this is what I wrote on F’book last night

and it was worse in Victoria and South Australia …

I have just driven throught the worst weather I’ve driven in in nearly 21 years of driving … if I’d known it was that bad coming down to Sisters Beach I’d have stayed in Wynyard at the parents in law … no fun in enormous gusting winds which are not only bouncing your very small car but lifting it and pushing sideways … and then you come over the hill and drop down into the road through the giant gum trees …..

I’m very interested in what our beach looks like today - Mr Tasmania told me that the water was up over the bridge and into the carpark at the beachfront - a friend told us later it was up to the toilet block which is at the back of the carpark…. and there is a big area which has gradually been eroding away over the last 6 month … with a couple of houses behind it … I don’t think they will have had a very comfortable night!

Don’t panic, Stanley is a place not a person! It’s a lovely lovely town in the North West of Tasmania .. and I spent the day there as I’m batching it this weekend (Mr Tas was in Launceston for a work conference yesterday and today, and has now headed off to Hobart (’cause he was halfway there!) for a mate’s 50th).

I had such a lovely day, lovely meal of salt and pepper squid at the Stanley Hotel, found a couple of fabulous shops with my kind of stuff, bought a very expensive knitting kit fr the needles and the website (and the included pattern so I’ve got it!) www.artviva.biz, fabulous, walked through the gallery (which is closing tomorrow, pressure of no business and to be honest their stuff is Tasmanian and AMAZING but some is really really REALLY overpriced! so not surprised business has been slowing …), and just generally had an all round great day.

Came to a lovely realisation as I was having lunch … I’ve been quite happy all these years going on my little excursions by myself (though enjoying muchly the company of mates like Deeleea and the Valkyrie) but realised only today (a little slow me) how much I was loving an excursion at the end of which I didn’t get to go home to a singleton existence… I have a husband, my beautiful partner, and we get to come home to each other (nearly) every day … God is good and i’m a happy girl!

Here we have THE NUT, at Stanley in North West Tasmania.

and this is looking East from Stanley, back towards Rocky Cape … and yes, this is how it looked today, it’s not my (lack of) photographic skills

Stanley Hotel, awesome salt and pepper squid (did I mention that already? .. slightly obsessed with salt and pepper squid)

Stanley’s version of Stonehenge

The Nut from the West

in an ‘on television’ not an ‘in person’ kind of way …. this has been quite a stand out week in television viewing for me, in that since last Saturday (it being Saturday now in Oz)(the next Saturday, that is) I have seen four people on television that I know ie I know them as people rather than oh, you look familiar, oh yes you’re on that show …

Firstly I saw Dr Andrew Browning, who is a year older than me I think? I know him from church and from high school and he’s always been a lovely boy. I really haven’t seen him since high school, so I can’t say he’s a lovely man with any actual experience of that. Given that he was appearing in a doco relating to the fistula clinic he runs in Africa (I think, missed the first part!) I am going to assume he’s still a very nice person!

I was then watching one of my favourite shows, FInd my Family in which various adopteds are reconnected with members of their biological families - I love it! At the end of the show they gave a brief clip of next weeks … and that’s when the twins popped up! And they were about 3 years behind me in school, or maybe four … have an idea they were in KombiBro’s year actually, so that’d be four - and dad taught at least one of them. Boy and girl, one at least still living where I come from, it was common knowledge they were adopted but quite a surprise to see their faces pop up!

And then the final surprise was yesterday morning, while the news was being read. A poor man was shot yesterday in Sydney and they showed a bit of video of the ambo’s delivering him to the hospital … and as one of the ambo’s moved around the trolley well, lo and behold, there was Thommo! I went through high school with Thommo, he’s a great guy, everybody’s mate, failed our high school certificate (kinda like A levels I guess?, year 12 anyway), then went back and did the last two years again - I’ve always admired him for that! I knew he went on to be a very well regarded ambulance paramedic - but certainly didn’t expect him to be popping up on the telly either!

wonder who I’ll see next?

