Hi Guys,
Again, I have not had time to post and am sneaking a moment just to write now.
As winter sets in I know most of what I need to do on the outside usually slows down. This wont be the case this year.
First off, in the end I had to borrow money to pay the Plumber from a very dear friend. I am in the process of claiming those monies back as we speak so wish me luck on that score. If the Chipper guy doesn't come through then it will have to go via the insurance company to deal with.
In the meantime, my daughter and partner in crime came over as stated in the last blog to set their sights on what lay behind the kitchen cupboard doors. Most of my food products didn't fit into the cupboards as they were stuffed full already and very neatly may I add by my Mum. Now it has been over 5 years since she died and it was well overdue to do. But this is such a big job on your own.
My daughter thought we would knock it off in a day! Now that I found hilarious. She soon realised the magnitude of what was to be done. We set our sights on the mini pantry and another pantry come serving area all in one. We ended up only getting the kitchen benches sorted and the microwave moved and just one of the pantry's done in the end. But all the food on the outside ended up behind that one pantry cupboard.
While Aija and I concentrated on the kitchen, Keith set his sights on organising my computer in the computer room.
There were jars and tins and bottles that had to be tossed as they were so old. Some older than my daughter who is in her 20s! We found a Peter's Ice Cream box of Ice Cream Cones all intact with price from 29 years ago! Priceless.
We culled. We cleaned. We moved. We pondered. We achieved.
In the end the bins overflowethed (yes, I know that this is not a proper word) with much more to go in for the next weeks rubbish collection.
But, gee, we got a lot done.
After this I got my filing cabinet opened and moved things out to be sorted, as in to sell at a market one day or thrown out or given to the intended recipient.
I have several project going at the one time, which appears to slow the process down, but not really. If that makes sense.
I have to now sort through the sorted paperwork into files to live in the filing cabinet. And in so doing will finally be out of sight and ready for easy access as needed. Now that will be novel.
I have boxes outside that I am finally going through one by one with the same process of what is to be thrown out, given to recipient and off to market or kept. The less kept the better.
A friend came over to look at my 'stuff' and I could tell he was somewhat overwhelmed by just what I have left now. Imagine if he had seen what I had over 5 years ago! But there is still some good stuff in there that what I don't want to keep he said will sell well at a market.
I looked into the price, times and booking of 2 markets. One that I thought I would like to do was the Camberwell and the other being my local the Oakleigh one, both operating on a Sunday.
With Camberwell, which is 20 minutes away as the crow fly's, it was $65 booking fee with you rocking up at 5.30am to line up to get in. In winter! Are you joking! Far out. And with Oakleigh, which is way smaller and much closer, it was a $10 booking fee with you rocking up at between 6 and 7am. Way more civilised if you ask me. I am starting to get the car packed so that when a Sunday presents that it is not going to rain I can just head off with a Thermos of hot tea.
In the meantime, I had 3 items left still at my neighbours garage. She is now 87 and is getting everything ready for when she passes on. She had names on everything. She has been single all her life and also has a time of it to get help when needed. She knew that I was finding it hard to get a guy with a trolley to get those last items over to my place from her garage. She is just across the road, but it may as well been Timbuktoo.
She fostered a young boy many years ago whom comes over every so often to get jobs done and he said he would bring his trolley and bring what was left over to me. How wonderful of her to have organised this. She is a love and a truly wonderful neighbour. She helped me in my time of need and now it was time for all things to be in the one place. All together once more. So the spare fridge, side table and knitting machine came back.
This was huge.
To think I had 'stuff' in four places 5 years ago and now downsized to one was a momentus occasion. However, no fan fare, no streamers or bells or whistles going off. But I did smile at this achievement. If you don't take a moment to appreciate these milestones you would get rather despondent and then go into a spiral and give up. And I will never give up. No matter what.
Progress was made. The reason I am hanging onto the fridge is if my one goes bust at this moment I have no way of replacing it. At least this way I have a spare. Once the shed is cleared out the fridge will live in there.
So I am sorting the filing, sorting the market stuff and sorting the kitchen cupboards. Not enough hours in the day to get them all done. But looking back at what I have achieved I know I am doing something right.
I spoke to one of my blog friends the other week, who also followed the music page I did that I recently bowed out of due to family commitments and my personal projects to have more time to spend with family and finish my projects. This particular friend and I spoke about what happened to her and how she got where she was over a period of time and she was the one where 2 blokes came along from her council demanding to come in to inspect her home unannounced. She was harassed and bullied and made to feel like an outcast and all she needed was some unjudgemental helping hands and assistance due to her ailing health.
Apparentl,y there are organisations out there that can do just that, but who would know if the information isn't out there. She is now slowly getting on top of things with the help of a mentor via this organisation. I have left writing this for so long that I have forgotten who it was and she wanted me to impart certain information that I wrote down and for the love of money do you think I can find that piece of paper as things have been moved since. But I will let you all know in blogs to come.
When someone is drowning you help. Well, the same goes when one gets overloaded for what ever reason as to how it came about those people or person need help also. Emotionally as well as physically.
I am so glad that she was able to speak to me about her feelings, fears and frustrations. It can take a lot to open up. And it does help to talk things through. Sometimes this can be enough for some. And also the knowledge of emotional support is important. To not feel alone in this goes very far indeed.
No photos this time round till I get sorted with the computer. All a learning curve for me right now.
Still no paying job, but not giving up.
Jobs here in Victoria are being slashed with companies downsizing or going under at a rapid rate. We have been through tough times before, but never like this as food, petrol, rent, utilities bills and insurances all go through the roof at the same time. All the fundamentals, as in the staples ie bread, milk etc are no longer affordable. So off to the market I must go and freeze my butsky off to see if I can retrieve this situation till a paying job does present itself in order to keep the wolves from my front door.
As winter trundles along, I hope to get the paperwork filed away and keep the living areas spit spot.
Till next time whenever that will be. We shall see if I write pre end of financial year or post. Bets anyone?
Cheers folks
Anita
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