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Messed it up
This morning we needed to make a money transfer overseas and tried to do it using online banking. All was going well until the end when it asked me to get a code from my security token. I didn’t have one and neither did the Scientist. We didn’t know they even existed at our bank. Â This afternoon we went to the bank to see about acquiring one or two of these devices so that we could put the transaction through. Both of us got a device but each had to be processed separately. When I got mine, I had to input a PIN and then repeat it. I did this at the bank and all was fine. Tonight I tried to use it and it didn’t work. I know what PIN I intended but have no idea what I actually used. I tried a couple other possibilities but those didn’t work. It locked up after the fifth attempt so I will have to return to the bank to have the PIN reset. It’s not really an urgent situation since the Scientist had no issues and was able to transfer the money. It’s just annoying that I seem to have input something different to what I was thinking.
I noted something odd while trying to do the transfer this morning. My last name was listed incorrectly on the international transfers page even though it is correct on other parts of the account. This apparently has something to do with when this was enabled. I don’t recall ever using this service before so it all seems a bit odd. I do recall that the spelling of my last name was the same as appeared on some other account of sorts at some point. I can’t recall what other account this was but I’m fairly sure it was something that required quite a bit of ID at the time and that at some point the name was corrected. Of course the problem with my memory is that it’s fairly imperfect and apparently deteriorating more than I’d like.
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Arrival
It was a dark, wet and dreary day nineteen years ago as I stepped off the plane in Perth for the first time to start my new life in Australia. I don’t recall specifics but there was a whole line of family and friends to meet us at the airport. I remember it was a bit overwhelming to meet so many people at once and I didn’t think I’d remember names any time soon. There probably weren’t that many people but it seemed a lot at the time. I was four and a half months pregnant with Game Fanatic at the time and starting to feel a bit oversized already…I remember I had on a short-sleeved red top that I was fond of wearing. In fact, I probably didn’t wear it much after that time and I have no idea what became of it now. Funny the stuff you remember after so long. That first month seemed to be have rain just about every day but the sun would often pop out and we’d see a rainbow appear on many of those days too. After that life was a bit of a blur as I adjusted to my new home. That is, until October when life got very interesting after Game Fanatic was born.
I completely missed this anniversary last year. I might have also missed it this year had I not had to write out the date today. I was at the Red Cross doing a regular plasma donation and had to sign and date the forms and that’s what triggered the memory. As a side note, I have now reached the maximum plasma donation level of 18% which allows me to give 800 mls each donation. I think this is only slightly higher than the last one but it makes the last cycle of blood draw and red cell return a bit more worthwhile. As I’ve used my right arm for donation most of the time lately, I thought I’d give it a break and try my left arm. It seems my veins were not easily found by the lady doing my session today so the expert was called in and he found a good vein. Interesting part was the way the machine was not moved to my left side this time but the tubes were draped across me. I think this had a lot to do with my location at the end of the room as they usually do shift the machine to the same side as blood draw. My next appointment is in a month for a full blood draw, but I wonder now if they will again ask me for plasma instead since they still have a high need for it.
We had pizzas from our much-loved local shop for dinner and I went back out to the store afterwards in search of a brownie mix. Brownies are my go-to treat to celebrate special days. I will clarify that I would love to make home made brownies most of the time but my boys seem to prefer the store mixes. Our favorite brownie mix here is the Australian made White Wings brand which has a nice chunky brownie mix that works well with my non-fat oil replacement of Greek yoghurt. Sadly the store had no boxes of this type available. They did have the Betty Crocker type available which is acceptable. They also had the Duncan Hines type which wasn’t all that great when we tried it. I found another mix by another Australian brand which was cheaper than the others. I decided to give it a shot and bought it along with a muffin mix on a special offer. Unfortunately they didn’t come out well at all. Not inedible but definitely quite underwhelming. I now feel the need to fix this wrong by making more tomorrow that taste like they should. Of course the lesson in this situation is not to try something too unknown for anything special.
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Long weekend
We just finished a three day weekend yesterday and it was quite a busy one. On Saturday we went to lunch with the Scientist’s family at my in-laws’ home and spent much of the afternoon there. My mother-in-law always makes quite a feast for all of us and it’s always quite tasty. I went to the gym when we got home and had a light workout before coming home for what’s become our Saturday afternoon/evening games session.
