INTO TAUPO TODAY

 Morning...  well not sure what we shall get up to today.

It might depend on my Aunt and Uncle.

But for sure it will involve going into Taupo at some point. 

My friend Sharon AKA Blonde has told me there's a market on in Taupo today... so I'd  love to go to that.

I'm not going to try adding more to this post right now.. blogger is being a shit, and trying to get this to publish ... grrrrr. 

Catch ya later with more luck I hope!

FIRST WEEKEND AWAY

 We are doing it.

Heading off for a mini break.

First of many we plan on taking from now on.

Life is taking on a new routine for Stew and I.

We are taking more time for US, doing things we want to do and not having to cater to any one else.

So, this is our January jaunt.  

Off to Taupo and Kinloch.

First stop will be visiting my cousin, Janice, in Taupo.  Well... she's just out of Taupo in a rural area.

I've not seen her since October 2017.  So quite a while.  I'm sure it will be lovely to catch up with her.

After visiting her, we shall then head over to Kinloch and spend the afternoon, evening and half of Sunday with my Aunt and Uncle.

Ethel is my Mum's youngest sister.  It's always lovely catching up with Mum's siblings.

Frank and Ethel have a fairly large property just out of Kinloch.  It will be interesting to see what they have done with the property.  When they bought it, the 'back yard' was very much a blank canvas, with NOTHING but grass.

Because we did all our packing last night (not that we need to take much), all we have to do this morning is throw everything in the car and leave.

So... less yakking... off we go!

...

3.45 pm, and we are having a very pleasant time. We've just left my cousin's home and are now on our way to Kinloch.

I will do a big photo update late tonight.

ABOVE...fruit salad i made for dinner.

ABOVE: GORGEOUS CLOUDS TODAY.

ABOVE... a glass blowing place outside Taupo. Beautiful stuff... HORRIBLY expensive.  Bought none.

ABOVE...Janice and baby George.  Hes a 'wild' piglet, not a domesticated breed. But he's been hand reared by Janice and is just adorable. 

Like nibbling toes.

Needs to learn some manners! 🤣😅

ABOVE: George meeting cute cows.. he didn't like them. 

ABOVE: I on the other hand loved the cows.

ABOVE: FEEDING THE BABY. He sleeps through the night now. *snort*

ABOVE: The lovely views from my cousin's  home.
The piglets name is George. He's  6 weeks old and very pampered.

He was highly amusing.

The evening has been spent yakking with my Aunt and Uncle. A roast lamb dinner was enjoyed.

Now... 10.14 pm and we are all off to bed.

Catch ya tomorrow. 

NITE NITE.

NAKED MAN?

 Prepare ya eyeballs....

ABOVE:  A naked Stewie.  OR is he?

Nah... he's got his running shorts on, ya just can't see them!  This was last night, before he got on the treadmill.

I was amused that he looked like he was naked.

I finally got the jig saw finished yesterday afternoon... I won't be starting another one for a while!

It was really confusing, cos the box I got it out of had a wedding scene as the 'hint'... but the puzzle had nothing to do with a wedding.

Seems I'd grabbed the wrong box and bag of puzzle pieces.  No wonder it didn't make sense.

Now.  I made a sort of 'resolution' this year, for Stew and I to spend more time together, more time visiting friends and family, and more time travelling (within reason).

So... tomorrow we are going to Taupo and Kinloch.   I have a cousin in Taupo, and an Aunt and Uncle in Kinloch.  We shall be visiting them both, and staying with my Aunt and Uncle in Kinloc on Saturday night.

Today I will spend some time making sure we have all we need to take with us, and getting everything in the house sorted out.

Steve and Bex will be looking after our dogs, which is awesome.

Well... Actually, ARCHER will be looking after the dogs.  His parents will just be supervising. 😉😊

And that's about it for now... so I'll catch ya later.

9.57 am:   Picture this, I'm standing in the wet room, about to have my shower, butt naked. (yeah, there's a bit of nakedness'  going on in this post!)... and me phone rings.

It's the SKY man, he's on his way, should be here in about 5 minutes!  Faaaaark!  I frantically grab some clothes, and make sure I'm 'presentable'.

The guy arrived in like, 2 bloody minutes!

Phew.  Lucky I'm a fast dresser.

