It is rather a fabulous thing to be writing a weekend wrap up on a Monday, or more specifically that the Monday was part of the weekend. Thanks Queenie for having a birthday, even if it isn’t today [but is April 21st when she turned 81]…

Here’s a question; if when the Queen pops her clogs and Charles becomes King, does the weekend become King’s Birthday Weekend? I also wonder, in the event of Australia becoming a republic, whose birthday we’ll celebrate instead? Can’t think of any particular politician I’d be in favour of celebrating… Maybe a local hero like Ned Kelly… now that would be a party!!

Hmmm… All very perplexing…

In any case, I’m happy to report that it has been rather a productive weekend. As a reasonably task oriented control freak, I am happiest when all my jobs are done and I can see the results of my labours, and I get all sorts of stressy when all those little jobs feel out of control. Happily, having a 3 day weekend serves to restore the balance and so I can cheerfully report that this weekend I achieved the following…

1. Cleaned the flat.
2. Vacuumed – (long overdue because of studying).
3. Changed the sheets on the bed (mostly because of the muddy kitten footprints all over the [formerly] pristine white duvet).
4. 3 loads of laundry (and got them dry on a rainy weekend… clever me!)
5. Grocery Shopping… blergh…
6. Turned a Pumpkin into soup.
7. Cooked Corned Beef (sorry FM couldn’t wait till the next invite and it was on special).
8. Made Mum’s Chocolate Steamed Pudding (now there’s a trip down memory lane).
9. Made Mac ‘n Cheese (ultimate comfort food – and made from scratch, none of this instant boxed sh*t)
10. Invoiced my clients for 3rd quarter hosting.
11. Done a bunch of work for one client and invoiced them a tidy amount.
12. Gone to the library and got out 6 books one of which…
13. … I’ve read already – Alice Sebold’s ‘The Lovely Bones’ which I highly recommend (and have crossed off the list below too).
14. Taken myself down to the bottom of the street to photograph the Graveyard there… (See my flickr pages for the results).
15. Shot 3 images for my 365 days project, (which I am LOVING).
16. Spent time talking to my family.* (Both on the phone and via the wonders of the interweb and video cam goodness… it’s the best!).

Sigh… too bad the Queen’s Birthday Celebrations don’t go on all week!!!

I think the only downside to the weekend is that so much of it was spent alone. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not going against my introverted nature by any stretch, the weekend was awesome and I have been very happy in my own company. However, as I pulled the corned beef out of the pot and carved it up it seemed disappointing not to be sharing it, (and the soup and pudding the for that matter), and so I flicked through my phone to get inspired as to who to invite and was once again rudely reminded of the fact that most of my mates are married or involved… or busy with study and work etc. or overseas dammit. So I consoled myself with the fact that I’d get much more work done on my own, and maybe even a bit of study too…

I tell you what though, I did nearly almost turn over the thought of inviting VB Man down for dinner…

*You may not be aware that the 2nd weekend in June is ‘Special Aunty’s Weekend’ to celebrate tragic spinster aunts who get all their kid thrills from their nieces and nephews (and who do not begrudge them this at ALL – they are FAB). This means lovely cards and phone calls and emails with photos of said ‘Special Aunties’ and their precious (what’s the collective noun for?) nieces and nephews which I can’t show you because they are just too precious for making famous on the net. Big Kisses you lot!! Love you!

Aunty Dee.

I’m all kinds of keen to get down to the library now… lots to catch up on

Books in bold are ones I’ve read.
Any in bold with an asterisk (*)before them are ones I’ve tried to read but failed so far.
Books in italics are ones already on my to-read list before today.
Books in normal print are ones I’m not interested in (perhaps some of you can convince me one of these is a must-read!)

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timoth Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97.White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

VB man came back with more gifts today – this time a kilo of Danes coffee (nice) – and as he doesn’t own a coffee plunger I somehow ended up with him in my house on my sofa (still not sure how that happened), with me making him coffee while wearing my jammies. Happily I was not sporting the little red number but instead, the candy pink cats and my old lady sweater (less awkward, I’m sure you’ll agree).

I’m thinking that I’m a bit too nice to waifs and strays.

He was loaded. Man, I feel for the guy, he’d spent the day at work sporting a new haircut and his colleagues were giving him grief so I think he’d downed a few of his precious long necks to make himself feel better. I didn’t feel threatened or anxious with him there but as he relaxed he started swearing up a blue streak (when he could keep a grip on his train of thought)… and while honestly, I can drop the f-bomb in dire emergencies when it appears in every other phrase it’s a bit much for me.

All and all, while I’m not feeling too uncomfortable with him at the moment I am worried about the increasing frequency of his little visits… What to do girls and boys??

It would be lovely, wouldn’t it, if the reason I was iBroke was because I’d spent the requisite fortune on a new “Precious“…

What Bad Luck: I was fine, then I put my shoe on and then…

… I Broke.

So the day started rather inauspiciously with one of those awkward moments wherein you roll off the sofa and onto the floor and then spend a good 5 minutes trying to establish exactly how it is you’re going to get yourself. Off. The Floor. Let alone in To. The. Car. Through. The. Traffic Out. Of. The. Car. and In. To. The. Chiro’s. Office.

What Good Luck: The Chiro had space to fit me in as soon as I could get to his office.

What Bad Luck: He charges me $60 for him to hurt me even more.

What Good Luck: I baby sat on Saturday and could thus afford to pay his bill.

What Bad Luck: The prescribed treatment was cold packs, not hot ones – and it’s winter.

What Good Luck: It feels better – this is largely, I believe because of all the lovely dr*gs.

What Bad Luck: It’s been 7 months since I got back from North Carolina (I KNOW) and my beautiful big bottle of Ibuprofen liquid caps is nearly empty… sobs.

What Good Luck:I got to go home early because I was ‘in Pain’.

[Ed. bored with this game now, what else is news?]

Hmm news.

New Boy Action: VB man came back for a visit the other day bearing gifts. Not VB this time, which, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate is disappointing. But this time he came with a DVD. A documentary about birds [now, now… birds – the feathered kind]. I guess the perceived value is a little lessened by the fact it was one of those free with the Sunday paper DVDs… but to his credit he was A Whole Day Early… given that he gave it to me on Saturday evening… [Reader Poll Please]… The OC said the last time ‘Nothing says I love you like a bottle of VB’ – gentle reader, which would have more weight with you? The VB or the DVD???

Oooh, and he came back this weekend and asked me for a light. ‘Apparently’ his brother had nicked off with his lighter… but we know better, right?? THAT’s a line… Seriously, if it wasn’t for the fact he was off his face and smelled like a [VB] brewery I’d have thrown myself at him there and then… I mean, we all know… nothing says ‘I Love You’ like asking for a light..

*Apparently apple is now a verb. as in I Broke becomes iBroke when you ‘Apple’ it. I’m a woman of the 21st century, I’m hip to Google becoming a verb… But for some reason… Apple as a verb? That’s going to take some getting used to.