That business won’t last

I sold some soft toys including a large reindeer on TradeMe. I offered to deliver within town and was asked to drop them off at a second-hand shop. I told the woman the day I was going to drop them off.

I got there to find her dithery husband look helplessly at a cash box with about $7 in it. I nearly offered to come back another day but no, I’d told the woman, who obviously hadn’t passed the message onto her husband, and I expected payment ($25.50). After dithering for a while, he said he’d just paid someone who was still in the shop, someone he knew, it seemed. He asked that man for the money back to pay me then asked the guy to mind the shop while he went to the bank. I was browsing in a corner while he was sorting this out and overhead him say “There’s no money coming in and she keeps buying stuff”. Oh dear.

The guy finally paid me – in fact he overpaid me by $1 so he can’t even count.

I don’t expect that shop to stay open for long…

Mixed bag

Weatherwise anyway. This has to be the worst summer in my memory. Even when the sun did shine, the wind was cold. Sunday night was bitterly cold. I was in woolly socks and a dressing gown. At 4.30 pm yesterday it was so dark, from black clouds hanging overhead, that I was tempted to put a light on.

I spent most of Saturday playing Sims 2. I didn’t feel motivated to do anything else. The weather wasn’t great. Sunday was cold and wet in the afternoon. I should have mowed the lawn that morning but was busy trying to get rid of more stuff (a tedious process) and then we went grocery shopping. By the time we came home, the downpours were well and truly set in.

Yesterday morning the sun was shining brightly, unexpectedly as the forecast was for more rain. H made some oaty pancakes with yoghurt and stewed apple with maple syrup. Yum! I headed to Shannon and did some (mostly) window shopping with a workmate. We bought a couple of items of jewellery each and then headed out to Foxton for a ‘ladies’ luncheon’ at another workmate’s place. It was nice in the sun but the wind made it rather cold at times. Lovely limoncello to accompany some pre-lunch snacks. Great company and wonderful fajitas with plenty of avocado and coriander leaves (I LOVE coriander). I had two, followed by some scrumptious plum sponge cake, bubbles and rather nice decaffeinated coffee. All very enjoyable and civilised.

I headed home to mow the lawns before any forecast rain. I got home to see dark clouds hanging overhead yet again. I hurried out and mowed as much as I could before the lawnmower died on me and refused to restart. I do hate lawnmowers. So now I have a long patch waiting for the next attempt, possibly today if that bloody cloud overhead doesn’t decide to let loose. The forecast today shows a bright sun. The forecasters should have someone look out the window and give more accurate readings. It’s bloody cold too. I’m fed up with this miserable weather. I look forward to summer for what seems like 10 months of the year, and I feel cheated not to get one.

H was busy going through lots of junk on the table which she cleared away. Then she vacuumed, while I finished washing the dishes I’d started in the morning but was running late. The house looks much tidier (except for my and H’s bedrooms which were the receptacles of the stuff on the table).

A friend of H’s with boyfriend arrived for dinner, and to return the trestle table they borrowed for a party last week. H made some very yummy fish curry (I bought some fresh fish on the way home) and her own roti which we had with a very hot mango, lime and chilli chutney. It was a real foody day yesterday. I also had a gin and a couple of bottles of beer (so a bit of an alcohol day too). After dinner we introduced H’s friends to the Settlers of Catan. I won the game but they enjoyed it and, no doubt, will want to play it again at some stage. A lovely day overall.

Back to work today but at least it’s a short week. I’m obviously not feeling motivated, yet again, as I’ve found myself checking the clock every five minutes.

Not so grumpy today

I think it’s lack of sleep – I haven’t slept well for a few nights.

This morning was stunning as I drove to work. I just wanted to stop on the way and admire it all – must have been the way the sun was shining on the trunks of young pine trees or the vivid yellowy-greenness to it all. Then I got all maudlin thinking that life is so short to fully appreciate and experience it and many never do.

Got talking to a work mate about hobbies and how they come and go as you’ve got the time and inclination and how the deciding factor is the answer to the question “are you enjoying it?” I decided that I’m not, when it comes to belly dancing lately. It’s all about learning choreography for performances and not about personal enjoyment. We’re supposed to be performing in the Esplanade Open Day and wear our special costumes. My costume is heavy and I don’t feel comfortable dancing in it so a) I’m not doing the performance and b) I may as well sell the costume. Do I really want to continue the classes? I’ll have to see how I feel in two weeks’ time (I’m not going next week).

