Everything Snoskred

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I can’t believe it.

9 Comments Posted on March 12, 2023 by Snoskred

Wednesday morning the other half got a call from Mum. She’d fallen and she couldn’t get up. He was already up and dressed so he jumped in his car and drove over, I got up and threw clothes on as fast as I could while I called the ambulance as he drove over. The ambulance call taker took his number and while I drove over called him to get more info.

When I got there she was still conscious. She hadn’t broken anything in her fall – silly now to think my biggest concern at that time was a broken hip. The ambulance call taker was telling me to get her to focus on her breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. I kept saying it, over and over. FUCK OFF she said to me in her characteristic way, just as the call taker told me the ambulance was in the street. I ran out to direct them in, and that is when she stopped breathing. The other half called out to me to let me know and the paramedics went in and began CPR.

Time stopped. A second crew of paramedics appeared. They did everything they possibly could.. but.. she was gone.

We are in so much shock because I expected at least another 10 years before she left us. At least with Dad we had time to prepare.

She was set up over there so perfectly, everything she needed was just within reach. And it was such a peaceful spot. Mum had a family of kangaroos, visiting kookaburras, a wonderful back patio to sit and enjoy the trees.

It wasn’t until later that I found the piece of paper with all the high blood pressure readings, then I checked the machine with the past 20 readings many of which were severe hypertension. She did not tell me.

We had a doctor visit set for Wednesday afternoon and I had been going with her as they were setting her up a care plan. I’m sure she just thought oh, I’m going to the doctor today, we’ll sort it then.

She missed Dad far more than we knew. I’m happy they are together again. I’m thankful for that, sad for us.

Her last words to me were so Mother. ;) I won’t take that personally.

family, Sad Snoskred

The Exhaustion Is Real

4 Comments Posted on July 17, 2022 by Snoskred

time lapse photography of river — Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Sunday and Monday we did two full days of moving furniture downstairs, decluttering, measuring, packing and cleaning. On Monday we also had the outside of the house pressure washed and the hedges trimmed.

Like I said, we do not faff.

I wanted to push pretty hard the first couple of days as those were my “days off” and I didn’t have to worry about being home for work. Also we had carpet cleaners coming on Wednesday for the upstairs so I wanted to get those floors as free from stuff as possible.

I could not count how many times I went up and down those stairs. It was a LOT of times.

Tuesday morning we met the real estate agent at the new house to take photos and measurements. Mostly the photos Mother wanted was of the cupboards so she can have an idea how much storage there is. There is plenty! This is just half of the laundry storage –

It was so lovely to spend a bit more time there and just get used to the space.

Wednesday while the carpets were cleaned I sat Mother at the kitchen table with the drawers to declutter and I pulled out a couple of cupboards worth of stuff so she could decide what to keep, what to donate and what to throw away. I’m trying to do the lions share of the actual work as much as possible.

I was inspired by this to do a bit of decluttering at home, as well! I also had a basket of stuff to donate by the end of it.

Thursday we needed a rest day and a bit of retail therapy. I took Mother to get a hair cut and to get the car washed while I went to Kmart and grabbed some things I needed. In the afternoon I held a workshop here and then took the rest of the day off, until we went to Bunnings with Mother in the evening to get some paint and other needed things. Bunnings is best visited after 5pm we find.

Mother does have a small patch of lawn at the back of the house. I have suggested one of the new battery powered lawnmowers. Growing up she always did the lawnmowing and she used to love doing that job with the exception of starting the mower.

While we were at Bunnings we had a look at what is available – they are so incredibly light now! I could pick this one up with one arm – though it didn’t have the battery pack on. I had NO idea of the huge progress in lawnmowing.

This is definitely on our must buy list for ourselves and we could share it with Mother. Friday morning I did some house painting and then decluttered the plastic tupperware type storage and the under sink cupboard. We did a donation run.

