Surviving august.

Since my last post I have made it over the hump day of August. Evening church weekend away at Tahlee happened, which was great. The rain and cold made it feel a bit claustrophobic but there was a fire going the whole time and the talks were great and I got to know some people a bit better.

I've done some house buying jobs (and so has dad) and as a result, we exchanged contracts on Wednesday, which is rather a relief. There are more jobs to do but at least now I can relax and start anticipating and all that.

August is still busy. On Saturday I'll go down to Sydney and help clean my old unit, bring up the last few things, and collect my parrot! Sunday will be my one day off for the month, ie, my one day I don't have to go out. Except church. Then another week of work. Then I'll take Friday off and go to Katoomba for Engage with AM.

AM visited this month and left a stack of great DVDs to watch and her favourite has proved to be my favourite. Our Mutual Friend. I am addicted to it. Conveniently, I discovered the BBC has their audio drama version online at the moment, only the first few eps had expired, it's about ten hours worth and it's very good, so I'm listening to that at work. Obsessed.

My other obsession is thinking ahead a bit about what I could do with my future back yard, which is a small strip of grass. I would like to have no grass, no lawn mower. I think I will put some pavers in, big ones, and have garden around the edge. I don't want it to look too neat and sterile, I am obsessed with moss actually so I'd like moss between the pavers. And I'd have a 1m square or so veggie garden. A worm farm. I'd like to grow poppies, sweet peas, and I forget what else. Open to suggestions. I have a Pinterest board for it. I'm excited that it's a small area that I should be able to manage and still do a lot with. But I'll leave it for next year I guess.

Once I've moved in, I'm going to see how my cash flow works out. My aim will be obviously paying the mortgage repayments, but firstly saving a buffer as well in the offset account, of maybe 10k. A buffer and a bed and maybe a computer. That's my plan for the rest of the year. 

And I think there will be more time for fun things in the last quarter of the year. I want to visit JB in Armidale in the September holidays, I would like to organise to do a fabric printing class with a lady I met at the olive tree markets (Bec?) and when all my stuff is unpacked I will have more ability to sew and stuff again.

Spring-like weather, magnolia tree at the library, calves on lunchtime walk: