Notes on a move

We are, i’m sure like many people out there renters. We have worked hard enough to buy a place up the coast as an investment but to live where we work and in the community that we love we just can’t pay upwards of half a mill for little more than a 1br apartment let alone an actual house we fit into! 

So this past fortnight we moved, a new space, new (possibly fewer in number) cupboards, new neighbourhood with a new local cafe and transport and views and trees and even though its really stressful and packing oh my god the packing! and unpacking (which I actually do not mind so much) I think I like finding a new space with new smells and shelves and this place for the first time in 8 years a proper real deal HILLS HOIST! the luxury right..

It does however lack a dishwasher, but you know I discovered that I don’t mind the dishes so much, the hot water and the almost meditative cleaning of each dish. Tc does the ones after dinner but the cooking  dishes the morning dishes the baking dishes are for now at least a novelty and i don’t hate it. I think the heat on my fingers this time of year is a welcome side effect. 

There are things such as we presently have no channel 9.. not having any bloated red faced Eddie or cheque book journo’s 60 minutes is not so bad but no channel 94 and Fixer Upper!!! OMG that will not do! I live for the kitchens that Joanna Gaines creates on a weekly basis. 

The new place does not have to long deep bath or the dishwasher or the built ins or our big beautiful jacaranda tree that our old place had. The floorboards and carpet are replaced with tiles so some rugs are definitely on the to buy list I’m sure that there’s a rug place going out of business somewhere real close by! 

The new place has an amazing lightness the old house missed, it has no shared walls(!) It has a kitchen that does not have a water feature in the rain and an amazing undercover outdoor area that will be great in summer. The oven is new and amazing (fan forced no less!) 

Above all though the new place has the 2 people (& 1 cat) i love more than anything in the world inside it and I guess thats all that really matters.

xxpt 

Brave

Do you have any really brave people in your life? Not explorers or daredevils but people who make brave decisions about their life & the lives of those they love? Who just go with their guts. 

Someone very close to me has fought a battle for 25 years, although the last two years have finally been beating it I am in no way under the impression that the battle is over. On a daily basis they stay the course, do the work, dodge the relapse and so far so good. They’ve got a place of their own after 12 months in a residential rehab started a uni course (after never completing year eight!) and today made one of the most brave choices ever. 

It’s not my story to tell so I won’t tell it here, in the past there have been discussions about this person's story being co-opted by another close person and its not cool at all. 

I needed to get it down somewhere, that I am scared for my close person, that this decision is one of the most dangerous things they have ever done. But that I know why they’ve done it and I that I am so very very proud that they are trying proud that they are brave enough to even try.   

I may not be one of them brave people yet but one day I think I could be.
xxpt 

Stresssssed

So today was a bit cruddy. Not super duper bad but overall it was just not a very nice guy to know, you know? And I think it was really just me not anything outside my head.  I mean on paper everything seemed to balance out..

I was a bit late to the bus stop this morning 

But 

the bus turned up right away and I got a seat and there was hardly any traffic

Which meant

I had enough time to get a coffee at the uni (no lines as its the holidays)

But

The lid on the coffee just would not fit on properly so it spilt all over my gloves and stockings (bright green opaques highlight black coffee stains really well- who knew?)

My morning was derailed by a new employee, half my day was spent showing him the ropes 

But

I think he's going to work out really well, he seems process driven and has a good local manager & HE BOUGHT RED VELVET CUPCAKES!! 

I butted heads with one of the implementation people in our company it is an ongoing thing and he refuses to listen to any suggestions at all & I had another staff member call and vent at me for 10 minutes about the person who sits next to me while I could not say anything back. 

So

One of the other girls and I went to the pub for lunch we ate risottos and pastas with lots of salt and cheese then wandered back to work to face the rest of the day. 

I made it home later than usual but the kitchen was clean thanks to TC and I knew I hd to shake it off I ran a bath poured a bowl of wine whacked on a new face mask from Lush and sank in for 90 mins (I know because I was able to watch 2 eps of Doctor Who on iView) 

It looked a lot like this 

Bangers and Mash with onion gravy another wine and a cuddle with the little turd of a cat should round off the day well.

The sad is still lurking but I have good things & people in my life and great things to look forward to. Me the fam and some of our best mates are all meeting up for a long weekend out west at a friend's pub. A road trip, with big sky, old friends and the promise of fires and marshmallows hugs and a four days away from work sound like a great remedy. 

