Monday.  25th. Spent all morning trying to catch up with life and blogging.  Feeling completely overwhelmed at life (even had a bit of a meltdown after blogging (which finished way after lunch) because it was all too hard).  Worked on Eurasia panoramas and got some online.  Cooked a lamb roast with veggies for dinner.  We opened a *very* nice bottle of wine we got at the end of 2012 for our anniversary.  Then Simpsons/Black Books/The Crown.  Also started into the fourth season of Lego Masters.  Had to LOL at the Andrew and Crystal couple (names of my cousin and wife who have since split up).  

We had tardigrades for dinner!!

Tuesday.  Woke up to stress over cruise (the one we put off).  They want us to use the credit so got plunged into the stress of it again.  Ok day.  Nothing special for our anniversary because Stu had uni til quite late.  

Wednesday.  Stress over cruise.  They refused to allow us to use the credit for 2024, forcing us to use it for 2023.  *sigh*.  Ok day.  At the office.  Felt like a Thursday.  Stu cooked pork larb for dinner with some limes from Tim and chilli from Tony.  Continued to stress over cruise.

Thursday.  Ok day.  Pretty quiet drinks.  Picked up some CCs on the way home and had cheesy nachos for dinner.  OMFG the most unhealthiest dinner in the history of the universe but *so good*.  Finished season 23 of The SImpsons.

Friday.  Playing with logs all day.  Was actually kinda fun.  Leftover lamb and veggies for dinner.  Watched Encanto in the evening which was pretty decent.  Nice story and the graphics are spectacular.  

Saturday.  House stuff in the morning.  Stressed over the cruise to the point of depression.  To get a balcony like we had last time would cost us another $1500 USD, which I'm simply not prepared to give them.  I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER deal with this company again.  I was almost at the point of saying F#$% you and walking away from what we've already paid.  The best I can afford with our credit is a window (not a balcony) with an obstructed view.  After tidying up the house and study I thought I'd start inventorying what was left of Vic's Lego.  I had a poke around to see what was available, and one that looked really good was Basebrick.  Except they said they'd send an email to verify the account.  Except that email never arrived.  *sigh*.  So more "everything is awful".  So I started inventorying in excel in the interim.  Sichuan Chinese for dinner then watched The Death of Stalin .. which was.. intersesting.. heh

Sichuan Chinese - Kung pow chicken (lots of chilli so lots of pow), sliced pork twice cooked in green pepper (yummm), stir fry mixed vegetables, with sichuan special fried rice

Sunday.  Woke up early (between 5:30-6:00 is normal now).  Remembered the planets and went and had a look.  This morning Jupiter and Venus were having a sneaky early morning kiss.  I couldn't be stuffed finding the tripod and going outside in the cold, so just did some hand-held photos.  This is off the phone.  Haven't downloaded the camera yet.

Went out fairly early and had breakfast at Market St eats.  I had "Potato Fritters" - potato and cheese fritters, poached eggs, maple glazed bacon, hollandaise, chorizo, pickled cucumber & onion salsa.  Which was really really good.  The poached eggs were perfect, the fritter was delicious.  It was just like eggs benedict but with a croquette instead of bread.  Although the salsa was basically just some chopped red onion.  Kept me going til dinner time ;)

Then we did food shopping and had to wait for Chemist Warehouse being buttheads.  We both put our orders in early while still at home before their opening time.  They open at 9:00.  I got my SMS at 9.39.  We went and picked mine up at 10:30.  They said Stu's order was still in the queue and would be another "ten minutes".  We waited and waited and eventually he went in and was able to pick his up at 10:55.  He got his sms at 11:15.  Absolutely ridiculous that it takes ALL MORNING for them to be organised enough to do an online order.  If it wasn't for the fact that they're *significantly* cheaper than anywhere else we certainly wouldn't bother with them.  

Came home and did Lego inventorying, then music then weeding then fish stuff and suddenly it's 4pm and I need to do All The Cooking.  Which I'll save for later posts and sign off for now.

Monday.  5th.  Not backdating!  Slept relatively well.  Woke up at 6:40 and didn't push myself to do any scanning.  Worked from home and had a pretty decent day, not too many stoopid problems bugging me, in fact even solved a few people's problems for them which was nice.  Stu was still sick though and stayed home.  Made an "instant" lasagna for dinner with stuff I made on the weekend (the mince and a bechamel/cheese sauce I did for the veggies).  Did a bit of jigsaw and watched the third episode of Diagnosis.

