BEE FROM AUSSY

 Today I am expecting a visit from a blog reader named Bee.

She lives in Australia, but came home yesterday to visit family.  She's a kiwi.

She is coming here for morning tea.

Bex is coming over too, as it's easier to have conversations with 3 instead of just two.

Plus I always feel awkward meeting readers who know so much about me, yet I know virtually nothing about them!

Once she has been and gone, I will get back to my sewing.  There's still quite a bit to do on my Market Sign Runner.

Crazy!  I stressed out about meeting Bee!  What would we talk about?  She was literally a complete stranger to me.

But... we got on famously!

Lacy and Bex were here too, so conversation just FLOWED.  We yakked for two solid hours.

It was wonderful.

She's my sorta person.  Down to earth and friendly, and doesn't mind the word 'fuck'!

They have all left now, and it's only me and the dogs.  I will have some lunch, then go work on that market runner.

My afternoon was spent sewing.  Then I prepared dinner for Stew and myself.

Meatballs in sauce with noodles.  His were Tai meatballs and mine were Italian. So, two separate dishes.

Watching Coronation Street before bed now.

MARKET 'RUNNER'

 Something fairly 'new' for markets now is that you have to have your business name clearly displayed.

I've always just called my stall Chris's Creations.

But I've gone off it.  To blah.

So... I came up with a new name, and last night I spent some time designing my new sign, to have on display at my stall.

ABOVE:  It's the 'rough' version.  The actual version will have letters in bright, colourful fabrics, edged in black.

FYI:  The logo on the bottom left stands for C (Chris),  J (Joy),  H (Harvey), intertwined.  It was what I put on all my pottery, my 'mark'.  Every potter should have a mark, so people know who made it.  I do not put my 'mark' on any of my patchwork ... funny enough.

I'm going to make a start on the runner today.

And that's me for now.

ABOVE:  Slowly making progress.

Once I'm happy with the positioning, I will iron it down.  Then make the little Wonky House to go on the right side.

But right now, it's like 12.43 pm,  and I'm starving!  Time to stop for lunch.

8 pm ish.   I sewed all afternoon.  Stopped to prepare dinner.

Roast pork, gravy, smashed baked potatoes and veges.

Griffin turned up, so he got mine.  I had an apple pie.  I think I  got the better deal!  lol

Stew has gone with Griffin to jump start a truck he's been given by a mate.  Griffin is gunna do it up and use it as a weekend hack.

I'm done for the day, so tired.

Did not get much sleep last night because the smoke alarm in the gym room went off around midnight.  

We couldn't work out why either, all the smoke alarms have new batteries.

Anyway, I didn't get to sleep until well after 2 am.

Hope I get some decent sleep tonight.

STRANGE EH?

 I didn't have anything to yabber on about this morning. 

So I didn't.

Stew and I ended up going to the Inaugural Fraser High School market.

Bex had a stall there.

She did EXTREMELY WELL!

I didn't think much of the market overall, it had a very 'flea market' feel to it.  Not a lot of really quality stuff for sale.

I will NOT be doing it.

After attending the market, we went to pick up Stew's prescription, then came home and blobbed out in front of the tv.

I've done Wordle, got it in 4. And Quordle and got that one too, but only just.

Dinner tonight was Chinese Takeaways.  Steve, Bex and the boys came over too.

After they left I went into my sewing room and got a job done, ready for working on tomorrow.

Now?  Tis almost bedtime.

FUCK IT'S COLD

 I stayed in bed until 9 am this morning.

Just too cold to get up.

But I finally did, and yeah, freezing.

No point turning the heat pump on cos we have decided to go out and about.

Stew's gone to get his usual Saturday morning shopping (coke etc).

When he gets back we are going to Raglan for lunch.

I saw a post a while ago of my friend Sue having lunch at ORCA in Raglan.  It looked amazing.  A seafood basket type thing.

I want that!  She lives out there the lucky tart... so goes to ORCA quite often.

We can have a wander of the shops and along the beach while there too.  Not that Raglan shops do a bloody thing for me. 

Very yippy hippy, touristy, not my thing.

It has now been a week of not blogging publicly, and it has settled in well.  I'm not missing a bloody thing about it.

I blogged for far too long for other people.  

I can't believe how upset I felt a week ago about it!  So strange, the minute I hit "PRIVATE" I felt better.  It was just the lead up to doing it that had me in knots.

In the pet shop the other day.  There was a budgie who was SO CUTE.  I almost bought him/her.  Told Stew about it.

