Sunday.  14th.  Cooked All The Food for dinner.  Started into season 18 of The Simpsons.  Started watching the 2020 version of The Witches but didn't end up finishing it (finished it later in the week).

(dinner was basa fillet bake, although I probably cooked it a bit too long - it was pretty dry)

Monday.  Awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, feeling hot, even tho it was *cold* (13C in the house when we woke up - cold enough to turn the heater on!).  Saw my birds at lunch - needed my jacket because it was *cold* !  And noticed one of the sunflower seeds had sprouted (didn't see any others though).

Also picked the first strawberry off the plants Michelle gave us last year.  I considered splitting with the sweetie but in the end ate it all myself ;)

Weeding after work, and 78 photos labelled before dinner.  I figure I have time for two out of three things between finishing work and dinner - weeding, music practise, photo labelling.  Had time after dinner/Simpsons for a bit of music practise, and managed 182 photos labelled all up.

Tuesday.  Slept ok.  Was Neil for the morning.  Did a whole pile of doco for some rules which had never been documented before, so that I could do doco for my one simple little rule that needed adding.  Also did some thinking about the next round of cleaning that needs doing.  Lunch was leftover tacos.  Taco Tuesday!

After work was weeding and music, with mango chicken I cooked on Sunday for dinner (the chicken is somewhat buried under all that rice)

Managed to label 353 photos! Although Aaron called, which stopped me finishing day 53 in Asahiyama Zoo.  

Wednesday.  Spent all morning writing up details for cleaning out of a super complicated system no longer in use, but may come back one day, so want to be sure we have a good record of what we would need to do for it.  

Not much in the afternoon, spent too much time helping people with stuff.  Then worked late, had a quick break for dinner, then back online for work for more upgrades.  So behind in labelling for the week after all.

Thursday.  Couldn't do any fixup scanning in the morning because the computer wouldn't talk to the scanner.  I mean I know I really needed to reboot my computer but it takes so damned long to do it.  Started the process at 7:54am.  It was 8:28 by the time I'd saved/noted/closed everything, patched and rebooted, and 8:31 by the time I'd gotten Chrome loaded.  Le sigh.  The sunflower hasn't changed much in a couple of days..

Spent the day cleaning all the things.  Creamy fettucini for dinner.

Simpsons, whisky tasting, Speed Cubers

Then I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  I'm not usually a fan of Adam Sandler/Ben Stiller movies, and this one started off pretty silly, but the scenery in Iceland was stunning and it turned out to actually be quite sweet a movie.  Even managed to label 57 photos.  

Friday.  Another day of cleaning.  Watched Soylent Green in the evening.  It was made in 1973 but set in 2022 (we should have watched this next year!).  I reckon they could have at least *tried* to not make it look like the 70s in terms of fashion and decor :)

Today's pickings!

Saturday.  Did all the Saturday morning things.  Downloaded my email and found out they wanted to charge me another $1000 for the cruise I'm trying to get out of (for port fees or some such crap).  Had a little freak out and ended up calling them (don't know how much that's going to cost me).  At least I managed to get them to defer it til the end of December, but this whole covid thing has really put me off ever booking a holiday in advance if there's no option of refunds. We've already lost thousands on Europe, and likely to lose even more on the cruise. Makes me sick thinking about it actually.  

But then.

I've had this in my rss feed for a couple of weeks that I can't bring myself to mark as read.  It's a reminder to me that my problems are First World Problems.  So What if I lose $10000 dollars on some holidays I can't take.  At least I'm not displaced from my country due to or war or famine or whatever.  Life is good.  Really.

Then I spent the entire day alternating between the jigsaw and filing club photos (I've been sorting 9 years of club photos into folders for posterity).  Actually managed to finish photo filing!

This was the jigsaw progress mid afternoon.  A bit difficult to see what's going on, because I'm doing one half literally on top of the other half.  

Leftovers for dinner, and in the evening watched Official Secrets - a really interesting telling of the story of Katharine Gun and her efforts to prevent the 2003 war in Iraq.

Sunday.  Today.  Really just spent the whole day on the jigsaw (and finished season 4 of You Can't Ask That at lunch).

This is the progress in the morning.  Already I've done heaps since last night.

By late morning I'd done every piece that was on top of the other half.  So everything here is identical on either side.

Once that was done, I twinned up all the "special pieces"

At lunch I put on dinner - devilled lamb shanks (with de-boned meat I found at Coles)

And by mid afternoon I'd finished the jigsaw!!  Amazing that it took about seven weeks to do the first half of the jigsaw, then two days to do the second half!

Then did some music practise before Annie and the girls came over to chat for a bit.  Then it was photo downloading and blogging and dinner is just about ready!

Sunday.  7th.  Not backdating for a change ;)  This was the slow cooker turkey we had.  I literally just plonked the thing in the slow cooker all afternoon, but it was a bit dry.  Will add some stock next time I think, and turn/submerge it half way through.  Had it with potato bake and veggies.