Saturday morning The Other Half and I did some painting over there of the backyard shed. We’re going back today to finish the rest. Also decluttering by listing things on Facebook Marketplace.

The plan thus far has been to do a couple of hours work in the morning over there, then return here to be here at the store and do my work. I don’t want to tire Mother out too much too early, but it is so tempting just to keep going because the decluttering is so satisfying. ;)

Busy times! I hope you all are doing well, I have been trying to comment places but nothing seems to be working for me at the moment, not even wordpress will let me comment now! I try and then fail and then give up.

Everything Snoskred, moving forward, Uncategorized

Not Quite Over

8 Comments Posted on December 3, 2019December 3, 2019 by Snoskred

I thought I had finished my Black Friday rant but turns out I am still ranty about it. I received the above in an email on Sunday. Friday cannot be on a Sunday, Kmart. That is not how days work!

According to my shopping emails, Black Friday began here on Friday the 22nd of November and it continued to Sunday the 1st of December. Black Friday involved a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the actual Black Friday, second Saturday, and a second Sunday. What an amazing day to last 10 days. And then it was Cyber Monday, sure, fine, whatever, but now I wake up this morning to this email?

You are going to make cyber week out of cyber Monday? NO I MUST DECLINE THIS.

Bad enough that in the space of Cyber Monday, the retailers that I gave my email address sent me 59 emails. On a good day I get 12-14 and I don’t mind it, I like to keep in the loop of what is happening though I very rarely buy anything now. But no, just because you have my email address does not entitle you to send me multiple emails in one day. I expect one per day. Anything more, and we’re breaking up. So I have a few retailers to unsubscribe from now.

To add insult to this injury, in Australia Black Friday has a very different meaning – it refers to a terrible bushfire event in 1939 where 71 people died in the fires.

I’d accept this retail insanity IF we had the Thanksgiving to go with it as they do in the US. But we do not. So it is just an excuse for the shops to try and get us to spend $$, and we have more than enough of those already.

Annoyed Snoskred, shopping

Dropping It Off

2 Comments Posted on September 6, 2019September 5, 2019 by Snoskred

Have you seen this Pakman letterbox out and about in your travels? Probably not because unlike me, you are probably not walking the local streets doing a letterbox drop. It is quite a marvel – allows your postie or couriers to drop in a parcel and only you can retrieve it. But it is an Up Money marvel selling for around $499.

You know it has been years since I did this kind of thing, 28 years to be approximate. I was a Christmas Postie for 2 years when I was 16/17 and only quit after a dog bite. I would have kept doing it because I enjoyed it, but I developed quite a fear of dogs after two attacks.

One was the dog of a friend when I visited which was much more a mauling than a bite. I ended up in hospital after that one and was on crutches for a week. I still have nerve damage and the scars from that attack. The second was while working as a postie and that was the last day I did that job. After that I did have a fear of dogs for a long time. Eventually I mostly got over it thanks to some wonderful dogs I made friends with.

I don’t enjoy letterbox dropping. The thing I really don’t comprehend is how can anyone put a No Junk Mail sticker on their letterbox.

First up I am never lucky enough to get junk mail – we never seem to have someone who delivers it here. Secondly, just how cut off from your local community do you want to be? How do you find out about new things happening if you won’t let any of the folks who take the time to make a flyer and bring it directly to your own house communicate with you? It is your loss.

There should be perhaps another sticker – no commercial catalogues, local flyers accepted. You can always make your own sticker!

We are making our own down money version of the Pakman. I am here most of the time to receive packages but when I have a day off I would like to be able to go out without worrying about possible package deliveries and things being stolen.

Speaking of receiving packages..

Looks like the package deities might be about to smile upon me. I mean some of those things now in Sydney have ONLY been stuck in Melbourne (AKA The Package Black Hole) for an entire week. And those things now in Melbourne will likely arrive around this time next week.

Annoyed Snoskred, work

The Kmart Pens

3 Comments Posted on September 7, 2018September 5, 2018 by Snoskred

Hands up if you hear “400 Oak St” whenever Kmart is mentioned.