Starting the weekend of Mother’s Day, we each get a turn on the weekend at choosing what game(s) we will play. It’s become the habit to choose one short and one long game. Usually the long game takes enough time there’s not a question about starting a third game. We’ve also gotten into a habit of replaying one of the new games the following day. The new game this week was Shadows over Camelot, which was one I bought. I liked the premise of a co-op game with the added twist of a possible traitor amongst the players. It reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings in the complexity of the cooperation, particularly as regards sacrifice. As in some other recent games, we missed a few important bits of information the first time around so that it was totally impossible to win. The biggest issue was not getting a starting hand of cards to use so that we were struggling at the start. We played again on Monday and did much better…but again lost, except for Lego Lover who was a traitor. There were still a few issues with how we played that affected our outcome this time. It turned out Lego Lover really didn’t have to do anything to help us lose as it was all going to happen anyway. But he did carry off the pretense of being a partner the whole way through quite well. :) My short game on Saturday was King of Tokyo which was won by Game Fanatic quite well by eliminating all the rest of us as players.
Sunday morning we went to the gym in the morning and I had a rather short workout due to my lateness getting there…but still managed a solid half hour or so which is my main goal. Once we got home, the Scientist and I showered, ate lunch, then went to see Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular in Perth. We had the pleasure of seeing Tim Minchin (local Perth boy, now  international success) playing Judas along with Mel C from the Spice Girls as Mary Magdalene and Ben Forster (relative newcomer)  as Jesus, all from the original London production. It really was quite a spectacle and it was so well played by all involved. This was my anniversary present to the Scientist who was rather keen to see the show. He was more than pleased with it and I feel fairly certain that a dvd copy of the London production will be procured once it is released next month. I was far less familiar with the show although I have seen the movie at some point… just not at a time when it stuck with me. I’m pretty sure it will stick with me a bit better after this show.:)
Yesterday was what is now called West Australia Day here. Before last year it was always called Foundation Day and was just a day off for most of us. I don’t really recall much of last year either. This year, there were all sorts of events organised to celebrate WA Day. We didn’t do anything to celebrate the day this but stay home. The last few years, we would take Lego Lover to see the Model Railway show that includes a massive Lego display on this day. He was interested in going this year but eventually decided not to go as it would be quite crowded. The other issue was getting up in time to get there. I was rather relieved he didn’t want to go as we’d been out and about all weekend and I was keen to stay home. So we stayed home and played board games in the afternoon. The Scientist and I left a little after 5pm for tai chi class and didn’t get home until about 8pm after having dinner at a Mexican grill place near our class. I only have four more weeks and I will officially be an advanced student. Then we can both attend that class together instead of the Scientist playing tutor for the other students.
I don’t think we’ve been quite so busy on a long weekend in quite some time…aside from the birthday/Christmas combos, that is.
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Defective
This morning I turned on my computer as usual and played some of my usual daily puzzle and card games. While playing minesweeper, the right button on my trackball mouse suddenly failed. This is the trackball I just bought in January. With the current level of chaos at my desk, I was concerned about finding the receipt but it was still there. I’ve been having issues for a few days now when I start my computer and the cursor just wouldn’t move at all when I got to the start screen. I wasn’t sure if it was a software or hardware problem causing this to happen but since it seemed to work on the second go, I carried on. Anyway the Scientist tried the trackball on his computer and had the same results while I had no issues using his mouse on my computer. I called up Kensington to report the fault and the process was quite easy for my part. After providing some information to the customer service representative, I was sent and email referring me to an online portal. I had a bit of delay due to some information in the email that wasn’t really necessary (about non US customers) but got logged in and was able to send a copy of the receipt through along with my shipping address. Within a couple hours I got another email saying a replacement is being shipped out and will arrive in 10-14 business days. So far, I’m quite impressed.
This reminds me of my experience buying an earlier model of their trackball from a Perth company, but using an online store. I bought it and it eventually did get to me but did not have the wrist rest that was supposed to be included. I contacted the local company and after considerable hassle did get a replacement. They didn’t want the original back even though the trackball was perfectly fine so I had two trackballs but only one wrist rest. I can only suppose that they followed a similar process on their end and this is just how Kensington operates.
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I’ve got a golden ticket….
We continue to buy and play games here. This weekend we played some that have arrived in the last week or so.
One is  a relatively short game called Citadels which we all enjoyed.  It’s mostly card-based and rounds go fairly quickly, even with the slowness at which Lego Lover takes his turns.
