Category: State-of-Being

Counting down …

Vista seen from the bus station across the road. My unit not visible behind the trees.

Counting down 11 sleeps till moving day.

Filling in forms has been the name of the game for the last couple of days. But … I am an arcane procrastinator and have been putting stuff off all weekend. Like now. Writing a blog post. Pearling out some of the news. And I just wrote a hard letter.

An astounding amount of stuff still to do. Like, pack up the contents of the whole apartment? Stuff I haven’t started. Like, deciding on what I’m not taking? I’m squeezing from a small three bedroom place into a smaller unit with 1 bedroom and what they call a Multi Function Room.

I have four shelf units and place for only three. There is an amazing amount of storage in the new unit. All of it behind cupboard doors, unfortunately, though good for keeping dust out.

Or stuff I’m in the middle of. I’ve started packing the Lego. Though not the models yet. I want to get a few more photo sequences done.

Tim, fixing Nin Wiz’s cabin. Working alone instead of with the rest of the crew, out of pure frustration with a certain person’s obstreperous manner.

Plus, I’m potting up some plants to go while deciding which plants will have to stay behind.

And, not to forget, my new tech to get used to …

… new modem situation. Huh? All looks very tidy but I only recognize the power-point in the lower right, and the modem in the middle right.

Blogging Stats II: Countries

A whole world of people out there reading this blog … I was amazed to find that I had readers from 46! countries.

Forty-four now unfortunately, with readers from the Ukraine and Palestinian Territories falling from the list.

I thank you all for your interest! I know several of you have been reading my work for more than just this blog when we clubbed together with a U-turn from a previous platform, and landed on Google+.

Food: Easy Marinated Tofu

This week have been experimenting with this variation on my normal lunch. I usually have up to three jars of marinated olives and capers in my fridge, decanted from an unhandy 1.7 kg bulk jar too big to fit between the shelves. Since the marinade is tasty and too good to throw out after the olives have been fished out, I now use it to marinate tofu.

If you’re going to try something like this, you’ll need the firmest tofu you can get. Slice it in half centimeter thick slices … I do about three slices a time … and from there into half centimeter cubes. Tip them into the jar with the capers, peppers, and remnants of olives. Stir, and rest in the fridge. I usually can’t resist trying them after two days.

My Lunch:

I always have a plate of lightly steamed leafy greens … some people would say ‘sweated’ greens … but I dislike applying sweated to food. I do it in the microwave, just pile the greens on a plate, and microwave for 45 seconds.

I’m on a diet where I need four and a half cups of cooked greens per week. Instead of fussy measuring I eat steamed greens twice a day every day and call it done.

When I have a quarter of a green apple for my fruit course that day, I slice it and microwave along with the leaves.

Next, I have a heel of bread from a gluten free, mixed grain and seeds loaf spread with ripe avocado. On top the marinated mix, drained, but as it comes out of the jar. Sliced jalapeno peppers, capers, a couple of little cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of the now marinated tofu.

Yum!

On The Run …

Lol, you’ll have to look down the bottom for picture I tried to post here. I tried twice, there are two pics.

Not that I’m really running or even jogging. Though at times I’m up for an elderly heavy-footed jog up the corridor, this is a one-fingered jog over my mobile’s key pad.

In other words, I have no time for regular posts. No time for fiction, construction or even a slightly fictionalized cat story. This is an update on what’s going on in my life.

Next May the rent where I’m living is set go astronomical, $700 AUD per week! I decided no way can I afford that.

So I’m in the process of buying a place in a retirement village. Two meetings already with management, and half a dozen phone calls to secure my unit. Today I am going there to sign the contract and pay what they call a ‘soft’ deposit.

I laughed about that. Two weeks rent at the present rates! But I guess they know that people not working in the money economy have their money tied up in banks and super annuation schemes.

My house when I still lived in NSW
View from unit where I live now

Bosley’s Builders, 10

10. Drew is Blue

Dan decided Wendy should drive, Jackie next to her in the cab. He’d ride in the back, ready to jump out should a bit of shovel work be needed.