Monday.  Slept ok.  Spent the morning patching stuff we'd upgraded the other week.  The fighting with the proxy in the afternoon.  No music practise (still giving the wrist a rest), so labelled over 200 photos - the ones I was behind in from last week because I had no time on the weekend to catch up.  That was all of day 50.  Then Lie to Me and You Can't Ask That.

Tuesday.  Slept ok.  Last week I said I thought I'd finished rescanning Dad's slides, but I'm still finding a lot of fluffy ones at the beginning where I wasn't diligent/fussy/perfectionist enough.  I can't help myself, I *need* to rescan them to make them better.  Sadly these are ones I'd already processed as well, so that means I'll have to reprocess *again*.  Sad times. Busy busy day, too much stoopid.  Fun episode of The Simpsons in the evening (The Poseidon Adventure one).  Still managed 167 photos, into day 51.

Wednesday.  Another busy day.  Only 128 photos labelled - day 52 in Hokkaido.  Finished the week still 182 behind.  

This is me cheating on Mickey - doing one half literally on top of the other half.

Thursday.  Dropped into work to swap out my hard drives.  Then did our food shopping.  Coles was definitely quieter at 7am than it has been previously during lockdown.  I guess more people are relaxed about going at a more normal time and not sparrows fart.  Couldn't log into work for over an hour because the auth app on my phone had a spaz, then I got locked out, then I had to wait for the service desk.  It did make the morning pass a bit quicker though :)  Tacos for dinner.  Finished watching the Jim Carrey version of Fun With Dick and Jane that I started the other day/week.  Well half watched it really, it was a bit silly.  Rain!

Friday.  Rain! 

One of the baby magpie larks that's been hanging around our yard for a while.

Picked up the clarinet for the first time in a week.  I really need to get a neck strap to save my wrist.  XL was headed off to Sydney for the weekend, and Ward said something about getting her to eat something for him, and I was like, I want Din Tai Fung!  Of course then I had cravings for dumplings, so the sweetie had some delivered from Charnie's Noodle and Dumplings.  It was all nice enough, nothing super special though.

Watched Red Sparrow in the evening, but it was very violent, making it quite unpleasant.  I also get annoyed at spy movies because you can never know what side someone is really on, and quite often it's both.  Probably like real life, but still annoying to watch.

Saturday.  Got housework done first thing, then doing upgrades all morning.  But I'm dumb and don't know how to fix anything when it breaks.  Sigh.  Didn't get much done in the afternoon other than geotagging some of Dad's photos from sixty years ago.  !!  Did a bit of jigsaw and music practise and then suddenly it's nearly dinner time.  hmmm.

Moved the stuff on the left aside to take a progress photo

Finished season 3 of You Can't Ask That, then leftover dumplings for dinner, then watched Hachi: A Dog's Tale, an Americanised version of the story of Hachiko.  I think I started crying when Hachiko tried to stop him getting on the train that last time, and then for much of the rest of the movie.  hrmmm.

Sunday.  Today.  Wrote a massive long todo list for the day.  Did a small fraction of it.  I'm going to be dead before I finish my todo list.

Got the internal "edges" done today, and the left bubbles are back on top of the right side.  This weekend I also finished laying out *every* piece on boards, so all the pieces are on six boards for the six different shapes (plus one board of leftover twinklies).  So now every piece has to be there to find and put in.

Started photo processing and blogging early enough today to get it done, because now I need to go cook dinner for tonight and a few other nights this week.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

Sunday.  31st.  Backdating this because Kit was here and I ran out of time in the afternoon on the 7th.  Leftover lamb and all the veggies for dinner (I left those bits of sweet potato in the oven for a few days, we ate them a few days after that, we didn't die).  Lie to Me and You Can't Ask That.  

Monday.  1st.  Couldn't get to sleep til like midnight.  Then woke up at 5:30 although got a tiny bit more sleep.  Didn't have many slides to fix up, although one I did like eight times before I eventually gave up because it was too hard and I was too tired.  I was feeling stressed that I was going to have to work both days next weekend, which made me double booked with a club working bee and Kit was coming to stay Sunday as well.  And my desk was a mess and the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it in just a day since I last cleaned it, then I was hanging the washing out and I missed a phone call.  I mean who calls at 8:24am?? I might have had a bit of a meltdown because it was all too hard.  I did have an interesting day at work though, learning about timeouts on firewalls.  Popped into the mall at lunch because I needed to get my glasses fixed (the screw fell out of one of the arms on the weekend).  Also went to the post office to drop off a package for the sweetie, had some lunch and did a bit of food shopping.  Had to do some overtime in the evening, so no labelling.