How do you shake off the sads? Are you a bath person? Or a wine person? Or even a big sky person? 

xxpt 
  

  

So two weeks in, how am I doing?

So as I written my last post I'm on  holiday, in the past two weeks I have managed to achieve the below: 

Knitted half a cardigan for myself & 3/4's of a baby gift 
hemmed a skirt for TC 
went to Flemington Markets for the first time and flirted up a storm with the vendors, I'm a total goose for never going there before for real, its so much closer than I had in my head and it was so much fun 
cleaned & reorganised my fabric stash 
done the same for the bathroom cupboard
watched TC in an amazing school production with my family 
visited my Great Aunt out on the outskirts of Sydney 
given away my beautiful but totally wasted mint condition orange nana trolley. 
attended yoga a grand total of four times (and my body is sore!)
cooked up an absolute storm soups casseroles roasts and cake 
picked up 2 pay it forward bags 
slept in for a whole day 
been for wanders in chinatown, 
walked Blackwattle bay what a stunning place Sydney is right?! 
been to the White Rabbit gallery with a girlfriend and the cutest little guy in the world! (have you been? its a great little gallery in Chippendale that has dumplings!) 
had a 2 hour bath in the middle of the day 
started and am LOVING my new book The Signature of Everything 
I have also drunk many pots of tea, cuddled the cat, eaten toast and sat in the sunshine or watched the rain, done the floors and the washing and the floors again and more washing and then quite often yelled at the cat.

That sounds like heaps right? Not really, there are some days where I talk myself out of doing things.. does everyone do this? Distract myself for so long that I miss the timeframe to make the yoga class/catch the bus/see that movie or catch up with that mate who is down in Sydney for only a couple of days (albeit on the other side f the city). For example, I decided that today is the sewing day, I hemmed a skirt yesterday for TC but there are dresses to turn into skirts, others that need repairing and pants that need replacement zippers and re hemming - jeans especially as I bought them 3 years ago and still can't wear them! Not to mention the many fabrics that are now nicely organised but not actually being used! 

But I just can't get moving.... is it that I don't want to finish things as I don't like endings or fear that the results will be a bit shit and I'd rather fail by not completing than fail by not being any good? Is this the reason I have currently reading 6 books? Knitting/crocheting 6 different projects, most of which I have or will redo at least 3 times? Is this why I have 6 metres or pristine navy liquid silk that i got for my 21st birthday that I still have not decided on a pattern? That's almost 20 freaking years PT! 

So today the plan is - 
hem them jeans
fix my drinking dress
finish my cardigan!
make pumpkin bread & a lime syrup cake (I am STILL using up the lime juice from the beer a month ago!)  
finish my Kinky Friedman book so I can pass it on. 
*and as always the washing 
Oh! and tonight is the annual hooray for everyone AFL game, I really hope it stops raining 

Also to get lost in the hole that is the internet in the search for the perfect dress for that navy silk....because I finally joined pinterest yesterday and probably yell at the cat again xxpt 

A Stay-batical totally a thing I'm doing

At 3.30 on Friday I went on leave for a whole month! YUSSS! I’ve gots me a plan…. & I already started! I did a new thing & I’m going to get back to old things I loved and then stopped & meet up with friends I haven’t had time to catch up with in ages, proper catchups, Galleries and Gardens & I’m going to go through my cupboards to clear out the mess too.

It been a long time coming and I plan to have a wonderful holiday in the city I love and already live in. Thats right for nearly all of it Imma staying right here in Sydney. I realised that I have lived here for like 12 years and there are heaps of places that I have never even been to yet, like Parramatta or Cabramatta I've never been to any of the MATTA'S!! So I’m going and I’m also going to head up to the Central Coast for a day too & try to catch the train to the mountains for a day as well. I should say head to Manly but fuck that place I hate it. 

And I've signed up to a month of yoga at a studio in Newtown super close and after my first class yesterday my body feels so good. My body feels like its been used as it should be, my muscles remembered the patterns and I felt my breath move through my body. God seriously why did I ever stop classes? So for the next 30 days I aim to get to at least 3 classes a week with as many restorative classes as I can too. 

