Bright and Breezy

Ah! Can you feel that cool breeze coming off the water? It was lovely to feel it this morning after a weekend so hot and humid I thought I would be pickled.   

On Saturday night we went to Hayden's work Christmas party.  The theme was 'Tropical Paradise', and they definitely got the tropical part right.  It was an extremely sultry night, and you'd sweat just standing still holding a drink.  But very fun indeed - definitely the best one we've been to so far.  At past work functions we've been sat in tables of ten through a groaning three-course meal before being dragged onto the dancefloor.  (I hate being asked to dance by Hayden's work colleagues.  Especially on a full stomach.  So awkward.)  

But this time it was a real grown-ups party with waiters and drinks trays, a wild range of hors d'oeuvres and a serve-yourself oyster bar.  There were live bands, fire-twirlers and a mini casino where I won quite a bit of money playing poker.  It was fake money of course.  But still.   

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.

Spending

I don't know much about money, but I reckon Kevin Rudd's onto something: when you're feeling broke, one of the best things you can do is spend a little.  It eases the pressure beautifully, you feel heaps better, and then you're able to tackle your money problems in good spirits.

Flipping through a magazine yesterday, I saw an idea for spreading around a little extra cash:  through these people, Kiva.org, you can invest a small amount of money directly to someone in need of a bit of capital to help their small business - be it sewing clothes, milking cows or growing bananas.  What is only a small amount of money in Australia, as little as $25, can mean a lot to someone in one of the poorer countries of the world.

I just wanted to let you know about it.  I'm not trying to be preachy.  One of my least favourite sensations is the mix of 10% guilt / 90% irritability I feel when I encounter advertising which tries to guilt-trip me into donating money.  It's not that I don't think those poor little kids with the big swollen bellies deserve help - I just don't want to be made to feel bad about it.  I hate those depressing voice-overs and the mournful music they play while they describe the worst cases of poverty.  I don't want to be rung up during my dinner - how do they even know what time we're going to eat? - and I always look away from those sad round eyes peering out from my Saturday paper.  I used to think I must be naturally misanthropic, but what I have found is that when left to my own devices I do feel compelled to help other people.  I want to be inspired, not guilt-tripped, into helping.  I find it's much easier to do it in my own time.

Around this end of the year I usually like to make a small donation on behalf of Hayden and myself, especially when I feel like we've been lucky, or when I'm grateful that someone has taken a chance on one of us - and that has happened quite a bit this year.   It feels like the right thing to do, to pass that chance on to someone else.

Thanks!

Thank you so much everyone, for all the birthday wishes.

Happy, Happy Day

Ahh what a wonderful day yesterday.  And what a wonderful night.   I felt so spoilt the entire time - like I was floating around on a cloud of luckiness and happiness.  That was one of the best birthdays yet.

After an afternoon having my fingernails and toenails painted (at my favourite beauty spot) I was instructed by Hayden to be ready for dinner at 5:30 sharp.  This did seem a bit strange, not because it was so early (things close early in Townsville, we're used to it now) but because it was sharp.  What?  Hayden is no respecter of restaurant bookings, so this was very out of character.  It did make me wonder where we were going.  

He picked me up right on time and drove us down past the waterfront .. no surprises yet .. past the Watermark, past the marina, past the turn-off back into town, and out towards the casino.  Hmm.  He stopped the car, and we began to walk ... to the ferry terminal.  Ah! We were going to Magnetic Island, just for dinner.  We'd never done that before.

It was such a romantic idea, and it was nearly a perfect night.  We didn't stop at the Peppers Resort near the ferry terminal; we hopped on the bus over to Horseshoe Bay to Barefoot gallery and restaurant.  We sat on their balcony - barefoot of course - and for a good while we were their only guests.  We gazed out to the sea as the sun went down, and listened to the lazy little waves sloshing rhythmically on the beach.  When the sky was really dark, all we could see were the lights at the top of each mast of the boats moored in the bay.  It was very, very romantic.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday and I'm having a wonderful day.  All week Hayden has been spoiling me with gifts - a lucky ticket hidden in my weekend paper; a new CD I found in amongst our collection; a beautiful bunch of roses brought home one morning when he went out to get milk.  

Lily has got in on the act too, and she got me a couple of really thoughtful gifts: a little stuffed toy that smells like catnip, and bubble blowing liquid... that also smells like catnip.  Thanks Lily.  She really knows what I like.

To all my far-away family and friends:  I wish you were here!  Then we'd share my beautiful pink-coated chocolate-berry-muffin-cake.  

Hope you have a great day too, wherever you are.

xx

Naomi

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.

