The End

My bookcase is a little cram packed...

Way back at Christmas last year I received that white spined book up there.  Book 14 of the Wheel of Time series.  I don't remember how many year ago it was I started reading this series, maybe 6 or 7?  By the time I started, I think the series up to book 8 or 9 was already out so I had a good long slog of reading and getting to know the characters.

It's been a while in between reads so I decided to reread the series again before reading the last book.  Got to do the series justice after all.  So I started in January.  And I finished all fifteen books (there's one prequel as well) on the very last day of the school holidays.  Six and a half months of reading one series.  I read somewhere that there is somewhere around 14 000 pages in the series and about 4.4 million words. 

Needless to say, apart from painting a room of the country house, I didn't get a lot done during my school holidays apart from page turning.

So now I'm a bit lost.  How dare it finish there?! I've followed these characters in detail for two years of their lives.  Pivotal moments!! 

 

Can you recommend a good series for me?  After this, singular books just seem pitiful in story length.

 

The One Thing

I saw this post over at A Life Less Frantic through Maxabella's Weekend Rewind.  It's a quiet weekend in these parts, sans MR, so I went on a bit of a journey through blogosphere to catch up and peruse.  I don't often get a chance to join or read the Weekend Rewind so thought I'd randomly click on a handful of new ones.

I've been feeling a bit lacking in the blogging mojo lately, like my content/life is a bit boring and you're all drifting away.  I'm not huge on blogging about current affairs or popular culture as I don't really follow either.  I just float along in my own little world, head in the clouds. 

So seeing these prompts on Kelly's blog inspired me a bit.  Something to write about.  A topic.


The one thing I should do less often is: stay up until midnight and then feel exhausted the next day and achieve a whole heap of not much. 

The one thing I should do more often is: be organised, particularly when it comes to having a tidy house without piles of crap in every corner.

The one thing that always makes me smile is: my cat. 

The one thing that does my head in is: people driving in front of me that tailgate other drivers and then have to press their brake every five seconds so their brake light flashes in my face and I don't know whether I need to slow down or whether they are just being an all out irritating fuck (and that would be me not paying attention to the 'one thing' two down)

The one thing I should eat more of is: vegetables.  If it was 5 fruit and 2 vegetables, I would be sweet.

The one thing I should do to make the world a better place is: be less judgmental of others and remember this -

The one thing I need to remind myself is: stand up straight.  I'm trying to improve my posture before I end up looking like Humpy McHump and it is really hard to remember to stand tall.

The one thing I should do for myself right now is: cook a healthy dinner with lots of veggies

The one thing I should say 'no' more often to is: pastries. 

The one thing I should say 'yes' more often to is: exercise. While I do pilates once a week, do you know, since doing the Run for a Reason in May, I have only been for one walk.  Le slack.



  

Sportmanship is alive and well

Last night I got sucked in to watching The Voice Kids for the first time.  I don't really watch reality TV (apart from The Block) but it was after the first day back at school and I felt the need to be a bit of a zombie brain and the options were slim.

For those who don't watch it either, they were starting to cut down the contestants after the inital choosing. The kids get put in a group of three, sing a song together and then one person gets selected to go through to the next level.

It was one of the most heart warming things I've ever seen.  Those kids, as young as 8 or 9, were so gracious in defeat, so supportive of each other, people they had only spent time with for a week or so.  The looks on the faces of the kids who didn't get through to the next round as the name of the person who was going through was amazing.  Excitement, hands on faces as they jumped for joy, cheering for their mate.  Seriously.  I spent half of the show with tears running down my face out of sheer amazement of how beautiful it was. 

It is such a change from the usual reality TV we see.  Shows where the contestants are bitchy, conniving, false friends, whinging.  Shows that families watch together.  Shows that kids see.  What kind of example are we setting for the next generation when this is the behaviour they see from real people on TV?

Sure, there are exceptions.  The Block has been one of them for me.  The series that I have watched (only two of them) have been filled with laughter, support and minimal bitchiness.  But I'm a bit nervous about where things are going to go this series with the contestants judging each other.  That just has potential for disaster, as proven by other shows such as My Kitchen Rules.  Some people may think this is good watching and obviously with all the ratings these shows get, this is a lot of people, but really, is this the kind behaviour we want to promote?

These kids on The Voice are putting us adults to shame.  And good on them.

  
  

Small touches

MR and I have been making a few changes to our country house, now that his parents have retired and moved and we are getting ready to move in.  We haven't yet bought it from them but have been given free reign at changing whatever we like.  

Originally, the first thing we discussed changing were the curtains in the master bedroom.  They are a lovely pink floral number.  Followed by painting the bedroom, which is white but has a wallpaper strip running around it about three quarters of the way up the wall.  A bedroom is such a personal thing and we thought that by changing that it would feel more like our place.

Instead, we've ended up painting the living area.  It's finished but that post is going to have to wait because MR rolled the walls after I have left, so although I have seen a photo he took, I haven't seen the entire finished job.  It'll be a bit of a surprise when I head up there in a couple of weeks.

So for now, I thought I'd share a small touch I made.  

Seeing as we are currently running two households, half of the furniture at the country house is MR's parents; stuff they didn't want or can't fit in to their temporary place while they consider what they are going to build.  This makes it so difficult because it means the place doesn't really feel like ours.  But we can't go buying new furniture for it because 1) we have a houseful of furniture here to fit in first and 2) we can't afford it. 

So little things it is.  But only little things we don't already have in the city house.  The country house has a little powder room, which had a horridly stained pink towel and a soap dispenser that has been decoupaged with a decorated serviette.  Need I say more?  

I went to Myer and they had 30% off bathroom stuff so I bought a nice new soap dispenser and two lovely dark navy hand towels that will not show up dirty hand prints when MR comes home from work with diesel and dirt all over him.  All for less than $40.  And doesn't it look so much better already?  The basin colour is more of the cream in the left photo than the pink in the right (those photos were taken about a minute apart, goodness knows why the colours are so different).  I'd love to be able to paint and get a new tiles, basin and bench in here as well, but those small touches make it more acceptable until we can get to that part.

 

Giddy up

Remember stirrup trackie pants?  I had them as a youngen.  We used to wear them to primary school, I think I was about 8 or 9.  Scrunchy socks scrunched down over the tops of them and a pleated skirt over the top of our thick fleecy track pants because that was cool, right?

Well, I've decided I need to sew myself some stirrup pyjamas pants.  I'm such a restless sleeper, rolling around all over the place and within 5 minutes of getting into bed my pyjamas pants are up above my knees which is just really not useful for icy cold nights or comfortable, ever.

They really are the only solution I can come up with, apart from footed onesies which would need to have a bum flap which would just be a bit awkward. 


What 90's fashion invention do you wish was still around?