I’ve joined Stonesoup blog’s & Jules provides rad tasty whole food recipes that are simple and a huge part of her philosophy is being organised! Super rad to get on top of that stuff right? Roasting vegies and pre-cooking things like quinoa to add to soups and meals for later in the week. I spent the weekend getting ready for the next fortnight by cooking up a batch of lovely lentils and am currently eating a big bowl with bacon roast veg and a boiled egg. I could really get used to this type of eating and if I’m actually serious it takes bugger all time i just have to work out how to get the rest of the family onto it too they look at me dubiously… But for real check it out... 

So yesterday (official day 1 of holidays) ::

I had a lovely breakfast with the morning show on 702 that I never get to listen to at work

Cleaned out the Vitamin/medicine cabinet (some had expired 2 years ago!) 

Started The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (I think I’m going to love this book) with a coffee in the sun

Got a free ride on the bus to a new yoga studio & joined a class concentrating on back bends (my fave!) 

Had a lovely pho at Great Aunty 3’s and walked home in the misty rain 

Made plans with 3 separate friends for meet ups next week and had a big chat with my bestie in Auckland.

More cups of tea, dyed TC’s hair for the school musical 

made dinner and at the same time made chicken broth for lunch today! 

shower and the new episode of Game of Thrones 

The plan for today is :: 

Lie in (DONE!) 

Breakfast and blog post (whilst whacking on the washing) (obvs)

Clean out the big brown box… - Anyone want mint condition Chenille bedspreads? 

organise the tupperware 

clear out the bathroom drawer 

Make Rick Stein’s Ham hock and fresh pea soup

pick up a free bag and drop off a birthday present for a lovely 6 year old. 

er not quite as exciting I know but still I’m just as excited about today as I was about yesterday, clearing the space physically will help with clearing the internal space too. 

xxpt 

A few short letters of correspondence from the last month....

Dear.... 

...Brain Cancer
 Fuck you, how dare you grow in my friends head. How dare you regrow to a larger size after you were cut out and blasted with radiation. But you know what Brain cancer? She's on a new trial in Germany now and its going to wipe you out. She's going to come home with her man and have babies and live the life she had planned. 

...Secret admirer
  So the letter was lovely just keep working on your spelling, the follow up lolly pop though? Winner you really have been watching me! 

...Sydney Swans 
   It'd be real nice if you won some more games OK? Also if you have any sway with the weather less rain on game day would be nice too.

...child next door
  So I guess you've taken up the trumpet or some other brass instrument huh? t.o.p.s..... 

...Tree Clearing man 
   Mate you are a gem, I'm sorry your machine broke but I'm glad that you could come on Monday and clear out our back yard I can't go out there but at least it looks like my backyard again 

...pink salt tea light holders 
   please stop weeping!!! I will buy more tea lights tomorrow just give it a rest eh? puddles of salt water are not great for the furniture! 

...child next door 
  Seriously though have you heard about stamp collecting? Or reading? Or sitting very very still? It's totally just as fun as the trumpet I promise.

...month long holidays
  hurry up, please please please hurry up! I am so ready for you to get here and give me a break from the daily grind. 

...parents of child next door
  Watch out people my kid is getting a harmonica as a gift on a week or two. GameON

...Tasmania 
  Get ready Imma coming your way! WOO 



xxpt

Weather, we gots it

Howdy peeps just quickly I thought I'd write to say that the weather be crazy in these parts today. 

Our beautiful jacaranda tree is now only a 3rd of the size it was yesterday. Luckily it didn't hit the house nor any of the fences which was so lucky. I was talking to MrPt pointing out the small branch that fell, went to have a shower and when I came back this.. (forgive the dodgy iPhone pic) 

Note that the tree covers our whole backyard! side to side & back fence to almost the patio... It was also the branch that MrPt tied the hops to, hard times people. 

Also lucky is that we rent, to be honest I was relieved to just be able to call the real estate to let them know about the tree and to organise the removal after the weather calms down. 

I hope everyone is safe and hit me up if you need any firewood! 
xxpt 

Taking Stock - April

I've been reading Pip's blog for years, she seems so lovely doesn't she? I'm pretty sure that she is that nice in the outside world too. Anyway she has this great list that is at first look pretty daunting but here we go... 

