shiny new counting app

7 months today – woo!

I’ve had the occasional struggle this month – mostly trying to convince myself that a glass or two of wine wouldn’t hurt – but honestly going down that path really would. 

I lunched with a couple of recruiters on Friday (no, not looking for a new gig) at a very, very nice restaurant where the expensive wine was flowing feeely. I stuck to delicious virgin mojitos and was very happy (particularly happy there were non-alcoholic options!). I do really find socialising sans booze quite difficult and as a consequence try to avoid occasions where I’m compelled to talk to people I don’t know well.

But I’ve powered on through and clocked up another month!

Next challenge: upcoming trip to Melbourne – good food, good wine (all the temptations!).

Made pie last evening. I’m quite pleased with the layers! The new oven (must post about that!) cooks beautifully evenly – there are no hot-spots at all and no shifting contents about to ensure semi-even coverage.

One of the three lemons from our tree! The zest and juice smelled wonderful, so much better than shop-bought. Hopefully the tree might produce somewhat greater volume next season.

xxx

Hit the 7 day mark with no instagram. Honestly? Much better for the overall well-being. Can’t say I’m extra-productive, but maybe that’s not quite true as I’ve been listening to an audiobook and doing a little housely maintenance.

I climbed the scaffolding right to the top.

We really need a balcony off our bedroom so we can admire the view on a more regular basis.

What a glorious thing it is to know that I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. 

Public Holidays are the best! Thanks Your Majesty, even if it isn’t really your birthday**.

xxx

** Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend. Her birthday is in April I believe.

We were really fortunate that the rain mostly held off today and Don did a completely stellar job with sikaflexing around the windows. 

I scraped off old silicon off Joe/Frank’s window while precariously balanced 3 storeys up. I found it very meditative and wish I’d volunteered earlier and done our window too. Must climb up to the top of the scaffolding before it comes down and take some unimpeded photos of the pretty spectacular view.

Should be able to wrap this up tomorrow if the weather holds out. 

This maintenance has made us very glad that we do not have a yard/garden to keep up! We’d never have time for anything else (or more likely we’d be those neighbours with the overgrown whatevers)

neil: bold, confident, champion, game.

This was the only bolt of fabric of this type** in the entire York Street Lincraft store. 

So niche. So many questions.

xxx

** Not just this silky stuff, no other fabric with names on, though I did note a bolt of grey flannelette with Crosby printed all over it a while back.

The rainy weather also means that it would be pretty imprudent to ride in to work, so I busted out the wellies and trained it in to work today.

I think the cycling has embiggened my calves because it is now awfully tight in the Hunters. That or I’m getting fat, which is always a possibility – I’m still off the wonderfully delicious chocolate, but am a little ill-disciplined otherwise.

On the trip in to work I realised that my interest in self-improvement podcasts has now officially exhausted itself, so I’ll be unsubscribing from the last of them. Buoyed by my success at staying away from instagram for a whole two days, I’m in the mood to be pretty ruthless about many things on my phone and tablet.

After my delight in the novel-esque S-Town, I’ve downloaded a couple of audiobooks because phone reception on the train is pretty spotty – and the trip is tedious without something to listen to/read. I had credit available, because of course I forgot to cancel my subscription after the trial (that’s how they get you!). 

One more day until the long weekend which is very well needed, but really aren’t they all? I feel like everything is pretty unstructured and going off in all sorts of directions right now – dare I say chaotic? I’d like to wrest back a little more control of all sorts of things, but I definitely need to marshall my forces before making a start on that.

We’re in the middle of some pretty heavy rain which is expected to last over a week – this is not hugely great when we have windows half open with scaffolding braced through them. We have plastic and cardboard over the gaps, but everything is pretty damp already.

Also not great when we were planning to reseal around the windows over the weekend! We don’t have the scaffolding up much longer after that, so I’m really hoping all is not entirely lost.

And kind of kicking myself for not carpe-ing the sunshine and doing the repairs myself while Don was on his work junket.

Lesson learned.

newkitty lays claim to the kitty hole

babykitty looks on and plans her attack

In my fine tradition of depriving myself of All The Things, I’m cutting myself off instagram for at least a week. My scrolling habit is threatening to become a smidge out of control (and I won’t deny that every 5-6th post being an advert of some sort has contributed). 

While I do find the pretty pictures very soothing/enjoyable/uplifting, I’m wondering what I could be doing with those hours instead – like meditate in the mornings, get some sit-ups and squats in &etc.

As at now I’m at roughly 11 hours and 2 minutes of instagram freedom – 157 hours to go!

Don’t do anything exciting while I’m gone!

giant kitty tree gifted by neighbour – definitely adds to the refined look of the space

There’s a long weekend ahead and we have dreadfully unexciting plans to cover off a whole lot of slightly overdue maintenance tasks on ThePalace(OfLove) – hence the scaffolding referenced in Saturday’s post.

We’ve yet to make an Action List, but there will be a lot of hole/crack filling and painting in our futures.

This house-owning caper mostly involves a whole lot of trying to stop the house from falling down/apart (which seems to be its natural inclination) – at not inconsiderable expense.

We do very, very much enjoy it though – the ownership, not the maintenance, that bit is full of suck.