol retailer selling exactly the same stuff for $1.38 per litre.
Now, I am no economist and balancing the weekly budget for bread and water is about my limit, but something tells me that $1.30, $1.38 and $1.53, for exactly the same stuff, on exactly the same day, on the same road, somehow, ain't quite right.
It's been a cold winter.
I don't know whether I am acclimatising now, but I think it has been a really cold winter this year.
When we first moved here from New Zealand, mind you, that was over 12 years ago, or when we came to Australia for holidays during the NZ winters, we would go swimming, go to the beach, and it was warm! Well not now. Fortunately for us, this house sit is on a large block and there is lots of firewood and a good fireplace, so we are having fires every night, and I often marvel at the fact that a few years ago I would have thought this to be warm weather.
But things do seem to have got cooler this year. Sydney has had some terrible weather, gale force winds, and heavy snow in the Blue Mountains, that doesn't happen very often. And those cold winds have flowed unimpeded up the coast to us, and blasted us with the same cold air.
Even the days have not been very warm, the temperature getting close to 20 during the day, but some days only the high teens. So it is still on with all the winter woollies. Bring on the summer!
When we first moved here from New Zealand, mind you, that was over 12 years ago, or when we came to Australia for holidays during the NZ winters, we would go swimming, go to the beach, and it was warm! Well not now. Fortunately for us, this house sit is on a large block and there is lots of firewood and a good fireplace, so we are having fires every night, and I often marvel at the fact that a few years ago I would have thought this to be warm weather.
But things do seem to have got cooler this year. Sydney has had some terrible weather, gale force winds, and heavy snow in the Blue Mountains, that doesn't happen very often. And those cold winds have flowed unimpeded up the coast to us, and blasted us with the same cold air.
Even the days have not been very warm, the temperature getting close to 20 during the day, but some days only the high teens. So it is still on with all the winter woollies. Bring on the summer!
Kubuqi desert.
Following on from yesterday, after visiting the
grasslands, the bus tour went to the Kubuqi desert. This is just a couple of
hours out of Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. Hohhot was a mixture
of Chinese and Mongolian, both sets of writing on all the buildings and street
signs. Chinese is hard enough to learn, but the Mongolian language seems harder
still.
Once up there we had to queue for camel rides. Well, this
was a really weird experience. I am no skinny minny, and it took a bit to get
the leg over and on top of this animal. There was no saddle, I just sat on a
blanket. And there was nothing to hold on to, I just had to hold on for dear
life to the wiry hairs poking out of the top of his hump. I don’t know if it
hurt or not, he didn’t say, but it was not very comfortable.
Where it is normal for us to get out into the sunshine,
and get a bit of a tan, the Chinese hate the sunshine with a vengeance,
considering a ‘white’ skin to be far more appealing. So when the get out in the
open they cover themselves up like you wouldn’t believe. The man is not covered up so much but look at the woman behind him, hat, face mask, and she would have covered up her hands once she got out too probably.
We were all given special ‘sand shoes’, a bit like soft wellies or gumboots that would make it possible to walk on the very hot sand. In our case, the sand was not too hot and after a while I walked in bare feet, it was much better.
This place was obviously set up for tourists, but nevertheless, you got a feeling for what the desert was like. We got a ride to the top on a special sort of people carrier.
When a camel stands up, you may have seen this on TV,
they roll forwards (so you feel like you will fall over their heads) then they
roll backwards (so you feel as if you will fall over backwards) and they when
they walk their bodies roll forwards and backwards, not side to side. They also
have very bony backs, so by the time my ride was up, after about half an hour I
was getting pretty sore. Anyway it was a great experience, something I am
really pleased I did.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Reminscing on my trip to Inner Mongolia.
This is a bit of a nostaligic week for me. Looking back two years, this is the week I left China for the last time. I'm really happy here and house sitting gives us a chance to still do a few different things, travel and not feel bogged down and bored, but sometimes the old homesickness for China comes to visit for a while.
Before I left I had a trip to Inner Mongolia. I had so many places I wanted to visit in China, but you need years of travelling to see all the famous places, i'ts just not possible. But a trip to Inner Mongolia was on my list, so I did that just before I flew home.
