Ready!

I'm ready, we're both ready for travel tomorrow.... 

Spent the morning doing regular admin tasks that I normally do during the last week of every month, then straight after lunch I got stuck in - freezer/fridge supplies within easy reach for putting in the eskies tomorrow, other grocery bits and pieces were packed in other bags (as I hate finding and going to a supermarket as soon as we arrive) and last off, my own personal clothes and devices, books etc. 

I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be.  We've had rain most of the day, but will give the pots a top-up tomorrow morning as we leave.  It must be time to go for a walk to clear my head, but it's not looking promising. More rain to come. I'm not planning to post while we're away; I'll be back here on Wednesday 31st, all being well.

O Happy Days

After weeks of having bits and pieces hanging around, I've had a massive wrapping day today, and all done!  We had to make a quick trip to Darriwill for one last thing, and now we're good to go for presents. Bags and boxes for a week's holiday in a cabin still to be sorted. And I picked up a huge, heavy book from the library this morning - not decided yet whether I'll take it...

  

Ending Things

I thought I was getting close to the end of things. I've just finished reviewing the minutes of the last meeting for the year - have dealt with emails and answers setting things up for next year. Then there were a couple of time consuming hiccups during the day. Creating a bit of worry, when the year is closing down. 

Tomorrow I'm off to donate blood; hopefully that'll set me up for the holidays, as I've been feeling quite fatigued. And then it's off to the Rotary Christmas function in the evening. And it's the last day of school crossing duty, so maybe tomorrow evening I can say I'm at the end of things... We'll see. Rest and relaxation is coming soon.

 

Gingerbread Biscuits

The gingerbread biscuits have all been baked and packed ready for Adelaide. I'm posting one lot tomrrow, so the family can enjoy them before their long driving trip away for the holiday. 

We had an Advent lunch after the church service today; it was a nice social time for everybody after what's been a pretty long year. 

There's a regular church council meeting tomorrow; just to finalise a couple of things; it shouldn't take too long.

Then I'll be able to get my lists out and think about packing, and get the presents wrapped.  A few appointments coming up this week as well; getting the last things seen to before the break. 

Another Few Days

We're another few days closer to Christmas...

I've been sending a christmas card with word puzzles and/or stickers each week to each of the grandchildren - just during December - just for something different. I found some colourful word search printables online last night in 3 different age ranges, and I've just printed off a photo from christmas 2024 to include with each card, ready to post tomorrow morning. So, I hope they've enjoyed some simple surprises arriving in the letterbox. 

Giselle at 15 years is probably fairly blase about doing word searches, but now the social media platforms have been shut down for her age group, a word search might be just the thing to fill in some time!!!! 

Running Late

The day ended up being quite busy... I got the first batch of gingerbread iced mid afternoon, and then I had a brief nanna nap. Then it was out to Bunnings to redeem a credit note with some purchases, followed by a trip to the church to set up the nativity.

After that we headed of to an elderly lady's place to pick up something, and stay on for a chat. Back home it was a quick cheese and crackers tea before the parish chairman turned up to get some documents signed. Now I'm finally here. 

It was nativities all round - as I got enthusiastic about having some christmas cheer in the house and set up our own little nativity...

The various parcels and presents are coming together.  I think I'll be ready for a big wrapping session next weekend!

Things I Saw

Tonight I went for my first evening walk since daylight saving started. That's how bad the weather has been.  And after a week with a sore mouth and low energy I was out of practice...

 

Pretty Pleased 

We're pretty pleased with ourselves - managed to repot our new standard climbing roses without incident. It necessitated a return trip to Bunnings as we didn't quite have enough potting mix, but all was well. We'll see how we go....

Of course, we're into December from tomorrow, so we're back into Advent/Christmas traditions at church. 

I've been taking it easy for a couple of days, since my dental surgery; I'll have to get back into the walking tomorrow.

Mini Break - of Sorts

We have an extremely early start tomorrow - catching the 6.20am train to Geelong. I'm having a fairly straightforward tooth extraction under anaesthetic later on in the morning, and then back home with Jim around to keep an eye on me. 

The best bit will be having Friday off from the school crossing, so I can have a bit of a lie in and generally take it easy...