And, he finds the problem immediately.  The two Sky boxes were not working together properly.  Seems the guy who set them up a year ago did it wrong.  So now they are working independently of each other, and we should have no more problems.

Stew will be thrilled to bits.  No more interruptions to his sport watching, and I can still watch Coronation Street.

And it is now 10 in the morning and I can finally get in the shower!  

Here is an interesting fact.  Since Brylee left home our power bill has dropped a full $10 a week!  Nothing else has changed, so yeah.  I knew we would find our weekly expenses drop!  

Next thing?  Grocery bill has gone down too.  No more spaghetti bought X's a dozen tins! 

Plus all the other things one buys for a small, but hungry young person.  😃😂😅😆

On Brylee, she is doing exceptionally well doing all her own cooking.  She sends me photos of her dinners, most of them are really healthy!

I am hoping that in a few months she will feel confident enough to move on into a flat with other young people.  She needs to mix and mingle with others her own age.  

2 pm:  And I'm just home from having a lovely lunch with Stew in town.  Our plans for midday changed, so lunch was on the cards after all.

It was nice, expect for the freakin' traffic!  OMG it's nuts out there.  

I hope it's not crazy on the roads tomorrow when we want to go away.

I have had a nice quiet afternoon.  Got the washing in.  Prepared dinner (left overs) and now?  Just gunna chill out for a while before packing our bag for the weekend.

IT WASN'T A CHALLENGE:

 If you read yesterday's post, you would have seen the funny photo of the two men with 'Monkey Tail Beards'.

I told our son Steve is WAS NOT A CHALLENGE... but ya all know Steve right?

YEAH.  He did it.

ABOVE:  I got this sent to me at dinner time last night with the caption: "Challenge Accepted".

The shit!  I didn't challenge him, not at all. 

LUCKILY... Bex made him shave it off:

ABOVE:  I don't know if this is much better Steve!

Stew reckons he looks like a porn star now!

OMG, only a mother could love him right now... this mother.  

Yes Steve, we love you very much.  You are a nutter, but you are OUR nutter.

This afternoon my shop is open again. Hopefully someone will pop in!  

I should get my jig saw puzzle finished today.

And that is all I have for now.

Catch ya later.

We have had rain on/off all week.  I'm actually COLD this morning!  I am going to put some socks and sneakers on me feet, which are the coldest part of me right now.

It's so weird, summer is only a third of the way through, and it's cold.

ABOVE:  Super happy to report Steve is clean shaven again!  No porn star mo' now.  lol

11.49:  And I'm about to open the shop.  

Feeling refreshed.  I just had a good walk on the treadmill.  It perked me up a bit. I've been feeling really down the past couple of days.

Not sure why.  

2.44 pm:  This bloody jig saw is a nightmare!  I'm going cross eyed.

And I'm trying to watch Bridgerton on Netflix.  I'm onto Episode 3... it's rather captivating.

9.43 pm:  No one in the shop today, bummer.

Got up to Episode 4 of Bridgerton... it's getting 'steamy'.

Stew got home from Rotorua talking about some  KFC burger... in detail.  So we went to the Base for KFC burger.

Then we grabbed some Dunkin Donuts and went over to Steve and Bex's for supper.

Home now, and I'm ready for bed.

Our SKY is playing up, can't get it to work, so I'll have to ring them and book a service man to come sort it out.  Probably won't happen until next week knowing our luck.

CRAMPS!

 For the second night in a row, I've had bad leg/toe cramps ALL NIGHT LONG!

I tried to drink more yesterday so I didn't get cramps last night, to no avail.

Grrrr... my legs and feet are so sore this morning.

And I'm bloody tired from waking up and trying to work a cramp out.

So, I am going to hunt out my Magnesium tablets and start taking them again.  They certainly made a difference last summer.

It's about the only thing I've had that helps.

Do you know of anything else that stops cramps?

I should be doing some sewing for my next market in a week, but just can't be bothered.

Because the last couple of markets have been busts, I'm just not into them anymore.  Having my shop open a couple of times a week is actually enough for me right now.

I'm planning on going into town at lunchtime, having lunch with Stew and checking out 'the car', and see how things are going with it's WOF.