Another game we played is Nuns of the Run. Game Fanatic pointed this one out as it has a similar feel to Scotland Yard, a game I bought close to 25 years ago while still in college. That game has a lot of memories for both the Scientist and me as we used to play often in the lobby of our dorm. It was a favorite then and it’s now become a favorite of the family. I notice it now sells with a totally new box and (I think) game board design but I quite like our old copy tha t is a bit worn from time and use. It’s a co-op game where a thief tries to stay clear of the detectives of Scotland Yard…there are five detectives against one thief. Each turn the players can use different types of transport to move around the board and the fun is to locate the thief as a team. There are limits on the how often you can use the transport so it’s a matter of making good use of what you have.  Nuns on the Run isn’t exactly a co-op game since everyone is really playing against each other…but one player plays the guards and the others are nuns who have to reach a room with a particular key and then go to another room with a particular item before returning to the cell. All within 15 turns and while the Abbess and Prioress (guards) are roaming different pathways. We played this twice on the weekend and I managed to just win on the first game. The second game I played way too safe and had no chance of getting back in time. So it’s a bit like the reverse of Scotland Yard, minus the cooperative play. There were a lot of little details that we didn’t pick up on the first time playing and I suspect we’ll catch a few more after we give it a few more goes. It was definitely one of the more complex games that we’ve played lately.
We also played a game called Smash Up, which is a card-based game with different decks for play. It”s all about building up points on different bases with cards in your decks to gain points. First player to 15 wins. Game Fanatic won the first game quite easily but it was another one we all liked.
To be honest, I think we’ve liked pretty much all the new games we’ve tried lately. That’s not a bad record considering how many new ones we have now. The other day, we looked on our top shelf at our older games, mostly ones that came with us from the US. We have several versions of Trivial Pursuit there, and most of those will be quite dated by now. There’s also The Game of Life which I have had since childhood. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of that one as we never play it and I can’t imagine us every playing it again. I also have an old copy of Monopoly which is my first board game. I probably won’t get rid of that…we have a newer set that came in a fancy set with Clue and some other games. It plays the same except it uses the British versions… maybe I can just keep the cards from mine to play the US version…
I also got a “Golden Ticket” when the Nuns on the Run game arrived. This was a competition of sorts run by Ozgameshop, the UK based shop where we buy most of our video games and board games now. There were only a few golden and silver tickets placed in random packages. After opening the box, Game Fanatic ran into my room (I was in bed) to tell me the great news. The gift was $150 credit towards future purchases…Game Fanatic immediately began thinking of more games to buy…we now have four more to come plus a Nintendo 3DS game of Animal Crossing for me when it’s released. It’s the first game I’ve purchased since I inherited a 3DS console and it’s a game from a series I’ve liked for several years. Not to mention another one that arrived today.
Not board game related by the Scientist got us onto an online game, Geoguessr.com, using Google street view images where your objective is to figure out where it is as close as you can. Lego Lover just adores the game and he’s quite adept at using Google Earth/maps…and is quite persistent in his attempts to place the marker as close as possible to the location. He has managed to get within a few metres several times but last night he managed to get it spot on. I was impressed although it is exhausting to go through the process at times. Along with his persistence (while good it has some negatives), there are some of his less positive traits that come out. Still, it’s a nice way to spend time together and learn quite a bit together about the world.
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Catching up
I keep procrastinating about writing posts and never get around to them. Maybe I need to make a list of things I want to write and tick them off as I do it.
