Sunday.  24th.  Half way through our long weekend.  Watched Your Name in the evening.  Kinda like Freaky Friday meets The Lake House?  Not that I've ever actually seen The Lake House.  Nice enough, although a tad confusing.  

Monday.  We both took a random day off to have a long weekend. 

Baby guppies!!!

Did all the washing in the morning - regular clothes washing, then the curtains from the east side window of the study.  Then headed out for the day.  Dropped in at The Scottish Restaurant for brunch, then onto Ikea.  Stu wanted to get a shelf unit for his study for the inside wall.  So we found that and got a couple of bits and pieces but not too much.  Did our food shopping on the way home. 

I'd just filled his water bowl when Stumpy decided to redecorate the place.

So just for that we gave him a bath.

Stu built his shelves and suddenly the house is a mess again.  Doh. 

It was also very hot.  All weekend.  We had the cooler going pretty much all weekend, but that did make it a bit humid in the house.  Salmon and salad for dinner, but no photo labelling.  Watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in the evening.

Tuesday.  Australia Day.  Our two biggest holidays celebrate invading other countries.  David's suggestion was make New Years Eve a public holiday, so all the poor saps that have to work NYE while everyone else parties will at least get paid overtime for it.  Then Australia Day could be January 1.  That was actually the day we became Australia.  Just a thought.  The day was spent avoiding the heat, a bit of housework, labelling photos and a bit of paint by numbers.  Stu wanted to hang up an aerial for his software radio, so I hacked out all the cherry tree suckers, and pruned the geraniums quite brutally (they were bigger than me!).  Didn't take any before photos unfortunately.  

Stu really didn't like being up a ladder

I well and truly filled the green bin, with a pile still left to go.  Taco Tuesday for dinner (I'd bought the shells and was going to have them before David left but we never got a round tuit).  The ten taco shells go really well with three people (four each for the boys and two for me), so we end up with leftovers if there's just the two of us.  Then I was loading the dishwasher after dinner and one of Stu's bowls slipped out of my hand and shattered all over the floor.  I seriously had a meltdown.  I really like those bowls, I use them every day, and it was one of the few complete sets we have of anything.  I don't deserve nice things.  Sigh.  Didn't feel like doing any photo labelling, or even watching a movie, so just watched random crap on YouTube.

Wednesday.  Nothing much.  Bit of photo labelling, but not nearly enough to catch up for the week.

Thursday.  Ok day; work drinks; pizza.  Got sad that I had noone to fight with over the garlic dregs from the garlic bread.  Started watching Sound! Euphonium anime series.  Then I watched Honey I Blew Up the Kid.

Friday.  The rain!  All the rain!  In the afternoon I spent an hour and a half renaming and documenting all the objects someone else in our team had created that didn't match our naming scheme.  Le sigh.  Watched Honey We Shrunk Ourselves in the evening.  I'd never seen this one.  Silly of course, but not too bad.  Then I watched the first half of a 2016 New York production of Hamilton.  I had literally no idea what the show was about, well, other than it was an American period piece.  I have to say I struggled with it.  It's mostly all rap, and I *hate* rap.  I struggled to keep up with the pace of it and what was going on and the exposition.  I also found having African Americans playing white guys pretty distracting.  Also.  Jonathan Groff as King George III.  Completely distracted by his spagging all over the place.  Also I reckon he looks a little bit like Freddie Mercury (front teeth and cheeks), he'd look more like him if he lost a little weight..

