Thursday, August 30, 2012

Busy Wednesday

Yesterday was one of the busiest days of my week.  Not only did I have my shopping day to get done, but I also had to return a lot of Paprika!  Thankfully, the people at Spice Mart were more than happy to help me out with the Paprika situation and exchange it for another packet of Smokey Paprika (and really was Smokey Paprika; and not the hot stuff).  And then, I found a lovely belt at Life Line along with a gorgeous skirt I've yet to wash.  And then, I was off to finish my shopping.
I popped in Woolworths for the little bits and pieces I usually get.  Then, I was off for my longer walk between shopping centres.  I tried to get my pruners exchanged, but then the older gentleman showed me how to use them.  I paid a part of my layby off at Woodys' and then I grabbed some stuff at K-Mart and then finished off my shopping at Coles and called Mum.
A funny thing happened on the way to calling Mum though.  I had barely left the check-outs when my shopping trolley's lockable wheel did just that!  It locked up on me.  I wondered exactly why; as these are supposed to lock up 100 metres away, not 1 metre away from the shop.  So, I took it back to the trolley bay and the lady there helped me put my groceries into another trolley.  We had a laugh about it and I was on my way.
When Mum picked me up, she had brought along the other bag of hot Paprika and she and I went back to the Spice Mart and got an exchange for other things instead of another bag of Paprika.  While I was walking around getting a few other things to the value of my $5.99, Mum was wandering around the place.  She was in absolute awe of the place.  It has absolutely everything!  I hadn't seen the cookware, but then I didn't know they sold it.  Mum said she'd come back - most definitely.  We headed off to the K & B Pet Store next and she loved that place too.

After I unpacked everything and had time to sit down for an hour or so, Mum called me and told me that Dad was coming over to take me out computer shopping.
Dad and I spent about two hours or so at Garden City looking at Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith's for computers towers and modems.  Well!  Harvey Norman were expensive as hell - even though they were having a sale.  JB Hi-Fi was okay I guess.  As for Dick Smith's?  Well, if it wasn't a laptop, it wasn't worth selling.  But we went back to JB Hi-Fi and found what we needed and now, I'm sitting back in my office with my HP Pavilion and a Netgear modem all done up and on the net.  How cool!  I'm thrilled!  

It was a busy day yesterday.  The modem may have taken overnight to get hooked up, but then, I wasn't worried too much about it. So long I'm back online and the books I have had in my bedroom end up back in here with me again and I have the space I need again there, that's all I care about.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

My Weekend

My weekend has been busy and tiring.  However, it's been great fun too.  Yesterday, I was up bright and early after a warm night's sleep.  I woke to a lovely, clear day for the Home Festival here in Brisbane.  It was around 9:30am before Mum picked me up and we were on our way to Pineapple park at Kangaroo Point where Sinclair Street was packed with parked cars already and there were still another hour and a half to go until the festival was to start.  Mum dropped me as close to the drop-off spot as possible and I found my way to the other artists who waved at me - greeting me with hugs saying it was great to see me.  Mum showed up after finding a parking spot, and I introduced her to them all and she said it looked like it was going to be a great day.
After I strung up my red pages in the tree with fishing line - and lost my green-handled scissors - I positioned my altered book so people would read it; with the Darren Hayes ipod music collection.  While people were listening to his tracks against the wall comfortably, they could flip through my book and read it; like they would if they were reading in bed or on their lounge - and you know - it worked.  People sat down, plugged in the earphones, and spotted my book and began reading.  Very cool!  And I mentioned my other blog - My Reading List - in the book and looky-loo's there have jumped from 10,985 to 11,009 overnight!
There was a jumble and suitcase sale going on all afternoon; which I went and had a look at with Riley.  And I loved seeing things I wanted and found them at the right prices.  We even took off and did some screenprinting and painted up our own bags with a printing of our choice!  I chose a typewriter in purple and Riley chose a Deer in orange... how cool!  But Gabe, Kat and Riley couldn't stay.  I gave them a bag of Paprika that I found was hot instead of smokey and they took it off my hands and thanked me very much for it.
Then, next to the installation, there was a stage where performance poets took part and entertained the crowds; as did the local choirs.  They were great!  Meanwhile, we found that the sun wasn't as bad as we thought it would be as the shade moved over us and cooled the day down.  None of us got sunburnt and were cooled down instead of being dehydrated.  It was a great day to be outside yesterday and I didn't want to be anywhere else.
By around 3:30pm, I smsed Dad's phone, saying I was going to begin packing up.  So, Mum smsed back and said she was on her way to get me.  I was stuffed and ready to go to sleep and was getting a headache; not that I wanted to complain.  But I really wanted to head off home before it got cold.  About half an hour later, I had packed up my book and cut the pages off the tree, and Mum had shown up.  She wanted to have a look around a bit and I said it was a good place to be.
As we walked around, we found the place was packing up the daytime markets and it was beginning to shift into night-time gear with the music and food.  The shadows began to pull long, the breeze started to turn cooler, and it was time to let the night-time part of the Home Festival to take over... we had done our part and enjoyed our day there.  I will most definitely do it again.

