Storms

Another crazy night of storms.  I just got home from the final Young Adults event at church for 2016, and there was a pretty decent lighting show on the way home.  I was under the impression all of the storms were well south of me, so planned to leave my final load of laundry out overnight as I was too lazy to bring it in.  I took Lily out for a quick run about and toilet.m break before bed (amidst the thunder) and on coming back inside, had a look at the radar.  A mess of red moving fast from the west so I dashed back out to rescue the towels and sheets.  The first heavy drops were falling as I finished and within 30 seconds of shutting the door, all hell broke loose.  Wow, that was close.  Storms here are a lot more interesting than back in Ireland, and can be downright scary at times!

 

It was really hot and humid today, over 30 degrees and apparently tomorrow will be 37.  I had the air con on for the first time downstairs and almost wish I were working so that I didn't have to cope with the heat ! 

Here is last night's lightning, two screenshots from videos taken on my phone. 

 

Thankfully Lily has been unaffected by storm terror as yet ! 

 

Medjool Dates

As an experiment I've decided to try to grow a Medjool Date Palm.  I have grown mango saplings before - they were a success, I just never had anywhere to put them - and now this is my new project.

First I soaked the seeds in water for a week, and then wrapped them in damp paper towel and a plastic bag for a couple of weeks.

 

As you can see, one of the seeds in the middle is just sprouting its first root.  Unfortunately I only thought of taking a picture after planting the first two seeds that had their roots fully germinated.

 

The two lucky seeds are now in potting compost covered with cling film to hopefully sprout leaves in the coming weeks.  I have two spare pots which will receive the next two seeds to germinate - and the rest will be discarded.

The idea of these palms is purely ornamental: they will go in large ceramic pots down the side of the house and hopefully add a little exotic flair to the block.  I do not expect them to grow into fruitful date palms!

If only the block were big enough for one of my mango trees.

*sigh*

My little tree and other things

I'm going to miss living here.  Although I am really excited about the new house, it is also bitter sweet.  This little house has been my home, and the park down the street the perfect place for Lily to run around in.  It's quiet, homely and if it weren't for the house, I would stay.  

I found the cutest little white Christmas tree in IKEA and decided to put it up early as I could be moving at the beginning of December.  I found mini baubles at Typo and the Japanese shop Daiso provided me a tiny white train.

 

 

 

Apologies for all of the boxes in the background: the packing has begun.  My new housemate H arrives on Saturday and currently the spare room is storage.  I have lots of boxes from L's house move, and I will be filling the garage so that H has somewhere to sleep.  It will be strange sharing this place: it's my own now, but I guess I'm not really here very much! 

Today is the first truly hot day in Brisbane this year, for me at any rate.  I took Lily for a short walk which was altogether unbearably hot, and am now sitting in front of a fan - and it's only 1000.  Lily has collapsed into a little puddle of fluffiness on the tiles - I think I should clip her as it's due to be 37 degrees on Friday.

The hunt for a second housemate continues.  I met a girl on Sunday who was not an option for me.  She spoke a little like a dead fish, was a smoker, had no job lined up and planned to be 100% at home at least until the end of January.  So... No.  She had me switched off at the word "smoker."

I have a quiet week ahead so far which is good.  Two days off then two reserves then I've days off.  The archery club championship is on this weekend and then L, J and I are going camping for three days!  Hurrah for friends :). I'm so excited.  Oh and tomorrow is the Young Adults Finale at church, last catch up til next year and apparently there are Krispy Kremes involved.

In other news, there were mini cup cakes in work yesterday bearing the company logo.  I'm not sure why they were there, but the one I had was amazing.  If that sort of thing continues, I'll definitely stick around !

Bribie

Today was so much fun on Bribie Island. 

 

 I invited Gatsby along, both for company for Lily and so that L had a dog to play with, it being a day out for the two of us.  B dropped him off at about 0730 and we headed off just after 0800.  It was cloudy when we left Brisbane, with promises of "partly cloudy" and "26-27 degrees" on the weather apps.  Once we crossed Ningi towards Bribie Island, however, it began to clear up, and as we crossed the bridge that Pa built, the sky was blue and clear.

 

We headed down to the dog beach by Woorim (I'm not sure of the name, sorry!) as previously, and the dogs were more than glad to get out of the car - Gatsby having decided to sit on top of Lily in the back, despite wearing a seatbelt, and her uttering loud whingey cries for the remainder of the trip.  Just like having children!

