WEEK THIRTY-EIGHT

Despite my stupidly late (or early?!) night, I woke up at about the same time as usual – talk about a creature of habit. As I had one more day on my own I decided to waste the morning by lying in bed and watching a couple of episode of the Apprentice, drinking too much tea, and eating a majority of a packet of biscuits! A healthy start to the day! At least I had broken the routine of pancakes! I really was just ready for a lazy day, and that was exactly what I did. Once I got up and had a shower I started watching the rest of season four of the Big Bang Theory – 24 episodes in 3 days is a pretty impressive record! I felt a bit mean after a while, and although I knew I had to walk the dogs I really wasn’t in the mood – so I took them down to the creek, so they could do lots of running, and I could do minimal walking! Everyone happy! When I got down there though I was slightly gutted I had arsed about so much, as I had just missed a giant container ship going down the river. I’m not normally one for boats, but these ones are just so massive, I love watching them go past. When I got half way round the track I sat down for a little break – lethargy had set in well and truly! During this time the dogs decided to bolt after a rabbit – straight into the fenced off ‘private keep out’ area. Always good. They came back remarkably quickly though – possibly having already caught the rabbit and eaten it! Neither of them had any signs of a cheeky treat, so they got away with it if they did. Just as I turned back onto the pavement, the dogs were pretty much right next to me, and then they were gone. And this time they were properly gone. I spent the next 20 minutes screaming their names in a more and more desperate manner, terrified I had lost them both on my final day of being responsible for the, Eventually I saw two little tails bobbing through the grass, and after a bit more screaming, they came back. And went straight onto their leads. Little buggers. As with the first part of my day, I did very little for the second half of it either, and just took up residence in front of the TV. I also had my final night in a bed for a while – the next bed I’m in will be in a hostel, which barely counts, and after that it’ll be in Edinburgh! Madness.

The next day I thought I woke up quite early, but not early enough, and Toni was already curled up asleep on the sofa. Bless. As she was sound asleep, I also went back to bed for another couple of hours, and then when I woke up again, it seemed like a much more reasonable time to be up at! So, my first job was to make tea for the jetlagged lady – and then we spent the next couple of hours just having a chat and finding out all about her trip. It actually made me feel quite homesick – thank god I have something fun to look forward to! Finally we decided to venture to Yarraville to pick up supplies, and take the dogs out for a bit. As usual, I didn’t wear a real jumper, but this was the first time I actually bloody regretted it – all of a sudden it had gotten very chilly! Both of us just lazed about for the rest of the day – Toni’s tiredness was infectious! Eventually, I made dinner, and as it was easy, made more pumpkin and feta quiche – my excuse being that Toni hadn’t tried it yet, and I had well and truly perfected the recipe now! Ha ha! Funnily enough Toni went to bed pretty early that night – don’t blame her – and I spent the evening having a chat with mum, drinking far too much tea, and watching my new favourite TV programme – The Amazing Race. Sadly, before Toni went to bed I forgot to grab my wheat-bag, and I really had become far too accustomed to it – I went to sleep with cold fingers and toes! I am slightly scared about how I am going to react when I get home!

