Saturday 30 July 2011

Cat? What cat?

Look at me, I'm tired.  Don't look at me , I'm tired.  Look away, I'm tired.  No matter how I look at it, I'm tired.  Five nights being woken at 3.30am by the cat, three mornings getting up at 5.30am,  two mornings of starting at 5.30am and working through until 9.30pm (with two whole breaks of 30 minutes each in between), and then hitting the sack at 10.40pm, and guess what?  I'm tired.


We're cat-sitting for my lovely MIL*.  It isn't the best thing I've ever done, because, by and large, I'm not a fan of cats.  There have been cats in my dim & distant past whose company I've enjoyed in passing, but I've never offered one a place at my table, nor am I likely to.  I side with whoever it was who said "Dogs have owners, cats have staff".  Currently, Mr Golightly and I are butler and housekeeper to Munchkin, he of the beautiful blue eyes (photo somewhere, too tired to find it), whilst the current provider of food and board to the beautiful spoilt one is in Queensland, defrosting.


Anyhoo, the return of my WMIL* is imminent (Monday), and I've just had three glorious hours of afternoon nap, and I feel almost hooman** again.  I still wouldn't have a cat though.


Progress is being made on the latest chair, it is currently covered by extremely ugly orange fabric, and I have really enjoyed the Monday & Wednesday night classes at Upholstery School - we are lucky enough to have a fantastic teacher those nights, and I'm quite sure I learn more because he's so enthusiastic about what he's doing!




And finally, Gentle Readers, some of you may have noticed that my output has dramatically dropped off, and I think it's only fair to warn you that until I get into the groove of starting early, having two night classes and some semblance of life beyond that, there isn't going to be much more.  So, I'm officially signing off for a while, until I can dredge up some more energy!

Take care of your loved ones!

Ciao!








Sunday 17 July 2011

Tempus is doing that thing again...

Flying, that is.  Tempus Fugit.  Time flies.  Ah, the paucity of public education.


So, Gentle Readers, I have survived my first week back at the August Institution, and although I know it was a bit cruisey because it was my first week, it was nice & cruisey.  I had one-to-one meetings with people, I carted in stuff to personalise my desk, I ordered a footrest, I pined for upholstery school (only 3 more days, including today), and I bought this:



And hopefully, when we go with the car today, we'll be able to fit at least some of it in!

And!  This:


Which isn't working, but may only need a service and some oil.  Hopefully.

Anyway, we're going off this morning (as soon as Mr Golightly raises his head from the warm and comfortable pit he's in, aka the bed) to try & disassemble  the machine from the table, so we can get it into the car.  Otherwise it's a ute, a portalift & copious amounts of swearing:



Anyway, I've found a website which has manuals for sale, and I've paid my money via PayPal, so we're just waiting now for the email to show up... hopefully it'll show us how to take the thing off the table... and then all we have to do is try to get it in the house.  I'll keep you posted!

Ciao!





Friday 1 July 2011

Pouches...

Oh yeah, if all of you people who are popping in to view my Lined Box Pouch tutorial would leave some feedback, I'd be very happy.  It would be nice to know if you found it useful, useless, too long, too short, not enough pics, too many pics... something!  I keep seeing people pop onto the page from there, but nobody ever says hello!


Come on now, don't be shy, we're all friends here.  Or we will be if you bring the cake and watch where you sit!  But at least there's plenty of chairs :-).


Ciao!









Ciao!

il mio problema è rifinito!

Finally, Gentle Readers, our issues with the router are fixed (apparently).  I feel the pain and suffering of Mr Golightly, who had to deal with not one, not two, not three but four, yes four, links in the chain of service - his IT colleagues, Exetel, Telstra and then AAPT.  Isn't it good to know our telecommunications are safe in the hands of some stinkin' multi-national?


However, at the risk of being disconnected again, I won't go any further than that.  Even the VOIP works, which is great, because our phone bill was creeping up again - we pay about $13/month for the VOIP, which charges a whole 10c for a National call (to Perth, for example), and has reduced our landline bill down to the basic line rental charge for many months now.


If you can do it, Gentle Readers, and you live in this country (that's Australia, in case you've forgotten), talk to Engin about a voice box.  It connects to your wireless broadband modem (or wired, even) with a network cable, and with the aid of an ordinary telephone handset plugged into the voice box, gives you access to the cheapest national phone calls you can imagine.  I love it because it lets me keep in constant contact with my lovely Ma for peanuts.  This is an unsolicited, unscripted ad.  Can you tell?  


In other news, it was my good friend Doc Rosie's birthday on Wednesday - I've known her 27 years, which amazes me.  We've been through quite a lot together, and I am still amazed and awed by her basic human decency and her ability to tell dirty jokes - the first one she ever told me, about Maud and Mildred and the bunch of flowers, still pops into my head at the most inopportune times..


Anyway, I made her these:






Which I hope will hit the spot - aren't those fabrics lovely?


And now, having just spoken to my lovely Ma on the VOIP, and having a number of jobs I can do today, I am going off to shower (yes, it' only 10.37am, I don't want to rush into it!) and then pick a job at random.  I can see new curtains on the horizon...


Ciao!