The next seven days in the 100 happy days challenge.
Introducing Week 3
Day 15:
Every 3 weeks I go to have my nails 'done'. When I got married last year, my nails were a mess, and for someone who has always had long strong nails to suddenly have short torn peeling nails was frustrating - plus I didn't want to get married with ugly nails, too many photos are taken of your hands, plus everyone wants to looks at the rings. I just didn't want to have ugly hands and nails on the day.So I looked around on FB at our local nail salons and found Jaimie at Perfectly Polished Nails & Beauty. She was fully booked, but when I told her I was getting married and needed help, she made time for me.
So now, for one morning each 3 weeks, I get to play ladies, chat to Jaimie and her business partner Vanessa, discuss the important issues - like who died on Game of Thrones, and generally solve all the problems of the world.
A fresh mani from Jamie fixes everything... Even when nothing's wrong.
Day 16:
I like to look at a website that DS put me onto called Reddit. It is difficult to explain what Reddit is - its sort of a notice board, news outlet, blog, meme site, comedy site, advice column, science journal and much more all rolled into one! You can customise what you see, so you never have to see anything sports related if you're not into sports.That's me putting my hand up...
All my life I've loved all things Disney, and one of my all time favourite Disney movies is Winnie The Pooh.
So naturally when I found this on Reddit - I just cracked up! Way more than I should have...
Day 17:
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| Daffodils for Easter from MIL. Poor things. |
The thing is I'm not good at keeping things alive.
My kids made it to adulthood because they would chew on my legs when they were hungry, and I would throw food at them... plants don't do that, so they tend to die. Slowly. Horribly.
We've tried, really we have... Each year since we bought our house, spring would roll around and we would head off to the nursery to purchase the sacrificial plants. We'd bung them in the ground, and BM would water them daily for a week or so, then he'd forget, so I'd do it, then we'd both forget, and before you knew it they'd all be dead.
But she persists. We currently have pansies, snapdragons, begonias, stocks, and azaleas in the ground waiting to die... In spite of many sincere protestations that my greatest horticultural achievement is keeping silk flowers alive, she insisted on buying me actual living plants. The daffodils she bought me last year and planted in the ground never came up, so this year she went with potted daffys. She thinks I can't kill them.
Day 18:
Today is my 'baby' girls 21st Birthday.She said she didn't want a party, which I must confess to being rather relieved about, and her friends had arranged a weekend full of activities for her to do - lunches out, indoor rock climbing at Newcastle Uni, feeding sharks and stingrays at Port Stephens, dinner at Hogs Breath, a scavenger hunt... they had even organised an enormous cake for her! It was a Minion (from the movie Despicable Me) dressed as Batman, who is her favourite super hero.
After 2 days of being on the go non-stop, her actual birthday rolled around and all she wanted to do was stay in bed and sleep, but BM & I had other plans.
She had told me that all she wanted in the way of celebration was dinner out at a nice restaurant in the vineyards - we live in the heart of the Hunter Valley, but after the last 2 days, I didn't think she would mind if we didn't do it. But it was her 21st birthday after all, and I wanted to take her somewhere special, somewhere we hadn't been before, somewhere I knew she'd love.
One place I had been longing to go since it opened is a little dessert bar out at Lovedale home of the Lovedale Long Lunch which is, from what I can work out, basically a pub crawl with style, you go from winery to winery, instead of from to pub called Sabor In The Hunter. It's owned and operated by a Portugese couple, and everything on the seven page long menu is hand made on the premises.
She had a light lunch of ham, cheese and tomato croissant, a creme brulee, and a hot chocolate made with real chocolate! It was just perfect. She loved it, and was more than pleased with the choice.
My baby is all grown up...
Day 19:
On the few days that MIL was with us that we didn't go anywhere, she dragged out her knitting. She loves to do those coat hanger covers, and the tops of the hand towels that hang off the cupboard doors in the kitchen. She pumps them out like they're going to save the earth from an apocalyptic event!I was just glad that she'd finally found something to do, that didn't involve the plant nursery at Bunnings, and the creation of yet another sacrificial garden!
Day 20:
While I love having visitors come to stay, most of the time they're only with us for 7 - 10 days at the most and then they go home. I'm not really used to having people around for longer than that.This year seems to be different though. People are visiting, and ... well... they're staying!!
Mum & Dad came down form QLD and stayed for 3 weeks over the Christmas/New Year break, DS & DIL came up from Melbourne for my birthday and they stayed for 3 weeks as well. Now MIL is here for 2 weeks which turned into almost 3 by the time we were able to take her home.
Because we lead such a quiet life, full of our own quirky routine, and it's usually just the 3 of us well 2 in a way as DD is usually out with friends or holed up in her room having a DVD marathon so having extra people here, while wonderful, eventually begins to get to me.
It's just suddenly so busy, and noisy, did I mention that we're really quiet? that I begin to get agitated and need some time away from the guests. My parents aren't too bad, and DS & DIL are so quiet that you forget they're around. But MIL is completely different. She's always talking. All day. I can go the entire day without speaking if BM is at work and I don't go anywhere during the day. I needed a break.
I hadn't had a haircut since the new year, and the locks were beginning to look a little like a Brillo Pad there were so many unruly curls. So I rang the salon The Cutting Place for an appointment and off I went for a hour of scalp massages, cappuccinos, and style magazines.
Bliss!
Day 21:
The happiest day of them all so far!We finally got the payout from the insurance company and were able to head out to get a new car. I had been without a car for a month by this time, and I was totally over it.
There were certain things that BM had decided were essential in our next vehicle, for example it must be diesel - preferably a turbo diesel, it must be automatic, and it must be an AWD.
My list was a bit simpler... it had to have wheels...
Using Carsales, we narrowed down our search by state, region, vehicle type, engine size we decided to go down to a 4cyl to get some fuel economy, the cost of filling the Territory was becoming ridiculous, fuel type, etc etc etc Eventually we were able to whittle down the possibilities to a Toyota Rav4, a Hyundai Santa Fe, and a Hyundai ix35 Highlander.
BM's car of choice was the Santa Fe. He thought it was the perfect car for us, and he couldn't be shaken. Whereas I was in love with the ix35 Highlander. He didn't like it that much because the front speaker - which is door mounted - hurt his knee when he drove it... He's such a delicate flower...
Neither of us would budge, so I suggested that we don't get either of them, and go for the Rav4.
He nodded in agreement, then bought the Hyundai ix35 Highlander. Yeah, I'm pretty spoilt. It has all the bells and whistles you could want, and some we don't want, like leather seats and a sunroof, but the price was right, it has low km's, and they knocked nearly $10K of the purchase price to get us to take it.
Ahhh the joy of buying a car on the last day of the month when the salesmen have targets to meet.
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