Tuesday.  Slept a lot better - hurrah.  Brain was functioning a hundred times better than Monday.  I set a reminder to watch a few horses run around an oval, but was busy and missed the alert, and hence the horses.  Oh well.  Only managed to label 118 photos, so getting further behind :(  Also my wrist hurts.  Finished day 48, up to Hokkaido.

Wednesday.  Slept okish.  I *finally* finished fixup scans of all 181 boxes of Dad's slides.  I really wish I'd put more effort in the first round through, it would have saved most of a year's worth of effort to redo them this year.  Although it probably would have taken longer to do the first pass.  Will spend the "scanning time" for the rest of the year processing the slides (dating/labelling/renaming/processing/filing).  Managed to label 215 photos (used music practise time to do some - having a short break to give my wrist a rest).  Only 200 behind now.

Thursday.  Slept ok.  Ok day.  Very busy.  Rain!!

Friday.  Ok day - been there 14 years!  

Did some cleaning in the afternoon which made me happy.  That was done by 3pm and I'm like, I'm done for the week now right? hehe.  Had to hang around til late though to find out if Saturday work was going to go ahead or not, but in the end it got cancelled.  So I quickly gathered up a few things and headed out to the club with the sweetie.  It was cool enough to run the fire!  CRD came over to chat for a while too which was nice.

Saturday.  Slept okish.  Spent most of the morning de-nailing fence palings.  I got a message from Annie in the middle of it asking if I was in the queue for the Lego store opening, and I'm like, has she even *met* me?  hrmmm.  Did a few bits and pieces after lunch but it was getting hot and we were tired, so we just came home.  We basically collapsed when we got home.  Watched You Can't Ask That - on gamblers - I reckon the gamblers were more messed up than the ice users..  Pizza and X Files (finished season 2).

And how cool is this mask Tab made!?

Sunday.  Watched one of the guys doing some upgrades for a couple of hours in the morning.  Learnt some stuff which was good.  Then I finally got to have my weekend.  Spent the afternoon tidying up the house and doing all the weekend things.  Then Kit came over we chatted and had slow cooker turkey and potato bake and veggies for dinner.  The turkey was a little dry, will need to refine the recipe (I literally just chucked the thing in the slow cooker), and I should have had some gravy with it.

Sunday.  24th.  Not backdating :)  Butterfly lamb roast for dinner.  Put on Hocus Pocus, because Bette Midler, but wasn't watching it very closely.  Instead I was planning out an itinerary for Italy if we end up going.  

Monday.  Woke up a bit after 1am and never really got back to sleep (except for a couple of small sleeps between 4:30 and 6).  Zombie day.  Trying to sort out a big mess and not functioning very well didn't help.  It was a KFC drive through for lunch kind of a day.  Ended up rage quitting the day at 16:30 because I'd had enough and I was too tired.  Had beef cheeks cooked a week ago for dinner, and even managed to label 109 photos, which isn't as many as I need to do, but still better than nothing.

The garden is a riot of colour though!

Tuesday.  Slept much more betterly.  Still trying to sort out the mess at work.  Spent most of the day on it.  Short power outage at lunch.  I reckon they were prepping for Thursday and had a whoopsie.  After work was weeding (out the front), music, dinner, then spent ages trying to find some music files and I hadn't even started labelling by 19:39.  Hmmm.  I did manage to finish day 44 - arrived in Japan!  Was watching Lie to Me (Depraved Heart) and had to LOL at the house in Pasadena that I'd literally just seen in Beaches the other night!

I then managed to label day 45, which doesn't really count as a day - this was the trip from Tokyo to Osaka.  I also watched the first couple of episodes of You Can't Ask That on iView.

Wednesday.  Took like an hour to get to sleep, then woked up a bit after 3:30 and never got back to sleep.  I'm so fricken tired of insomnia.  Brain dead zombie morning.  It was a KFC good-thing-I-brought-extra-on-Monday for lunch kind of a day.  I don't even remember the afternoon.  It was a couple of beers and chicken kiev for dinner kind of an evening.  I did manage to label 84 photos though, so 205 behind for the week.  Hopefully can make that up over the next few days.

Thursday.  Slept relatively well.  Power went off around 9am.  Had a guy from some Not Registered for GST company show up to give us a quote on some garden work.  I asked if he was fully insured and he said yes, but I'm just worried.. all seems a little.. dodgy..   Then did some jigsaw and some paint by numbers, then we headed out to do some long-needed shopping at Bunnings.  Spent ages there trying to find All The Things.  Got maccas on the way home (the power had actually come back on around 11:35 - a couple of hours earlier than expected).  Did a bunch of gardening and planting plants with the sweetie in the afternoon but then not too much else, and some music practise.  Basically just a nice day off.  Watched a bunch of tv including Lie to Me and You Can't Ask That in the evening.

