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:

 

My facebook.

I don't watch the news or listen to the news or go to news websites. I don't like the news, it's always depressing. I don't need depressing things.

I appreciate that I should be somewhat aware of bad things so that I can pray about them, I realise that, and I am aware and I do pray. But it's still something I want to be in control of, how much (bad) news I am exposed to. Every so often, and particularly now, facebook (which I like to use to see things my friends are doing) gets swamped with bad news. I don't need more bad news, if I want bad news I will go to a news website. I just want to see what normal people are doing. I want to see babies, cups of coffee with cats drawn in the froth, and general sort of daily status updates about the weather and the trains and so on. That's what I like about facebook, and right now it's the tiny minority of fb content. This is what my facebook looks like today after a celebrity died and while ISIS is a thing and probably other depressing things which are all taking up about 80% of my news feed. I'm trying to force the fb algorithm robots to make it happy again. Baby photo, hide, hide, hide, hide, hide.

Pictures of Frugality.

Old shoes.

Work salad.

 Library book with bad typography.

 When I accidentally brought 2 veggie burgers to work and nothing else. I put some capsicum dip and sweet chilli sauce on them.

Lunchtime walk.

OFFER ACCEPTED!!!

My 2nd offer out of the three came good! I had a small amount of hope (being the 2nd highest offer but with fast settlement skillz), but the longer you don't hear back the smaller the hope gets and I was slightly weary of the emotional roller coaster of offers so I was trying to move on. Anyway I heard back! Accepted! The most expensive of my offers, and although I would have been happy living in the cheap one or the middle one too, this is the best place, I'm getting more for the extra money, and when I sell it I'll get the extra money back, and it's still an amount I can afford to repay in a worst case scenario like losing job and renting it out. Also I didn't get the other two, so there's no comparing. Glad to be spared the choice between two if my offer on Saturday had been accepted. I'd probably have gone with that instead cos cheaper.

I've only seen it for ten minutes. Kinda weird to buy something so big on such a glancing inspection. But that's ok cos they are pretty same-same, these modern villas. Built in wardrobes, garage, beigey colour scheme, etc etc. Not much to stand one apart from the other as far as personality. You just sort of see how big the rooms are and is there air con. And with this place, the points of difference which I like are that it is blue on the outside, and I like the street. In Sydney I really liked living walking-distance from the shops and enjoying the posh houses all around my unit. This is the same kind of thing, it's a unit, but I can walk to the shops, and on this block there are some really nice houses that I can enjoy looking at.

I feel really lucky. There are new worries to come I expect, like now I'll have a mortgage, and what if I'm lonely on my own, and what if the neighbours don't like me, and also I think I have a toothache. But I hope it's going to be great, or at least, I am really excited to unpack my stuff in a new house, and have people come and stay with me!

Minimalism again.

Excuse me but I am still interested in minimalism.

I sometimes call myself a minimalist to people, although I don't think it works because it's not a very well understood word, like "evangelical". What people think that is, and what I am, possibly different. But when someone says to me "when you get your own place you can decorate it" implying that after you buy a house you go to Harvey Norman and buy a dining suite and a TV unit and an ottoman and so on, I say, I'm a minimalist and I'm going to try not to buy anything for the first year in case I have to move again. "I'm a minimalist" sounds weird though.

I never liked minimalism because I thought it was too bland and spartan. I don't want everything to be square and white. E was into minimalism, I didn't get it.

But I had occasional decluttering purges, because overflowing storage areas annoy me. And, after a few years of living in small rented places, I stopped resenting the limitations, and got the hang of it. I also started to get rid of some stuff that I had been storing for sentimental reasons. That was a big change for me. Decluttering forces you to be realistic about your life. Everybody has stuff they are storing for a potential future, and sometimes it's sad to let that future go. It's as hard as letting the past go, I think.