Making : knitted baby cardigans mostly the Gidday from Ravelry all in one go and its super cute too  
Cooking : Pork Roasts I'm perfecting the art of crackling 
Drinking : G & T with gin I blended myself at Archie Rose Distillery - it is such a great place too great staff, sexy room and amazingly boozy drinks a most excellent date place 
Reading: Spanking Watson by Kinky Freidman - I found it on the footpath the other week, its a good bus book I love the way he has slang names for everything 
Wanting: the easter eggs to never run out, I am dangerously close to eating the last of mine and everyone else is finished theirs already.
Looking: forward to tomorrow 
Playing: with my new laptop :D hopefully this means that I may keep doing this blog thing
Deciding: what to do on my month off Can.Not.Wait 
Wishing: that my kid no longer had blue hair cos I would like it back quite frankly
Enjoying: the new series of Game of Thrones! 
Waiting: for more episodes of Game of Thrones 
Liking: the crisper mornings and cooler nights 
Wondering: where I can get all of my candle jars refilled, that must be a thing right? It seems silly to have them as a one time only thing
Loving: That football season is back 
Pondering: how some crimes are seen as horrific and others not so much
Considering: still... I'll come back to this 
Buying: a new Macbook Air! I need to do more research on how to actually use it but it's a bit sexy. And Cardigans! 
Watching: aside from Game of Thrones MrPt and I are loving Bloodline, such great performances and beautifully shot   
Hoping: That I wake up rested, I am tired all the time 
Marvelling: at the forms & photos my cousin found of my great grandparents when they first came to Australia 
Cringing: at the remarks made about Hilary Clinton announcing her run for POTUS Needing: to learn to use this Mac thing Questioning: so many things that are written Smelling: my workmates Marc Jacobs perfume it is so pretty on her 
Wearing: Currently? Star wars pj pants and a Kylie tour singlet. Overall though cardigans and pencil skirts with brogues - completely Audrey Horne 
Following: Roxanne Gay on twitter, not sure I agree with everything she says but some of it is interesting and she's funny too
Noticing: The change in the leaves inn the park on my way to work 
Knowing: That change is a-coming 
Thinking: That I need to start working full time hours and I'm not really looking forward to it 
Admiring: My brother, facing his challenges & forging a new life, knowing that he is lonely but trying hard to build a life and becoming stronger and clearer everyday  
Sorting: out my make up drawer (perhaps that's Should be Sorting as I have not yet technically started?)  
Getting: my first ever veggie co-op box I love it and the little group for the people is really sweet, hopefully there will be recipe swaps and tips to come. 
Bookmarking: cardigan patterns to knit I really want to make a big snuggly one for myself Coveting: skin with no pimples & large freezers 
Disliking: angst at work 
Opening: emails from friends who are coming to visit 
Giggling: at Mayim Blalik on the Big Bang Theory Amy Fairer Fowler is the greatest! Feeling: twingey in my back again, I think a trip to the Chiro is on the cards 
Snacking: on left over easter eggs 
Wishing: that the 31 women killed so far this year by their partners were still here Helping: Future Pete! Stocking up on soups and stews and extras in the freezer ready for some very busy weeks ahead. 
Hearing: My daughter talk non-stop about her Demi Lovato concert on the weekend. To say that she loved it is such an understatement.


hmm that wasn't so bad after all xxpt

So I really suck at this right?

Er so I guess that I really am not a great blog person at all.... 

I think that perhaps I'm not really even a writer as such. Many things have happened since I was writing 2 years ago.. 

My kid is now 16!! 
We moved house again
There were illnesses and a death in our family
My cat died 
We opened a new business born of passion
We got a new cat 
We went overseas for the first time is ages and fell in love with Asia 
Our new cat escaped and was hit by a car 
Within a week there was a new kitten and INDOOR kitten 
Work ramped up for both MrPt and I 
Kid had a super rough year and changed all of her peer group a couple of times 
Many babies were made and borned to people other than myself (WIN) 
Kid turned 15 got a nose ring
My brother got clean for the first time since he was 11
As a result I now have a relationship with him for the first time in many years
Kid got hot pink then orange hair 
People other than MrPt and I got engaged/married/divorced  
Kid got blue then aqua hair 
My kid is now 16!! 
Kid now has purple/aqua hair 
Current cat is still living 
Business is thriving both at the proper job and the passion project

There were also many dinners with friends a couple of weekends away, family Christmases that were at least tolerable. Kitchen and balcony dance parties new cocktails made and drunk, food and bars and gigs aplenty and I cannot wait for more of it. 

xxpt  

International Women’s Day and the Lady Fave

I have a friend, let’s call her Isabel (cos that’s her name), or you can call her Bez (cos that is what I call her) once you make friends with her too, and you will want to, she is very ace here’s why.  

