glory day

THAT was deeply unpleasant

You will be surprised to hear that surgery was NO FUN.  They were running about two hours late, then the anethetist spent the best part of 20 minutes trying to find vein in my hand - to no avail. 

By that time I was just so over it I started crying, and the darling receptionist held my hand while the doctor mined my forearm for a better vein.  I swear I gripped her hand so tightly that something broke (so I'd best bring some peace-offering muffins next time I go).

After that things got done fairly quickly and with the help of my trusty Panadeine Forte I've had a fairly drift-y time ever since.

My face is all puffed up like a wee chipmunk, and - worst of all - my speech is pretty unintelligible.  Why does virtually every word I need to say have an 's' in it?  And I have a huge bruise on my forearm.  I have to say I'm not at all thrilled with how things look at the moment, although I know! I know! I have to wait til all the swelling goes down.  Just, you know, not so happy right now.

A Tale of Blue and Gold

Here is a picture of the lovely irises De bought me when I got home:

and look!  My Dianella longifolia flowered:

I feel so proud.

~~~~~

David has been a complete star throughout this whole process, from letting me rabbit on about the process to picking me up to making sure I have chocolate Sustagen on hand at all times.  I'm not quite sure what I can do to show him how grateful I am - is this maybe a situation for a hand-made shirt?

It's the furniture that makes the difference

This week is not turning out the way I had intended.  The trouble I alluded to earlier moved into bizzaro-realm (the police are now involved) but has been ameliorated somewhat by the behaviour of others (support from an unexpected quarter).

The only thing that made this week any good at all?  My lounge looks like this:

See how neat and tidy?  See how I can actually reach the bits of furniture to put things away?  I am thrilled.  And finally over the snit I've been having for the past few weeks.

And if that view isn't dramatic enough compare and contrast this:

with this:

It's not totally finished yet - I still have some things to hang on the walls and I need to make new cushions for both couches - but so much better!

Most of the overflow (the bookshelves, the magazines) went straight up into the attic, and I tidied everything there at the same time.  So now we have two fantastically organised rooms, let's not worry about the middle storey!

A question for you

If you had a dysfunctional lounge already totally full of furniture and over-flowing with random stuff:

[as an aside, notice the way I've completely given up on tidying?  Our laundry rack has been just inside the front door for about a month now]

Would adding even more large furniture:

be:

a) the worst move you could make, are you insane? 
b) the best idea ever.

Answers forthcoming when my attention span returns to normal, although [SPOILER!] I'm about 3million% happier than I have been for the past month.

My life in snippet form

Now I really hate to moan (HA!) but this weather simply can't go on.  Both my lillies are dead - aue, the lillies I raised from teeny, teeny bulbs - and I am losing the will to live.  Supposedly there will be a dramatic lowering of temperature tomorrow but that remains to be seen.  And the promised thunder-storms would have been nice, too.

*****

I had my hair done yesterday, into a shorter style which my hairdresser describes as 'edgy'.  That would be the 'suburban housewife' version of 'edgy', of course.  It looks nice, I like it, but in no way is it 'edgy'.

*****

Foxtel played the mini-series Roots last week, which De and I watched together.  It's a great series, and interesting to watch in light of current events.

*****

My house is seriously upsetting me right now.  There's so much stuff here I can't even begin.  I berate myself for not tidying up, but seriously, there's nowhere to put anything.  And there's nothing I can do about it!  If I try and think about it for a moment I get all stressed and panicky and hyperventilate-y.  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about it.

*****

I wrote up a long schedule of sewing projects for the next few months, which I now don't really feel like doing (and frankly, there's no room downstairs to sew) so I made some necklaces instead:

So while I'm not doing the stuff I need to do, at least I'm doing something.

*****

And now I'm going to make cupcakes for tomorrow's afternoon tea.

It's 'left foot, right foot' - not hard!

I tripped over the footpath when I was walking home tonight and grazed my knee.  That sort of silly accident certainly seems to hurt more than it did when I was a kid, I've found.  So this evening has been lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself while reading Vanity Fair.

Although I have made something recently: a rubbish bin.  There was a metal bin in the laundry filled with plastic bags, and I manage to trip over it at least once a week.  Then there was a lack of a rubbish bin in the study.  So I took the bin:

covered it in pages from the China Daily Herald, painted it with tea and varnished it:

Perhaps I over-did the sepia toning somewhat, but it's a much better fit for our study now.

Now, I think perhaps an icepack for my knee.

But of course nothing happens until Epiphany

Recently we were gifted some furniture and it has forced us to realise that, actually, our house is full of clutter and we've been masking the problem for a while.

It's not just the furniture, it's everything.  For instance, here's a partial list of things of which we have too many:

