I really would benefit from not leaving it until very very late in the evening to write a daily post.

It’s been unpleasantly warm and sticky recently – though as a colleague observed, we’ve not had many days over 32 and certainly no 40+ days, as would be “normal”.

I’ve had quite a lot of trouble getting a decent sleep – which is about typical for late February.

The plants on the upper balcony seem to be enjoying it, even if I am not!

So verdant! We’re exploring getting some cover up there, so hopefully they will thrive further.

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Don and I had a morning coffee-tea-cake date at the AGNSW today – to hang out with some excellent art and to nourish our souls. I aspire to be the sort of person who does this!

While we were there we participated in Kimsooja: Archive of Mind. Kimsooja invites visitors to collect a handful of clay, sit at the large work surface, and empty their minds of distraction; to sink into the experience of forming a ball of clay between the hands, rolling and wrapping it into itself.

Your ball then becomes part of the artwork – which is displayed on an absolutely enormous table in a very spectacular room. The new Sydney Modern building is utterly wonderful – an amazing space for this!

To me (though I don’t think this is the intent) the clay colours bring to mind skin and the many different people who have contributed to the work – I find it quite uplifting and emotional.

My handful of clay:

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Don’s very excellent ball. He was really quite good at it. I may have persuaded him to take a pottery class with me.

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Our balls together waiting to join the group:

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My many-lined palm. I’m sure those lines mean good fortune and fabulous things in my future.

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Rather than exercise, this afternoon I lay about reading Ann Patchett: These Precious Days – which was definitely an excellent use of my time.

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Switch to Speakerphone
Hear your call through the speakerphone instead of holding iPhone to your ear.

Please. No.

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I’m absolutely not putting any pressure on myself at all, but I really want to do two things this weekend:

+ get some exercise
+ do something creative

Realistically this should be totally achievable, but there is a high probability that I’ll be reporting back on Sunday evening about how I got in my own way and found reasons not to do either.

The place where I sit to do most of my stitching and other similar genteel activities.

The plants are getting just a little out of control.

I really would benefit from setting myself up for success for the days I’m in the office. I’m at the point the novelty is slightly wearing off. For example:

+ I’m completely bored by the few work garments that fit me comfortably – and wearing them over and over (and over)

+ I’m completely bored by wandering the same shops at lunchtime – just to ensure I get out of the office

+ I’m completely bored by eating the same (delicious) supermarket chicken wrap every day for lunch

I’m also completely bored by being completely bored. I think I’ll spend the next few weeks trying a series of small shake ups.

Don and I are in the process of changing banks. This is very exciting, but also requires a little admin.

At the New Bank I have a transaction account and a “high interest” savings account.

On Saturday I transferred a sizeable chunk of money over from Old Bank and had to verify the transaction via 2FA. I then received a secondary lengthy text listing different scenarios and checking that I had not been scammed into transferring money. Very thorough.

I happened to check my email a little later and had received a “we could not transfer the money and it has been returned to your account” from Old Bank.

Hmmm, I thought. Maybe I can’t transfer straight to savings? And thought nothing of it for a bit.

And a little later still went back and checked the transaction and eventually realised that I was one digit out on the account number. Even though I was certain I’d double checked when setting up the payee^^. *facepalm emoji*

And I am supremely fortunate and eternally thankful that that misplaced digit did not belong to a real account number!

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^^ normally I’d copy/paste, but this was across devices and I taking shortcuts.

These have been the tabs on my phone for more than a year (maybe more than two years). All were opened from various editions of the art money newsletter and unintentionally kept there. At least originally it was unintentional, now I resist closing because I find them so soothing and lovely.

The best kind of browser tabs.

I also permantly have another artwork of a glorious pony, this poem and my blog editor – and that’s pretty much it.

No news (since last year – maybe early December?), no socials.

Astonishingly good for the mental health.

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My magical hard drive docking station arrived mid-week and I had a fun afternoon erasing most of the ancient hard drives ahead of sending them to the e-waste.

There was little of use on most of them, though there are two full of music and movies/tv that aren’t going anywhere.

There was an exciting moment when one drive became really very hot and started emitting an ozone smell – but all was well. Though not all well for the disc which was definitely very fried.

This does reinforce the need for multiple back-ups of important data – and may have finally pushed me in the direction of cloud storage for a secondary back-up. Not infallible of course, but can’t hurt!

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Of course I could not resist this magnificent flowering cactus^^ at ikea for $12 when I visited yesterday.

I have not had any success at all with cactus(es?) to this point – but I’m hopeful I’m a slightly better plant caretaker now that I am not consistently drowning everything.

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^^ no idea what type it is – perhaps a mammillaria?