Life carries on as usual at the lorikeet household. Last week, the Scientist and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We’d been together a few years before that but this was the official date. It was a very good day, starting with a gym visit and shower before going out to a mid-afternoon meal at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant here in Perth. This is one of his Italian restaurants and it was absolutely lovely there. The complimentary bread was some of the best I’ve had. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with it were just wonderful. I had a pasta dish with prawns and linguine which was quite nice. I only ordered an entree plus a salad on the side…plenty of food for me. We did have a starter of baked mushrooms and the music bread with that was also rather addictive. For dessert I was brave and tried the pannacotta. I’ve tried it many times before and was always disappointed. But I had hope that Jamie’s recipe would work and I was right. Strong vanilla flavors and fresh fruit and sweet and creamy. It’s not part of the usual menu but I hope to have it again. The best part of the meal is that it didn’t cost a small fortune to eat there and was reasonably priced. Not bad for a celebrity chef restaurant in the city. Add to that the great dinner companion and I couldn’t ask for more. The Scientist and I enjoyed a stroll through King’s Park afterwards and probably worked off a few calories from the meal. We climbed the DNA tower, which is two spiral staircases designed to look like DNA. It has a good view at the top and it was sunset so we were both snapping away with our cameras. I made it up and down the stairs without much problem, which was a nice change…funnily enough I had more trouble on some other stairs and steep paths along the way…strange. It’s weird to think it’s been 20 years since our wedding day…sometimes it seems so recent and other times it’s a lifetime ago…
I’ve been out in the garden this week, cutting branches off a tree I want to get rid of. I don’t know how we will get the trunk removed ourselves as it’s very big but I plan to cut as much off as I can. It’s a shame since the tree has been there since we planted our first shrubs…but it was taking up a massive part of the garden and was too big for the yard. We have another one in the front yard but will leave that as it is for now. Aside from many piles of branches, there is a lot more space in the side/backyard than there’s been in years. Little Maromi won’t be able to hide as easily when this is cut down like he does now. I also noticed today it gets so much more sun in that area now. I’m thinking of trying to plant a hibiscus and see what happens…but we may think about a few other plants too.
We’d truly gotten into the chilliness of late autumn/winter this month but the last few days have been a bit warmer and even the nights haven’t been quite so cold. Last week I went outside to hang wet clothes and even with a warm robe and bed socks with shoes I was feeling chilled. A couple nights ago, it felt more like a summer night and the clothes didn’t even draw damp. We’re supposed to get some rain but I haven’t seen much evidence of it so far. I did, however, see a beautiful moonrise on the way back from tai chi. It was hidden behind clouds at first but came into full view by the time we were home. I noticed a little while ago it’s still quite bright although much higher in the sky…no clouds blocking it at the moment so I wonder when this rain is due to happen…
I had more games news to add but it turned out to be so long I will make it into a separate post.
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Desk chairs
Just over a year ago when I had my knee surgery, the Scientist bought a cheap plastic garden chair for me to use in the shower. I only needed it for a few weeks and expected to move it outside afterwards. About the same time, the old desk chair that was handed down to Games Lover from me a few years ago finally broke in a way that couldn’t be repaired. I’d only recently replaced my own desk chair with one from a chain office supply store but gave that to Game Fanatic and used the garden chair as a temporary fix until we could buy another one for me. Months later I was still using the garden chair and had an accident where it tipped back while I was sitting down and I landed on it, causing some muscle pains that still recur regularly. I continued to use that garden chair and Game Fanatic started to wear down my old (new) chair. The truth was he was too heavy for it so it was bound to break. I need to sit on it last night to do something on his computer and realised the claims he was making of it breaking were getting quite serious.
Today we went out in search of a new chair for him. We started at the same chain store we bought my last chair from and found little of interest. He wanted a cloth upholstery and I wanted to avoid vinyl…They did have a leather chair but it was quite expensive. I recalled seeing an office furniture store somewhere nearby and finally visited it. We found several potential chairs and they were more reasonably priced than expected. Game Fanatic chose a chair and I tried it out. I liked it so well that I bought two, in different colors. The hope is for both chairs to last a few years instead of falling apart so easily as some of the recent ones. It feels weird to sit in a proper chair after all this time but I like the new feeling and I think my body will be happy for it too.
This afternoon I gave Game Fanatic a hair cut. I don’t think it’s been cut in over a year and it was quite long and straggly. While I’m no good at cutting hair, it does look a lot better now and the once hidden face can be seen. Our next goal is to persuade him to either shave or at least trim his facial hair as it’s making his face look rather top heavy after losing all the hair on his head.