Saturday.  Woke up at 3am for nearly two hours.  Hurrah.  Did all the hosueworks in the morning.  Did a bit of paint by numbers and photo labelling of Dad's slides in the afternoon.  I'd relied on the dust and scratch filter for the first half of the scanning of his slides, but as it turns out, the hairs that were all over the roof of the scanner were there from the beginning.  The filter doesn't remove the hairs and the slides look terrible, and I'm going to have to redo *a lot* of the first half.  Sigh.  But probably not until I've scanned more of the filing cabinet.  Had a bit of a play with Gimp to make Lego mosaics using custom palettes.  Had chicken kiev for dinner.  Watched The Garden of Words, which I saw at the movies in 2013.  I reckon they must have videoed rain falling in puddles and traced it frame by frame.  Can't see any other way it'd be *that good*.  Then I watched the second half of Hamilton.  For some reason I enjoyed the second half a lot more.  Maybe because it was a bit slower, and I had a better idea of who everyone was??  I think if I watched it again I'd pick up a helluva lot more and possibly enjoy it more.  Or maybe I could just go read a transcript.  Found out that the dude who played Hamilton actually wrote the whole thing.

Sunday.  Today.  Not backdating for a change ;)  Although I am going to need to backdate a whole bunch of This Day in History posts.  Spent the day alternating between housework, computer work (photo labelling) and fun stuff (paint by numbers and jigsaw).  Went out and did a small food shop.  Although with fragments of covid detected in Belconnen sewage, I feel like we should have done a bigger shop in case we end up in lockdown.  Roast lamb for dinner.  Or there will be.  Very shortly :)

In January 2001 my first car was kidnapped and murdered from out the front of my flat.  Well it was kidnapped on a Monday night I think it was (it might actually have even been 8th January), and it was murdered Saturday night the following weekend.  The girl who was driving was 14 years old, and claimed that "boys" had originally stolen it.  The car she crashed into was not insured, so the owner was pretty pissed at her.  I just got depressed at my sudden lack of transport and freedom, and that my little car had been destroyed.  

Anyways, a couple of weeks later after all the insurance assessments and police stuff had been done, I was able to go see the wreck of my car and get any personal effects out of it.  I think I caught a train out to some western suburbs station where my boss came and picked me up and we drove to the place to see it.  

Sad times :(

Stu had a set of six crystal whiskey tumblers he got from one of his very early jobs.  There were only five when I met him, and there's still five, although one has a chip.

I had a set of four plates/bowls/bread and butter plates from Nana (I think) when I moved out of home.  Two of the bread and butter plates had been broken in transit.  I broke a bowl when I was living in Sydney by knocking it off the bench when I was trying to serve myself some ice cream.  So now there's four plates, three bowls and two bread and butter plates.

Stu had a set of six white wine glasses he got from his last job in Queensland.  I accidentally knocked one off the bench when Marc and Jo were here in 2015.  So now there's five.

I had a set of six small glasses I got from Ikea (for $5!) when I was living in Sydney.  Nat or one of her friends broke one when she had people over while she was housesitting while we were on our honeymoon.  Then just a couple of months ago Stu knocked one in the sink and it broke.  So now there's four.

Stu had a set of six tumblers he got from his last job in Queensland (at the same time as the wine glasses).  One got knocked in the dishwasher while I was loading it a couple of years ago.  So now there's five.

I had four large drinking glasses I got from somewhere when I moved out of home.  One of them broke while I was living in Sydney when I had a bunch of peeps over for a slide night.  Another one broke but I can't remember when.  But then I got two identical ones from Christine S when she moved to Queensland.  So now there's two old ones and two new ones.

Stu had four Chinese style bowls.  One fell out of the fridge while he was trying get something else out.  So now there's three. 

I had four Pyrex bowls with lids that I use for microwaving veggies.  A few years ago while I was getting one out it fell and broke.  So now there's three bowls and four lids.

Stu had a set of four black glass plates/bowls/bread and butter plates.  Tonight one of the bowls slipped while I was loading the dishwasher and it shattered.  Not only itself, but my soul.  For some inexplicable reason, I got really really upset about it.  Probably because it was one of the few complete sets we have of anything, and it's been complete for longer than I've known Stu.  And also because I really like those bowls, I use them all the time.  

I don't deserve nice things.

