Dance On It

Well, looks like we’re moving next weekend! 😀
We’re off up the road to One Mile – it’s the house I really liked when we walked through it, and there seems to be a lot of space.
So, we’re nearly out the door here.


It’s funny – Tuesday we were on tenterhooks, wondering if our offer for another house would go through. I had forgotten about this one! In the space of a few hours we found we’d lost the other house, but the agents for that one put us forward for yet another place, and were happy to take our application before it was put up online.
And then, we got the phone call to say our application for the One Mile place went through 😆

I still have bits and pieces to pack (the teacups!) but I’m thankful that I started the books a while back. The heavier things are done, and we’re thinking this move should be a bit easier than the last one. Our stuff hasn’t had a chance to pile up in random places yet, and cleaning should go well.
Some nights I don’t sleep well, so there’s a wave of tiredness that swamps me sometimes, and confuses even simple actions. As an example – I wear different glasses for everyday and for the laptop. This afternoon I knew I had to change glasses so I could go downstairs to get a cup of tea. Put them on, puzzled as to why my eyes were even blurrier. Realised I was trying to put my everyday glasses on over the top of my reading glasses…
Obviously, I really needed that tea.

The title of this post is the title of a song I hadn’t heard for a long time, but rediscovered yesterday.
Seemed to fit, but I could only find an audio clip for it.
Since I’ve done so well with packing today I decided to rest and enjoy some time online tonight. In the absence of an official video for the titular song, here’s another clip to make you smile!

Don’t you just love people?
❤

Published in: on August 24, 2023 at 7:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Making Music In The Mess

Powering my way through packing at the moment (you know, with rest and coffee breaks included…)
I feel like the hardest bits are pretty much done. I have to remember how I packed my teacups safely last time, but I’ve finished the fragile things from the glass display cases.
Books are all packed.

Still got most of the art room to go.
The TV room has been my main point of packing so far. This means it has been a mess, even though most of it now is actually boxed or in some other kind of order.

Still life with cardboard 😀
Time to put my feet up…

We’re waiting to hear back about a couple of houses.
It’s all quite exciting!
My Babe is still getting his business off the ground, so there are various things to do with that, in between the house viewings and box packing. He’s waiting for a website to be finished, but in the meantime, there’s his YouTube channel. Go and listen to some podcasts about songwriting, or relax with some music.

❤

Published in: on August 21, 2023 at 9:23 pm  Comments (2)  
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Catching The Corpses Breathing

I’ve managed to pack a fair amount of boxes in the last few days. Mostly books, a few trinkets… books are easier – they’re mostly some form of rectangle, so they can fit in any type of box.
When I finish for the day, I like to just watch stuff, settle down a bit for the evening. Lately I’ve been catching up on a bit of CSI. I don’t really like horror, or even actiony/thriller type things, but I love a bit of forensics 🙂
The only thing is, I’m watching the earliest seasons. One of the fun things is catching the supposed corpses breathing, or showing other signs of life. Some are quite obviously breathing, and I’ve caught a few eye twitches. I can only suppose that later seasons will refine the non-breathing technique!

When you think about it, all TV shows are artificial. They’re all actors acting – making us believe that what we see is what is there. We get so caught up in the story that it’s a bit jarring to see a corpse breathe. It snaps us out of the narrative, and can make the scene seem absurd.

Life’s a bit like that.
We’re wandering (galloping?) along, thinking what we see is real, and then the corpse breathes, and we’re looking from outside at absurdity.
Where we are now (as in moving again) has been a bit of a snap back to reality, where our plans can sometimes veer off at the last minute.
Good thing there’s still breathing!

Still, I can appreciate a bit of absurdity. The boys have shown me a few AI song mashups, and YouTube has given me a few to watch…
I’m not sure if you’ve ever wanted to hear Johnny Cash “sing” Barbie Girl?
Here it is anyway…

I listened to that one, and YouTube seemed to think I would also enjoy this –

They were right.

Well, I’m off to check out some forensics. It’ll probably be more comprehensible than the clips above.

There are random boxes everywhere at the moment, but my clay sculpture (John) continues to look cool and ready for anything 🙂

Published in: on August 12, 2023 at 10:21 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Looking Past The Testing Moment

Passed the house inspection today. We’ve also been given info on what needs to be cleaned to get our bond back – at least we don’t need to pay a bond cleaner.
We’ve been turned down for one place, and are looking at another next week.
It would be tempting to get a little panicky now.

