For the last week, my husband has been rabidly unpacking boxes. He says it’s like Christmas because of my eccentric packing method and my failure in detailing all contents, resulting in oddities appearing amongst the expected.
Since moving in day, we have mostly had unseasonably warm days and blue skies. Australia’s March temperature records has been broken amidst reports of a delayed end to Summer.
Stan, our almost thirteen year old, fur baby, foodle is thoroughly enjoying being able to play fetch in the backyard as this blurry snapshot shows.
The commute to work takes about 60 minutes door to door. As I’m able to work half the time from home, only two days this week.
April is a great month because we have three public holidays. More time to enjoy our new home.!
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.
For me Dame Angela Lansbury was Bed Knobs and Broomsticks. 30 years ago I was living in Droitwich, a small spa town in England. The cinema was located in one of the forgotten spa buildings, grandly named the Winter Gardens. Built in the 1930’s, in its heyday it was reputed to have the best sprung dance floor in the Midlands. Rows of seats were screwed to the floor to create the picture palace. The building became a victim of redevelopment at a time of video cassettes and a general loss of interest in cinemas.
I remember with dewey-eyed nostalgia, the musty smelling space with dampness pervading the air. The chill of the place lingered in my bones long after leaving. Those were the days; buying Kia Ora, toffee apples and Cornettos from the usherette and watching cartoons before the feature film. My eyes smarted from the cigarette smoke fuelled haze caught in the oblong light stream from projector to screen. I’m sure I went to the cinema as a teenager more than twice. Yet there are only two movies that I remember seeing: Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mad Max; significant given my interest in paganism and eventual move to Australia!
Cabot Cove’s television sleuth in Murder She Wrote passed away on 11 October 2022, aged 96.
One of my treating general practitioners remarked to me, the passing of those around us is a reminder of our mortality.
Some say numerology is bunkum. My approach is to treat it with cautious respect. I don’t live my life by it however, I’m fascinated by numeric occurrences that appear to reinforce something.
According to numerology.com adding all of the digits of one’s date of birth together (year digits, month digits and day digits) until a value between 1 and 9 reveals one’s life plan number.
For example, my husband and I share a life plan number of one. Apparently, an auspicious number, ‘People with a Numerology Life Path 1 are born to act quickly and have no problem changing course and starting down a new path. A secret fear of failure makes them ultra-driven in every endeavor they pursue and will often make them victorious. As soon as one finish line is reached, they are already running toward another.’ This is reasonably accurate of the two of us.
Taking the concept a step further, the date my partner and I became husband and husband is 24.10.2014. Maybe it’s coincidence that 2+4=6, 1+0=1 totals 7 and 2+0+1+4=7, does this balance equate to balance?
Assuming a shared life plan is a thing, the date of our wedding in numerology is 7+7=14, 1+4=5. If our combined life plan is five, ‘People with a 5 Life Path number are on a lifelong adventure. They are ready for anything and want to soak up every experience this world has to offer. Life Path number 5 people tend to learn by living and don’t allow themselves to get stuck in any situation that has outworn its interest. The moment things start to get humdrum, a person with this Life Path will move on to something more fascinating.’ Our life together is indeed a shared adventure and we seem to be constantly moving house. My husband wants us to become grey nomads.
On Friday 28/10/2022, we had a delightful belated eighth anniversary lunch at the Manly Boathouse. As we were leaving, I noticed we were seated at table eight. This just happens to be my favourite number and wait for it, ‘go down the stairs and shut the front door!’, on the day of our wedding we wore matching silver cuff links with the symbol for infinity, eight. Oh, and the date is also eight.
Accompanied by our friend from Sydney we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Willow Cafe, Balmoral followed by a trip to Mount Coot-tha to view Brisbane from the west.
This picture is taken from within a Fibonacci spiralled stainless steel sculpture entitled, Venus Rising by Wolfgang Buttress, 2012 located in Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park.
My husband stated he thought the whole week had been slightly off. I tried not to dwell on the comment while patiently awaiting the arrival of our late night Campari spritzes.
Upon reflection, from leaving the house, to awaiting the arrival of the delayed 232 bus that subsequently caught a telegraph pole and lost a wing mirror; the odds did seem to be stacked against a fun filled evening.