Then at some point recently when researching a decluttering obsession I discovered minimalism, realised that is was quite anti-consumerist and counter cultural, which appeals to me, and there are serious efficiencies to be had in owning less, and actually it wasn't just about everything being white and square. Just... Own less. If you live in an apartment, you are halfway there already, and there is a strong motivation to consider the implications of owning stuff. You kind of have to choose, you might not be able to fit book cases AND bikes AND a dining suite into your apartment. You're forced to ration space, so minimalism, or at least considering owning fewer things, has instant benefits. Minimalists often advocate living in a small place.

The extreme form is to know the exact number of your possessions, ie, you own 10 pieces of clothing. The high priests own 100 things in total apparently. That sounds like really no fun at all. I don't want to have only 10 pieces of clothing that all match each other efficiently, that would be boring. I want whimsical things like my blanket cape. And what do you do when people come over, go out and buy paper plates? That kind of extremity is not friendly. BUT, I really don't want redundancies. Clothes that guilt me out, so I'm applying a bit of 1 in 1 out law at the moment. Same with books. A minimAlist would have no books, just some ebooks. I have the books that I love, like my Austen books, Anne books, discworld books, and some Xn books that i really should read. I try and keep myself from buying cookbooks and so on just for nice things to own. Cookbooks really are beautiful. Rachel Khoo. 

Anyway, my tendency, the deeply ingrained tendency of humans I think, is to keep stuff. Our survival and basic comfort in a slum or a jungle may depend on having a useful strip of cloth stashed away. In the first world, for me, that ain't so, so I need to work against that hoarding tendency so that I don't add new clothes to my wardrobe and never get rid of anything and get another wardrobe and fill that too. I'm using minimalism as a circuit breaker. 

As a middling minimalist, my life won't be 100 possessions. I'll have a much longer and more complicated set of rules. For example, I don't buy fabric for the future. I buy fabric as I need it, in the length I need, and with any luck there will be none left over. I sometimes find lovely fabric that I want to buy and it would be very nice for something, but if I can't think of a precise purpose and an exact length, I walk away.  With books, I usually by audiobooks. Music, usually download as well. DVDs, only a couple a year and mainly ones that I think I can lend to people, so Hart of Dixie was my most recent purchase. Clothes, I set up long periods of no shopping when I decide I don't need anything. There are things I don't need to worry about, like shoes or kitchen things, I don't feel drawn to collect them so I need no framework to moderate it.

I'm pondering my next stage of life from a minimalist point of view. I'm currently living in a bedroom at my parents and have my stuff packed and piled in various areas of this house and some still in randwick. So it's a bit rich to be calling myself a minimalist while, actually, I have stuff that I don't need all boxed up and I'm benefitting from the surplus space my parents own in a non-minimalist way. But I think it's more economical to store for a while than cull and rebuy/scavenge 6months later. I'm preparing myself though for when I have my next place, probably larger than my past homes, to resist the temptation to fill it. One of the agents at an inspection asked me "nest or invest?" And the concept of nesting irks me, although it's not wicked, I just think I want to restrain myself, at least until I see if I'm staying here long term or not. It would be a little devo actually, to get a place, paint it, buy things from vintage shops etc, just to lose my job, move out again, rent the place, and go back to flat sharing in a city again. So minimalism is going to guard me from nesting too excitedly/expensively. I'm going to try and just enjoy having my own space and sharing it with my parrot and very little else.

Update on house shopping: Taking a break. Will look again in September. If nothing comes up before my loan pre-approval expires, I'll let it go until next year I think, probably after my work contract ends so that I know if I'm staying on here or not. Cos it's not really worth it to move into a place for a couple of months, if I end up looking for a new job. Anyway that's then; right now, on the one hand I'm getting a bit tired of living "temporarily". I'm starting to accumulate a mental list of things I can do when I unpack such-and-such, or when I have my own whatever. But on the other hand I'm also tired of looking at places, working out if I want to live there, working out my offer, waiting to hear back, and thinking about it all the time. I will try and get on with other things, whatever they may be. Also, once I've paid my car off I will be able to save my monies again. I think that will make me feel like I'm doing some thing useful.

Another offer, more markets, parrot!