Because it's quite an OLD car, and it's been idle for over a year, there may be issues with it getting a WOF.  Time will tell.  Nothing is ever straight forward eh?

Before that, I have to do a small grocery shop.  So that is top of my list of things to do today.

ABOVE:  I found them!  It's about half full, so I'll add them to me grocery list.

Browsing through Facebook last night (OMG such a time waster), and I saw this:

ABOVE:  It took me a few moments to comprehend what I was looking at!  Then I was like, OMG!  I can imagine Steve doing something like that. 😂😅😆

It really is quite funny.  I have NEVER seen a guy with a Monkey Tail Beard.  Have YOU?

NO STEVE, this is not a challenge to you! ! !

OK, I'm off to sort out my grocery list and start me day.

12.11 pm:  And I've been busy in the house, getting all me jobs done.

I've got Teriyaki Chicken marinating for dinner.

I'm now heading out to do a few things in town, groceries etc.

ABOVE:  Well... this should be interesting!  It's WATER peeps!  But... I'm going to hold off taking it.

I am gunna do the magnesium first and see if it helps with the cramps.  No point doing two things and not knowing which one is helping right?

5.47 pm:  Meh.  It's one of those days where I just feel Bla.  No motivation to do a damn thing.  I've got no energy at all.  Just wallowing right now.  I will get the chicken cooking soon I suppose.  Stew will get home and expect his dinner.

Teriyaki Chicken and Garlic Bread, a favourite meal and I'm not even keen.

ABOVE:  Well dinner was delicious. And there is enough left overs for both our lunch's tomorrow.

ABOVE:  Stew had a quick swim before dinner... he was brave!  The pool is rather cold after all the rain we have had these past few days.

Now... time to relax for the evening.  Catch ya tomorrow... and let me tell you RIGHT NOW... you want to pop back tomorrow!

I have an hysterical photo to share !

MISS MY OLD MOO COMMENTS

 Yesterday there were lots of comments on the blog.

But none from 'Unknown'.... gosh I miss them.

They were almost always from Mum.

Her last ever comment on the blog was on September the 13th, she was telling me off for complaining about the food in Quarantine!

Unknown9:43 PM

Be thankfully at least there is food,crappy it may be but better than none at all.THE OLD MOO.

ReplyDelete

Isn't if weird the things you miss or that remind you that your loved one is no longer here.

Mum ABSOLUTELY LOVED the blog.  She got cross when she couldn't read it for some reason or other.  I hope wherever she is now, she can still see what is going on in her family and isn't getting cross with me over something!

She never held back on telling me off!

Notice I've not been swearing much on here?

I'm making a concentrated effort not to, both here and in the home.

I have a competition going on between key members of my family.

Whoever gets the LEAST swear words uttered in the house/around about, up until December the 24th wins a sum of money.

I'm losing. 😕😓😒  But ... I AM getting better!

I finally added another section on the 'Smile Tree' :

ABOVE:  I got a kick out of putting that pom pom on the knobbly bit of the tree trunk.  😃😂😅

This time around, I'm taking my time with additions to the tree, no stress.  No time frame.

Just when I can do it.  Way better for my resolve to relax more, take my time and not stress out over things so much.

11.17 am:  I've been pottering around the house this morning, making sure I have things sorted for the shop opening this afternoon.

AND... it's Card Night tonight. HERE.  So I just made sure I have something to offer for supper.

Plenty in the pantry.

The pantry just got a general tidy up too... I'm dreadful at forgetting what's in there, and having stuff expire on me.  I just had to chuck out two sachets of sauce, and some Tuna Heat & Eats.

In fact, I just had one for an early lunch... I forgot how much I like them!  But, only that flavour.  The rest are ikk. 😉😏

6 pm: closed the shop, and just got supper sorted out.

Stew is having left overs on toast for dinner, so one less thing to worry about.

He's on his way home from Rotorua right now, expecting him around 6.55 pm.

I had no one in the shop today, which didn't surprise me in the least.  We had several heavy squally showers today.  It's not cold though, just quite pleasant... unless you are working I suspect.

I just did my jig saw this afternoon.  I'm probably about 65% done?  It's keeping me amused.

ABOVE:  My mini platter for tonight.  I'm only expecting 3 girlfriends from Cambridge.  The others are away on holiday or business.