It wouldn't be me if I wasn't backdating ;)

Wednesday.  Slept quite well after our long drive home the day before.  Ok day I guess.  In the evening struggled through the todo list that was a long way behind on account of being away for four days.  So no UK photo labelling this week.  Backed up my computer, but couldn't connect to the NAS.  It seems likely that windows is refusing to talk to such an old version of SMB/CIFS.  The laptop which hasn't been patched for a little while can still talk to it.  Apparently 20H2 will fix it.  We shall see.

Thursday.  Poor lonely Santa.

In the evening had pizza and the second episode of Mandalorian.

Friday.  Caught up on three boxes of slide labels (slides had been scanned just hadn't done the data entry).  Soooo nice to be at home.  Went and saw some of my birds at lunch.  Did a bunch of cleaning on the mail servers.  Because that's what I do.  The new neighbours started moving stuff into their garage (they organised to get access before settlement to start moving stuff).  Stu cooked gnocchi for dinner and we watched From Up on Poppy Hill which was very sweet.

Saturday.  Smashed out all the things.  Did some scanning and housework and achieved a weekend's work by 9am.  Gathered stuff for tax in the morning.  Went out for lunch and did a huge food shop.  

In the afternoon cooked all the things.  

I cooked up some mince with onion and taco spice for taco Tuesday.  I cooked all the meat/bacon/onion ready to pop in the slow cooker on Monday.  And I cooked up a veggie loaded san choy bow mix for dinner that night.  

Took three hours.  Yeup.

Watched second episode of Discovery.  Her hair grew too much for one year.  Just sayin.

Sunday.  Another productive morning of all the things.  Spent quite a bit of time sorting out the piles of packing materials (boxes, bubble wrap, tissue paper etc) we have in the garage - organising it all so we can find it when we want to sell stuff.  Cooked a huge lamb roast for dinner, with epic leftovers.  Basically over the weekend I cooked most of our food for the fortnight.

We're into season four of The Simpsons, and up to the third episode of Discovery.

OMFG!  Not backdating!! ;)

Monday.  Slept ok.  Ok day I guess.  In the evening I got up to labelling the photo of sad bean!  This was a baked bean Stu had at breakfast one morning on our UK 2010 holiday.  It had a crease and a couple of specks of pepper at just the right spots to make the bean look like it had a sad face.  Stu couldn't bear to eat sad bean, and I don't like baked beans, so that poor little bean didn't get eaten, which was even sadder!  I might have had a little sad ten years later just labelling the photo I took of it :(:(

Up to episode 7 of Against the Wind.

Tuesday.  Hurty woke me up and kept me awake for an hour and a half.  But otherwise slept ok. 

<work rant snipped>

But look!  Itty bitty Cape Weed flower!

Leftovers for dinner, UK labelling and episode 8 of Against the Wind.

Wednesday.  All the stoopid.  I don't even remember what now.  I ranted to Stu over a drink at Beirut Bunker Bar and pushed it from my memory.  

Stopped in at the markets on the way home to go to the chemist, and the sweetie even cooked dinner! :)

I thought this looked pretty cool - looks a bit like the Matterhorn!

Thursday.  Filled with rage at someone watching Bathurst near me at work without a headset - not even at their desk, but in our area because their own desk is outside the exec offices and that would look bad.  And three or four conversations going on around me meant for NOISE and I seriously nearly lost it.  Fortunately I have the bestest boss ever and he went and muted Bathurst for me so I didn't go postal.  Watched the second episode of the French sun documentary.

Neil and I saw these at lunch on Thursday.  Not a huge amount of information on the Beam website, you need to download the app to find out useful stuff, you know, like where you can ride them.  45c/minute introductory rate to ride one.  Wonder how well they'll last.  I wouldn't mind taking one for a trip around the lake :)

Friday.  Deleting all the things!  Did a massive cleanup of routes in the morning, and cleared out a big decommissioned app in the afternoon.  In between I had lunch at Herbert's with Tony and the Chrises.  Big lunch, so dinner was a small serving of popcorn (needed some fibre to counteract all the meat I had at lunch).  Watched Arrietty in the evening, which we last (first) saw at the movies in 2012.  The movie is based on the "The Borrowers" books which really annoys me as a title because they're not borrowing, they're *stealing*.  Just sayin!