When I woke up on Wednesday I had no idea what time it was – but as everyone had already gone to work I knew it wasn’t early. Turns out it was 11am. Ooops. So, with no one to judge, I slipped back into the pancakes routine – at least I did the dishes too, so it wasn’t all completely self-indulgent! I then sat down to watch an Australian documentary, which had been all over the news, and all over Facebook, about how terrible live export of cows is. As horrible as some of it was, it was all kind of expected – people seemed to have thought it was the worst thing in the whole world, when, to be honest, it’s some cows being treated badly before they are killed to be made into burgers – we all know my stand on this issue, so I wont preach, but, what the hell did you think happened? The weather had well and truly turned, and I was cold to the core – the only remedy was to have a burning hot shower. And my god it worked, slightly too well, I had to have a little lie down afterwards because I thought I was going to faint! At least I was warm! When I took the dogs into Yarraville to get some provisions, I had a big case of déjà vu – as always they were off their leads, and someone, this time in a car, told me to put them on a leash. There was once difference between the grumpy man from the other day, and this time – the person asking me to do it had a council sticker on the side of their car. The last thing I wanted was them to be taken to the pound, so much to their disgust, they were tied together, and to me. In the afternoon I just busied myself with my computer, and finally, all of my movies and TV shows have converted into iTunes. Our flatmate was home quite early from work, so we just wasted time together – both with stuff we really should be doing, but instead, I stole 140Gb of music from him! It was his entire music collection, and some of it is terrible, but at least it gave me another way to [rocrastinate, and I spent the evening sorting all that out – and ended up taking about 2Gb! Haha! Overkill much? However this meant I had to delete other stuff, so it all fits on my phone. It was tricky to cull more, but I don’t think I really need any more than 10 days of music! In the evening Toni took to the kitchen, and created a yummy tofu dinner – it was so nice to have someone else ideas – if left to myself I can almost guarantee I would have had quiche again! I get stuck in a rut far too easily with food! Even when I offered to help she declined – it was a nice change just being called for dinner when it was ready – after a month of dealing with it myself! Before Toni went to bed that night, I remembered to get my wheat-bag, and when I fell asleep I was super toasty!

The next day I woke up earlier than usual at 10am – it’s getting better! I lay in bed for a while just dozing, and was properly woken up by someone thumping on the front door – bloody terrifying – it was just the bloody posty wanting me to sign something. He was pretty bloody keen! As I was properly awake I had some pancakes, and then got stuck into writing – I am desperate to be up to date by the time I go on my trip, which means a few days of just sitting in front of the computer and doing very little else. This worked for a while, until our flat mate came home, and said he was going into Yarraville, so I went along with him. My excuse was that he was driving, so it would be quicker than if I decided to go in later and had to walk. Who knows what I could do with those extra ten minutes?! As he had to go and do stuff at the accountant, I had time to go into the op-shop for a nosey about, and fell in love with an amazing full length military jacket, sadly it was $90 – by far the most expensive thing in the shop! Typical I had to fall in love with it. I have enough jackets at home, and I don’t wear them anyway, so I convinced myself that I really didn’t need it. Gutting though! When I got home I went back to the grindstone, did more writing, had some tea, did more writing, and then eventually gave up, and slumped in front of the TV. A productive day as far as I’m concerned!

On Friday Toni was heading into Footscray, and I decided to go along with her – I felt like that I needed some time out of the house – I felt like I had been cooped up for days! Ha ha! We went for a grand adventure to get some food for the feast Toni was going to make in the afternoon – she had the mission to make a gluten free, dairy free meal – just a little bit of a challenge! I also got some stuff to make our flat mates birthday cake – my wonderful plans had gone out the window, and in the end I was just opting for a chocolate cake. Everyone loves chocolate cake! We decided to get the train home, which sped up the journey – we seemed to have pottered about for quite a while in Footscray! When we got back, Toni went on a crazy cleaning mission, and by the end of it the house was looking amazing! Then she set to work making the feast, two of her friends were coming over for dinner, and by mid-afternoon there was an impressive stack of rice paper rolls, and she was still hard at work. Whilst this was all going on, I really didn’t do much – more glorious writing, and sorting out all the crap on my computer as it was starting to get quite clunky and annoying. By the time her friends came over she had made an awesome soup as well to go with the other things, and had gluten free bread at the ready! I gatecrashed the evening, and enjoyed some yummy food, yummy wine, and a big old chat – it was great! And, that was the way the rest of the night went. How lovely! After the obligatory episode of the ‘Amazing Race’ I fell asleep.

