Welcome Spring!

I felt distinctly relieved last Monday when I realised it was the first day of September. August was done! I decided to go to George's 40th on Saturday night to celebrate. I couldn't face another tiring weekend but somehow once it was a new month and I just had the one thing to do, it was doable. And it was a really lovely afternoon and night, and I helped cook food, and saw many good friends. Denise even returned my hart of dixie DVDs and gave me the new ikea bookbook. I gave her a thank you present from a colleague who wanted Denise to source a pair of fingerless gloves for her like mine, she loves them and wears them daily, and a bit of the jurlique from E. I got three burns from the oven, one accidentally and two just stupidly. Stupid ones were rather painful but I wrapped party ice in paper towel and that worked. I had a milk bottle of frozen water in the car on the way home and next to my bed. Actually it worked well, driving down and back for one event. To get from Randwick to Ashbury via PT would have been a pain. The traffic was a breeze going home cos I left around 9.30. It was a bit scary only because of extremely heavy rain. Not just for visibility but because of water on the road. Went slower and stayed away from the other cars. Some idiots still go at 110kms. Anyway I was asleep by midnight, so that's pretty good for a party. It is worth going to Sydney for fun things. I think it costs about $30 in petrol, that's not too bad. Petrol is so much cheaper in Sydney, up to 20 cents sometimes. 

On Sunday I had a sleep in til 9 and I felt unusually rested. I decided to check out the maitland markets. I used to go as a teen. They aren't like the olive tree markets, which are small and carefully curated and all quality local handmade things.... They are just big random markets. Not as big as they used to be apparently, and there is a lot of junk I'm not interested in (whereas OTM are all amazing) but other people like that stuff. There was one particularly good vintage stall where I bought some linen tea towels for $2 each, which is great value compared to new cotton ones, and a small linen tablecloth embroidered with strawberries for $20. 

Not sure what I want it for, a tablecloth or a throw or a wall hanging, but it's beautiful and I have always liked the strawberry design, and I don't embroider. I also wanted this set of servy things for $30 but I had no money. 

But how trendy is that! The rest of the shopping was food. Home made slices, hot nuts, strawberries, and fresh fried dumplings for lunch which were delish. 

I also scouted around for things I could buy later: a smaller birdcage that I can keep at work and fit in the car, $26. Plants for my garden. There is a man who makes drawings, I might pay him to draw something for me, maybe jane austens house, or the QVB, he has a lovely detailed pen and ink style I'm way too lazy to do. There is a man who makes multi photo frames, huge ones, so I might pay him to do some to my specs. I hope E comes and visits these markets cos I thought she would enjoy them. They, like the OTM, are on the first weekend each month, so book it in friends! Road trip double market weekend!

At work, I'm quite enjoying myself. I've decided to gradually replace the books in the iBooks store that predate me. A whole lot were done in some kind of batch conversion process and so they aren't very nice. It really annoys me. So last week I grabbed the book files and did my own conversion of a book, which took two days. Nobody got to check it or make suggestions, it's just about getting a better looking book up in the store ASAP, cos they are already for sale anyway. I'll try and do one every two weeks in amongst the slower things that get checked and checked and take months. 

After church we set up for HSC exams.