NaBloPoMo: day 9

Bridge graffiti 

The sunshine was lovely and warm this morning while I waited for the tram. I almost wouldn't have minded if the tram had been delayed, but it wasn't. 

I spent most of my work day archiving old files. It's kind of boring, but it's also satisfying to clear out the clutter and to reclaim all of the lever arch folders, bulldog clips and paper clips that had been sitting around on shelves doing nothing.  If I had my way I'd clear out a lot more junk, but my boss is a bit of a hoarder. 

I refilled the pepper grinder at dinner time tonight and we had exactly the right amount of  peppercorns in the pantry to fill it to the top. 

Spicy, decluttering, greenery

Ghost sign on Victoria Street, Albert Park

I made a tasty chicken curry from scratch for dinner tonight. I had most of the spices already (including fenugreek seeds, of all things!) so I thought I might as well make the curry powder rather than buy it. I used a coffee grinder that a friend gave me to make the powder - much quicker and easier than trying to make a fine powder in the mortar and pestle, that's for sure.  I love the smell of all the different spices. I made enough powder to make several more curries.  

I cleaned out my bathroom cabinets and laundry cupboards this afternoon and got rid of quite a lot of stuff. Well, all the half-empty products I no longer use are sitting in a box while I work out where to dispose of them. Although they aren't strictly hazardous chemicals, I don't want to empty them down the sink. Next weekend I plan to do the kitchen, including that one draw full of random crap that everyone has somewhere in their house (the one with duct tape, sparklers, a cigar cutter and widgets with no readily discernible use.) 

We bought some new indoor plants yesterday to replace the ones I bought years ago that eventually gave up and died a while back. We got a spathiphyllum (aka peace lily), a syagrus and a fittonia, which is the prettiest little thing.  A bit of greenery always brightens up the place, doesn't it?

Yoga, that boring job, a fast/slow week

Today I did a yoga class organised by the social committee at work. It's the first of four classes I've signed up to do, for a mere $20 (in total). I enjoyed it, although I felt like the least flexible and most wobbly one there. Something to work on... 

I spent most of my day sorting out my boss's Outlook contacts, a job that's been on my to-do list for ages. There's a lot of duplicate (and some triplicate) contacts, and about half are incorrectly filed by first name (seriously, who does that?). Not a particularly stimulating job, but a good one if you're too tired to do much else, and it's almost as therapeutic as having a physical clean out. 

I can't believe the last day of my week is almost here already. The days have dragged this week because I've been sleepy and not very busy, but now it's almost the weekend!  (Have I published any posts lately that don't go on about how great working four days is? I don't believe I have!) 

November: day 29

I was out of bed before 11.00 this morning, an uncommon event lately. Sunday seemed much longer.  

What did I do with my extra Sunday hours? I sorted out my all my socks and tights. Got rid of holey, saggy ones and put like tights with like (winter ones, lighter ones, patterned ones etc) so it's easier to find the ones I want in the morning rush. My life might not be sorted, but my sock drawer is. 

I did other things, of course; none of them exciting. Unless you consider a late afternoon nap exciting.

That old treadmill, desk decluttering, fab freebies

I'm slowly making my way through Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. I think this passage is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it 80-odd years ago:

It is very singular how little men seem to realise they are not caught in the grip of a mechanism from which there is no escape, but that the treadmill is one upon which they remain merely because they have not noticed that it fails to take them to the next level.

He was writing specifically about the competitive lives of businessmen, but these days it applies to most adults at least at some stage. If people in the 1930s thought they were caught in the grip, people these days must feel as if they are being crushed. 

Desk decluttering

I spent a few hours this morning cleaning out and organising my workspace, particularly my two desk drawers. The top drawer contained a mass of rubber bands and about 300 bulldog clips, and in the bottom drawer there was a pile of assorted envelopes that I had to shuffle through every time I needed to post something.

The drawer chaos has been driving me nuts for months, but I've been busy with actual productive work so didn't get around to sorting it out. Things were on the quieter side this morning, so I finally got to it. Most of the bulldog clips back went back to the stationery cupboard and the envelopes are now neatly divided up in suspension files. I also went through my "doesn't need to be filed, but I don't want to throw it out" tray and threw most of the stuff out. My mind feels less cluttered now too.