Friday.  Up at stoopid o'clock to do some upgrades, but testing was delayed because half the people testing had no power at home due to storms.  The morning dragged on because I started so early, and they finally gave us the go ahead to do the other half of the upgrades *very* close to lunch.  So got that done then headed out into covid-infected Canberra for a farewell lunch for Luke at the Lighty.  First time I'd seen any of my colleagues in two and a half months!  But I was a bit late arriving and so ended up sitting in the sun.  As soon as I finished lunch I asked to swap seats with someone who is not allergic to the sun, but the damage was done - I'd been sunburnt :(   Not that I knew that to start with, and it was actually a lovely afternoon catching up with all the guys.

Saturday.  Did some weekend stuff in the morning including a couple of loads of washing.  And cheesy hashbrowns for breakfast :)

Then late morning we headed out to the club for a bbq lunch (first time out there since late July).  Stu swam and I tidied up the van and finally setup the "pantry" - a chest of drawers I bought at the Green Shed months ago.  Brought home a bunch of food that had been sitting out there for years, tidied everything up and loaded a couple of the drawers with snackages and tea/coffee.  Then I was finally able to give the coffee machine a home, and could move the kettle off the only bit of bench space next to the sink.  So the whole space is a lot tidier.  There used to be a little table here with an oven on top of it and all the food and containers and crap on top of that, but the oven couldn't be used there because it needed a lot more space around it and we never cook out there anyway (we just take leftovers or bbq).  It's not quite what I wanted for this space (I wanted a cupboard that was a bit bigger), but it'll do for now.

Also!  Flowers!

We actually didn't stay the night, but came home instead.  Both of us felt like it was a Sunday afternoon because we usually come home from the club on a Sunday.  Cooked some mushrooms and macaroni and had creamy mushroom mac and cheese for dinner.  We had salad at lunch.  Honest.  ;)

Watch Big in the evening, which I haven't seen since the late 80s.  And some episodes of You Can't Ask That.

Sunday.  Today.  Busy day trying to cram in two days of weekend into one essentially.  Stu even got lots done too which was nice.  Didn't have too much time for any fun, but did do a little bit of jigsaw and one short session of paint-by-numbers.  Had a second guy from Not Registered for GST company show up asking if we needed any work done, and I'm like, you guys came just the other day.  If this company can afford to have employees, surely they'd have enough turnover to need to be registered for GST?? hrmmmmm!!

Stu found this in his four foot tank - how cute is it!

The poppies have started flowering too

I guess I've filled in the gap in the middle since last week.. that's about it though.. 

Dinner will be leftover butterfly lamb, with a bunch of fresh roasted veggies.

Sunday.  17th.  Not backdating ;)  Spent about four hours cooking All The Food that I'd bought that morning - lamb roast, cauliflower bake and roasted veggies which was dinner, as well as some pork mince/bacon/onion to have whenever (froze half straight away), butter chicken (from a simmer sauce, made up five meals with rice, froze two of them), Asian style beef cheeks (which went into the evening because I was late starting, and froze some of that too).  Was quite exhausted by all the effort by the end of it.  Started watching Big Business (not sure that I'd ever seen it - if I had it was a very long time ago).  

Monday.  Slept relatively well.  Busy day.  I thought I'd have some time to sit down and clean up stuff on the proxies from the weekend.  bwhahahahah.  Yeah right.  Got pulled in every other direction including more upgrades and people wanting All The Things.  Not even enough time to consider some other cleanup work I'd planned for the week.  Then got asked to do some firewall rules in a new environment that I have ZERO experience with.  So much for an RDO this week.  Also got a letter saying they're planning on cutting off our power next Thursday.  Which means either going into the office, or having that RDO.  I think I'll take the RDO.  Because, jigsaws, paint by numbers, weeding, decluttering.  All those things I never have time to do because I spend so much time on the computer.  After work was weeding and music practise and dinner, but the sweetie cooked dinner (salmon and salad) which was lovely of him.  Managed 224 photos in an hour after dinner (mostly in Miniland in Legoland Billund).  But I still hadn't emptied the dishwasher from the morning or put away the towels from the weekend or my clothes from today.  Fricken stop the world I want to get off!!!  I don't have time for this whole going to work malarky.  Into season 17 of The Simpsons (which unusually didn't start with a Treehouse of Horror).  Also finished Big Business while continuing to label, managing 311 all up, finishing day 42 in Legoland Billund.  Not a bad effort.  Now mostly caught up.  Was putting away all the stuff from the dishwasher when I realised I was missing a baking dish.  OMFG I'd left it in the oven overnight!!  With potatoes in it!! (to give the potatoes a wee bit longer to cook).  Decided they'd be fine and chucked em in a container in the fridge.

Tuesday.  Slept ok.  But had a pretty horrible day.  Still no time to clean up from the weekend because busy doing upgrades, and freaking out over someone who may be leaving and leaving me with aforementioned firewall rules in new environment which I have ZERO experience with, then there was two and a quarter hours in meetings and stoopid tickets and people not cleaning up mess and I literally had a couple of meltdowns during the day because it was all too hard. 