And tonight I went to tai chi class and finished the last of the jade lady moves that plagued me several levels ago. We learned them the first time in level three and in level six we do them again in the opposite direction. I think I’m doing okay with them this time. This is the first of several moves that are mirrored from moves in earlier levels. I was rather nervous about doing them before but I think I’m feeling more confident now and now am getting nervous about moving to the advanced class next term…also a bit excited though. :D
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Mother’s Day
It’s nearly at the end of my Mother’s Day here and it’s gone pretty well overall. This morning, the Scientist and I drove up to take his mum out for lunch at an Indian restaurant that has some nice food. The boys opted to stay home, which was okay as it was far less expensive without hungry teens to feed. :) The restaurant was mostly empty so it seemed like we should get good service, at least at the start. However, the woman who served us was as unsmiling as on our previous visit. The food took a long time to come but it tasted good, so was worth the wait. The Scientist got the meat thali (a combo of three small dishes of meat curry plus dahl and a couple side dishes…and a small dessert slice). His mum and I both got the vegetarian version and the curries were quite nice. There was a lot of rice served with the meals plus a naan bread and a pappadam…they were all very nice. We should have gotten a can of soft drink with our meals as they were lunch specials… but completely forgot until after we were on the way home…Anyway, it wasn’t offered. The Scientist recalled this happened on the previous visit too although we did remember to ask for it then. The two previous times I’ve eaten their food, it was incredibly hot but this time it was quite mild…Had we known we could have asked for more heat…anyway we will know for next time. We then took his mum home and hung out for a short while before coming home.
We went to the gym soon after we returned home then came home to prepare for the evening. The plan with the boys was to play some board games and watch Doctor Who at 7:30pm. The decision as to which game(s) was rather difficult due to the significantly increased choices now available. I finally decided upon Discworld and used the special day as an excuse to encourage Lego Lover to play this time. I wasn’t sure how that would work and it seemed like it might go a bit pear-shaped as he was rather crotchety about it at the beginning. We’d tried to insist once before and he was totally uncooperative and uninvolved so we switched it to just three players that time. Today, however, he did take a bit more part in the proceedings and I think he kind of liked the game even if he never admitted it. It went pretty well this time but was quite interesting as the dynamic changes quite a bit with the extra player. The Scientist won this time and it was time to decide on another game.
In an act of some goodwill towards Lego Lover for taking part, I asked him which game he thought we should play next and he chose Puerto Rico. It’s a fairly long game so I wasn’t too sure about playing so late in the day when we had a tv program to watch afterwards. Game Fanatic wasn’t at all keen to play as he finds the game kind of boring due to the theme of it. I decided to make a go of it since Lego Lover was so put out…Obviously this meant we wouldn’t be watching Doctor Who tonight…which makes it every episode we’ve watched after the broadcast this season. What I had forgotten most was how terribly long the set up for the game is…There’s no good way to hurry it along either. Once set up we also had to refresh our memories of how to play. Eventually we got into the swing of it and all went pretty well. Lego Lover particularly enjoyed it and I noticed how much better his game play was this time compared to earlier games. Game Fanatic had a fair bit of bad luck so eventually stopped making much effort at the game and I just plugged away at it. After nearly two hours, we reached the end and the Scientist had won again…so  it was a good night to play for him.
Last night I also played a second game of Summoner Wars with Game Fanatic since it’s one of his favorite games right now. It’s only a two player game  (can be expanded though) so it’s not had a lot of play as yet. It’s only been a few weeks but I’d forgotten most of the game play. Also I had a different deck of cards this time which made it a bit harder. Our first game only took about 45 minutes but we went well over an hour last night and I managed to win by some luck and a bit of help from Game Fanatic…he didn’t let me win but he did point out a few moves in the course of the game. I told him we have to play more often so I don’t forget and so that I learn to play well enough to be properly competitive. I found the game a lot easier than Magic the Gathering was when we last played nearly two years ago.
Now it’s late night and I’m hoping to get in touch with my mom soon to wish her a happy day. Or I will wait until tomorrow morning and catch up with her.
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Storm that wasn’t
At least in our area, the storm was relatively benign. Sure, there was plenty of gusty wind but not enough to cause damage. There was also plenty of rain but it came along in showers that usually didn’t last too long. There was even a bit of thunder and lightning…for about two or three minutes. It definitely wasn’t the big storm we expected but it did bring plenty of rain and cooler weather that is more typical of this time of the year. Further south they fared considerably worse but it seems we were on the edge of the system and missed out the worst. That’s one good thing about where we live though. When we had the big hailstorm in March about three or four years ago, our area missed out completely, aside from a massive downpour and a whole lot of noise from the clouds above…even that didn’t last all that long. We’re still getting showers after a few days and possibly will have more tomorrow but it looks like the sun will be back by Sunday.