I had really just started counting the days until I go on my adventure, and this was not proving to be a good way of doing it – time was just going so slowly! At least it was too early to be counting the hours! In the morning I had a chat with Hannah to find out her news, which was just what I felt like! I also multi-tasked and made my pancakes at the same time! Cannot resist – I think I might be addicted! I once again spent a majority of the day writing, and writing and writing, and drinking multiple cups of tea – the only thing keeping me going was the thought that Edinburgh Fringe tickets were going to be released, so I was also frantically just pressing ‘reload’ on their website, until I eventually gave up, and just went through all of the venues websites – there is just so many good shows – as always! So, after making a massive list of what I want to see (and deciding I will need more money to do it all) I got on the phone to Mum to start organising her too! At this point, once again I thought I could make some money out of doing this for other people – so many people just don’t know how to plan their trip. Maybe next year…ha ha! Trawling through so many shows too a ridiculous amount of time, and by the time I finally finished it was almost dark. Oooops. So, I lit a fire (and it worked) and wasted the rest of the night in front of the TV – and continued to press ‘reload’ on the Fringe website! At least I got some writing done, so it wasn’t a completely wasted day.

After all of my hard work sorting out what tickets I wanted, I was ready to get on the phone and book a few of the free Radio 4 shows – they were so good last year, I was pretty keen, so when the phone lines opened I called the box office. Engaged. So, I phoned again. Engaged. And again, Engaged. This was the story for the next few hours, so I got on with doing other stuff, and also gave Mum a call to try and get her to phone – so with two of us working on it, I thought we may have had better luck – this was not true. Bugger! In the end I got through, and was number 15 in the queue, so I waited. When I eventually got an answer I knew the person on the other end, so we had a little chat about how we were, before getting to business! This was when disaster struck, I found out most of them were sold out already, and then the internet died, thus killing my Skype connection! Noooooo! As it had taken me so long to get through the first time I gave up on trying again, I couldn’t bring myself to go through it all again. To be honest I’m not quite sure what I got up to for the rest of the day, apart from trawling through the various websites relating to the Fringe, and trying to find out if I had missed anything before. I did make our flat mates birthday cake though, and annoying he walked into the kitchen when I was halfway through mixing it all up – dammit! I just claimed I was randomly making a cake – and I think he was tired enough to buy my dodgy story! At midnight I had to do an emergency run to the servo to pick up some tobacco – something I’m sure I could have done during the daytime, but apparently I didn’t! Ooops. For some reason, I was pretty nervous about the walk, and on my way home, a massive fight erupted on Hyde St, which didn’t help my state of mind at all…so I hid! In my defense there were about 20 drunken morons just whacking the crap out of each other in the middle of the road – there was no way I was going to get in the way! So, with my missions accomplished, I had a smoke, and then went to sleep. Sitting in front of the computer for so long is exhausting?!? Just as I was getting ready for bed, I checked my email one final time, and one of my bosses from Edinburgh had emailed me to ask what shows I wanted tickets for – it was so unexpected, and appreciated – there re perks to knowing a majority of the staff there, my disastrous tale had made it around the office! Ha ha  - brilliant!

So, still with eight weeks left until the Fringe actually kicked off, I am already getting in the mood for it – I just need to get some tickets now. It is so weird thinking about being back in Edinburgh – of course it’ll be great seeing everyone, but still, I’ve been here for so long now, I don’t want to leave! At least I have a couple of holidays sorted out for when I get back to the land of the cold – that’ll make the change easier to digest. Bring on my final 2 months!