 

The beach was just glorious, with clear turquoise water and gentle waves.  

 

Lily once again proved to hate the water, although loving to play in the sand, especially with a ball and Gatsby to chase.  I bought her a life jacket, which we tried out, but she was still much more comfortable on dry land.

 

We spent a couple of hours on the beach, in and out of the water, and walked down to the southern most tip of the island before packing up and heading to Savige's for a fish and chip lunch.  So good.  

 

We are going to try to make this a regular event.  It was strange driving past Bracken Street without popping in for a cup of tea, but I thought it would be a little weird for L!  Maybe next time - put the kettle on!

 

Mango chutney take 1

I am very disappointed in myself.

It is finally mango season, and having found mangoes at a decent price, I got all excited and decided to make mango chutney.  Or, for the Aussies in the audience, spiced mango jam.  Same thing. 

 

So I did.

And then I left it on the stove and went and did banking comparisons and then thought "MANGO CHUTNEY" and leapt towards the stove... but too late.

I burnt the mango chutney.  I could almost cry.

I transferred it to a different pan - but sadly after I started stirring it - and painstakingly fished all of the burnt bits out.  Unfortunately I think it does have a burnt tang to it, but I have jarred it and will wait for my taste buds to reset before tasting it again and seeing whether it is salvageable. 

 
She did not want to pose next to the chutney. She probably knew it was burnt.

Very, very sad.

So much for multi-tasking.

Almost there!

Last night was the launch service at our church's new building, in Burpengary.  It's about ten minutes further away from where I live at the minute - from 15 to 25, which is a bit of a bummer - but still only 16 minutes, according to Google Maps, from the new house.  It was a full house, and I have to say a very good service.  I felt completely at home, despite the sea of unknown faces, and am glad to have finally found somewhere that I belong. 

Mind you, afterwards there was the inevitable Australian sausage sizzle - and after standing around for a few minutes feeling lost, I decided to go home.  Usually after the evening service we (the young adults, yes, I still count as young) go to North Lakes to the food court, but this being an inaugural service was apparently different.  I'm quite happy with a few familiar people, indeed even a slightly larger group assuming that I recognise some faces, but it got to the stage where there were literally hundreds of people that I didn't know, all talking at once, and it got rather overwhelming.  Yay for being introverted.

This morning I met with the building supervisor over at the house, and he was a little bit vague surrounding finish dates.  He said that painting was supposed to commence on Wednesday, and take around a week, and that appliances would start being delivered from the following Friday.  He didn't like bringing appliances mid week because they had a tendency to go missing.  I'm not quite sure why they would go missing on a Wednesday but not on a Friday, but there you go.

He also seemed to suggest that we were three weeks from completion, and two weeks from then would be hand over, making a total of six weeks, and having done the addition in my head a few times, I'm still not sure how that works, but there you go.  That would put it second week of December rather than the first.  He did say six weeks one week ago, and is still saying six weeks today, so...

Also the tiler seemed to forget the Alfresco, because when I asked when it was going to be completed, he had to get his ipad out and then make some hurried phone calls for the tiler to call him back!  Hmm.

Housemate #1 arrives on 12 November, which is less than two weeks away.  He is going to stay in the spare room here until the new house is ready, and will start paying rent straight away which is great!  It does mean that I have to start reorganising and packing straight away, which is not altogether a bad thing.  It will be good to have stuff boxed up in advance, ready for the move.

Also yesterday, I went to a puppy playdate in North Lakes and there were about fifteen fluffy cavoodles, which was pretty much cuteness overload.  Lily seemed to enjoy herself although after about an hour she started looking at me and grunting as though to say "I'm done now, can we go?" 

 

That's about it in news.  Oh yes, the bank has approved the loan addition for the driveway and landscaping, so I have to sort that paperwork out, and I have just one payment left to make to the builder.  Or rather, the bank does.  SO CLOSE.

Lily's giant bear

 

Lily has a giant bear, which which she loves to play tug o war.  

I tease her with it by making her sit and wait, or putting the bear on top of her.

 

Or putting the Lily on top of the bear, either way.

 

And then when she does get to play the growling is ever so ferocious.

 

It almost scares me except

 

She's just so itty bitty!!