A Misery Magnet

Must be some sneaky inner bitch who hates for a serpent to have fun but every time Izzie goes on holidays she gets some nasty stinking bug that makes life a misery and this time is no exception

Had it all planned. Wednesday after work would be the big day for gardening and decluttering and all sorts of odds and ends. Thursday was the big love fest at the Garden Expo where most of the day would be spent drooling over the gorgeousness of the Garden God - Peter Cundall followed by Friday in Subiaco - a gorgeous inner city suburb. Needed to go there to return some library books
Saturday would be City Farm, a slink around Swan Valley before returning to the city for the Mardi Gras
Well. That was the plan but since when did the map ever have anything to do with the territory?

So Monday, not only does it turn out to be an icky sticky day but the Izzie has got the makings of a cold. By Tuesday it's annoying enough with headaches and croaking instead of hissing so that the Izzie says at work that she'd be taking the next day off sick
Feeling all doozy and hot and bothered is not quite conducive to get much done but still managed to toss up a barrow full of sludge for the weeds and do a bit of tidying around the house
The next nasty sign was the computer being all slow and cranky.
Wednesday was more evil hot humid stickiness. Stayed at the Lair all day and only left to get some silver sickles from the hole in the wall at the shops. Also got nibblies for the picnic with the ma
Thursday was just as disgusting and icky sticky. The Garden God was as gorgeous as ever but a bit hard to appreciate when outside in the vegie patch was all hot and horrid and inside in the pavillions was all loud and echoing so it was a real effort trying to concentrate.
The weather was so vile that Izzie could well visualise becoming one of those mean bastards with guard dogs and machine guns guarding their vegie patch from the marauding starving neighbours

Was so so upset that it all turned out to be such a disappointment. Was seriously considering going back on today for another fix since the weather forecast was infinitely more civilized and the Izzie wanted only the bestest of memories of Pete and his Pumpkin Patch
If the Izzie had woken up all chirpy and cheery and full of beans this morning, would most definitely have gone again. But no - it was more gloom and doom neurotic craziness

Friday was not horrid and humid. It rained all day instead. At least it cleared up the air. But Izzie's joy was short lived. Had to get the train ticket for next Friday's grand adventure. Meant to get it on Monday but the misery got in the way. Well - just so happens that the train tracks are being fixed for the rest of the year so no morning trains. Got to go on the stupid coach instead. That's bad enough since that's a big chance of enchantment gone - trains are so magical and hypnotic. But the stupid coach is leaving not at the train time of 9.30 but the ungodly hour of 8.30 at the miserable dementor infested 1950s brutalist architectural relic on the Midland line. So that means no 7am Halloween party at the public speaking group. Especially annoying since it was Izzie's idea in the first place - got all the creepy bits and pieces already and now turns out we cannot go
Damned - how many more things that the Izzie was all excited about are turning into nonevents?
Didn't have long to wait. Went for some cheer up munchies at Analakshmi. Been at this place tons of times - seriously tasty real vegie munchies. But this was the one single solitary time that there was not a drop of dahl. Pumpkin curry and potato curry and spiced cabbage plus two varieties of rice as well as some cucumber and carrot stew thing but no dahl.

Did not go to the library that day as had ended up staying over the ma's place after the garden show and did not bring the books. So saved it for Saturday. Didn't matter because the bus schedule for Saturdays is so limited that any trips to the Swan Valley would have gotten the Izzie stranded
So went to the library and returned the books only to discover that they'd sent us an email but because they'd spelled one letter wrong it bounced. So the book Izzie ordered two months ago which they got from another library - they were sending the email to say it had arrived - they cancelled it and sent it back.
Did get the email address corrected but now got to go through the whole silly procedure of ordering again. Such a bummer. Is there no end to the misery?
Well, there was always the markets and the memory of our last time there on a Saturday back in May (when also right in the middle of one of these gloom and doom spells) where the bakery had a happy hour with all their bread half price. And this ain't any old bakery but a producer of decent stuff like walnut, fig and fennel sourdough, pagnotta and all sorts of European style rye breads.
And yesss. Surprise surprise. Was there from 3pm to closing time but happy hour just never happened. Did get some crunchy ciabatta rolls but no big bag of beautiful bread. The Inner Vulture was most peeved indeed.
But it was interesting looking at the other stalls - aside from the odd paranoid panic attack caused by trying to avoid bumping into all those hordes of horrid humans. Izzie was feeling seriously neurotic and hypervigilant.
Got a big stash of basil and some parsnips for the ma which were half the price you'd pay in the shops. Avocados were also very cheap - even the rather rare evil green Fuerte. Got a big fat one for 80 cents. Could have had 3 for two silver sickles but too familiar with the scenario of not eating them quickly enough and them going all rotten. Happened last week with two avocadoes and some spinach. They were not a total loss as they ended up on the compost heap but it still was a shameful waste.

Not sure how much of the Izzie ditziness of the last few days was a combination of the horrid humid weather and having a head cold - maybe you get hallucinations and all that or how much was a random attack by Dementors. But figured that it would be pointless pottering about on Sunday in that state and would be better off lurking in the Lair snoozing or lurking in the vegie patch
So made the decision - would not set the alarm clock or anything - with or without stupid daylight saving. If we wakes up bright and early and all glad to be alive, will be decadent and go once again to the ABC garden expo to drool at Peter Cundall all day long. If we got there extra early - could also see Peter Coppin who is not at all cute and cuddly but more like the Severus Snape of the plant world. But he knows his potions so he's got the right to be an arrogant sarcastic snark.

As it turns out, this introverted serpent must have been seriously burned out. Did not wake up until 10am old time or get up until 11am old time.
So pottered a bit online and did some long overdue backups before going outside for a snooze and
a bit of slinking in the straw
It was a glorious crisp and crunchy day so unlike the rest of this week. Got lots done and maybe scared the dementors away but will not know until tomorrow when sticking the little serpent tongue outside and seeing if we get the heebie jeebies when meeting humans
There's a floating bookstore docked in Fremantle -the MV Doulos - just two years younger than the Titanic and on its last world trip before final retirement

Here's hoping that Izzie won't sink the ship or anything. Seems to be a bit of a misery magnet for the last week or so.