Today, I woke and found I didn't want to get out of bed; but I pushed myself to.  After getting the paper and milk, I washed up a little and made myself some not-bacon and eggs and jumped online.  As I was about to, Gabe called and said that the Paprika wasn't Paprika.. it was chili.  He said I was right in thinking it was very hot and to take back all the packets I've bought.  I said that I had put a liberal amount on some cheese last Wednesday and had copped blisters long my gumline... well he laughed and said that could happen with this Paprika.  I said I jumped up so fast and grabbed the yoghurt and milk I had it running down my chin before it stopped burning, then I started sneezing.  He laughed again and said that he felt bad about my experience but said to take it back and get the guy to taste it and that it had been labeled wrongly.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.  

Home Festival 2012 

Friday, August 24, 2012

Growing Up

I was late in getting up today.  So, when I turned on the radio, I found The Grill Team in the middle of a funny segment about what 18 year olds have missed out on in their lives.  One of them said that when 'Pulp Fiction' was out on the big screen, they weren't born, and Kirk Cobain was never alive for them; he was already dead and buried.  It made me realise that I read another blog yesterday where the manager of it had to teach her children how to use a phone book.  And once they found her friend's home phone number and called it, she was shocked to find that her daughter hung up on them quickly.  She asked her why and her young 15 year old said that a man answered... the man was her friend's father.  
This got me thinking that a lot of what kids see and do now is lost on them if they were to lose their technology tomorrow.  If the internet was to drop offline for a week, if Foxtel was switched off, if their x-box was taken off them, if their smart phone was taken off them... what would they do?  Some of them - for the first time in their lives - would step outside and look around.  While others would become the worse kinds of teenagers around for a while before realising that life isn't that bad really.  

After all I grew up without that much technology around me.

I'm an X-Generation.  I grew up with a television that didn't have a remote control, saw most of my childhood shows in black and white (until around 1976 when they turned into colour; and how beautiful they were!).  Then, I learned to play games with my brother and the neighbourhood kids until the street lights turned on.  The family sat around the kitchen table and ate dinner together, talking about what we did in the day, taking our time eating our dinner and not rushing through it so we could watch a television show.  Actually most of the time, the television was on, but we'd have it turned down low.
While my brother played soccer for the church I read books from the local library.  On the weekends, we made milk shakes in the blender from milk that came from glass 600ml bottles.  These bottles were delivered by a milk-o who left them on the bottom step of our house in the afternoon on Friday - all 6 - 8 bottles! - and we'd find a place in the fridge for them.  By the time the weekend was over, most of those bottles were empty, washed and ready to return to him.  He'd pick up the milk money which was left at the bottom of the step in an envelope under the empty bottles to pay for the milk.  It was really something to have the milk delivered to our homes.  The truck was always full of milk, there was a bell and at Christmas, there was some poor guy dressed in a Santa suit handing out lollies to kids on the week before Christmas sweating like you wouldn't believe.  But kids wouldn't know this as milk-o's aren't around anymore. 
It's not just milkmen that are missing from our lives.  I've noticed it's other things such as bookstores and banks and insurance companies are going online as well to save money.  So, it's pushing people to be online.  However, what happens when the net crashes and we can't get online to pay our insurance or buy that book we need - or want - to buy.  Or is it all just something I've been thinking too much about with technology?  I know I'm writing this on a big technological interface, however, if I didn't have this, I would have just written this down in my personal journal.  It would have still had the same affect down the line.  So, leave your opinions and let me know what you think.  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and safe and remember, I'm always here. 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Stressed Out