My previous role was not a lot of interaction with other staff members. Of course you would say hi, but I wasn’t in the same room with them for hours at a time. For an Aspie that can be challenging but I am at a place now where I have done a lot of work on that and I am getting along ok.

One of the other ladies had been to Kmart and bought some gorgeous glitter pens for $3. Not to be outdone in the sparkle department, I headed off that very same day to investigate further, and purchased one $3 pen. It turns out these pens write beautifully, you twist them to bring the nib out which I am a huge fan of, and the metal heats up in my pocket so whenever I pull it out to use it, it is lovely and warm.

Once I experienced how lovely these pens were, I decided to return and buy a few more. I am giving these pens the Snoskred Sparkly Stamp Of Approval because not only are they sparkly but they really perform great as a pen and they are decidedly Down Money for the quality you are getting. ;)

Happy Snoskred, sparkly

Be Present Now

8 Comments Posted on July 18, 2018July 16, 2018 by Snoskred

Oh my goodness. People and their mobile phones. I am about ready to shove these things in the place the sun does not shine.

In the past few weeks, I have avoided drivers on their phones, cyclists riding while texting and looking at their Facebook feed, people actually running while looking at their phones and not at where they are going, and people walking while doing that.

I have seen parents sitting at the playground with no eyes on their kids and all eyes on their phone.

I have been to concerts where people filmed the entire thing on their mobile phone.

We sat recently at a restaurant where two parents completely immersed themselves in their phones and ignored their kids for quite a significant amount of time.

My phone NEVER comes out of my handbag when I am driving in the car. NEVER. If I am driving, and it beeps, I wait until I get to my destination, or I pull over to the side of the road. I did not need a video of people using their phones while driving to tell me never to do that. But if you do need such a video, here it is.

My phone rarely makes it out of my handbag out in the world. It is there in case I need to call someone in an emergency. If I need to use it while walking, I do something SO CRAZY, apparently. I find a place out of the way of other people, stop, and do the thing I need to do, which is usually reply to a message quickly.

I do not have Facebook on my mobile phone. There is no Twitter, no Instagram, no social media at all on my mobile phone. If I am going to use those things, I do that safely on my laptop in the comfortable embrace of my recliner, which does not have wheels or a steering wheel. As far as I am aware, my recliner at this present time is not capable of murdering other people as a surprise while I am trying to type a message. Unless perhaps it was dropped from a crane.

I do have one free messaging app, mainly used to send photos to The Other Half or to Sephyroth. Otherwise my phone is for taking photos while out and about, and for making actual calls. I might play a game while waiting for an appointment, and for a few minutes to wind down before bedtime, but not while walking, running, cycling or driving, because THAT IS INSANE.

I don’t see dead people, but I see plenty of soon to be dead people if they don’t wake up and smell the coffee. I see people leave their lane and drive into the lane of oncoming traffic all the time on our roads. Are they trying to win a Darwin award? Are they going to take out other people who were doing nothing wrong in the process?

Now there is a video of a guy who deliberately bumped into people who were so immersed in their mobile phones while walking that they could not avoid walking into him. Watch that video and then make the decision never to use your phone while driving again, because look at how those people cannot walk while using their phone let alone operate a vehicle that can MURDER people.

Are we already in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse where people have lost their minds, just without the brain eating?

Please do not put your valuable life and the valuable lives of those around you by using your mobile phone while walking, running, riding a bike, driving a car, riding a horse, rollerblading, kayaking, driving a boat.. :)

But my even better advice to everyone is this –

PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN AND BE PRESENT IN THE NOW.