River Swim

We got to the river after a confusing and slightly nauseating drive through same-same-same-same 80s-brick suburbia.  Some teenagers were already there, splashing around in the water until a cellphone rang from where it was wedged in the fork of a tree and they soon wandered off in a dripping bunch.  They were nice - not sullen, not self-consciously brash like I was at that age.  I always cringe hard when I see teenagers acting out.  The last guy waited for us to get down to the water's edge, then threw the rope up to me before he climbed out up the exposed tree roots.

Then it was my turn to swing out on the rope and splash.  Hayden swung in after me and we headed out across to the other side.  And then back.  Hayden did another lap - this time much more seriously - while I got out and waited for him on the bank.    I watched him come back across the water towards me.  I felt like I'll always be doing that.  There's nothing so wholesome as a freshwater swim.

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.

Three Cheers

Three cheers for Hayden, who fixed our washing machine single-handedly last night.  I was not looking forward to any of the alternatives:

• paying someone $80 to come and take a look at it, then paying $25 for each fifteen minutes they subsequently ummed and ahhhed.
  
• trying to lift the thing into the back of our car to take it to be repaired, or

• attending Thursday Night Shopping tonight to look for a replacement

Living without a washing machine was not one of our options.  After only three days it was becoming uncomfortable, and a little bit smelly.  I would not like to continue that way.

Thank you once again, wonderful husband.

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.

The Warm Up

It's really warming up here.  Every October it's like someone turns on a massive oven with its door open facing Townsville.  During October and November you can feel this oven heating up daily, and by January-February we're really being roasted.

I have been staying cool indoors during the day, sewing.  Not more patchwork, and not clothes (don't get excited Katherine), but I've been making cushion covers and a few little crafty things that are likely to turn up in some peoples' Christmas stockings.  Family, you have been warned.

Lily is my constant companion when sewing.  She likes to rest on any fabric I've laid out for cutting and she loves to investigate the sewing machine - especially when it's going.  But best of all she loves to pull out pins.  She gets as many pin-heads as she can in each mouthful, pulls them out with a jerk of her pretty head, and scatters them all over the floor.  I don't mind so much when they come out of the pin-cushion, but when she pulls them out of the fabric I've carefully pinned up for sewing ... well it does try my patience.

Power Cut

We had a lovely Sunday.  It was just perfect, really.  We woke up early and got out of the house; we drove to the markets out at Willows.  I've never had such a nice time there - usually it is late in the day by the time we finally make it, but it was so worth going early before the day warmed up.  We were there for some fresh fruit and vegetables (specifically bananas and potatoes) but we also looked at some of the local handicrafts.  We even picked up a fridge magnet made out of a beer bottle top with a tiny picture of an Australian landscape painted on the inside.  Strange impulse purchase perhaps ... but it was only $5 and the guy was chuffed to make a sale.

When we got home, we made smoothies from the bananas and played a long game of scrabble.  We don't impose a time limit, we just have music or telly playing softly in the background so that when it's not your turn there's always something to do.  After about an hour and a half our scores were tied at 316.  Hayden got all his letters down first, but I had cornered most of the triple word scores, so that's how we came out even.  We went down to our local coffee place to celebrate the game, and stayed there sipping drinks and reading the papers until the owner kicked us out.  He wanted to get home to watch the football.

Back at home, Hayden tinkered with his bicycles while I prepared the potatoes and put them in the oven.  When they were ready, we spent about two hours covering the kitchen with flour and gluggy mess while we made a huge batch of gnocci - some for our dinner, and some to freeze for later.  

After dinner, the power went out.  We don't know why, but it was black all over our neighbourhood.

It was such a relaxing end to a perfectly relaxing day.  There was sudden silence - no hum from next door's aircon or the pool filter just outside our bedroom window.  No overheard TV or other peoples' music.  Just us, sitting in candlelight with a pack of playing cards, relaxing and talking in the gloom.  Showering and teethbrushing by candlelight reminded me of camping, and I was just lying in bed, feeling so peaceful and for once I loved not reading myself into sleepiness - it came all by itself.

I just wanted to remember it.

100 to do list

Something Marny said recently got me thinking about those Myers Briggs personality types again.  You know, the ones where they classify your personality by giving you four letters:  I or E; S or N; F or T; P or J. 

Do you know what type you are? If you're an N you probably know exactly what I'm talking about, but if you're an S you probably can't see the point in this nonsense.  I'm one of those types with a J at the end, which means that I'm into making lists.

I have been working on this 100 things to do before I die list for ages now (eh ... years in fact.  That's why some items have already been crossed off) but I'm still only up to number 33. 