This week, I've been stressed out something rotten.  I was hoping to have purchased a cool, new computer by this time from Super Geek and be back online with everything in my home office... but I'm not. I'm supposed to have everything back to normal; but it's not.  I don't know why it takes so long to do everything in my life and why I have to live with so much stress when it's not needed.  So, I called my folks' house this morning and said to Mum that by next week I will have a new computer in my home and the old one the was offered from my Uncle's house will be back at their house for them to work on.  
But this week has been a week of me returning things.  Yesterday, I went out to do some small shopping.  I had to go and buy some Finch Seed for Little Miss Stevie because she was running low.  Then, it was off to the Spice Mart where I had to pick up some Paprika.  Last week, I bought the wrong one and burnt my mouth.  Thinking I had bought myself the right one - smokey - I went and finished my shopping and came home; only to find the Paprika I had burnt my mouth on was the smokey one.  Jeez, I thought it was the hot one.  So, I didn't open it, instead, I found the docket and put it by the door to return and exchange for plain ordinary Paprika... not smokey or hot... just plain, red Paprika.
After I bought the Paprika, I walked to Woolworths and returned the Prya soap that gave me hives last week.  The lady said it didn't sound good and gave me the money back.  I showed her box I marked (of the one I used) and she thanked me for doing that. 
Then, I took a nice walk to Logan Central Plaza.  On the way, I picked up some sandpaper and new pruners at True Hardware.  It didn't take long for me to find the sandpaper and make my choice but looking for a good set of pruners was harder than I thought.  And the ones I chose weren't the best ones.  They kept on locking up each time I used them; and I mean the little lock on the bottom, swings over and locks them each time I clip something.  Stupid things.  So, I'm taking them back to get something that works better than that.
After that, I ended up at Venus' Cafe drinking a nice ice coffee and eating an Orange and Walnut cake.  Yummo!  Very delicious.  It was nice to sit down and relax before I had to find the bus stop.  Yep, find it.  The Logan City Council had been working on a new one and didn't really tell anyone when it opened, where the buses were going or anything important - like where the traffic was supposed to go.  Silly really.  I had a few people tell me that they weren't told anything about the new road markings and had to find out the hard way that they had changed.  I didn't even know the Woodridge Bus Station had opened... last week it was so far from being finished.  And I was thinking there was going to be a bridge joining them; but there isn't.  I guess the council will learn this as time goes on.  Well, the buses came and went and I talked to the Translink people who were handing out information slips to people, letting them know that a timetable on both platforms would be better than one on each.  They took that down as feedback.
But last night, after dinner, I found that the previous three nights of having a midnight curfew caught up with me.  So, I found I crashed soon after 'Sons of Anarchy' and I'm catching up the lost sleep.  I'm still feeling like my eyes are hanging out of my head by stalks, but then I've gotten in and done some laundry, and checked the mail online and updated some blogs.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Early-Riser

I've had trouble sleeping lately, but then I always have problems sleeping at this time of the year.  It's the seasons changing that does this to me.  So, when I wake up in the morning and find I can't get back to sleep, I don't fight the urge to get up and about.  I just get up and start my day at around 7am or so.  And this morning, I had to be up at this time anyway because our complex was being inspected by the termite people at the early hours of 8am onward.  This gave me a good reason to get myself into doing my morning chores around the place before they arrived to my townhouse.
The recyclables were put in the big bin up the back of the complex, the rubbish put out, the pets were fed, Little Miss Stevie's cage was changed out with new newspaper, I washed up everything - except the pots on the stove - and then did the hand-washing and hung it out.  Breakfast was next.  I made porridge and had a piece of toast with some tomato on it with salt and pepper with my vitamins.  By then, it was around 10am or so and the termite guys had arrived and I was online.  They were the same people from last year and the older guy remembered me.  After the inspection, he said it all looked good and they left.  