Saturday.  Slept well.  A day of All The Things.  We did do a quick Bunnings run and food shop.  I'd already voted during the week so didn't get a democracy sausage (I think a lot of places aren't doing them anyway), but Bunnings has started up their sausage sizzles again, but they load the sauces for you.  So not quite as pretty as a photo as my actual democracy sausage featured on Atlas (Gastro) Obscura :)

Stu cooked dinner which was lovely of him - grilled eggplant with a sauce of miso, mirin, and sake.  Quite yummy.

In the evening we watched the first episode of season 3 of Discovery.  I enjoyed the first season, but the second season just got way too convoluted and hard to follow.  The first episode of this season was fine, hopefully this season won't be as complicated as the last.  Up to episode 9 of Against the Wind.  

Sunday.  Today.  For once I'm not backdating.. craziness I know!  Woke up at 3:45 to go to the loo but didn't get back to sleep for hours.  At 4:51 I got up to have some cheese because I was hungry.  Apparently just a little bit of eggplant and rice isn't enough to keep me full all night.  I did eventually get a bit more sleep, including have a dream that I was staying at Dooce's house, and it was *massive* and Stu for some reason was sleeping in some other building on the *campus*, and I was talking to Leta about what life was like being the daughter of such a famous blogger.  So a pretty slow start.  Did a few things on the todo list.  I was going to do some more Lego part picking of Vic's sets, but by the time I'd gotten the files organised and found the sets and gone through them for what they had already it was after lunch.  Then we went and visited Annie/Stu/Immy, and then came home and did cooking and photo processing and blogging and suddenly it's nearly dinner time.  Hrmmmmm.

Backdating, cause I'm a slacker ;)

Tuesday.  Woke up at 5am for over an hour.  Meh day at work.  Taco Tuesday.

Wednesday.  Woke up at like 4am.  Crazy intense day of meetings.  Rollout planned for the afternoon didn't work.  Part of it we had no idea why, another part we realised before we started it wasn't going to work so didn't go ahead.  Meanwhile all my other work is slipping.  Hrmm.  After the failed rollout Neil and I went to the Labor Club (first time since last year!) and debriefed over a bottle of bubbles.  We actually came up with some ideas.  For dinner I cooked chicken thighs, with a lemon/butter/thyme sauce inspired by @phonakins.

Had a game of Kismet with Kit and Pete, that Pete won, but no UK photo labelling.

Thursday.  No slide scanning other than finishing off yesterday's roll (*going* to work sux!!  Doesn't leave me nearly enough time in the mornings (or evenings)).  Watched the second episode of Against the Wind.

Friday.  Woke up at 4:40.  OK day.  It was actually pretty quiet (some hardware problems had a lot of people offline that would usually be sending me work).  In fact I wandered off for an hour and a half in the afternoon to get stuff done around the house.   See, working from home is much more efficient.  I can flex off for an hour or two when the workload is light.  If I was *at* work I'd have to hunt around for things to do.  Not that I don't have any shortage of things to do, my todo list is a hundred years long, but sometimes on a Friday afternoon you'd rather just be tidying the house.  Did a Bunnings run and some food shopping (omfg Coles was closed! Some eftpos issue affecting their stores nationwide, so we went to Aldi, and fortuntely they had a caramel mudcake that I wanted to get for David's birthday), and may have had the Scottish Restaurant for dinner.  Watched episode 3 of Against the Wind.  Had to laugh and the really bumpy camerawork while they were following people walking/on horseback - no steadycams in 1978!!  

