Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! KISA has removed the beard for this Chopper Reid look. So why is KISA channelling Chopper Reid this sunny Halloween day??? So the blood will flow well for this...tonight we went to a 50th birthday, held auspiciously on Halloween..and tomorrow is Movember!

We had a great night. Great food, great company. Happy Birthday Sandy...last seen when we departed in the wee hours belting out a song in front of the karoake machine!

PS. The mo won't be lasting long.....

Getting Things Done

We had a long weekend last weekend, as KISA had Friday and Monday off. So we used the time doing things that needed doing but we had been putting off. Firstly the door place came to install our new front door we ordered some time ago. We never used the front steps and we wanted to change that. The front stairs has a hand rail all the way to the top, unlike the middle stairs and some our visitors will find that helpful. Now it feels like we have a proper entrance, so we got ourselves a hall stand to drop all our "entering the house stuff" on. That means it doesn't get dropped in the kitchen! The new front door in place, it matches exactly the one over the other stairs. It is a sliding door as an opening door is too difficult to open with full hands at the top of the stairs.

A shot with it opened. We just need to paint the new woodword around it now.

Our next stop was to the accountant to get our tax return done. This is a job we had been putting off for months. Don't know why as we get cash back and it isn't that complicated. Then we took a broken window frame with its glass to get repaired. Now we can open the front window again! Just in time for the summer breezes. We also got the lounge windows measured up for plantation shutters. The curtains won't survive another washing and we don't like curtains, too heavy and dusty for this climate.

Saturday saw us in the garden. KISA dug out three banana trees that were growing into the fence and wrecking it, and we took them to the tip. While he did that I pulled weeds. On the way back from the tip, we loaded up the trailer with the first of three loads of forest mulch to do the garden bed before the summer. The weeds were starting to win.

This is not my favourite job, but it needs doing once a year. And it all looks so good afterwards! Took all day though.

On Sunday KISA mowed the lawn and cleaned the pool, while I helped run a sausage sizzle stand at the Victoria Street Markets for the Leukaemia Foundation. Doesn't it all look so good now.

See how tall Dorothy's tree is now? It is also having babies where the lower branches have rooted into the soil. We will plant those in the space behind the chair facing the tree..

After a good clean up the pool looked inviting! We did lots of swimming this weekend. KISA had a long game with a friend's kids while she and I sewed a costume for her son's school play.

On Monday, we were up very early for a road trip to Townsville, to get the Land Rover serviced. We no longer have a Land Rover dealer in town and the company we lease it from requires it to be serviced by a dealer.

While it was getting serviced, we went to the Reef Aquarium for a visit. We tried our hand at deep sea pearl diving. You don't want to be claustraphobic. That helmet is solid brass and smells like copper.

We especially loved these sea horses.

It was hard to get a good picture as the tanks are lit by the sun and the light varied so much from where we were to the tanks. Looking in the tanks was just the same as being under water, without the sound. I have now seen the reef both ways! Some of the fish even had whiskers!

Some coral..couldn't get an accurate colour depiction thogh

The predator tank was interesting. This is a sword shark, that big bill would be a big nuisance I think!

Me with a whale's vertebra. Gives some idea of the size if it. It was very heavy too!

We even stumbled across Nemo...must be a kind of catfish...

The starfish clean up the tanks. This one was all nobbly and red and black in colour. He was quite big too!

Thnis is a male Leopard shark. You can see his size compared to the diver beside him. He is one of a breeding pair. The female had spots like a leopard. He was dozy and docile as they sleep on the bottom in the day time.

The diver is holding a green sea turtle. This one is only 5 years old. She has lived at the aquarium since she was a hatchling.

We went for lunch at the Cowboys Leagues Club, then back to the dealer before the car was finished about 3pm. We drove home and got in about 7 pm. Just as were passing the Laguna Quays turnoff, the sun was setting. A long day, but another tricky job done.

Quiet Weekend

Bit of an uneventful weekend here. Friday night was date night. Where we go out to dinner at home. So we had mushroom soup, Curried scallop pasties with salad, and chocolate mousse with raspberries. With Good bubbles and Oyster bay red. On the good plates, with the sliverware and with the posh glasses. Got a late start as there were some work related disasters which meant KISA didn't get home till nearly 8:30pm. Next day we did some shopping and pottering about at home. We were invited to a dinner party, so I made Aunty Berry's Fresh Prawn Pate for my starter contribution. I haven't made this since the 70s and it was lovely. It made two big bowls so next time I will halve it. Prawns were under $9 a kilo this week so its not such an expensive thing to make. Big hit. We had a great evening, laughed a lot and got in at 1am!

There were a few leaves in the pool as we have been having strong northerly winds this week. So KISA thought he might trim a few palm leaves. He got a bit carried away.

During the process he stuck his hand in a green ants nest, overbalanced and fell in!

After a couple of hours work, it looked like this.

So it was time for the first swim of the summer!

Followed by the rest of the prawn pate and a bottle of bubbles...

Hope you had a nice weekend too..