Fab freebies

A skincare product I ordered online a couple of weeks ago arrived this morning. The company also sent me two freebies - a Calvin Klein gel eyeliner and a lipstick (both full size). They must be hard-to-sell or last season's colours, but I like them. The lipstick is perfect, in fact - the exact colour I've been looking for, but unable to find. Just as well!

Ghost sign hunting, decluttering, muddling and sipping

There was a story in The Age yesterday about the Ghost Sign Hunters seminar I'm going to tomorrow. I've never really thought too much about why I'm a ghost sign fanatic, but Stefan Schutt's comments in the story resonated with me, particularly the bit about it being a response to rapid urban renewal.  

As you probably know, I love the aesthetics of urban decay. I get excited about rusting roofs, weathered wood, crumbling houses, peeling paint and old brickwork. They have so much more character than modern gleaming glass towers and boxy buildings. My obsession with ghost signs sprang from that, but I also like that old signs are a link to the past. They're survivors!  It's almost a minor miracle so many old signs are still around.  

And of course there's the thrill of the discovery, which is probably akin to a collector finding a fantastic new addition to their collection while poking about in a second hand shop - only you can't take old signs home with you.  

On the hunt

I went to the Camberwell Market yesterday, but it was too hot and too crowded so I spent the rest of the day wandering about hunting for ghost signs.  Burke Road in Camberwell was quite a disappointment, but I found a few gems along Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn. I also spotted this one: 

This isn't a great example of an old sign - the building isn't a health food shop anymore, but the sign isn't that old and it's still in pretty good nick. I'm only mentioning it because the Staff of Life was owned by Julie Stafford, who was my art teacher in my first years of primary school. She also published a book of the same name. I think she was one of the pioneers of the health food movement in Australia. (Stay tuned for my next post with photos of all my recent sign finds.)

Look! Up in the sky! 

I saw another circumhorizontal arc (rainbow clouds) on Saturday, only a few hundred metres from where I first saw one two years ago. I was sitting outside at my friend Lauren's engagement party at a Docklands bar when I looked up and saw it. "Oh, look! A circumhorizontal arc!" What a nerd.

Declutter

I spent this afternoon cleaning out my wardrobes. Yep, I know how to make the most of a public holiday. I do love a good declutter though. It's not that long since I last did it, but there were lots of clothes I hadn't worn since my last declutter (or the one before that or the one before that etc), so I decided it was time to get brutal. In the end I wasn't quite brutal - I couldn't bear to part with a couple of things - but I was certainly harsh. My underwear and socks/hosiery drawers are so neat and organised! I'm particularly pleased with my efforts at categorising my socks, tights and stock--- yeah, I should probably stop there. Moving right along...

Homegrown

We're in the midst of a heatwave (Autumn? What autumn?). I've been coping by sipping on tonic with fresh muddled* lime juice and mint leaves, picked fresh from our little herb garden. Deliciously refreshing.  * smooshed with the pestle from my mortar and pestle.  

I made yummy pizzas for dinner topped with tomato, bocconcini and basil also from our garden. Apart from the coriander, our herbs are thriving. 

We had raspberries, strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Nothing homegrown in that, but also delicious.

Button tin, making room

I made a start on a big clean up this afternoon. I do love a declutter, as many of you will know.  I cleared out a fair bit of junk, and I haven't even started on my wardrobe yet. I found about 300 of those tiny snaplock plastic bags with a spare button that you seem to get with every new item of buttonable clothing.

I put all the spare buttons into a biscuit tin, so I'm the way to having a button tin like my mum had when I was a kid. Mum's button tin was an old-fashioned oval chocolate tin with a posh lady on the lid, and it had a lot of fancy buttons in it. I used to love sifting through them and sorting all the matching buttons into piles. Unfortunately, the majority of my buttons are black, which is a bit dull for sifting and sorting, but very handy if I do ever need a button.

I have been decluttering to make some room because I have a new flatmate. A special flatmate. Luke has moved in with me. Yay.

Clutterbuster, reflections, two sleeps

Still smiling

I was an archiving machine at work today. I cleared out SO much stuff. And I kinda liked it. I could have stayed to do more, but I'd done all I set out to do today and I'm going to be there all day tomorrow anyway.

Although I was worn out after work tonight, I walked home along the river. Well, I only walked because my tram was delayed by 20 minutes and I didn't fancy being sardined with the gathering crowd going to the game at the MCG. It was a nice evening for a walk and the lights looked so pretty reflecting on the river.  