This was one of the most interesting trips I made, partly because it was so different from the rest of China and because I planned to do a few unusual things. I took a three day bus tour which took me to the grasslands and then a day trip to the desert. I have ridden on an elephant in Thailand, and I had a hankering to ride a camel too.
The grasslands are just wide open spaces, with little habitation, but the amount of agriculture that goes on there is absolutely mind boggling. One bus ride of about five hours had vegetables growing as far as the eye could see, on both sides of the road, and considering they only have a few months of summer, they must have it down to a fine art.
I took this from the bus window and we were high up but this is sweet corn growing. These fields went as far as the eye could see. It is also one of the major potato growing areas for China. Even though the Chinese eat tons of rice, they also eat a lot of potatoes.
I went with a friend who had never seen such a clear sky. The skies in China itself are usually smoggy, especially in the cities. There were scenes there that got my creative juices flowing. The day after I got back I wrote this short story. It says it all really.
Never had she felt so small, so insignificant, such a little speck on this great big ball we call our home. Never before had she felt such oneness with the earth, with the endless sky, and the emptiness of it all.
I got up really early to take some pictures of dawn over the grasslands. It was very quiet and peaceful and very beautiful.
Before I left I had a trip to Inner Mongolia. I had so many places I wanted to visit in China, but you need years of travelling to see all the famous places, i'ts just not possible. But a trip to Inner Mongolia was on my list, so I did that just before I flew home.
This was one of the most interesting trips I made, partly because it was so different from the rest of China and because I planned to do a few unusual things. I took a three day bus tour which took me to the grasslands and then a day trip to the desert. I have ridden on an elephant in Thailand, and I had a hankering to ride a camel too.
The grasslands are just wide open spaces, with little habitation, but the amount of agriculture that goes on there is absolutely mind boggling. One bus ride of about five hours had vegetables growing as far as the eye could see, on both sides of the road, and considering they only have a few months of summer, they must have it down to a fine art.
I took this from the bus window and we were high up but this is sweet corn growing. These fields went as far as the eye could see. It is also one of the major potato growing areas for China. Even though the Chinese eat tons of rice, they also eat a lot of potatoes.
I went with a friend who had never seen such a clear sky. The skies in China itself are usually smoggy, especially in the cities. There were scenes there that got my creative juices flowing. The day after I got back I wrote this short story. It says it all really.
The silent grasslands.
Never
had she heard such silence. Never before
had she been in such a wide open place, where the cold wind could wander at
will, to go around or through you depending on its whim. Never had she seen such a vast almost
uninhabited land, with few people, no high rises, no buses, cars or motorbikes
with horns a-honking.
She
stood in awe, neck straining back, eyes reflecting the myriads of stars in the
sky. Never had she seen such a clear
sky. She gazed at the edge of our galaxy displaying its splendour as
it silently flowed from north to south, its white opaline dust almost within
reach. This was the first time in her twenty eight years of life she had seen the
Milky Way. Never had she felt so small, so insignificant, such a little speck on this great big ball we call our home. Never before had she felt such oneness with the earth, with the endless sky, and the emptiness of it all.
For
a young Chinese woman, used to living in what are called ‘small’ cities of
perhaps two or three million people, the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia were
a wonderland of space. The tall grass heads
moved with a breeze unimpeded by endless blocks of tall apartments. The air was clean, no smog, no fumes from
hundreds of smelly old buses trundling by.
The water running beside the roadside was clear and pure, and out in the
vast emptiness there was no light pollution to veil the stars from her gaze.
She
stood there in the late evening watching the moon rise over a bank of
trees. She was outside the little Yurt, the local dwelling she would soon sleep
in. She stood thus for a long long time,
quiet, absorbing the silence, opening her face to the wind, at peace. 
These are the little round Yurts where everyone on the bus tour stayed. They were not very big and had a bathroom at the back, pretty smelly in my case, the toilet didn't work properly.
Eating out at sports clubs.
When you move around with house sitting, one of the places to find is a good cheap place to eat out. We don't go out much for dinner, but will sometimes have lunch out, and finding a place that has a good price and a good meal can take a while.