WEEK THIRTY-SEVEN

It was my final week alone, and I actually woke up feeling vaguely motivated, which was a good thing, so I set to work on the chopping boards I am making. I started work on the extra ones I’m making, and began to sand them. It’s going to be a pretty big job, but after an hour or so – and a lot of mess – they were looking much better than before, so I felt a sense of achievement! I then moved onto mine, and the resin I used hadn’t set, and it was a big nasty mess. Hoping that it was possibly just the top layer which was still gunky I thought I’d sand a little bit of it and see what happened – a bigger mess was created, and I resigned myself to having to pick out the resin and start again. Not annoying at all. So, I spent some time just scraping it out with a chopstick, and when that was no longer effective, I moved onto the Stanley knife! Much better! I made pretty quick work of it after that, but couldn’t bring myself to re-resin it, so gave up for the day – at least the other two were starting to look vaguely respectable! When our flat mate came home from work we went to Coles to get some essentials. Not fun, but necessary. I was really not in the mood to walk the dogs, and making a raging fire didn’t help the cause at all, but luckily our flat mate offered to take them out for a bike ride. Perfect! I didn’t do much with my new-found time, and just wasted it sitting in front of the fire, and avoiding doing the things I was meant to do. This was pretty much the story for the rest of the day, and well into the night. Eventually, after watching multiple episodes of House, I gave in to sleep at 4am.

Funnily enough, after my late night, I woke up pretty late – at midday! I felt pretty guilty, so decided to have a productive day to make up for it! And, as everyone knows, a productive day must start with pancakes! So, I had my yummy breakfast – god I love pancakes slightly too much – and then the dishes. At least the kitchen looked relatively tidy to begin with. Next task was to read the water meter, a slight problem when you don’t know where it is! We had been posted a little card saying someone had tried to read it, so I phoned the number on the card to ask them if they knew where the meter was – I was a little scared people would think I was mad calling them to ask, but at home sometimes they have the location of it on their computer, so I thought it was worth a try! And, they did have, it, and after navigating through the leaves and general sloppy garden crap that covered it, I had managed to complete my first challenge. Next was to do some painting. There was still quite a few layers of red which were required, but sadly first I had the boring task of putting on the masking tape. I was tempted not to bother, but with my track record, thought I should. On more than one occasion I had managed to bypass the tape, and still paint the wrong colour on stuff. Ooops. It took ages to get the job done, and I had kind of lost motivation, but managed to convince myself to get one coat on. It was a lovely day, so me and the dogs went for a walk down the creek. I then took the dogs for a walk, and, as usual, didn’t put them on a lead. This seemed to upset someone, asked me if they were mine, and then informed me they should be on a lead. I may have listened to him if he was from the council, and had the power to take them away, but as he was just an over-opinionated man in a suit, I ignored him and kept walking. He didn’t seem to like that either, and shouted at me down the street they should be on a lead. I kept walking.  Why he cared I’m not sure. Anyway, we had a lovely walk around the creek despite his interference, and when we got back, Joey was suitably muddy. Job done. When I got back I did another coat of red, and then finally got to the job of tidying my room. It didn’t take too long, and was really just a case of folding my clothes and putting them back in the trunk, but it made a massive difference, and looked lovely by the time I’d finished. I thought I had done enough outside jobs for the day (despite my avoidance of the fence!) and sat down to do some writing, and didn’t just get stuck looking at crap on the internet – I actually got some down! In the evening we all sat down and watched the Sex in the City movie - haha! But, it was exactly what I felt like! After all of my hard work I went to sleep pretty early - at 2:30am.

On Wednesday I did very little. I started the day with the usual of pancakes and then the dishes. I went to Yarraville at some point to pick up some tasty treats (and some milk) and that was the extent of my activity. I called Daniel for a chat, and heard all of his exciting news – it’ll be so great to see him again! After one successful phone call I decided to make another, and see how Liz was getting on. Sadly she was busy – Emily had an important social engagement! After being snubbed by her I just wasted far too much time just planning my trip, and getting very frustrated that it was still 2 weeks away! Boring! But, after inspecting the map a bit further, I decided to go further north than Cairns, and now my final stop will be Cape Tribulation. Mainly, because it looks beautiful, and is where there are long stretches of golden sand, edged with a rainforest, but also, because it has a cool name! I must remember to take my kite though –it looks like perfect conditions for it.

