We’re not super-tight with our neighbours, but we’ll often exchange idle gossip and bitching in the common driveway with a core group from five other Palaces.

We don’t have a huge amount in common (apart from the fact that our houses are all feeling the interesting results of the shonky developer, our mutual loathing of another neighbour and our collective dismay of people misusing the visitor parking spots) but they’re all quite nice people.

Don however, does have something in common with one of them – they’re both the same age and are mad-keen regular golfers (at different clubs) and so as driveway chat turned to golf, they decided they’d play the very occasional round together. Saturday morning was the second time they’d played.

On the journey to the course, by way of idle chit-chat, Golf-neighbour asked Don how he’d spent his (early) morning.

Don: It was great! I watched a little golf, cooked myself some eggs.

Golf-neighbour: Doesn’t carolbaby cook your breakfast?

Don: Ah, no.

When Don was relating this to me I assumed Golf-neighbour was doing that kind of tedious attempted jovial “lulz-wife-in-the-kitchen-making-breakfast-amirite?” thing.

Alas, not the case.

One less thing in common then.

I’m not sure if this has always been a *thing* and I’m only just noticing it because I’ve entered the demographic, but what is it with this whole “people over 50 cannot understand/operate technology and are barely able to function in society” vibe?

It’s comical, it’s horrifying, it makes for decent blog fodder. So like the stereotypical cranky old person shaking their fist at a cloud, I’m going to document the more egregious examples as they cross my path.

Example 1 – found while searching for the library catalogue:

Inner West Council: Over 55’s Cyber Seniors @ Ashfield

More about this event:

One on one tuition with student volunteers, learn how to upload photos from your phone, navigate Facebook, find a useful app or make a spotify playlist.

There are so many ways we can use technology to stay healthy and happy as we age but there is so much out there it can be good to get some help from the younger generation.

I do get they’re trying to get some inter-generational bonding happening, but I’m insulted for all of us. Dude, I was uploading photos long before you were born.

tasty af. i am very pleased with my new phone camera.

That we’re almost halfway through 2019 is mystifying and terrifying in equal measure.

But let’s gloss over challenging thoughts about mortality and ticking clocks and revisit those tiny June goals.

To get me thinking following on from my procrastination / retirement post, I’ve added in whether I’d do the activity in retirement. Thoughts for next time – how do I many to spend those pre-retirement days?

+ Complete Japanese CD 8
YES! Completed on Tuesday!
Very delighted that I did this – it’s been an excellent use of 10-15 minutes of morning commute.
Nihongo ga suki desu.
There’s a long (long) way to go.
Would I do this in retirement? YES! This has been really fun and I am exited to continue to learn.

+ Endless embroidery – complete year 12 | acquire frame
NO! I was even at ikea, but didn’t remember the size I needed. Must get onto stitching this weekend.
Would I do this in retirement? YES! Though hopefully I will have caught up to date by #2026

+ Knitting – 10 rows per week
NO! Not quite sure what I’m avoiding here – fear of the pattern set up rows no doubt.
Would I do this in retirement? YES! If I apply myself I may even not be knitting the same jumper by #2026.

+ Blog – 3x per week
Going with YES here – admittedly those yes lines are a bit blurry.
Would I do this in retirement? YES! Will blogs still be a thing? Even if they aren’t I’m reasonably sure I’ll still be diarying somewhere.

+ Start recording personal spending (for a year)
NO! Pure avoidance I’m afraid. That and I can never settle on a template (ridiculous).
Would I do this in retirement? YES! I rather think we’ll be forced to keep an eye on the outgoings.

+ Exercise – run (yes!) 2x | ride 2x per week
PARTIAL! I ran twice on the long weekend – very very short runs, but so so good! I am very keen to get back to this | 2x bike ride this week, though not last. I forced myself on the bike after I arrived home from SML.
Would I do this in retirement? YES! Especially the running part. I would dearly love to be one of those wiry old ladies who run a long way.

+ No non-fruit dessert during the week
PARTIAL! Started well in the first week, this week not so much. Must stop buying biscuits after trying days.
Would I do this in retirement? NO! I plan to be eating all the desserts all the time.

+ Start the list of books I’ve read this year | stretch goal = last year
NO! I should devote 10 minutes a day
Would I do this in retirement? YES! I think it’s a fairly good discipline, especially if you record your observations.

+ I also said I’d stop ruminating about SML
I’ve actually been surprisingly excellent at this!
Would I do this in retirement? YES – looking forward to making this a permanent arrangement!