Australia has a fabulous network of sports clubs right around the country, and many of them have excellent dining rooms. Its a bit of trial and error at first to find one we like, but we generally ask someone in the local shops. Where we are at the moment, we have been going to the Helensvale Bowling Club. They have large facilites, a large dining room, and good cheap food.
Like most clubs, they also have a bar and coffee bar, along with a large area of comfy chairs. A coffee and cake is not expensive and if you are a member you get a further discount. As we are in this area for a while we have joined this club. It only costs about $5 per year, and it also gives you access to all the other sports clubs in Aussie too. Its a great system they have here.
Like all these clubs, it has a room full of pokie machines if you want to spend a few dollars. So if you are house sitting on the northern end of the Gold Coast, you might like to try this place for lunch. Its almost immediately opposite the Helensvale Community Centre, close to the Helensvale Westfield mall.
Australia has a fabulous network of sports clubs right around the country, and many of them have excellent dining rooms. Its a bit of trial and error at first to find one we like, but we generally ask someone in the local shops. Where we are at the moment, we have been going to the Helensvale Bowling Club. They have large facilites, a large dining room, and good cheap food.
On Mondays and Tuesdays they have a pensioners discount, and lunch is $4.00 each. It's almost impossible to get anything like that these days. In the past, meals at pubs and clubs used to be cheap, but the costs have gone up alot everywhere. This club has a selection of meals, pork chops, rissoles, sausages, ham steaks, beef, chicken etc, with mashed potatos or chips and veges. It's not a huge meal, but certainly enough. At nights they have their $10 specials which also are terrific value.
This seems to be quite a large bowling club, there are 21 greens. You can see the clubhouse in the background.
Like all these clubs, it has a room full of pokie machines if you want to spend a few dollars. So if you are house sitting on the northern end of the Gold Coast, you might like to try this place for lunch. Its almost immediately opposite the Helensvale Community Centre, close to the Helensvale Westfield mall.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Chinese swimmers.
While I'm here, I might as well give you another newspaper link that Peter found. Its about the Chinese swimmers being trained here in Oz, by an 82 year old, and they're collecting Olympic medals like they are going out of fashion.
They live and train in Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane, and he seems to have got the Chinese psyche sorted out. Honestly, once you have lived there for a while you soon get to know that they can be single minded in a way that most Westerners can't even dream of.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/london-olympics/how-a-swim-school-in-redcliffe-is-driving-chinas-olympic-gold-rush/story-fn9di2lk-1226443138591
An interesting story.
They live and train in Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane, and he seems to have got the Chinese psyche sorted out. Honestly, once you have lived there for a while you soon get to know that they can be single minded in a way that most Westerners can't even dream of.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/london-olympics/how-a-swim-school-in-redcliffe-is-driving-chinas-olympic-gold-rush/story-fn9di2lk-1226443138591
An interesting story.
Overseas public libraries.
I wrote a book. It is self published through Amazon.com, well through Create Space, which is an arm of Amazon.com. It's about the first year Peter and I spent living and teaching English in China. Its a pretty good yarn and has lots of how-to information for anyone planning to go there, either to visit or live.
I have been trying to find out how to get it into public libraries. This is a resource that would be helpful to many people. But it's hard to find out how to contact the local libraries in many countries.
From the stats I see that there are people from quite a few countries around the world who read this blog. If you are in in a country that has English books in the public libraries, and if you feel so inclined, and want to enquire from your local library who I should contact, I would be delighted to hear from you. If you want to contact me at englishstoriesforfun@gmail.com I would be pleased to get any information regarding this.
I have been trying to find out how to get it into public libraries. This is a resource that would be helpful to many people. But it's hard to find out how to contact the local libraries in many countries.
From the stats I see that there are people from quite a few countries around the world who read this blog. If you are in in a country that has English books in the public libraries, and if you feel so inclined, and want to enquire from your local library who I should contact, I would be delighted to hear from you. If you want to contact me at englishstoriesforfun@gmail.com I would be pleased to get any information regarding this.
