A little lost

Song of the day: “Under the sun” by Cheryl Cole…again. Luckily it’s a fun one, because this one is popping up in my head a lot.

Just came back from a very late jog, and considering it has been more than a month since the last time, it didn’t go bad at all. I feared that my foot would drive me effing bonkers, but this new running way I’m practicing appears to be doing the trick at the very least. In fact, tonight my foot is in a better state than it used to be in the past couple of weeks. Strange how that works.

So yeah, the past few days.

First off there was yesterday where, after spending a morning (after the usual chores that is) working up by the storage and sawing eight wooden beams into the right thickness with the big sawing table. Since there is a constant threat of rain at the moment, we decided to, at the very least get Sally’s porch deck done so there won’t be a drag of mud into her cabin. So that’s what we got started on yesterday morning. Which also involved yanking old nails out of wooden boards, which was a fascinating thing. I love hammering at stuff. Hah.

For a while we watched big brother play with Knight II and the Chaos, who were ambivalent enough about the entire thing to actually enjoy themselves, and then Huckabee joined in, making it a noisy affair that had most of us laughing. Hah.

While I did the sawing, Cousin Ed, Grandpa and Big Brother did a lot of hauling. First off the got the big fridge from the outside kitchen so it can pass the winter under the roof of the lean to behind Sally’s cabin. Then they got the washing machine, which big brother fully installed on the tiles he laid the day before that.

Which reminds me, the day before that (pic update day) grandpa asked me to trim his hair and beard, which makes him look younger, I think. Also suggested to Sally to do her hair, (before the radio, just in case) and we got to that right on time.

Then, of course, it was time to head on out to the big city, because Sally had radio therapy scheduled. My turn, and we set out right on time…only to end up on the wrong new highway, darn it. I kid you not, we got completely and utterly lost in the industrial area of the city, and we saw so many of them that I couldn’t even figure out on which side the sea was located. Finally, after a solid thirty minutes of wandering about (by then I decided to just start laughing, rather than be frustrated, because we were late anyway) we ended up in an industrial area I’m well familiar with, and headed toward the university hospital where Sally had her appointment. We arrived, used her zipcode (they’ve made turning folks into numbers into an art form. Upon arrival you have to put a coded little card under one of those laser readers that they also use in stores) and ended up waiting for five minutes before it was her turn.

Ten minutes later we were back outside and on our way home. Sally is definitely one of the lucky ones in regards to radio. She’s tired, yes, but there’s no dizziness or nausea. I do hope she manages to keep that up. Still didn’t have that talk with the doctor about her real status, but I talked with her about it, and she asked that I don’t press the doctors for more information. She prefers not to know too much, that way she can’t worry about it either. Considering how it’s going with her to date, I’ve got to admit that her way of dealing with it seems to work for her, and in the end, it is, of course, her choice.

Once at home (needed to make a quick trip to the supermarket to get a cake. Grandpa had his birthday, and since I didn’t have time to make one he could actually eat with his dentures. And afterward I had to go through the DIY store to get something for the cabin) it was already late and it was time to cook supper. Made pasta with veggies, baked in asian herbs.

Also went past the garage where they were fixing the Land Rover. They promised I could pick it up the next morning, with a year warranty for the fixed transmission box. Let’s hope I won’t need it, right? *sigh*

Tenant spent the majority of the afternoon with mom in the main house, having fun watching the younger sibs and playing freecell on the computer. Hah. I’m just happy she gets at least some daily exercise that way.

Well, today…today started a little late for me, while big brother had to go along with grandpa to the village to get bread for the dogs, along with veggies. While I did the laundry, and walked our visiting dogs in the morning, they got home. Next was feeding the dogs, ourselves, and then it was out toward town to pick up the car. Yay. Our baby purred, I tell ya. I missed her so much, I wanted to do a road trip, or something. No time for that, of course, but it’s the thought that counts. Hah.