Particularly - heat pumps - or reverse cycle air conditioners, depending on how you feel

We have one at the shack (not the house, that’s getting ducted air conditioning - picture in a previous post of giant silver spaghetti was the ducting) … it’ the old one that was taken out of my work when we had new smaller ones put in each office. Originally they had just this large one in my admin area - which heated me to the point of slumber but left everyone else absolutely frozen, so not quite a success.

In our shack however … it’s warm, it’s quiet, and it’s relatively cheap! My boss was supposed to give it to a charity - but honestly, what charity would take it and then have to pay for installation and regassing? So it’s been sitting in the office carport since November … I offered to take it in December … my immediate boss finally got sick of it and nagged the big boss into giving it to me in May (I think) … and I acted on her word and loaded the enormously heavy thing into my little car that afternoon (was super excited - it really takes two people to lift the outside unit - I put it in the car by myself - amazing what strength you develop with a little adrenaline!).

Anyhoo, one smallish donation (to be made tomorrow) and we now have a lovely source of heat which saves us $120 a bottle on gas (lasts about 4 weeks in Winter, less if we have guests and have to have the spare bedroom door open) + electricity on the panel heater in the bathroom, which we also needed on at night .. now it will just be the heat pump sitting on 16 deg Celsius and coming on when necessary … and there will be no more condensation, no more mouldy walls or curtains, possibly a bit more dust but I’m prepared to live with that - and the best thing of all? It’s QUIET!!!!!

I love it!

This is from Semele’s post, who took it from Amy’s post … etc …

I’m posting it so others may do it BUT not so I can do it … ’cause I”m already doing it for FIVE people via a FAcebook note .. but I like the idea so hopefully some others may as well?

Pay It Forward

The first three people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me. The only ‘condition’ in participating is that you have to carry on the gift giving to three more people. As soon as you have left a comment do a “pay it forward post” on your blog and continue the giving!

So, it’s the shortest day, the winter solstice … and we should be shivering madly, piling on all our winter clothes, hats, and boots, whinging about the rain, and scraping frost off our car windows in the morning … but we’re not. Or at least in this part of Tasmania we’re not.

It’s been beautiful weather the last couple of days, brilliant sunshine each morning, hot enough to make you sweaty whilst doing some garden work, then overcast but still fairly mild in the afternoons. Our gas heater ran out of gas this afternoon so I now have my tiny oil filled column heater switched on .. but only on half, and it in no way would manage to warm this room in a ‘normal’ winter but is managing quite well. We are having a heat pump (reverse cycle air conditioner) installed tomorrow though - not very ’shack’ like (not your usual beach house thing) but it is second hand (from my work) and we don’t even know if it will work (though it should) … guess I’ll find out tomorrow night!

That’s about it really … I gardened, I read magazines, I still haven’t cooked a chocolate cake, and I’m back at work tomorrow - really have been glad to have three days off.

it’s been great having a break from the real full on work on house building that has been going on - we’re both feeling just ordinarily tired at the end of the day now not bone weary!

Mr Tasmania has headed off to help a mate work on his new shop and I’m at home contemplating where to start in the housework - I have tomorrow off and would really like to spend it in the garden (assuming it’s not raining) so I’m trying to get motivated to get all the other stuff out of the way today … mixed results so far, dishwasher is on, load of washing is on … I’m blogging, have just been playing games on Facebook, and am now going to play with photos for a little bit …. we’ll see how I’ve gone by the end of the day!

anyhoo, yes, we’ve been doing some work on little bits and pieces up at the new house .. we’ve painted the most gorgeous bright red door to be the under house access door … and yesterday we started painting the eaves - hooray - actual paint on the house! Unfortunately not inside paint but still, we painted!

Otherwise … well, I’ve read a few good books, I’m going through all the design mags we’ve bought in the last three years and getting them ready to be recycled via various friends :), and I’ve, yet again, bought more wool!

