I cannot believe how close Christmas is, how much I need to do to be ready to a) head back to NZ for Christmas and b) move house, yes… before Christmas, oh and c) do my Christmas shopping (thank goodness for the Internet).

Tomorrow is our annual block Christmas party, and by block I mean apartment block rather than street party. Actually I’m supposed to be organizing much of it… I think that will extend to taking the table and a bunch of plates downstairs and throwing together a salad… which means I’ll need a trek to the supermarket (yawn) tomorrow…

So I can rule out packing to move tomorrow…

Which means today I should be packing to move today. Hmmm… but I haven’t got a house to move to. Which brings me to what I did this morning.

I went looking at flats and I do think I may have found The One. I’m not sure I’m normal where house hunting is concerned… I tend to hunt by instinct… or Holy Ghost… whichever floats your boat. I’ve spent a couple of weekends looking at places and haven’t applied for any of them yet because none felt quite ‘right’. Until today.

The place I’ve seen is one of 3 apts in the unit which also, I think, has a shop front attached. It is built into a hill, the top level of which is right on one of the main Northern Beaches Roads joining the city to Manly and the basement level, where I’d be living is entered from behind, off the beaten track. Rather nice. It’s a decent size, though the current tenants have cluttered it up rather spectacularly and I think that while it is a little dark that my simple, plain wooden furniture will complement it nicely.

There’s clearly not too much in the way of storage so I’ll need to de-clutter, no bad thing actually, and while the stove doesn’t appear very modern, it is all in working order. I really believe it will suit me really nicely! Better still it’s in my price range.
I think I connected really well with the agent, and as is my way I reckon if it’s meant to be for me the landlord won’t be able to go past my application…

But the piece de resistance (don’t laugh Miss Lisa) is that it has a garden… A garden that is meant to be shared with the neighbours but apparently usually isn’t. And a garden in which I don’t have to mow the lawns!! It is large enough to suit a lovely outdoor dining setting and where I’d entertain when the occasion arose as indoors there’s not a lot of room. And it’s large enough that a cat would appreciate it. Yep. As the price is only $25pw more than I’m paying now I can afford a pet. And a cat would suit me very well…

So keep your fingers crossed!!!

Here’s a link to the site… looks like the boards truncate the length of the url…

Restaurants in the Rocks

Will you forgive me for feeling just a little bit proud of myself this afternoon? I think I’ve excelled myself today and am feeling just a little bit chuffed…

I’m fortunate in my job to be blessed with both an accommodating Captain and access to a great variety of technological assets that I can use both for work and personal applications. Such flexibility is probably partly because (while I’m well aware that I am by no means indispensable) I do a lot of work that few people with my skills would do for the amount of my salary and partly because the opportunity to increase my skills makes me more valuable to the company. It’s a win/win situation.

So here we are… Dino-boy is turning 3 next week and for me, gone are the days of home-made little woollen jumpers for birthday presents… Auntie Dee has gone high-tech. (By the way… I could do the woollen jumpers… some of the old skills still remain…). However, for this birthday, I made good use of my boss’s flexibility (actually he wasn’t in today…) and some fancy applications and made my nephews birthday present.

It’s a DVD.

I know… a home-made DVD… how cool is that? The videos on it are simple clips of me reading story books and as Sis has been pretty religious about sending me photos over the years I also had the means to make a video slide show of Dino-boy from birth to now… 3 whole years, complete with groovy jazz soundtrack (indoctrinating early…).

I’m pretty intent on the kids in our family growing up with some kind of relationship with me, even living across the ocean as I do. We had cousins in Australia that we barely know and I while I know that it still rankles sometimes that I live here and the kids are growing up without me I make a pretty good effort to take an interest in them and spend quality time with them while I’m in the country and when we’re on the phone. So, while I’ve been sending over the occasional video, Sis’ dial-up connection has been preventing me from getting too carried away.

Enter Adobe Encore and a day’s worth of tinkering.

I won’t go into the technological details of how it all worked but I think the biggest pleasure about the day was the fact that I had to learn a whole new programme to make this present do all the things I wanted to. That’s the buzz for me, learning the skills, solving the problems, exercising my intellect and reasoning to fix the issues. And while there are many who are in the know would be scandalised at how long it took me to get my DVD working I couldn’t be happier that I made the puppy work and that this birthday present is a one of a kind!

I’m pretty lucky.

At blogging, I mean.

It isn’t as though I’ve been vastly busy really, though I’ve a new client who may be in the way of putting a bunch of work my way which is welcome busyness…

And then there’s the business of looking for a new abode which is sneaking up. I’ve not found an alternate, the smurf house was a total dive… the ‘kitchen at the end of the bed’ kind of unsuitable… not really me… so it means I may need to find more money to move to a one bed. But I’m sure the right place will… well, manifest eventually…

I have rediscovered novels, at least since I handed in my last assignment. Hurrah… so I’ve been buried in those, even at the expense of TV which is rather marvellous. I loved this one. Tannenbaum’s grasp of language and meticulous attention to character make for gripping stories. I have to say I’ve been enjoying turning the box off until there’s something on I particularly want to watch and filling the gaps with reading… I started this one last night and it’s proving compelling as well, and Australian which is always good!

Anyway, I was rather delightfully reminded this week that I haven’t posted a Mupdate, which is very remiss as we’ve had very good news.

You’ll remember Mum had a bilateral (both sides) mastectomy. Blech. It was largely a choice she made so as to avoid having to live with the fear that in spite of close care and early detection protocols and radiotherapy that in who knows how many months or years she’d be back in the hospital having to go through it all again. So, attached as she had been to her girls for 60yrs minus pre-pubescence, she had the chop.

Well, you may wonder what good news could come of it… But it transpired at her follow up cancer clinic appointment there was much rejoicing amongst the staff. Apparently, there were more cancerous nodes that had been undetected by the mammo or the ultrasound and that would have remained, perhaps unharmed after radiotherapy (had she taken the less radical course of treatment) and because she made the bold move, and because all tests indicate that there is no lymph involvement, she has been given the all clear.

Yep.

All Clear.

There’ll be ongoing meds for 5 years or so to deal with any microscopic tissue, it’s a hormone fed cancer so the meds gradually reduce whatever that hormone is. But other than that.

All

Clear.

I’m a bit grateful. I wasn’t ready to walk the terrifying road.

Not just yet.

I know you won’t get to read this Mum, being a technophobe and all… But for the record.

You’re a champion.