Thursday started with the usual start of pancakes and then the dishes I went into Yarraville. I think it’s a good thing I am leaving the comforts of Will and Toni’s house – it’s the only way my routine of pancakes is going to be broken! It’ll be much trickier when I’m in a hostel – I can’t imagine I’ll be transporting eggs up the East coast of Australia! So, yes I went into Yarraville to get some treats for myself. This time was different to others though, and I ended up winning two free Snickers bars! Bonus! I’m not sure the people in the shop appreciated it, but I was very happy with my plunder, and headed off home again. When I got back the dogs were looking pretty unimpressed with the fact I had left them at home, so I took them out to the park. When we got there they both fulfilled their normal roles – Turnip went around everyone looking pretty and getting patted, and Joey managed to annoy a lady because she kept getting the ball quicker than her dog! Perfect! There weren’t many people about, and they all seemed slightly put-out b Joey’s antics, so after they had both had their fun, we left. And, it looked like it was about to rain too – another good reason to get home quickly. Once we got back, I quickly grabbed my paint brush, and did another layer of red on the windows, and managed to get it done before it got dark, and before the rain. Perfect. I keep thinking that each coat I do will be the last, but for some reason, the red seems to need about ten coats! I did manage to get a couple of bits of red on the newly painted blue which was a pain in the arse, and now means I have to re-do some of the blue too. I blame my haste to get done before the rain – that – typically - didn’t come for another couple of hours. After my few hours outside I was pretty cold so set to work getting the fire sorted – I just love them so much! Our flat mate came home from work, and then swiftly went to bed, which managed to muck up my body-clock pretty well, as I thought it was super late for the rest of the evening. This did do something to help my sleeping pattern, and I went to bed at 1am. It is slowly getting better.

With three days left on my own, I was actually starting to get a bit bored of my own company – something I never thought I would say, but there we go! I had just managed to get myself into a bit of a rut – never good. So, I took the dogs down to the creek for a wander, and took them round twice, just for a bit of excitement for them! It was also because I hadn’t left it until the end of the afternoon, so we had time to do it, and not have to walk home in the dark. I did eye up the wood that is down there, of which there are some very cool bits, but considering Joey stinks every time she goes in. When I got home I put off lighting the fire for as long as possible, but it was a really cold day, and after a while, my wheat bag just didn’t cut it anymore, so set to work. And then I made my final pumpkin and feta quiche – the only reason I knew it was my last it because I had run out of both pumpkin and feta – nothing to do with an increased sense of will-power! In a vane attempt to try and cut down my chocolate intake, I had made some pretty impressive jellies, with two different colours, and some fruit in it – it was awesome! I had forgotten how much fun jelly was! Bad vegetarian. In the evening I phoned Hannah for a chat, and after playing numerous fun games trying to get Skype to work, we eventually got it, and had a good long catch up. Perfect way to waste a cold night.

This was my final proper day on my own, as I had earmarked Sunday as a day of cleaning, and sorting out the garden, so I did the usual of pancakes and then took the dogs out for a walk. The fact I was freezing when I came back didn’t actually bother me, as I had planned to finally used my $13 worth of bath stuff, and just enjoy a soak. I knew I was going to have to save it for a special occasion, and the fact the house was empty, and I could, seemed good enough for me. So I had a super hot, bubble bath which had floating bits of glitter in it – how more girly can you get? As it was the combination of two different things it also had a couple of side effects – it made the bath insanely slippery, and also had some kind of chemical reaction with my ring! Regardless of this I greatly enjoyed my bath, and spent long enough in there for the water to start getting quite cold. To continue my wonderful day of relaxation, I then just watched a large chunk of the new series of the Big Bang Theory – maybe not the most exciting day, but it was exactly what I wanted. In the evening I even gave into my desire to bake, and made an amazing batch of Smartie cookies – they were soft and chewy and perfect! Even if I say so myself.  What a fantastic way to waste a day!

