There goes January!

Whoosh! How can it be the 30th already? And I STILL haven't managed to get to the local pool. At least now I can blame being at work and having the weekends full of visits to the Old Confused One, and entertaining various persons for barbies before Brave Sir Robin nicks off again on the 10th of February. Gawd.
While I have been slaving over a hot debtors ledger and enjoying the moist delights of Town Hall station on a sultry and airless afternoon, Robin has been trying to: finish off a Nepal GHT film, write an article for Wanderlust magazine, un-hack the website, sort out everything for the World Expeditions trek, and organise some shelves in the bedroom for the old TV so I can sit in bed in winter and watch Richard Gere and Hugh Grant movies with the cat. I told him the cat prefers fish documentaries but he didn't seem to care. Not sure if I already told you this, but here is the link to the Bhutan movies that Robin made and stuck on YouTube. Hope you enjoy - there's 4 in the series.
We have been lucky enough in Sydney not to be flooded or set on fire, but it has been very hot. It is the sort of weather where you just want to sprawl about, legs akimbo. As you can see:

Don't you love the discarded shoes! At least they match the lino.






I was heartened to read online this morning about a very tacky Royal Wedding souvenir - condoms. Here's the link - do enjoy.
And it was nice to see Peter back in the workplace after his holiday in India - shame about the Kalimpong Koff and Bagdogra Belly - a dynamic combination and sure to baffle the doctors for sometime.
OK the buzzer has gone and it is time for me to rinse the lovely Violet Vision dye from my hair and prepare for the next round of barbecue frenzy.
Later...

Oh no the holiday is OVER!!!

Yes unfortunately today is my last weekday of bumming around. Not that I have been sitting on the lounge eating cream buns all day anyway! There' s been the excitement of exterior house painting (which made me cross), doctors visits (which made me cross), dealing with a whole bunch of stuff about mum (which made me bemused), and cooking great new cakes (which made me fat). And of course lots of laundry.
The cakes I have been making have come from a great blog I discovered -  The Caked Crusader. I can highly recommend everything I've made so far - check it out if you like cakes.  
Here in Sydney we have escaped the rain and fires that seem to be everywhere else in Australia, but the weather has been oppressively hot and sticky. Not to mention mozzie city every evening. But at least we have a house to get bitten in!
I've been planting some lemongrass by the back door hoping that might have a positive effect - nothing to report yet but it's early days.
My sister Di and I are trying to sort out mum's finances as it looks like she will need to get into a hostel care type place. She is forgetting to eat and take her tablets, and she has this obsession with turning off and unplugging the TV and the electric chair (if only it was) and then wondering why nothing bloody works! All because some silly old goat told her it saves 'thousands' on an electricity bill. Yeah but what about when she falls over at the powerpoint and nobody discovers her for days?  And although we got her a motorised (electric!!) chair with only 2 buttons she cannot work it out. It is truly painful to watch - but also funny in an odd way. I do feel bad, but as a friend said there's only say 47% of mum there anyway. And that's on a good day.
Only a few weeks now till Robin heads off to Nepal and the cat and I will have the house to ourselves. Who am I going to shout at then?
Today Robin got his orthotics from a  wonderful place locally which also made my orthotics many years ago. They make them a completely different way to regular places and I've never had any trouble with them. I can recommend them if you are in the market for some extra foot support.
Got a few mates coming for a lunchtime barbecue tomorrow - always a good excuse for Robin to eat some steak that I won't let him cook in the house.

Thought you might like to see my wonderful frangipani tree with Lakshmi the Wonder Cat lazing about hoping for some lunch!

I didn't forget you

but I have been rather busy!
NYEX (as they called it here) passed off uneventfully and with a substantial amount of alcohol and barbecued meat devoured. Very good.
The next day was extremely hot, especially for anyone who may have had a glass or 2 too many!
Watched the first day of the Sydney test match at home then I graced the workplace with my presence. It has been good to get back into the working thing again. I've got a few days off this week and next so I am trying to get all medical and legal appointments done - but of course it isn't quite working out that way.
We also wanted to paint the new bits of the back of the house that were rebuilt after our fire in June 2009 - the weather forecast has been for rain every day and you guessed it - the sun is out and blazing. So tomorrow we bite the bullet and head for Bunnings paint department...Fun.
Meanwhile, Queensland is sinking under the huge floods and parts of northern NSW are too. As far as we know Sydney won't be affected, but our neighbour was supposed to be going to Brisbane for her niece's wedding this weekend - I seriously doubt that will be happening.
Oh I MUST tell you! We were desperate to test the 3D-ness of our new tv, so hired the 3D Blu Ray version of PIRANHA. You really must see it if you get the chance - there is SO much tacky gratuitous nudity, gore and BAD music. A cult classic in the making. I haven't laughed so hard for ages.

And here is a pic from Kathmandu Durbar Square - a World heritage site that is well worth a visit. The woodcarving is superb. Bye for now