• books.  But what can you do, right?
• fabric.  I am starting to see that yes, there may indeed be a fabric problem. 
• coffee jars.  I can't throw them out, they're so useful.  Then I don't actually use them.
• clothes that need to be mended.  And have done so for a long time.
• shoe boxes.  Remember when you were a kid and you only got one pair of shoes every year but you really, really, really wanted a pile of shoe boxes?  I do, apparently.
• magazines.  I know I should throw out the 1992 issues of Vanity Fair but I don't want to.
• 'hobby equipment'.   Actually, in many ways that's just a euphemism for 'fabric'.

And it's not just about the amount of stuff we have (which is lots) it's also about the storage of the stuff.  Most things have a place to be put away, but most of them also have a place in which they are kept (a different place). 

So now I get to go around the house and think about what needs to go where and what function it will serve and winnow out the clutter (I'm not throwing any books away!  or fabric!) and make a start on this huge projects.  Wow, I'm really over it just thinking about it.

And sadly some tough decisions may have to be made about the keeping of things.  There's a pile of stuff I hang on to purely because I made/found/bought it when I was living in my wee flat in Pyrmont on my own.  I was so proud of myself and my wee flat that I've hung onto some of that stuff just to remind me of those times.  Times have changed, the ugly table in the attic has to go.  [oh, panic!  maybe not.]

Mr Puss loves the new sideboard:

It has a mirror at the back of the cupboard and he likes to scratch at it to find the 'other cat'.

On a day which doesn't really exist

I can't believe that only two countries in the world (Scotland and New Zealand) list 2 January as a statutory holiday.  How on earth can you work on 2 January?!!  That's like less than a day from NYE!*  I remember the first time after I moved to Sydney that I was told I'd be working on 2 January - I thought it was a cruel and unusual punishment.  I couldn't believe everyone I worked with thought it was normal!

*Oh wait, I understand now, it's two big binge-drinking countries.  Well it's not like there's only two.

To me 2 January is the day for doing nothing.  No visiting, no work, just reading and sleeping and slothing.  And I'm proud to announce that's exactly what I've done today.

I love the time between xmas and NY's - it's my time to read, to chill, to think, to plan.  I have my Stuff on my Cat calendar and my V&A jewellery diary, so I feel like I'm all set for 2009.

Although (and I hate to harp on about it) we need to do something about the weather.  The humidity has been so bad here:

that my lovely Madonna lily looks to be on the brink of death.

Trying to find that xmas spirit

Today was all about organising and dusting and wrapping.  Particularly the wrapping:

So all the xmas shopping has been done, then we picked up most of the food from the supermarket (except strawberries, like what's that about, seriously).

Here's Manu the xmas kea:

Where does the time go?

I realise that time distends as a deadline draws closer, but this week has been ridiculous.  I swear there were only about three days in the week.

However the xmas tree is up:

Yes, it is difficult to get a good photo of a tree you've built in front of a glass door, isn't it.

Apart from that my week's been all shopping lists and menus and cleaning and shopping and stuff. On Thursday I went to DJ's for a bra fitting.  This is quite an achievement for me as a) I hate DJ's, and b) I have a problem with escalators - not to the point where I can't get on them, but definitely to the point of being uncomfortably anxious.  FTW.

And now we're off to the supermarket to buy another 'audition' chicken.

Low so low! High so high!

Six weeks ago we decided we couldn't afford to spend xmas in NZ (shakes fist at stupid economy) even though we'd spent last xmas in Australia, and it was clearly my turn to spend xmas with my family in NZ.  And I was very sad.  I love my in-laws and I enjoy spending xmas with them, but I have to say I prefer to spend xmas with my family.

Last night (while suffering from the worst head cold I've ever had) I wondered about having David's parents and grandparents come here for xmas dinner.  Today I idly worked on a potential menu; tonight he called them and they were thrilled to be invited here.  And I'm thrilled they want to come here.

This xmas, for the first time in about 15 years, I'll be spending the entire festive season sleeping in my own bed.  Because [until relatively recently] I've always been the single one, and because I have no children I've always had to travel to other people's houses for xmas, and I've always gotten the air mattress/sofa/broken bed to sleep on.  I mean, not to sound bitter, and obviously you have to compromise, but being told that you have to sleep on the window-seat because there's only one of you - and you broke up with your partner of five years a month earlier - is not one of my cherished family xmas memories.

The dinner in itself won't be a problem, I don't think - we did a very similar thing for Troy's birthday dinner (although this time we will have different meats).  I'll have to buy a few new (or probably op) dishes, and there will be some cleaning/organising/borrowing issues.  Also I will have to get the table down from the attic, which may be a problem as I assembled it in the attic.

Soon I shall assemble the tree and arrange the reindeer.  Here is how they looked last year:

and I imagine that's how they'll look again this year.  Reindeer aren't much for change.