Another birthday

In all the hoo haa last week with the Light The Night event, I forgot to post it was Son 24's birthday on the 6th October. He is still 24. I have been calling him 24 even though he was 23. I rang him on the day and he was sick. Thought he had the swine flu. Happy Birthday sweetie. Hope you are feeling better. Ring your mother.

Tighter Than Thou

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean.""I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"
At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."
by Loren Eiseley, The Star Thrower 1978

KISA kind of proudly tells people I am a bit of a tightwad. Tighter than a fish's ...er something. I haven't always been that way, when I was younger I spent money like the rest of 'em. But circumstances pulled me up about 15 years ago and after a while it became a bit of a habit. In more recent years, I have become a little more environmentally aware, and after Jess's illness my priorities shifted quite drastically. So now I am frugal (my choice of word or 'canny' - the Scots version is good too) by choice. The reason is that by being frugal with the things that don't matter, we can spend the money on the things that do. Strangely enough the things that do matter are not often found in shops and restaurants. The things that do matter seem to be walking around on legs. And the other reason is that by being frugal, we are being green. It is also better for your health. They call it the green triangle. Save money, save the planet, save your health. All interconnected.

Of course frugality is relative. Our version of frugal could be seen as too spendy by some people or too extreme by others. It is all relative to where the observer is and to where we have come from.

Like all sensible married couples, we gave the control of the money to the tightest one. KISA jokes he needs to put a business plan together to purchase new stuff, usually technical stuff that we NEED. This plan falls down sometimes for two reasons. 1. KISA should be selling stuff as he is good at presenting a case. And 2. I am just a soft touch where he is concerned. So like all sensible married couples, a fair bit of compromise goes on. I would take this frugality thing a lot further, but we need to do this at KISAs pace, not mine.

Lately though, generally KISA is changing his money thinking and is also thinking a lot like me. In fact sometimes he is quite 'tighter than thou' and pulls me up when I get too spendy sometimes. His motivations are maybe different than mine but earlier retirement is one mutual one we have.
Generally though, despite our living on one income and the GFC, which admittedly has hardly impacted on our region, which is booming due to coal, (an irony that is not lost on me) we are doing OK. We still have a mortage, the bane of my life, but we are ahead on it and have no other debt. We save a little each month too, despite a few unexpecteds this year. And since we are still clawing our way back from financial backsliding from the time of Jess's illness, we are doing very well. And being canny is a big factor in that.
Some of the things we do now:

1. Recycle - the council makes it easy to do this but it is an area where we could do more. I wish there was a computer recycling centre here as we toss a lot of broken computer bits and pieces. KISA still fixes other people's dud computers. We reuse a lot of things, and mostly don't replace anything until it is broken and unfixable. Even computer parts. I still want a worm farm though.

2. No more paper towels - I overlocked squares of old towels for mopping sweaty brows and kitchen clean ups, then they get washed. Fried food can be drained on a couple of bread slices. Really nasty messes can have a rag sacrificed - they are rags after all! We also use cloth napkins at the table.

3. Cook nearly most foods from scratch - this is where we save the most money, we hardly ever buy ready prepared food. The guide is if my great grandmother wouldn't recognise it, leave it on the shelf. It helps a lot that cooking is a great passion of mine. Some people hate it! The next step for me is vegetables in the garden and chickens. Still working on KISA for that.

4. We eat in. We even prefer our food to that in restuarants these days. And we can drink a better class of wine with it at home. This is even easier since it is just the 2 of us. Or perhaps we are just getting old!

5. Wash in cold water and dry on the line. Our climate is a plus here. Except for dust storms. And rain. And massive humidity. Ok, so I do use the drier occasionally. Or the clothes get smelly.

6. Replaced most of our cleaning products with bi carb soda and vinegar and rags. Nothing cleans the cooktop better. Though I am afraid oven cleaner still needs to be used but that is only infrequently. VERY infrequently..;-) Making my own soap is next to try and laundry detergent when this box runs out.

7. We bought a coffee machine recently and now make our own coffee instead of driving through Maccas. We can have skim milk, and we only pay 60cents a cup instead of $3. This will save us lots. It is one of our bad habits financially.

8. I go to the op shops for fabric and patterns while I relearn how to sew. If something I make is a disaster it is not such a heartbreak. I often find good clothes there too. And wine glasses.

9. Since I don't work (for money) most of these things are easier for me as I have time, I find that when I do work, more expensive shortcuts get taken, especially in the supermarket and kitchen and we eat out more. I can almost create a small wage for myself with the money it is not necessary to spend to support me working.

10. I don't drive much these days so only refuel the car about once each 6 weeks. Have even entertained the thought of getting rid of it and using my bicycle. Will wait till the wet season to see if that is really a good idea!

11. I try to give back to the community by volunteering. I work a full day a week for the Leukaemia Foundation because they gave to us. I deliver Meals on Wheels once a fortnight with M. Sometimes we are the only people these folk see all day.

12. We stopped looking at advertising. We record all the TV we watch and skip the ads . I also stopped reading magazines. Count how many pages of ads are in one compared to editorial content. You will be shocked. Considering what they cost. Surprisingly not seeing advertising makes a huge difference to the creation of desire for stuff.

