Only six more Stair Walks…

*Quote of the Day from Goodreads this morning: “Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Before I get on and tell you about our doings today, I have the sad task of telling you all that Jenny, Julian’s mother, passed away this afternoon. She’d had a touch of “stomach flu”, but apparently a lot of people in Adelaide were getting it, and she’d had it a few times before anyway, so we weren’t overly concerned. However a friend and neighbour had called in to say hello and found Julian’s mother unresponsive, so she called for an ambulance, and then called Julian, as she’d been unable to reach Melissa, his older sister. Julian received the call shortly after we got home from our shopping expedition – Melissa has now been contacted, and as executrix, will start organising things – I’ll let you know when we have to fly over for the funeral.

We had quite a busy day today – we had to go off shopping to get our new doona cover and bedding for our new bed, but first we went over to Stillwater to measure up the bathroom cabinets for the slide out drawers that will be put in. They’re probably only going to be temporary, because my bathroom will be re-done in six weeks – Julian says that he’ll probably commandeer the sliding drawers then and have them put in the en-suite, if I no longer need them. He also had to measure the gap between the drying machine and the linen-press, for some sort of narrow wast bin, and I must say that we were surprised, and a little annoyed, to find that Paul wasn’t there working on the en-suite and the Walk In Wardrobe doors as he said he would be. Words will be had on Monday! Measuring done, we then went up to Knox City – there’s a Howard’s Storage up there for the slide out cupboard drawers and laundry “tidy”, and we wanted to get a shoe rack for the back hall leading to the garage, so that we could shed our shoes as soon as we walked in and not have them scattered from one end of the house to the other (as we sometimes do here, I’m afraid to say!)  We also went to Myer to look for bedding, and they did have quite a nice doona cover that we probably would have bought – if we could have got a bit of service! There was only one shop assistant in the entire area, and she was extremely busy serving another customer who seemed to have bought nearly all the blue towels, hand towels, face washers, and bath mats that the store had. After waiting a good five minutes without even being told “I’m sorry, I’ll be with you in a minute” by said ultra busy shop assistant, we put the doona cover down, and left. I’m afraid that the false economy of trying to save money by cutting down on staff that Myer are practicing cost them a fairly large sale this afternoon, and I’m sure that we’re not the only customers who walk out without buying anything because they’re either ignored, or don’t have the luxury of time to waste until someone is available to take their money! We ended up getting a very nice doona cover, fitted bottom sheet, and half a dozen pillowcases at Adairs, and which are now happily swooshing around in our washing machine so that they’ll be ready for us to put on our new bed on Tuesday night 🙂 We had grocery-type shopping to do too, so on our way to Coles (at Knox City) we stopped in at the Terry White Chemist shop there – they sell nearly all the Optifast products, and as we needed a bit of a top-up but didn’t want to wait for them to be delivered if I bought them online, we got them there, whizzed over to Coles, did our shopping, and came home. We did have some Dry Cleaning to be picked up, but that will have to wait until Monday morning now. As soon as I got inside, I shed my feet and trotted off to do my afternoon Stair Walk, expecting a nice cup of coffee when I came back, only to be greeted by Julian’s announcement that his mother had just passed away! 😦 So things are a little bit… nebulous? at the moment? As far as I know, we’re still intending to move into Stillwater on Tuesday – funerals permitting, that is. Ah – more news. The doctor who was called to issue a death certificate wasn’t happy to do so as he didn’t know enough about her prior medical condition, so the death has had to be referred to the Coroner – we’re told that this usually takes about a week. This is actually good, because it will give Julian’s brother Mike a chance to get here – he lives in Israel – and it will give us a chance to get our move over and done with before we have to go over to Adelaide – *sigh* so now you all know about as much as we do about it.

Weigh-in this morning. I really wasn’t looking forward to getting on the scales this morning, after not having done any Stair Walks yesterday – but I suppose guilt must gobble up a lot of calories or something because I’d gone down four points! From 78.3kg to 77.9kg! However, I’m sure my body will wake up to the fact that guilt doesn’t really burn up calories, and I’ll bounce back to well over 78.3kg again! Still, we can only cross our fingers and hope!

I’m not quite sure what’s happening tomorrow – as far as I know we’ll be starting to ferry things across to Stillwater, and putting them away – however I’m not entirely happy with putting things away in cupboards and drawers while Clarke and Paul are still busy making messes and getting plaster dust all over what had been a nice, clean house! I’d really rather wait until that’s all cleaned up first, but I fear it won’t be, and we’ll just have to move in and put up with all the plaster dust and other builder’s debris. I’ve also been spending quite a lot of time trying to decide where I’m going to put things, like the green and gold glass ewer and basin that used to live on the sideboard in the hall – do I want that on the hall table, or do I want the “porcellino” (literally “little pig” – it’s a small bronze copy of the large bronze pig in Florence) there? Where is Julian’s antique clock going to live now? Is there room to hang the photo “Bert’s Bath” in my bathroom? Where are we going to hang “PB in his floral dress”? (don’t ask! It would take too long to explain!) …and things like that.

Unfortunately, it’s “that” time again…. sorry…

+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+

And now, Hey! Presto! Here I am again. So, yes, I’m starting to wonder where I’m going to put things… we might have more room over at Stillwater (as in more actual rooms to fill) but I really don’t think we’re going to have all that much more space in which to put, or display items. It’ll probably turn out to be a matter of “put it here, move it there, leave it where it looks best”. We also went to Officeworks where I had a look at cable and power cord “tidies” – and ended up getting a new mouse instead. My mouse would periodically, about twice a week, stop. The batteries were fine, the mouse was fine (as in not all gunked up with desk residue and Optifast bar crumbs) but it would just suddenly stop. The only thing that would get it going again was to open up the battery compartment, half lift the battery out, poke it back in again, and the mouse would perform flawlessly for another two or three days – rinse and repeat. So we bought me a $15 “harlequin” mouse – “harlequin” because it’s covered in multi-coloured hexagons – it’s quite pretty, and seems to be working as well as any mouse can, or does! 🙂 Oh, and I must tell you, one of the couples on our floor here dropped in a lovely “Going Away and Thank You” present for us – a beautiful potted orchid, and a nice bottle of Moët! That was very sweet of them – they haven’t been here all that long, and John, who has been helping out on the Body Corporate Committee, has recently had heart surgery. We are going to miss the people here – they’re lovely people, and although we don’t socialise (with anyone, really!) it’s been good, and we’ve enjoyed living here. And so, gentle readers, once again I have to tell you that that’s about it from me for tonight. Do drop in again tomorrow night though, and find out if my weight has woken up to the fact that it didn’t have to go down because my guilt gobbled up a whole lot of calories, and has decided to pay me back by going back up into the 78kg zone again! You’ll also become privy to whether we ferried stuff across to Stillwater and put it away in plaster-dust covered drawers and cupboards – or whether we just packed stuff up and left it in boxes for the removalists to take over on Tuesday. Anyway, I’m sure there’ll be lots to tell you all – isn’t there always? 😉 but until then, do please try to bee good, know that we do not remember days, we remember moments, and don’t forget to keep warm, to look after yourselves, and to drive carefully – but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