He was like ... yeah nah.  Boo.

3.25 pm:  Our trip out to Raglan was just lovely.

We went straight to ORCA...

ABOVE:  The view from our table at ORCA.  Just so nice.

I had a heater right behind me, it was so good!

ABOVE: The Seafood Platter for 2.  It was AMAZING!  One of the nicest platters we have ever had.  I was super impressed that there were NO CHIPS on it!

We are going back one night for dinner to try their other platter, which is all meats.

ABOVE: The water tower on the wharf.  I think it's getting converted into apartments.

ABOVE: One of the lookouts has 4 stone statues.  They face North, South, East and West.  That one is NORTH.

ABOVE:  Me... think I'm facing south.  lol

ABOVE: The tide was out, but the views were still stunning. 

Quite like the bloke too.

ABOVE:  Not a big spender today.  Found the bottle and little bug in a couple of town shops, and the white succulent pots at a lady's home shop.

ABOVE:  Her shop is just out of her home... and we almost missed seeing it.  But my beady eyes caught sight of it on our way out to the surf beaches.

We are now home, feet up enjoying the peace and quiet.

Stew is watching... RUGBY.  😖

Stew and I had cheese 'n' crackers for a very late afternoon tea.  Now we don't feel like dinner at all.

Score, no cooking for me.

That's me for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

ALL ABOUT THE DOGS

 Right.  Both dogs stink to high heaven, so today I'm making it my mission to give them a bath (read shower), then I'm going to trim up around their faces myself.

Marley's face groom yesterday was piss poor.  So, let's see if I can make her and Coco look a bit better.

I will take 'before' and 'after' photos once I'm up and moving.

Right now, I'm still in bed.

ABOVE:  I went to Briscoes this morning and bought this shaver.  Now I can try and do the dogs faces myself.

ABOVE:  The line up of products I used to bath the girls with today.

ABOVE:  Would you call this a 'bad hair day?'.  lol

ABOVE:  Shitty McShitty Miss Coco.

ABOVE:  In two months (or thereabouts) we will be able to shoot down Resolution Drive and onto the Hamilton Expressway!  

Can't wait.  Though if I'm going to Cambridge I will be doing down Wairere Drive to the Chartwell interchange, it's more direct.

ABOVE: This is at the top end of Resolution Drive, it doesn't look ready yet, but by the end of July it's supposed to be.

I bathed the dogs at Bex's.  I did Marely, Bex did Coco.  Now I'm home, had some lunch and am just chilling out till Bex and the Boys visit after school.

Archer wants to come and visit the dogs.  💜

FACES

 The girls are not getting a full groom until July.

But their faces are starting to look very scruffy, so I rang our groomers and asked if I could book them in for a face trim only?

And was told I can take them in anytime, no appointment necessary!  So that's what I shall do this afternoon.

Bex is picking me up this morning, we are going into David's Emporium in town.  They have some rick rack in that I want, haven't seen it available for quite some time.

ABOVE:  I have used these daisy's on many projects.  I love that I can get some more.

ABOVE:  they know where to lie!  So cute.

Catch ya later.

Bex turned up this morning to take me to David's Emporium.

We went, we got what we wanted and then came home again.

And... Bex's car wouldn't start.

ABOVE: Dead battery.  Needed a new one so off we went to REPCO and got another one.

Home.  The connecting posts wouldn't fit.

So back we went and got the right size one.

ABOVE:  Oh and I bought ALL of the multi coloured daisy trim.  Might not run out any time soon.  😋😊

Well I wasn't too impressed with Marley's mini trim today.  Admittedly it was only $15 for a 'face trim', but all they did was around her eyes.

Not her muzzle which is starting to get matted.

They said I should bring both dogs in next month instead of July as it was 'necessary'.

Like hell.

Their coats are not too long or matted at all.  Just Marley's face needed attention.

Coco's doesn't, so I won't be taking her in tomorrow.

I simply cannot get the quantity right for just Stew and my dinners.  Tonight I made a macaroni cheese, with Bacon, Onion and Tomato.  Way too much.

I rang Lacy to see if she wanted dinner?  Nope.

So next on the list:   Griffin.

And YES.  He's coming over later for dinner.

Excellent.  

And that's me day.

Catch ya tomorrow. 

WHY WOULD YA?

 I got a phone call (actually twice now) from HRV Hamilton... wanting to make an appointment to change the filters in our HRV system.

I'm like, why the hell would we get you people to do it?