It is available at: https://tsw.createspace.com/title/3862700
or as an ebook at:
or through my website: www.englishstoriesforfun.com
Sorry, the blue is really hard to read isn't it, and this site doesn't like it if I try and change the color.
True blue, ridgy didge, and all that.
One of the backbones of Australian culture is the mateship, the true blue behaviour, the ridgy didge honesty, and according to one of our previous prime ministers, having a fair shake of the sauce bottle. You know what I mean? Up-front, above board, fair go and all that.
Well, those dratted Olympics are still on, and nowhere else is it more blatantly obvious that us Ozzies are true blue and ridgy didge. We get behind our athletes, channel 9 TV spends hours covering their exploits, (mind you it covers far more ads than sports), interviewing them, and generally giving those of us who are more housebound, and certainly those of us who don't have paid TV, a balanced overview of the Olympic world.
NOT!
Sitting in my comfortable leather armchair yesterday the TV presenter made a hurried comment about New Zealand doing better than Aussie in the medal count, but not to mention that! As I have said in other posts, Peter browses the newspapers daily, and guess what he found yesterday.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/7415429/New-Zealand-races-up-alternative-medal-tables
If you want good, (I won't say unbiased, because I don't think any newspaper is unbiased) but certainly wide coverage of anything, Stuff.co.nz is pretty good. Even when we lived in China we used to get more info about China from this site than anywhere else. But, back to the games. Here is a direct copy/paste from the NZ paper.
"New Zealand's gold medal rowers have pushed the country to the top of the population-based Olympic medal ranking table, and Australia's not too happy about it.
Victory in the rowing pairs and single events overnight, along with a cycling bronze for the men's pursuit team, took the Kiwi medal tally to three gold and three bronze medals.
In contrast to the joy in this country at the performance of our athletes, many Australians are glumly contemplating their meagre - for them - haul of one gold, nine silver and four bronze.
So deep is the despair that official free-to-air Australian Olympic broadcaster Channel 9 avoided showing New Zealand's charge up the medal table, which took this country to tenth at one stage before settling at 12th by the end of the day."
Now, if you are watching channel 9, when they show the medal tally, they absolutely do show only the top few medal winning countries, then they plonk Aussie at the bottom.
Now the rub: Here is a further quote from that newspaper,
"According to an alternative ranking system, New Zealand is first when calculated on a population basis, 11th when the table is based on GDP, and 22nd when based on team size.
The alternative tables are a co-production of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians from Imperial College in London, and The Guardian's Datablog section.
Apparently these guys did not want to make anything too easy, so they say they have worked out how many medals each country would have won based on a weighted count.
Using that approach, when the medal count is population based, New Zealand would have won 21 gold medals by now and 12.6 bronze for a total medal haul of 33.6, while Slovenia would be second with 14.9 gold and 17.9 bronze for a total of 32.8." End of quote.
So, someone decided they would work things out on a population based method. This would put NZ first, and China way down the bottom.
At the end of the day, I don't worry too much about how many medals anyone has got. I know for a fact that I won't be getting any, nor any of my friends or family. So that takes away the immediacy of the problem.
But at the same time, when living in Australia, a country whose news generally refuses to admit that NZ actually exists, (except for the times the NZ apples bring in some bugs of some sort), it's really hard to get any good up to date news on the NZ Olympic efforts. As for those poor souls from other obscure countries, they will never get any news of their Olympic exploits, the TV stations wouldn't dream of telling us.
Anyway, the method of giving us the medal tally, I thought, was a really good example of the good ole true blueness of living in a ridgy didge country where the sauce bottle gets the hole glugged up from underuse.
Well, those dratted Olympics are still on, and nowhere else is it more blatantly obvious that us Ozzies are true blue and ridgy didge. We get behind our athletes, channel 9 TV spends hours covering their exploits, (mind you it covers far more ads than sports), interviewing them, and generally giving those of us who are more housebound, and certainly those of us who don't have paid TV, a balanced overview of the Olympic world.
NOT!
