It sometimes just amazes me where time goes ... days turn into weeks, weeks into months so quickly. We have been NINKERS now for nearly 6 months. I suppose the old adage time flies when your having fun really is true.
Its been over 3 weeks since I last blogged (again that seems incredible in itself as it just seemed like yesterday) and as I think back on what we have done it seems a little hohum compared to other blogs I have written.
Are we bored yet? With the weather as its been here in not so sunny Queensland yes I suppose there have been the odd day here and there where we have been - what can you do when it raining everyday? There isn't much of the great South East, NSW which hasn't been devastated by storms, cyclones etc so it does make travel arrangements difficult, but February and March where always designated as Maintenance Months anyway - you can't travel all the time unfortunately and things don't fix themselves.
We have been busy with maintaining ourselves, our home and our boat - with a few small day fillers in between (more on that below) - you know health checks - mammogram for her, prostrate for him, skin checks (being such a sun worshiper this one scared me more than the others), blood checks, dentists, loosing those few kilos gained from too much good food over 5 months. Good news is clear bills of health for both of us at this point. YAY.
Derek has also been having heaps of fun on the washed out beaches with his metal detector and over the last 3 weeks has found significantly more than normal. One day alone over 86 finds in just over 1 square meter including his first jewelry find. What is amazing is the age of the stuff he is finding a lot of 1 and 2 cent coins so this shows how far the beach has eroded back to.
The boat really need polishing and back in the non NINKER days this was as easy as paying $1000 to have someone do this.. alas the budget doesn't extend to outsourcing these things now, so off we went to Super Cheap to purchase a cordless polisher and all the necessary items to allow us to do it yourself. Spending less than $200 we were ready to attack. This was a great thing to undertake in between storms, wind and generally crappy weather and after a week of running down and getting sections done when the rain stopped our boat was shining and our shoulders where aching, but it felt great - an honest sore feeling, the sort you get only from physical labour and a sense of pride in having done it ourselves and saving bucks. Of course years ago a polisher would have cost $500 but now less than $100 which makes the DIY much more cost effective.
Feeling great from all of that we decided that the gardens could do with a good prune, so again off we went on the next DIY project - it was much cooler doing this in the overcast weather and again, all the bending etc made muscles that hadn't been used for years tight and made for nights of undisturbed slumber easy - the sort of sleep that only comes from I am so exhausted that you just fall asleep, where you don't wake up at all during the night, but the next morning you are so alive - so now the gardens are under control as well. HIP HIP for us.
To be honest we are starting to feel great and all of this type of work has also aided in loosing those extra kilos so we decide to paint the front of the house .... me I have never been one for painting, don't get me wrong I actually enjoy painting but having built houses all our lives to me I always thought that you could tell DIY painting jobs. Given our front fence and house are rendered though we figured it shouldn't be too hard. In our last house we watched the painters do the outside and they really didn't do anything special and with living on the coast paint fades pretty quickly we thought well it can't look worse.
A quick trip to Bunnings and again less than $200 we started on the front fence and were very pleasantly surprised how quickly we did this and just how good it looked, so we thought to hell with it, lets do the whole of the front, we have the paint, we have the tools lets go for it and within 2 days we had finished the lot.
I must say that my shoulders have never had such a great work out from all of these jobs and they were all great things to undertake in the sort of weather we were experiencing - short bursts of sun followed by torrential rain, but it meant that we got small breaks in order to rest but where really achieving things. While the rain fell, we undertook some of those other horrible jobs you keep putting off inside - you know cleaning the oven and cupboards, polishing the floors etc.
All in all we have achieved a lot over the last 3 weeks as well as getting ourselves and our home in tip top shape.
One of the day trips we did during this time was a fantastic cooking school at Mudgeeraba Spices. We love cooking schools because you get to learn how to make some fabulous food, you get great company for a day and then of course you get to eat the fruits of your labour. We find them great value for money and a great experience. As the name implies Mudgeeraba Spices is all about Indian cuisine and our menu was very extensive and included:
Lamb Korma, Lamb Curry, Chicken Peralan, South Indian Chick Stew, Tamater Pulao (tomato rice), Tomato & Onion Salad, Pachadi (yoghurt salad), Semolina Payasam (a beautiful desert) and of course breads. For $125 a head we had 5 great hours learning, cooking and eating as well as being given some great little tasters in between to keep up our strength (lol).
A few other adventures into Brisbane, the Mountains a quick day trip to Sydney have rounded off our 3 weeks since our Tassie trip.
So not the most exciting of times, but fruitful and it beats doing nothing or whinging about the weather, you have to keep having projects and things to do.
The problem with doing nothing, is that you never quite know when you are finished!
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