really? is that how it ends?

You know that I've been home, more or less with my hands tied, for over a week, right? Its been frustrating, boring, annoying, boring. Did I mention boring?

I don't do well when I'm not able to DO things.

So I've been reading. Lots.

I have now finished The Hunger Games trilogy and ... I am NOT happy.

Allow me to indulge myself in a little literary criticism. And a serious whine.

The books were great. Suspenseful, exciting. They reminded me of my favourite book of all time The Chrysalids, though they have nothing in common other than the fact that they're based on civilisations after a major world catastrophe.

Book one was the best. Book two was great, though by then Katniss' wishy-washy flip-flopping between Gale and Peeta were starting to grate on my nerves.

Book three was fine. It was ok.

If you didn't mind that the main character spent so much time unconscious or drugged out on pain meds and had to have events recounted to her rather than experiencing them.

Then things just come to an abrupt but conveniently tidy end.

Seriously. Its like the author got bored or ran into a deadline and hurried to finish the book, tying up as many loose ends as she could in the last few pages. Ends she'd spent books unravelling in the first two books. S

Gale becomes some kind of war specialist in the army. Haymitch goes back to drinking. Peeta, who had been brainwashed by the enemy into hating Katniss doesn't go through some heart wrenching re-discovery of his love for her. Katniss doesn't have any emotional scenes where she breaks down and admits her love for Peeta. In fact there are no scenes at all at the end of the book. Its just an epilogue.

It goes from Katniss shooting the new president in the chest with an arrow, her blanking out, waking up as a prisoner in her room for a long time, gong back to her home in district 12 and then she and Peeta eventually marry and after 15 years or so he convinces her to have children so they have two all in the space of the final few pages...

HUH?

It was such a let down.

Ok. I'm over it now. I just had to complain about it to someone who cares (you care don't you?)

But I'm over it.

Its just such a dismissive ending!

Ok. I'm over it.

z

the view from the couch

I'm going crazy.

I could handle being stuck on the couch if I could sit up. I can sit for hours and do creative things.

What's killing me is not being able to sit. There's only so much you can do in 5-10min bursts of sitting or leaning over the keyboard (leaning is probably not recommended).

So, how did this happen?

Well, I had an unfortunate incident at work while packing for a move which included a slip, a fall and a jolt to my spine. The physio explained that its perfectly normal to be stiff and sore after something like that, but what I couldn't understand is how things could get worse a couple of days later... However he says its totally explainable and can easily happen.

See, after the slip, fall and jolt (doesn't have the same ring to it as 'flip, flop and fly' does it?) I was a bit stiff, had a headache, a kind of reflected pain down my left leg. 

Nothing too bad. Just another day at work, right?

We had a wedding to go to for the weekend so we went.

Have you been to a wedding? I'm sure you have. Its a whole lotta standing around, waiting for the bride to arrive, watching the ceremony, mingling with other guests, then a whole lotta sitting down waiting for courses, listening to speeches, etc.

I got through that without too much discomfort. I had to find spots to sit when I should have been standing, or places to stand when I should have been sitting, but I made it through.

Then on Sunday it was such a beautiful day. I walked around the garden taking photos of the flowers as they start to bloom and grow... and I sat on the cement pad which looks over the paddocks and hugged poodles for a while...

It was so beautiful.

Till I went to stand up.

I was in a world of pain. I could barely walk. I could barely move. I could barely stand up.

Since then I've seen the doc again and started seeing a physio. The instructions are: gentle walking, gentle exercises, horizontal or standing, avoid sitting.

Seems the sitting down low aggravated the already compromised area. Since I was ignoring my back it was going to give me something to listen to. A subtle warning to take it easy.

Paralysis.

Ok. Not paralysis, but paralysing pain. Same result.

Zefi is incapacitated.

sigh.

Its like a prison sentence!

On the positive side (he who always looks for the bright side soon gets sore eyes), I've finished Game of Thrones and am halfway through the Hunger Games Trilogy.

