I got a letter today. Not one from the person in question but one connected to the affairs of the year disaffectionately known as “the year from Hell”.

It was a very healing letter to receive. An acknowlegement that even while I was being Completely Oblivious there was damage done to me and that fair responsibility for it was acknowledged. Recognition that my contribution was Still Valuable though I was making it under false pretences. A confession that I am Highly Regarded.

Feels Good.

Feels Really Good.

One job down, and I don’t know how many to go.

The bathroom has been cleaned to within an inch of its life. Not the cursory wipe down to remove soap scum and the like, the full on Bleach and Bomb.

Flick and I are of the kind of housekeeper who once in a while gets it into her head to go mad and clean like the devil. (If, in fact, he cleans, which somehow seems unlikely actually…). We keep the place tidy (with the notable exceptions of our bedrooms) but the whole dusting, vacuuming and scrubbing is not something we enjoy… The vacuuming gets done weekly, the surfaces in the kitchen get wiped down, and the dishes are done as we go at least, but anything else waits for the inspiration to hit…

So, you are probably reading this thinking we are a pair of bush pigs. Not true. But we have more exciting things to do with our time. And if we worked for institutions who paid us ridiculous amounts of money, (or even five grand more than we earn now) we would give some poor starving student a job doing the cleaning for us.

As it is we have occasional frenzies making the place sparkle. Last time Flick went mad in the kitchen. This time it was me in the bathroom. On top of the sore muscles from bushwalking yesterday, my body is wondering what on earth is going on!!!

Anyway, for interests sake and so I don’t forget – the rest of the jobs that need ticking off

A trip to the library to return some books.
A trip to Big W to buy some kind of filing system and a coffee grinder and Off the Shelf by Donna Hay.
Emptying the basket of papers in my room into the new filing system
Make a cd for Skeeter of pictures of events she has produced.
Work.. (private project stuff – gah).
Watching last nights episode of Cold Case.

But first, I think I should get dressed and get moving… It’s 11 am after all!!!!!

Umm,

(That’s actually not true, but I wanted to put ‘Git me a Mountain Man’ in a sentence.)

I did go to the Mountains today. The Blue ones West of Sydney.

While most people go to the Blue Mts to see the Three Sisters we avoided them and opted instead to go to Leura.

Leura is a really pretty, historical looking town with lots of crafty stores. For the 1st time in ages I managed to purchase long taper candles to fit a candle holder I have wanted to fill up since the old candles, well, you know… got all burnt up!

We (Bet, Chen and Me) followed up our window shopping with a walk down the Leura Cascades. I am embarassed to admit that this is the 1st bush type walk I have done since I came to Australia! Happily, it isn’t a difficult walk (though my out of condition body took a bit of a testing) and follows a river down over a series of cascades to a steep and rather pretty waterfall which drops down into a deep valley. The fun, of course, was the climb back up. (Time for a soak in the bath I think…)

The best part of the whole day is the fact that I thought about getting out of Manly and got off my and butt did it. It gets so easy to sit at home and work that it takes a concerted effort to actually do it. And when you do? It’s a great day!!!

Ed. I could go to the mountains today because I had the day off due to it being ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. For an explanation about what that means check in on Fi

We did it!