Drifting through life

Mr Clarinet by Nick Stone The first Max Mingus thriller Private Detective Haiti Kidnapped children An International paedophile ring A little voodoo

Well, five minutes of it. To me, it's just another wedding. Sure, William is a royal grandson, Diana's oldest boy, and the whole world did go ga-ga over her wedding. But I've seen enough. For more than a week the wedding has been all over the news, current affairs programs, in magazines and newspapers. I know that for some it's a big affair. Huge. I'm happy that Will and Kate are getting married. I'm happy that they've been friends long enough to really know each other. I'm happy that the Queen is happy enough to lend Kate the ring tiara that is holding her veil. But the only part I'm really interested in is Kate's wedding dress. And now that I've seen it, I'm watching something else. Because it's a royal wedding, the ceremony is going to be a long one. Very long. Too long for me. Heck, my own wedding ceremony was too long, and that was only about half an hour. Anyway, the dress. Kate's wedding dress is beautif

I've had a five day break. I'd made plans. Sweep the dust off the walls. Vacuum the carpet. Hop on a bus and take beach photos. Did I do any of those things? Heck no! What I did was: Figure out how to schedule new posts. Yay me!! Catch up on some blogs I haven't been to for a while. Finish reading my current novel. Spent hours and hours and hours sorting my photo files. Putting a gazillion photos into folders by category in the dated folders. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to now find the photos I need for any particular post. Oh, I did catch a bus... to my daughter's house and had a lovely family Easter lunch.

I've been making this for years, and I haven't yet got sick of it. For me, it's a winter food, I don't make it in the summer. A/C = apple cider. SAUSAGE HOTPOT 1-2 thin sausages per person 2 large onions, sliced 1 1/2 cups hot water 2 tablespoons A/C vinegar 2 beef stock cubes (I use the Massel brand) 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce (spring gully brand is gluten free) 1 large carrot, grated into shreds 2 tablespoons tomato sauce 2 tablespoons butter (I use real butter, or olive oil, but margarine is fine too) 1 1/2 ounces plain flour (about 3 tablespoons?) 1 tablespoon sugar Brown the sausages, cut into half or one inch pieces, set aside. In a large jug mix together the sugar, crumbled stock cubes, sauces, a/c vinegar and hot water. Cook onions in butter until soft, but not browned. Blend in the flour. Gradually stir in the jug mixture, stirring constantly to prevent mixture becoming lumpy. Add grated /shredded carrot. Stir until boiling,

I dreamed I was a bag lady. One of the homeless. But I wasn't your regular unwashed, unkempt type, wheeling her possessions around in a stolen supermarket trolley. No No NO, not me. I was clean, groomed, nicely dressed. I wheeled my possessions around in a clean, small, wheelie bin, that had a heavy chain and padlock attached. I'd hang around the really fancy hotels, the ones where rich tourists were known to stay. There'd be a bench seat on the footpath near the main entrance, and this is where I'd chain the wheelie bin. I'd pull out whatever novel I was currently reading and sit on the bench pretending to be waiting for someone. Being clean and well dressed any hotel staff who saw me didn't take much notice. I was never "moved on", like I would have been if I'd hung around dirty and smelly. As the tourists left the hotel, they'd spot the bin and drop in stuff they no longer wanted. Souvenirs they'd bought on impulse, but

The leaves are changing colour, becoming beautiful reds... ...and golds... ...and falling from the trees. Soon our streets will look like this... ...and this... ...and this.

I’m an uneducated person. I can read things and understand them. I can read things that I don’t fully understand and they will make sense to me. What I can’t do , is explain my understanding of things. I can’t explain just how things make sense to me. I can’t explain the meanings of things I understand, in ways that make sense to others. I lack the ability to communicate. So I stay quiet... Ask me questions and I can probably answer them, but don’t expect me to start or carry a conversation. I can’t do it. Even after many years “talking” to people at the checkout, real conversation doesn’t come easy to me. I fake it. I make stuff up. If you say things convincingly enough, people will believe you. When you’re only with them for as long as it takes to pack their groceries and take their money, what does it matter? But discuss politics? Economics? Things you’ve read in the newspaper? It’s all out of my league. Because I don’t understand those things. Magazines? Th