Definitely worth all the the fuss acquiring the phone to have the superior camera!

NewKitty agrees that she prefers not appearing on the blog as a black fuzzy blob.

One of my goals for 2019 (and a 60before60 item) was to not read any personal development / self-improvement books for the year.

I am going quite well with this, but hit pause on that briefly this weekend to read Petr Ludwig: The End of Procrastination.

I came across this book while I was searching the library catalogue for Cal Newport: Digital Minimalism. There were 10 people on the wait-list for that one. 10! That’s at least 30 weeks waiting time.

I did put myself on the Digital Minimalism list, but grabbed Procrastination because I felt like I could do with a personal development fix on a cold June long weekend.

It’s very cute, earnest and cheerful. The original is in Czech and I suspect the translation made it somewhat stilted in places, but it was an enjoyable read. Not everything resonated, but I got some good, actionable ideas from it.

The major take away for me: intrinsic journey-based motivation will increase happiness and satisfaction much more than intrinsic goal-based motivation.

With my endless (endless!) action lists for every possible moment, I’m definitely in the goal-based motivation camp. But of course the joys of achieving these goals are fleeting – reach a goal, bask momentarily, surprised to still feel a bit empty, so move on to the next goal and the next &etc. “As studies indicate, goal-based motivation can improve productivity, but it does not lead to long-term happiness. Instead it contributes to unexpected frustration and a strange form of addiction, not unlike being hooked on cocaine”.

Well, probably not quite like being hooked on cocaine.

It’s all fairly sensible and probably quite obvious stuff, but it had never occurred to focus my efforts and attention on the journey – and to build that journey around things I enjoy.

This coincided nicely with conversations I’ve been having with Don recently. We have a (very) stretch goal to retire in #2026. I’ve been asking myself what I expect to do with all that time and how I want to spend my days. Realistically I could have 40 years to fill! So far I haven’t come up with terribly many ideas.

While pondering the hopefully very long years of retirement I’d never even considered applying the “how do I want to spend my days?” thinking to the now.

What exactly do I want to do with my days outside of being at SML?

I’ve recently established that SML takes up way too much (read: all) my brain-space outside work and am making slow inroads to freeing myself from that self-enforced tyranny. During this 3 day weekend I have barely thought of SML. This is both superb and unprecedented.

I’m really looking forward to thinking some more on this – and recapturing some of my life.

I can’t even say how much positive impact getting decent sleep for a week has had on my mental health! Of all the things I’ve done for my brain in recent years (discovering exercise, quitting drinking, quitting chocolate), a new bed has to be one of the best.

I didn’t even think I was getting particularly bad sleep – but this is magical.

Two short runs probably haven’t hurt either.

A couple of weeks ago as part of the ongoing why-do-i-have-so-much-stuff-make-it-stop purges, I decided to make inroads on the crafting stash and attacked a small tub containing bits of trim, ribbon and elastic. There are other similar boxes containing buttons and thread – but those are tasks for another time.

This box was filled to overflowing – the majority of space being taken up by a whole mess of sydney swans member lanyards from 2010 to 2018. I have absolutely no idea why I’ve held on to these for so long. I guess like most things, I thought they might come in handy or could be used for *something* crafty.

a whole lotta lanyards

When I saw them laying underneath NewKitty, I had one of those rare^^ flashes of inspiration.

I had a hovsta frame leftover from Xmas when I framed this adorable mix CD Joan made for Joe/Frank when they were both very small. We’d forgotten all about it and I’d re-discovered it in a stash somewhere (yikes – so many stashes).

adorable!

Everyone was amused and delighted by the gift. Very much recommended if you have similar kicking about.

But I digress.

Hmmm … what if I framed the lanyard ribbons (tape?) by stacking them under the matte?

genius

There’s enough of the ribbon (tape?) that I’ve made one frame each for Joe/Frank and Bessie and set some aside for another for ThePalace(OfLove). And grabbed more frames to cover the period 2017+. We’re missing lanyards from the early years of our membership, so rather than glue everything down permanently, I taped the edges of each ribbon to the backing with washi tape## to allow for future re-arrangment.

I’ve set up an eBay search for those missing years: 2007, 2008, 2011 (we skipped our membership in 2009). I’m pretty certain ours were discarded long, long ago (though this does not explain why I have that 2011 gap). I’m also certain that when I pay some astronomical amount to acquire the missing ones, I’ll discover that I didn’t throw them out at all, but stashed them *somewhere*.

