This and That for this Sunday

The platform under the clothesline is finished; well done Jim, and is brilliant to walk on, and more importantly, reaching the line for hanging up the washing. 

After church we picked up our sandwiches from the Milk Bar, and after a quick change of clothes and finishing off the tidying up, we were off for a drive to Lake Bolac. Why, you may well ask? - just cos...  However, we took the wrong clothes - not enough layers, scarf and beanie - there was a cold wind blowing off the lake. That's what happens when you rush around to leave the house, and not thinking through the outing properly. We drove up to the main street corner and had our picnic lunch at the civic green, which has been developed beautifully. Afterwards, we travelled home via Dunkeld and Penshurst. 

Outside Project

As mentioned 2 or 3 months ago, we installed a new clothesline, using the hole and plastic holder from the previous clothesline. At its lowest setting I could barely reach the line. 

When we got the previous line to the previous line we laid a big piece of rubber matting to bring my height up a bit. We did the same with the previous line - I keep shrinking and the matting keeps sinking into the ground. Once again, with this new line, we went looking for rubber matting, but there was none to be had, that had a decent height to it.  It was time to get serious, and build a platform for easier clothes hanging, and which would last me out...

This and That for This Sunday

First off, my mood has picked up, so that's good.

I think I've got the clothes and linen all set up for the next 12 months. I've had the sewing machine out doing some hemming, and I've been doing some hand mending, as well. Mainly with my cardigans - fraying seams and cuffs - they should be okay until winter, when new items become available online. I can now think about a couple of outside projects and christmas (coming up quickly).

I've got the first photo journal set up, and the first day's travel entered.  It's always a bit of a business getting the first one set up; deciding on fonts and sizes, layout etc. After this I'll just be able to copy the first into the second, and so on, and just change the headings and photos. 

Here are a couple of photos from the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It was a lovely place to wander, and the rain pretty much held off while we were walking. We'd had our plastic ponchos on earlier. 

Post Travel Doldrums

It's three weeks since we got back from our travels, and I've just been feeling blah for 24/48 hours. I'm well over the jet lag, and I'm sleeping well in my cosy flannelette sheets, but suddenly feeling sooky with low energy levels. This too will pass...

Nevertheless, I got today's jobs done and spent the rest of the time veging out in front of the laptop and/or ipad....

A full morning of wandering around the streets on a Thursday morning tomorrow, including some christmas window shopping - I'll take my time and will feel somewhat revived.

Layering On and Off

I'ts been a week for layering on and off, for sure... Tempuratures have mainly been in the mid to high twenties - layer off - overnight tempuratures have been cold, so on with the winter pj's and blankets. Then a couple of nights, the house was stuffy and warm, so the air con was on and the blankets were thrown away.

It's been a quiet week. We're changing over computers at the church office, but that's been postponed until all the people and their phones can be aligned. 

 

Photo Business

I've spent the last couple of weeks, on and off, getting the overseas trip photos uploaded to the laptop. Each day, while we were away, I put that day's photos into a folder, hoping it would be easier when we got home. It was a bit... Some folders copied over straightaway, others couldn't be read, and I had to do each photo individually. Sometimes it was one folder, other times I was able to get 2 or 3 done in one session. All completed now, thank heavens.

As I'm quickly selecting photos to upload, I caught glimpses of places we'd been to, which I'd completely blocked out - from the first couple of weeks, at least. Looking back I think I was exhausted before the trip even started, and then we both got coughs and colds the second week. The escorted tour section was pretty intense, with early starts and long days. I was just hanging in there. But by the third week, I was travelling a bit better, and by the last few days, after the tour had finished, I think I would have been right to keep going for another week of so!

I've had to do a bit of organising of old photo journals from previous trips, just to streamline everything for easy saving and accessing. I'm just about ready to start on "Europe 2026, The Bigger Life"...

This and That for this Sunday

We've just got back from an outing to the Cobden Miniature Railway. After church we picked up some sandwiches from the milk bar, finished off the jobs at home and headed off. Had our picninc lunch in the tea rooms, and then a couple of rides out and about and back again. After that we drove across country to Timboon for an icecream, and now home. 

I've got another couple of projects done this week. You may remember that I'd bought a heap of towels etc with a gift voucher back a couple of months ago. Easy enough to finally get them set up in the bathroom and drawers for regular use. The mental energy went into what to to do with the old towelling. The old bath towels became the bathroom hand towels, and the old bathroom hand towels became the floor rags for floor kneeling and cleaning, but what to do with the old floor rags.  I have rags from back in the day still in good use.  There's a limit to how much old stuff to have in storage, just in case, or for future use....  Op shop, rubbish bin, or church kitchen? 

We both needed new shorts for this upcoming summer. I don't know what's happened to Jim's shorts in the last couple of years, but not fit for purpose anymore (holes in pockets?) and mine were rags. They should have been replaced this time last year, but it didn't happen. So, yesterday morning it was off to Gazman for him, and Black Pepper for me, and we made some purchases. My denim classic long pants will replace my current ones, which will be cut down to make shorts; everything is getting used and reused in different formats!

 

Disappeared...

I was just going to make a few small corrections to a document - the lay reading service order, which I'm leading this Sunday - and it's disappeared completely.  Nowhere to be found, not even in the recycle bin. Too late now to retype, and reformat. A job for tomorrow, and do another search to see if it's ended up in another folder.

Stress all round yesterday, as I ventered forth to Harris Scarfe to buy myself a bra.. I've been wearing the recovery bra from my surgery 6 months ago - reasonably comfortable, but the lycra is starting to stretch and sag. It's years since I've fitted myself for a bra in a fitting room, as I just kept buying the same bra as I always had, just in a bigger size, as required. Anyway, I came home with one, to try out - we'll see how we go. Mmmmm. 

 

Quick Post

I'm between meetings so to speak. Jim and I attended a regional LCA meeting this afternoon, and I'm now doing prep and a draft agenda for a regular church council meeting tomorrow evening.  A few matters have accumulated while we've been away; hopefully it won't drag on too long. 

Our sleeping is mostly back to normal (mostly, but not entirely), and we've spent the last few days catching up - mowing, dusting, vaccing..  I have several projects on a list, most postponed from July/August. I want to get them knocked over before the end of November. The vacuum cleaner used by the tenant in the Back House blew up three days before we left, so the house vacuum went to her while we were away. It's not practicable to have a shared vacuum - I don't want to be running up and down the hill carrying a vacuum every day, or second day as required. So, off we went to the Good Guys, and half an hour later we were back with a new vacuum for the main house. One project ticked off.

School crossing duty started off well, with good weather and everyone pleased to see me.

 

We're Back Home!

We're really, truly back in Australia, and back home in Warrnambool.  Most of our transfers and connections went well, despite being stressful at times. We're loving our flannelette sheets, familiar pillows and regular blankets when sleeping. The home toilet and shower are still the best in the world....

I won't be posting diary refelections of each and every thing we did - it just becomes too onerous and burdensome, but I will post notes and observations from time to time, in no particular order, as they come to mind. 

I'm taking up the reins of church matters once again, and now travel is well and truly behind us, I'm already thinking about what I want my life to look like for the next 2years, 5years, 10years. Hopefully, not too different to what's gone before. The school crossing gear has been packed in the car, ready for tomorrow's start. That's not going to change anytime soon.

A photo from our first day in Europe - at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A photo from our last day in Europe - medieval building and bridges in Bamburg, Germany.