Last time your technician came, he was half way up the stepladder carrying the new filter and dropped it on our concrete garage floor!  Then he proceeded to lug it into the ceiling, and just sit up there in our ceiling for over half an hour, with the new (damaged) filter, but didn't fit it!

He just sat there making the odd noise now and then, then he left!  And sent us the bill for fitting it... which was grossly exaggerated on time spent here too.

I asked Steve to go up into the ceiling shortly after to check on the filter, cos I watched the guy drop it on the floor, and he discovered the new filter just sitting in the ceiling.  Not installed in the HRV filtration box at all.

So we had to get them back and have another NEW one fitted.  I think the guy who tried to rip us off got fired.

But anyway.  WHY would we get them to do it now?

Nope.  Not gunna happen.

In other news.... remember being told to tie your shoe laces up before you trip over them as a kid?

Well fuck me days.... you CAN, and I DID.  Face planted straight into (luckily) the couch in me sewing room yesterday afternoon!

Never thought it could actually happen.  😂😅😆😖

Today I'm heading over to Cambridge to attend the funeral of my friend Anna.

I'm NOT looking forward to that at all.  Her death rocked me, losing someone so young and unexpectedly does that.  I've had time to think on it a lot, and I know there was nothing I could have done to change her course.  But it's still so very sad.

At least I will be among lots of friends for the funeral.

I will probably be back on here after I get home from Cambridge.

ABOVE:  keeping myself busy this morning.  I made that blue and white curtain for privacy.  It's not flash, but it will do.

The burgundy one already there is just too heavy and long to use daily.

And I plan on keeping the blue/white one closed all the time.

It's so good to be back in the studio, even though the garage was perfectly fine too.

ABOVE:  I made matching doilies for the bathrooms.... I just love how the family toilet net with flowery bottom came out.  And the blue/green one for our ensuite is darling too.

It is quite cool today.  I've tried on several options for today's funeral.  I thought I was going with some dress pants, a white t-shirt and a black long jacket.  But have changed my mind.

Now I'm wearing a black dress with colour all along the bottom, black leggings and the long black jacket.

It's nice to have options, but now I have too many!  Seriously tried on half me damn wardbrobe!

Right.  Back to pottering around the house.

I got a PM in the middle of the night from my sister in law.  Her dearest, closest friend in the entire world has been battling ovarian cancer which had spread throughout her body.  Khady just wanted me to know the end was near, and she was hoping to get Allie home from the hospital so she could die at home.

I'm at my friend Anna's funeral, and I get a message.  Allie just died.  

That was hard to take, while still holding it together at the funeral for Anna.

I left as soon as I decently could, I needed to come home and just sit a while. 

I will ring Khady soon and see if she needs anything.

Stew and I had not seen Allie in a long time, but considered her a good friend.  We spent some lovely weekends at her property at Bethells Beach when the kids were little.  

She was  a kind, loving and very talented woman.  Renown in New Zealand for her art.

She is a huge loss.

Well it's been a long, stressful day.  Lots of sadness.

And with that said, I'm off to bed soon.  I am so damn tired.

A FOOL I AM NOT

 I was on Facebook late last night when a new friend request came in.

I went and checked out her profile page.

It was a brand new account, with only a profile picture and cover photo.

The profile picture was of a Swedish woman politician sitting at some meeting with her name in front of her (A. Kokalari) I googled her name).  

Clearly NOT the name of the person sending me a friend request (Jerry Zii).

AND there was nothing else on the account at all, and it had only been created 13 minutes ago.

I deleted the request, and blocked 'Jerry Zii' too.

Moving on... it should be a nice day.

On my walk yesterday we passed a box full of Dahlia tubers... with a sign saying 'Help Yourself'.  So Robyn and I did.

Today I will plant them in our front garden... and hope they come up next spring.

Then I'm gunna do some sewing I think.  Well... after I fold the washing and put it away *sigh*.

I went out this morning and bought a white t-shirt (dressy) and a new bra for wearing to the funeral tomorrow.  I've got some nice dress pants and plain black 'jacket' to wear with it.

Well, it was a fairly quiet afternoon.  I got Stew's dinner sorted, supper for the Card group sorted, face on etc.

Thought there was only going to be 2 of us for cards, so I invited Bex to join us.

Then 4 girls arrived from Cambridge, so we ended up a group of 6, which was lovely.

And bloody Bex won!

Tinny tart.

ABOVE:  The tart won a cute little shell ladybird donated by Sue T's husband too!

Pffffff, I really wanted that.