13. We discovered camping is more fun than mini breaks in other towns/cities. And much more relaxing.

14. We stopped going to the shopping centres. Unless we need to buy food. Or something we need. If you don't see it you don't want it. This really works.

15. Because I don't work outside the home I can support and pamper KISA. He works long days for us and when he comes home he can just collapse, and he has a happy stress free home. I like doing this and do it by choice. It works for us. I understand it is not everyones cup of tea though.

16. Opting out. We really have become an economy rather than a society. We are now consumers where once we were citizens. The only time we have another label is at election time when we are voters. Well, I want to be a member of a community. So I am trying to opt out of the consumer culture. It is not bloody easy either I tell you, they are out to get us everywhere. They want our money.

17. We just want a simple life. But living simply is hard work! Trying not to let your money sift through your fingers is hard work. Beating the advertisers and the pervailing attitudes keeps you on your toes. But it is worth it and very satisfying.

Everyone is different and a simpler life looks differnet for different people. Everybodys' priorities are different. And whether we are referring to money or time, the principle is the same. Cut back on what doesn't matter to enable more for what does.

Ghandi said "Be the change you want in the world". We won't make much of a difference to the environment and the world with what we do, but as the little story above says, it all helps a little, and it will make a difference in ours and our childrens' lives. This keeps me going even when I do feel like I am swimming upstream.

Memories from a small island far far away

KISA's sister L has been going through their late Mum's photos. A difficult task for her I imagine, as I have been doing the same with Jess's photos. A couple of weeks ago we received a packet containing a selection of family photos covering KISA'a early years. We experienced many emotions going through them, tears, laughs and oohs. I have been given permission to publish this one of a cute little boy, taken probably just before his first pair of glasses. Thank you L, we will scan them all.

Light the Night

Today, the 8th October we had the first ever Leukaemia Foundation Light The Night walk. I posted earlier about how I was one of the volunteers working with the local PR Officer and Fundraiser to put this event on. It was a huge amount of work and a great success. we have been on a high, albiet an exhausted one, ever since.
KISA took 2 days off work to help too. He was the balloon blower upper on the night. He also provided muscle power for the set up and pack down. There were 400 balloons, with a gizmo inside that lights up, and has a one way valve into the balloon. They are hard to blow up with your mouth without popping out an eye. So we got him one of these babies. It has a little gun thing at the end which blew up each balloon in 2 seconds flat.
We started blowing up balloons and bagging them about 2 hours before the event. Next year we will ask for a bigger tent! We had done only a few by this stage and were already running out of room.
The Lions Club ran a BBQ during the event. One of the ladies working this stall in the evening was the celebrant who married us 8 years ago.

This is Tireless Tina, who set up the gift bags and paperwork stuff in the admin tents.

And this is the stage that KISA built. When the big burly State Emergency Service guys came to dismantle this after the event, they grumbled that the knobs were done up too tight. KISA can't help being such a strong manly guy!!

Here are KISA and Mrs M who organised the event. She is a very clever lady. Very good at what she does, I am learning a lot from her.

As the sun went down, it all started to look very good. Here is the memory tent. In there is a large notice board where people could post messages of support for those fighting a blood cancer or survivors or in memory of those who have passed away. The stall was staffed by a couple of counsellors as there were a few tears shed on the night.

This is one of the singers we lined up. Charlotte was wonderful, she is 16 years old and had a CD released in the US the day before our event. We were very lucky to get her. The act we had lined up got the chickenpox a couple of days before the event and Charlotte was home for a few days promoting her album. We also had a very talented 11 year old and The Harmonics perform. The local radio breakfast show annoucer MC'ed the event and we had 4 speakers before the walk set off at 7pm.

This is a shot of the crowd as the balloons started to glow as the light faded. We got busy at the tent after this so I didn't get any pictures of the speeches or the actual walk. KISA will digitise the news clip from the TV and we will add it later so check back.

As it became obvious that the event would be a big success we all started to relax a bit..

A&P and Godzilla came down to walk with KISA and I to remember Jess. I really appreciated their support. It was quite a sight to see the bobbing light of 200 or so blue, gold and white lighted from within balloons in the darkness as we walked the 2km walking track around the gooseponds. The lady who came from Brisbane office to speak and enjoy our event said she thought it had a great atmosphere.

At about 8pm we started to pack everything up and load it into utes etc. After KISA and I returned all the hire equipment the next morning, we collapsed our sunburnt aching bodies on the couch and didn't move much for the rest of the day. Lucky it is only once a year! Here is a video clip of the news item that appeared on the TV the next evening..

Ten Years Today!

Today it is ten years since KISA and I met in person (as opposed to online 13 years!). He hopped off the plane in his brand new (white!) trainers and we clicked. First date was at Sorbellos so we returned tonight to the scene of the crime for dinner. I suggested we go up to the lookout at Cape Hillsborough tomorrow so I can sprain my ankle, and then he said on Sunday I can break his glasses. For old times sake.