I decided on my next house to try and buy. I looked at one a month ago, and thought, oh well hmmmm, I'd prefer two large bedrooms to three small ones, it's a bit on the pricey end at 349, and quite a few old people were looking at it so I thought they'd beat me to it. A month later, it was still there so I went back with dad and AM who was visiting me from Sydney, the price was down a little to 345, so I offered 335 right there at the inspection, the nice agent lady said she'd get back to me via text after telling the vendor.

So I went to the olive tree market with AM, and get a text from agent saying the vendor would consider 340 if I could offer that, which I said I'd think about. Pretty much expected to go up to that. So 2 hours later I replied yes 340. In the evening, agent texts sorry, the vendor has decided not to go below 345, would I raise my offer? I said no, it was not reasonable for the vendor to say he'd consider meeting me half way and then not, it's his right to wait for an offer he's happy with, but I'm not going higher than my limit. The agent was understanding cos she agreed with me and said she'd try to convince him. Agents have to represent sellers, not buyers, but they know how it works and what the market is like and I think she thought she'd made a deal, getting us to meet halfway, only to be thwarted by the guy she's working for. In Sydney, the asking price is the minimum, but up here, it can be more like optimism, and a place to negotiate from. If you don't want to negotiate, after your property has been for sale for several months, basically--you don't want to sell your house. Maybe he thought I was desperate, but that's his mistake. That's fine. I'm not disappointed at all. I feel like I played it right and didn't lose, just walked away and left my offer on the table. It might get accepted after all, who knows. If it does, it will add to the busyness of the month, but I might be able to get all my furniture moving out of the way in one go. If not, I can live with my parents INDEFINITELY!!!!!!!!


The exciting news from last week is that I've been given a parrot, little Milos. Makes me happy to anticipate being a parrot lady. I'll bring him up from Sydney when we do a furniture collection this month.



Also, work wise, I've got books for sale in iBooks Store now. Yay! I want to start pumping them out a bit faster now.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/healthy-bees/id904522918?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/bee-agskills/id899109570?mt=11

I'm feeling particularly aware of how blessed I am by friendship. I have quite a few amazing friends. People who come up to visit me for a weekend, and people who I can stay with in Sydney, and people I can swap prayer points with. I know does not always going to feel like this, but I lack nothing in terms of feeling loved right now. Singleness is no issue at all... There are good times and dry times, just like marriage is for better and worse. Friends are a big part of those good times. I do still stand by my theory that distance is the end of most friendships in any practical sense. Without proximity, I have lost a lot of friends when I left Sydney, and I now have proximity to a different group of people. With the inner circle, though, that doesn't depend so completely on proximity. I guess some of those ties will loosen eventually. Who knows.

Thinking of getting these glasses. Or maybe some standard black ray bans.

CPW, offers, anticipating.

I suddenly decided recently that I might stop using my CPW app. I've used it faithfully for a year, and I don't think I'm getting anything out of it anymore. I've got some good data from 12 months, and it's had a good influence on my decision making process when I'm considering a purchase. Just stopping when I'm caught up in a vision of my future cool self and actually calculating how many times I need to where it to get a CPW of $4 is a good step to take. That's a good thing that I'm in the habit of considering. But it's starting to feel futile. Instead, i want to focus on reducing my wardrobe to only useful and loved things. 

I got a couple of things at just jeans for only $6 each on the weekend, which brought back teenaged memories. I felt a bit bad because I didn't need them, but I just made myself look in my drawers and remove two things to the PJs and Jillian drawer. From that drawer I occasionally chuck things out because they don't last long once I'm using them for workouts.

House hunting is going slow. I made an offer on a unit last Friday, the most expensive unit in maitland (in the prettiest street) and I offered $13k higher than my preferred price bracket just to get into the game because it is within my reach, and didn't hear back yet, so my offer clearly wasn't wowing anyone :) I am hoping something else comes up soon. It takes me a while to adjust to the idea of living in a place before I get to the point of making an offer. But now I've made two offers on different places I'm getting the hang of it and one of these days I'll get the place God wants me to have. 

I am looking forward to having my own place partly because buying and moving house is the next big logistical thing on the horizon and it's just sitting there looming. Also, I'm looking forward to unpacking cos it kind of feels a bit temporary here. Anticipation. I am pretty much organised with my finances though, my FHSA is done (praise God!) and my term deposit is mature and I've got pre approval on a home loan so as soon as I decide I like something in my price range i can swoop in.

