Half of my battle with blogging these days is the whole *effort* of downloading, selecting, resizing, stripping geodata and blogging photos.

I have several weeks of photos to blog.  Over fifty actually.  Eep!  Lots of birds, funnily enough. 

Also, during the week I have nothing much to say.

Because I only tend to blog about stuff I've done, and I don't tend to do anything much interesting during the week.

But I've been really impressed with my SIL blogging every day this month and I feel bad being so slack with this blog.  I really do love the archive of my life I keep here.  

So I'm going to try again to blog more often.

Today I had my Sadie cap on, and cut the rules down on one firewall from over two hundred to a little over one hundred.  Cleaning makes me happy :)  Mind you it's a lot easier to clean up other people's messes.  My own messes are harder because I'm lazy :)

For most of Saturday afternoon I went through our receipts.  Mine went back to 2001, Stu's back to about 2008.  I'd pretty much kept every receipt of mine *ever*.  I always kept meaning to reconcile them with credit card statements, but that hasn't happened in years.  And I had great visions of entering groceries into some sort of database to watch how prices changed over time.  Yah right.

But I've been applying a rule to stuff like that - if noone would care about it after I died, then there's really no point keeping it.

Honestly, who's going to care how much I spent on groceries after I'm gone?

So this is the pile of receipts I'm chucking out.

I did keep some things.  A few sentimental ones, like Infinity on the Gold Coast where I went with Stu on our one and only date.  And receipts for dvds and cds, and appliances and the like that we still own.  Fourteen years of receipts down to this.

There was a bit of nostalgia in some of them, especially for the older stuff.  And some fun things like VHS tapes, which I was still buying as recently as 2005.  Zooper Doopers! I found a receipt for some of those from 2005, which means I've had some ice blocks in my freezer for about nine years... *gulp* .. maybe I should eat them this summer!  And at my old work, plenty of ATM withdrawals and Post Office receipts from my ebay packing in 2003-2004 that reminded me of places I haven't thought about in seven years.  Receipts from places like Rosehill, where I used to visit Striker for Evilhouse video nights.  Petrol receipts from places on the way to/from CIA visits and visits to Stu.  BigW receipts of DVD purchases when I first got a DVD player.  I used to go there whenever I needed to go shopping for groceries and have a look for weekly specials.  I used to get all my meat from Sonny's Butcher at Rockdale Plaza, and all my fruit and veg from Mile's Fresh Food Market, which I can't even remember whereabouts in the plaza that is now.  Booze came from Woolworth's Liquour, and the rest of my groceries from Franklins.

So much of my life history in little bits of paper.

So much of my life forgotten because it seemed too inane to blog about.

I wish I'd started blogging a lot earlier than 2003...!!

On Friday I took an RDO - a Random Day Off.

Stu did too.

I took the opportunity to clean the garage.

Six hours!

I really should have taken some before photos, so you could really see the difference (there's a few here).

So yeah, pulled everything from along one wall out, cleaned, tidied, organised.  Then in the middle moved a stack of stuff outside that needs to be thrown out, recycled or freecycled.  In fact I also listed a bunch of things on Freecycle, and most of it went on Saturday! Win!

So there's a lot more space in there now, and it's a lot cleaner.

So after a super productive Friday I did pretty much nothing on Saturday.  Mostly just sat at my computer wasting time.

Since I don't post regularly, you might not have noticed that it's been a little quiet around here lately.

Well this time I have a good excuse - I was on the other side of the planet :)

Check out the blog (without pics) here.

After getting home just before midnight, I actually slept fairly well and had a decent sleep-in, so basically back to normal today.  

Today I unpacked, did some washing, finished downloading photos and blogging, tidied up and generally caught up with life.  The day went entirely too fast!

Tonight we had duck and venison sausages from Eco Meats, but they weren't as good as the last ones we had.  Then we watched Harry Potter (on DVD not tv).

Spent entirely too much of my March free time doing the last section of my "Life" jigsaw...

So that's Life complete!

Just look how thick it is - twenty four layers of 1000 piece squares

(it's on layers of paper so that when I set it up on the floor it won't get dirty)

These were a couple of jigsaws TJ brought in for us.

The first was super simple

And the next was tricky but fun

This is a little one of Chicago.  I think this was one from my brother's collection .. maybe..

And this little one I borrowed from DC's coast house took me about two and a bit hours in front of the tv.  I did a bit of the edge one night, and the rest the next night.

What's been happening.

At work I've been fighting a really weird network problem trying to figure out what the heck is going on and not getting anywhere.

Thursday night I watched Grease on tv.  On Friday night we went to the Dumpling Inn for dinner then did our food shopping.  Watched Se7en with the sweetie, although I was getting really tired by the end of it and was struggling to stay awake.