Saturday.  Slept in til 6:20!!  Felt so much better.  Got ready then basically just started prepping lunch.  There might have been a slightly epic lamb roast for the little brother's birthday lunch :)

A few peeps came over to wish him a happy birthday :)

I might have eaten too much ;)  

Watched some more Against the Wind, but I have to keep stopping it to go look up the history (the series was based on actual events).  In the evening we watched David Attenborough's Witness Statement, which was completely depressing for the first half.  There was more of a message of hope in the second half.  Stop breeding.  Check.  Go solar.  Coming soon.  Eat less meat.  Need to work on that one.

Sunday.  Mostly decent sleep.  Just did All The Things all day.  Managed to chip one of the good bowls while doing the washing up which gave me an epic sad.  I searched and searched everywhere for that chip but never found it.  I was hoping to minimise the impact by supergluing it back on, but it vanished off the face of the earth :(  In the evening we shared a bottle of McGuigan's shiraz that I bought on our Hunter Valley trip in 2012, and funnily enough I was wearing the same tshirt Sunday as the day I bought it :) 

Watched the first episode of a French documentary on the sun, and episode 6 of Against the Wind.

The other week when the Queen Mary 2 was in New York, I was waiting for her to sail so I could watch her on the New York Harbour webcam.  Meanwhile another ship departed, and for a moment the camera zoomed back to look closer at the Queen Mary 2.  Later I watched her sail out and under the Verrazano Narrows bridge.

This morning, @RMSQueenMary2 had this picture of Queen Mary 2 (which we've been on) and MS Rotterdam (which my mum was just on) together in Quebec.

And the other day saw this sadness - the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the process of being demolished :(

I left home today for the last time ever.  The family home.  Mum had lived there for forty two years.  I lived there for twenty six and a half years.

Sadness.

Although was too busy to feel much sadness during the process of removal, but did have a sad walk through at the end.

The end of an era.  The family home that noone else has lived in.  Now sold and to be rented out.

Yah.

But David and I did amuse ourselves by poking fun at mum .. "you've never moved have you?" .. because really she hadn't - not with a whole house of furniture and *stuff*.  Little things like rubbish bags and cleaning equipment she kept wanting to pack and send away and we're like, no you need to save those because you *will* need them.  heh.

Final council cleanup of everything left over

She got the dining table and chairs restored and reupholstered to match the new lounge.  It actually looks really good.

This is the sofa bed part of the new lounge

The china cabinet we built the other night, now filled up

So got mum moved in at the other end, and stayed til about 3pm unpacking boxes with Aunty Di.  Then I came home.  I never want to leave the house again.

Then I got depressed again at deadbeat ebayers who *still* haven't made any sort of contact with me.  I hate people.

I did finish decorating the Christmas tree though which made me feel a bit better.  It sparkles.

Yesterday we had a pretty quiet morning.  But it was such a lovely day we decided to go out to the club and try out our new caravan.  So went out and enjoyed the sunshine, and had drinks and dinner with some of the other people there, then played some cards then went to bed.  Turns out sleeping in a caravan is a lot more comfortable than sleeping in a tent!  Who knew?  We also managed to lock ourselves out of it within ten minutes of arriving.  Thank goodness John was there with a spare key! 

This morning after quite a long lie-in (it was freezing!) we got ready then helped out with some hazard reduction, as well as having some sausages for lunch.

Came home and called the parents, only to hear the bad news that the prognosis is not very good for Dad.  So that made me pretty sad.

Did our food shopping then came home and found my betta, that I've only had for six weeks, had died.  More sadness.

Then spent *ages* making up some lasagnas, only to have the sweetie eat a good chunk of my leftovers (mine had white sauce and lactose containing cheese).  Blah.

Then lost it cause the house was a pigsty.

It's only 9:30pm, but it feels a lot later.  Not sure how I'm going to be able to stay up..

Woke up this morning and one of the first things I saw was that Heather (Dooce) has separated from her husband, at least for a trial.  Which made me pretty sad.  I mean these guys have had problems forever (they've been in therapy for years), but there were still times when they seemed very much in love.  So yeah. Sadmaking.