The kitties had a most wonderful time with everything being moved about and cleaned and therefore it is like they got a houseful of new sleeping places and things to play with.

Over the course of the weekend we did many loads of washing. Because the weather was nice and warm we were able to dry the rugs out in the nirvana.

Cuckoo cat was constantly trying to make Happy Cat give up her sleeping spaces so Cuckoo could sleep in them. Happy said no, heck no, and nonononono.

Somehow the two of them made this nest out of a freshly washed rug placed on the lap of Carter. All weekend it was back and forth with this nest – Cuckoo, Happy, Cuckoo, Happy.

By the end of the weekend The Other Half’s new office was starting to take shape.

And the shelves began to fill.

Once the new store room began to fill, I was able to mop the floors for the first time in a while.

Nice and shiny! :)

Essentially three wardrobes were amalgamated into one – many of the “fancy” clothes were packed away for another time, and just a small selection left out in order to take up less space.

This wardrobe now has a shoe rack instead of clothes, plus some jackets, ponchos and jumpers.

And this wardrobe, which is in the first store room, was left completely empty. We have a plan for this space, it just might take us some time to enact it.

Overall many of the jobs we wanted to do over this weekend did get done, and a couple of them which did not get done are in the process of being done on this Anzac day long weekend we are having now.

Today we went to the dump as it was closed for three of the four day Easter long weekend and we assumed it would be very busy on the Easter Monday when it was open.

Still a few pictures to be hung up, and a few things I am still deciding what I want to do with them. Like the DVD rack – I actually do not have a DVD player anymore so why the heck am I hanging onto DVD covers? I could easily just get something like this and store them away in a much smaller space.

Let me start by saying we do not “Easter”. We live in a tourist town which becomes impossible to navigate starting the Thursday before Easter, and remains pretty much that way till late Tuesday. The plan usually is to bunker down and do whatever we feel like at home.

On Thursday I went to the pool with two of my Thursday ladies who come into the studio on Thursdays to art together. We have been water walking together for a few weeks now plus we do aqua aerobics from time to time.

It is school holidays here and some smart cookie booked in a birthday party for the same moment as Aqua Aerobics – neither group was very pleased by this turn of events. We found it somewhat amusing. We had a lane to ourselves and walked for an hour and 20 minutes. Sometimes we do an hour, sometimes two, sometimes one hour then Aqua Aerobics for an hour.

After a quick change I attempted to dash home – the traffic was already Not Great, Bob! – to pick up The Other Half then we did a quick Donut run for the Thursday art people, then to the chemist, then back here.

This year The Other Half decided he wanted to move his office and games room back in together and give me his old office as a store room for the business. In part because the kid next door constantly plays basketball which is not especially conducive to work that requires a brain. He better turn out to be the next Andrew Gaze with all that bouncing.

It is now 5:15 on Easter Monday and we have mostly finished the taskings we set ourselves. It took almost the entire four days. I am exhausted and have zero desire to move from this chair but I will have to put dinner in the oven soon.

We have decided we would like to Rabbitgoo the windows on the driveway side of the house as there isn’t anything pretty to look at out of those windows. I would much rather see rainbows! We did Mum’s front door area in December last year – these pics were taken on a Not Sunny day. We get ours from Amazon – it is very easy to apply. Though possibly a little swear inducing.

It is all worth it in the end though! Look how pretty.

Friday was mostly spent sorting things, moving things to new rooms, and creating general chaos. All of this is business stuff for mailing things – and it was all in The Other Half’s gaming room which was a bit annoying overall. It was taking up a lot of space!

There was an early Saturday morning Bunnings trip. I said we must go when they open to avoid the insanity and we mostly did avoid it but 7am is very early to be at the hardware store especially pre-coffee!

A TV was mounted on a wall to save space..

A kitty space was fought over.

My Kallax was cleaned and rearranged. I re-sorted all my oils into alphabetic order. Yes I am that OCD person.

That is L to Z. Every 6 months or so I go through and re-sort them as they are forever making new oils.

Shelves were built in The Other Half’s new room as the old Kallax were staying in the work store room

How did it all turn out? That will be another post as this one has got quite long! :)

Orders yet another cat tower, I think. Two more arrived since the first one. They have a dedicated cat tower out in the Nirvana now, though we will probably rotate them around regularly. There is nothing cats like more than furniture moved to a new place, except more cardboard boxes.

Or perhaps this button plays the next episode of Bridgerton on Netflix. I have seen them all now but certainly would not mind watching it again, that was just delightful.