So, since I have no new creations to share I'll share some photos of my pitiful garden. I so want a gorgeous cottage garden but I don't think I'm meant to... for one thing with the rain we've had lately I think I need to grow water lilies (or rice), for another I missed out on the gardening gene. Totally.

Warning: these images can be very distressing to those who have an affinity with plants, an ability to garden or knowledge of landscaping.

My beautiful ornamental currant which broke in our gale force winds. This is my second attempt to grow one of these. The only one of 16 cuttings I planted that actually grew.

An almost blooming tiny mexican orange blossum, struggling in the weeds.

The margerite is blooming and seems to be doing well, though its probably in the wrong spot.

Ok. It did seem like a good idea at the time. I had a small bed with a tiny pom pom bush in it (viburnum) so I tossed in some columbines (granny bonnets, aquilegia). Now I think the pom pom bush is gasping for breath.... on the plus side, the columbines are doing well! :)

The potato vine is growing well despite the fact that the wind has caused major bedraggling and it has nothing to climb on cause I haven't finished painting the porch and can't put a trellis up for it!

The sage bushes are doing well. One better than the other...

The snap dragons are growing well, only lost 2 of those. Victory!

And a surprise! White columbines. Only three years after I put the seeds in the ground! Is that a record? I grew the purple columbines from seeds I collected myself, the white came from a packet in a hardware store. Compare the purple growth to the white.... interesting, n'est pas?

The lone surviving gaura. Its growing. That's something! (the old chairs are there to protect it from stampeding poodle feet which I believe is the reason the other gaura departed this earth.)

My pathetic clematis... I thought it was dead but it turns out it was just pretending. Still, at this rate it'll be 15 years before I have a trellis covered in flowers.

At least the rosemary (and mint) seem to like me. Can you base a garden on rosemary and mint?

z

there must be a name for this...

Surely. 

I mean there's a name for everything these days: OCD, ADHD, Packratting... why not a name for an attraction to old, broken, rusty things.

Why is it that when I see places like this one that my pulse quickens and all I can think of is how I wish I was there, climbing over things, into things, digging around, getting dirty, finding the hidden treasures anyone in their right mind would see as junk?

The best presents I've ever gotten were from junk stores. 

An old tool caddy. Some rusty pliers. 

Really, I am a cheap date!

I have to practice serious self restraint to stop myself from visiting every garage sale, every op shop or tip shop. Street markets and country fairs are impossible to resist! Sometimes its only Wayne that stands between me and the uncontrollable desire to hunt through piles of rubbish to find some treasure. Physically. I mean he has to hold me tight and steer me away, while I crane my neck to look behind me at the missed opportunities...

I'm not quite as bad as that TV show, but if I don't get some intervention soon I might be.

Its been a couple of weeks since I saw the floor in my office. Today I sorted out piles of fabric and stashed it neatly in the cupboard. I have an excuse.

Of course.

I've been working on some sewing projects. And I'm planning for a workshop. So I had to have fabric everywhere and boxes full of stuff to take to the workshop.

Today my left brain kicked in and said "Ok right brain, enough with the creativity already. This place is a pit. Time to clear the clutter."

I didn't actually get rid of much (heaven forbid!), I'm just re-homing stuff. You know, moving it around so Wayne can't keep track of it....

Some will go to work for a project or three. Some will go to the workshop for other projects, some will just go sit in the casita till another day comes when I get around to doing something with it.

One of the good things about running workshops is that I'll be able to give some of the stuff I'll never 'get around to' to others to work on! Two birds with one stone. I still get to work on projects, but they get to go home with someone else.

Kinda like grandkids... You get the joy of spending time with them, but they go home to mom and dad at the end of the day.

Anyway, our week hasn't been without its dramas.

1. My computer is preparing to die. Not right now, but its coming. Its been coming for a couple of years now. I've called in the PC doctor and his prognosis was to make the most of our last moments together cause time is limited.

2. On Friday my netbook failed me. Its not the first time I had trouble booting it up. The PC doc said it was fine, he couldn't find anything wrong with it. But on Friday it took 30min to boot up.

