Fighting Land Sharks with Chores

Hi!

Well. Here we are at last. Am late, yes, and even later because it's Monday evening here, so yeah, like, late. But am here now. The afternoon/early evening is beautiful after a cold and damp and dreary weekend. Magically the weather cleared and warmed up to be a perfect day - typical for a Monday - the weather is crap all weekend and then turning warm and perfect first thing Monday. Well, what the weather wasn't told about today was that it wasn't a work day, it was a holiday here in Queensland, if not all of Australia - Hooray for the Queen having a Birthday! Hooray for Commonwealth countries for celebrating it, thus giving us commoners a day off from work - wooooot! So yes, the day has been perfect, the birds are out there minus the thousands of lorikeets (I only hear a few), there're lots of crows squawking away... Got no cool jazz tunes but do have hip n' groovy tunes from the community radio station 4ZZZ, got the cool glass of standby white wine, so yes, life is definitely good!

So work. Yep. Is good. Is so quiet. I've now been with them 7 months and I have yet to be really busy like I was at Fire or at Health... I know a gal needs to be careful about what she wishes for tho...... Otherwise it's good. Am always and forever eternally grateful to have work, I just wish I had more of it! And before you suggest I hit up other people and departments for extra work, yep, have done that. And the 2 or 3 Editors before me were quite good at creating busy-work for themselves, yet none of it ever resulted in anything constructive, it was all stuff to fill a day. And if that's what I'm up against, I'd rather not re-invent the wheel, I'll just be content with the crumbs I get, surf the 'net and wait for real work to fill my day. Hmm....

And then there were the weekends. Last Saturday was good, if not challenging. I went looking at dealerships to buy a used car. I have my eye on a Rav4 so I got a loan from the bank and pounded the pavement looking for one. Well. After the third dealer it was late afternoon and I'd had enough. But seeing as I'd ended up in the 'hood where my Xmas foster family live, Paul and Margaret, I thought I'd call in. Well, we had lunch and a good long walk, taking in Newstead and Teneriffe where we stopped for tapas and interesting beers at a cool little restaurant along the main drag there in Teneriffe (unfortunately I've since forgotten the name, but it was nice and we only picked that particular place because the manager said hello to us in the most friendly way while we gazed at their sidewalk menu. Then, happily lightly fed and watered, we headed back to their place where they most kindly gave me a ride home. So what went from a challenging day of fighting with land sharks, ended just perfectly. And then Sunday, seeing as the weather was lovely and warm, I threw the chores to the wind and headed up to Kim's where we had a wander around Margate and the surrounding beach, and stopped for lunch (which was quite good as we tried a new place, who's name I've since forgotten, but we'll certainly go there again). And by the time I got home from hers, it was way late - due to train faults, delays, changing trains, waiting for buses, etc etc etc. Hence my desire for my own four wheels so I can be the master of my weekends! Again!

And then there was this nice, long weekend. Well, I didn't get up to much. Stretched the chores out over the 3 days. It sounds dull and kind of torturous, but it was actually good and productive. And today the weather was just glorious and I managed to finish off the laundry and the rest of the chores. And besides, am off to Melbourne to meet Jeff and Emily (and Jeff's new wife Tami) this coming Friday for four days so I thought it best if I didn't leave the house for fear of spending money I shouldn't. But speaking of spending money and Adventures, I've booked a day-trip from Brisbane to go with Kim to fly out to Lake Eyre. I'd explain it in much better detail but seeing as I've never been there, it's best if you have a look at the link.... All I do know is it's far away, down towards Adelaide (I think) and to drive yourself it would take days and a real 4-wheel drive, with tools. Lake Eyre is pretty neat in that usually it's a dry lake bed most of the time and only floods every 50 or so years, and the amount of water in it at the moment happens only every hundred years or so. And the benefit of that is it attracts all kinds of critters from all over. So there is a little tour company that Kim heard about that takes folks from Brisbane out there for the day to have a look, so off we go! That's booked for the 10th of July. So will keep you posted with facts as I read up on them!

And there it is. Sorry for the lags in checking in sometimes. I get to thinking that the stuff I get up to sometimes really isn't worth boring you with (seeing as I don't hear from the peanut gallery one way or another). But I will try to be better at it. Somehow.....?! Otherwise, I hope you're all well up there. I wish some of you would come down here for a visit.......! I mentioned a few check-ins ago that I won't be up there for a visit for a while as I have no vacation time this year and next year am off to England with Mommy! So that makes it the year after.... so that puts it at....... 2013 (whew, math), which is kind of good in a way (???) in that that year is our -gulp- 25 year high school reunion and Katie and I have decided we'd finally go. I think. At least I'm pretty sure..... Either way I hope to be up there for a visit around then! Fingers crossed!

Oh, and real quick before I sign off, I just want to give my friend Gloria a standing ovation as she's recently thrown in her well-paid, 9-5 job with its visions of cubicle farms filled with accountants, bought a Winnebago, set up a PO box in Tempe and is currently touring the country with her pup Bentley looking for..... well, what we all think about going to look for at one time or another..... I think that's awesome and takes real guts (although I can't help but think of the film "Lost in America" with Albert Brooks........). So hats off to you Gloria! Good luck, stay safe and hope you have many fantastic and interesting Adventures!!!!!

BYE!
J!