Tuesday.  Slept well again but still a bit sniffly so worked from home.  A lot more distractions today, and then hurty.  Stu worked from home which was nice.  Finally finished off the potatoes we brought home from the club (I think there would have been about thirty of them, all cooked, so it was a race to get them eaten before they went moldy).  This time I fried them with the last of the unfrozen mince from the club night, and a bunch of cheese.  I did them without mince for lunch and we liked them so much I did it again for dinner with mince.  So yummy, my favourite of the ways we got through those potatoes. 

Did my quota of photo labelling by 19:18 and even ran the dishwasher.  Watched a couple of episodes of Diagnosis.  Got quite frustrated with the mother in the fifth episode, but then I later found the girl's Instagram account, where she was pretty scathing of the show and how it portrayed them.  She'd also had a couple of surgeries for some vascular problems that had never been thought of in the show.  

Wednesday.  Slept well until I woke up with hurty at 1:15 and it kept me away til nearly 3am.  Sigh.  So another zombie day.  Vicki was in town which offered the perfect excuse to work from home again.  Got photo labelling done early so X Files and Diagnosis in the evening (after finishing off the last of the unfrozen club leftovers - some spring rolls and chicken wings and chipolatas).

Thursday.  Finally felt up to scanning slides again, first time in nearly a week due to insomnia or sickness.  It was also the first time in nearly a week we didn't have the heater on in the morning and it was *cold* in the house.  Ok day, ok drinks.  Feeling a general depression over not really fitting in and not getting on with people and not really being "friends" with anyone much I work with.  So felt a bit blah even at drinks.  Started watching I, Tonya.

Friday.  Slept ok.  Ok day.  Did up doco and change paperwork for next round of cleaning next week.  Finished watching Fantasia.

Saturday.  Quiet day, alternating with housework and jigsaw. 

Yet again, went into battle dealing with the government online.  This time I wanted to get a certificate of my covid vaccination.  But to do that you have to link Medicare or the Health Record (which I think I opted out of) to mygov.  But of course it refused to link my Medicare account didn't it.  It wanted the number and address details etc, but kept complaining I hadn't answered things correctly, at which point it prompted to fill in all the details of my bank accounts and my last doctor's appointment, including the date and how much it cost.  And I'm like wtf.  So I rage quit on that and called them.  Fortunately I pretty much got straight through, and they gave me a linking code I could enter and that worked and it linked up and I got my covid vaccination certificate.  Hurrah.  Now let's just hope they'll let us travel.  I'd be happy to do home quarantine when we get back if that's what it takes.  So long as I don't have to fight with tour companies about getting money back on trips...  

Found someone had uploaded Brides of Christ to DailyMotion, so watched the first episode of that.  We watched this when it came out back in 1991, and I blogged that I watched in when it was on tv again in 2003.  Downloaded and processed phone photos while that was on.  Dinner was some mince that I cooked last weeked, with tomato paste and tomatoes and pasta.  Into season 2 of the X Files, and then I finished I, Tonya.  It's actually not a bad movie.  Margot Robbie did a pretty good job (she even did a lot of the skating), although she's just a bit tall and *big* to pass for Tonya Harding, who was tiny. 

Sunday.  A quiet day of housework stuff, jigsaw, and blogging and computer stuff.  We did go out for lunch and food shopping/chemist as well.  About to go prep dinner.  

Lately I seem to be feeling a constant low level stress/depression (that regularly flares up to much stronger versions).  Work is certainly not helping.  The heat over the last couple of weeks.  Lack of sleep.  Body cycles that should be four weeks being only three.  Food.  Blood pressure.  Missing jigsaw piece from a new and expensive jigsaw.  Bank fees.  Housework.  Vacuuming.  Trivia nights to prepare for.  A computer that hasn't installed updates since a cancelled upgrade to Windows 10 last year (other than Security Essentials updates) and doesn't seem to have the ability to either.  iPhone batteries that don't last the day.  Clutter.  Dust.  Holiday finances.  Weight.  Deteriorating eyesight.

Yup.

