lots of little boxes

Today I gained about six square metres of floor space by removing boxes.

The boxes were from previously acquired electrical goods and tools. Most of the boxes had been there for at least two years!

I kept the boxes as the warranty or guarantee was for two, five, or ten years – depending on the ‘stuff’.

The instructions and warranty were filed, non-recycleable packaging put in the bin, and the cardboard flattened to go in the garden ready to put under the mulch (hay).

Yay, week three of The De-clutter ’52 Things in 52 weeks’ Challenge accomplished.

in the moment

Today was our wedding anniversary, and we agreed that we could celebrate by having a picnic on the South Perth foreshore.

Being Saturday, we did the usual Saturday things first. H went out early for a bike ride with his group out of Garlands, and I woke up slowly listening to the radio. Then it was making the weekly menu and shopping lists, and off together to the farmer’s market and supermarket.

The weather was humid, so cooking earlier in the day to prepare for our picnic was not much fun. But we had a shower to freshen up, then cycled down to the river to look for a gazebo to sit under for the light.

The foreshore is very ugly at the moment with temporary fencing erected for the Australia Day activities. Just about everywhere you look, there is a fence that made me feel I was in a cage. I decided to sit in the gazebo facing H.

It was very pleasant eating our picnic of chicken sausages poached in champagne with apple and cinnamon sauce, potato fritters, and rocket. I couldn’t fit in our prepared sweets of Morrocan figs, pears and red wine and yoghurt. We drank the rest of the champagne that didn’t poach the chicken sausages, and a very nice bottle of my favourite champagne – Veuve Clicquot, UC’s present to H for his birthday.

What added to the atmosphere was other people that were making use of the BBQ’s and gazeboes. There were many sounds of enjoyment and laughter.

The Refuge

Started work late so could finish late and go straight to the Somerville to see Le Refuge.

I had my eyes closed for the first few minutes of the film as I don’t like needles. It was difficult to know when to open them as I don’t speak French, so I just listened until there was some dialogue recognising that using the needle either required much concentration and or was a private activity. But once the sharp bits were out of the way, I enjoyed this film immensely.

It is a sad story, but a feeling of hope and transformation unfolded from the miserable beginnings of drug use and bereavement. The characters were believeable, and apart from the ‘Mother’ likeable. The film ended unexpectedly, which was a delightful twist, and it did leave me wondering whether there was going to be a sequel.

The evening could be called ‘The Refuge’ too. It was wonderful to be able to just turn up and enjoy the film, company, food and wine. D brought the wine, and H and E brought the food. It was a great end to a busy week.

The ride home on our bikes was great. It was quiet along the cycle path, and the wind was with us most of the way.

going for five

Today was the fourth day in a row that I have rode my bike to and from work. Eight kilometres there and eight kilometres back.

Tomorrow, I’ll be riding to work, then to a film, and then home.

Admittedly, the Somerville is only ten minutes ride from my current Friday job. But if I ride home from the film, then I will have rode my bike for a whole week. Go me!

pickled cabbage

H gave me Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion for Christmas. It is similar to the Cook’s Companion (which I already own), except that it has a section at the beginning of each chapter how to plant, grow, and cultivate each of the plant ingredients.

I wanted the book because I saw it as a way of knowing what what was in season, and considering what to grow in the garden, and how many plants.

When Red Cabbage is in season and plentiful, I usually make a couple of batches of pickled red cabbage. In the ‘Kitchen Garden Companion’, it says that you can grow cabbage all year round in hot and temperate climates. But it looks like I will have to sort out the water issue first, as I have read that they need a lot of water.

healthy comparisons

I was fortunate to be able to participate in the CSIRO Online Diet Study and have access to many of the resources available from the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet (TWD). I say fortunate, because after the completion of the study, participants including myself now have continued access to these resources until June 2011.

I chose to participate as I was already a waning member of SparkPeople. I wondered if the CSIRO Online Diet Study would compare favourably with SparkPeople with the extra benefit of including more local (as in Australian) content.

Although the CSIRO Online Diet Study had the usual hiccups of a new website and the user experience is rather awkward, I do prefer the unadorned simple tools. SparkPeople is a very rich or complicated web site, with many tools and resources that sometimes become overwhelming.

I’m sure the study will show that participation online achieves better results in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But how much, how little, or what, I think will be difficult to interpret. It appears, that if you participate, you continue to progress. Whether this is eating healthily, exercising regularly, or writing a blog post.

Participation and interacting with others that share similar goals I think is one part of the answer, and being able to do it online too is an added bonus.

does everything happen for a reason?

Scott from The Daily Post has asked Does everything happen for a reason?.

My answer, is “no”.

And, I’m not going to give a reason

Except, it is easy to say ‘no’, in response to ‘everything’.

In addition, when people use the expression, “everything happens for a reason”, usually in response to hearing about a disappointment, I get annoyed.

virtual decluttering

This week I decluttered my desk of the computer that was running Windows. It had had a good innings, as it has been useful for over ten years. I had started to use it less and less as we now run the couple applications that need the Windows operating system in VirtualBox on H’s Linux computer. Also, the battery was a little tired so it took a few presses of the on switch to get it up and running.

There was no sadness moving on this beige box, unlike decommissioning my SPARCstation 2. I shed tears over that. So much so, that I have not been able to finish this blog post until now.

H went to a lot of trouble to choose a new box  that had a super quiet power supply and fan. And I must admit, there was no comparison between my new Linux computer and the SPARCstation. The SPARCstation sounded like a plane taking off in comparison. But I do miss my WYSIWYG FrameMaker application. So far, the combination of the SPARCstation, SPARCprinter and FrameMaker is the only setup that has been truly WYSIWYG.

The SPARCstation and peripherals joined the other stuff in the bin on Resource Recovery Day April 2008.

Ending on a positive note, decommissioning the Windows computer means that I have successfully decluttered another item for the The De-clutter ’52 Things in 52 weeks’ Challenge organised by The Organised Housewife.

in the ground

The mango pip that I sprouted almost three years ago to the day, is now planted in the ground. It is under an established pomegranate tree, which I hope will protect the tree until it is more established. I will then cut back the pomegranate tree.

Just prior to the tree going in the ground, it did flower but it was not followed up by fruit as we had about three very hot days and the flowers were scorched. Also, many of the bottom leaves have dropped off either due to the stress of planting or the hot summer weather.

I’m happy that it has found its feet (or roots), as there is new growth from the top and it is groiwng upright. Also, it is happily sharing the irrigation with some catmint and a feral pumpkin, zucchini, or cucumber. Not sure how to tell these apart until you see the fruit.

playing games

On Facebook, I was invited to play games, but began to find them very tedious as crops, animals, and fish would die, or neighbours would help by providing gifts that then needed to be recipricated within a certain time frame. I have cut back to one game on Facebook, that is, PetVille. So Facebook gaming friends, if I don’t appear to be responding, it’s because I have removed all the games from my account except for Petville.

I was introduced to Travian through Facebook, and I have been playing for just over 18 months, the first game I registered lasted the longest. This first game was on au4, and I overlapped this with aux, and I am currently in the end game of au3. I have played as a Gaul for all games, except for when ‘sitting’ other accounts.

What I enjoy most about Travian, is that you complement the game with other web sites, forums, IRC, and Skype. The conversations in and around the game are as much fun as the game itself.

Although you start off as an individual, it is difficult to continue to play well without teaming up with other players to sit your account and join an alliance.

I’m not sure if I will continue to play Travian as I am currently working fulltime wtih two parttime jobs, and hopefully in a couple of weeks time I will be working parttime and studying parttime. So patchy internet access and time needed to focus on new activities to do well.