Well, here I am, starting at a somewhat more reasonable time, for once. What do you think of the new background and header? I’m sorry I can’t say that I like the colours – as I think I said once before, I don’t really “do” greens (or pinks either, for that matter, and definitely not pinks and greens together! I did try that once, and it was a miserable failure!) But I was getting sooo sick and tired of all the blues, mauves, purples, and greys that I always seem to use – aren’t you?! I wish they’d invent a new colour… I should have a competition – $20 to the person who suggests a new colour scheme for the blog that doesn’t involve soft blues, mauves, purples, or greys! No, really! I mean it! Leave me a comment with your colour choice, and you’ll not only get your colour, you’ll get your $20.00, too! How can you possibly lose? 😉 Ya gotta be init to winit!

The header you’re looking at today was freshly made this morning, out of a “panel” font (usually used for making buttons and decorative titles on some web sites, back in the days when “pretty pretty” was all the rage, especially on “navigating” buttons! It’s quite an old font…) I just duplicated it, turned one panel upside down, removed the two dividing lines, and stuck them together. More or less. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but I think the end result was worth the hard work. So far I’ve made nine frames (this one’s #9!) and I reckon, probably the best one. If one of you suggests a new colour for me, I might incorporate one of the other frames for the new header… Oh, and if any of you want any graphic-ing done – wallpapers, or whatever – let me know, and I’ll make you one – gratis! (and free, too!) No, I’m not being generous, I’m being bored silly. I can’t go on making frames for headers for the rest of my life, and I can’t sit and play Rift for the rest of my life, either – and no matter what character I play, or how many new characters I create, it’s getting to the stage where I know all the quests to level 50 so well that I could do them in my sleep, with both hands tied behind my back, both my eyes closed (because I’m asleep, remember? 😉 ) and pushing the mouse around the desk with my nose! I’d knit, or crochet, and make “granny squares” for a rug, but I can no longer hold knitting needles or a crochet hook for long enough to make anything useful (osteoarthritis – Warning! Don’t get old and arthriticky! I can absolutely guarantee that you won’t like it!) and I’m already Amazon‘s favourite customer, I buy so many books from them (Kindle e-books, which are usually pretty cheap, but even so, I’m still one of their favourite customers!) anyway, you’d be doing me a favour if you gave me something to create graphically.

I did go house hunting again this morning – I only managed to find nine places that were worth sending on to himself for his judgement – he hasn’t finished going through the list yet, but so far has only found two worth going to look at (there may be more when he finishes the list) These are all in the Doncaster/Templestowe area – I haven’t looked further afield yet… I will if I really have to, but… I really have a secret reason for not wanting to go too far from where we are… Hairdressers! I had a really, really good hairdresser – he used to own a salon over the road – “Urban Soul” (it’s changed hands and its name twice that I know of since he sold it!) – and he was really good. He sold that business (the rent was too high, and he didn’t like having to dance to Westfield’s tune!) and went to work in South Yarra! Our whole family followed him to South Yarra, even though it was a real pain to get to – we all went to him for years, and then… 😦 he packed up and went home to Hungary, to help his father who owns (owned?) several hairdressing salons in Budapest. We were all very upset to see him go… he was not only a good hairdresser, he was a nice bloke, too So I shopped around and eventually found another hair stylist, who was, if anything, even better than Andreas, but then, for reasons I still don’t know or understand, we weren’t able to have him anymore… Anyway, I’m now going to Oscar Oscar over the road, and we all seem to be getting on pretty well – they seem to be a nice bunch over there, and have done a reasonable job for us so far. And the long and short of it is – I’ll be [censored] damned, if I’m going to lose yet another good Hairdresser for any reason, let alone because we moved too far away! (*blows raspberry at screen*)

Weigh-in this morning. I’m trepidated! I stayed the same… 87.3kg again. Is this the beginning of a big bounce back? Is it because I went down 3 points instead of one or two, the day before yesterday? Who knows… but I’m almost too scared to get on the scales tomorrow… 😦

There was one place on the list of houses this morning that we want to see – it’s not the first time that I’ve included this particular house in our list of possibles – but we always seem to miss going to look at it. Julian’s trying to get the Agent to take us through some time tomorrow – it’s also up for Auction next Saturday, along with Vermont South (different Agents though!) which doesn’t leave us much time to see it and decide if we like it more than “The Water Feature House”. If you’re thinking that we’ve changed our minds about “The ‘C’ House”, we haven’t – that Auction isn’t until the following Saturday, so it’s still on the horizon if we miss out on Vermont South, or this other one whose street name I can’t remember. It’s really strange – it looks lovely from the outside, it’s a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, lots of storage, a decent floor plan, and yet I can’t remember the name of the street it’s in (where I can remember most of the other ones!) and we’ve “forgotten” to go and have a look at it, three times! It’s almost as if the “powers that be” don’t want us to see it!

So tomorrow Julian has to play Taxi Driver for my favourite eldest daughter again, I have a Hairdressing appointment around 4-ish, and we might be able to go and have a look at Chippendale Court (I went and looked it up!) at some stage. Julian and I discussed Auctions and strategies this morning – we’re indeed very different people! I’d handle things a lot differently… He’s worried about getting the finances wrong, I’m worried that he might jeopardise our chances, if he gets the Agents and/or Auctioneer offside… All this waiting is nerve wracking! I just wish it was this time next week! 🙂 I was just thinking: back when I was a little girl, I used to say “I can’t wait for….” whatever – Christmas, Birthday, Easter – you name it, to the extent that my mother used to say to me, very impatiently, “Well, what are you going to do instead!” That usually shut me up for a while, while I pondered this imponderable… 🙂 My favourite eldest daughter will be over on Wednesday, Thursday morning we have a meeting with Carmen about Auctions, and Auction strategies, etc., and on Thursday evening, around 5 – 5.30pm, Vermont South is Open For Inspection for the last time before the Auction. I suspect we may be taking a tape measure along this time, and I’ll be bringing a notebook and a pen, to take notes! As far as I know, Friday is free for me to sit and chew my nails down to the quick! You know, in all my life, I’ve never bitten my nails – but this Friday I just might make an exception! And that’s really about it from me for tonight – don’t forget to let me know if you want any wallpapers made, or graphics created from your favourite poster/photo/picture, or what colour you think my next blog template should be! There’s $20.00 in it for you, if you do! 🙂 “Help me, Obi Wan Readers, you’re my only hope! (for using a colour other than soft blue, mauve, purple or grey for the blog graphics!)” Do call back again tomorrow night to find out if we did get to see the Chippendale Court place, or if we missed out yet again, and also to find out if my weight stayed the same for another day, or if it went up (as I suspect it will!) There’ll be lots of other bits and pieces to fill you all in on too, so don’t miss out! 🙂 But, until tomorrow night, do try to bee good, understand that achievers are not born talented, they just possess the ‘I can do it’ attitude, and remember to look after yourselves, keep warm, and to drive carefully – but above all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