Tag: Elizabeth

Laptops and Travelling people

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

John continues his holiday which is sounding more like General Patton’s March through Europe in 1944/45. Just reading his posts is tiring in itself  :o) He starts his last tour now which is a twelve day tour of Northern Europe.

I am still in Adelaide at this very moment but I leave for home in the morning.  The funeral went well, as funerals go. I was very pleased that there were more people there than had been expected. Several members of

Can't you let me sleep in peace??
Can’t you let me sleep in peace??

his family from New South Wales had come over, which was very pleasing. I had a coffee and  a biscuit then started back up the Main South Road onto the South Road Superway, which is the reconstructed new roadway, and directly to Salisbury/Elizabeth. to do some shopping for herself. I will be home for the remainder of this week and then heading out of town again, one to  fulfill  a contract and the other to come back down to Adelaide  and pick up John from Adelaide Airport. He has been sending photographs back and some of them are really quite interesting, while some really need some explanation. Someone suggested that I just stay down in Adelaide, go to the conference and then pick up John on the Monday save money on fuel. Arguably true, but the hotel bill would be a lot more than the fuel costs – and, as I have already commented, I do not stay with people

Scanda Personal Filofax
Scanda Personal Filofax

I have an AppleMac laptop, which comes to Adelaide with me, but I also have  another “laptop” that travels everywhere with me, buses, trains, car, hospital, doctors and shopping. It’s the first thing I lift when I go out and it’s the last thing I fill in at night. It’s called a Filofax and I would be lost without it. It is more important to me than any electronic device. When herself makes an appointment for either hospital or the doctor, she tells me and I  note the time and date in my Scanda and can then make  arrangements to get her there by making sure that I am free on these days. My Filofax went with me to Geelong and Drysdale and has been all around the Bellarine Peninsula. It traveled to Ballarat, Gundagia. Yaas  and Canberra. Well, yes, it has not been overseas but if I did go overseas, it would be with me. So, I am a great  believer in simple pen and paper, and whilst I – at times – rant and rave about computers, there is always my Filofax to bring sanity back to things. Unlike the  AppleMac., my Filofax is a very personal thing and stuffed full of things that are important to me – for the moment. At the end of the year, all will be removed, a new set of inserts put in and I start with a clean slate all ready for what the year might bring and if past years are anything to go by, it will end up being stuffed to the gills. However, I also record everything from my Filofax into the computer and print off so that i have a bound hard copy. Give me a date and time five years back and I will tell you where I was and what I was doing  :o)

I came back home on Wednesday and I am home until Monday Morning then I am away again for the week – coming back on Thursday and heading off to Adelaide on Friday. I come home on the Saturday afternoon, have all day Sunday at home, then head off for Adelaide on Monday morning to collect  John from Adelaide Airport. Presently  he is on his last  days of touring Northern Europe. At the moment I think he is in Prague.  On the last week in September I head out of town again for a week and that will be it for the year.   Joyful!!  I did hope

not a well girl
not a well girl

that we could get some more of that vine chopped down but it has been raining and power tools and rain do not go together. Oh well. soon – soon!!

 

CupCakes, Organizers and Adelaide

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Scanda Personal
Scanda Personal

Well so much for plan A and a rest between 15th December and 26th January! During the After Pageant Fare last night I negotiated another function on 28th December – for about 600 people. I actually didn’t want to but it was an opportunity too good to let slip away. I will take this to the meeting in a few days and see what they think.   Friday morning and I head off to Adelaide.  I have to do a couple of things for herself, which will mean going into the construction site generally known as the South Road. I had hoped to avoid this area by going in the opposite direction, but herself doesn’t generally want anything in Adelaide, but this time she does. Never mind, keeps me from getting bored. I have also been asked by another lady if I would get some glitter pens for her daughter at Typo, in Rundle Mall – actually, they have a place at Elizabeth.

This is the Malden, the Binder I currently use - at least for the rest of this week anyway..
This is the Malden, the Binder I currently use – at least for the rest of this week anyway..

It will probably come as no surprise when I say that I use an organizer to keep track of everything. It would be really good to say that I remember most things, but the sad truth is that I don’t. I have to write things down.  I use a Filofax and I have done so for many years. My current Filofax is a Malden Personal, which I have been using for a couple of years. I have a Cuban A5, which lives on my desk and that’s used for the dogs (Vet, Groom, Medication) and for church information. I have two binders on the go at the moment, the Malden and my old Scanda. The Malden replaced my Scanda a few years ago but I kind of missed it, so, I am going back to it next week. Why not now? Well my inserts don’t start until  Sunday 8th December so until then I have to keep using the Malden. Once the 8th passes, I can go back to one Filofax again. the Scanda.