Since then, I've been on Facebook and uploaded a photo or two and taken a couple of phone calls.  The winds have picked up.  I had to plug in the stereo and television again from last night when I came downstairs this morning as there as a big storm not too far away at around 11pm.  So, I unplugged it all to be on the safe side.
I still have a few things to get done around here to make my place look and feel good for Spring.  There's still a lot of cleaning out and I have to look into cleaning out my wardrobe again to call in the New Year.  I'm also beginning to work on Christmas gifts now as the next few months will zip by so quickly that I'll end up forgetting to shop - and I know it!

For the rest of the day, I might get in and do some serious reading or painting.  It depends how much I want to be stuck sitting by the cold back door with a draft (no matter how well-dressed I am, I still get cold there).  I'll see how my day goes.  Then again, my kitchen table still needs a look into as I'm only halfway through it with the clutter on it.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Small Victories

I've been working a bit on organising my place while I'm looking at getting my internet back up.  Since I'm spending less time on the net and more time looking around at my messy townhouse, I've begun cleaning out and organising again.

At first, I didn't think I could fill my days with much.  But once I began looking around, I took a look in some of the wardrobes and around the place, I realised I had to make my place better organised than it was.  So, now, it's the small places that I'm doing the organising.  And you know what they say:  the devil's in the details.
So far, I've reorganised the corner next to the pantry and tidied it up.  It looks good, but I have also lost my tax card and a prescription for my medications... bummer.  I'm sure I'll find them both at some point, but I'm not sure when.  Then, I pulled out the drawers below the phone charger and cleaned them out and put away all my notebooks - and do I have a lot of notebooks!  Mum must have given me about 10 or so notebooks; and now they fill a draw!  I have said to her that I don't need anymore notebooks... and really I don't.
I also have lots of herbs in packets I've been getting from 'The Spice Mart' at Logan Central.  It's a great place with fresh herbs and I love going there when I need Paprika.  However, I've been using a lot more herbs in my cooking and have nowhere to keep them.  So, today, I bought another container to keep my herbs in.  It had a handle on it - which I removed - and I slotted them in, re-organised the shelf and now it's looking more like a place I'd like to find my herbs than lose them!
The fridge was next; and this one was a long time coming.  I had to remove a shelf from it.  This meant I had to take all the food off the top shelf, put it all on the counter, pull the top shelf out, move the next shelf up (yep, more food out of the fridge!) and then re-arrange it all to fit!  This included sorting out some plates with paint on them.  Now, I can fit in tall bottles and large cartons of milk inside the body of the fridge; and it won't go sour.
I did a bigger organising exercise in the last few days; and that was the office.  I've been meaning to get it tidied up, but have been too lazy to get going with it.  And seeing the computer in the room isn't working, I now have the time to get into making the room presentable to use as a proper office.  So, I put all the paper and stuff in front of bookcase 2 in three green bags, moved them, and climbed my ladder to sort out the books on top of the bookcase.  I sorted out about 10 books - some of them pretty big - that I didn't want and have added them to two boxes to be sold off at a garage sale soon.  This office is slowly getting to be looking good.  I have to work on the desk soon; to make it look better, as there's a lot of paper still sitting around on it and I have to go through it all... and that's another job to be done.  
So, have you scored small victories around your home lately?  Have you begun your Spring Cleaning this year?  It seems that I do mine all year round, but have been getting into it lately because of my lack of permanent computer.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.


Pantry shelf sorted 

Not Exactly Natural?