I'm heading into a busy month in August. There is a church weekend away, hunter twist workshop, engage, and since my old flat is ending we need to go down at some point and get the rest of my stuff. So there won't be time to do any house hunting for pretty much the whole month.

Once August is done, I'm going to plan a trip to armidale for a few days. 

I've been able to share my thoughts and limited experiences of online dating in a helpful way with some girls at church. One has decided to give it a burl and I think it was great that she brought it out into the open rather than doing it in embarrassment and secrecy. And having dipped my toe in, I was in a great position to talk about it with her. 

Prayer.

This weekend I had a lot of rest. I also did the prayer at church and since I haven't got much to post, and I wanted to have a digital copy of this for future reference, thought I'd blog my prayer.

Actually I do have news from last week, I have a pre approved home loan, and I've made an offer on a unit. If I don't get this place, which Is pretty likely, I have about 3 months to get something before it expires. 

Heavenly Father

You are the almighty king of creation. We have come here tonight to praise you and read your word, and we are reminded of your goodness and love. Your power, your faithfulness, your plan for the world and each one of us.

Oh let the nations rejoice and be glad for you will judge the peoples righteously and govern the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise you o God, let all the peoples praise you.

Because of your love, not our good works, while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. The death of your only son brings us from darkness to life, from death and eternal separation to life for eternity. 

Please help us to remember Christs death, remember that we are forgiven through it, and remember that we are not slaves to sin anymore. Help us to trust in Jesus, obey him, give our whole lives to him, and love him. Help us also to love others. Help us to put others first, to be generous, to be forgiving, and to love like Jesus loved us.

We pray for the church in the world. Please help all Christians to know your word the Bible and submit to it. We pray for Christians who are persecuted for following Jesus, whether it is in the form of bullying at school or work, the real threat to life that many Christians in other countries face; in Indonesia, Nigeria, Iran, the Sudan, where churches are attacked or Christians are thrown in prison. Give our brothers and sisters courage to persevere. Protect them from harm and grow their faith through these trials. 

We also pray for people in the conflicts of this world, which seem to never end and bring tragedy after tragedy. We know they will end one day, when Jesus returns and all wars will cease, and every knee will bow before him. Bring on the day, we pray.

Father thankyou that we live in a peaceful and secure country. We thankyou for the resources that feed us and make us rich. We pray that our politicians will be wise and generous, and remember that the blessing we enjoy are given by God and are not ours to hoard selfishly.

Now we pray for our church. Thankyou for those who teach us your word here at church and in our home groups during the week. Thankyou for the many ways people serve you and each other in both public and hidden ways. Protect this church from Satans attacks, from false teachers, and from the temptations of this world. Keep us standing firm in the gospel, in unity and in love.

We pray for your Holy Spirit to work in us for your purposes. Change our hearts by the power of your word so that our lives are changed and we shine like stars in this dark world. Help us to get to know each other over dinner so that we can encourage each other. Be in every word that we speak, to bring you glory.

In Jesus name we pray all these things, amen.

Adobe, busy but going nowhere, Kurtosh.

I've felt very busy and tired for a bit. Probably time of year, time of month, etc etc. don't feel like I'm doing a LOT, but just the daily grind is wearing me down. I only just HAD a holiday too! Yay for a flexi day.

I came down to Sydney this week for an adobe roadshow event to see all the things my software does that I don't know about. It was a fun day because I spent it with Bec, and Elsie came for lunch, the food was good and most of the presenters interesting, although there was some waffle about being artists etc which was a bit of a waste of time. I don't think many people there really think of ourselves as artists, because design is, while creative, dictated by a lot of commercial pressures and client wishes. I think creatives is a better word than artists. Art is way more self indulgent. 

Also lovely, I stayed with a family from wild st, and their cute little daughter is my favourite kid in the world. She is always excited when I come which is pretty special for me as well. I hung out there this morning helping with getting dressed and stuff. Now I'm eating sugared bread and a hot chocolate at my favourite randwick cafe, Kurtosh. 