Here is our lovely door ….

and our front door, now with added brickwork!

and the brickwork down the side of the house - apparently they will be finished in about 8 - 10 days!

and our bedroom, now with the lovely highlight windows installed above the main window and doors … make all the difference in winter!

and finally, my lovely boys on the beach - cold but great walk yesterday morning - so nice to do it in the daylight, bring on the shortest day tomorrow, after that’s gone it’s practically Summer!

I won’t go into details but suffice to say that I have finally accepted today that my mind and the mind of my little brother (ie the youngest brother of two) are so far apart they are basically heading in opposite directions. This is a bit confronting as I’ve always said that we think quite alike … this despite the fact that we voted for opposite parties in the last federal elections, could (if we let ourselves) have an argument about anything at the drop of a hat, and I’m a long term employee (5 1/2 years is my longest) whereas he’s always looking for the next job - which is not to say that he’s not a good / smart / amazing worker just that security to him and me mean different things.

He wrote me an email today that just left me completely gobsmacked. He wasn’t mean or nasty or rude, was not having a go at me, it was just a completely (to me) bizarre email … but perhaps from his point of view it makes complete sense.

I really find it difficult to believe that we grew up in the same family, have the same belief system, have essentially the same morals, and can think so differently on something that I would not have originally thought we would.

Food for thought … and maybe a few adjustments in my expectation levels of my siblings possibly ….

Mr Tasmania currently looks as if he’s been glassed in a bar fight .. he has a large half circular cut running from the top of his nose and curving down his left cheek to finish about midcheek … thankfully the downlight shroud which he was in the process of nailing to the roof truss missed his eye .. and also thankfully the very very sharp metal corner sliced under his skin rather than into his cheek, so it looks ugly and painful but does not need stitches and hopefully will heal without a scar (or one that will fade over time).

This was one of the final warnings that it was time for us to stop and slow down a bit (which also include one of us backing into another car (and it wasn’t me) and both of us losing the ability to remember words (Or just choosing random ones that have the right syllables) and other little bits and pieces like that!) … and we have had a breathing space given to us by the fact that the plasterer cannot start for four weeks - the brickies start tomorrow (assuming the rain has stopped!) and they should only take two weeks. We have a few little jobs to do around the place but are now taking some time to catch up on our other world ie the house we live in, our jobs, our families, our friends etc .. I did not go to the block yesterday but was able to do lots of very small jobs which have been waiting for ‘ron (that’s an abbreviation for later on, don’t know if it’s Aussie or universal) so was very happy … I roasted zucchini, made Moroccan pumpkin soup, cleaned some stuff, washed and dried some other stuff, FINALLY burnt the DVD’s of photos and videos from the big family trek to visit us in Tassie in JANUARY to celebrate mum’s 60th, and just generally pootled about and did some stuff and it was great!

After Mr Tasmania suffered his injury he came home and picked me up, took me to show me the work he’d done and then we went and had afternoon tea (coffee and lovely fresh bowl of hot chips) at the Jolly Roger Cafe in Boat Harbour. Came home and relaxed, ate the soup, and it was great!

We have had a lazyish morning, did a few little things around the house, went for a walk in the first wonderful sunshine for about 10 day!, and are now relaxing at home (excellent timing on our part as, just after our two hour walk along with beach with JD the wonder dog, a mate, and her dog Zac the loony, it has started to pour again) …. I think we will now spread all we have to do over four weeks rather than a week, which is what it was looking like before … and that’s probably a very good thing!

it’s chaos … and you will understand how much when I tell you I willingly left to come back to the shack to do some cleaning and tidying up!

Electrician installing heat pump with huge amounts of ducting everywhere, his offsider, Mr Tasmania digging trenches, bobcat driver digging trenches, truck delivering scaffolding … and it’s been raining so there’s a lot of water and mud .. but it’s all still going well for all that

Hallway Spaghetti

Ducted heat pump going in

Back patio being bricked

Slightly bogged bobcat

Bedroom windows / french doors finally on

Study / Library … or, as I like to call it, A Booklovers CHALLENGE!!!!!

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