BACK TO WORK... A NEW YEAR AHEAD

Here it is.

Stew goes back to work today.

And my days get back to 'normal'.

No more wondering what the hell day it is.

The past 16 days I've had no idea from one day to the next what day it was!

It's been lovely having Stew home, but kinda sad that the weather hasn't been that conducive to getting out and about that much.

And in fact, we are expecting MORE bad weather in the next day or two!  

ABOVE:  Yep, a bloody Ex-Tropical Cyclone is next.

We might be lucky here in the Waikato and escape the worst of it?  We will find out in a few days I'm sure.

I think everyone in this country is sick to the back teeth of the shitty weather we have all been having.

That is on top of the past, almost three months of rain more often than not.

Today I will get back into the sewing room and continue making LOVIES.  There's four ready for sewing up.

And I need to post one off to Taupo too. I think that's what I will do first thing this morning.

Tonight a favourite TV programme starts again.

ABOVE:  Happy Valley, starring Sarah Lancashire.  Season 3.  I really like this programme, hopefully this season is as good as the two previous ones.

8.40 am:  Got up an hour ago, got all the housework done... which wasn't much as I'd done most of it yesterday.

Then I sat down in front of my laptop with the express purpose of contacting DHL (postal delivery service) to find out where my parcel from the USA was?

I've been tracking that freakin' parcel since mid December!  And it arrived in Auckland, New Zealand a week ago.

And BOOM!  Even before I could start, and email came in from... you guessed it:

ABOVE: The parcel is actually on it's way to my house!

ABOVE: And then it did arrive... like in less than 5 minutes after getting the email.

So... of course I opened it.  It was like CHRISTMAS!

So exciting.

NICOLE, NOTHING was broken!

And OMG... NICOLE W (USA), you outdid yourself!  I cannot believe what you sent me!!!

You know me so well... and you made me CRY again.

One day I hope we can meet in person, cos Chick, I so want to hug you.  I cannot get over how someone who has never met me can be so very kind.

ABOVE:  URSULA!  We wanted to buy her when we got Ariel, but she was like, $270!  So she stayed in the shop.  She was a tiny fraction of that cost in the USA!   Nicole, she's just gorgeous.  Thank you so much.  I LOVE HER.

ABOVE: This one made me snort!  I bought the exact same one a few months ago.  Now I have a matching set.  

Again, this is Nicole knowing me too well.

ABOVE: This is the one that made me cry.

I just couldn't believe Nicole would find this and send it to me.

It.  Is.  Gorgeous.

Almost makes me want to take up coffee.

I did say 'almost' eh?  😂😆

ABOVE: How darling is this spoon rest?  Will never get used of course, it went straight into the Display Cabinet.

So, so cute.

ABOVE: Dear little Flounder.  

ABOVE:  Safely in the Display Cabinet.  I'm gunna need to re-arrange a few things in there now.  

Gosh that was so much fun.  And so very appreciated.  

I can't thank you enough NICOLE.  You're an incredibly lovely, caring, giving person.   

And now... I'm off to post a LOVIE to SM in Taupo.

Just remembered.  That parcel travelled 18,548.3 km to get here, and nothing was broken!!!!!!  AMAZING.

4.27 pm:  It's been a lovely day so far.  I've got so many little jobs done around the house.  Just things that I kept putting off, but now done.

Such a good feeling.

Bex and the boys called in to pick up some items that I'd sold to a friend of hers.  Then we both had to go fill up our cars with petrol and post an item at the post office.  So we kept running into each other at the Rototuna shops.

I've kinda solved the cloudy pool water issue.  Well by 'solved' I mean I can now see exactly what the problem is.

I didn't turn the filter/pump on for over 24 hours and yeah.  After that, the water was 100% CLEAR, but there is a very fine white sediment in the bottom of the pool.  So NOT cloudy water, but something in the water that is not being resolved by phosphate remover, or having the filter on.

I will get Stew to vacum the pool tonight and see if he can get some of it out.

Otherwise I will have to talk to the pool professionals about what to do next.

Far out... I sit down to do an update and boom!  Me bladder says "BUSTING NOW"!!!

Back in a mo...

OK where was I?  Oh yeah.  The pool.  I'll get a sample of the water and sediment and take it to be tested tomorrow as well.

I'm hoping we don't need to completely drain the pool to get rid of the sediment.

Lone Star have this delicious coleslaw.  It's not as amazing as it was years ago, but still lovely.

I decided to try making something similar today for us.

Went to the supermarket and got a few ingredients and made it this afternoon.

Verdict on blog TOMORROW.  With my recipe if it's LOVELY.

We are having steak, smashed baked potato and coleslaw for dinner.

ABOVE: Stormy skies. 

Stew just got home.  He's now going to vacuum the pool and see if he can get up some of that sediment.

And that was a big fat FAIL.  Yep, the vacuum sucked up the sediment, put it through the filter and straight back into the pool!

ABOVE:  We could clearly SEE the sediment filled water coming back into the bloody pool!  Stew got in the pool with some small Tupperware containers, and scooped up samples of the sediment.  I will go to the pool shop tomorrow to find out what they recommend to get rid of it.

Well our dinner was really delicious.  My Coleslaw was bang on, and Stew cooked the steak to perfection.  

Time to wind down and just enjoy the telly... and the new season of Happy Valley.  Yaaaa.