No more days left, settlement’s tomorrow! 🙂

Hey, guess what! I’m starting this very early today because I have to have my hair cut at 4.30, and by the time we get home I’ll probably only just have time to do my evening Stair Walk before it’s dinner time! You’ll probably notice, too, that there’s no featured “Quote of the Day” from Goodreads today – that’s because I thought today’s quote was pretty “blah”, and not worth showing you!

After a pretty slow start this morning – I couldn’t find the right brushes to use with my mauve-toned eyeshadow, so I went and wasted a good fifteen minutes searching through the “use sometimes” shoebox where I’ve “packed” (read: thrown) all the gunk I don’t use very often. Well, I found a lot of brushes – more than I thought I had – but I didn’t find the right ones *sigh* which means that now I’m going to have to wash the lot of them, get them dry (before tomorrow morning!) and start all over again, this time labeling them all correctly. Putting on make-up is such a bore – it takes ages to apply (trust me, the older you get, the longer it takes!) and half the time when you go to all the trouble of trying to look “presentable”, no-one notices anyway! This little rhyme was found in my maternal grandmother’s Autograph book: “A little bit powder, a little bit paint, makes a sweet lady just what she ain’t!” – I often find myself thinking about it when I’m sitting in the bathroom, trying to decide on which colour eyeshadow to use… and whether I can even be bothered! 🙂 So… we had a slow-ish start this morning, but we eventually finished breakfast, Julian had his shower, and we’d drained our first coffee cups of the day… then we took off to go to “Mirror Mirror” in Collingwood. It’s on Hoddle Street, and it’s hard to miss, with all the mirrors they have displayed on the gravel naturestrip – but there are roadworks going on right outside the shop, and as I suspected, parking was… problematical! We drove past, thinking to drive around the block for another attempt, however the “block” sorta grew… and grew… because a lot of the little twisty side streets which all look the same were one-way streets that emptied into Hoddle Street, but wouldn’t let you get off Hoddle Street… Let me just say that this morning, we saw an awful lot of Collingwood that we never expected to see, and will probably never see again! Crikey, there’s a lot of renovation work and new buildings going on in those twisty little lanes! It’s almost as though Collingwood is being torn down and re-built/re-furbished from the ground up, right in front of your eyes! We eventually made our way back to Hoddle Street (see!? Miracles do still happen!) and to Mirror Mirror – and this time we were lucky enough to get a park right outside! My goodness! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ruddy mirrors in the one place! There were about a dozen parked, as I said, on the naturestrip, and I thought that was a lot! But inside, they were stacked fifteen to twenty deep in some places, along walls, against make-shift partitions, “out the back”, and into an adjoining barn of a workshop. They were hung on walls, draped over windows, attached to cornices… And then there was upstairs! That was the more “modern” section of the shop! Crammed here and there between, and sometimes partially behind mirrors, were sample corners of different sorts of frames… It was confusing, awe-inspiring, amazing, and breathtaking, all at once! We found three mirrors that we liked – the one I was really keen on, but had to leave behind because it was really a bit too big, had a frame of pressed silvery-coloured metal filigree – light and flimsy, but very opulent, it could have been used for the Wicked Queen’s mirror on the wall in Snow White!! it would have been absolutely the right one, if it had only been a little smaller… alas… they only made them in that size… 😦 The second mirror had a slightly thinner frame made out of what appeared to be some sort of thick woven straw? (it wasn’t – I think it was actually made of wood) It had a silver-gilt finish, and although we thought it would “go”, we decided in the end that we really needed something in “cooler” tones – the wallpaper in the bedroom is in shades of grey, black, and silver, and the “gilt” on the silver really wouldn’t have toned in properly. The ladies in the shop really knew their mirrors and their frames – they referred to the mirrors by style, and the shop hands always knew immediately which mirrors and frames they meant. Anyway, the mother (it was a mother and daughter team working the shop) suggested a type of frame which was brought out for us to look at – it was maybe just a trifle wider than I really wanted, but it was wood, very plain – even a little austere – and painted black, with a very faint silver “antiquing” applied to it. It was very nice, and we’d almost decided on that frame, when the daughter said “It comes in silver too, you know!” so off she went to fetch us a piece of the silver frame. Of course it wasn’t silver silver, it was wood too, but the paint jobs had been reversed. This one was painted silver, with a very faint black “antiquing” applied to it. Sold! 🙂 The mirror will be ready for pick-up and installation next Thursday! That’s fast, for those sorts of places! I’ll post before and after pictures of the place and the furnishings once we’re in and settled! 🙂 Oh, and they had the most beautiful “floor lamp”! I wants it, my preciousssss! It’s an Art Nouveau/Deco  mermaid, standing up on a loop of her silver scaled tail – with a classic Art Deco head and nude torso, she has one arm raised above her head holding the bowl of the lamp, the other arm lies relaxed at her side… she’s absolutely, stunningly, gorgeous! Julian said “Where would you put her!” – with no hesitation, I replied “in the Den!” – I think she’d look fabulous in there, she really would… *sigh* (she was also extremely expensive! 😦 )

