Well, here it is, the fifth of November – “with gunpowder, treason and plot” – and once upon a time, everyone would be having a quick, early dinner and getting ready to go along to the local park, or the nearest large paddock, or even just the street outside, for the big bonfire (not on the street just outside, of course – bonfires were only for paddocks – and occasionally, the local park) the neighbourly camaraderie, and the traditional letting off of crackers (fireworks) as soon as it got dark. Not any more though, oh no – it’s far too dangerous to let the mere hoi poloi handle such dangerous things! It’s a shame though – Guy Fawkes night was a night we kids looked forward to all year (and if the truth be told, the grown-ups did as well!) …now it’s just a night like any other, unless someone has forked out big $$ to get a “professional” to set something up in the local park, and sadly, the happily chattering neighbours thronging the local streets to let off “penny bungers” are a thing of the long forgotten past.

My favourite eldest daughter came over today – she’s really losing so much weight, it’s wonderful to behold! I am sooo proud of her for sticking with it – she’s looking (and feeling!) a lot better, too! We sat in the lounge room for most of the day, watching episodes of “The Librarians”, and when we finished the season, we watched some more “Arrow” – where the plot thickens! A girl thought long dead has just turned up, and seeing that Oliver (AKA “Arrow”, or “The man in the green hood”) was having it off with both her and her sister, one wonders where all this is going to lead (but no doubt it’ll probably be to no good! 😉 ) Julian, on the other hand, went outside to do some work on the veggie beds. He’d been out there for probably about fifteen minutes when that big storm hit Tullamarine – when he came inside, seconds after it started to rain here, he was absolutely drenched and he solemnly informed us that it was “very heavy rain”, then stooped over as though he was carrying a heavy burden, and trudged off to the bedroom and en-suite to dry off! 🙂 After the weather cleared up, he went back outside and finished off one of the veggie beds – there’s still one left to go, but he needs to get some more “thingies” that hold the wooden layers together, and some more flooring wood needs to be cut. I believe that Kate and Terry will be over this weekend too, so between the two of them (Julian and Terry) the last veggie bed should be finished in no time at all… 🙂

And now, because of a very late start I got tonight because I was so busy watching “The Librarians” and “Arrow” with my favourite eldest daughter, it’s “That Time” again! But never fear – as someone famous once said, “I’ll be back!” 😉

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

And… here I am! 🙂 Yes, only one more veggie bed to assemble, then we can get on with the serious business of filling them up with soil, preparing the soil, and planting some crops! I’m not quite sure why I just said “we” can get on with, as Julian has always promised me a veggie garden, so it’s up to him – besides – I don’t bend in the middle quite as well as I once did! 😉 (which is why the two beds are raised, so that I can go out and at least harvest some of the lovely fresh produce that I hope will grow in our veggie garden!) Terry also brought over an ankle angle grinder (ankle grinder? One hopes not!) on Tuesday, with which to cut down the small Hills Hoist in the back garden. It’s supposed to just lift up out of the hole in the concrete that was made for it, but it’s either been welded in, because it wasn’t stable enough to hold a full load of wet washing, just sitting in its hole, or else it has become rusted in or something, because the three of them – my husband, and my two son’s-in-law – have tried repeatedly to pull the damn thing out, but it totally refuses to budge! So, it’ll have to be ankle-grinded out! I suppose an outside clothes line is a handy thing to have, but I don’t think I’ve hung clothes out on a line since I was… er… well, put it this way! For a long, long, long time, and I don’t intend to start doing so now! There is another outside line to hang things on anyway – a collapsible one under the roof of the entertainment deck, which Julian does use quite a bit, so the Hills Hoist isn’t needed, and all it does is make the back yard look “cluttered” – so it has to go! 😛 (*sigh*) Just going back and re-reading all of this, and once more I’m almost floored but the amount of work we still have to do here! Here’s a few of them, in no particular order… We’ve come to the reluctant decision that we’re going to have to try to fish the two goldfish out of the front puddle-pool and put them in a jar of their current pond water while we completely siphon all of the green scummy water out of their home, clean and scrub (literally!) the green, scummy stones and rocks in the bottom of the pond cavity, plant some water plants, re-fill the pond with nice clean water, introduce some water snails to hopefully keep the water a bit cleaner in the future, allow the whole lot to sit and settle for a while, dangle the jar containing the fishes (if they’re still alive!) in the water until the temperature of the pond and the jar are equal, and then finally re-settle the fishes in their new, clean, home! Worst-case scenario, and the poor little fishies die on us (I really hope they won’t – I’ve grown quite fond of them – but unfortunately it’s quite possible that they won’t survive the move. We’ll do our best for them though… ) we’ll give them a decent burial in the veggie garden, and introduce some new fishies into the newly cleaned pool. Plus we still have half a room and three-quarters of a shed full of boxes to unpack and deal with, all the furniture from the old apartment to sell off, Julian’s C-64 room to set up, pictures to hang, a library to organise, and a lot of items from Adelaide to find homes for. Julian is trying to organise a day trip to Adelaide for some time next week, so that he can supervise the packing up and shipping of the numerous clocks that have to be sent off to various places (he’s a watch and clock maker by trade so he knows the right way to handle them!) The Grandfather clock is coming here 🙂 And work on my bathroom is supposed to start next Monday! Goodness knows when we’ll be able to call this place “finished”!

Weigh-in this morning. “Move along, move along!  Nothing to see here!” Yup, you guessed it, I stayed the same! I went from 68.7kg to 68.7kg – how exciting! Not! I now have only four days left to get down into at least the 67kg zone before next Tuesday – but somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen! Not while I’m on these horrible pills, anyway! 😦 And you know what?! I stop taking them on Tuesday (of all days!) so by Thursday, I’ll probably be down to something like 67.3kg! Two days too late for Dr. Y.! But… what can I do?! Absolutely nothing!

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the hairdresser, and while we’re over at Doncaster I want to pay a visit to Priceline. If we were going to Knox City, I’d be going to the Terry White Apothecary, because they have – or had, anyway – a very large section devoted to all things “feet”, and I really need to find something to stop me blistering my feet on the treadmill! They’re really getting very painful, not only walking on the treadmill, but just generally walking around the house, and it’s starting to become a real problem. I tried taping them up this afternoon – I need to find some way of stopping the friction between my socks and my skin while I’m walking, you see – but winding the slightly adhesive tape on without wrinkling it is next to impossible because it has a nice, paper backing strip that you’re supposed to peel off as you wind, which is terribly awkward for me, and it’s really hard to get it in the right place… I suppose I could get Julian to wind it on for me, but I really hate having to get him to do even more things for me, when I should – and can – do it myself… it’s just that I don’t do it terribly well, or very successfully! Still, I think Priceline at Doncaster has a fair amount of “feet” things – so hopefully I’ll be able to find something there that will work… And once again, that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂 Drop by again tomorrow night – find out if I’ve managed to solve my toe blister problem, whether any more work has been done on the veggie garden, and if my weight has decided to take pity on me and go down a few points. There’s sure to be lots of other news for you all, too, so don’t miss out! 🙂 But until tomorrow night, please try to bee very, very good, and always remember this: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present! 🙂 However, don’t forget to drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep warm – or cool – depending on the weather, but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