Drifting through life

It's definitely autumn. Yes, the days are still warm and sunny, but there's enough chill in the breeze to make me close the windows. There's enough chill in the pre-dawn air to warrant wearing a jacket to work. Which I then have to carry home because it's too warm to wear it by mid-morning. There's enough chill in the air to turn my thoughts to beef casseroles, roast chicken dinners, apple pies, warm brownies. I bought new flannelette pyjamas and got my fluffy slippers out from their hiding place in the wardrobe. The chill in the breeze makes sitting in the sun in a sheltered spot a longed for treat, after months of avoiding the sun as much as possible. *brushes the dust and cobwebs off the lawn chairs* It's so lovely to finally be cooler. Dammit!! I want my paragraphs. This edit had better work......

Some time ago, I wrote about the Disqus comment thread; the problems it was causing; why I hated it and would never use it. Several commenters agreed with me and a couple had said they no longer had Disqus as their comment option. Well, since then I've read a blog or three where I felt I just had to leave a comment. They had Disqus for their comments, so I prepared to wait the necessary length of time to leave my comment. Only to find that was no longer the case. The comment box opened quickly, my comment appeared as I was typing and entering my name and password took much less time than before. After clicking submit, my comment appeared in the thread immediately. I don't know what happened to cause this beneficial change, but I'm no longer avoiding Disqus.

Checkout six is now open for your shopping convenience.... As most of you know, I'm a checkout chook, but I've been on light duties around the store due to a shoulder injury. (for 7 boring months) I've been seeing the physio for a few weeks now, and have several sets of exercises to do. These have brought on a whole new series of aches....... Anyway, the shoulder has improved quite a lot, so last week after seeing the physio, I waited in the waiting room (where else), to see my doctor for a review. I think this must be the only waiting room in the world that doesn't have magazines, not even old ones. I asked if I could possibly have a trial period back on the checkout. I'm pretty sure the shoulder is as good as it's going to get, and I won't know if I'm able to physically cope with checkout work unless I try. The doctor agreed with me, yay!, so next Monday I start back on the early morning shift, (it's the easiest one), for two weeks to see how...

Well, not much anyway. My kitchen and bathroom must be presentable, my bed made, most things that aren't being used, are put away. I used to do silly things like sweep down the walls, dust my furniture daily, polish it every week, vacuum the carpets a couple of times a week. (I hate carpet, if this unit belonged to me I'd rip it out faster than you could say rip) My kitchen floor was washed daily. Heck, I even polished it every few weeks. Then the kids grew up, and I grew lazy. Now, I only sweep down the walls if I notice the dust build-up, or if there's an inspection due. I'll dust the furniture if I'm expecting visitors. Polish it? Hah! The carpets are vacuumed rarely. A dustpan and brush takes care of the crumbs that fall around my chair. So why was I excited to see several packets of Kleenex cleaning products in the swag bag from the Bloggers Conference? Who knows? There are glass and mirror wipes; shower wipes, (cuts through soap scum), and stainless steel wip...

Sunday Selections is brought to us each week by Kim, of Frogpondsrock. The idea is to hunt through your photo files and find the ones that have never seen the light of day. Give them an airing on your blog under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then leave a comment at her site and add your name to her linky list. This week, the theme, (you don't have to make a theme, you can use random photos), at Drifting Through Life, is discarded, thrown away, tossed out. If you'd like to join in, just follow the instructions outlined above the photos here. We don't mind who you are or what you post, just have fun with it. The more the merrier, as the saying goes.

I'm taking a short break from blogging, nothing big, just a coupla days 1) to catch up on all the reading I missed while I was in Sydney 2) to dip into the works of the new blog addresses I have 3) to rest my fingers. My carpal tunnels are giving me grief as they always do when the cooler weather first sets in, so my fingers feel numb and fuzzy and fat. P.S. When typing out my last post, I double spaced the paragraphs, but it published as one long run on. How annoying!! My sincere apologies to anyone who found it hard to read.

AusBlogCon....sort of...Part four Monday 21st March You know, I was so excited to be coming here to Sydney, then once I got here I found myself too shy to actually talk to many people. Gave myself a kick up the bum, but it didn't do any good..... The event itself was fun, the dinner dance was even more fun, yesterday's ferry ride was heaven, but now I feel a little like a deflating balloon. Last night I'd made tentative plans to go out and about a bit, maybe visit a nearby Chocolaterie, "Kakawa"; 147 William Street; just a few minutes walk from the Bayview, it was given a 5 star rating for its chocolates and caramels and its hot chocolate is listed on the brochure as "THE BEST I've ever tasted. I scrapped all plans in favour of going back to bed after taking a few pre-dawn photos and seeing that even more rain was threatening. The lightening sky, grey with rain clouds still. Early morning traffic. A bus in a hurry. So I made coffee, (urk! it was awful!)...

AUSBLOGCON Part three Sunday 20th March Technically, the next two posts shouldn't come under the AusBlogCon heading, since the conference and dinner dance are well and truly over. But today there are still a few of us in the hotel, some eating breakfast, probably a few upstairs sleeping off the champagne and dancing of the night before. I hope there aren't too many hangovers. I woke early and went down to the Seasons Cafe for breakfast, a plate of yummy sliced fruit and some apple juice. Back upstairs in my room I was overcome with tiredness so went back to sleep for a couple of hours. On waking for the second time, I discovered it was still raining, so walked to Elizabeth Street where I knew I would find some shops, thanks to Helen, who had emailed me this information before I left Adelaide. I bought an umbrella, so I could wander around a bit without getting too wet and also a jacket, because I knew it would be cold out on the harbour. Back at the hotel, I met up with Car...

Saturday March 19th Conference day!! Saturday got off to an early start, with quite a lot of us already in the breakfast room by the time I got downstairs. Tables were already mostly filled with groups chatting and eating, so I found a tucked away table for two and ate breakfast (mmm, bacon) while I watched others. (not in a creepy stalker way) I was soon joined by Denyse who was also looking for a place to sit and had noticed me on my own. Denyse is a retired school principal who writes about schools, talking to teachers, assisting parents and also does guest posts for blogs. We got on quite well and I was happy to have met her. I was part of Veronica's Meet and Greet team and was looking forward to saying hello to absolutely everybody, not just the people I had met the day before, and handing out swag. In reality this didn't happen. Over the years I've become used to greeting people at the checkout, saying hello, how are you, blah, blah, blah and I thought this would be...