Outing Today

Unusually for us we went for a Sunday drive. We started at Pearsons Nursery in Allansford, and walked out with 2 standard climbing roses!!! In all our married life we've never had roses. A big experiment... Then we went to Timboon to have an ice-cream, and drove home again. No walking - it was too warm for me, and the timing wasn't right. The roses were so tall I had to sit in the back passenger seat behind the driver. The roses are now in position on the deck; we'll give them a week to settle in, and repot next weekend. 

Well, that's amazing - I've managed to transfer the photos directly from the phone to the laptop, earlier, and now have uploaded them to this post in the usual way! Once again, I've surprised myself. 

All is Well

Just a quick post to say that all is well. Not much news after the hectic weekend. My office space in the house is looking strangely empty. The extra table has gone back into the shed, papers for two meetings (now over) have been collated and filed away, and the new laptop has migrated to the office proper. I'm going to have to get our regular technician person in to connect the printers; I couldn't get it to work. I'm still coming to grips with writing and formatting documents - definitely a work in progress there...

Fabulous

Our concert at the Hamer Hall was "The Piano Man", backed by the MSO. Billy Joel best songs in fact. It was a fabulous concert.

Pretty tired now, as we had to catch the early morning train from Melbourne back to Warrnambool, to get home in time for a general meeting of the Parish. We were staying at the same hotel as we'd stayed at back in September - I'm happy with the hotel - its position and service. We had a room upgrade but that didn't make the warmth and stuffiness of the room any better to cope with - we both had difficulty sleeping as the bedcovers weren't suitable to the warmth of the room. (This is a common complaint wherever we stay)I'm wrung out from the meeting as well, but it's over and done with, and it's on with the next stage of church matters. 

It was great having a very brief visit to the city, the city with all its noise, lights, smells and chaos. 

 

  

 The Office Room

It's chocoblock in the house office at the moment, which is where I'm sitting writing this on the new laptop. The laptop is taking up a bit of room which is usually available; I've started preparing for an upcoming church council meeting - so papers spread everywhere, and the upcoming special general meeting has its own tray of papers.  Also, I've brought in an extra table for travel gear. We recently won tickets to a MSO concert at the Hamer Hall so we're off to Melbourne on Saturday, back on Sunday. Christmas gifts and bits and pieces are organised on a spare surface in the lounge! 

The new laptop hasn't moved to the office proper yet. I'm due to have another extended session with Brian next week, for him to get rid of unnecessary apps etc in other languages and install software so I can actually use it for writing files. At the moment, I've just been going through the settings and adjusting what I can, and setting up my favourites in the bookmarks bar. (if I've got the right terminology)

A busy couple of days coming up and then a quick 24 hours away. I've got a good book lined up for train travel, and podcasts for when I feel like dozing...

Quiet Now

Well, it was quiet a couple of hours ago when I started this post. Jim was out on a drive to Cobden, but I got distracted, and now he's back and it's not so quiet... We've both been out for a walk, so that's good.

Not much news. Yesterday afternoon we trimmed up the Silver Birch - it usually gets done at this time of year - just to trim off the branches scraping against the gutters and TV aerial, just where I'm sleeping at night. We also did a bit where it hangs over the fence into the neighbours.

The week ahead is looking busy enough, with various appointments and an outing to plan for, next weekend.  

 

Survived

I managed to survive yesterday's attempt to set up the new laptop. It was 4 hours at the Senior Citizens Club, just watching the upload go slowly through its instructions, and then the firmware to upload as well. The person helping me let me go home for awhile while he sat and kept an eye on things. Once I got home with it at about 2.00pm,I got connectivity to our modem done, then the virus protection installed, and finished the firmware upload. Then I switched it off. I haven't got back to it. I've given myself a firm talking to - to not switch it on and have a play, until everything else for the day is done. 

So, I'm sat here at the old laptop, writing this post, and finishing off the roster template for church helpers.  Maybe do a purchase, and then I'll have a look at what's what with the new laptop...

Layering On and Off, my Goodness

What a time we've had of it the last few days, as the weather has come in warm, after coldness. Winter polo shirt to summer polo shirt and back again... Long pants to shorts to long pants as the days and hours progressed.. Socks off, socks on, socks off... 