I did pilates the other night (from a DVD) and boy, do my stomach muscles feel it today. I’ve discovered I have some, for a start. Might do more of that tonight.

Looking forward to a three-day weekend and hanging out with mates on the Monday.

Summer?

God, I need a holiday – somewhere where the sun shines the whole day and for more than two days.  Apart from being a little warmer (when out of the wind) and the trees being in leaf, it’s just like the rest of the frickin’ year.

I think everything but the dolls house and some Star Trek figures sold.  A bit disappointed about that.  Surely there are Star Trek fans out there who want some old figures in good nick for bugger all.  Some other guy was selling the same thing for much more – whether he sold them or not, of course, is another matter.  I’ve relisted the dolls house and offered the figures to the watchers.

I’m saying goodbye to my Dinky and Corgi cars.  They’re probably worth a lot more than what I got for them but they were not in good condition.  I treasured them but my girls were rough with them and whatever cracks and dings they already had got worse and most of the tyres were missing.  I know you can buy replacement parts, but it was too much effort and they needed a complete strip and repaint so someone else can have that joy.  They’ve been sitting in a cupboard for at least 10 years.

There’s more stuff to sell but I can’t be bothered listing anything yet.  I find this whole selling stuff quite exhausting and frickin’ annoying going to the post office all the time to find out how much stuff costs and what will the item fit in, etc.  Some idiot in the South Island won a bid on something I asked to be picked up so I had to go and find a box big enough and find out how much then tell him and then go back and send the frickin’ thing.  I would have told him to piss off and read the advertisement properly but he’d also won the bid on something I had to send to him anyway.  It’s all a bloody pain in the arse.

Now I’m here to try and install Sims 2, following some instructions that someone else made up after she, too, had had difficulties.  She got it to work, so I’m hoping, beyond hope, that it works.  It’s going to be time consuming though, but what the hell – it’s raining and I can’t be motivated to do anything apart from bag up another pile of books to give away.  I wrote to Electronic Arts about the problem and one person said to give details.  I gave details and some idiot comes back and says to install in the correct order.  I said I did that and the idiot responds with please uninstall and reinstall.  Fucking moron didn’t address any of the specific problems I was having.  Twat.  They don’t give a fuck that their game doesn’t work on Windows 7.  They can keep frickin’ Sims 3, ugly bloody things.

Alright, I think it’s time for a cup of tea.  Obviously got up from the wrong side of the bed, all irritable.  Jasmine appears to be trying to get to a mouse she brought in and lost last night.  Oh joy.

Day 8

Was a complete write-off.  Foul weather meant it was very cold, very windy and very wet.  I had absolutely no motivation for doing anything inside and H had a couple friends over who had stayed the night so I was a bit restricted in what I could do.  I did look over my own books in my room and decided which needed to go, but I’ve run out of bags and boxes.  I also dumped some stuff into the recycling bin.  I will have to write up a schedule of what room ot do when, either decluttering or redecorating.

Today I was back at work, so that was the end of the annual 2 week-break.  The forecast was for rain and thunderstorms.  It was hot and sunny and I was overdressed.

Now I feel a bit headachey and tired.  I gave away more items today, delivering some things after work and a woman came to take away the kids’ scooter which hadn’t been used in about 10 years.  Thankfully they’re back in fashion but I didn’t get much for it.

More stuff to send off after tomorrow and more stuff to advertise – mostly on TradeMe.  I don’t think there is much more I can be bothered advertising to give away.   It’ll be books and other stuff which I plan to chuck in the charity bins – from memory anyway.  Who knows.  I”m too tired to think about any of it now.

Day 7

Again, I don’t feel like I’ve achieved much.  I delivered some DVDs that didn’t sell and a Barbie set and left a bag of toys behind the Hospice shop.  Someone else was there and they probably took the bag, but I don’t care.  Sent off a DVD that someone bought off me.  Found a home for some soft toys too which is all good.  And good news on the TradeMe front – all but one of the listings have watchers even if no-one has bid yet.  They’ll be waiting til the last minute.  Five of the 16 items listed have virtually sold, including the single bed.  All good.  More to come, much more.