It is always quiet this time of the year.  Shame the girls might not get a swim tonight.

It's not very nice out there, windy and showers.

9.25 pm:  Card Night is over.  And I won!  First time in quite a while I won too, nice start to the Card Night year.

ABOVE:  No Winner's trophy tonight, it was at home with a girl who didn't attend tonight.  So my gorgeous Kiwi had to stand in.  It's just so special, especially as Mike and Joyce gave it to  me.

Right, I'm done for the day, I'm knackered.

OUT ON A MISSION TODAY

 Well today I've got a mission.

A very dear blog reader/patchwork customer has offered me a car!

Yes, a car.

It has been stuck in Airport Parking for over a year, as they could not come back here to New Zealand due to the damn Covid virus.

So ... long story short, it arrives in Hamilton today on a transporter, and will be getting it's old petrol drained and a new WOF.  If all goes well it will be coming home with us in a few days.

In return, I shall be packing up all their personal effects (mostly clothes) and posting them back to her in Australia.

WIN/WIN for both of us, as they did not want to continue paying huge parking fees on a car they could not use.

And we can either use the car within our family circle, or sell it.  I'm inclined to think it will stay in the family.

So, this morning I will go down to the garage where the car is due to arrive at, and make sure they know what's what with it.

I have never been just given a car before!  So thank you ever so much Heather!  Fingers crossed everything goes well with the fuel change and WOF.  😉😊

One that is done, I shall come home and get on with the housework.  There's quite a bit to do... vacuming is top of my list.  I find it fairly difficult now with my lower back playing up, but if I spread it out over a few hours I should be fine.

I tried putting epoxy resin on two ceramic, alcohol inked tiles yesterday.  Messy.  Not perfect.  Bloody difficult.  Not doing it again!  The epoxy resin is damn expensive and I can't afford to be wasting it on stuff ups.  Lesson learnt.

I've seen videos where artists put it on their acrylic pour paintings too.  I'm not even gunna try that!  Spray on varnish is all I'm doing, it WORKS just fine.

So, I have this epoxy resin just sitting there... hmmmm.  What to do with it?

I'm tempted to try getting a couple of silicon moulds to make some epoxy resin coasters in?  Dunno yet.  Could be a fun project... or just a messy, sticky, 'should not have done that' thing. 

Our son Steve is 'on call' during after hours with his company.  He has to attend and fix up 'Insurance' jobs.

Like, if someone drives into their garage door (Oh, I've done that!), his job is to make the house secure until a proper repair can be done.

Yesterday he got called out to a Hamilton Mall which had suffered a ram raid.  Some dicks had driven a stolen car into the Liquor shop!  So Steve went over and erected a temporary wall and door.

ABOVE:  This was the mess that greeted him.  Hopefully he will send me photos of his 'temporary' fix.  He's had a few jobs over summer so far, after hours.  It's a great gig, he gets paid heaps more than 'normal' for these jobs.

And well... that's me for now.  I'll catch ya later.

ABOVE:  And THAT is how ya secure a ram raided shop!  

I'm about to ring the garage about the car... hopefully they know what I'm talking about?

WOW!  Some pretty strong views 'out there' from ANON'S today!  I'm at a loss how to reply to them.  How about.... NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS? 

Well, I'm glad I decided to ring the garage instead of driving into town.  We got things sorted just fine over the phone, and I didn't have to get hot and bothered trying to get into town during peak traffic time.

I WAS going to explain in more detail about the car and how we shall end up owning it... but NO!  I don't owe anyone an explanation!  In fact, I wish I'd never mentioned it at all.

It is much cooler today... even though it is looking to be a nice day.  Better get on with the vacuming before it gets too hot.

DOGSTARS:  Thanks for the nice comment.  I did not ASK for this car, Heather contacted me with a request, and I accepted.  End of story really.

AUDREY:  Heather and her husband are NZ citizens.  But thanks to Covid, if he wanted to come back to visit his Mum (very elderly), he would have to go through two lots of Quarantine, pay two quarantine fees ($6,000) and to add to it all, he probably wouldn't get a Managed Isolation Allocation for months!  Heather herself is unable to travel for the foreseeable future.

So, they simply cannot come home, and the car was raking up parking fees worth more than the car!  Hence why she approached me to get it out of the airport car park.