Bec said the east still feels like home to her two years after she moved out. I guess I've spent such formative, fun years here that is will always be special. I have enjoyed my visit and the catching a bus to the city, walking around, going to a cafe. Just a taster of my old life.

I've been dipping my toe into house buying, making offers but not very competitive ones! I'll get a place one day, I'm not worried. I am a bit impatient, because I want to shop for a house but there's not much going on. I am going to get my loan approval organised today I hope, when I get back to maitland.

I organised dinner with friends in maitland this Saturday night, but I just rang the place to book a table and they are booked out. Fail. But anyway I've got the people booked, we'll find something to do. It's a girl from school, girl from Uni, girl from work, and hopefully jk. Got to build a social life.

Very thankful for flexi days. I needed this day. I shall pop in and see another friend before I drive back to maitland.

Holiday, house hunting, being boring.

Time for another update.

Anna visited Maitland last weekend. It coincided with the Olive Tree Markets, which I enjoyed going back to. See my haul! Mostly edible.

I went to the Central Coast with a houseful of nice girls for a week. Right on the beach near Toukley.

Then there was a week where my parents went on holiday so I lived alone. Had a girl from church over for dinner and also went to some ppls house for dinner.

The other thing I'm still doing is house hunting. Things are slow. I made an offer on a place this week, but since it was LOWER than a previous offer I'm not expecting it to be accepted! Playing by my own rules and trusting God.

House hunting.

I wrote this a few weekends ago, it got delayed.

E came up for a visit, which was lovely! There were no markets on or anything exciting like the weekend before. But we went house hunting which was useful and interesting. 5 houses. Also the farmers markets. But mainly open houses. The day was quite useful because I've realised I'm still clarifying my needs. I love old characterful houses, but not cold dark houses; light and warmth are a priority so in the end a newer house is better built for that. What to do. Also for being low maintenance because I'm not the person who actually wants to renovate. But newish houses are kind if sterile and samey. All grey and puce inside. I've got more style than that. Does that matter? I don't know.

I've got a bit of a list

• Location (one preferred suburb)
• Aspect (lots of north for light and warmth)
• Size (small for easy Maintenence and also minimalism)
• Price (I want a really manageable mortgage, not a stressful debt)
• Ready (in good condition so I don't have to spend money fixing)
• Garage (I have pretty car).

There are things I am optional on. Brick or wood. Backyard or not (I would like avocado trees but I don't like mowing, so it's ok either way). House or unit. Fancy kitchen or old one, fancy bathroom or old one, etc.

Courtyard or garden:

Charming or functional:

Recently I did some training at work in procurement, which is basically protocols for spending money. I found the framework quite helpful: VALUE FOR MONEY has two parts: FIT FOR PURPOSE and WHOLE OF LIFE Cost. Also a section about really evaluating your requirements. So it's quite helpful for clarifying things when house shopping.

There are two sides to my personality. The side that is frugal and wants to make a wise decision, based purely on economics, risk minimisation, analysing all potential benefits. And the side that dreams of just living in a place that's exactly what I want. Smallish, oldly characterful but also modernised and up to date, a good place to own a piano and do creative things home, my green wing backed lounge chairs look good in it, I can grow some things but not own a lawnmower, and I can walk to the shops. Probably has French windows. Hahahahaha. I wonder what are the chances that the perfect place exists. So it then becomes about trade offs, which takes me back to economics. 

The nice thing is the market is going nowhere. There isn't that panicky depressed feeling when you can't find something and meanwhile everything is being sold and getting more expensive and it's all dog eat dog. Things just sit there and the price drops a bit. I can just wait.

Obviously I really need to process stuff! Also, I'm trying to keep it in perspective and not get overly obsessed or worried about it.

In other news, I have a new hobby: weaving. When E was here we watched Person of Interrst and mum and I set up a loom and E curled my hair. Such fun!

Also I cooked some amazing porridge, like at the kasbah cafe. It has banana and coconut and cinnamon and honey and brown sugar. Quite wonderful. 