But look! Exclamation point rainbow!

Did some weeding then headed out for dinner.  It was Cath's birthday so they'd decided to take up the easing of restrictions to go out for dinner with R&F.  We were a bit nervous about heading out into covid-infected Canberra, but we were the only group in the restaurant, other than three or four people that came for takeaway pickups.  It was actually a lovely night out, awesome to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in months, and lots of yummy food.

Wednesday.  OMFG epic insomnia.  Woke up a bit after 2am and never got back to sleep :(  So a complete zombie morning, although I did manage to get some stuff done so that was ok.  Did weeding and music practise after work and even managed 122 photos (from my afternoon in Copenhagen).  Was super epic tired though.  And also got the sad news that Mrs Cartan had died.  In bed by 9pm.

Thursday.  Slept much better.  Dennis (an ex-colleague of Stu's) came over for coffee and a croissant before week (which also made me nervous, because, covid).  But I was in a MUCH better mental state at work and got a great long primer from Sharpie on firewall rules in new environment which I have ZERO experience with.  Usual Thursday night.  Started watching Beaches.  Because Bette Midler.  

Friday.  Slept well enough.  Ok morning.   Took an hour out of work to watch Mrs Cartan's funeral.  Live-streamed funerals are pretty much commonplace now.  What a world.  I think I'll post some extra detail in a separate post.  A little after that was lunch time, and I finished watching Beaches.  Watching two funerals online in a couple of hours was quite surreal.  Busy afternoon, then weeding etc.  Started watching Down and Out in Beverly Hills, because Better MIdler.  Watched the first half of The Shiralee, which neither of us had ever seen.

This is part of the jungle I'm trying to clear with my weeding.

Saturday.  Slept well!  Then a day of All The Things.  Had a super productive day which was great.  Spent a few hours in the afternoon getting back into sorting Vic's Lego - this time all the minifigs so I can clear a space so Stu can do some sorting.  In the middle of that a couple of young magpies came down into the backyard and they were both singing which was lovely.  Watched the second half of The Shiralee in the evening.

Sunday.  Today.  Rinse and repeat of yesterday in some ways.  Spent a good chunk of the afternoon planning our Oberammergau trip.  After we decided to cancel the tour, I decided we should book just Oberammergau, lock it in, then see how things pan out.  If we have to cancel it'll be 36 Euros (I paid for cancellation insurance) and that's it. So booked that, and then started making maps of all the things we want to see.  I locked in all the places from Como, then I started going through the tour itinerary to see what they had planned to see, and made a map of those too.  Some days would have been good to do on tour (like Cinque Terre with a boat cruise) but other days would have been a waste, like the day doing a cheese factory tour (I mean sure, that would have be fun, but not really worth the money) and a tour of the Ferrari musem.  Not to mention the many half days given over to "free time".  Let's just hope covid has calmed down somewhat in Europe by then.  I have more confidence in that than I do in America early next year.  Dinner tonight will be some butterfly lamb with all the roast veggies.

Agonisingly slow progress on Mickey

Sunday.  10th.  Not backdating ;)  Leftover roast pork with a whole bunch of freshly roasted veggies for dinner.  Watched The Pursuit of Happyness which wasn't bad.  It did remind me of sometimes when we were kids getting home late from something, and we'd pretend to be asleep in the car so Mum and Dad would carry us upstairs and put us to bed :)

Monday.  Slept fairly well.  Day went pretty quickly - busy fixing up proxy profiles.  Saw all the birds at lunch.  Leftover chicken wings from a club night with rice and cabbage for dinner.  Finally hit 20000 photos labelled!!  197 done all up, only 15 behind (into Legoland Billund).

Tuesday.  Took *forever* to get to sleep - stressing about All The Things, holidays, health, having to go to the chemist etc etc etc.  Then I woke up at 3am hungry and needing to pee, so did that, then saw an email from the cruise company with bad news about our trip next year (I'm trying to get out of it because too many retarded Americans won't get vaccinated) so then it took *forever* to get back to sleep.  Zombie tired all day, didn't really get much done all day.  Was too tired and depressed to feel like weeding or music practise or labelling, so instead had a couple of beers, watched an episode of Connected (Clouds), and had an early night.  I really need to keep reminding myself that even if we lose all the thousands of dollars we've spent on our holidays we might not be able to go on, we're still a helluva a lot better off than so many other people this pandemic.  We still have jobs, food, a roof over our heads, and haven't gotten sick from covid (so far).

Wednesday.  After the early night actually slept quite well for a change.  Busy day, although didn't get to do the *one thing* I wanted to do because of interruptions and people wanting stuff.  Did some weeding and music practise, but had a tv dinner for dinner.  208 photos labelled all up, now 115 behind.