But I do find that every crossed-off list item generates ideas for more new things to do.  And though I know you're meant to introduce false panic into this exercise by imagining that you've been given only months to live, I prefer to assume that I've got a bit of time ahead of me.  I suppose mine's more like 100 things to do if I live.

1.  Travel outside of Australia 

2. Contribute to a published book.  It doesn't matter in what capacity - writer, editor, helper, contributor

3.  Work on a remote site 

4.  Work as a writer

5.  Raise at least one child

6.  Design a large garden and watch it grow

7.  Write a childrens' book - either a story or non-fiction

8.  Get back into music one way or another

9.  Help out in the community in a creative capacity

10. Live in a country in which English is not the first language

11. Grow a large crop of something - fruit in an orchard?  a commercial quantity of herbs? - to harvest and sell

12.  Own a house and 'customise' it a bit

13.  Study garden design or landscape design

14.  Design a garden for someone else - one that I think is beautiful and they're really happy with too

15.  Learn another language to the point where I can have a conversation

16.  Sew some curtains specifically for the place where we're living - especially if it is another rented property

17.  Set foot on Africa

18.  Do something about my fascination with middle-eastern tiles

19.  Get more of my creative thoughts out of my head and into the world

20. Set foot in the US

21.  Write a novel

22.  Publish a novel

23.  Get our photos off the computer and onto our walls, into books and albums, onto archive storage.

24.  Work somewhere where English isn't the first language

25.  Visit India

26.  Visit Morocco

27.  Make a picture book out of fabric - make one for children, and then think about making one for grown-ups?

28.  Make a set of cut-out felt animals, and a felt storyboard for them to cling to

29.  Make a home movie

30.  Drive from Townsville to Brisbane with Hayden

31.  Make myself a mousepad that works

32.  Go on safari in Africa

33.  Poetry.  Write some poetry.

I have already started on number 28.  I made a cut-out giraffe from brown felt, and it lead me to add numbers 17, 32 and 27 to the list.  You see how this works?

Let me know if you do up a list of your own; I'd love to hear what you imagine for your future.

Love Friday

Got migraine today.  Not loving it.

Patchwork Number Two

I've made another one.  You're right, Claire, it is addictive. 

It served me really well on the weekend when we went to watch the North Queensland Athletics Championships:  while Hayden was off snapping action shots of the runners and jumpers, I rested on my blanket in the dappled shade.

I only looked up from my book once, when some gangly teenagers rolled up and started practicing with a shot put right there on the grass beside me.  My peace was ruined. 

 They needed a lot of practice.

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.

First Patchwork

Here it is.  My first patchwork quilt.  If you don't like it don't tell me, cos I'm ridiculously pleased with it.  And with myself.

I have seen a lot of different patchwork quilts on all those crafty-mummy blogs I browse, but I never felt the urge to make such a thing myself because if there's one thing we don't need in Townsville it's extra warmth.  

Then I saw a tutorial on House on Hill Road for a patchy picnic blanket and I thought that's something we could use... or at least give away.  I had the best time picking out the fabrics and co-ordinating how much and where for each one; instead of trying to keep track of some complicated geometric pattern (that would be nearly impossible for me and not at all fun) I made an unstructured pattern that just 'seemed right'.  And I love it.  The part of sewing I always like best is choosing the thread to match the fabric, and when you're making a quilt there is so much matching and co-ordinating to be done. 

Up until now I've tried really hard to furnish our house in a way that's warm and welcoming without crossing the line into 'cottagey', and that's not easy in a town with no Ikea.  With this new patchwork thing I might just be tipping the balance.  

Ah well.

Bougainvillaea

Lots of good things have been happening recently.  We've had beautiful weather in the ramp-up to summer (no spring as such here); I've finally grown out of the woeful haircut I got a couple of weeks ago; Friends is back on telly instead of that awful dating gameshow and, best of all, our worst closest noisiest neighbours have left.  Gone.  Moved out.

We have a lot of close neighbours, as next door to us is a row of six tiny hovels, each with a tiny backyard courtyard that abuts our fence.   The first of these hovels, the one closest to our kitchen and living room, was where the worst neighbours lived.  We called them the Trash Family.  We could hear every word they said when they congregated in their little courtyard to drink and smoke and scold their children.  "No.  No.  Noooo.  No.  NO. NOOO!  Just sit down and drink your f--ken milk!"   

And then, just last Wednesday, we noticed that they were cleaning.  By Thursday they were gone.  My bougainvillea, which had done nothing all winter but look wan and bedraggled, has finally started to flower.  I feel much the same way myself.

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Update:

We have new next-door neighbours.  They are Victorians, and they are already holed up inside with the aircon on all day and all night.  Er ... summer has not even got going yet.  They are in for a rough time.