“I don’t mind,” Wendy said. “All this rain we’ve been having probably livened up the mud a bit.”

“Hey there! That’s Drew’s van in the track!” Dan said. “Wait here, ladies. I’ll go warn him that we’re coming by!”

“That van looks like it’s stuck in the mud,” Jackie said. “I know the feeling well.”

Wendy slid from the driver’s seat. “He’s going to need help.” She rounded the front of the truck. “We don’t have your winch do we, Dan?”

“Does look like a winch job, Drew,” Dan said, agreeing with her.

“What?! You’ll pull me all the way to the site?” Drew said aggrieved. “I’m doing just fine. I got this far!”

“You need a four-wheel drive,” Dan said.

“We churned the track up plenty coming this far,” Jackie said.

“You need friends,” Wendy said. “I don’t agree that you should get pulled all the way to the site.”

“Then what?” Drew said. “You’ll recall I’m still sleeping on a swag in a dinghy?”

“Yep. My plan will get you up off the ground,” Wendy said.

All three looked at her.

“Okay no, let’s take a step back. Dan, you fetch the winch. With Jackie out of his face, Jed will probably help you install. Jackie, you make us all a cuppa.” She looked at Drew. “You still got the fixings?”

“Yeah. Sure. Go ahead.” He set his shovel aside. “Much as I’d like to toss it.”

Wendy laughed. “Be my guest. Only be prepared to fetch it back. In my experience, winching will need a ton of shovel-work as well, only faster.”

“Why I never asked. I like the slow way, you know? So what will I be doing?” Drew said suspiciously.

“You mean what will we be doing?” Wendy said. “You and me? Having a chat without the usual interruptions?”

“A serious life changing chat?” Drew said lightly.

“Yes,” Wendy said. “You probably can call it that.”

“Go weed the island?” he pointed.

She chuckled. “Here. Have some seedlings. We’ll start planting the island while we talk.”

At the end of their ‘little’ talk, Drew smiled and laughed while Wendy and Jackie and he drank their coffee, waiting for Dan.

“I hear him,” Jackie said. “Quick. I can just rinse these mugs.”

Dan arrived without the winch. “Boss said they couldn’t miss it. I’ve got a tow rope. It’ll be good, don’t worry.” He started knotting it at the front of the van.

“Not here!” Drew said. “We need it at the back. Need you to drag this thing out backwards.” He smacked the back of the van like he smacked a beast on its rump. “It’s goodbye and good times had while we were together.”

Dan shook his head. “What’s got into him?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie said.

Wendy just grinned.

Right. Bit of Wendy magic. Don’t break the spell! Dan concentrated on towing Drew’s van back to the roadside lay-over where Drew had camped for so long.

Blogging Stats: An Outlier

I usually do an annual assessment of this blog where I have a look at what is working and what’s not. This year I have an ‘outlier’ to consider. This is a post that does so well that it outstrips every other post with Views. Even now, eighteen months since it was posted, search engines are still finding it, and still gets between 1-5 Views per week, with so far, over 150 Views in total.

If it was one of my usual non-fiction posts I would be over the moon! Ecstatic, even, to think that so many people appreciate my writing. I would definitely then analyze its every word, tag and category, to see whether I could replicate its success.

Instead I will analyze it for the elements that allowed it to cross over into ‘Lego-technical-expertise-country’. I think what is actually happening is that Lego enthusiasts are hitting on it in the belief that it is one of the xyz posts they’ve heard about explaining a particularly nitty-gritty technique by way of a technicolor video or some such.

When they discover it isn’t what they expected, they just as quickly click away. Giving me a bunch of ‘false-positives’ in the blog’s stats. Lol, I won’t be posting the title of the offending post in this article! I’m not after more ‘false-positives’!

But seriously, when by now more that a hundred and fifty people click away with their expectations unfulfilled, that can start to have repercussions for a blog. Time to do something about it. I’m thinking of combining the information in all three posts pertaining to that subject, and deleting the originals. That way I still have the information available.