My Babe sent me this to listen to, so now I’m sharing it with you 🙂

All things considered, it seems we’re right where we should be…

YouTube also threw this onto my suggestions page – not sure why, as I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the One Voice Children’s Choir before.
I love hearing children singing out, using their voices – the stated aim of the choir is to “to inspire the world through the power of children’s voices”.
The song gives something to think about.

I’m not going skydiving, though.

Published in: on August 8, 2023 at 8:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Perplexed, But Not Without Hope

Started packing a few things today.
Feels a bit weird – I could probably look back in this blog some months ago and see the same words – but it’s time to start again.
We have some questions as to why we have to move on…this place feels right to me, and we haven’t had enough time to recover financially from the last move, but I’m starting to feel a little excited about what might come next. We applied for a place today, although we haven’t yet seen it. The race for rentals right now is such that the agents want everyone to apply first so they can weed out those who aren’t eligible before the house is shown. We’re looking at a substantial rise in rent with every place we’re looking at (we have another viewing in two week’s time) but we should still be able to cover it. All the places we’ve asked about will have space for my Babe to set up his studio, and they’re close enough to public transport for the rest of us to get around.
I want to get good use out of the verandah here before I go, and I will miss the coloured glass all around!

These are our inside windows, at night when the hall light is on 🙂

Moving here has been good for my health, but I’ve been wondering whether spending long periods in strange light might be affecting my eyes. It will be nice to get back to good natural light.
Speaking of health…I ran out of one of my painkillers the other day, and hadn’t had a chance to get to the chemist. I’d been feeling not too bad, so thought it would be OK to skip a day while I had to wait to get the prescription filled.
Every so often I make the wrong choice.
I made it half a day (ish) before I was reminded why I take them 😆 I was also reminded that interruption of meds can mean a few days to get back on an even keel…
Anyway, we had to take Biggest Boy to an appointment, and there was a chemist near there. There was also a charity shop, and I found this little cheerful being.

😀
I’ve no idea what it’s for. It’s tiny, but there’s room for a tealight, so that’s what I’ll use it for.
I went to the Salvos across the road here this arvo, feeling a bit down about all the stuff still to do, and came across this little piece of encouragement.

Nice to know! ❤

Well, it’s on to new horizons for us.
If anyone wants to come round here for a cuppa, you’re very welcome, but you’ll need get here soon!

Published in: on August 4, 2023 at 8:58 pm  Leave a Comment  

Coffee Break

The universe revolves itself
and once again life changes –
possibility rears its head
and posits all the dangers.

These last days existential dread
and angst around me hovered.
Tomorrow clouds may throng my brain –
today, I’m “Cat-not-bovvered”!

Published in: on July 24, 2023 at 7:51 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Resigned

When we first moved into this house, we were told by someone we came across that they had been in consultation with the owner, that they were going to buy the house and that we would only have the six month lease here.
The real estate agents that handled the rental seemed to know nothing about it, there was no paperwork, and we heard nothing more about it. It still felt hard to settle in and make ourselves at home, but at some point we decided to enjoy whatever time we had, however things turned out.
The six months is coming up, but we were told earlier this week that we could sign a new lease – great celebrations! – and we thought we’d take a chance and ask for one year rather than a further six months.

Got a phone call today.
Seems the owner is giving the house to the other people. It appears to have been a shock to the agents – they’re not open on Saturdays, but they got the notification today and rang us straight away.
We’ll find out Monday what the details are.

I think we don’t really know how to feel right now.
I don’t want to move back into some sort of colourless box, where there’s no room to move.

Colour (and space for books…) is important!

I really, really, don’t want to pack everything up again.
Eventually, we’ll be able to look ahead to the thought of finding somewhere better, somewhere more settled. Later, sometime…

I love this place. I don’t want to say goodbye. We’ll have two months from Monday to sort everything out (that’s past the end date of the lease, but they have to give two months notice to leave), and it feels like too much of a rush. Strangely, I also feel like working on some of the things I was putting off until we knew we were secure here – to use this time well in the spaces left.
Anyone know of any 4+ bedroom ramblers around? We don’t mind quirky layouts and architecture (although we don’t want decrepit!) – it’s the space we’d like. A reasonable rent would be good as well 🙂

Next week we’ll draw another breath, survey the situation, and look for where the light is coming from.