After we left Mirror Mirror, we went off to Rowville to have a look at these Stair Climbing machines… only they didn’t have one! They had brochures with pictures, and they had a couple of second-hand older models – ex-gym machines which wouldn’t have been at all suitable – so we’re really still at square one with those, as this time we’re going to insist on seeing the actual machine, and if possible, have a “test stair climb” on one – after all, this time we’re not talking about a $250 shower stool which might, or might not be suitable!

As I suspected…

+——————–+ * Hairdresser, Stair Walk, Dinner & Television Break * +——————–+

And now, here I am back again! 🙂 Quick, wasn’t I! 😉 This time tomorrow night… the mind fairly boggles! 🙂 (Winter jiggles up and down in her chair with excitement) We’ll have a new house! My hair looks good – it was really in need of a decent cut! We did a bit of shopping after that, then came home – as I said, with only just enough time to have my evening Stair Walk before the 7.00pm news. Julian and I talked about the Stair Walking machine a bit this evening too – we’re now thinking it might be a better idea to hire/lease a treadmill for a while, to see how I go with that – he says that it doesn’t have to be stairs, and that hiking up and down the stairs three times a day isn’t really burning any significant calories, but that it’s more of a means of stimulating my metabolism. Tsk! And here was I, foolishly believing that it was actually helping me lose weight! The thing is, I can’t go for long walks outside because (a) my back gives out, and (b) I can’t walk very far wearing shoes – and you can’t walk outside and cross roads and rough places without them – or at least, I can’t. However, as he says, I can walk inside without my shoes, so I could just as easily go for long walks in the country on the treadmill, inside, without my shoes, and in air-conditioned comfort in the summer. Apparently you can angle them to adjust the resistance you have to work against… Anyway, that’s something to look into later. Well, not too much later – I only have 36 more Stair Walks before we move! 🙂 12 more days, Stairs 3 times a day = 36 more Stair Walks! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. This morning was my last morning on two anti-fluid tablets – tomorrow, I go back to one – I’m curious to see what effect it has on my fluid and weight loss, if any, now that I’m not taking the other wretched pills. Anyway, I only went down two points this morning – from 79.3kg to 79.1kg (the scales did teeter down to 78.something for a second or two, but then I moved a foot a little bit and they went back up to 79.1kg! Boo! Hiss!) We’ll see what tomorrow brings! (hopefully good news!) 🙂

I said earlier that we did a bit of shopping on the way home, and I said to Julian “Now, what are we taking with us tomorrow, when we get the keys?” and guess what! he’d forgotten to buy a cheap kettle to take over so that we could make ourselves a cup of coffee! I told him “Never mind, we’ll be right outside a shopping centre while we wait for the keys – we can get one then!” Before we leave here tomorrow, we should pack ourselves a “picnic lunch” – er… and remember to put a roll of toilet paper in the basket as well, just in case (I’m quite sure that the Vendors won’t have left any there for us!) Anyway, tonight’s blog episode is starting to become encyclopaedic in length – though I’m sure I could probably babble on for a few more paragraphs, if you wanted me to – No? Oh, alright then – spoil my fun then, see if I care! 😉 And so this is where I shall leave you this evening – don’t forget to look in again tomorrow and find out how the settlement went, and if we had our picnic lunch over in our new house, and if you’re lucky, I shall be able to fill you in on lots of other fun and interesting news (like my weight!)(and other things!) but until then, please continue to bee good, don’t forget that the Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility, and we can all do likewise in our own way! Remember to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