Sometimes I get down about fish keeping, because tanks get manky and fish die.  Then I get a tank like this which i super healthy and all the plants are growing like crazy and no algae and the little fishies are breeding like rabbits.  Such a joy this tank.

Thursday.  Somewhat broken sleep, not helped by a couple of storms rolling through.  Headed out early to get blood tests done for a checkup.  Got to see a bit of floriade in Belco.

Ok day.  Got rained on seeing the birds, but they were pretty eager.  No virtual drinks this week.  Started watching 50 Shades of Grey, but only made it about half an hour in.  Really didn't like the guy at all.  Watched Lie to Me instead.  

Friday.  Awake from 3-5am so zombie morning (although somewhat better afternoon).  Did manage to achieve some stuff too which was useful.  Watched Inferno in the evening which we hadn't seen before.  Pretty much just like the other two, and fun distractions with the been-theres in Turkey :)

Saturday.  Up at stoopid o'clock and then spent the entire day doing upgrades, first with HBZ then with Con.  A few hiccoughs along the way, but I think we got there in the end.  See what happens Monday I guess.  Did some weeding and music and talked to the mother type person.  She ended up cancelling our Oberammergau trip because the tour company were being pooheads.  I would certainly never travel with them again.  Mainly because they were *hideously* expensive for what you got.  Basically all it included was hotels, a coach and a tour guide - no lunches, very few dinners, and not much in the way of attraction entries either - it was all "free time in the town".  If I'm paying that much, I want them to take me to as many places as possible, not just dump us in a town and tell us to fend for ourselves.  If I wanted to do that I could take a train.  So we're actually considering doing that - taking trains around northern Italy, and maybe hire a car for a few days to see some harder to get to places in the mountains.  And even after all the money we lost, the trip will probably still be cheaper to do it ourselves.  The sweetie got Chong Co for dinner, and we watched Tora! Tora! Tora! (on Disney, even though I inherted Dad's DVD of it - shoulda watched the DVD though - Disney's subtitles were a bit hit and miss in places - like only flashing for a fraction of a second and not giving you enough time to read them).  

Sunday.  Today.  Up at stoopid o'clock to finally go do food shopping at Coles (first time since 8 September!!).  Then came home and finally got to have my weekend.  Spent all morning doing all the usual weekend stuff I need to get done, then weeding, lunch, music, photo processing and blogging.  And now's just after 3pm and I'm about to go spend a few hours cooking all the food so I don't have to do much in the next week or two.  

Monday.  4th.  Not backdating for a change ;)  After I blogged last week we had lemon chicken for dinner (pulled out of the freezer from a club night early in the year).  Started watching Snow White and the Huntsman.  It was dark and slow and she's not exactly fair and pure slashing people with spikes, just sayin.  My legs were too restless to finish watching it.  

Tuesday.  Woke up at 4am and never got back to sleep :(  So a zombie morning.  Although was fairly busy all day.  Managed to label 153 photos before dinner - helped that Stu cooked!!  We defrosted some uncooked pork loin which he fried up with some greens and had with rice.  Very nice.  316 photos labelled all up - actually caught up with my schedule!  The photos were mostly in Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg - amazing place.

Wednesday.  Woke up at ~3am for a while but eventually got back to sleep.  Busy in the morning but fairly quiet in the afternoon.  Into day 41 of Eurasia photo labelling - I'm *almost* up to 20000 photos labelled!  Only 37 behind schedule, not too bad.  

Thursday.  Slept okish.  Fairly busy day.  I wasn't planning to have virtual drinks, but a couple of the guys asked, so we did it with five people all up.  Watched the fourth episode of Connected - Digits which was pretty interesting.  Stu was learning about that stuff for work a while back.  Finished watching Snow White and the Huntsman.  I went in with very low expectations.  It met expectations.

Friday.  Awake from 12:30 til about 3am with hurty and insomnia.  Hurray.  So zombie day.  Had a two hour support call in the morning which was epic draining.  Had a bit of fun in the afternoon though.  Had a tv dinner for dinner, because Friday.  Then we watched The Da Vinci Code.  I saw this at the movies in 2006.  Stu thinks we'd seen it together at some point, but I never blogged it so no idea.

Saturday.  Woke up about 5:30 needing to pee, so sleep was all over from then.  Had a pretty productive day doing All The Things.  Stu cooked dinner again - this time a gnocchi bake.  I ate too much.  ;)  Then we watched Angels and Demons.  

This is the first time I've ever done the edge first.. that's how hard the rest of it is!