Prior to hearing the graunching noise of metal against timber, I was considering the logistics of our bus, ferry, and walk journey; would we run out of time to be able to get something to eat.
We made up time by going against our frugal endeavours, taking an Uber X. Of course the roadworks on Grey Street led to us being dropped off way past our South Bank destination. After attempting a fast walk hobble with my dickie right leg while negotiating phone wielding zombie pedestrians we were embraced by the familiar surroundings of Julius Pizzeria.
We gladly snuggled into our spots in the worst seats in the bar while the maître d’ apologetically explained the lack of tables was due to school holidays, the ballet, and the show we were going to see.
Thoroughly enjoying perfectly prepared shaved mortadella with crumbed stuffed olives followed by a shared mixed mushroom pizza and rocket, Parmesan salad, we had sufficient time for a bottle of Soave, ricotta dumplings with Nutella and fiore de latte gelato and espresso martinis.
A ten minute walk delivered us to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Purchasing a bottle of water over sauv blanc being the solitary white wine choice, we headed for our seats via the furthest door into the auditorium.
To my left an Amazonian sized person wearing black top and knee flesh revealing faded jeans was reading a book. They appeared to be with others to their left. The two seats to my husband’s right were unoccupied until moments before the performance commenced when a scantily clad wisp of a girl accompanied by a Nebuchadnezzar like blond bearded chap took their seats.
In keeping with the ‘imaginary living room Olympian theme’, a rainbow sequinned leotard wearing Jonathan van Ness thrilled us with somersaults, splits, and jetes across a gigantic rainbow flag coloured gymnast mat. We were hooked!
While Jonathan exited to loosen their genitalia and change costume, we were left in the hands of an English person whose content included jokes about their gran’s dementia that poured icy water on our elated spirits.
We had lost interest by the time Jonathan reappeared in a short black sequinned dress and matching capelet. The side view we had of the stage was okay however, I had difficulty following the mostly US focussed monologue. It may have helped if the screen above the stage had been used to display closeups of Jonathan speaking.
My husband’s interest was piqued by the righthand waif’s apparent cerebral connection to Jonathan as she reacted to their every movement and punchline. Predictably they gave a standing ovation at the end of the show.
Meanwhile the lefthand Amazonian spent the performance scrunching their soft drink bottle. Once empty they bounced it bonk, bonk, bonk on their knees. Would it have been rude of me to grab it from their hand to discard it?
We did not need to rush home to Stan as he was having a sleepover, so we headed across Victoria Bridge, picked up bags of cashews and roasted almonds, and strolled to Burnett Lane for a few roadies at Death and Taxes.
After queuing for what felt like an eternity we were seated by the window. A Malvern born (what a small World) waitperson took our order and suggested we should check with fellow patrons before tucking into our snacks as there maybe someone with a high intolerance to nuts in the vicinity. We cautiously opened only the cashews, aren’t they legumes? We were vigilant, no adverse reactions were observed.
The evening wrapped up with an Uber X journey home around 1:00 am.
On Thursday, Stan had back teeth removed and is on the mend. He was a bit wobbly and disoriented after the general anaesthetic.
He has no objection to a temporary diet of poached chicken breast and vegetables. It warmed my heart when he joined us to watch television; a rare occurrence. He promptly fell asleep on my lap.
We can’t thank Brisbane Pet Surgery enough for their care and thoughtfulness; pre and post surgery.
I have no idea how Stan feels when he is suffering. Our dog whisperer friend said they deal with pain differently.
He squeaks when impatient to do something, usually as the humans are holding him up. Stan snorts when he is excited. He has no volume control when greeting people he trusts. And utters a high pitched screech when you tread on his tail; who wouldn’t!
On Thursday morning, Stan’s face was so swollen we could barely see his dark brown right eye. The vet prescribed pain killers and antibiotics to treat an abscess under his back molar.
Over the past days the swelling has gone down. Stan seems a little subdued, seeking us out to sit close to us. Even between us on the sofa. I feel double as much love for him when he is off his game.
We are going to get another opinion about the need to extract the tooth. We want to do the right thing for our twelve year-young fur kid who brings us so much joy.
theINFP 