There is an old saying that “You should be careful what you wish for” – we had a pretty loud and bright thunderstorm yesterday. I had been using the thunder shirt as a tray (as suggested) and when the thunder started I talked to her and told her what a big brave girl she was and put the TS on her making sure it was pretty firm. But all was to no avail and she still stressed out. To calm her down I gave her 5ml of ACP (Half of a 10ml tabled) Poor thing, but I think her behaviour is ingrained – as Herself suggested – and I don’t think the TS is going to help in this case. I don’t like to medicate her because it takes quite  a while for the effects to wear off. I have not had the dogs out since Friday – Saturday I was at a RFDS Function, Sunday we had the thunderstorm and tonight I am out again at the RFDS Meeting.

The meeting – collectively – decided not to continue with the  function on 29th December. We have had a very busy six months and I think everyone was looking forward to the break. That’s fair enough and I’ll write to the organisation, thank them for thinking of us and politely declining.  I was given a recipe for Mint Chocolate Cupcakes and I thought it would be good to try – that was until I priced the ingredients. The Coconut Oil alone was $22 for  12 oz, then there was the Shredded Coconut, the Peppermint essence, the Dark Chocolate. Very expensive cupcakes. I had a try using Shredded Coconut Honey and Peppermint (which we already had)  to make a filling paste but herself thought the  end result “too rough a taste” perhaps might be better if  I put the coconut through a grinder first and broke it down further.  I’ll have a play when I get back from Adelaide.

It’s 4:30am Wednesday and I am up and awake. Rain was forecast – never said anything about thunder.I tried to tell Chienne that it’s not my fault, but I’m not all that sure she believed me. It’s not all that loud so I expect it to pass soon. Two thunderstorms this week is unusual.

PS; Grind the coconut down finer and mix with cream cheese and peppermint essence – that might work.

Old dogs, Candles and Present Shopping

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
This is the "Younger" Man
This is the “Younger” Man

It’s getting to the close to publication time with the magazine and I have been very busy –  well this is the Christmas Edition and there are 20 pages in this edition. Added to this is the fact that as I have been doing this I have also been setting up the first edition for 2014. I am aiming to have the Christmas Edition out by 10th December – after I get back from the Conference on the 7th December – a date, no doubt etched into many hearts.

The temperature has been wandering around the 38/39c mark these last few days and I believe it’s going to be around 39c again tomorrow. The dogs have been spending most of their time inside and enjoying the cool. I don’t have a swimming pool and I have always wondered how the dogs would take to the water. I have been trying to buy  what’s called a clam-shell kiddies pool – just a little thing to see how they would take to it. Not as easy as it sounds as none of the toy shops stock this any more – have no idea why. candle05Anyway, this is on my list for Adelaide.

On the subject of Adelaide I have booked into my second hotel out at Bolivar – about 20k. out of the city. I will drive right into the city and may well have to drive right out again. This particular week is the start of the Second Test Match between England and Australia, and the first day is Thursday 5th December. I haven’t even tried to book the hotel in town and if I did get a room, the place would be crowded anyway. Better to stay well out of town and avoid the crush. This means that I probably wont be shopping in town but will probably go out to Westlakes, Modbury and the big shopping center out there – either that or Elizabeth. The only trouble with that is that neither Modbury nor Elizabeth have a Swarovski and I want a few things there – that’s only in Rundle Mall. But the Test is not the only thing happening in Adelaide that weekend, there’s a Film Festival, several tours, including the Justin Bieber Tour, not that any of this was even considered – or probably known – when dates were set in February. Further to that I did talk to some friends who are also going to town on that same weekend and they did say that they had difficulty booking anywhere and they have also had to move out of town for accommodation.  I hope to be able to do some Christmas shopping although trying to buy anything for Herself is a trial – no

19th Century Christmas Shopping - so much easier :o)
19th Century Christmas Shopping – so much easier :o)

bags, no shoes, no perfume, no jewellery. no new mobile phone – doesn’t leave a whole lot to chose from – sometimes it’s just too difficult.

My son has bought a new house and we have been helping him and his partner move into it. That was fun using trailers and vans, although I did have to go and empty my trailer before it could be used. It’s a big house with lots of room to move about, so the girls are very happy. Before I leave for Adelaide I  have two RFDS functions and two more, including the Carols in the Park between then and Christmas. After that we have several weeks free before our next big function, which is Australia Day on 26th January.

I have been taking the dogs out each night and The Man has certainly slowed down, but that’s ok. I’m not in any hurry and I am quite content to walk at his pace and give him a lift when he tires. The medication is really starting to kick in and he has finished his dinner these last few nights – which is very good.