Once we got home, Cousin Ed and Sally had to leave for Sally’s appointment, leaving is to start on the porch. First we had some lunch, and then it was to work. Got the beams in, and were already hammering nails into the deck’s boards when the two of them returned. Sally was extremely tired today, so she spent the majority of the afternoon snoozing in her cabin while we put in the boards and finished the deck. It looks beautiful, and all it needs is a lazy chair. I did take pictures and I’ll be sure to show them some day.

We were late finishing the porch, so Cousin Ed ended up doing the yard on her own. No time for cooking today either, so we had fries, some nuggets (see, I did eat meat, I did, I did!) prior to heading out for our jog.

Which brings us to the end of the day, with me more than ready to call it a day. Tomorrow’s going to be another long one, in particular since we’re heading over to Liane’s. There is something wrong with the pool we installed, and we’re going to take measurements for an adjustment to the fence. Then I’m going to have to figure out how much it is going to cost, how much time it’s going to take and…well, I’ll leave that for tomorrow. I’ve had it for now. I want sleep. I did manage some writing, at least.
Gotta go.

More Cabin Stuff

Song of the day: “Unwritten” by Natasha Beddingfield. It’s been a while since I had that one, isn’t it? Hmmm. Still a good song.

Right. Where did I leave off the other day? The new cabin, right? Well, we’re still working on that, meaning that yesterday cousin Ed and I spend the majority of the day on ladders hammering in the boards that make up the roof. Seriously, we put up more than forty of them, spent more than four hours balancing on rungs and window sills until finally the whole thing was done, making the cabin officially a room. Yay. Of course I could barely walk afterward, but what the heck. As it turns out, standing on a ladder that long while you have Plantars, is not a smart idea. Was mighty uncomfortable for the remainder of the day, in particular since we had to go to hospital later in the afternoon and then do quite a bit of walking.

In case you’re wondering, the hospital of this area is located on a spot that has been under construction for the past five years or so. This means that parking there is a friggin’ mess, and even though I managed to find a spot close the hospital there was still some odd mile to walk to the entrance, up the stairs toward the main reception hall and then the elevators. Now normally I take the stairs, but my friggin’ feet were killing me, so I opted for the elevator instead.
Gawd, ya don’t wanna know what my foot felt like this morning. I’m betting I’m having a massive inflammation in there again. Aaargh.

This morning, when we went for another visit, in hopes of getting to know Sally’s test results (there was a possibility that they’d come in today). We didn’t, seeing as they hadn’t come in, so instead we just visited for a bit and then headed home again. But I’m getting ahead of myself…or rather not. Let’s keep this remotely interesting and let’s must mix up the last couple of days into one big day. Hah.

I was in a traffic jam, thank you very much. On the way to hospital, there’s a big market on Wednesday, so everything got stuck over there. Took about half an hour to cross a single mile, which was when the coppers got involved and got traffic moving again. I never believed I’d say this but, Yay! For the coppers. Hah

Visitor got robbed at a local shop. One moment she had her wallet and passport in her backpack and the next it was all gone. That sure put a damper on her vacation. She and mom spent the better part of the past couple of mornings at the police station filling in forms and such.

Another near disaster was big brother who (very smartly) left his wallet lying on the hood of the car. We’d been driving for some odd seven miles or so, when suddenly he sees something flutter passed the passenger window. There’s this moment of “hood, black, square, slap…Shit. Wallet” While he jogged back up the mountain in search for the darn thing, I backed up the Land Rover and followed him. Hah.
It’s a miracle the darn thing didn’t fall off sooner!

Had an exhausting trip to a variety of stores in search of computer bargains. Big brother’s computer now really gave the spirit, meaning he will have to settle for a Windows computer, rather than a Mac. No way can we afford a Mac at this time. He’s having some trouble saying goodbye to his favorite computer, but is trying to look at the whole thing as making due so we can practice our chosen careers.
Poor fella. I had the same trouble when I had to downgrade from a normal laptop to a Netbook with ten hours of battery life. Now at least I can work for five hours on end without needing power. It was a trade off.