I started to fill  holes in the wall in the laundry and ripped off a piece of some wallpaper.  It ripped off easily so I ripped the rest off.  It was a horrid orange thing with big white flowers so I’ll be glad to see the back of that and get the walls ready for repainting.

Cleaned up yet another dolls house ready to sell after the current one has.  Stored it in the now virtually empty wardrobe in the newly cleaned bedroom.  Yay.  Somewhere to store stuff, finally.  The Xmas tree fit in there too (previously it had just hung around somewhere, too big to store in a cupboard).  It’s great to find room to put stuff.

Had a builder come round to look at the bath which is sinking and has damaged the wall in said bedroom.  He gave me an estimate of about $3000.  As expected.  The money I spent on buying a new car could have been spent on the bathroom, but never mind.  It’ll be another year of lots of big expenses, by the looks of it.  The sunroom also needs fixing.  So many things need fixing.  I need to win Lotto.

Oh well.  That’s life innit.  It costs heaps to live it, yet when you try to get rid of some stuff you bought, you have to give it away for nothing.  Always the way.

I hit a toe on the metal bed leg of H’s bed while trying to haul the dolls house out of her room this morning.  I’ve been limping everywhere ever since.  It’s coming up black now.

The rain’s started and I still haven’t managed to get outside to deal with the jungle.  Today has gone so quickly – half the weekend virtually over.  Incredible to think that I will now have to rely on two short days at the end of every week to continue my project of decluttering the house and redecorating.  Sigh.

Where?

Day 6 is over at Tumblr.  I tend to do shorter entries there but it turned out longer and so I should’ve really posted here.  Dunno what the hell I’m doing.  Tomorrow I shall deliver a couple more items I’m giving away but it’s amazing how someone says they want something then don’t message me about where or when.  One item has sold on TradeMe but no word yet on bank deposit – the tremendous amount of $5.50.

If I had beer I would have a beer round about now.  There’s nothing quite so refreshing.  I just had a ginger beer cordial but it’s too sweet.  Over to water, I guess.

Day 5

Again, not a very productive day.  I advertised a single bed, surplus to requirements, on TradeMe.  I put a few more bags/boxes in the car to drop off at the Hospice shop.  Left just after lunch to deliver 3 1000 piece puzzles to someone; drop off some videotapes to be converted to DVD (old family movies of when the girls were little); dropped off the things to the Hospice shop; went looking in 3 different supermarkets for particular items, bought some sunblock (what sun?) at the Warehouse, purchased a couple of items in Davis Trading and dropped off a Jack Daniels wall plaque to someone.  All that took an exhausting 3 hours.  I got home hungry and a little dissatisfied with progress in cleaning up the laundry.  I bought some more cleaning products but now have little energy left to do anything more today.  The sunroom is still a mess – a more organised one but still a mess, as stuff waits to be got rid of and more stuff waits to be advertised either for free or for sale.

Through all this time off I haven’t got into the garden.  Perhaps tomorrow, I don’t know.  I lack the energy to start anything.  I had another early wake up this morning about 4.30 am and it took me til 6am to get to sleep, only to be woken at about 8am by the lawnmower man who does a pretty average job, I have to say.  I’m considering looking for someone else.

I’m not in the best of moods, perhaps because I’m tired.  I felt irritable at moronic drivers and am now annoyed by an idiot next door who seems to be learning drums but it sounds like a toddler banging constantly without rhythm.

I’m not looking forward to work on Monday.

This 2012 thing

It’s all a load of shite isn’t it – just like the rapture last year.  People with small brains believe that stuff.

I read an interesting post at Ricky Gervais’ blog.  He mentioned 2012 then went on to say:

“On a serious note, why do these fanatics keep making predictions with provable results? They are always going to come unstuck. Just keep to “God does everything and when we die we go to heaven”. They can’t be “proved” wrong then. It’s a meaningless statement of course, because it’s equally unprovable that when we die we come back as Gremlins, but still.

There seems to be this weird misconception that it is wrong to disrespect anyone’s religious and spiritual beliefs. Some take this so far that they suddenly start seeing it as an infringement of their rights. This is ludicrous.

It is anyone’s right to believe in anything, however ridiculous, and anyone else’s right to believe they are deluded and laughable. I don’t see the problem here.

My belief that you are mental for believing in Thor doesn’t affect the truth of Thor’s existence. Thor either exists or he doesn’t. My belief that he is a concept made up by ancient civilizations to explain things that science hadn’t explained yet, doesn’t effect that.