Sitting in my comfortable leather armchair yesterday the TV presenter made a hurried comment about New Zealand doing better than Aussie in the medal count, but not to mention that! As I have said in other posts, Peter browses the newspapers daily, and guess what he found yesterday.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/7415429/New-Zealand-races-up-alternative-medal-tables
If you want good, (I won't say unbiased, because I don't think any newspaper is unbiased) but certainly wide coverage of anything, Stuff.co.nz is pretty good. Even when we lived in China we used to get more info about China from this site than anywhere else. But, back to the games. Here is a direct copy/paste from the NZ paper.
"New Zealand's gold medal rowers have pushed the country to the top of the population-based Olympic medal ranking table, and Australia's not too happy about it.
Victory in the rowing pairs and single events overnight, along with a cycling bronze for the men's pursuit team, took the Kiwi medal tally to three gold and three bronze medals.
In contrast to the joy in this country at the performance of our athletes, many Australians are glumly contemplating their meagre - for them - haul of one gold, nine silver and four bronze.
So deep is the despair that official free-to-air Australian Olympic broadcaster Channel 9 avoided showing New Zealand's charge up the medal table, which took this country to tenth at one stage before settling at 12th by the end of the day."
Now, if you are watching channel 9, when they show the medal tally, they absolutely do show only the top few medal winning countries, then they plonk Aussie at the bottom.
Now the rub: Here is a further quote from that newspaper,
"According to an alternative ranking system, New Zealand is first when calculated on a population basis, 11th when the table is based on GDP, and 22nd when based on team size.
The alternative tables are a co-production of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians from Imperial College in London, and The Guardian's Datablog section.
Apparently these guys did not want to make anything too easy, so they say they have worked out how many medals each country would have won based on a weighted count.
Using that approach, when the medal count is population based, New Zealand would have won 21 gold medals by now and 12.6 bronze for a total medal haul of 33.6, while Slovenia would be second with 14.9 gold and 17.9 bronze for a total of 32.8." End of quote.
So, someone decided they would work things out on a population based method. This would put NZ first, and China way down the bottom.
At the end of the day, I don't worry too much about how many medals anyone has got. I know for a fact that I won't be getting any, nor any of my friends or family. So that takes away the immediacy of the problem.
But at the same time, when living in Australia, a country whose news generally refuses to admit that NZ actually exists, (except for the times the NZ apples bring in some bugs of some sort), it's really hard to get any good up to date news on the NZ Olympic efforts. As for those poor souls from other obscure countries, they will never get any news of their Olympic exploits, the TV stations wouldn't dream of telling us.
Anyway, the method of giving us the medal tally, I thought, was a really good example of the good ole true blueness of living in a ridgy didge country where the sauce bottle gets the hole glugged up from underuse.
Friday, 3 August 2012
The spring has sprung, the grass is riz..
This is an old ditty, you may know it.....
The spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where the birdie is
The bird is on the wing
But thats absurd
I always thought the wing was on the bird.
Anyway, house sitting brings its own challenges regarding routine. When we are in our own home, we get into a routine.Once a year or so I generally had a good clean out in the house and chucked out the bits and pieces I had bought because the advertisements said I 'must have it' or stuff that I no longer used but kept, 'just in case'. But when you are house sitting you can't do that. It would hardly be a good look when the owners came home to find the linen cupboard half empty because you wanted a bit of a clean up.
One of the parts of my routine is a spring clean. I don't necessarily do this in spring, I have no set plan for this activity, but about once a year the urge starts up and I build up to a whopping great clean up. Well the urge started building about two weeks ago. I tried to push it down, distracting myself with mini cleans etc, but in the end it got the better of me.
Our current house sit is a longer term one, but even so, none of the stuff in this house is mine to 'tidy up' or 'clean out'. Nevertheless, I have given in to the urge and decided that a top to toe clean up was in order. So doing one room at a time, I've been having a wonderful time, washing, cleaning, moving furniture and getting in behind it, polishing the furniture, (theres quite a bit of very nice wooden furniture here), and generally giving the place a scrub up.
There's nothing quite so nice for a housewife as walking through the house and looking at it all tidy and clean and polished. Of course, it doesn't last that long, it gets dusty again, its a perpetual cycle, but for now my spring cleaning urges have been satisfied.