It’ll be fun. Snoskred said so. :)

Angry Snoskred

Sock Friday 1

2 Comments Posted on March 23, 2018March 18, 2018 by Snoskred

Hello Kitty socks are a big thing in Hawaii. I do not recall ever seeing any available to buy in Australia. But never fear, I bought up big on Oahu and have quite a few pairs to keep me going, at least for a short while. They tend to have a lot of metallic thread in them and usually Hello Kitty will be wearing a Hibiscus flower. Most of the Hello Kitty socks originate from the ABC stores – if you have ever been to Hawaii you have likely been to an ABC store.

I’m not sure where all the neon coloured socks originated from. I do have a feeling that was Hawaii as well. I have quite a few pairs and no two are the same. The little musical socks were from a local dollar store and I have had them for over 10 years, since before we moved to the South Coast.

Other than Aldi socks, I have not bought any socks since my last Hawaii trip in November 2013, almost 5 years ago now. Some of the socks you saw on here are from trips in 2011 and 2010. Everything was so cheap over there compared to here – I believe the Adidas brand liner socks I bought were $1 each which is insanity.

Snoskred Socks

The Sock Project

7 Comments Posted on March 14, 2018March 12, 2018 by Snoskred

As mentioned in Monday’s post, socks are my kryptonite. I also said “But not buying these socks was one of the harder moments of this challenge for me.” My brain said – You might need socks later, and Aldi do not always have them available. It is just $6, what does it matter. You better get these now!

The way things work right now, I tend to have 7-10 pairs of socks that I wear over and over until they get a hole in them, then I either buy more because they are on Special Buys at Aldi, or dig some out of the Long Forgotten Socks drawer.

Rather than buying more socks, I figured it would be a good time to catalogue the socks I have and try wearing one pair each day.So the first task was to pull out all the socks from the Long Forgotten Sock Drawer, wash them, then pair them up again. I discovered I actually had two Long Forgotten Socks Drawers.

When I pulled the socks out of the dryer, The Other Half laughed at me and said how are you going to pair all these up? I did not initially comprehend the magnitude of the problem. After 40 minutes of sock pairing, I had to take a break, and I still had half the basket to go.

51 pairs of thin socks I can wear around the house.

13 pairs of long socks for wearing with boots.

8 pairs of bed socks.

5 pairs of fluffy long socks for house wear in winter.

17 pairs of black sports socks.

45 pairs of socks I can wear for workouts.

Plus 5 extra ones I had washed and forgot about, not pictured
The pair I was wearing at the time I did this – not pictured =

Total = 145 pairs of socks.

Dear Brain, I do not need to buy any more socks right now. So please shut up. ;)

If I wore only one pair per day I would be set for 145 days. The truth is, I do not wear only one pair per day. I wear one workout pair, then I have my shower, then I wear another pair of thin socks for the rest of the day. So in reality I am set for about 50 days.

You can expect the occasional Sock Friday where I montage together some of the cuter pairs, during this project.

No socks were purchased in the making of this post, but many, many, MANY socks were paired.

2018yobn, Aldi, shopping, Snoskred Socks

General Goings On.

5 Comments Posted on December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 by Snoskred

Via Dancing with Frogs who borrowed this meme from secret suburban – here is the current state of SnoskredLand.

Admiring: My $5 Kmart snowglobe pictured above.

Drinking: Almond and Soy milk – I swapped out dairy milk for a while. I love almond milk in my lunchtime protein shakes and I love soy milk for my coffee.

Cooking: Cottage Pie on a 36 degrees Celsius day. But it is The Other Half’s favourite.

Waiting: for Aldi to open on Wednesday because guess what goes on sale? The food covers I have been waiting for. I’m not fussy, I will take one of each colour more than likely, I will buy the teal ones for Mother if they are there.

Wanting: My streak of clumsy to end. On what we are now calling my Weekend Of Fail, I fell over the chook fence. About half an hour later I dropped an ice cube sphere shattering it into pieces that flew across the room – I am still finding pieces of it days later. I was advised to sit down and do nothing for the rest of the day and I actually felt like that was wise advice. The following day, I opened the car door into the back of my leg somehow. It is a mystery to me how I managed that.

