A Good Day

The one spent with Mum, that is. It's a lovely spot, beautiful gardens, and it was good to see everyone.

I got my mop and it's brilliant 😍 and I have a clean floor plus a beautiful new floor mat. 😍 It's an outdoor one, made of plastic twine, so it's light to lift outside and shake, and I can even hose it down. Over the moon.

Action Shot. 

I've finally gotten some potting soil (thanks sis) and today I planted out 13 lettuces in a polystyrene box while kiddo slept. Thanks Bunnings for the $1 seedling tray. 👍 And for the 50c Calendula shrub to help keep bugs away. 🌸 It was "only" 24 degrees out there, but it was so hot in the sun. I'm still recovering half an hour later! I think it will be smarter to do my gardening at 7pm from now on. There's still 8 more lettuce seedlings in my kitchen plus zucchini and radish seeds to plant, and hopefully a few succulent cuttings will root over the next few weeks. 

I also got my play money set 💷 and I was very excited to sort out little piles of cash for all my expenses. Looking forward to my pay day... There is so little left for any gift shopping 😕 but fortunately I have loads of food so I can hopefully wrangle a bit there. Little X's main present is already bought so just the relatives left. 

The solicitors are apparently doing the sale contract for my flat - which I'm told is good news but I've no idea what is still to do. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

The Loud Hush

It's been completely quiet from my solicitor now for an entire week. I paid for the info pack eight days ago and it takes the building manager 7-14 days to hand it over... So the buyer is also twiddling his thumbs, no doubt, wondering what kind of surprises might lurk in that pile of documents.

My fridge and sofa are in place 😍 and I'm thrilled to have both. But, me being me, I'm now focused all the "I haven't got" items and I'm thoroughly pissed off with the floor in particular. It's filthy dirty and I can't clean it. Our feet are always black and all I can feel underfoot are crumbs and grit. Little X then walks that completely across the bedsheets (since the mattress is on the floor and I can't keep her off it). My auntie has a mop which I'll be getting hold of in a few days, but my sister had ideas about giving me a Christmas vacuum - I can't wait weeks, I'll lose the plot. I may need to beg to borrow hers for a whip over the floor this weekend, before I go crazy.

Centrelink partly decided I exist, messed it up, and then took an hour on the phone to fix it. Not an hour in a queue, an hour of them typing, asking me to wait a minute, typing more, checking with a colleague, etc. Thankfully they also got my tax debt repayments paused for a few months. I'm still waiting for the second benefit to be processed. Hopefully it's before New Year. 🙄 The tax people, incidentally, decided my date of birth, passport, tax file number and address aren't enough proof of who I am, and have told me to post in a form. 🙄

These distractions are irritating but probably for the best, because the first anniversary of losing my mum is at the end of the week. We're going to sit with her then have lunch after. It'll be the first time I see her grave. I'm a little bit in a fog when I think about it all. 😔

Mile-Long List

In a sort-of order of urgency. Which is unfortunately not the order I'd prefer to follow. 🙄

• Fridge - on the way
• Washing machine (arrives January) 
• Mattress (got it) 
• Whipper Snipper to tame the grass - it's really hot and dry for now so it isn't growing, touch wood
• Vacuum cleaner (being gifted by a relative) 
• Mop and bucket (ditto) 
• Bed frame, quilt, cotton sheets (got the sheet) 
• Sofa (on the way) 
• Drawers and wardrobes
• Rug for living room

The IKEA order arrived. It's completely wrong. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I unrolled my new mattress, but it was the wrong one 🤦🏻‍♀️ and there were two more wrong ones on my patio 🤦🏻‍♀️ and no chairs, sheets, mattress protector or coffee table that I actually ordered. Unimpressed. 😒 They eventually got the right mattress out but still screwed that up - two identical ones turned up and the delivery driver had to be cajoled into only leaving one, and that yes, he did also have to take three incorrect ones away, not two. I cancelled everything else they were sending and dragged Little X out on the bus, in the heat, to buy a single stool and some bedding so we could actually function. 

Fortune then decided to shine on me ☀️ and the house down the street also threw out two outdoor chairs and a high-backed dressing chair. As you can see the chair is a mess of furniture chalk paint and it's coming off with a good scrub. It'll only have a vague black-scratched look. I think it will be great for hanging jeans etc that I want to wear again the next day.  

I am still waiting for Medicare and Centrelink to care that I exist. They take forever and are grossly ineffective on the phone - you don't get to speak with the ones who make any decisions, and whether they'll accept my mixed load of documents is always a guessing game - and if they don't, they do not tell you, it's up to you to call and say, hey, is everything OK? No, no, it's not, try sending this and then call back in 3 days to see if it's acceptable. Too bad for someone who was actually homeless and penniless, right? I have the roof but until yesterday was sharing a blow up single mattress with a toddler and had nothing to sit on... And was seriously thinking my first rent payment might not get made... I actually thought I'd be cooking up luncheon meat for every meal this week (and I shopped for it accordingly). Yes, it's all Ritz luxury around here. 🙄

Fortunately a payment I'd been waiting on arrived, and I'm just going to add that my sister gave me a huge bag of food, unasked. 😍 So I had enough to order my sofa and to cover food for another ten days. And also, I made the most delicious dinner today with luncheon meat. 😁