Christmas was fine, we bought a new table especially so we would have enough room for everyone. Here you see the new table joined to the old table. We were 8 in the Nirvana this year and it was a big day of eating and drinking. Perhaps too much so.

My bestie and her daughter and I were at Aldi on Boxing Day first thing – masked of course – to attempt getting new teevees. There was a 55 inch smart teevee on special. We were successful and I have to say this is the best Christmas present I can remember in recent times – except of course my Lego version of Bunnings which I am to put together soonest. I have gone from three remotes to one and it is a lot easier to use.

The business is still very busy but we have started to put some things in place that free us up a little bit more, and hopefully we can tweak and fine tune that in 2021 to give us more time back.

We got solar installed a couple of weeks ago. If I had known that would be as fascinating as television to The Other Half I would have suggested we do it a long time ago.

The cats and chickens are all well and happy. Both very spoiled as always, of course.

We have been watching The Mandalorian and I love it which is weird as I do not like Star Wars at all. Maybe because it is shorter, maybe because of Baby Yoda, but whatever it is I am fully on board.

Looking Forward –

What is with everyone who seems to think New Years Eve will magically fix everything 2020 related? Do the fireworks in Sydney Harbour contain some magical virus killing properties we are presently unaware of? Do all the people who died this year magically return to life? It isn’t like a new (possibly – probably – more sane) president gets sworn in at midnight in the US, nor does midnight on NYE instantly solve world hunger or remove any of the things that vex us currently. I think a lot of people are setting themselves up to be very disappointed.

I will simply expect more of the same and I think that will continue for quite a lot of 2021. Hope is a fine thing to have but delusional thinking is another thing entirely and haven’t we seen more than enough of that in 2020?

The delusional thinking of those who think their freedoms (freedumbs perhaps) are more important than the freedoms of others, for those who think they are magically immune to things and thus do not need to mask, for those stuck in a country where the only safe plan is to hunker down inside ones own house because the people outside are determined to do whatever it is they want and f**k everyone else’s wants.. for those who think the colour of their skin entitles them to berate, belittle and outright murder those with differently coloured skin, none of that is going to magically vanish on New Year’s Eve either.

I can’t fix the world. I truly begin to think nobody can. All I can do is focus in on what exists within my own four walls and make that better. So my plan for 2021 is simply that – Home.

Unlike a lot of others home for me includes work, I am very lucky in that respect.

In these next few days between Christmas and New Year I am going to tackle some things at home which have been annoying me for a while. A pantry clean out and reorganize, a fixing of some shelves that have become a dumping place for things which need homes.. those kinds of small jobs that we put off till later but later never appears.

My New Year Wish For You –

I wish you all the best in 2021

If by chance (reality) we get the same kind of shyte we got in 2020 I wish you all the patience in the world to deal with it.

Now I press this button and we’ll see what happens next! ;)

To blog, to do things that aren’t work related, to read your blogs, to comment, to just sit and watch teevee. This photo is from my Hawaii trip in 2010 or 2011, I am not sure which one. Wouldn’t it be nice to just sit in the water on some kind of floating device and not have to.. answer messages or the phone or pack website orders for a few days.

But I do not have more time. Right now I have admin work that needs to get done and a bunch of new products that need to be added to the website some of which have been waiting two weeks already since they got here. I finally got the photos taken yesterday in a mad bulk photography session.

Where the f**k did August go? It was our Birthday Month here at the studio and thus it vanished in a haze of giveaways and general celebrations. We posted hundreds of packages and the reason I know that is I have a massive post bill sitting here waiting to be paid.

All of this is quite boring for you folks to read I am certain of that. Other peoples work is not very interesting. So let me mention the cats and chickens. All are well at the moment.

I fear for my oldest chicken. I do that every year when it starts to warm up. Here she is with her sisters on the day we first got them – both her sisters are no longer with us. I know I shouldn’t always see them whenever I see her but I do, I can’t help it. Those three were the ultimate trio, tackling chicken life together. I miss the other two every single time I see her, and I can’t help but think one day I will lose her too.

For now, it is extra blueberries, tomato, corn and tuna for this last sister standing who I adore. She will be ten years old at the end of November and that is a very long life for a chicken.

The kitties received a surprise gift this week. They got a new cat tower. They started playing with it before we even began building it. They are delighted.

Cuckoo kitten has been a godsend for us. She gives us endless laughter and joy. She is so funny. Happy has finally accepted her as a companion and they play together. I have even caught Happy licking Cuckoo from time to time, when she thinks we are not looking. That is how Happy does most things – she will play with toys but if she spots us watching her she stops.

