Things I am loving today

I often use the blog for having a whinge about the things that are pissing me off, so in order to resolve some of the negativity, I am going to write a post entirely consisting of things I am actually really liking.

Peter, our handyman, is here putting a new cupboard in the study/spare room, to hold the spare bed bed linen. So I'm loving that we won't have nasty looking exposed plumbing in there any more, because the new cupboard will hide it.

I'm also loving his cheerful singing. He sings the entire time.

I just spoke to Nathan, the aircon man, who is coming to install an airconditioner, also in the study, next week. So I'm also loving that on 40 degree summer nights we won't boil any more.

I love how this family is living in a small apartment, and has rejected the idea that you need a heap of stuff for a baby.

I love working from home with the cat sitting on my desk and the dog snoozing at my feet. I love pugs! We met another pug in the park this morning. It wasn't *quite* as cute as Casper, but it was pretty cute.

I love the fact that I've cleaned out the study, that there's a heap of stuff sitting there waiting to go to the op shop, that I've recycled a whole heap more stuff (including first semester uni notes - it's not like I'd ever look at them again, since I have them on computer as well), and that the study is now, well, inhabitable (photos later). I love my garden. We've had salad with home-grown herbs two days in a row now.

I love that I'm going to a conference on medieval and early modern studies of religion and spirituality tomorrow, instead of going to work, and that Hugo's borrowed Aunty Carmel's car to drive me there and pick me up, because it's going to be 36 degrees, and that we're going to go for a swim afterwards.

To sleep, perchance to be woken up by those idiot teenagers across the street

I am in a daze. Not because of the hot weather, which actually makes me sleep like the dead (at least since we got a ceiling fan) but because the students in the student accomodation across the road have decided that since exams are over, EVERY night is party night.

On Tuesday at around 11pm Hugo went to aks them to be quiet. They complied - for about 30 seconds. He hadn't even finished walking back across the road when the random shrieking started again. It's not even the music that's disturbing, it's the yelling, the squealing, and the laughing at the top of the lungs like a hyena. At 11.30pm we called the cops.

Last night, they were at it again. I'm visualising revenge, involving a high-pressure hose. If only Melbourne wasn't on stage 3A water restrictions.

Anyway, speaking of water, we went for a swim last night at the Carnegie pool, which is all outdoorsy and lovely, except for the showers where I have to close my eyes and not touch the walls. I always wear thongs at the pool anyway, but these are fairly high on the gross scale. It's only $3 for a concession swim though, which is cheaper than any of the other pools in the area. And the Harold Holt outdoor pool is shut.

The decluttering process has been slightly held up by the fact that it's been eleventy-three degrees upstairs at our place. Most of the clutter is upstairs and it's been too hot up there to go through boxes. I have freecycled a few things, though. And resisted the evil urge to go mad in Howards Storage World (and why doesn't that have an apostrophe anyway?) because really they are just over-priced, and the solution to storage woes is to have less stuff, not buy fancier containers.

What an idiot

This column has to be the stupidest thing I've read so far about the Higgins and Bradfield by-elections.

First, she says "The Australian Sex Party are not alone - the Christian Democrats, Family First, One Nation and climate sceptic Independent Leon Ashby are all joining the circus. A race with an almost guaranteed party winner should be boring, but this time it has brought all sorts out of the wood work."

This happens Every.Single.Time.There.Is.A.By-election. Out come the fruitloops. Now with extra fibre and 345% of your daily sugar allowance.

Then she says "Presumably, not many pro-porn voters will be living in these seats. "

Because nice rich Liberal-voting people don't ever look at porn... wait, I'm confused. Is she seriously suggesting that it's only Labor voters who watch/read/have a wank over porn? Or is it only poorer people? Brain... hurts...

Then "But with Labor not running in Bradfield or Higgins and with lots of media attention on the race, it is peculiar opportunity to see a quasi mardi-gras of minor politics, complete with independents and extremes of the left and right."

Peculiar? See previous comment: This happens Every.Single.Time.There.Is.A.By-election.

Of course if you ignore the assertions that the variety pack of candidates is somehow unusual, and that apparently nice Liberal-votin' folks don't ever look at naked sex pictures, then it's a great "colour" piece.

I can't believe people get paid to write this sort of dross, and yet I have yet to be offered a job as a highly-paid contentious columnist.

House progress

The PUs came round yesterday afternoon, and kindly took away six bags of op shop stuff with them. The declutter continues apace. I then put some stuff on the hard rubbish, did *another* op shop bag and put away a box of books. Callum came round and put a new bit in the grey water system (he did explain what it does, but anyway, it all works now, and the garden is being watered, thank goodness, because I didn't think it was going to last a week of 30+ days without irrigation - I am way too lazy to water it sufficiently by hand).

So that's my list for yesterday.

Today I have put the guinea pig cage on freecycle (since we sadly no longer have a piggy), as well as the "chipper" the PUs used to cook us chips in when we were kids. I'm about to go upstairs and sort through another box.

Decluttering is really hard for me (I guess for most people). I want to hang onto things because they have some value in my memory, or they came from someone I'm fond of, even though I don't necessarily like or have use for the objects themselves.