I racked up nearly 20,000 steps by the time I got home.  The Global Corporate Challenge finishes in five days. I've walked more than 1.5 million steps in the almost-three months since it started  and I'm about 25 kms short of 1000kms (supposedly - I treat their stats as more of a guideline than gospel).  

Only two more sleeps until I see Luke. Yay!  I sent him a card to welcome him home (at least until I can give him a proper welcome on Sunday). I hope it got to his house today...

Decluttering, growing, clouds

I went to work today. No, no. You're in the right place. This is Gleeful. Bear with me. My department is moving floors in a few weeks and we need to clear some clutter. There's not enough time to get it done in business hours so some of us went in today to put a dent in it. Working Sundays sucks - especially on beautiful sunny Sundays like today - but it feels good to have nearly finished a job that's needed doing since the start of the year. (Oh, yeah - getting paid time and a half does help make going to the office on Sunday more bearable...)

Work has been a fertile hunting ground for rubber bands - my rubber band ball is growing big.

I walked back into the city (for a gluten-free cupcake) and then home on the south side of the river. The clouds were pretty.

Early, staycation, unfurled, eagle eye

It's Sunday and I've been up since 7.00am! SEVEN! I don't like getting up early, but I do like getting up early. Yeah, you read that right. It's one of those things where I find the practice often more appealing than the theory. There's something a little magical about the start of a new day. I love to see the sunrise and I love that my day will seem much longer and I will get more done. Maybe I wouldn't be so enthusiastic if it were a work day...or IF I DIDN'T HAVE NEXT WEEK OFF! 

Yes, I have a week's leave.  *gleeful jog* ...Oops, I mean *gleeful JIG* I'm not going anywhere; I'm having another home holiday, ostensibly to have a decent rest because I've been feeling rundown and off-colour for months, but I have a growing to-do list already - mostly fun stuff like completing your mix tapes, making a start on a collage of old family photos and visiting my friend's newborn bub Eliza Grace. There's also a bit of decluttering and cleaning which isn't really fun, but will make me feel good when it's done.

I bought some oriental lilies last week and yesterday I noticed one closed bloom was on the brink of unfurling. I was setting it up to take a photo of it...lifted the vase up, arranged a nice background, put the vase back down, picked up my camera, started to line up the flower and IT WAS OPEN!

I got paid earlier than expected this month (the money goes into our accounts the night before pay day and pay day falls on a Monday this month, I worked out). What a pleasant surprise.

Look at this old sign I spotted from my boss's window! He's away and I was in his office to take a personal phone call. I looked out the window and there it was, on the side of the Princess Theatre!

Zoomed in all the way

Wider angle. Can you see the sign?

Luke has introduced me to The Mighty Boosh. It's absurb, but I like it, especially Howard's ernestness and the silly conversations he and Vincent have. It also makes me laugh watching Luke laugh at it.

I'm sitting on the couch listening to music with the sun shining in my window. Aaaah. Life is good.

Home, sweet home

It's great to go away, but it's always wonderful to get home. Hello, Melbourne! Hello, flat! Hello, bed! I missed you. I had a restful time away, but now it's time for the productive bit of my break - I have an extensive list of stuff to do before I go back to work next Monday. I started today by clearing out six bags of clothes and clutter from my bedroom (and disturbing a huntsman spider, which I safely deposited onto the fire escape with the aid of a mop).

I arrived home to find the photos I'd had printed onto canvas had been delivered. Yay!  Believe it or not, these are the only photos of mine that I've ever had printed for display at home. They look great hanging in my lounge room. I feel inspired to get more photos done now, but it's so hard to choose which ones. (Oh, if you're wondering, the photos are close-ups of reflections of the Skywheel on the Yarra River at night). 

I bought some fresh basil today and now my kitchen smells like basil. I just love the aroma and there's no substitute for fresh basil when it comes to taste either. I'm making a pizza - well, I'm topping a pre-prepared gluten-free base with ham, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and pine nuts. I'm currently roasting pumpkin and garlic for the pizza sauce. 

While at the supermarket I was a party to someone else's little moment of glee and it was just about as good as having one of my own. I asked for 250 grams of ham at the deli and when the staffer placed the meat on the scales, it was EXACTLY 250 grams. All right! She was pretty pleased with herself and rightly so.  