Long weekend, market, back to back wool challenge.

Parents are away. On Friday night JK and I had an AMAZING dinner at an italian restaurant on the honeysuckle boardwalk in Newcastle, using Ent book voucher. AMAZING amazing steak. Then we watched I wanna marry Harry on tv.

On Saturday I had brunch with two local friends. A girl from school and a girl from uni, who are friends with each other. They are really nice people. I freaked one of them about when I started ranting about the low cost per wear on wedding dresses.

Then I went to meet JK again at the Olive Tree Markets which were really good. Art and design markets. Much better and cheaper than Paddington, and nicer stuff I think than Glebe. I plan on returning to buy a chicken tea cosy.

Then I went home and Denise came up from Sydney for the weekend. We did a grocery shop and I cooked dinner and also we made about a hundred+ dumplings and put them in the freezer. Then I fell asleep in front of the TV, which I never do but I was trying to stay awake after 10pm because D is a night owl. BTW dinner was amazing too, I adapted a Nigella italian recipe which was easy. Didn't look great but it had tomato, runny egg, seasoned mince on the side (my addition) and afghan bread (from the supermarket, flatter than turkish bread). I am obsessed with runny egg yolk.

On Sunday JK joined us at 8am and we went to Tocal for the Back to Back Wool Challenge.

Shearing at 9am.

Then spinning and knitting until a jumper is finished.

There are also craft stalls and cheap tea and slices and demonstrations of spindles and lace making and things. And a lovely bush band, which I have posted a video on fb. I thought we would stay a couple of hours but it was too comfortable we just didn't feel like leaving. I am now obsessed with small square weaving looms and have asked a colleague to make me it.

There was also a blacksmith.

And then church.

D and I went to Morpeth for breakfast, see another runny egg delight.

And she left at lunchtime to beat the traffic back to Sydney. Then I vacuumed the whole house, which is a large endeavor, I only gave up on the hall room with all my boxes in it. Then I did Jillian. Then I was pretty pooped. Leftovers for dinner and another brilliant episode of the Mentalist. There have been like 10 superb episodes in a row. My favourite show again now.

Frugal, life stages, hope, sandwich.

One big way my life has changed in the move is that I'm starting to make life-stage changes. I've always said that singleness doesn't have the milestones that married life has. Going from flat sharing to owning your own home is the big one, really.  A few months ago I anticipated a future of just more flatting with flatmates, probably forever lol. I was steadily saving for a place to buy but had no clear way to buy anything: Sydney out of my price range except for the far west and that wasn't an exciting option. Anyway, I remember a time Elsie and I were with Felix for some reason and queueing for free icecream, and it sank in then when I said we were better off saving even if it seems hopeless, because we don't know what will change. Houses drop in price, or you leave Sydney, or you get married and pool your savings, and then you are in a position to buy. How prophetic, because in Gods timing suddenly I'm in an affordable housing market planning to buy a house eventually with the results of my frugal flatting years! If I'd waited till houses were cheaper or I was earning more, ie waited til it LOOKED realistic, I'd be starting from scratch now. It's probably wrong to quote a bible vs to drive it home, but it's like hope in things unseen. We plug away with no end in sight until suddenly we will see the end and it will be worth it. Delayed gratification. 

It's easier to be frugal when young, too. Friends still studying so you're not comparing your standard of living to yuppies. Haven't discovered favourite expensive shops yet. Got the energy to walk and PT. No gourmet cooking or eating requirements. No shame! Cos actually I like how we always got leftovers as takeaway and reported the 99 cent bananas with excitement. Now I want to transition into minimalism as a way to be frugal and unworldly. 

Life stage change. Flatting to home ownership, I hope. 

Here are some pretty lunchtime pics again. Speaking of frugal, I bring bread to work and buy a box of salad to make a sandwich for two days. 

Sydney, jeans, sick.

I worked two days, very quietly alone in the office listening to books and music. On Wednesday I went to Sydney. I drove to Morisset and caught the train. Lots of old ppl.