Saturday morning we went to Ellacure for breakfast.  I had eggs benedict.  Sadly the bacon was over cooked (is that even possible??) and the eggs a tad overdone too.  Definitely not the best eggs benedict I've ever had.  The waitresses were lovely and service was prompt, however the place was packed so it was forty minutes from arriving to getting our food.

Saturday night after dinner I went over to Kit's for drinks as she had a friend over.  Stayed up a bit too late.

Today Potty and family came and picked me up and we all went out to the Hall Markets, which I'd never actually been to before.

Other than that, mostly jigsawing.  Barely did any housework this weekend, although Stu achieved lots, so at least one of us had a productive weekend heh.

The jigsaw that is ..

The other jigsaw we've completed recently was this horrible thing TJ brought in.  Took us weeks.

Last Sunday morning we headed home from Sydney with a car load of crap in tow.  Caught up on housework/washing etc in the afternoon.

On Monday I finished packing up and inventoring Jake's Lego.  

On Tuesday I suffered from major lack of sleep.  We went to the Dumpling Inn for dinner (mixed chow mein and shredded beef peking style) then did our food shopping.  Came home and dismantled most of the Star Destroyer (that had also been constructed at Christmas 2009) while watching TV.

On Tuesday night I still couldn't get to sleep, so Wednesday was more misery.  Watched some pretty cool rainstorms out the window at work.  When I got home however, there was a small stream of water going across the garage floor.  Which would have been fine, except it intersected with my old desk that I've had for thirty five or so years, and the chipboard at the bottom all swelled up :(:(:(  So that was pretty annoying.  My parents still have the matching beds, and I still use the matching set of drawers.  I was hoping to sell/give away the things as a set one day so that's a bit of a poo.  In the evening it poured with rain again, so I collected a whole heap of it and put it in the pool.

Wednesday night I finished dismantling the Star Destroyer, and started the remaining section of my Life jigsaw. 

Thursday night we got pizza and watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I hadn't seen since I saw it at the movies in 2005.

On Friday a bunch of us got pork knuckles from Zierholz.  Omigosh they were *huge*.  I got through all the meat/crackling on mine (but only just) but didn't quite finish the sides.  Pretty much everyone said the experience of it was good, but noone would really be interested in having it again - simply too much food.  I reckon it'd go well shared between two people.  I didn't have any dinner that night.

Friday night was more jigsawing while watching Angels and Demons, which I hadn't seen.  

Saturday morning I cleaned the gutters and flushed the downpipes which were all completely clogged.  Then we headed out to the club, but I'll leave that for another post.

Today was catching up on housework as well as doing more jigsaw and tv show catching up.

Before Dad died I started collating a list of silly things my Dad used to say.  There turned out to be quite a lot.  And I'm sure I've missed heaps.

As mentioned yesterday, there were a few random song snippets, such as "they're coming to take me away hey hey" and "beep beep, beep beep, his horn went beep beep burp".  Somewhat relatedly he'd sing "Sunday driving, Sunday driving" when we were out and about on a Sunday.  If we saw a delapidated building in our travels, the parents had a running joke that it was a "prospective youth hostel".  

When someone did something wrong, he'd say "nooo that's not it, try it again", as per Yosemite Sam.  Actually my brother and I changed the default error beep to that wav file many years ago on the parents' computer, and we had months of laughs because they couldn't figure out how to change it :)

When anyone offered him tea or coffee he'd say "I don't drink, don't smoke, don't drink tea or coffee, don't go around with naughty women".  This was appended in later years with "because I don't know any".  Actually this is why he thought it was so unfair that he had a brain tumour, as he didn't use a mobile phone either.  Still, he'd also say to people "I'll have a vodka and orange. Hold the orange" and at other times "Hello officer, I'm not under the affluence of incahol" in a slurred voice.

Regarding physics, he'd say things like "It's only the lack of heat that makes it cold", "It's only the weight of it that makes it heavy" and "It's not the fall that kills you it's the sudden stop at the bottom".

He could be quite negative (actually that's another story entirely).  But with Mum there'd be such things as "I earn the money, she spends it", "Whatever you say dear", "Yes boss" and "I'm always wrong".

With us there was the whole "Seven eights!!" thing that haunted David around Western Australia in 1984.  David was in primary school and learning his times tables, so on the holiday Dad would call out random times tables for David to give the answer to.  Except he kept tripping up on seven eights.  So Dad did it over and over again getting quite angry with David about it.  Mum said Dad changed on that trip.  He had issues with his camera and basically became a lot more negative and grumpy about things from that point on.  Mum thought he had a mid life crisis at that point.  He'd get annoyed at us for "drop" or leaving things around the house, but actually he was probably the worst offender.  And if we ever happened to burp at the table he'd say "oink".  To which after 1995 I'd respond "la la laaaa" :)

He'd get very frustrated with "yellow lights!" even more so than red ones, and also "Sunday drivers".  If a someone was heard shouting or speaking loudly, he'd say something like "We heard you the first time" or "ahhhh shaddap".  And if someone was incompetant they "couldn't organise single track working on a single length of N gauge".

