On a Winter's Day

I woke this morning and went outside to relieve the full bladder to be enthralled by the jousting magpies whose warbling and acrobatics have delighted me all this month.

It must be the first sign of spring as these beautiful native birds presumably are asserting territory in the prelude to the mating season. A group of about 8 birds have been darting and chasing in twos or threes from tree to tree in spectacular competition accompanied by magnificent song during interludes when resting in perches.I think it must be parent birds chasing away young from last year's breeding prior to this years, as I believe happens.

There was plenty of sunshine this morning to cheer the spirit of this pilgrim as I soaked up the luxury of a day at home after a tough week. On Thursday I woke and opened the back door to find only one gumboot where there should have been two. Must be a neighbour's dog doing devilment was my conclusion, the same creature that regularly pulls things out of the recycling box at the back door during the night, chewing up yoghurt containers and foil that has had food traces in it.

Gord and I went to 'Blossoms' funeral that same day, at the Springvale Crematorium starting 11.15am. I'm glad we went. She was a good friend. I'm saddened that I will not see her again. Norma had said what she wanted at her funeral service and I was a little disappointed for two reasons. Firstly there was no mention of her marriage to Henry and her time at Emerald which was about a decade, and secondly, the concluding song at the service was 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra. I would have preferred something better, if you listen closely to the lyrics of that song it is not a nice song, it is a selfish construct, and I read somewhere it is the no 1 choice for funeral service songs. Normie could have done better surely. Nevertheless I teared up a bit.

From there we went on to Mentone pick up some beekeeping supplies in prep for next spring. It rained all the way and the traffic was horrible. We late lunched at Parkmore shopping centre then went to FTG where I bought some new 'Oliver' work boots and then on to Lowes at Knox where Gord wanted something or other. All the way traffic horrible. Melbourne is a hell hole. I finished in Tecoma for a massage and Chiro adjustment and got home in the dark after what seemed like a whole day driving in traffic, which it was really. Exhausting.

Friday was not the quiet recovery I hoped for. Orders came in at 10.30am for a whole lot of stuff extra to what I had already known about and planned to do at leisurely pace. Therefore followed 7 hours of picking top pace no break to speak of in drizzly shitty weather. Completing that we went to Monbulk to pick up the take away Chinee for dinner and to shop at Aldi and the green grocer, and drive home in the dark and drizzle without my glasses which I had left at home. Exhausted again.

Sadly, there was another vanishing incident to outdo the gumboot of the previous day. I do like dim sims, steamed Chinese home made ones. I bought 6, two entrees of three each, so that I would have some for left overs to have with the fried rice and noodles that are always left over for the day or two following. Well, after taking a drink of white wine and getting in my footy tips to Rr and placing a few footy multibets I took a bath. I'd seen Gordy eat a dim sim and his spring rolls before heading to the bath then when I came out I had a plate of SFrice and Singapore noodles and checked where the dim sims were, yes fine in the fridge, I'd have them tomorrow. Now I do like Chinese food but my tastes are simple... dim sims, fried rice, noodles. I leave all the other sloppy stuff to others, I'm happy to leave all that.

I was completely peeved when I went to get a dim sim or two yesterday to have with the left over rice. Lib took them to work for lunch and of the whole 6 I bought I had narry a one. The others had eaten the prawn entree and the spring rolls and all my dim sims to boot. I was left with all the sloppy stuff.

Fried up in the pan though it was pretty good.