Just like telling a child for the first time that the earth goes round the sun doesn’t actually affect the earth’s orbit. Everyone has the right to believe that the earth doesn’t move at all. I think they would be wrong; ridiculous in fact. If this made them cry I would feel bad. If they said that now they had no purpose to live I would want them to feel better.

I could tell them that they were right all along and that the earth is indeed just hovering in space. I would be lying but it wouldn’t affect me. I could tell them to seek medical help. Or I could tell them that it doesn’t matter what is happening with the earth’s orbit because even though we have opposing beliefs we are experiencing exactly the same effects.

Here’s the thing though. Even though I can respect someone’s right to believe in something I believe is wrong, I cannot respect that belief. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t respect the belief that 2+2=5. But I can and do respect someone’s right to believe that 2+2=5. They can be as bad as they like at maths as far as I’m concerned. As long as their bad maths doesn’t affect me obviously.

And so with God. I cannot respect the belief in God. It opposes everything I believe to be true. However, I respect anyone’s right to believe in God. And if a regime I was living under outlawed the right to believe in the impossible, the improvable, the illogical or the unprovable, I would speak out and fight for anyone’s right to believe in such things, without ever believing in those things myself. Freedom of speech trumps all. As long as those beliefs didn’t affect my or anyone else’s rights.

Basically it’s everyone’s right to be wrong. “

Hear, hear.  I particularly like the sentence “There seems to be this weird misconception that it is wrong to disrespect anyone’s religious and spiritual beliefs.”  This particularly true of Christians (ie they don’t like it).  They get deeply offended if you don’t believe or respect their religion and some suddenly “dislike” you because you don’t believe in some mythical man in the sky.   And yet they, funnily enough, disrespect all other religions.  Only theirs is the ‘right’ one.  Dream on.  Bigoted hypocrites will not earn any respect from me, regardless of their beliefs.

Trying to keep track

What is it, the 4th? 3rd?  Tuesday?  All I know is the time is rapidly moving – already, and the freedom is coming to an end.

What have I been up to?  I had a quiet night in on New Year’s eve.  Couldn’t face being social.  I declined two invitations for that night (sorry). I hadn’t been home for the last few New Year’s Eves so wanted to stay in just me and the cat and a DVD.  I didn’t even have a drink – call it a New Year’s resolution – gotta cut back on the booze.

Day one of the New Year was spent making a start on The House.  I cleaned up a few things and advertised them to sell or give away.  I filled holes in the bathroom door, sanded and started painting it.  Did loads of washing.  Did exercising via the XBox360 Kinect ‘game’.

Day two: I finished painting the door.  It actually needs another coat but it looks ok in the meantime.  I started tidying up the spare bedroom (aka the junk room).  H helped me when she got up.  We ended up with bags and bags of clothes, toys and books to give away and to sell.  I’ve biffed at least 10 bags of stuff down the charity bin chutes.  Some  of the better stuff I’m trying to sell or give away but it’s a time-consuming business and I just want rid of the whole lot.

Later I started tidying and sweeping near the sunroom, then washed the walls down.  It looks much better and doesn’t need a coat of paint.  (Phew!)

Day three:  Not such a productive day.  I started on the laundry but found more boxes of junk I need to give away.  I photographed and advertised more toys and books on TradeMe.  I found a large box which belongs to my brother – antique crockery.  What the hell are we to do with it?  My bro wanted to give some old crockery back to me!  I have no room in this small house but it’s my parents’ old stuff which is probably worth a bit.  Oh god, 3 generations of shit accumulated – we’re all hoarders and most of it is in boxes, hidden away.  Pointless.

Tomorrow I hope to finish doing the laundry and then get rid of more stuff heaped up in the sunroom.  The charity bins are overflowing and I’ve inundated TradeMe and Facebook recycling group with stuff.  I might take some stuff to the Hospice shop in town…  Thinking ‘aloud’ here, don’t mind me…

Got a request for anything? Anything at all – I’ve probably got it to give away!  That includes a single bed, small TV and cupboard/bookshelf from the spare room (which will be sale items).  I don’t think anyone will want to buy a small TV actually.  It’s hard to give stuff away – no-one wants it even when it’s free!  Arrrgghh!!!

Sigh.  Time for a break.  I woke at 5.30am this morning and it’s catching up with me.