It's Sunday Selections time again. The idea came from Kim at Frogpondsrock, who decided this was a great way to show off photos that had been stored and forgotten in her files. Kim has invited us all to join her in this weekly meme. All you need to do is dust off those old files, open them up and select a few random photos to post under the Sunday Selections title. Once you've posted your photos, link back to Kim somewhere in your post, then go on over to frogpondsrock and add your name to the linky list. Don't forget to have a look at what others have chosen for their Sunday Selections. I usually do a theme, and this week I've chosen bugs . The only ladybug seen in my yard for a full year. A young praying mantis. I like these cheeky little crickets. This butterfly rested near my front door just long enough for me to take his picture. I don't know what this bug is, but it has pretty markings. Some type of bug eggs that I only noticed because

Or supermarketeering cashing in on our impulse buying habits? I’m a checkout operator. Here’s something I see on a daily basis. Not just at Christmas or Easter, but all year round. Customer after customer coming to the checkout areas with a full basket or arms loaded with more items than they can carry. Some of them are using a trolley. Some of them start out with just their handbags, then when their arms are full, getting a trolley to continue shopping. Why is this? Impulse buying. They have come in for just one or two items, then seen other things they’d forgotten they needed, or simply just decided to buy. On impulse. This is the marketing tactic behind out of season goods being supplied when particular items normally wouldn’t be sold. For instance, take the recent sales of Hot Cross Buns. These have been on supermarket shelves since early January. (For several years now). But think back to your childhood. Were these yummy buns available so freely back then?

In my local supermarket yesterday, I was excited to see some Easter rabbits. Here they are, Miss Fluffy Bunny... ...and her twin sisters, Miss Hippity Bunny and Miss Hoppity Bunny taking a well-earned rest after delivering literally thousands of delicious chocolate goodies to shops all over Australia. Some of the items delivered by the bunnies. Eggs for everyone. I'm so happy to be here Yummy goodness. Chocolate Triplets. Look at these happy little choc-bunnies surrounded by treats. This bag of goodies made its way to my home. Here are some of the bunny cousins who helped with all the deliveries.

Shopping today was a little hectic. I expected the store to be busy, with the Easter break coming up, but I didn't think it would be full on quite so early in the morning. I started my shift at 6am, by 7am the store was full of shoppers. It was like Christmas, and you all remember what Christmas shopping is like.... For the first time in a long time, (well, since Christmas), we had more than two main checkouts open. And by the time I left work, all open checkouts had lines of people waiting. The express lanes had the longest line, that's always the way, so many people come in just to buy office Easter Eggs, and use the quickest lanes. The main checkouts all had two or three trolleys waiting in line and they were filled to overflowing. I sold more Easter Eggs today than I have in the last month. I remember one woman who bought what seemed to be half the store. As I was finalising the transaction and handing over her receipt, I jokingly said, "that should keep you

Early customer this morning wanted groceries home delivered, he and his wife reeked of smoke and so did all their bags. That really strong smell that you get when the smoke has leached right into the fabrics of things and never been washed. The smell that rises up and slaps you in the face. I remember the things in my Dad's flat smelling exactly the same after he'd sat in there chain smoking for several years, not just the soft furnishings, but the hard stuff too, especially his TV. Because they weren't taking their goods with them, the bags sat on the floor behind me for quite a while, before I had time to get a trolley and load them into it so I could move them away from my checkout. I got a headache immediately, then a couple of other customers about an hour later had the same smell. Another home delivery. More stinky bags sitting right behind me. These are people I've never seen before, they're not regulars, so I wasn't comfortable mention

Several weeks ago I was contacted by email to see if I'd like to trial a new laundry powder. The powder? DUO +Antibacterial ultra concentrate. The back of the box reads: Get more out of your wash with DUO! Fights odours and leaves laundry hygienically clean. Hygienically cleans even in cold water. Ideal for dirty clothes such as sweaty sports gear, underwear, socks, work clothes, towels and linen that can harbour germs. I've been using DUO for years and have always been happy with the results. DUO was always cheaper than leading detergent brands and I found it to be very effective even when using only half the stated amount of powder. I usually wash in warm to hot water, but this new DUO promises good results in COLD water. A potential saving on my gas bill.... So I was willing to give it a try. In due course a package containing a 950g box of DUO powder was delivered to my door. Each box of powder comes with its own plastic scoop, which I immediately tossed a

These are the photos of the homegrown carrots I wrote about last Saturday. The orange, The yellow, The white. Here are my three carrots next to a normal supermarket carrot. You can clearly see that peeling these oddities would have been close to impossible and once I trimmed off most of the curly growth, there really wasn't enough carrot left to make any use of.

