The building work was finished in the sunroom on Wednesday. Jasmine will have to get used to the new cat flap. The previous cat door had lost its flap so she was used to a hole in the wall through which she could go at will. Now she has to learn to push against an apparent wall of plastic. Anyway, Thursday we propped open the flap so she could get the idea and I started filling in little nail holes, etc, in the new woodwork. The weather was unsettled and started to drizzle even as I used gap filler on the outside. Not much hope of painting for the weekend. I got some washing done and can remember little else for Thursday. I did try searching the ‘free’ access to military records on ancestry and on findmypast.com. The latter’s claim of free was b.s. As soon as I clicked on a potential result, it asked for my log-in or subscription. Ancestry’s search engine is rubbish. Even though I restricted searches to Australia or Australian, the first results were all American. I didn’t find my paternal grandfather’s military records, even though I have a paper copy and know they exist. There were no results for Second World War records either. Absolute waste of time.
On Friday I sanded the new wood and started painting. I watched a little jumping spider who appeared to be watching me. They seem to enjoy watching me paint and this one just sat millimeters away from the brush, unconcerned. They’re the only spider I actually like. Later, I noticed, it caught a winged aphid thing. Jasmine was still rather hesitant going through the cat flap even when I held it open for her.
On Friday night, I drove around the corner to a monthly drumming circle. I started going last month and it’s only been going for two months. I took along my small African drum and used it while others used the flat framed drums made by the host. It was a good turn-out and went well. We all slept very well that night!
On Saturday H wanted to go the market to buy veges. She got up rather later than anticipated, but we had time to get there before it closed. We didn’t buy much. I then dropped H off at the Plaza. She was meeting her boss to discuss a couple of matters. I headed over to Warehouse and bought some net curtains, boots and a top. H was then finished so I picked her up and we went grocery shopping. On the way home, we headed to Bunnings to buy a couple of bamboo blinds for the sunroom.
On Sunday morning I did a final coat of paint on the inside of the sunroom. (The weather had been too changeable to attempt to paint the outside – sunny for 10 minutes then rain, then sun, then rain – hopeless.) There was a Samhuinn gathering down the road, so I headed down there with a bought fruit loaf. These gatherings are held by the local druids and I go along mainly just to socialise (a couple of them are friends or acquaintances from elsewhere). I’m not a fan of ritual and sometimes find it rather forced, especially when people are reading from a piece of paper. I was surprised to see that there were a lot of people there this time. One person told an interesting story of how they were in bed and their son had come home, put chips in the oven, and gone to bed. He (the father) dreamed he was on a river feeling the need to paddle to shore. On the opposite shore, his cat was miaowing loudly. His cat never miaows, he added. He then felt an urgency to turn and paddle towards the distressed cat. When he reached the shore, he woke up to find the house full of smoke. He went to the kitchen and his cat was sitting in front of the oven watching…. Pretty amazing.
I walked home after the ‘ceremony’ and lunch, and mucked around for a while. H and I were heading out to a play. Apart from Summer Shakespeare, which is held annually outdoors, I haven’t been to a play in years. A woman at work had been to this particular play and said it was very funny. I felt in need of a laugh so had asked H who had agreed to join me. She was the youngest there by far and even I felt young, surrounded by grey-haired elderly people, mostly women. The play was good, with elements of farce involving mistaken identity, confusion, doors and embarrassing positions. Another person at work has also seen the play and we agreed that the younger actor wasn’t that great – not convincing at all, and one of the women over-acted a bit. Otherwise very good, and it was nice to see Peter Hawes. H and I picked up pizza on the way home and ate it watching yet another David Attenborough doco – this time on King penguins.
A full week of work this week – the first one in ages for me. The weather is looking lousy for the next 9 days. I’m fed up with the grey clouds and rain already.
Reflections 