Until then?
Maybe just… sing.

Published in: on July 22, 2023 at 8:36 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Textures, Sunsets And Songs In The Wasteland

It’s been a week or so of leaden days, with a few shivering mornings as well.
The sunsets have been pretty good, though.

We went to the cafe the other day – we’re trying to make it a regular thing. It was so cold they had blankets folded on the outside tables for anyone brave enough to sit there.
That wasn’t us…
I like the mix of textures they have there (although we did briefly muse about the difficulties of dusting). There are interesting things wherever you look.

Lots of shells and seedpods.

Many friendly bunnies, strategically placed.

……………………………

😆

A whole display of shell necklaces (I have my eye on a couple, when I have some spare cash 😀 )

Painterly effects…

My world sometimes seems small in scope, and it’s tempting to drop into sadness. I love this house – a good thing, since I’m so often here! – but in some ways it should be more difficult. We’re on a main road and diagonal to a pub (potential noise), we look out onto shops and have no garden to speak of (but plenty of flowers!), our neighbours are very close (potential lack of privacy).
What could be barren can become beautiful…
and we can still choose to hear the music in the wastelands.

Published in: on July 14, 2023 at 9:27 pm  Leave a Comment  
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A Question Of Identity

My Biggest Boy has decided he is interested in photography. He’s taken different types of photos to see what he can do, and we’ve talked about the importance of “seeing” what is there. I think he’s got a good eye 🙂
One of the photos he’s taken is a portrait of me.

I suppose any portrait of me would have to include books…

Neither of my boys have been at school for a fair while now, so I am no longer a homeschool mum.
We’ve moved in the last five months, and I am still not able to work.
Life moves on, and life events change us and our sense of identity. I’m happy with myself, but feel a bit like a drifter through time. That’s OK. I still think I’m moving forward! It’s just that there’s probably less time ahead of me than behind.

I like my portrait.
It may not physically be the most flattering, but it’s a snapshot of who I am, and a glimpse into my Biggest Boy’s possible future. That’s a lot for one image to convey.

Speaking of portraits – here’s one of a visitor outside my Mum’s place.

Cousin Itt – Australian version 😆

So – back to identity…where do I belong now?
Here’s a musical suggestion… 😀

Published in: on July 7, 2023 at 11:54 pm  Comments (2)  
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Shedding Light On Years Gone

It’s hard to believe half the year’s over.
This week has galloped past me – is it time itself speeding up, or am I just getting old?
I’ve been rearranging bits and pieces around the place, and admiring the light at different times of the day. At the moment afternoon light seems to make my room look sort of pinkishy-orange.

It also brings out the beauty in a woven bag.

…as well as the stack of baskets I have yet to find a use for.

I still go out to the verandah after dark to look over our part of town, before closing the door to the night.
I took some photos in the darkness – my phone seems to have a night setting!

At times, ploughing through the mass of memorabilia, I wonder whether I should throw more stuff out.
Then I find myself looking again at tickets, receipts, letters and postcards from my journey through Europe when I was 25. I remembered more than I thought I could (and startled a largely uninterested son with reminiscences, when he had just come in to ask me a question…)

Disregard Frodo staring out at us.
Pretty much everything is in as good a condition as it was then. That plastic bag at the top contains my hair (which Biggest Boy thought was creepy…). I kept it because my hair had been quite long at the time, but Europe was so hot that I got it all chopped off very short, and didn’t want to just throw it all out. I’m not sure what to do with it now!

I also kept bits of currency, which is no longer used in the countries I visited in Europe.

The Netherlands 10c piece is the tiniest I have. You can see that the Eire (Ireland) coin fits in the hollow of a film canister lid – it’s roughly the size of an Australian 5c piece. The Netherlands 10c is tiny, and very light as well.

Bits of paper.
Random coins.
It all seems fairly useless.
But I can hold them in my hands, and once again feel the cold of a wet Irish night, or the heat of baking Roman stone. And I can remember younger me, heading out to see the world, still able to hike any amount of miles with a huge backpack on my back.
Life is strange, sometimes.
But still sweet.
❤

Published in: on July 2, 2023 at 12:11 am  Leave a Comment  
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