One of the best things is that there are no children to mess things up just as you get it finished. I remember when, having all five at home, these spring cleaning spurts would arrive, and I'd slog my guts out cleaning and tidying, and it lasted until about 4pm that afternoon. The children would be home from school, homework to be done, lunchboxes to be dumped on the bench, afternoon tea to be consumed, the neighbours kids over to play cricket in the back yard . . . you know the story. Never mind, that's life I guess. The cycle of life.....clean it up...mess it up...clean it up....etc. etc. etc.
The spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where the birdie is
The bird is on the wing
But thats absurd
I always thought the wing was on the bird.
Anyway, house sitting brings its own challenges regarding routine. When we are in our own home, we get into a routine.Once a year or so I generally had a good clean out in the house and chucked out the bits and pieces I had bought because the advertisements said I 'must have it' or stuff that I no longer used but kept, 'just in case'. But when you are house sitting you can't do that. It would hardly be a good look when the owners came home to find the linen cupboard half empty because you wanted a bit of a clean up.
One of the parts of my routine is a spring clean. I don't necessarily do this in spring, I have no set plan for this activity, but about once a year the urge starts up and I build up to a whopping great clean up. Well the urge started building about two weeks ago. I tried to push it down, distracting myself with mini cleans etc, but in the end it got the better of me.
Our current house sit is a longer term one, but even so, none of the stuff in this house is mine to 'tidy up' or 'clean out'. Nevertheless, I have given in to the urge and decided that a top to toe clean up was in order. So doing one room at a time, I've been having a wonderful time, washing, cleaning, moving furniture and getting in behind it, polishing the furniture, (theres quite a bit of very nice wooden furniture here), and generally giving the place a scrub up.
There's nothing quite so nice for a housewife as walking through the house and looking at it all tidy and clean and polished. Of course, it doesn't last that long, it gets dusty again, its a perpetual cycle, but for now my spring cleaning urges have been satisfied.
One of the best things is that there are no children to mess things up just as you get it finished. I remember when, having all five at home, these spring cleaning spurts would arrive, and I'd slog my guts out cleaning and tidying, and it lasted until about 4pm that afternoon. The children would be home from school, homework to be done, lunchboxes to be dumped on the bench, afternoon tea to be consumed, the neighbours kids over to play cricket in the back yard . . . you know the story. Never mind, that's life I guess. The cycle of life.....clean it up...mess it up...clean it up....etc. etc. etc.
Cherry blossom time.
Ah, long long ago, when the words of songs were understandable, this was a hit song. "I'll be with you in Cherry blossom time", crooned the singers. Well, somewhere, not long ago, and I think the cherries in the shops just now come from America, it was cherry blossom time and they must have had a good crop.
I have never seen so many cherries in the shops as there have been this year. Boxes and boxes of them, large, clean, firm, and not always so sweet cherries. But they are fabulous to eat, and at $8 to $10 a kilo I can afford to eat them. You get a lot for a kilo, so most afternoons for afternoon tea I sit down to a bowl of cherries.
I thought I'd check the internet for some info on cherries, I always thought they were one of the best fruits...well I guess all fruits are the best in their own way, but cherries seem to be high in anthocyanins, antioxidants, and help such diseases as heart disease, diabetes, cholestorl and help with inflammation.
I don't expect they will last too much longer in the shops, but I will make the most of them while they are there. I know that the toilet will be pleased when cherry time is over, they have a very cleansing effect, if you get my drift.
I have never seen so many cherries in the shops as there have been this year. Boxes and boxes of them, large, clean, firm, and not always so sweet cherries. But they are fabulous to eat, and at $8 to $10 a kilo I can afford to eat them. You get a lot for a kilo, so most afternoons for afternoon tea I sit down to a bowl of cherries.
I thought I'd check the internet for some info on cherries, I always thought they were one of the best fruits...well I guess all fruits are the best in their own way, but cherries seem to be high in anthocyanins, antioxidants, and help such diseases as heart disease, diabetes, cholestorl and help with inflammation.
I don't expect they will last too much longer in the shops, but I will make the most of them while they are there. I know that the toilet will be pleased when cherry time is over, they have a very cleansing effect, if you get my drift.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)