Guilty

Old master sky blue

This morning, I awoke with a start. In my sleep, I dreamt of staying in a house with a pool. It had been snowing, the pool appeared to be frozen.

I hobbled outside to test my weight on the ice. Of course it was thin, sinking into remarkably warm water, I swam around, fully clothed.

At length, I emerged and returned to the house. The dripping wet silver grey tracky dacks seemed to have dried, no squelching was observed.

In the kitchen diner, people who appeared familiar were busying themselves in assembling a fruit platter to accompany hot beverages.

My mother stood in the living room folding clean washing. ‘These are yours, Rob’, she said, indicating white socks with orange heels and toes.

After undressing, I stood in front of two wardrobes, the right was assigned to my brother. The left contained pressed, white cotton, long sleeved shirts on wooden hangers. Below three lidded boxes lay on their sides.

Whilst pulling the left one out, a memory flashed through my mind. I had spent $8k+ on three pairs of shoes. It was a buy now pay later deal. What will my husband say when I tell him? The cost would have to be covered from the proceeds of the house sale!

Feeling guilty, I gingerly, removed the white lid. Inside nestled a pair of highly polished, walnut coloured, round toed loafers. The soles extended about 5 mm all around. Disconcertedly noting no tissue paper protected them from scuffing in the box, I removed the shoe tree and put on the left one. The softest most comfortable Italian leather enveloped my foot.

A price sticker inside the right advertised $2399.99. I held my breath as I carefully put them away. A red sale sticker, I had not previously noticed, declared ‘reduced $1499.99’, not so bad, gulp.

The middle graphite box contained boxer style boots in old master sky blue, kid leather with graphite laces.

Awaking, I felt thankful it was a dream.

It’s official

A few days before the deadline, the finance was confirmed; relief. Now we can finish packing up the household and ticking off our to do lists.

In around five weeks we will have moved into our new single storey three bedroom home on a 686 m2 sized block of land. Sporting forty solar panels, we can easily add a rainwater harvesting system.

There is space enough and northwest facing back/side garden for growing veggies, herbs, and fruit plus a covered outdoor area and room for a pool.

Liking resort style living, this property has the potential for us to make adjustments to suit our inside/outside lifestyle.

It differs from the Palm Springs mid-century modern I had in mind we were looking for.

I find it amusing to think we will be ninety when the mortgage is due to be paid off.

Omne trium perfectum

Latin for the rule of three; my husband’s favourite number.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Home
Unusually for a Tuesday, I am taking a day’s leave. Our original plans have changed and there is a forecast for thunder storms.

We sold our house at the first open inspection, to a cash buyer. We arranged for a 60 days settlement period to allow time to find a new place. The weekend after the sale, we found a ‘late mid century modern’ (1980) house to buy.

In line with the terms of contract the building and pest inspection condition has been ticked off, only the finance approval to go. Fingers crossed this will occur by the end of the week.

Health
This morning, we walked to one of the local supermarkets to buy supplies so that we could have scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

By the time we arrived at Morningside Plaza the recently diagnosed osteoarthritis in my right hip had slowed me down to a snail’s pace.

Knowing exactly where to find our loaf of choice, I headed to the bakery counter. A burly baker asked me if he could help me. I pointed to the racks of loaves behind him, requesting a white, sourdough Vienna. I thought he asked if I wanted ‘normal’ or ‘finest’.

At times my slight bilateral hearing loss leaves me unsure, so I said, ‘sorry?’ An equally proportioned woman sporting curly burgundy coloured hair flattened by an oversized dark brown hairnet shouted back, ‘HE SAID, NORMAL OR FINEST!’ She then went back to wiping down the stainless steel surfaces.

My ‘finest’ loaf was bagged and labelled after I refused the offer of it being sliced.

Hubris
I exited the store into the shopping centre. While mulling over the fact I usually purchase discounted bread at the end of the day off the shelf without the need to interact with dubious assistants, I was confronted with a supersized picture of a tabby entitled ‘how’s your health’. Cogetating for a second or two, I thought there’s no vet in here. Then I saw ‘sugaring’ and ‘waxing’, I guessed the ad was related to beauty treatments.

Convinced others are seeing me as some sort of elderly idiot, I am now frightened my brain may be slowing down; quelle horreur!

Eight aitch words

On Thursday, I used two words, I seldom, if ever use, haywire and hullabaloo.

The former in relation to my new work laptop connecting to a landscape, wide screen monitor, after I returned from lunch. The mesmerising resizing action of Google Chrome browser and Microsoft Outlook windows appeared completely out of control.

The latter when describing havoc related incidents at large scale events.

Being the eighth* letter of the alphabet, I’m surprised I haven’t thought more about aitches.

Havelock was my grand father’s middle name. According to https://www.meaningofthename.com/havelock, it has Norse ancestry meaning sea battler and from the Germanic elf warrior; olive tree.

Haphazard, our reality while in limbo. Could also be used to describe the seemingly random posts on this blog.

Heart, home, hearth; an oasis of warmth, caring, and kindred spirit.

Homo; the same.

* read more https://theinfp.com/2022/10/30/numerology/