There just doesn't seem to be enough *time* in the world.  Last night was cool off in the pool, cook and eat dinner while watching House, a walk with Chris and just a little bit of time on the jigsaw.  And then it's bed time.  I didn't get any computer time.  I still haven't even *seen* most of my last holiday photos, let alone geotag them.  Tonight was better, but had to fight with my computer for too long after it started spazzing out.  Got a bit of trivia night stuff done at least.  A whole half hour.  Yay.

My Sunday night depression started last night when we got home.  Too much go go go and then a sudden deflation.  And the weekend was half over and I hadn't been home for any of it.

So I really didn't feel like doing much today.  In the end I alternated between doing holiday photos and a jigsaw.

The sweetie on the other hand spent *hours* cleaning the bathroom, toilet and ensuite, as well as mowing the lawn and doing more garden tidying.  Bestest sweetie *ever* ! :)

Tonight I cooked up a big batch of bolognase for the week's lunches.

One year ago today we went up Taipei 101, wandered through Huashan 1914 Creative Park, and I wandered through Guanghua Electronics Plaza.

Saturday morning we packed up and joined the rest of Canberra in heading down the coast for the long weekend.

I started a jigsaw and other people just chilled and read and programmed etc.

For dinner we went to the Little Restaurant and Bar again for more delicious food.  We couldn't get a seat inside because they were all booked out, but were able to book the outside bench.  But that's cool, cause you know we're Canberrans and all and we're used to the cold.

Then spa til about 1am.

Sunday we'd been intending to go to the beach, but the sun never came out, so we didn't bother.  Went for two separate walks to the shops (one to hack portals and another get some stuff to make pikelets (C had a craving)).  In between I did jigsaw.

Dinner was pizza's from Stevo's (the Sandy Foot cafe had run out of dough! *gasp*).  Oh my, Stevo's pizzas were insane!  Huge, and *heaps* of cheese.  Completely decadent and we mostly all stuffed ourselves silly.  I had one and a half pieces and that was *plenty*!  We ordered three large pizzas, but only ate two of them.  Had a full pizza's worth leftover.

Then spa til after midnight.

This morning was just eating and packing up and cleaning, then came home.

Battled Sunday night depression, and then lost it when I dropped one of my corningware dishes onto the kitchen floor and it *smashed* :(:(  But then watched a very moving docudrama on Hiroshima on Netflix.  Did my washing, now time for bed.

Went over to EffanC's place last night and had some very yummy pizza.

Then watched Kiki's Delivery Service, because I'd never actually seen it.

Quite a nice way to end the weekend, better than my usual Sunday night depression.

Because today was CRAP.  Neil should never be allowed to go on leave :/  Was grumpy most of the day and every little thing was making me grumpier.

Had a fairly quiet weekend.  

Went out to the club on Friday night.  Attempted to go to bed early but it was still nearly 11pm by the time we turned lights out.

Spent Saturday morning doing crafty stuff.  Then a bit of socialising.  In bed by 8:15pm.

Came home after breakfast this morning.

Had quite a productive afternoon.  Did some crafty stuff, vacuumed half the house, moved a desk into the "winter" hobby room, cleaned the kitchen somewhat.

Cooked a nice chicken roast with three cheese and bacon stuffing.  Yumm!

Then we watched Prisoner of Azkaban.

But I got hit with Sunday night depression/anxiety.  Hate hate hate Sunday nights.

I still haven't decided which lens to get.  I tried out work's 24-105 during the week.  While it's nice I really don't think it's *that* much better than my 18-135, which I much prefer the range on, especially for travelling.  I used the full zoom on that *all the time*, so to lose 20mm would suck.  Also, it's half the price of the L-series.  And the L-series weighs a fricken tonne (ok 670g vs 480g).  I've been stuck with this indecision for months.  But now I'm really running out of time to do something about it :(

So apparently depression is not good for the waistline or the budget (our solution: beer and pizza).  So much for ever getting healthy.

This morning I woke up at 5am, and had to think for a moment where I was.  Got up to go to the loo and noticed the power was out.  Had been since about 3:30am.  I'm suspecting another faulty fish tank heater.  So outside to reset the circuit breaker, and then back to bed for a bit.

Burning DVDs of photos, playing Flow, bit of tidying, yum cha at Dumpling Inn, food shopping, failed plans, depression.