Last night in the cool of a sunny evening we repotted these two Bambolina Olive trees. They aren't destined for the yard, and we're not interested in olives, but hopefully they'll survive quite well here on the deck.... They're at the end of a long line of trial plants for the deck; I think if these go downhill, I'll just give up trying to grow anything else here. 

This afternoon has been spent at the laptop working on church templates and forms. I've had 3 or 4 different tubs of church stuff on the go, and as we're getting closer to the end of the year, and people have become available to do stuff, I can finally finish off some things. 

I'm spending Tuesday morning with a helper at the Senior Citizen's club getting my new laptop set up; I'm feeling daunted just thinking about it. I've plugged it in to charge it up, answered a couple of the first questions , and then couldn't go any further as it wouldn't connect to the WiFi. Brian can look after all that. Phew! 

 

Buoyant 

We attended the travel agent this afternoon, and all the major items for our upcoming trip to Europe in 2026 are set in place. I've just paid the travel insurance, so if the Russians invade Poland or Finland, and the trip gets cancelled we should be okay! But that is not going to happen. All shall be well. 

 

The Day 

The day has got away from me, somewhat, in a good way. Church duties for both of us this morning - Jim was communion assistant; I was greeting and counting, then getting the sanctuary ready for All Saints next Sunday. White flowers instead of the red (Reformation Sunday) we had today. A spot fire from one parishioner, but I hope I've sorted it out. 

This afternoon we were off to Bunnings for large pots and potting mix, and then a Sunday Drive to the Hopkins River Falls. We decided to call in on friends on the way home - had a good chat about getting old, getting services, and arranging finances for the long haul...

Then it was home for a cold drink and to give the car a dust and vac, and have a quick nana nap.  Hopefully, I'll get a walk in after tea.

So, I 've just tried uploading a couple of photos from icloud but this laptop is almost frozen it's so slow. Setting up a new laptop with windows eleven in a couple weeks can't come soon enough. 

Atrocious

We've had atrocious winds blustering and swirling around for the last 18 hours, with bits of stinging rain coming through horizontally. Just catching up with the Adelaide crew who would have endured the winds 12 hours before us...  So, I only ventured out for school crossing duty; made do with a walking workout inside at home.

  

A Mixed up Kind of Day

Yes, mixed up with the tasks done, and the weather, of course.

Church was short, as the Pastor wasn't leading; followed by scones, jam and cream, and friendly discussion. Still, we were home in good time to get the regular morning house jobs done.  It was quite warm but not sunny, so I pulled out the furniture, carpet and stuff from under the laserlite, and got the window and decking washed.  

In between times I had church computer forms to fill in, scan and send off to head office.  Also, parish minutes to review and an order at Koorong online to make. It took forever; their online ordering is nowhere near as good as it should be. By now, we'd had lunch and the decking was dry, so dragged everything back in under cover, as it was threatening rain, and then it did rain... 

My other ordered items all turned up during the week. The first item - a bag- has already gone to the op shop, as not fit for purpose - was just a cheap buy. Another item was a DVD set of British murder mysteries I'd heard about.  The episodes are only available on one of the streaming platforms, and I refuse to subscribe to any of them.  It's been a while since I've used the DVD player operation - hopefully it'll work - the set is a christmas present for myself, so a few more weeks yet before I can watch. The other item was a set of two books in a series by a SA author, the first published in 2024, and the second a week or so ago. They'll be given to my Kris Kringle giftee, so absolutely no hints or pictures. I've just started reading last year's book again, then the second book to follow. Jim plans to read both, too, before they get wrapped up in christmas paper. 

Sunshine

Yes, we're having some proper sunshine now, for a couple of days. I washed some deck windows today - across the front of the house where the lounge and dining area are - no furniture to move.  Tomorrow, all being well, I'll get the window section by the front door done - move the furniture items out of the way; the decking should dry off with the hot sunshine. Hopefully, I'll get the last section in front of the bedroom done on the weekend - lots of furniture and carpet to move around there. 

Halfway through October - church matters are either moving fast, or dragging along; I'm expecting some christmas bits and pieces to arrive in the mail in the next few days, so a bit of planning is starting to happen in that respect, as well.