Boring but satisfying

The last golden rays of the day outside my window

I've had a quiet, but very productive weekend at home.  I spring cleaned my bedroom and organised my wardrobe, and I've just finished backing up, categorising (and subcategorising!) nearly a year's worth of photos. Whew. It feels good.

Of course I had a to-do list and I've taken pleasure in crossing each task off. I even added one job after I'd done it, just so I could cross it off. Yes, I know.  

So far, I've completed 12 of 20 tasks. I won't get to all of them by the end of today, but I feel pretty satisfied with my efforts.

During my bedroom clean out, I found a lot of old family and personal memorabilia - letters, cards, photos and the like that I haven't looked at in ages. I didn't have time to read them, but I'm looking forward to sitting down one day soon to go through it all.

Domestic goddess is happy

I have had a very domesticated weekend, which is unusual for me. I'm not much for the cleaning and cooking and stuff.  I do what I have to do to avoid living in squalor and starving, but I'm not dedicated to the domestic arts. I am of the opinion that there is almost always a more enjoyable and life-enhancing way to use my spare time.

But you know, I actually feel really pleased with my efforts this weekend. I've grocery shopped, cooked food for my lunches during the week, had a mini-spring clean, ironed clothes that have been sitting in my ironing basket for months, taken up a hem by hand on a new pair of trousers, mended the hems on several other pairs of pants, washed and folded my laundry (including sheets and dooner cover) and made my bed both days.

I actually feel a sense of achievement, which scares me a little bit. How can I be so easily pleased by such mundane things?  Things I don't even like doing? Domestic drudgery, for god's sake! Am I that small minded?

Apparently, yes. It is nice knowing my flat is clean. It is nice knowing I can reach into my wardrobe and find that pink shirt to wear to work next week. It is nice not leaving a new pair of work trousers in the wardrobe for months until I get around to having them taken up. It is nice actually doing the job myself. It is nice knowing that my work trousers are looking a little bit smarter than they have been (even if no one notices). It is nice to have a fresh doona cover on my bed, all my clothes washed and neatly folded and put away ready for the week ahead.  It is nice having something different and tasty to eat which I made myself from scratch (even if it's only because of this allergy elimination diet I'm on which virtually precludes eating anything that isn't homemade).

It probably isn't that small-minded really. It's not just that I enjoy everything looking neat and clean and organised - I actually get a real feeling of being in control when everything in my living space is in order.  An orderly physical environment seems to clear a little psychic clutter as well, and that's always a good thing.

It's also the case that I wrote a to-do list this weekend - as I do nearly every weekend (yes, I know) - and most of the tasks I completed were on that list. If you've been reading this for a while, you will know I love crossing jobs off my to-do list.

And anyway, even if it is small minded to some, I believe it's far easier to be happy when you can derive satisfaction and pleasure from the unremakable events and activities of every day life. Which is the idea that underpins this whole blog!

Getting organised

I spent hours on Sunday afternoon giving myself a repetitive strain injury and a numb bottom while re-organising...actually, make that just plain organising...the thousands of photos stored on my laptop.

Sounds dreary, I know, but anyone who has read previous posts about my love of list writing and decluttering probably won't be surprised to learn that I got a little buzz from going through every folder and transferring the photos to a portable hard drive where I filed them according to subject. I also deleted some boring/blurry ones, so now I can pretend to be a better photographer than I really am.

Not only will it be much easier to find a particular photo in future, but I've freed up a lot of space on my laptop and it's working faster.

Now all I need to do is go through every subject folder and create sub-folders...maybe a bit of cross-referencing....or is that taking things a bit far?

Speaking of list writing, organising my photos is on my List of 101 Things to Do Before I'm 40 and it's been on my weekend to-do list for weeks on end, so I'm glad I finally got a fair whack of it done.

Cool

Aaaaah...After three days of hot and at times windy weather which appeared out of the blue, a cool change has just swept through, bringing a refreshing cool breeze and showers. What a relief!

The temperature dropped more than 10 degrees in a matter of minutes after being in the low 30s all day. It was 28 degrees C (82 F) when I left home this morning!

The smell of hot, wet bitumen is wafting in through my open windows. That, for me, is the essence of summer (although it's not quite summer yet). No sign of the thunderstorms that were forecast, but the night is young.

I can see some pleasing specimens of cumulonimbus out the window too.


