New Year's Eve Eve

I just had 4 days with my parents - which wasn't ventworthy as it went rather well, all considered.

We went for an outing.

Dad got someone to have breakfast with each morning.

I fed the chooks.

Time stood still - but it also entered warps because the clock that chimes runs 15 minutes ahead because that is the way that it goes. Except that at some point it lost time so nobody was sure what it really meant when it chimed.

I had a LIST.

I did the floors.

I reorganised bookshelves and sorted paperwork.

I harvested silverbeet.

Large pile of silverbeet - cheese slice for scale

I made meals in the theme of disappointment. It's hard knowing a criticism is coming, especially when deserved. I would plead ingredient integrity and availability but to my side of the leger I did make a bit of amazing juice that was not appreciated AT ALL by one (the other wasn't casting her vote as vocally).

I made many spinach and cheese rolls.

I even had a half a handle on the bits and bobs for tax - however my computer battery went flat and despite various trying to get it charging it hit zero and didn't rebound. Computer guy is not in town but reckons power source.

And although I was TO THE MINUTE organised today as I had to finish some three day jobs that never get done at their place, at the final 1/2 hr a silent car glid up and parked ACROSS the gate behind which my packed car was parked. Visitors for my Dad dropping in unannounced who would love a cup of tea - the wife knew Mum before and offers to be with Mum for Dad to go to meetings with the husband - committees and Lions - salt of the earth.

I have also just realised that it might well have been a farewell tour for the latter hearing their offload of the medical drama his life has been of late.

Which makes me that much more of a bitch in hindsight for grumbling inwardly about the parking as I made them afternoon tea but did not attend as i had to handover to the carer.

I still got home safely.

One of my 'to dos' today I made sourdough pizza bases for NYE - two for me to bring home, one for Mum and Dad and one for the carer.

 sourdough pizza base

I also spent time remembering Auntie Glen and how today was the first 30th December for 35 years where I haven't reminded Mum to ring her best friend for her birthday - and unfortunately due to driving a car and daylight savings didn't get to ring my godbrother and my godsister.

Bespoke silverbeet and cheese rolls - reviews based on taste rather than aesthetics please 🥺 

Anyway - list and logistics to happen tomorrow here. Last day of the year and we're kicking it off at the dentist for Paris.

Way to pace yourself 2025!

Christmas Eve Eve

 Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Which means that it's the night before the last day of work.

(During the writing of that paragraph a crisis has arisen over keys. I have realised how much we rely on muscle memory. I had an automatic response to hearing a car door slam of saying "honey, if you are near my keys on the bench can you please click the ..." and that was all of the instruction needed for a whole saga to ensue. Oh, and my daughter won a game of fortnite. Whatever that means.)

I am already nearly a day ahead of myself in having the majority of gifts already wrapped! 

You know those people who are organised in October? I am not they.

Of course, part of this year's secret lies in the paucity of presents and a complete lack of time to organise. I think that I have clocked five hours on preparation this year - and that includes the wrapping effort tonight.

Have you ever watched Red Dwarf? Then you will understand when I tell you that I am up to colour coding my timetable for the house situation.

I am approaching the next few days - and weeks - as coolly as I can, which, as it happens, I am apparently not very good at. I have been told.

They're probably right.

The pool fence yarn

I went to poetry tonight.

I do love a good poetry evening.

It is a mix of ages and people and everyone is there for the joy of words and connection.

Ah.

It's a bit like blogging but shorter and more immediate.

It's also a bit over two hours of me time once a month.

Ah.

And I get to share it with 'Salina.

Ah.

We are looking online at offerings of houses still.

We are holding powder until the right stars align - those meteors last week must have scrambled them.

One I saw recently had a swimming pool.

Hooray I hear some say but I know that (a) with such delights comes very hard work and (b) that was one ugly pool.

I grew up with a rectangular pool. Dad - or was it the husband of a relative? Anyhow he and a mate had met a guy in the pub who used to build pools on cruise ships - and for a non-taxable sum, a place to stay and to get fed for the duration he worked with Dad to build our pool.

We were the only ones in the area who had one when I was little.

Not that that meant our house was "the neighbourhood hang" - geography was too vast and everyone had a dam or tank to suffice.

But it did mean that there was always an option for a swim.

The technology involved with the pool was a hit'n'miss pump and a hose.

The pool was pumped from the river. As moss grew on the sides and the steps, we had stiff brushes to scrape them - and as scum and decaying leaves would form scabs upon the surface we had nets on long handled to scoop the pool.

Various chemicals were mixed with beakers of water and compared in the shadows against numbered charts of colour, and the resultant formula for clear waters sprinkled across the surfaces and swirled through.

The depths of the deep end and beneath the stairs were still freaky places I would not ever dare to venture to. I did not care that I was considered a wimp because I knew the truth.

I was a smart wimp.

The things to watch out for was slimy strings of amphibious eggs, black insects with hard beetle shells and hands of sharpened pincers, dead animals and toads.

Cane toads are ugly.

They are especially ugly when eyeballing you from between you and your exit from the pool.

Luckily there were two exits - the wooden stairs in the corner of the shallow end and the ladder - and I believe that it taught me to swim faster - both teaching and swimming faster - that very healthy fear of the cane toad.

They were in the pool DESPITE the 2 foot high pool fence directly past the concrete edge of the pool that's sole purpose was to deter toads from gaining access.

Should the bottom of the deep end get so murky and full of sludge that even the cane toads were coming up for fresher sir, the hit'n'miss would fire up and the next 14 hours - with intermittent orders poolside to scrub and calls of "how much fuel" and "is it blocked" while the water levels lowered and the sludge became more concentrate.

The next morning was old clothes, rubber boots and shovels as buckefuls of sludge were winched and dispensed to wheelbarrow and hence down the hill back towards the river.

There was a rectangular sinkhole at the far edge of the deep end where the last of the sludge was swept towards.

Then cracks reputtied and all sides repainted and sundried before the next cycle of pumped water re-entered the pool.

To quote the old man, you knew that you were alive when you hit the water in the morning for a few laps - or in the case of this particular wimp, you were alive after your Dad had had his "cold wash" and disposed of all cane toads.

Unsure of title

 Since the last post (& mostly not me) (no particular order):

• Real estate agents
• Unexpected answers to long-asked question
• How to make snake beans edible 
• Heart attack 
• Titanium rod
• Asparagus and white bean pasta
• Miscommunications 
• 21st
• Tomato pickers
• Small towns 
• Big families 
• Did I say amazing real estate agent 
• Work
• Boyfriend 
• Migraine 
• Poetry 
• Garden
• Packing 
• Finance
• pre-Christmas 
• Macros

I haven't forgotten you.

Just been a bit busy.