Sunday.  Today.  Bit of a late night last night due to Stu cooking dinner (always takes a long time ;) ) and then him decided we should also start watching a new series of anime.  So actually slept quite late - til 6:37!!  Fairly quiet day.  Did achieve some things on my list though, including filling the green bin and some music practise.  Have started trying to play (and not screech) upper register notes.  Not as bad sound-wise as high recorder notes, but quite difficult.  The transition from A to B is a nightmare.  In the afternoon we went over to Annie's because she invited us over for afternoon tea.  It was the first time we'd seen any of family or friends in two months!  So that was lovely.  Came home and prepped veggies for dinner (to have with some leftover roast pork I dug out of the freezer).  And here we are - having my photos downloaded and processed and blogged all by 17:25 - a miracle! ;)

Monday.  20th.  Backdating (last Sunday afternoon I managed to blog the week before but not this week).  Epic insomnia overnight.  And there was a dog barking for ages as well :(  (different to the usual annoying ones, further west of us).  Ok day I guess.  Dark and rainy most of the day.  Lit the last candle of the season (finished off a pack of Sinlig vanilla candles).  Had san choy bow for dinner (I made the mince on Sunday).  Managed 55 photos before dinner, 210 all up (Brussels tonight).  Also good progress on the jigsaw.

Tuesday.  Slept somewhat better.  Had a two and a quarter hour meeting in the morning which was pretty exhausting.  Then all the stoopid.  Leftover chicken with veggies all fried up for dinner.  Managed 50 photos before dinner and 141 all up (into day 38 Amsterdam).  

Wednesday.  Upgrading stuff, failing, learning stuff along the way.  I missed the earthquake!  The guys that felt it here were in high rise apartments.  Sausages and salad for dinner.  45 photos before dinner, 168 all up - actually on schedule for a change.  And I finished Snow White!

Thursday.  Continuation of yesterday really, but on the phone most of the day which is never fun.  

Bit of a ringin here!

Friday.  Working on proxy block pages which was a bit of fun.  Cooked some rice in brisket jelly for lunch which was quite nice.  Leftover roast pork for dinner.  Watched Suffragette in the evening which was interesting.  Bit funny watching all these people we've seen in other movies recently (Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go, Helena Bonham Carter in Enola Holmes, Brendan Gleeson in In the Heart of the Sea).  

Oh, I also found out today that the super annoying yappy staffies down the road actually killed each other ..  !!

Saturday.  A day of All The Things.  Usual Saturday really.  Put on Snow White in the afternoon so I could photograph it behind the jigsaw.  

Scene sorta kinda matches

What's up with this manic squirrel though?

Had a bit of a whoopsie transferring it to paper for stacking.  Took 17 minutes to fix up.

The sweetie might have convinced me to have Chong Co for dinner.  Ok it didn't take much convincing ;)

Watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in the evening.  Stu missed it when I saw it with EffanC in 2015, and he enjoyed it.

Sunday.  Another day of All The Things.  Started the next section of the Disney behemoth.  Guess which section.. Roast veggies with leftover pork for dinner.  Watched Cocktail in the evening, which I don't think I've seen since I first saw it, probably at the movies, over thirty years ago.  Kokomo was one of my favourite songs for years.  I also didn't realise Don't Worry Be Happy was in it, another one of my favourite songs.  

Didn't blog cause I'd run out of energy heh.

Sunday. 12th.  Backdating.  Doh.  Roast chicken dinner which was very nice.

Monday.  Ok day, was Neil all day because he took the day off to go to the dentist.  Which means I try and fix all the stoopid problems I see.  I can't help myself ;)  In the evening was looking for paperwork from the Eurasia trip to help with photo labelling.  Was actually feeling super panicky/anxious about the fact that there's just not enough *time* to get everything done.  Labelling Louvre photos in the evening.  Only managed 35 photos before dinner, which was a bit late (leftover brisket), and only 75 done by 8pm.  Turns out labelling things in the Louvre is hard work if you want to do it properly.  Still hadn't blogged for the week.  hrmm.  Managed 156 all up for the evening.

Tuesday.  Ok day, although I felt like I didn't get much done in between talking to people all day.  41 photos labelled before dinner (of leftovers), and 116 done by 8:04pm.  77 behind, hrmm.  Finished day 35 in Paris though.

Wednesday.  Ok day.  Finished up yesterday's slide scanning fixing, but hadn't brought up a new box yet, so scanned 12 of Stu's negatives that he took on a youth group boating trip on the Hastings.  Also managed to clean the kitchen.  Bit of a late finish, so no labelling before dinner (of filled gnocchi with sweet potato salad).  After dinner was trying to deal with my computer which had some stoopid windoze process running taking up all its energy.  Spent an hour trying to shut down as many things as I could, so didn't end up doing any labelling at all. 

"Filled gnocchi" - that I got a while back because Coles had sold out of regular fresh gnocchi.  Just fried in butter which was very tasty.  Salad is rocket and sweet potato, with toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seeds and feta, with a honey and olive oil dressing.  Yumm.

Thursday.  Ok day.  Pretty much a standard Thursday.