Everyone has gone home now and it's wind down time till bed.

OFF WALKING

 I'm off to Cambridge first thing this morning for an FBG walk.

I won't be home till about 11 am.

12.20 pm.  I've been home about half an hour.

It was lovely going walking this morning then having morning tea with the girls.

Most of the chatter was about Anna of course.  I tried not to engage in it too much as it was upsetting.  Most of the girls didn't know too much and I sure in hell wasn't filling them in on details that were private.

Stew and I have a couple of things to look forward to.

1.  A trip to Wellington for a few days in early June, to attend a friend's 65th birthday.  She doesn't know we are coming yet.

2. A trip to Auckland in mid June. Stew has a Public Trust conference to attend and I'm tagging along for the hell of it.  I will go shopping and visit family and friends while Stew is busy with his work.

So, a bit to organise cos our first trip coincides with a Keera weekend  edit:  no it doesn't!  Just checked the calendar.

Oh I just remembered something from this morning.

I met a new lady today in our FBG group.  She was chatting away to me and she mentioned kids and grandkids, and she asked me a few questions about mine.

She then asked me how old I was, because she was sure I couldn't be as old as her.

I asked her how old she was first?   She said.... 52!  She thought I was YOUNGER than her?  Crazy woman.

When I told her my eldest was 43 and I was 63 she near fell over with shock!  I kid you not.

She made my day.  

I look in the mirror lately and I feel like I have aged so much over the past two years.  Life has thrown me some pretty nasty curve balls and it shows.

ABOVE:  Today's walk photo.  It was a lovely bunch of girls (and bloke).  Phil goes on HEAPS of the walks, and he's a really neat man.

Stew and I have just had dinner and are now settled down to watch some TV till bedtime.

Catch ya tomorrow probably.

SUNDAY SLEEP IN

 Right.

We got a sleep in!

Keera woke up and went into the lounge and watched TV.

She's SUCH A GOOD GIRL!

I've now fed her, got her dressed and she's waiting for Lacy to arrive and take her out for a while.

I've been sewing this afternoon, I'm trying something different... but the same.  I'll show you once it's done.

ABOVE:  And there it is.  A runner put on a canvas.  So a hang up picture.  I'm rather happy with it too.

I made some potato/bacon 'n' cheese rissoles to go with beef rissoles for dinner.   I made enough for us to have them again for dinner tomorrow night too.

Just love doing that, cook once, enough for two nights.

Gotta give Keera a shower soon, then pack her off to bed.

Lacy is coming nice and early in the morning to take her to school.

Catch ya tomorrow.

A NEW START

 Well .... here we are!

Just family and a very small select few friends.

I hope to blog kinda like I used to, but with no pressure to have a post up first thing in the morning.

No pressure to do anything, plan anything just to have something to blog about!

I will go with the flow.

More than likely, I will blog later on in the day, or even in the evening from today on.

Like after my day is done and I can reflect on the what happened, if anything!

It has been a bit of a nightmare trying to come up with blog content for first thing, EVERY SINGLE MORNING for 16 years!

I won't miss that.

I will miss all the page views and comments, but I think Facebook will fill the void.  lol

I can still share most of my shit on there... but again, it will be more in retrospect than before the fact, or during the fact.

Photo bombs comes to mind.  Doing big photo posts with small explanations.

No more multiple updates a day.

Just one or two on here and there.

If I find it a pain in the arse doubling up on here AND Facebook, I will possibly stop this blog altogether.

Time will tell.

Right.

Today we have Keera.  We are going to take her to 'JUMP' this afternoon, and will be joined by Steve, Bex and the boys.

Lacy doesn't want to come, so she can see/spend time with Keera tomorrow.

That's it for now.

I will do a run down of today... tonight.

I just did a post on Facebook.

And I'm thinking... why am I going to double up and put it all on here as well?

You all can see my Facebook posts.

So, should I just retire DCR's altogether?

I still have PEPSI for the rants and bitch 'n' moans.

What else do I need?

Maybe NOT this one.

Oh and I'm feeling MUCH better today about this blog leaving the public realm.

Well it's been a really busy and NOISY day.

After having lunch here with Steve, Bex and the boys ( and Keera), we took the kids to JUMP.

Steve and Bex went home to relax for a little while.  Steve has put his back out and is in a lot of pain.

JUMP was OK.... just sat and watched the kids for an hour then home again.

We tried a new Pizza place for dinner, their pizzas were very nice.  Pizza Club.

Now they have gone home and it's just Stew, Keera and I.