Writing. It’s been going slowly with all that’s been going on. Writing and meals have been suffering most under the time limits that are at present my banes (does that make sense? Hmmm. I’m not sure), which isn’t smart at all. I can’t afford skipping nutritious meals, nor should I slack on the writing.

Sitabah only coughed once, for as far as I heard, in the past few days, so I think that the anti-inflammatory she got did the trick. Will keep a close eye on her, but I do hope that it will pass without the aid of the offered antibiotics. I really don’t want to use that stuff if I don’t have to.

Chaos, at the moment, is most displeased with our visitor. Whenever he sees her he’ll pale and start balking at her from a fifteen-foot distance, acting like some scaredy cat baby who doesn’t like strangers, for crying out loud. The only relief is that he would never really bit someone, which is more than I can say of Sitabah and Tadaika. I’m keeping a close eye on the two of them.

Most of the afternoon was spent inside the cabin. Cousin Ed and I (after coming back from the hospital) decided to just go for it and managed to put in about half of the parquet. It will be faux wood, of course, with six lines of anthracite and four mahoganies. I would have preferred going for solely anthracite, but regretfully I didn’t have enough of those and have a budget to work with. It looks nice, though. Fancy, and warm because of the mahogany. Managed to finish half the floor today, meaning we’re back to that tomorrow. Yay.

What did involve cooking was a big batch of zucchini soup, which tenant absolutely loved. This was partly due to the fact that I didn’t have time to do much fiddling with it. Basically it was pure zucchini and onion with some broth blocks in it. Which explained why she liked it a lot, while I liked very little of it.

There was of course laundry to hand and fold, and dog food to make, feed and cut, but that is really boring to write about, so I’ll save you from that. Hah.

As for the rest…well, there’s bits and pieces, but I think I’ve managed to hit the highlights again, at least. Being busy doesn’t make up for excitement, does it? Hah. Ah well, better luck next time.

Quiet day, so here's some pics.

Song of the day: “Mercy” by Duffy. Strange voice, but still a cute song. Took some getting used to for me, but still entertaining enough.

Managed five more pages last night before going to bed, so that’s a definite yay! The evening was blessedly cool, what with a strong western wind blowing it, scattering Eucalypti leaves over the property…and my porch.

I am right on time this morning, and head down to the house within half an hour so we can resume the edit. Breakfast and laundry are over fast and with my habitual coffee going down smoothly we settle down for the morning.

Ten more pages get done in the next few hours, and we had a few really “oh wow” moments, which certainly lightens the spirits during what CAN be a rather tedious process on the overall. Hah.

The day isn’t too hot so we head out early, fully intending to do four mats today, when I suddenly discover that the roll of rope that grandpa bought isn’t going to suffice for them. Rather annoyed, seeing as I’ve set up two different frames for the binding process, I decide to gather all the leftovers and decide that there will be enough after all if we use the pieces…meaning that we use short ropes (no more than 2 feet long) and just tie them together every time they run out.

My back doesn’t feel too bad today, just a little sore in the morning, but then as the day progresses, I hardly notice it anymore. I have decided however, not to do the squat weaving, since that is a part of my back that isn’t used to the movements at all. Standing bent over works much better.

It takes some scrambling, but in the end four mats are done and get set aside. There’s quite a bit of cleanup to be done, and afterwards I spend a moment to take photos of the small areas where we planted seeds about a month ago. Flowers are starting to bloom by now, (including the zucchinis we planted) and the terraces by the wall are looking rather grand. Have a look:


Okay, so the coloring doesn't come off right, but you get the general idea.


The view was just too pretty to pass up. It's not often that the sky is this clear. Any clearer than this it won't get in the summer. Now, in winter, you can see clear to Africa, right there at the horizon.

Now this is the project I'm talking about at the moment.

See the hideous metal plating. Eeeewwww. We're going to cover those up with the reed mats we're weaving.