Not good.

3. You already know the wood heater is on its last legs. The baffle plate has been replaced 3 times since we moved here and that doesn't stop it from crashing down occasionally. Then a few months ago the air vent jammed and wont unjam. Sure, we could probably have it serviced... but the actual box is cracked at the door. Seems silly to spend money on it. I've managed to keep it working properly by fixing it in a very high tech way...  I plugged the hole with aluminium foil.

So we'll be needing a new wood heater soon. Before next winter in fact.

Now, you'd be right to think that that was three. Bad things come in three's right? 

Well... maybe cause neither computer has actually turned its toes up yet, they don't count as 2 bad things. Maybe they count as one combined thing. Maybe. Especially since I'm planning to replace both with a laptop, portable AND faster than the dinosaur I have right now. 

The one that runs on coal.

Yeah. Turns out Murphy had another thing in store for us.... thus we come to #4 on the list of bad things that normally come in threes...

4. On Friday the oven stopped working. 

No warning. I just turned it on, put on the timer, came back to check my apple crumble and found it stone cold.

Yeah, we hate that free standing cooker. Its one of those builder type ones you find in rentals. Plain, small... ok but not great. And the hotplates (electric of course) don't work all that well. They're hard to control temperature-wise so you're either boiling things too hard or too slow. The oven didn't cook evenly either. I had to turn it on max to preheat, then turn it down or a 40min bake would take 1.5 hours.

Time for a new stove.

And a new wood heater.

And a new computer.

And a winning lottery ticket!

I'm going to go drown my sorrows in a nice hot shower.

z

the new toothbrush holder

 

You know I hate our bathroom, right?

Its small. Its cramped. It has an unforgivably common vanity. A gold rimmed mirror. White and gold taps. (gag). A gold rimmed standard shower cubicle. A square edged clawfoot tub*. Ugly white and gold plastic towel 'knobs'. No storage space, and less space to move.

Oh, and not to mention laminate tile sheeting.

Lovely.

One of the worse culprits was the hideous toothbrush holder in mouldy gold and white plastic.

Gorgeous.

I can't afford to redo the bathroom right now. Though I'd dearly love to. In fact I was planning to, at the very least, remove the clawfoot tub* so there's room to put in a cute cabinet or two and turn around when you're drying your hair... but you can't even get the clawfoot tub out of there without ripping out the shower and vanity!

sigh...

Meanwhile I do the tiny things which make it easier for me to go in there without throwing up.

Like getting rid of the ugly toothbrush holder and replacing it with something kinda nifty.

 

Like this spiritless spirit level I found at a tip shop. You can't really see it in the photos but the test tubes and the beaker are painted in cream and white - the bottom cream, the top a white stripe.

I had wanted to do a more dramatic ombre type of thing but in the end I didn't think I could get a nice effect on the plastic test tubes if I didn't use spray paint. As it was, I discovered that 'low tack' orange masking tape ain't low tack enough. You can just see the bits of orange pigment/glue left behind.

I figure once the paint has 'cured' long enough I can try wiping the residue off with some eucalyptus oil.

Can you guess why I wanted to paint the bottom of the jar and tubes? Yup. You got it. To hide the gunge that always accumulates at the bottom of a toothbrush holder.

And the reason I didn't paint up as high on the beaker? Cause I liked the numbers showing.

I also whitewashed the spirit level so it wasn't brown. Nothing I could do about the gold fitting though. I have to live with those. At least I painted the silver clamps white so it wouldn't clash too much.

One day, when I have a bathroom I actually like, I might change the colours on the test tubes. Till then, this is way better than the ugly thing I tossed unceremoniously in the bin.

z

* I am thinking the clawfoot tub might work nicely as a cooling outdoor bath in summer. Somewhere. Maybe... I've always thought it would be great but never had the guts to actually do it.

NOTE: This project turned out to be a fail. The test tubes gather water which becomes mucky and stagnant and stinks. I replaced them with large gauge syringes and it works much better!

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