Yesterday was my shopping day and it didn't exactly go off without a hitch.  But buses were working on the Saturday timetable, I ran late with all my shopping and it turned out to be a roasting day - and I had dressed warmly.  But I got my shopping done... with one slight hitch.
I took a well-deserved shower with some new soap made from natural ingredients and broke out in hives all over!  This was Prya Soap - a soap which has no chemicals, no numbers, and is all plant-based - and I watched in horror as the red dots appeared firstly on my legs then my arms and then pain followed quickly.  I swapped the new soap for my good ol' Nivea and jumped back into the shower and scrubbed until the pain went away (well, okay, most of it).  Once out, I put on plenty of Nivea Body Lotion and then took an antihistamine and tried to keep from scratching until it kicked in.
So, when I did finally get back to reading the ingredients on the box, I was assured to know that the soap was indeed plant based and it wasn't a chemical problem I was having - unlike last year's bout with the Garnier Fructus shampoo and conditioner I suffered - it had to do with the plant oils used in the soap.  I talked to my Mum about it and she asked what type of soap it was and it turns out that it was Goats Milk.  This soap also reacts on her skin too.  As nice and rich as it smells, neither of us can us it.  Bummer!
Well, fortunately, I went to the doctor today to pick up a prescription and talked to him about what happened yesterday; asking if I'd need any other treatment.  He said that I did the right things and seeing that the hives are gone - and the itching is mostly gone - I'll make a full recovery over the next day or so. 
And so this poses the question from me, exactly what is natural in our products when it says it is on the packaging?  And why is it safe for some people to use and not safe for others, even though it's all plant based?  As I'm getting older, I've found that my skin and my body have started acting strange and I have had to change a few habits and adjust my lifestyle.  Is it the environment which has done this or is it just my body's way of aging (and this happens to everyone?).  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Mid-Week Work

This week has been a strange week.  I have been working on things I never thought I would be.  When my computer died on me I thought I'd be missing it like crazy - and I am - but when I was lent one by Mum with limited internet on it, I found that once I was off it, I had time to myself in such a way it surprised me.
I've been cleaning out the house little by little.  There are places in my house I've been looking where I've left alone for longer than I meant to.  And once I opened them up and looked inside them, I didn't close them off until they were sorted out. 
Then, we had a freezing cold day - last Friday actually - and so I kept the house closed up and found the internet dead slow because of the Olympics.  So, I jumped offline and began looking at my books and short stories; something I haven't done in months.  I was surprised at how long it's been since I got in and wrote anything for my 'Fry Nelson' books; and loved it once I did get into them again.  I found I had fresh ideas and wonderful new plotlines that I hadn't thought of... how brilliant is that? 
By Monday night, I found that my camera needed its disk cleared.  So, I downloaded the whole thing onto the external drive and formatted it and began photographing the backyard again.  Then, it was back to the cleaning.  I found a purple basket in the wardrobe in my spare room which was almost empty... and I remembered getting it.  Mum had given it to me on my 37th birthday; it carried my birthday presents when she arranged my birthday surprised on Bookcrossing after I did the same for her 60th that year... it was great, but the basket didn't carry all the pressies.  There were so many she had to bring in another green bag to carry a few more.  It was amazing... what a great thing to have to remember my birthday!  Well, I pulled the few things inside it out of it and thought to bundle all the yet-to-be used yarn inside of it so it was nice and easy to carry around if needs be.  I told Mum last night and she thought it was a great idea.  I'm thinking of getting another one to store my finished scarves; now that's a great idea!
Also this week, I've also catalogued my vinyls.  This was easier said than done as when I first started them, I accidentally deleted the Classics section... what a bugger!  They are the hardest things to do because of the numbers on the Mozart pieces and what key they're in when they were written and which orchestra played them.  It's hard because most of this is written in German or French and then translated into English... and sometimes there's no years of when it's recorded or written.  Bummer.  Oh well, now I re-wrote it and it's all saved again.  Most of it is all done now and I have only the vinyls from Uncle Allan's collection to do.  
Today, I took photos for a competition I'm taking part in.  It's early days for the one I want to put in, so I won't tell you guys about it yet.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to having the right photo show up.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Friday, August 10, 2012

It's Official!