I’m quite delighted with this cleverness!

Maybe there is hope for my brain yet?

xxx

^^ rare these days because my entire brain-space has been consumed by SML. I’m aiming to put a stop to that – hence the increase in blogging frequency, but that is a post for another time.

## washi tape is truly, truly amazing and magical and has 87 billion uses.

Option four is to visit another Optus store, where everything is delightful, you’re treated like a valued customer, the transaction seamless and you come out with just what you wanted.

And when you get home and unpack your lovely new very fancy device, you find your existing sim card is the wrong size and resolve to go out tomorrow morning to get one cut.

After continuing awful performance (messages not sending, sporadic connectivity), followed by a week of utterly appalling battery life (from 100% to 20% in 30 minutes today – while doing not-a-lot), I decided it was finally time for a new phone.

I compared and compared and compared, made a spreadsheet, crowd sourced with colleagues and the children and eventually settled on a mid-range iphone and visited an Optus (my phone provider) store this afternoon.

I’ve recently moved to a sim only (calls and data) plan, but I’ve been pretty happy with the provider, so intended to upgrade to a better plan with phone included. Sure I could buy a new phone outright, but a better plan just seemed easier.

Once at the store and faced with the phones in Real Life, my ideas of what I wanted rather altered. Why not go for the top-of-the-range? Why am I always picking second, third best? Surely I’m worth it?

So I did in fact go for top of the range – at more than double what I’m currently paying.

Ahhh, would that it was so simple.

I’d only signed up to my new plan in the last few months after rolling of a phone and data contract, so it was going to cost for me to $250 to get out of that contract and onto the new one. Wut?

I could phone Optus to try and get out of that fee, but there was nothing the guy in the Optus store could do. Really? Nothing? Not even call them (you *are* them!) for me and sort it out there? Nope.

So $250 extra to pay Optus much (much!) more than I am paying now? $250 extra for getting my phone from Optus rather than just going to the apple store?

Yeah, nah – as we say in the antipodes.

I did call Optus later and they could waive the $250 fee and ship a phone to me, but I couldn’t collect from a store. I wasn’t keen to wait for a week, so thanks-no-thanks.

So now I’m wondering if TheUniverse is trying to tell me:

1. Stick with terribly performing phone – pros: SML has commenced paying me a fixed $ phone allowance, the allowance is more than my current plan costs ($10 a month bonus!) | cons: aforementioned appalling issues with performance

2. Buy the top-of-range phone outright – pros: it’s very very fancy | cons: it’s wildly expensive, i don’t actually do that much with my phone

3. Buy the mid-range phone outright – pros: slightly less eye-poppingly expensive (only slightly) | cons: not totally fancy, but still much superior to my current appalling one

Will report back.

Scene: Don, Bessie and I in lounging in lounge room, television on – ESPN Sports Center on Kayo – Don and Bessie watching; me, head in laptop.

I look up and ask “Why are they talking about the upcoming NFL season? Didn’t it only just finish?”

I think a bit … “OH MY GOD! The Superbowl was in January!**”

“HOW CAN IT BE JUNE? WHERE HAS MY LIFE GONE?”

Seriously. June?!

We discuss how amazing it is that it is June, wonder how we got here and what we’ve done in these last six months.

Don: “Our clocks are ticking down”.

Me: “YES! And what are we even doing with our lives!?”

Action: clearly this can be solved by some sort of list.

xxx

** Actually, it was early February.

After weeks, months, possibly years of very poor quality sleep, we finally pulled the trigger on a giant new bed.

Our old bed was quite elderly in bed years and we’ve been dithering about the purchase for several months.

At a team lunch on Thursday a colleague put me onto ausbeds who she was really happy with – local, inexpensive and Australian made. We visited on Saturday and were pretty easily convinced to pull the trigger.

When could they deliver? Now.

Ummm, maybe give us an hour.

Cue quickly grabbing ingredients for dinner and racing home to drag the existing bed and base down 3 flights of stairs and move *stuff* out of the path of the new bed. Then leaving Don at home to wrangle the delivery, I dashed out to Broadway in search of king-sized bed essentials – like sheets.

Next day saw a trip to ikea to replace our queen bedhead with exactly the same bedhead in the king size.

We’re pretty much set – the bed is absolutely Giant (so Giant) and the sleep is GLORIOUS!

GLORIOUS!

Joan and Bessie were totally right and we should have done this sooner.