OMG those three kids are so damn noisy.. it's exhausting having them here.

Hopefully Lacy takes Keera out for a while tomorrow to give us a break.

Signing off for the day now.  

LAST DAY BEING PUBLIC

So.  We are here.

My last public post.  It's a bitter sweet day.  I hate change.  But this was necessary for so many reasons.  I do feel sad.  Sad that I had to do this.  And it's going to take some getting used to!  

No more taking photos for the blog!  No more documenting every little thing.  Facebook is going to be a much more condensed version of our lives here in the 'Harvey house'.

I'm going to put a few memes up that I really like for various reasons first.

ABOVE:  It's a wonder my dressing room floor is not littered with clothes!  lol

ABOVE:  Yeah, I really love this one.

ABOVE:  If I had a favourite saying, it would be:  "What goes around comes around".  I firmly believe in that.  

ABOVE:  I have literally DONE this.

It felt good, cos I won.

ABOVE: And yep, that's what today is all about.

ABOVE:  I consider this a 'good deed' and I've done it many, many times.  You get as much pleasure from doing it,  as the person feels receiving it.

ABOVE:  Don't be afraid to cut people out of your life if it is going to make your life BETTER.

No one deserves to make your life miserable. NO ONE.  No matter who they are.

You don't have to tolerate disrespect, disloyalty or hate.  Walk away.

You are worth more than that.

ABOVE:  What can I say?  Someone has to say it!

So... lots of them eh?  I have literally been saving them up for just the right day.

Seems that is today.

Thank You from the bottom of my heart for following my blog.  I have appreciated all my lovely readers.  The thousands of lovely comments over the past 16 years.  The friends I have made.  The pleasure of sharing our lives with you.  The highs and lows.  

Moving forward to a new way of 'blogging'... on Facebook.  Shorter posts.  Less Stress.  Freedom from trolls and haters.  

But still ME.

CRANKY:  The highs?  The friends I've made. 

ABOVE:  Way back in 2007, meeting up with bloggers in Australia.  Certainly one of the highlights of being a blogger!  

 The lows?  Haters and Trolls.  

Simple really.

ABOVE:  I got those lovely curtains hung in the wet room late yesterday.  Now I don't feel quite so 'exposed' in there.  Even though it has frosted glass, I just didn't like the thought that the neighbours might be able to see my 'outline' if the light was on.  NOT a good look! 😆😖😋

Righty ho.... I will be back later on today, after doing the usual stuff around the house.

10.36 am:  And I'm keeping myself busy.

It's a funny sorta day for me.

On one hand, I'm relieved I've made a hard decision, but the right one.

But on the other hand, I'm so sad.  I am crying as I type this.  I feel like I've been forced to do this by some evil, horrible, horrible people.  

But they have not won, cos after today they will NEVER get to snoop on me again.  And that's so important to me.

Certain people were let into my life via my blog that I would NEVER have wanted knowing about it, let alone reading about me and my life.  K you are to blame for that.  You have a lot to answer for. I don't know how you look in the mirror and like what you see.  KARMA is gunna get you one day.

Back to my day.... I've been sewing.  Cos when I put up the new curtains in the wet room and  family toilet, the doilies no longer matched! 

So out they came, and in went these:

ABOVE:  Now they are done and it's on to the next thing for today.  

ABOVE:  Some interesting stats from my blog.

ALMOST 7 million page views. 5,704 posts... shit that's a lot of dribble.  Almost 85,000 comments!

Followers... well that's inaccurate as fcuk!  Not everyone follows, they just READ. 😂😆😅

I'm proud of my blog.  I wish I didn't have to go PRIVATE... but it's for the best.

I really hope you keep in touch via Facebook.

Tears are falling.... but I will get over it and be a happier person.  Tomorrow might be hard though.

ABOVE:  Bex visited ... and brought me some lunch too.  She knew.

She stayed for 2.5 hours and we yakked.  And by the time she left I was OK again. 

Had a bit of a wobble this morning, but weighing up the pro's and con's of this decision... I know I'm doing the right thing for me.

I'm gunna be just fine over on Facebook.  So, so many of my friends are there already, and in the past week well over a hundred more have joined me there too.

ABOVE:  And there ya go.  Now our ensuite has a cute curtain too. 

Stewie: dinner this evening will be sausages and home made wedges, sour cream and tomato sauce.  OK.  😋

Right, I'm going to leave it here.

Catch you on the flip side... Facebook.

Lights out at 11.29 pm tonight.