This part is going to be a tad tricky, considering we'll probably have to take the roof apart to be able to reach everywhere. Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

I find I’m in a weird mood today. I’m making a lot of wisecracks throughout the day that has the sibs roll their eyes at me on more than one occasion. I can’t explain why I’m doing it, but it happens on practically everything that my strange mindset finds funny. I doubt any of it is, so I’m not going to regale at the words that passed my lips. Hah.

When I bring my dogs down to the courtyard, I finally find out why Knight II’s tail is scraped and bloody so often these days. As it turns out, when Fortuyn (Spanish pointer) and he face off at the courtyard gate, he gets so excited that he sweeps his tail back and forth (way too hard) against the rock wall…which then damages his skin and splatters that part of the wall with his blood. Stupid Great Dane; doesn’t understand his own strength.

But, be that as it may, we head out with the car a little early today; last night, somewhere along the we, we lost a cell phone, and hope that we will be able to find the darn thing. Seeing as we’re not going to cut reed, or anything, I decide to take Chaos with me. The poor Basset doesn’t enjoy the ride all that much. At least, not in back; his chubby paws can’t find purchase there at all. He does enjoy going out whenever we stop at yesterday’s stopping points to see if we can find the phone.

The trip turns out to be for nothing, since we are unable to find the darn device, so now we’re going to have to go to town tomorrow to cancel the number before someone decides to use it for phoning abroad, or something. On the way back, Chaos has finally figured out the trick and perches happily against my seat, so I can put my arm back and hold him in place.

Once at home, I take a quick dip in the pool, have dinner and then prepare to wrap up the evening.
I do wish I had something more interesting to share, but since I haven’t, I’m just going to leave it like this and see what tomorrow brings.

Done in for the day. Hah!

Song of the day: “Forever” by Chris Brown. Definitely a new one for me, considering I’d never heard it before I saw a cute Youtube video where a couple had set up their wedding as some sort of show and played this song. Very cute…the video as well as the song.

Last night we managed a successful edit after all; managing a solid nine pages before the night came to an end. Yay. It worked perfectly, the scenes, I mean. It actually had me all positive minded before going to bed…especially when the edit had been going so horrible in the past few days.

But lets get to the day:
I wake this morning with the song in my head, going on, and on, and on. Hah. Seriously though, not a bad song at all.
I’m pretty sore of yesterday’s “weaving”, but after a few stretches, I feel good enough to face the day.

After the morning rituals, and arriving in the house, the usual dip in the pool is followed by the morning chores; big brother and I soon settle down for the edit and in the hours that pass we actually manage to add another ten pages to the “done” section. That sure feels good.

The day is cooler again - just a tad - so when we head outside to get to work in the yard, it is rather pleasant. Since I made an error yesterday with the first reed mat, I ask grandpa to cut the wires and set the stems down for me while I prepare for the new one.

By the time I finish today’s first mat, my fingers are starting to develop some mild rope-burn, but with little sister’s arrival, we soon manage to weave a second one and put it with the other two. Rope burn is starting to get serious by this time, but I’m determined to make a fourth today, so one section of the 8-section roof is done.

Nearing dusk, with four done rolls set aside, my fingers completely numb, it is time to get dressed in long pants and hiking boots, so we can head out to get a new batch of reed. Also, considering I lost my dagger last night, (it got pretty dark there, by the time we finished, and it slipped from its necklace sheath) we return to the same spot. It takes only a couple of minutes to locate the dagger, and with it carefully stashed in the car, we get to work.

It isn’t until darkness has fallen almost completely, several cuts in my hands (no matter, they were numb already anyway, hah) that we have the back of the defender loaded up and are on our way home.

My back is sore all over again, no surprise there, considering I was bent over for the better part of the afternoon. Once we get home and have made our way through the insane pack, I soak in the pool for several minutes, stretching every single muscle in my body before I feel comfortable enough to head into the house for a very late dinner.

Little brother prepared Tikka Masala, and it’s pretty darn good, albeit a little light on the stomach (undoubtedly I’ll be hungry again before midnight) after a busy day. Hah. No matter, however, soon it is time to head on up to my cabin and start on the final part of the night. Maybe we’ll manage another edit, I don’t know.