In true style, I had written a list of everything that needed to be done in the day, and so I started at the top, which was the kitchen, and then the bathroom, and then the living room, and then the fire. And then I realised, as always, I had done this the wrong way round, so I went back and hovered the living room again. After all of that I was bored, so moved onto the outside jobs I had to do, and the first one was sew up one of the dog beds – I can only guess it was Joey who had destroyed it in such a successful manner – and so I got to sit in the sun. Once this was done, I thought I would be nice, and try and sort out their bed for them – I’m not sure how much they care, but it didn’t look to comfy – and so lifted up the other cushion, to find a dead rat underneath it. Absolutely disgusting – and it stank to hell and back. Why would they keep it in their bed? When I removed that I was reluctant to do much more, so quickly did the rest, and left them both to sort it out between themselves, who got what bed. Turnip won. Once that rather delightful job was done I just sat down in front of the fire. I needed to recover from the smell! And then I moved onto watching the rest of series four of the big bang theory – maybe that wasn’t on my list, but the house was starting to look pretty good and the only thing left was to tidy the bedroom. As I watched I got colder and colder, and ended up fully in bed, with the blankets around my chin – snug and a bug – but it was only about 4pm! The dogs were giving me evils, so I thought I really should take them for a walk, and it was all going well, until they bolted, and didn’t come back. So I was left screaming their names at the top of my lungs, terrified that they wouldn’t come back – I had managed to do so well with them, it wouldn’t be fair if I lost them on the final day I was in charge! Finaly I saw a couple of tails bobbing through the grass, and as soon as they got near me they knew they were in trouble, and Joey shuffled towards me on her tummy – stupid dog! I wasn’t sure whether or not to tell them off – they had at least come back I nthe end, so I put them on their lead, and marched them back home again – thank god I got them back! That night I had my final Quorn ready-meal – they really aren’t as good as I remember them, or there is the possibility I was just more broke the last time I ate them, so they seemed like a luxury, but anyway, I still enjoyed it – mainly because I had to do no work at all. At some point in the evening I kWill to find out what time Toni was getting in, and after a bit of searching, found out that it was on Tuesday! I spent the day tidying for nothing – but at least it is now done, and I get another lazy day to myself.

So I had survived the month on my own, and the dogs had also survived – I would call that a success! I don’t have long until my trip now – me and Kris are just desperately counting down the days until we go, as we are both going on Thursday the 16^th of June. Cannot wait. 

WEEK THIRTY-SIX

And so, another week on my own, and the routine was still going well. Kind of. My new plan to go to the gym that night went out the window pretty damned quickly – absolutely no motivation! Thank god I didn’t pay for a membership – that wouldn’t have been the best use of money. I did convince myself it was the money that was stopping me, and not my inherent laziness, which almost worked! I did however convince myself to do some more hula hooping, in the vain effort I might actually get good at it, and maybe even be able to do tricks, but instead I spent half an hour desperately attempting to keep the thing going! I don’t remember it being this tricky when I was a kid. The rest of the day was spent in front of my computer, doing the various crap little things I normally do! However, I did look at the dates Circus Oz is in Melbourne, and figured out I am going to miss it all, which is incredibly annoying! They are even travelling up the east coast, but I still miss all of their dates! Bad planning on my part! I did manage to break the mould with the dinner thing, and didn’t have any pumpkin and feta quiche, which is a good thing, I suppose. I had sausages, mash, and beans instead! Not exactly healthy, but at least it was different! For the rest of the night I just watched bad TV, and avoided doing the boring job of tidying my room.  Nnnn    