Early last year we were having breakfast in Bez’s favourite café in her hood when her friend Katherine came and joined our table for a little bit. When she left I asked Bez who was still fairly new to Sydney how she met such an awesome woman, Bez said two words – Lady Fave. And I have been hooked ever since. 

To explain this is what she posted the other week on her faceberk page: 

“Ladies, if you ever think something nice about someone you really should voice it to that person. Even if it is a complete stranger, just do it. You may feel a little embarrassed at first and your kind comments may not always be appreciated but it doesn't matter. That one nice thought that you have about someone could make their whole week. It's called a Lady Fave and us ladies need to get amongst it and share the lady love. I frequently give Lady Faves, even if I am in the middle of a run and dripping in sweat, I will stop and tell someone I see if I think they look amazing or that their dress is real pretty. I have had a super crapola day today and I just had a colleague, that I don't even know, tell me that I looked amazing and it really made me feel better and put a smile on my face for the first time today.”

What followed underneath that status were 35 comments from other women offering Lady Faves to each other and to Bez, and then promising to share the Lady Faves.  It made my day to read and to share that one little status. 

We are so very quick to cut other women down, we critique their hair, weight, fashion, food, parenting and hell even their coffee choices! How often do you stop a stranger in the street to tell them their dress is gorgeous or the colour they’re wearing makes their eyes stand out or their hair look shinier, or that they’re shoes are just amazing? I’m guessing that it happens rarely, whether we’re too scared to talk to strangers or too busy to stop for a second or perhaps some days we’re so weighed down by the fact that no one says anything nice to us we forget that it can feel just as good to make another smile.

Like attracts like guys, so how about you go offer a Lady Fave to a random person? Heck, it doesn’t even HAVE to be a lady you offer it too, dudes like this stuff too! You may pick up! You make make a friend! Or you may just be the one good thing in that other person’s whole day, and who knows what sort of change that could make to someone! 

And then give one to Bez too cos she's amazing.   

Who knows maybe this will become a "thing"

xxpt

Old? Well yes I think I probably am…

What exactly is the definition of OLD though? I’ve been known to carry my own tea bags since the age of 19, although it has recently become quite the thing I have crocheted and knitted for a very long time, I’m in a relationship that has just passed the 10 year mark. Whilst I’m attending the weddings of some friends and others are having their first babies we are parenting a teenager in high school. I very often fall asleep before 10pm on the lounge trying to stay up so that I can retain my cool Gen X cred (and failing obvs), pottering around my house drinking pots of tea, having early dinners and long baths is a nice weekend for me. My bag generally contains a cardigan and two handkerchiefs, one for me and one to offer if needed.

So I guess in some ways yes I am old. Old as the hills dang-nabbit!

But then in other ways, I feel incredibly young, foolish and inexperienced. I have not travelled, nor have I been to Uni or undertook any tertiary studies at all (a year-long Cert 3 in Fashion Design doesn’t count does it?). I still colour my own hair with fairly hit and miss results (back to pink most recently) I wear bright playful colours rather than more appropriate work attire… I still have never had a proper Credit Card or a personal loan, and I happily remain a renter of houses rather than a home owner. But I guess the most telling thing to me that I am still young is I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up… I don’t feel like I’ve got a proper job, certainly not a career or a vocation, perhaps though this is something of a Gen Xer thing, a little like the character in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar who (from memory) pictures herself in a tree laden with fruit, so much fruit that she is unable to choose so sits there watching it all rot, choosing nothing instead.*

I always thought growing up that 27 was the special grown up age. And a lot of great things happened to me that year I met MrPt, TC and I moved to Sydney away from my home town for the 1st time** however I am now 37 (in a row?!***) and for a while this became my new proper grown up age… but it’s not really is it? I mean if I’m still having all this uncertainty going on I can’t be!

Perhaps it’s 47? I’ll let you know



xxpt

*I don’t know if I remembered that correctly but I can’t be arsed finding out, it is what I remember from the book.

** . I did actually move to Sydney once before but that all ended rather poorly so I do not count it.

*** I cannot help that I am a Kevin Smith tragic the line pops into my head every damn time

Jess over at Essentially Jess is a very entertaining and funny woman on Twitter; I was surprised this morning to find she was such a prolific blogger, I was not however surprised that her self-deprecating humour shone through and that she has a heap of fans and commenters. IBOT seems to be a pretty neat idea nad who knows I might be abel to stick to this once a week caper!