ABOVE:  I decided the vacuming had to wait... the tomatoes couldn't!

We had so many I'm making spaghetti sauce.  I'll freeze most of it for later on.

The goggles?  Stops me eyes from crying over the friggin onions of course.

ABOVE:  how good does that look?  Not cooked yet of course.

ABOVE: These ones are not ripe enough yet. I'm thankful we are coming to the end of this year's crop!  We got so many, we couldn't keep up with them.  And I'm running out of freezer room too.

1.31 pm:  I just tasted the tomato mixture, it's still reducing down.  OMG it's actually got a right kick to it!  It's going to be an amazing sauce to add to spaghetti and meatballs etc.  

Because I don't want it to burn, I'm keeping close to it... stirring it and picking out skins as I go.  I should have thought about removing the skins BEFORE I put them in the pot.  Oh well... can't think of everything.

Brylee came over for a swim.  She didn't stay in long as the wind is quite cold today.  We've had two good showers of rain... so my washing is not exactly getting dry.  *sigh*

My tomato mix is ready for the freezer.  I got 4 good sized containers out of our tomatoes and onions.

10.14 pm:   And it's been a fairly cruisy day for me.  I got most of my housework done, did some of my jig saw and of course, made lots of Tomato - Spaghetti sauce.

We had some this evening with mince and bacon.  Rather yum.

I finally got my washing dry and in before it started to rain again.  Yaaa.

Now?  Bed soon.  I'm seeing double with the jig saw... man is sure does cause eye strain.

ANOTHER FUNTASTIC DAY?

 Today might not be quite as nice as yesterday.

We have rain forecast for the afternoon.

So... maybe we won't get in the pool ?

That would be a bugger, as yesterday was just perfect.

I saw a photo of some cute 'fantasy' houses on Facebook the other day... so now my hands are itching to do some more Wonky House Runners, doing the houses slightly differently.

That might get started today if getting outside isn't possible.

I also have to finish off three paintings, work on my jig saw and oh... heaps of other things.

There is never NOTHING to do!

If I am doing nothing, it's cos I'm being lazy!

lol

Right, off to make a start on the day.  Keera will no doubt jump into bed with us in the next hour or so... expecting a lollie for 'breakfast'.  Gosh we are naughty grandparents!  

2 pm:  And as I thought, it's been a slow, lazy day.

Keera jumped into bed for the obligatory sweets.

Then she had breakfast, did an art project:

ABOVE:  Painting a ceramic mug.  Then, before it got any cooler, she had a swim.

The weather certainly is turning.  It's clouding over and much cooler today.  Bit of a relief really.

I've been working on my jig saw...

ABOVE:  It's a slow process.  I have to stop fairly regularly as my eyes get too tired.

Stew is in 7th Heaven... watching bloody cricket on the TV.  Day 3 of a 5 day test between Australia and India.  NOT even a kiwi team!  *sigh*

At least he's happy I suppose.

I put some epoxy resin on two ceramic tiles this morning.   I had no idea what I was doing!

So now... I shall watch some You Tube tutorials on 'How to do it'... which I should have done BEFORE trying it.  Derrr.
 

I don't usually watch the Americas Cup Yacht racing, but today I looked up at the perfect moment!

American Magic had a very unfortunate accident and capsized!

It caught the wind wrong and that boat literally launched into the air, nearly flipped over backwards, crashed back into the water and capsized!

It was very DRAMATIC to watch!

ABOVE:  A very sad sight.  Luckily everyone on board was safe and accounted for.

ABOVE: The boat itself started to sink!  So it was all hands on board, including other boaties, to try and keep it afloat.

It's still an ongoing situation.

Someone videoed the capsize... so I shall share it.

ABOVE:  Our pool is so popular, it gets used even in the rain!

They didn't stay in as long as usual though, so it must have been quite a bit colder.

Everyone has now left, and it's back to just Stew and I.

It has been a full week since Brylee left home.  

I can't say we have been 'alone' much though... kids visit all the time!

But, it's nice that they do really.

I am enjoying cooking JUST enough for Stew and I ... it hasn't been too hard to adjust.  I thought it would take me longer really.  

So anyway... it's time to wind down for the day, and just relax till bedtime.

Catch ya tomorrow.