The next day, after my slight waiver from ‘the routine’, all forms of motivation left me. I was meant to go swimming, but the closest pool I could get to on public transport with North Melbourne, and it was raining. This was enough for me to give up on the idea entirely, and instead just bugger about the house. Our flat mate was going to Bunnings in the afternoon, so I spent some time trying to figure out how I could build a hexagonal fence – to go around Will and Toni’s herb garden. I had been saying for ages that it needed a proper fence like the rest of the garden, so I took the opportunity whilst they were both away. So, off we went to Bunnings, and I headed to the wood section. I still didn’t have much of a clue how I was going to construct this thing, but after looking at the selection of wood (and the prices!) I chose a few select bits, still not entirely certain of the design. It’ll be fine in the end. I also had to stock up on more masking tape, so I could do more painting of the house. So we paid, and we were off again. When we got home I was actually pretty excited about making a fence, so got to work. I drew a little picture, and then discarded it, and set to work. I sanded, I sawed, and I drilled. For a while, at least. It wasn’t long till I gave up, and left the rest for the next day. I had at least sorted out how I was going to make it – that was half the challenge. Or so I told myself anyway. I once again defected back to a quiche for dinner, but this time it was fancier – potatoes and peppers were added. Oooh fancy pants! Ha ha! In the evening I just sat and watched bad TV, and decorated my recipe book which had been forgotton about for a while. It’s starting to look pretty good (and it’s filling up fast!). Anyway, that way pretty much my day.

I actually woke up quite excited about trying to work out the fence, and once I was in my manky clothes, had set up the ipod dock in the garage, and had a cup of tea in hand, I was ready to go. So, still with little idea how it was all going to work, and having not measured anything at all, I just decided to replicate the little bit I already had done. Seems easy. So, I chopped the wood, and then set to work trying to figure out how to do the angles of it all. Easy enough – Will has a cupboard full of power tools. Sadly, the only thing I could find that might help me was the jigsaw – but the blade wasn’t attached, and I didn’t know where they were, or how to attach them. So, with my limited knowledge, I decided a sander would have to do the trick. It may take longer, but I was pretty certain I wasn’t going to chop my fingers off. After a good few hours of work, and a great deal of mess later, I was frustrated. It didn’t help that I had alaso managed to drill my finger in the course of the day, so at about 5pm, I gave up. Not permanently, but definitely for the day! When our flatmate came home from work, we both went to Coles to pick up some much needed food. And a couple of treats for myself because my finger hurt and I thought I deserved them! Everyone was either out, or in bed by 9pm, which did a fantastic job of messing with my body clock, but, I Skyped to Mum for a while, and had a nice long chat, then went to bed, with the intention of finishing the fence the next day.

As I was so slack on Tuesday, I had decided that I was going to go swimming today, but, once again, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The routine had slipped, and it didn’t look like I was going to be getting it back any time soon – maybe if I wrote another list? It just seemed like a lot of effort, money and time going into the City for a swim. I thought everyone in Australia had pools in their back yards! Apparently this is a lie perpetuated by Neighbours! Bastards! Anyway, I placated the little voice in the back of my head with a bike ride – at least it was some kind of exercise! I’m still too scared to take the dogs with me on the bike, so they got left behind, much to Joey’s annoyance. I just went along the river for a while, nothing too exciting, but at least I felt better! Once I got back, I took the dogs down to the creek, to let them have a run around. And, true to form, Joey came back revolting! I swear she waits until you can see her until she rolls in the muddiest puddle she can find! She was so gross I didn’t even want to let her in the house, so she got an old fashioned hose-shower. She didn’t like me much after that, but she was fluffy, and not muddy, which was my main aim. Once again, in the evening I had the house to myself, and I had a couple of things I had to talk to Mum about – things which I meant to ask her about the day before, but ah well. Somehow we got onto the subject of holidays, and after a few ideas, we decided that in September 2012 we were going to go to Morocco. Random – yes, but why the hell not! Naturally then, once we had finished our chat, I jumped online and started looking at whatever Morocco has to offer. By the end of it, I had sent Mum multiple links to websites for hotels, currency exchange, and some random Bedouin tours I had managed to find. Exciting! I did attempt to do some writing, but it really didn’t work, and instead I over-planned a holiday which Is 18 months away! Much more fun.