It's over.  My computer is no longer able to be used.  I did get it started long enough yesterday to transfer 95% of my photos and all of my written material that was on the hard drive.  And I did it all in one big hit.  I grabbed the 'My Pictures' folder and pulled it onto Mum's external drive and it took around an hour to put all the photos on to that.  Then, I pulled the whole folder of 'My Documents' over which held all of the things I've ever written on there.  However, after switching computers - from mine to Mum's - I found that my computer failed to move across this year's photos... yep, it didn't have any of this year's photographs on it.  So, this morning, I tried my computer again and to my heartbreak, it didn't want to talk to anything - not my keyboard, mouse or monitor.  And I hate to admit this, but it is time to get a new computer.

However, I have had time to look around the house - since I have had a limited time on the internet lately - and fix a few things up, catch up on some much-needed reading, start on another art project I've been putting off and tidy up the office.  And these are things that have been looking at me for months.  So, I have begun working them bit by bit.
Yesterday was a warm day - unusually warm for August - so I took advantage of it and stripped the bed, washed all my sheets and did my handwashing and hung it all out on the line outside.  Then, I flipped the mattress of my bed and got the bed all made up before the sun went down and the clothes horse put away and the rubbish put out just after dinner.  I also started on a Christmas present for my brother and his fiance (something hand-made) which usually takes me about a month to do.  This time, I'm taking my time.  And so I'm working on it slowly.
I'm also getting through plenty of reading too.  I'm ploughing through up to 40 pages of 'The Drawing of the Three' each day.  And I'm not usually reading that much in two hours; ordinarily it's less.  So, I've found that with more time on my hands, I've been able to get more done.  Have you found when something your life disappears for a while, you find time to do other things?  Until my next post - and when I'm back on my own computer (hopefully a new one soon), take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Monday, August 6, 2012

My Weekend

This past weekend has been interesting, entertaining and disappointing.  I've also had a fair bit of fun through watching some great movies from the 1970's of 'Planet of the Apes' and I now know why people enjoy it so much, while others don't.  
However, it was Friday where I'll begin, as that's the day when my weekend began.  I had had the whole week of being out and about and not a single day to myself at home; as I usually would.  And on this day, I started up the computer to see if I could move all my photos and a few files to the external hard drive Mum had lent me to save myself problems on Saturday.  However, the keyboard and mouse wouldn't connect, so I was hunting around the house looking for a pair of old keyboard and mouse to hook up - ones with cords so I could still use them.  But I remembered 20 minutes into my search that I had given them back to Dad... darn!
Well, I was exhausted and didn't want to go out again.  So, I stayed at home and decluttered a few areas around the house, read a couple of chapters of a book and pretty much lazed about the place.  By that evening, I had decluttered the area next to the pantry, my phone cabinet, the area next to Little Miss Stevie and the coffee table; and I was bored out of my head too much to do much more of cleaning up around the place.  Truthfully, I have to be in the right zone/mood to clean and that day wasn't it. Anyway, I missed my day being on a computer and let Mum and Dad know I was going to their place the next day.
On Saturday, they dropped around in the late morning and we replaced the battery in the hard drive. However, by this time, the computer was now not talking to the monitor as well as the keyboard or the mouse.  Fortunately, I have been doing a lot of research in the last few weeks looking for a computer - a new one - to replace this old one so, when it did die on me, I was ready.
Well, yesterday, I was out in the afternoon to a concert put on by the Southern Cross Singers; a choir I used to sing with years ago.  It was to celebrate their 20th Birthday as a local choir.  And what a concert!  Mum and I were both singing the songs all the way through it all.
Today, I caught a bus to Mum and Dad's place.  However, I dropped in to 'Rockaway' and found a couple of very nice vinyls for a good, cheap price of $2 and $4; not bad if you ask me.  However, I am looking forward to the day when I have my computer up and running; soon.  Well, until my next post, take care, keep safe and well, and remember, I'm always here.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Bad Week

