The most boring week of the year.

Is the week of the football grand final in Melbourne. See - I can't be bothered even using capital letters for the words grand final. So much fuss about a game. The players spend more time punching each other than kicking the football. Most shops have streamers and balloons hanging all over the place in either blue and white or black and white, depending on what team they are following. I ask them who is having a birthday, and get the reaction of 'duh?'

Does anyone in Melbourne know of a good craft show, needlecraft, quilt, etc. that is on this Saturday? I'd rather be anywhere than somewhere that people are listening to, or watching, the football. There used to be a charity that raised funds for some hospital or other, by organising events on grand final day that did NOT have anything to do with football. It was called "The Anti-Football League". I'd revive it all by myself, but many of my dear friends are football fans and I don't want to run the risk of losing their friendship... if I haven't already, by posting this! What the heck, it's a free country with freedom of speech. Although going by what has happened to Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt this week, I could be forgiven for wondering if I might be charged with offensive journalism myself..

Tiger found one of his balls!

Last night I found Tiger half under the refrigerator. He likes pushing small things under there, and dismantling the fridge so he can find them. Topsy used to hide her toys under the rug in the lounge room, and we would unknowingly walk across the rug and something would crunch. But under the rug isn't exciting enough for Tiger. If something is under the fridge, he knows that I will come along with the torch to check for spiders, mice, etc. and that makes it all so much fun!





Got it! He has four of these tiny tinsel balls, and they are rolled under the fridge at least twice a day.

Lovely day for a picnic.

It was a perfect Spring day in Melbourne today - too nice to spend indoors. So I packed a basket with a thermos of tea, cups, and a Swiss roll cake, and we collected Ken's mum from the Home, and drove up to Sugarloaf Reservoir for the afternoon. The reservoir is just about full, and looks so much better than it did 12 months ago when it was little more than a puddle.
We found a table in the shade of a small tree, and stayed there for a couple of hours. MIL was so happy to be outdoors on such a nice day, and I was happy for her to be getting a good dose of sunshine and Vitamin D, as she never goes outside unless we take her somewhere. We reckon she will make it to 100; she'll turn 99 next February if she lives till then, and the way she is going, we think she will make it! She often says "How old am I?" and when we tell her she smiles and says "I might get to 100!" Nothing like having a positive outlook on life at that age!




Last night we invited our friends Helen and Ray to dinner at our place. Since Helen's stroke, they don't get out as often, as Helen gets so tired these days. But as we are just around the corner from each other, it is not a major drama to visit us for a couple of hours and watch a DVD after tea. It's great to be able to put a smile on her face, and we both said to them "We've got to do this more often. We rarely go out on Saturday nights now, so it is silly that the four of us sit at home twiddling our thumbs, when we could be together and enjoying some music or a movie". Helen and Ray agreed, so Ken and I are looking forward to their company on a regular basis. We've known each other for 30 years, so it is a very comfortable friendship.

Rainbow kittens.

Sorry about the lack of posts on this blog, but I've been busy making Rainbow kittens. If you read my other blog, you will know what I'm talking about, and won't need to read any further. If you don't read that blog, I'm referring to patchwork blocks with multicoloured striped kittens on black fabric.

Not much else going on here. Ken is still working 4 days a week and not showing any ill effects. He had a tax refund windfall of over $3000, so we are spending it on fixing things around the house that have needed fixing for years. We have replaced the hand rail along the steps to our front porch. The rail had been chewed by termites and galahs to the point where it was dangerous, but now it looks a million dollars.

Yesterday we had a tradie come out and look at our garage door. It is a tiltadoor, and we have been wanting to convert it to a remote control operated door. It seems that can't be done for various technical reasons, so they are going to remove it and replace it with a roll-a-door. We are both looking forward to being able to point the remote at the garage and have the door open up automatically!


The next thing will be to replace the wire screen door from the lounge to the patio; Tiger wrecked the wire to the point where both cats didn't need to wait for us to open the door. They just strolled in and out at will!

Apart from those necessary jobs, we used some of the money on a luxury item. We went to an art show recently, which featured paintings and drawings of Australian wildlife, birds in particular. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post. Well, on the last day, we went back to the exhibition and purchased one of the paintings which we had both fallen in love with. Five Australian Blue Wrens on a branch of gum leaves. It wasn't cheap, but we've got it on the wall in the entrance hall and it looks absolutely stunning.

America's suffering.

It just can't get much worse over in the USA. A week ago, the east coast was threatened by a hurricane, causing severe floods. Don't we know all about floods here in Australia...Now the Texans are fighting the worst wildfires in their history, after a long drought. Over 1000 homes have been destroyed, and 115,000 aces of land burnt. There are also fires in California at the moment. Again, my heart goes out to our friends over there; we understand the horror of bushfires too.

Congratulations to my Kenny!

It is 10 years today since Ken smoked his last cigarette. I usually give him a card every year to celebrate this anniversary, but today I gave him a little book that I bought some time ago, and kept aside for today.


Some people would think it is a bit tacky I suppose, but we find things like that for each other occasionally, just for fun. I got a cuddle and kiss for this one...