Last Week

So the week just gone wasn't really very much better than the week before.

The virus that had viciously snuck up on me proved to be particularly difficult to shift. It still hasn't properly gone away. It wasn't that I felt unusually unwell, although I did have (and still have) a quite startling cough. I just felt bleurgh, listless, unenthusiastic. And tired.

So I didn't get all that much done. I did very few of the things I had intended to do. I did make it to my Japanese class on Wednesday evening. I made it into work, as planned, on Friday. I have done a little tidying and a little organising. 

And so life trundled very quietly along until the weekend. Not really a good indication of what I might or might not do if/when I finally retire. Must do better!

Things improved over the weekend. I still have the cough but I am beginning to feel a bit brighter and my appetite, which seldom deserts me for long, has started to come back. But it is a bit of a worry when there are roast potatoes left on my plate!

Lindsey and I went out to Victoria Gardens in Richmond on Saturday morning. We went in the car from East Melbourne. Normally we would go on the tram but I need a new ironing board from Kmart (mine had dramatically collapsed while I was ironing a shirt - one of its legs had fallen off) and I also wanted a couple of things from Ikea. It seemed easier to go by car, or it seemed easier to return by car which necessitated also going in the car ;-)

I bought a couple of lamps  (one tabletop and one standard ) in Ikea and a saucepan. I got my ironing board from Kmart. Lindsey wanted to get things in the butcher shop, the greengrocer and from Coles. We had KFC for lunch in the food hall. And then we took Lindsey's stuff back to her flat and she delivered me and my stuff to mine.

New lamp, being cosy

On Sunday Lindsey and I met  on the train and then met Freyja and Simon at the Alphington market. I seem to have spent vast amounts of money at the olive oil stall. Plus I bought the usual vegetables and other stuff. Then Freyja and Simon drove us to High Street where Lindsey and I had lunch in Poke the Bear, which I wanted Lindsey to visit. I thought she would like it, and she did. Freyja and Simon couldn't join us. They were heading off to a show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Lindsey and I went to our respective flats on the tram.

So I did manage to get out and about over the weekend. So far today, not so much, although I could do to go to the supermarket. Which doesn't really count as getting out and about. It's a ten minute walk at the most from here.

I tell you what I did do. Do you remember, some time ago, I bought an Ikea cube (which I assembled quite easily) together with two cupboard inserts which I simply couldn't work out how to install? I was going to return them to Ikea but didn't get around to it. Every now and then I looked at them and thought I should do something about them. I watched YouTube videos and it seemed reasonably straightforward but they all used electric screwdrivers. I do not have an electric screwdriver. Mine are hand-propelled.

Last week I decided that I absolutely had to try. And I did try. And I succeeded. The cube with four open squares in it now looks like this:

I am quite pleased with myself.
The doors even open and close!

I am less pleased with the state of my windows, but I cannot think of anyway that I can fix that, before their next wash, due in June. Just as it was going dark the other day a storm blew in up the harbour. It looked spectacular. But I couldn't take photos of it for you because with the stormy sunlight shining on the windows, this is what we could see:

Right. Supermarket. Must get out there otherwise it will be bedtime before I know it and I won't have taken the soft plastics to be recycled or bought the stuff for tomorrow's vegetable curry, which I want to make this afternoon so the flavours have time to mature.