This is the first time I’m linking with Jess for IBOT, due to the VERY sporadic nature of my actually writing on this blog it may be the only time too!

The Happy Having a Baby Shoes

Back at the end of last millennium I was 24, I was newly and happily single and in April I had a baby. It honestly seems like it was the dark ages sometimes, I ate anything I wanted I had a couple glasses of wine and on occasion I may have even smoked a little. See what I mean? Dark Ages! *

This was the days before the baby bonus, before paid parental leave was even a pipe dream! I'm not sure if there were push presents as such and there was no one to buy me one anyway, so I bought my own and here they are....


These were my 3rd pair of docs, I'd never seen silver ones but I had previously painted shoes with silver nail polish so I knew they were for me. I called them my
"Happy Having a Baby" shoes and I wore them everywhere, and even though i loved them at first they, just like mothering were stiff and awkward and took awhile to feel right. I wore them to ring in the new year and on walks around a rather seedy neighbourhood on nights my baby couldn't sleep, to work, to the park, everywhere.

Now I wear them on occasion only, a couple of times this week due the Sydney weather being less than stellar, they do get worn a fair bit though by that baby I had bought them in celebration of. In a way I always thought they'd be hers I guess, she walked every mile in those shoes with me, and I love that these boots, these magic silver boots are a part of our shared family history.

They may not be fancy jewels or a handmade quilt but they are very much us.

xxpt


*I'm not an idiot I know these things especially the smoking were bad for both of us but I was young and invincible and a bit of an idiot.

Sometimes toilets confuse me

I hope that with the title of this post I did not lead you to believe that I am unable to work out the general use of toilets. I am happy to report that I have been toilet trained for approximately 34ish years (I say ish as I thought an early morning call to my mum asking when I stopped wearing nappies was not the greatest way for either of us to start the day)

I write this post in the hope that someone will help me figure out the dual flush on my toilet at home because after almost two years of living here I still cannot for the love of Ford Pills work out which is the half and which is the full flush button. They seem to both flush the same amount of water and run for a similar time to fill the cistern back up. This could however just be due to the landlord-DIY-ness of our rental house... but then again I find toilets out in the world also to be quite confusing... Stay with me.

Here is a rendering of our cistern.. (check out my mad Paint skillz!)



Now at first glance obviously the small button is the half flush because it is smaller and the large is the full because it is larger right? OR the small button is the full because it is a whole circle type of shape & the larger button is the half as it has a bit missing off the end and therefore not ‘whole’... Please note that earlier I stated there is no real discernible difference in the amount of water released by either button.

To further my confusion there are buttons like the following (again with the Paint, at least this time they were circles and easier to 'draw')



Now I have used commodes with both of these buttons at various locales, and through my er ‘research’ I have concluded that the larger button is in fact the smaller flush... I think...

God I really just don’t know, why can’t we just push the button halfway down instead?

Sometimes its the big issues with me and then other times... there is toilet cistern confusion..

Am I the only one that becomes confused about this stuff?

....tied up with string

It is Christmas, and to be honest there are a lot of things about this season I do not enjoy.. Wrapping presents though is something that I love to do. The presents under our tree are all in matching paper with a different coloured curling ribbon combination for each person. This is an excellent thing as I do not need to write names on the presents and no one can do any real sneakery (except for me of course*)

I learnt to wrap gifts when I worked at a lingerie store after finishing high school, I would recycle the bra boxes into gift boxes for the customers. Each Christmas, Valentine's and Mother's day I would wrap hundreds of boxes and line then with tissue paper for the usually male wrapping challenged customers.

I got very fast and very neat very quickly, and tooting my own horn just a little its pretty impressive to watch! I was buying a last minute birthday. Gift a couple of weeks ago on the way to the birthday dinner with a girlfriend,we bought the present & the wrap at a store and I wrapped it on the counter in front of the store lady, she was mucho impressed.