He loved cockatoos, and the family had one when he was growing up.  So there was always "Scratch cocky" and "Hello cocky" and "G'bye! G'bye!" in screechy voices.  The doves he used to feed were "girls" because they were birds, so it'd be "hello girls" when they came down.

He liked cats, and whenever he saw one he'd say "I tawt I taw a putty tat", or simply a realistic meow (actually he'd meow at pretty random times too).

He loved cheese.  Or "ratfink".  And if anyone ever said "say cheese" for a photo, he'd say "Coon", his favourite cheese.

Whenever he got home and wanted to get changed he'd say "I'm going to take me pants off".  I use that a lot myself now too.

Many every day objects got different names.
"Soviet" was a meat pie - soviet spy in rhyming slang
"Serve you right" was a serviette.  I use this all the time, which confuses people sometimes.
Police were sometimes pronounced "poh-lice", or just "the fuzz"
"Screaming ice" was ice cream
"Gobbies" was his word for potato scallops
"Jackie" was a kookaburra
"Franks" meant thanks
"Probabully" was probably
"Grey shirts" were the train ticket inspectors.  He had an irrational thing against authority and beaurocracy.
"Woofit" meant "what's for tea?"
"Crick" was creek
"Rake" was a lake
"Crouds" were clouds
"Riv-her" was river
"Hurro" was hello
"Martian bastard" was a Mars Bar
"Chew and spew" was McDonalds
"Chif and phips" was fish and chips

And there was plenty of other random $#!+ .. :)

"Pong!" - obviously a response to ping!
"We want a funny story from" - sometimes said at random at the dinner table
"Growl, grumble and gripe, da dum da dum da dum" - the da dum bit might have been appended by my brother, can't remember
"Around the corner and into the straight comes beetle bomb" - or BDL Bomb, after the number plate of their old car
"Screech crunch tinkle tinkle" was a car accident
"Sparkle-arkle-arkling" usually referred to fizzy drinks
"Arc arc arc" or "stone the crows" whenever crows were around
"Die quietly" if someone was coughing loudly
"No bull" for no kidding
"Me three" instead of me too (I use this too)
"Me think that 'mazing" if something was good
"Bless me" if he sneezed
"Oh girl. You can't say oh boy, that's sexist".  

When my friend Luc first met my parents he said to me later "I can understand you better having met your parents".  Maybe anyone that's just read through the above list of words and phrases will see what a crazy Dad I had and understand how I came to be so completely silly :)

So I called my mother last Friday night.  She'd been to see Dad that evening and the nursing home staff said that they didn't think that he was going to make the night the previous night, so he really didn't have very long to go.  She had spent two hours with him.  He was pretty unresponsive, but he responded when Mum sang Abide With Me to him.  I wondered whether he'd make it to Sunday when I was planning to come up.  I considered going up Saturday instead, but Chris was on her way down to Canberra to visit so it was going to be tricky.  I asked Mum if she wanted me to come up anyway on Saturday if Dad went but she said I didn't need to.  Chris arrived fairly late and we talked and all shared a very very nice bottle of Brokenwood 2009 shiraz.  We have a 2010 downstairs from our trip to the Hunter Valley last Christmas.  It was past midnight when we got to bed, and we were just in bed when I got the SMS from my mum: "Dad went to be with Lord at 11.55pm". #sad

Had a bit of a slow morning on Saturday.  I called Mum again.  She'd been out to the home til about 2am to say a final goodbye.  She was ok with me not coming up until Sunday, as she had a church event planned that morning and was likely to be sleeping in the afternoon anyway, as she'd only had about an hour's sleep.

So Chris and Zac and I went along the Beer and Meat on a Stick festival (aka the Multicultural Festival) to get, well, beer and meat on a stick.  But before we found meat on a stick, we found potato on a stick!  Might have had another one of those later.  And a waffle on a stick.  Did a little shopping during and after as well.

In the later afternoon we had a swim to cool off.  In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of MacGyver and had another swim.

Sunday morning we got ready then meandered our way up to Sydney (Chris dropped me off).  The minister came over and we decided on an order of service for the funeral.  Then I got stuck into putting together a reflections slide show in powerpoint.  Took three nights to do, but I think it will be nice.  Will try and get it onto YouTube when I get home.

So how am I?  ok I think.  I suppose I've enough time to get used to the idea of Dad not being around.  And living in Canberra it's not like I saw him much anyway.  Mum is ok too, again, she's had months to get used to life without Dad.  Thanks everyone for your messages and condolances.