On Friday I started the day with a bit of hula-hooping, and I’m still pretty terrible. I have no idea how people manage to do tricks with the bloody things – I can barely manage to keep it going! But, I had slightly more success than before, and there was a couple of times I was actually succeeding in the task. I’m not sure if everyone else has the same problems that I have? I was also still pretty obsessed with the whole Morocco idea, so actually sat down to see if it was possible to do it with the money I’ll have, and luckily it’s a cheap country, and it all seems like it will be feasible. I’m not going to be booking any flights just yet though…for the rest of the day I did very little that was actually noteworthy – most of it was spent watching House on my computer!

The next day I had jobs to do. I cleaned the house, and emptied the fire, and filled up the log baskets, and then realised I had done it all in the wrong order, and now my beautiful clean carpet had bits of bark, and ash all over it. So I hovered again, and then cleaned the bathroom. The only thing I didn’t do was my bedroom, which needed doing, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so instead I went to the park. I had suitably wound-up Joey with the vacuum, so I took her to run around with the rest of the dogs, and decided Turnip really should come too! I didn’t realise how cold it now was, and didn’t wear enough layers After about an hour in the park, I looked down and noticed that my hands were a rather beautiful shade of purple, with orange blotches. Always a sign of being healthy! So, I collected the dogs, and headed back home, warmed up my wheat bag and promptly lit the fire. After getting so cold, I decided to avoid doing any of the fence, and instead Skyped Liz. I had to tell her my plans for when I am coming down, and try and organise something.  By the end of the phone call we had a couple of tickets booked for the Wizard of Oz at the West End. It’ll be so much fun! I was slightly shocked at the terrible ticketing system, but in the end, managed to get a couple of seats I was happy with, and bit the bullet - £120 for two tickets. Insane! Just as I was coming to terms with the price, Liz said that my ticket was going to be my birthday pressie – amazing! It’ll be so much fun! Me and one of our flat mates had planned to go to the cinema, but when we went to buy tickets, it was almost sold out – damn Saturday nights! Boring. So, with the evening all of a sudden to myself, I just wasted it in front of the TV, and did very little.

My Sunday morning was spent as Sunday mornings should be – a complete lie in! When I woke up I made myself a cup of tea, got a packet of biscuits, and went back to bed to watch a couple of episodes of the Apprentice! Sad? Possibly, but I bloody enjoyed it! By the time I dragged myself out of bed I was feeling pretty guilty, so quickly did the dishes, and made some pancakes. Yes, I did have biscuits and pancakes for my breakfast – not exactly what I was planning with my new healthy living! But, I took the dogs out to the creek in the afternoon, and just let them run wild for a while! By the time I got back, our flat mate was home from work, and desperate to go to the cinema. So, we booked our tickets online, and then realised we still had 4 hours to wait. So, I filled my time with bad American TV, had some dinner, and then attempted to do some writing until it was time to go. Our film of choice was Hangover Part 2 – and I was looking forward to it. We had both sat down and watched the first one about a week ago, and it had got me in the mood for some more stupid comedy. So, stacked up with snacks, we headed into the movie – all I can say is that it didn’t disappoint! It sure as hell isn’t going to go down in history, but it was hilarious, and that’s all I wanted! I did eat a revolting amount of crap whilst I was watching it – I can’t resist it! It doesn’t feel the seem if you don’t get all the trimmings when you go to the cinema! When we got home I watched 4 weddings and a funeral for the first time in about 10 years. I forgot how great that film is! An oldie, but a goodie as far as I’m concerned. Sadly it was before Hugh Grant got hot though! I eventually went to bed at some stupid time in the morning, not really tired, but bored of being awake!

And that was my week. I thought I had been more productive than I actually was, but I did make a start on the fence - I now just have to finish the damned thing!  SO, I have one more week on my own, and still so many things I had planned to do in this time – it looks like next week is going to be a busy one…first job is to finish the fence.