 

Given Over

The weather has been atrocious today so I've given the  afternoon over to church computer work. The parish is working on some matters for 2026 so there are emails to write and answer. Then it was on to the agenda for tomorrow's congregation council meeting, and sending that out to council members.  

After that it was creating some new forms for members records, as I didn't think the ones I inherited from the previous office person were fit for purpose, or at least fit for my purpose. We'll see how they go over time. Will probably need some more adjustments, as we enter data - may still not be quite right. 

And so, we're onto a new working week - I hope the weather is better tomorrow at 3.00pm...   

Pressure

It's been a pressurised start to the term. If I'd had any sense I would have deferred a couple of matters until next week. Apart from a tiny hissy fit at an appointment this afternoon, I've got through. 

There was an extremely tense parish council meeting on Monday night, with big changes coming ahead, and we're trying to steer the parish through the changes. 

Yesterday morning I had a first tech support session with an older volunteer at the local senior citizens club. He walked me through some of the processes of files and folders and computer housekeeping which I'd found out I'd been doing incorrectly. He was brilliant - I learnt so much. I've a double session booked in November for him to help set up a new laptop - I'm still using windows 8.1 So, I have all the fun of buying a new one - he's given me all the specs to look out for.

This morning, the city council carried out its annual inspection of the church kitchen. All good there, thank heavens. He did get his torch out and peer into the back of the dry goods pantry, to see if anything was lurking there, out of date. Only a jar of chicken salt, 5 years out of date, so that went straight in the bin. I can't imagine why we even needed a jar of chicken salt, anyway.

I've had a couple of appointments as well, and Jim's brain hasn't been in its best place for a couple of days - I'm putting it down to daylight saving and the parish council meeting.  

Witton Bluff Walk

On Monday we were out with children and family adults for a walk along the Witton Bluff Promenade. We started at Pt Noarlunga, walked to Christies Beach, had lunch and a play on the playground, then walked back and finished up with an icecream. I think we had the best of the days for the week, as a couple of days later I heard on the radio that Toxic Algae Bloom foam was up to the car park at Pt Noarlunga. 

The beach is nice and clean here.  Then it's not!

Now it's back to school crossing for term 4.  The gear is in the car and the alarm is set! Christmas will be here before we know it....

GRIN2B Fundraiser

We were in Adelaide to attend a little GRIN2B fundraiser.  GRIN2B is a genetic disorder that Sadie, our 13 year old granddaughter, was born with. The weather was perfect - cool and mild - and about 30 family and friends turned up to walk the kilometre course.

  

A good time was had by all.  Well done with organising this event, Lauren.

 

Adelaide Story

Our trip to Adelaide all went well. The travelling days were windy, and on the way back it was even more windy, cold, and dismal with misty rain. Stopping for our snacks and lunches at picnic places was uncomfortable and unpleasant - having to rug up with beanies and coats and hold onto paper wrapping etc while trying to eat sandwiches or similar. 

Road and footpath improvements continue at Jetty Road, Glenelg. The Brighton Road entrance has had a fantastic art installation completed. 

 

Roadworks continue apace along the South Road corridor.

These were taken on our way to see Hazel (my mother). We had a nice visit with her; had to visit the closest Officeworks to find a battery for her Alert Pendant. After that we were to visit the Carclew Primitive Methodist Cemetery at Angle Vale, about a 30minute drive north west from Hazel's. So, we carefully followed Siri's instuctions - here, there and roundabout, up and down dale, only to be foiled at the last 100 metres. The local water authority were undertaking sewerage trench works across the front and around the little church and cemetery. We couldn't even walk the last 100 metres into it... A borrowed photo from the internet; I won't be attempting to visit during summer...

We headed the back way to Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend and Keith for the night. We had to shelter on the Tailem Bend train station platform for snack time.

The next morning there was no hurry to leave Keith; I had three shops to visit in a township of 1,400 people. First it was to the butcher for 3 packs of Coorong Mullet and some Bung Fritz.  Three doors up it was to the bakery for buns for morning tea. And then it was round the block to visit "Out and About" clothing to chase up a couple of new polo shirts. 

We had our buns at Padthaway, sheltering, sheltering, across the paddock in a dingy shelter shed!  And then to home. Tomorrow, I'll post about the GRIN2B fundraising, and on Sunday, I'll post about Monday's adventures.