I have read of the Present Wrapping room at the Spelling mansion or seen wrapping stations on crafty type blogs...I do not necessarily dream of owning these things, I don't even have proper cupboards or wardrobes, but if anyone wants to let me come visit their station/room I promise I'd leave it nice and tidy for you. I wouldn't even remove the scissors or leave the sticky-tape without a little folded over bit to help you find the end!**

have a wonderful Christmas guys personally I am praying for sun so I can make use of the beach and my parents pool... Oh and no traffic heading north on Christmas Eve....

xxpt

*I always know which presents are mines they are not wrapped (dare I say) as well as the rest, they are however usually covered in sticky tape , my family do know me rather well... Unwrapping and re-wrapping presents is my very mild superpower...

** let's be honest if you have a wrapping room/station you'll have you scissors on a string and the tape in a colour co-ordinated tape dispenser, right?

A few short letters of correspondence from this morning...

Dear lady Police Officer and male Ambulance Officers in the Coffee Shop,

You three are aceballs! Thanks for doing hard jobs and it was really nice to see you all smiling and chatty. Also Ambo guys, I love your coveralls any chance you could swing me a pair? Size small?
xxpt



Dear Coffee dudes at Alchemy Coffee,

Thank you for the coffee from heaven, I’m sorry I left my Keep-Cup at work yesterday and I do feel bad that because I have a long black coffee you need to give me 2 cups so I don’t burn my hand, next time I’ll show you that I have a cozy to go around my cup and you can keep your extra one!
xxpt



Dear Seat-mate on the L23,

I saw how much space was on the other side of you, you did not need all bar 7 inches of the chair. I think it was pretty rude but honestly you could, most likely smell my coffee of heaven so perhaps envy overrode your good humour. Next time though smile and wiggle over so that maybe I could have read my book too.
Thanks! pt



Dear French Campos Man I normally get my coffee from,

Sorry dude but I had very little sleep and I couldn’t wait. Please don’t think that it is over between us, you will still be my regular coffee guy, your accent is just as sweet as your coffee!
xxpt



Dear Laughing Workmen at the Uni

The fact that one of you nearly rolled around on the grass laughing really was nice to see. I hope your joke was of the savoury kind, but if not then I am glad that it tickled you so much. You brightened up my day!
xxpt



Dear Co-worker

Go home you are obviously ill and coughing everywhere in the office will make me sick too. Not sure if you know but I have a wedding to go to on Friday and even more importantly Thursday is MY BIRTHDAY - DO NOT MAKE ME SICK ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!
xxpt
PS. For fucks sake cover your mouth when you cough, its gross.
PPS. tights still not pants, I know you are trying to make them into pants but you are failing



Dear Panel Beaters across the road from my house

You have a very conscientious employee, did you know? He (and I say he as I have never seen a female in your shop) started work at 5:15am this morning!! I know that starting work at the allotted and legal time does not enable you to witness this so I am only too happy to help out. Banging on metal pipes and using and axle grinders are ALMOST as restful to wake up to as a songbird.
Please pass on my appreciation to your valued employee
xxpt



Dear Curry from last night I made up as I went along

You Rocked last night! Looking forward to meeting you for lunch again soon.
yours in anticipation
pt



Dear pillow

Lets hang out this afternoon yeah? I bet we could have a sneaky hour or so without anyone noticing.
xxpt

MrPt is away and there are some things I like about it

For most of this week TC and I are young hip and single ladies in our For most of this week TC and I are young hip and single ladies in our cool pad* MrPt is in Melbourne for a work thing. Last night I thought about some of the things that I like about him being away. Please don’t get me wrong there is a list just as long of things I miss about him when he is away too, but let’s focus on the positive yeah?

We did the groceries yesterday and the first thing we did was front up to the florist and ask for a bunch of the most fragrant flowers they had. You see my man is the most allergic to flowers & scents of anyone ever. I love flowers and really smelly ones the most. I large bunch of Fresias coming right up! They are so pretty and the lounge room smells so so good J

We love Vietnamese food!! There is really very little that MrPt will not eat in fact he has introduced both TC and I to a tonne of foods that we did not eat 10 years ago. However, he really dislikes mint, rice noodles and bean sprouts... all of my favourite things about Vietnamese cuisine. We shall be eating this at least once this week.

Girly music and tv.. Kylie, Amanda Palmer, Amy Winehouse and shows like the Voice and X Factor.... and I can re-watch this season of True Blood uninterrupted.

I get all of the bed and I get the car and I can sleep in or get up and get my yoga on if I want to...

Stay tuned for the things I do miss...

xxpt

*translation – she’s young, I have hips and whilst the house is really nice its rather messy.. It is next to a frozen food factory so kinda cool – right?