Playing: with my new Samsung s7 phone.

Wishing: I had not somehow managed to dent my new Samsung s7 phone before I bought a case for it.

Questioning: How I managed to dent my new phone. I know I didn’t drop it, I know it didn’t hit anything. I am wondering if perhaps I just looked at it wrong. It was on the Saturday of my Weekend Of Fail.

Reading: I recently finished Helter Skelter – I started reading it the week before Charles Manson died. I had been hearing Charles Manson references for 42 years and having no idea about what happened I felt it was time to know more about it. The book was excellent but because it was a book for my tablet there were no photos and I have a feeling there might have been some images in the published book I would not have liked to see.

Deciding: To go back to some old faithful books which do not keep me up at night. Currently it is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, before that it was Persuasion.

Hoping: for a warm Christmas but not too warm! 25-30C (77-86F) will do nicely.

Marvelling: At the talent and skill of The Other Half.

Enjoying: my freshly painted nails. It was not what I had in mind colour wise but it is super sparkly and I love how it turned out. This is the shortest they have been for a while. I felt like a break from length. :) As always the photos do not do them justice.

Buying: all the things, way too many things.

Thinking: About trying a year of buying nothing other than groceries in 2018

Making: The Other Half crazy by asking our new Google Home Mini all kinds of questions.

Hearing: Google Home Mini tell me it can’t help me with my somewhat bizarre questions.

Wondering: about this La Brique cheese I bought at Aldi for Christmas Day because I liked the shape of it and I liked the name of it. Yes, I did ask Google Home Mini to tell me more about La Brique, and it could not help me. So I had to resort to actual googling and am really still none the wiser.

Wanting: To eat some cheese. I took 6 months off from eating uncooked cheeses of any kind because it appeared to be the cause of the majority of my sinus issues – sinus headaches, congestion and sinus pain. Weirdly if I eat cooked cheese I do not get the same reaction.

Cringing: at all the Christmas marketing in my inbox, and on social media. I’m over hearing about it! This is why people grow to hate Christmas, because they are just force fed it 24/7 for 4 weeks ahead of it. It is just one day of the year, no need to make such a fuss.

Watching: the chickens and kitties while I relax in the delicate nirvana.

Needing: to stay at home for a bit. The usual holiday traffic has begun here.

Smelling: Tahitian Lime from my Costco reed diffusers.

Sorting: through the art room which is going to become a computer room so the computer room can become an exercise room.

Giggling: every time I see one of these “Cactus”. What a name for a car! If it breaks down, you could say “My cactus is cactus”.

Loving: having a new foxtel box because the previous one went “cactus”.

Disliking: some truly terrible television which I am addicted to. Yes, I’m looking at you and hating myself for doing that, 90 Day Fiancé and Real Housewives of Melbourne.

About Snoskred

The Flagon

2 Comments Posted on November 13, 2017November 11, 2017 by Snoskred

As much as I love my Beerenberg tomato sauce, I do kinda resent having to pay $4.45 for a 300ml bottle which last us maybe a week in sausage roll season.

And because we have chosen to take sausage roll season into the summer this year with our meatballs in a tin, which is essentially sausage rolls without the filo pastry, we have been consuming quite a lot of sauce.

When a family member travels to RADelaide (yes that is what those of us who lived there but left do call it, because we do still love it) we make one small request.

Can you visit the Beerenberg factory shop and pick us up a flagon of tomato sauce? Pretty please?

And our wishes were granted.

300ml VS 2 litres. This should last us a short time! ;) I have no idea how much the flagon was as I did not buy it. But you better believe we will enjoy every single drop of it. If you have not tried Beerenberg tomato sauce, I highly recommend it. I think what makes it so incredible on the tastebuds is the apple they add.

They make a large range of products and I have never had a bad one yet. The jams are lovely, too. The one thing I do not love are the labels with random names on them. At least they changed the tomato sauce one back to a normal one.

food, Happy Snoskred