The wonderful lady at the cafe we buy our lunches from did Fisherman’s Pie this week. I was so tempted to buy 7 of them and have it every night for dinner. I settled for four in the end, and the other half has four lasagne. So I do not have to cook dinner for four nights this week. I would have bought some to freeze but our freezer does not have any space to spare – we are doing very well at stocking up and not going shopping very often.

I’m still wearing a mask whenever I go shopping which makes it a chore I don’t enjoy so much. I find it makes me feel like my nose is running – it actually isn’t, it just feels that way. I think it is just having something so close to my nose and having that piece of wire holding the mask in place. I just topped up on fresh foods today so I won’t have to do it again for quite a while other than to get pizza bases and milk from time to time.

Hoping everything is good with you all. :) I better go do this admin work. It isn’t going to do itself lol. ;)

Who knows how many parts this will have in the end? :)

If you are going to join in and blog during this time of self isolation, comment below and I will link to your blog in future installments. It could be interesting for all of us to keep up with how we’re doing together.

9:00AM – I have developed a rather intense need to hunt and gather.

I’m doing a big kitchen stocktake today, to see what we actually need. I suspect the truth is I have already hunted and gathered and can remain calm at home instead. When we next shop we will stock up as much as we can, and then we are staying in as much as possible.

Eggs are a big thing for us, we eat a lot of them and our chooks are not laying at the moment. If I can get a few cartons I will feel better. I’m going to try the farmers market on Thursday where 12 free range eggs cost $10 instead of $6.40 but in this case I am just going to suck it up and pay the extra. Peace of mind is important too.

We have already baked our first bread loaf on Saturday and we ate the last of that yesterday. Bread is not usually a thing for us, especially for me. We’ll limit the loaves to one a week and just eat it in a clump. :)

Also on the agenda for today is washing, which I will rise from the recliner at some future moment to tackle. But right now Cuckoo Kitten is in my footspace – she is very sooky today and I’m just going to enjoy that for now.

4:00pm – Kitchen stocktake is complete. We’re looking pretty good for staples and tinned foods, though I still have one cupboard to do. Chicken Roaster is in the oven. We only have 5 potatoes left so.. that is on the to-buy list.

5:00pm – the other cupboard is complete. Happy days.

If you are looking for something to listen to, Tom Hanks was on the Clear + Vivid podcast recently, and this week Betty White is the guest. I’m about to go listen to that now. I’ll probably post again on Friday and let you know how things are going here. :)

May you live in interesting times, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.. I’m not sure if the hunt for toilet paper is interesting but fortunately for me, we’re good in that area. We don’t use much and we’ve got enough for probably two months. BUT – and here is the problem – if I see some, I likely will buy some. And that is what everyone else is doing, which is the entire problem in a nutshell.

Said nutshell has now spread to other goods, which is troubling. But we’re set for a couple of weeks, so we’re mostly just going to hunker down and wait it out. The trouble there being, I think in a couple of weeks we will be in a very different situation which makes me want to go out and stock up, which is also the entire problem in a nutshell. If we don’t do this now, will we regret it later? I do not know. Do I want to find out? Not really.

I hate to be the voice of doom but I have a very bad feeling about leaving the schools open. Kids might not be affected very badly but they can carry it well, and if they bounce between school, a crowded bus, home where perhaps their parents have picked this up from their work, a crowded bus then back to school, what might they bring along with them to infect the other children? And what about the teachers? Not cool, Scomo. Not cool at all.

If I had a kid they would not be going to school at this time. If you have kids I’d pull them out of there if you can.

Steer clear of public toilets because nobody shuts the lid when they flush, is my second piece of unsolicited advice.

Re-reading The Stand by Stephen King is likely the worst idea of all time at this time but I’m doing it all the same. Don’t do it, is my final piece of advice to you.

Cats, chooks, humans are all well at this time. We’ve both had a bit of an inner ear thing for a while now but that is survivable. The Other Half has started his Uni course, and I am busy with the business, when I can get some stock in. That is certainly going to be Not Very Easy for a while with so few planes flying.

The cats seem to be getting along with each other reasonably well, well enough that they don’t like to be too far from each other. If they are sleeping it usually is in the same room.

Sure, Happy will still sometimes whack her on the head impatiently, but Cuckoo is persistent in her attempts to hug Happy, and more and more often now, Happy just rolls her eyes and allows her to do it. When Happy thinks we are not looking, she will play with Cuckoo. Happy does not realise we have cameras in the kitchen which is their favourite play time area, and we can watch from afar.

Anyway, that is our current mostly boring status. To be fair I do not want interesting now.

“Can you believe those chickens” says Happy?