 I always forget that Martin Place is hard to get to so I went to wynyard because I ran out of time to figure it out. Eastern Suburbs line, but I'll forget again. Why isn't it on the city circle? Anyway. Got to Ortho 5 min late so that's ok. Teeth are going well and they'll make a replacement retainer for free because I cracked mine.

Then I went and ate laksa at MM office and that was lovely. Helped with a little thing. 

Then I went jeans shopping. I had a $20 pair of skinny jeans which I often wore under boots in winter, or folded up on cool days. They ripped, inside leg is where jeans really die, so I sadly binned them and had only one pair of jeans left, my favourite comfy Levi's that I patched after I fell off my scooter in them. I think they must be 5 years old, they are from the end of the bootleg era and I've sewn the lower legs narrower. They are getting pretty frayed. I had in mind another skinny pair for boot wearing, and maybe red or something not denim. But jeans shopping is hard. I tried on a few pairs at just jeans, checked out Gap and something else then looked in myer. Found a bunch at miss shop section and had high hopes of a dark maroon pair of myer brand ones, but they felt really stiff. Compared to the lee riders I also tried on (but the pockets were fake!) and the old Levi's I was wearing that day, stiffffffff. Crunchy. Hardto bend legs. So I went browsing the other clothes and in dangerfield I found this pair of trousers.   

I had to try them on. So then I just grabbed another pair of lee riders to make it worth while. I was quite delighted with those trousers. 

So comfortable. Pockets. Stylish. The antidote to all the bad jeans I'd tried on. They divided opinion on Facebook however. Since they were slightly too short and not what I was shopping for I resisted them, because I was there for JEANS only. So I tried on the pair I had grabbed on my way in and behold. They fit. It was a miracle! 

I noticed that since I'm a size 14 I don't have to rummage in piles of clothes, I just flip the pile over and 14s are on the bottom because that is as big as they go. Wha. 

I didn't want to rush to catch the train I wanted to continue being leisurely so I went to haighs. Their sample dark chocolate made my throat a bit irritated. Went back to MM to chat to H, throat got sorer. So I thought I must be getting sick.  There've been two separate sick people staying with parents in the last week so it was nearly certainly. I bought a Julia Booth juice at boost on my way back to Central. Apple orange carrot and GINGER. Yeah. 

On the train my nose pretty much exploded with snot. I sneezed prolifically. One man actually changed seats. I felt sorry for the one who sat next to me. I tried to keep my head tipped back. It was kind of funny. I bought big box of tissues at Morisset for the drive home. 

Then I was off work for two days. Then it was Saturday. I went to the women of truth conference and listened to Patricia Weerakoon. Then I spent the evening with some girls from church, which was really nicel we talked about singleness and real estate. Ahhhh real estate, a topic that is occupying my mind a lot although not much of my actual time yet.

On Sunday I joined mum and my aunt on a Morpeth visit. And mum found a pair of red (port actually) jeans and they were on sale for $40! So there you go. 

something this foggy day: That gentle and quiet spirit thing

something this foggy day: That gentle and quiet spirit thing



Saving this link to remind myself.

Moving on.

Don't really know what to blog about this week. Work was same same, nice weather nice walks cows ebooks. I got a work iPad on Friday so I've been setting it up this weekend, getting a SIM card and all that. I also helped jk move house. I also went to the regal cinema near the Uni which is basically a community hall movie theatre. Cheap good night.

Here is the shortness of my hair. I got it cut last Saturday. This photo is part of a twitter project to declutter beauty products. So I finished these samples. 

On other news I forgot about my lemongrass and mint and they almost died. I watered them and I think they will be ok. There are a few leaves on the mint. 

A reflection on the two month mark. Right after my move my Sydney life faded away. And I've basically enjoyed life up here and felt very lucky. I have been a bit lonely but not like moving to bowral. But I woke up at 3.30 on Saturday morning and all I could think about was where I used to live and how good it was and convenient and beautiful and walkable and I had so much to do and people to do it with. So there is some regret underneath everything. 

I'm going to Sydney on Wednesday just to the Ortho, on the train. Will also shop for jeans. Looking forward to that. I love the flex day part of my job!