Today I took Lego Lover to see the New York photo exhibit that’s running here from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I would have liked to wait until next week as he’s not totally recovered from the virus that started with a sore throat but the exhibition closes on Sunday and a weekend visit wouldn’t have gone well with all the last minute crowds going. He wasn’t keen to go but this was part of his “school” program and we compromised on our travel by taking a train into the city from a not-too-distant suburb (closest station to us)…Anyway, we arrived and he first got to have a look at all the construction going on near the city train station for a couple of minutes. We moved on to the art gallery and had our visit. It took far less time to look at everything in this exhibit. I don’t know if it was smaller or if we just didn’t spend as much time looking at the photos. Lego Lover didn’t like much of it although he did like one that showed double decker buses in the 1950s, I think. To be honest, I didn’t find this one nearly as good as the last one. Even though I didn’t like a lot of the Modern Masters series, it was more interesting to me overall. Afterwards we went to look at the grade 12 student exhibition in the next gallery. We didn’t linger at that for long as Lego Lover was wanting to go but I thought there were some very interesting pieces and it was amazing to think these are high school students’ work. Next month a new exhibit from MoMA comes out called Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond: The World Reimagined which I plan to visit with Lego Lover and the Scientist. Hopefully we can find a weekend when it’s not too terribly crowded. There is also a new exhibit at the nearby WA Museum which is about Ancient Egypt and includes two mummies that we plan to see after it begins later this month.
After we left the museum we had lunch in the city and wandered around the city for a little while before we came back on the train. We must have left around 4pm and the train wasn’t nearly as crowded as I’d have expected.
I was quite glad to get home because I’d suddenly gotten very itchy while at the art gallery. It started mostly to the side of my belly button and was bad enough that the skin got red and blotchy and it looked like I’d broken the skin with the scratching…not sure if that really happened as it seemed to show up rather soon after I was aware of the itchiness or maybe it just looked like it. I’ve been finding myself itchy all over my body  since, although thankfully not all at the same time. I’m wondering about the cause of this and I wonder if I got something irritating onto my skin somehow or had some sort of insect bite…or maybe there’s something else. Hopefully it will be better in the morning.
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Latest happenings
I went to give plasma again today and it all went well aside from a bit of blood leaking out from the site of the needle. There’s a high demand for plasma so I offered to go back in a couple weeks but there are no appointments available until next month. So my next donation will be in early June. I seem to have become a bit of a regular at this now. :)
We are bracing for the first major winter storm of the year. Unless one counts that nasty storm that came through in mid-March and left a fair bit of damage around the town. Seems the next few days are going to be nearly cyclonic conditions with heavy rains and thunderstorms and strong winds. So far we’ve only just got the rain with a bit of wind around here. Game Fanatic is kind of happy for the wintry weather since that means it will be good stew weather and he loves his stews.
I was going to go to the gym yesterday since I had my blood donation today…but then I spent a bit of time in our yard and realised a lot of work needs to be done. So instead of spending an hour at the gym I spent a couple working in the garden. I finally planted some chilli plants that have been sitting in our kitchen window for ages. One has grown quite tall and has two chillies on it and another one has some small Thai chillies on it. The jalapeno plants nearly died as small seedlings but they came back to life for a while. I suspect that one might survive…assuming it doesn’t get too battered by the storms ahead. The other plans should be okay as they are a bit more solid. I also planted out mint seedlings into a big pot and assume they will be okay as they tend to be quite hardy. I also did a lot of hacking on some overgrown bushes out there. One is a tea tree that pretty much takes up a huge part of the yard. I’m trying to cut it back and eventually remove it…but it’s quite big at the base so I’m not sure how that will go. There were also shrubs overhanging the driveway and making it difficult to get in and out without them scratching the car…it’s now all clear even though the one shrub looks a bit bare on one side. Hopefully I’ll get out and do the rest some time soon so make it look a bit more balanced…The nice thing about this one (a bottlebrush) is that I can hack it up and it comes right back with no trouble. Then today I went out to check on plants and noticed something growing up into another bottlebrush tree at the back (different type)…turns out it’s a wild passionfruit vine that had found it’s way up the tree. Then I found another one up there and realised we have to get rid of those soon as they will choke the trees out back. They have lovely flowers on them but are truly invasive around here. :(
Also marking the start of the winter season…Lego Lover woke up with a sore throat today. I’m not quite sure how he got it as he hardly ever goes out and he stayed well clear of anyone when we went to a family lunch on the weekend. The Scientist thinks it’s possible one of us has brought something back and he’s picked that up and we haven’t as we are both healthier and fitter than he is. We bought him some honey and lemon throat lozenges and he wasn’t too sure about them but tried anyway…and said they helped even if they tasted rather revolting (my words but his sentiment).