This week could have been better for me; really it could have been.  First off, my computer stopped remember the sites I have been frequenting all because I cleared the cookies on it and it cleared everything else.  Then, I went up to it yesterday to move all the files of my work and photographs from the last 3 years onto an external drive when it wouldn't hook up my keyboard or mouse.  Now, I wouldn't worry so much about the mouse but the keyboard is something I can't live without.  And I didn't have one that plugged into the back as I gave that away to Dad once I got my cordless one and the cordless mouse installed.
Then, I was talking to my brother, Gabe, and he said the battery in the hard drive could have been the thing that is causing all my problems.  So, Dad and I replaced that finicky little thing and now the silly thing will start up, but nothing comes up on the screen... damn!  It looks as though I'm up for a new computer.  No worries, I was pricing around for this kind of thing anyway; and I have been offered some pretty good deals, one of them from the usual computer people I used to fix my computer in the first place a few years back.  I'm not sure yet, but I know that my computer is ka-put!

Otherwise, it's given me a chance to get my butt into decluttering my house.  I've begun small and have started working in the kitchen/dining room, lounge and coffee table and around the where the phone sits to recharge.  The kitchen table looks like a huge explosion of paper!  And I'll be going through that over the next few days to make it go away.
There are other places I have to work on as well to make the place a little bit more presentable, like my bedroom.  There's a basket of clean laundry I have to fold and put away and plenty of other things that need to be put away as well.  However, I need to dust in my bedroom and also vacuum, but that will all be done once I clean first.
Other than all this over the last 24 hours, I've been listening to vinyls, knitting, chatting to Little Miss Stevie and just sitting around and sorting through the crap on the coffee table (and honestly, I didn't know I had so much paper and empty envelopes just dumped on there!).  So, the computer dying has been a blessing in disguise.  It's helped me a little with getting my nose out of cyberspace so much and back into my decluttering program.  And it's also helped me slow down just a little.  But I do miss being on here; as all my work is on the computer; my writing that is.  So, if I want to work on my books, I need a computer to do it.  A real Catch-22 isn't it?  Well, until my next post - which will most probably next week sometime - take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Only Thursday!

This week has been busy for me and I feel as though it's going to get busier before the week is out!  On Sunday - as you may have read - I had the biggest problems with my computer.  Even though I'm writing this at home, I've still got problems.  I'm unable to upload photos to my blogs, can't get onto websites I seldom go to and can't get into my Hotmail account as it comes up as a blank page (oh, yay, how wonderful! Not!).  All this began happening bit by bit last week when Firefox updated its browser.  However, the problem became quickly worse when I deleted my cookies and the computer deleted a collection of other things along with them!  Not a good sign!
Well, I've introducing myself to my computer each day as though I'm a new person every time I turn this stupid thing on.  All my sessions aren't remembered, and I have to punch in my passwords all new and it's driven me to having to buy another computer; just as the Super Geek guy had recommended I did a month or so ago.
In between the times of me looking around for prices on computers in the last week, I've been cleaning up the house, doing laundry, putting out the rubbish and going to and from my folks' place to be able to get onto the net properly.  Then, on Wednesday, I had to get my shopping done and that took a good part of my day up and fortunately I got everything I needed - and then nearly left my blue shopping trolley at the checkouts at Coles!  Yeah, my mind was somewhere else.  I've done that a few times by accident and gone back to get it.  Not a good thing.
Today, I'm off to the chiropractors and one of my friends is celebrating her birthday.  I've known Kylie Lovejoy since high school and we caught up at our 20 year Class Reunion last year.  Very cool to see her again.  And just when I wanted to send her a virtual card on Facebook, the graphics on that dies on me too.  So, that's another thing that doesn't work either... great!
Well, tomorrow, I'll be busy too.  The weekend is another lot of busy-ness for me as well and social too.  I'm off to a concert around Logan and then on Saturday, I'm hoping to get some work done around the house where I can get in and tidy up, the house and garden a little more than it has been and work on my painting that's been sitting on the easel for the last 4 months.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.