Category: Daily Life

Paul invited us to dinner at his place on Saturday evening. He’s done a lot of work on his house, and we dined out on the newly refurbished front veranda. Paul’s good friend John manned the barbecue and cooked up some juicy steaks while Paul prepared the salads; and H and I chatted with John’s friend Karen. After the meal we went inside into the cool for dessert, a Tiramisu torte from the Cheesecake Shop. After dessert and coffee, Paul invited us to select a movie from his DVD collection and we made ourselves comfortable on the lounge to watch Gran Turismo, with Clint Eastwood.

Great movie, quintessential Clint with an unexpected non-Hollywood ending.

Everything in the “lettuce barrow” went to seed so yesterday I stripped them out and sowed some pretty wildflowers in their place.

Swan River Daisy. Blue star-like flowers with a sweet, light scent appear above mounds of feathery foliage. Ideal subjects for containers and bedding. Annual. Height 30cm.

Location: Prefers a well-drained sunny situation
Sow: Thinly 5mm deep, direct in flowering position
Seedlings emerge: 10-14 days
Spacing: Thin out as necessary to 20cm apart
Flowers: Approx 16 weeks from sowing
Care: Needs little attention. Do not overwater

I’m on the third day of some annual leave from work and it has been very HOT. There is the massive cyclone Yasi happening up north and flood recovery every where else.

It is nice to be spending extra time with hubby. I love when he does little thoughtful things for me, like offering to carry a heavy package.

In the last couple of days we both put in a claim for the flood disaster relief payment from federal government. We hadn’t been severely effected, and I wasn’t sure about putting in a claim, but we were eligible.

After taking care of the claim hubby took me for a drive to try a pork salad roll at a Vietnamese take away. He discovered these a couple of years ago and has raved about them ever since, and introduced many of his colleagues to them. Finally we had an opportunity for him to take me and they were very nice, a touch more chili than I’m used to (hubby said they don’t normally put so much on).

Today I went and got my hair cut super short – I resemble a porcupine. It feels great in this hot weather, but I am glad my hair grows pretty quickly. Maybe a little too short.

Tomorrow I’m getting the car serviced, gradually getting all the chores done that I wanted to get through this fortnight.

Was trying to remember the name of the artist work colleague Karen told me about. This female musician was from Darwin and played the ukele. I was unprepared for the number of references on Google after I typed in the search terms “ukelele” and “Darwin”. Seems that the instrument is very popular up north, and there is a group of people who call themselves “Dukes” – Darwin ukelele collective. They gather in public places such as parks and pubs and have ukelele jam sessions.

I finally found the musician Karen was telling me about – Leah Flanagan, with a style described as “equal parts Lucinda Williams and Shirley Bassey” (Jeff Apter, author). I’ve been enjoying her “September Song” which features uke strumming – quite a different sound, and kind of refreshing to the ears. I think the ukelele is a musical instrument that is often overlooked. It looks and sounds like a toy guitar but when played well, it evokes a laid back, relaxed mood reminiscent of the sunset, of gentle waves lapping onto a clean sandy beach, a cooling breeze and perhaps a nice tall glass of something.

Hubby and I went to see the new Green Hornet movie last weekend. In 3D (why do they charge extra to show movie in 3D, and expect audience to hand back the glasses?). Both of us were fans of the Green Hornet of 60’s TV, which starred Bruce Lee as sidekick Kato. Kato was pretty good in this movie too (sorry, can’t remember the actor’s name, not a complete unknown though, seen him in other movies). Actor Seth Rogan gave unusual performance as Green Hornet’s alter ego Britt Reid. Kind of unpredictable, bit over-the-top, kind of shallow but heart in the right place (apparently). Rogan’s growly voice got a bit on the nerves after a while, seemed like he should have been wearing a purple dinosaur suit and fronting a kids tv program. The real star of this movie was “Black Beauty”, the (almost) indestructible Chrysler Crown Imperial (think I got the make right) – the rolling arsenal of bullet proof windows, self-inflatable tyres, machine guns, rockets and ejector seats. Also, a record player in the back seat – which intrigued me. Why in this age of MP3 was an old vinyl record player cast as one of the big features of this cool ride?

Part of my therapy, from something I read in The Mindful way through Depression is to make note of things that make me feel good. Because I have a tendency to dwell on the bad things! and I want to give the good things equal or better attention.

So today, it was a so-so day, I was cooped up in my office doing some intense paperwork and didn’t have much to do with other people. But a couple of nice things happened. One of the managers dropped in with a work question and then we got talking about a particular personality trait that he said I share with his wife, it is a particularly endearing quality to him that his wife accepts things at face value without playing guessing games. It was a nice bit of sharing and made me feel good about myself.

Second good thing today was on the way home my phone rang and it was my psych Carrie calling to see how I was, since we had to cancel our appointment for various reasons in the past couple of weeks. I was really touched that she made that effort to see how I was.