I sat in Borders the other day reading a book on decluttering (note to authors of book: buying more stuff in order to get rid of stuff = counterproductive) and although most of it was useless, one thing resonated with me - it said "you can get rid of the stuff without getting rid of the love". If I throw out something Granny gave me, I'm not diminishing the love I had for her, or the love she had for me. Must keep remembering this.

Also, assorted crap will *not* be useful come the revolution/apocalypse, so I might as well chuck it. Ok, I am psyched up now. Going to tidy!

The bathroom, part II

So, the "after" shots you've all been waiting for (if you missed the before shots, click here):

Welcome to the Municpal Bath & Wash-House. It will cost you 3d for a first-class bath. Note, if you will, the extended bathing times for men, and the only-three-hours-on-Wednesdays for ladies. I mean, we all know men are smellier than women, but come ON! (I bought this sign years ago in Bath)



But I digress... Right, bathroom. Here's the laundry corner - front loading washing machine, with pull out indoor clothes line above it (cleverly placed on the wall that contains the heating flue from our gas heater downstairs - this wall gets REALLY hot in winter). On it, you can see (styled for the photographs!) an assortment of Hugo's holey t-shirts, my undies (oo err) and a tea towel that came free with a delicious magazine.


Looking into the room, we kept the existing bath, the shower is exactly where it was, and the mirror cupboard is the same cupboard. This helped minimise costs.


To your left, the vanity: made of an old table bought for under $15 on ebay, and reusing the door from the old vanity (now painted shiny white); basins also bought on ebay (around $150 for both), taps from ebay ($200 for all the taps for the bathroom). The two boxy things with our everyday stuff (sunscreen etc) I bought in Paris, the pot the plant is in is from Ikea, and the small silver pots with hair things in I bought in England.


Above the vanity is the mirror cupboard - you can see the art on the other wall reflected in it. The big jar at the end is for soap, it used to be in the kitchen, the green glass bottles were my great-grandmother's (I am named after her) and there are a couple of Moroccan tea glasses the same colour that I bought to match. The two boxes at the end - the bottom one my friend Robbie bought me back from India, it has incense in it, the top one has essential oils in it, Annoi got it for me at the Fairy Shop when she worked there.


And I can't resist showing you a shot of the inside (don't worry, all the really gross stuff is in the cupboards underneath, which I am not going to show you!) just because it was so disorganised before (yes, there are eleventy three tubes of toothpaste because they were 80 cents off so I stocked up):


Next to the mirror cupboard is a porcelain art work by Katie Parker, she's a porcelain and cut paper artist (you can check her work out here, I think she's amazingly talented). You can also see the pipe - that's part of the grey water system, the water is pumped up through this pipe, across the roof, down the other side and waters out garden. WIN! Next to that you can see the end of the old towel rail - I got Peter, our handyman, to put it up above the bath, so now I can dangle handwashing off it on coathangers (whenever I actually get around to doing some):


Under this is a hook for my shower cap - I love this, because it has a happy little person on it. I've had it for years and I've moved it from house to house (or apartment to apartment, to be more accurate). I think I bought it in England in 1995, there was a boy one too, but I think an ex-boyfriend has it.


Then if you glance upwards, you'll see a fan/heater/light - and also the plantation shutters on the window.


Then at the end, the far-less-festy shower, with water saving showerhead (free from South East Water) and corner shelf thingy ($20 from Ikea)


Bottom of shower, now coated in river pebbles ($5, ebay, factory seconds). Slightly damp in the pic cause Hugo had a shower at some point during the afternoon, which makes some tiles look a different colour. They're not, they're all dark grey.


Then on your right, a lovely painting of ducks (from the op shop), towel rail (ebay, $10), mirror (factory second, $25)


In between, only you can't see it in the previous shot because I'm aiming higher, there's a stool/washing basket (Ikea, don't remember how much, because my aunt bought it for me as a gift, but let me tell you, they are bloody flimsy and I have had to glue the stupid thing back together several times - the last time I took it apart and glued the whole thing with wood glue, so hopefully now it stays together) - let me tell you, it is MADE OF WIN being able to sit down while you brush your teeth (yes, I am lazy). Two other essential accessories for any bathroom - rubber backed soft fuzzy bathmat (strangely also a gift from my aunt, she's good with the practical bathroom gifts) and a Siamesey. Note how colour-coordinated with the bathroom she is. This was not actually deliberate.


The tiles, which no doubt you have noted throughout, were free - they came out of a skip. Hugo and I were with my PU#2 one day at the local shops, and we happened upon a skip outside the local pharmacy. Now, neither the PU nor I can resist skip shopping, so we loaded the car with eleventy-three floor tiles and voila. They have been grouted with dark grout, because it's heaps easier to clean* than white grout.

Paints are mostly Porters Paints - Silver "Alchemy" paint on the door, untinted white everywhere else (semi-gloss on walls) - the white gloss on the cupboards etc isn't Porters because they don't do one, it's Wattyl IQ (I think).

And I hope it's not disappointingly bland! There's a lot of colour in the rest of the house, I really wanted the bathroom to be restful - white/natural, and silver, and wood with touches of green.


*By which I clearly mean, it doesn't have to be cleaned because you can't see the dirt. Clever!