Love Friday: The Rain

The humidity has broken.  I do not know if that is the correct term for it, but last night the rain thundered down for hours and this morning the world is wet and dripping.

The fat glossy drops hang on the end of the bottle-brush's leaves, just outside our kitchen window.  I'm standing at the sink, looking out into the grey and green and feeling quite cosy inside.   My Ella Jenkins CD is on.

But what to do next?  I noticed the other day that Lindcraft has opened up a shop in Townsville.  Maybe today's the day I go and check it out?

Love the Couch

It's sweltering.   And we're feeling it.  Especially those of us with fluffy tummies.  Couch season has begun.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, but I can only see two reasons to get up off the couch:  Saturday night it's Hayden's work Christmas party (I know, already), and Sunday morning I'm going to be out on the river in a kayak, counting triathletes as they go round the swim course.  That should be refreshing.

I'm wishing you a cool breeze this weekend, 

whatever you're doing.

Love Friday: The Big Weekend

We've got a wonderful weekend coming up, one with something for everyone.  Well, something for each of us anyway.

For Hayden there's a big bike race on Saturday, featuring Australian stars of the Tour de France who even I have heard of:  Robby McEwen and the guy who's nearly won the Tour de France twice now, Cadel Evans.  To be honest I am quite looking forward to the bike race too, because it's one of those psych-out style races where the competitors go all wary and slow at the start until someone makes a move - and then it's on.   We've been spotting the visiting cyclists around town for the last couple of days.  It's not hard to do; they're the lanky ones with the shaven legs.

Then later, after all the heat and sweat of the bike race, we get to see the foreign and arty films of the Sydney Travelling Film Festival.  I can't remember the last subtitled movie I saw at the cinema (though we did watch the brilliant and beautiful Diving Bell and the Butterfly at home).   So far I've circled The Grocer's Son and Happy-Go-Lucky on the Festival program.  What?? I've circled things on the program??  I used to be way cooler than that.  Now I'm just looking forward to a real big-city arty treat.  (I got a pang when I saw this picture of pale-faced Melbournians outside a gallery opening.  Ah..)

Thanks again Big Cat for Love Fridays.  It's the perfect way to build up to a weekend of fun.

Love Friday: Early Knock-off

At Hayden's work, the official Friday afternoon knock-off time is 2pm. It's always been 2pm. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?  But I don't know why, maybe he's just inefficient, but in all the time he's worked there Hayden has only managed to come home early on three Friday afternoons.  That would be the last three Friday afternoons.

Just recently his workload has become more manageable, so we have instigated the most delightful Friday afternoon practice:  no, not beers on the balcony (wait, why not beers on the balcony??) but an extremely delicious and civilised coffee together to kick off the weekend.

I can't wait.

Love Friday: Clean and Fresh

Today I am preparing for the oncoming summer:  I have cleaned out our fridge, removing all these mystery bottles and jars of things out of date.  Sadly included are some delicious beers, including our favourite, Little Creatures Bright Ale.  So sad to see it go.    However, I've made stacks of space in there for summer fruits, summer salads and of course bread.  In summer in Townsville, it just doesn't last if you leave it on the kitchen bench.

I've also been to my first aqua-aerobics class.  It's my third summer returning. I don't know if I'll be quite so dedicated this year - last year I went every chance I got after I bought that wedding dress off the rack that fitted me so perfectly.  Make a note: aqua-aerobics is the exercise to do when you want to stay exactly the same size and shape.  After class I always feel wonderful; my skin warm and refreshed from the sun and the water, my muscles aching pleasantly like they do when they've been used.

Thanks so much BigCat for hosting Love Fridays.

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PS:  After I cleaned out the fridge, I cleaned out the pantry.  I found a couple of items in it that were out of date in October 2005.  That was before we came to Townsville!  We transported things all the way from Melbourne that were already out of date.  And then we stored them in our kitchen for three years. Hm.

Love Cat Friday

So did you ever wonder what happened to Lily's litter-sister?  We we wondering.  We hadn't seen her since February, not all that long after she came out of the womb second and literally walked over baby Lily to beat her to the milk.  

She's been bigger and stronger than Lily since then.  Initially we thought she was a boy.

We knew that she'd gone to live with some neighbours of ours and that they'd called her Kuta.  But we hadn't seen her at all until recently, when we spotted her scrapping with another (much bigger) neighbourhood cat.

She's grown into a strong independent woman-cat, tough but beautiful.

Love Friday - Holidays!

We're off to Port Douglas for a long weekend, to help some of our New Zealand friends warm up and dry out after their long wet winter.

Why am I packing coffee beans in tupperware? Well, we're the ground support for this little trip. We'll be arriving with our tiny car packed to the gills with supplies and equipment the others couldn't afford in their baggage allowance - beach towels, board games, DVDs and beverages. Yes, all kinds of beverages.

We'll be back in the middle of next week - hopefully to a new internet connection which, you never know, might encourage me to post here more than once a week.

See ya!

Love Friday

This might just be the end of Love Fridays for me.  I'm not saying for definite - but I'm not sure it looks that good either.

From now on, Friday is going to be my housework day.   Ever since I quit my last job, our house has been particularly spotless as I filled in my time with over-cleaning.   But when I caught myself talking like a housewife to my sister - I was telling her about the morning I woke up wanting to buy Hayden a load of business shirts and mix-and-match ties so he could never go wrong - I decided that enough was enough.

So Love Friday is now Cleaning Friday.  Look out for it next week!

Love Friday

I have been feeling rotten.  I don't know if it's allergies  or a head cold or what, but this week I've been full to the brim with snotty disgusting gunk.  I don't know about you, but for me when this happens I usually go a little bit deaf.  It's all connected back there behind our noses.

This morning when I took a sip of my freshly-brewed coffee, one of the hundreds of morning coffees made with love for me by my wonderful husband, I let the warm and delicious liquid slip silkily down my throat.  I swallowed.  Then suddenly my ears cleared and out of nowhere I could hear the music playing for the start of the morning news.  I turned to Hayden and asked, "Have I been talking really loudly this past week?" 

He let his eyes close slowly then nodded, yes.

This weekend is going to be a good one.

Love Friday

The message here is pretty clear.  What more could you want than the smell of sweat and sunscreen, the glare, and the sweet relief of the afternoon's breeze?

Don't spend your weekend indoors watching sport on the telly.  Get outside and enjoy!  Come on.. I'll buy you an ice-cream..?

Love Fridays

I know it's been a little while since I've worked hard for money.  And it might seem like I have the most ridiculously luxurious life of leisure.   Well I do have a wonderful life.  I appreciate every minute of the comfort and freedom of our life in Townsville.  But also, I work.  Though you don't see it, and though there's not often a pay packet to show for it,  I do work quite hard during the week.   I'm trying to teach myself writing, story-telling, crafting and creativity, in amongst the odd part-time job or two, running our little household and keeping everything organised and tidy at home.

All this to say that ... I still love Fridays.   On Fridays I often think to myself that it would be nice to do a little winding down before the weekend.  I often wish I could do a Friday morning yoga class to relax and stretch out.  Change up my focus.  Look back on a week that might otherwise just drift away unnoticed.

I really like this idea for a Love Friday meme.  I'm going to try it for a bit.  Seems like a nice thing to do.

(On Monday I'm going to get back to the story at hand.  After all, we're just getting to the fun bit - the honeymoon.)