The decluttering continues

My decluttering drive continued tonight. The local council is conducting its annual free hard rubbish collection tomorrow, so I've carted a bunch of stuff down three flights of stairs in the heat and dumped it on the nature strip. (The pile includes the hideous vase my ex gave me last Christmas!)

I had more stuff to get rid of than I realised and I'm happy to have cleared some space in my spare room, not least because someone might have to move in there.

The joy of to-do lists...and dinner is arranged

I am enjoying my home holiday so far. There's been sunshine and I have done a few things on my to-do list.

And yes, I actually have a to-do list. I love lists - or more accurately, I love to cross items off my lists. I like the feeling of accomplishment, of overcoming my tendency towards laziness and procrastination.

I don't usually write to-do lists during the week because, being a legal secretary, what I do and when I do it is mostly dictated by others. But I go into every weekend with a to-do list, and I put everything on it, even stuff that I do every single weekend and don't need to remind myself to do, like buying food. All for the buzz of crossing it off!

I know, it's a bit tragic. But! I don't usually allocate times or prioritise anything, so it's not totally anal and lacking spontaneity.

Decluttering pt 2

I have nearly completed the second phase of my big clean out. Last night I went through all my cupboards and ruthlessly culled everything I haven't worn or used in ages and am not likely to. I threw out two bags of rubbish, two bags of cardboard and paper went in the recycling and I have heaps of stuff to go to the op-shop. I just have to get it there now.

(On a side note, while going through my stuff, it occurred to me that one of the downsides of the proliferation of gadgetry these days is that you end up with a corresponding proliferation of assorted cords and adapters and chargers and plugs whose purpose often becomes a mystery...but you don't want to chuck them just in case! I put them all in a box in the bottom draw of my desk.)

The next and final phase of my clean out is to go through years of paperwork which has been shoved in shopping bags because I was too lazy to properly file it.

Dinner up-date

The dinner with the man from my past is on Thursday night. I'm excited but nervous.

Are you a writer of to-do lists (or any other kind of list)?

Gleeful anticipation

I remember when I was a kid saying to my mother that I wish it was my birthday already or Christmas or the school holidays or some event that I was excitedly looking forward to, and she would tell me not to wish my life away.

I've always been quite impatient and found it difficult to happily wait for much-anticipated events. But - somehow, without intending to - I seem to have learned to relish counting down the hours, days and weeks until a Big Day arrives. Maybe it's part of getting older.

I'm so excited about so many things at the moment - small things and big things - that I'm practically bouncing. I feel like a little kid before Christmas.

My favourite show Scrubs returns tonight. Yay! I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it all year and now it's finally here! (It's on now actually, I'm typing during the ads).

I have drinks after work tomorrow night with a group of people I "met" through the Ask Sam dating/relationships blog on The Age newspaper website. Some I have met in the flesh once or twice, some I only know through the information they have divulged online - which is sometimes a lot. There are some amazingly intelligent, wise, funny and quirky people who comment (the blog itself is rarely worth reading) and I'm looking forward to meeting them offline.

Saturday night I am going to see one of my favourite bands, The Grates, perform. I have seen them once before and it was an awesome, high-energy gig so I have high hopes for this show. (Oh, and I'm having a fill of tasty dumplings with a friend in Chinatown beforehand.)

And next week I'm on holidays! Wooooo! I'm not going away. I'm sure people at work think I'm dead boring because I often have "home holidays". I love Melbourne so much that I'm happy having a week off work without leaving town. I have heaps of stuff planned, much of it aimed at catching up and getting on top of things, including having a great big clean out at home. I know, it sounds boring, but I love the catharsis of cleaning out the clutter and having a neat and orderly home. I got rid of a lot of stuff about six months ago but this time I'm going to be even more ruthless. I like the idea of paring things right back to the bare minimum.

I have also been in touch with someone from my past who has suggested we catch up over dinner, and I'm cautiously excited about that. (For anyone who read in my first ever post that I had just emerged from an on-off relationship, it's not that guy!)

And, that's on top of the other things I've written about recently, including going shopping with a cheque from the tax man to buy myself a flash new camera, and having a whole month off over Christmas. I'm also considering rearranging my flight home to visit friends up north for New Year's Eve.

I can't wait...No! I can!

Do you enjoy anticipation? Do you like having home holidays? Are you a hoarder or declutterer?