Kim , of Frogpondsrock , has brought us this wonderful idea, called Sunday Selections. Like Kim, I have many photos stored in folders (and folders within folders)on my computer. Sunday Selections is a way of using these photos. Anyone can join in, by posting photos they've stored but never used, under the Sunday Selections title and linking back to Kim. Then go to Kim's site, add your name to her link list and leave a comment under the post there. You can make a theme, as I often do, or use random photos of whatever takes your fancy. This week, my theme is Wheels . The wheels on this flower sellers cart are often seen in Norwood Mall. Driving wheels (by Jimmy Barnes-a favourite song), you'll find these on every car, taking us away or bringing us home. Have you ever noticed hubcaps? Once upon a time a cap was a cap was a cap, now there are so many different styles. The wheels on the bus go round and round.. The wheels on bulk transport vehicle

Sometime last year I planted carrot seeds. From a packet of heritage seeds. Carrots in four colours. Orange, yellow, white, purple. In vain I waited for them to grow. Sometime later last year I planted some more carrot seeds. In vain I waited for them to grow. I took the rest of the seeds out to the pots and dumped them all in together. They grew. But they were all bunched up together and not doing well. I prepared a new pot of potting soil, and transplanted the carrot seedlings, oh-so-carefully. Most of them promptly died. Three survived and even grew. As is often the case with transplanted carrots, they didn't grow straight and true. The tops grew large and feathery, giving no hint of the craziness happening below the soil surface. The carrots grew fat, but stunted. Short and twisted. One orange, one yellow, one white. I pulled them out today. I'm giving up on the vegetables and putting in flowers. Maybe. Maybe I'll leave the pots empty. I too

CHIPPY A navy blue siamese fighter. Bought from PK Pets 19 January 2009 Died peacefully 15 April 2011 RIP

I was panicking. Me . Calm , serene , laid - back me . Panicky . Frenziedly going through every room. Upending every handbag onto the bed. Rifling through drawers. Searching every jacket pocket. I knew it had been in my mini backpack. But now it wasn't. I couldn't find it anywhere . My camera. Lost. Half-heartedly I phoned the chemist, the post office, I'd been there yesterday. But I knew that if I'd left my camera on a seat anywhere in the mall, I'd lost it forever. Anyone picking up a perfectly good camera equipped with a 2GB memory card and new lithium batteries, wasn't likely to hand it in. It happens. I phoned Coles, where I work. "Hi ------, it's me, Has anyone handed in a camera?" "Yes there is a camera here, can you describe yours?" "Canon powershot A460; silver with a blue streak" Hallelujah!! It was my camera!! I'd left it on the shelf next to the lockers in our locker room upsta

This short post is inspired by Jodie at www.mummy-mayhem.com (I hope the link thingy works) Jodie has posted about taking her boys to the library. Now, I love libraries. Miles of books, tables and chairs for sitting and reading. Hours spent browsing the shelves. Finding old favourites, discovering new stories and authors. Selecting a few to carry home to be enjoyed while having a lazy morning, or while relaxing on the lawn chair after finishing the work of the day. The part I don't like? Having to return the books.

After my physio appointment this afternoon, I was walking along the Parade on my way home, when I suddenly got sucked into this takeaway pasta shop. pasta go go (their bold, not mine) Real Italian (it's written right there on the card) where I bought this for my dinner. Spinach ravioli with napolitana sauce. And cheese. Mmmmm...... Look how full this is! They really pack it in there. The container measures about 10cm high by 8-9cm square and the food comes with a little plastic fork wrapped in a paper napkin. I could only eat about half, so Yay! I have dinner for tomorrow night too!