Friday.  Had an RDO (random day off), which was the first one I'd had since July (and I was definitely feeling it).  Spent the day trying to get on top of All The Things.  In the late afternoon put on Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, which was a bit silly.  Leftover brisket and veggies for dinner.  In the evening watched Words Bubble Up Like a Soda Pop, which Stu described as Japanese Mall Rats.  Kinda sweet but a bit silly.

Saturday.  A day of All The Things.  Caught up on this week's photo labelling which I was behind on.  Other than that the normal Saturday of trying to do house stuff, project stuff, photo stuff and have a bit of fun in the middle.  Put on Bridget Jones's Baby later on while filing photos.  Stu cooked creamy pasta with mussels for dinner which was very nice.  In the evening watched Enola Homes which was a bit of fun but pretty silly, and too "modern" for a period piece.  (I've been a bit spoilt by a documentary we watched on our last cruise about anachronisms in movies, and how modern values colour period movies).

Sunday.  Much the same as Saturday but with fewer time limits.  

I might have bought myself a new toy during the week, which arrived in less than a week, from America, on a Sunday!

So I've actually been wanting to learn the clarinet for long time.  I learnt the recorder as a kid, but it has a very limited range which can be frustrating.  I read a bunch of reviews that said the Jean Paul CL-300 was probably the best value for money in terms of pretty decent quality for not a crazy price.  Turns out it's a lot harder than a recorder to play, who knew! I was expecting to be able to blow into it and make a sound, but it's a lot more complicated than that.  And I'm really going to need a neck strap so I don't get RSI in my thumb/hand.

Cooked All The Food in the evening - roast pork for dinner, and some mince for dinner during the week.

Watched the second episode of Connected (Poop) (we watched the first episode - Surveillance a little while ago), then I watched another episode of How the Mind Works, on memory.  

Monday.  30th.  Not backdating!!  Okish sleep, bit broken.  Ok day.  Saw my birds at lunch. 

Another day, another wattle

Found this in our front yard - self seeded, no idea what it even is?  Some sort of grevillea??

Had a lot of fun doing diagrams in the afternoon.  Lamb stir fry for dinner.  Labelled 197 photos - in Leavesden Studios!!  Harry Potter!!  So much fun.  And watched an episode of Air Crash Investigations.

Tuesday.  Another pretty good day, mostly doing diagrams!  Made mushroom, olive and salami pizza scrolls for the sweetie for lunch.

Then Pizza Capers for dinner.  Simpsons, X Files, Air Crash, and still managed to label 157 photos for Leavesden Studios.

Wednesday.  Woke up in the middle of the night for at least an hour and a half.  Sigh.  Ok day, not very exciting.  Leftover lamb roast for dinner.  Simpsons, then jigsaw (finished sorting pieces into basic colours), and Air Crash Investigations, and still managed to label 232 photos - I'm actually exactly on schedule now - 17500 photos labelled!!

Thursday.  Why is it the tireder you are, the harder it is to get to sleep???  So I was epic tired, went to bed on time, I might have nodded off briefly once, but otherwise didn't get to sleep til after midnight.  And then woke like every hour after that, but at least got back to sleep.  Ok day, I think.  

Made a creamy spaghetti for dinner that was absolutely amazing.

Onion, mushrooms, bacon, garlic

Cream, cheese

Spaghetti

Can you guess which section yet?

Friday.  Okish sleep, but still pretty tired.  Ok day planning for a change and eventually doing it, only to break everything cause *someone* didn't configure a remote environment in prod to be the same as test.  So this change I'd done in test didn't work in prod.  So technically not my fault, but I still felt responsible, because I should have made sure other people could do their job right before I could do mine.  TV dinner for dinner, then watched Weathering With You which was quite sweet, and, been-theres.

Saturday.  Slept mostly ok.  Nice quiet day doing house/photo type stuff.  It rained.  A lot.  Did slow cooked brisket for dinner which was pretty awesome, and did polenta as well, which I'd never done before.  Turned out ok.  The meal could have done with some greenery though ;)  Watched Dead Poets Society in the evening, which I hadn't seen in forever, possibly I saw it at the movies thirty two years ago.

Today.  Slept ok.  Another quiet day. 

Headed out after the rain stopped and saw my little patch of Floriade, and my birds, and a whole bunch of other birds as well. 

And went to Chris's for supplies.  Watched The Incredible Journey (which I'd seen a long long long time ago) while doing photo processing.  Then cooked up some mince, as well a whole heap of roast veggies for dinner.  Had a Zoom chat with EffanC, then watched the first episode of Love on the Spectrum.  Man I know I'm socially awkward but these guys have it much worse.  Or maybe I was that bad when I was younger (quite possibly was) and just "grew out of it" (read: "learned" how to people) - cause that's the thing with Asperger's, relating to people is something you actually need to learn, it certainly doesn't come naturally.  And blogged.  Took well over an hour.  Again...