Baaah Humbug
25/06/2022 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaToday is exactly 6 months since last Christmas (which was also on a Saturday) and exactly 6 months until next Christmas. A bit of a twilight zone.
The 2 days are like from a different planet. Last December Christmas Day in this bit of Oz got to 42 celsius and was the first of a string of 40 plus days. It put an end to what was the mildest start to summer since I came to Oz way back in November 1993.
Today was a crisp and crunchy gorgeous sunny day. It probably never got over 20 degrees.
I felt happy and content and could enjoy my coffee crawl without fear of melting. I had not realized how much a difference it makes to my mood to be able to potter about peeking in peoples' gardens, smelling the roses and snaffling the odd cutting here and there.
Yesterday I filled up a big bag of dark red and brown autumn leaves. They looked like fingers. The tree seeds were like spiky little balls so I am guessing that it was some sort of maple. On Wednesday I got a bag full of gingko biloba leaves from the park near the local library. I am always reminded of Petunia when I go gathering my bags of leaves like some crazy weed lady.
I started on my SSRI happy pills on Friday 1st April which coincided with the change in weather. So I am not sure if it was the cool change and the ability to get out and about again or the pills that have made the biggest difference. I had planned to go off them for a month in the middle of winter to see if it made a difference. But aside from - when you're on a good thing stick to it, the doctor said there is no problem going off them just so long as I do it by taking half a pill for 4 days rather than going cold turkey and then same thing in reverse when going back on. But I find it just so hard to cut the things in half that I have simply not bothered.
I have been picking up Christmas cards and wrapping paper for a pittance over the last few months. Especially from the charity shop. I got a bit distracted last year with the operation and the nuclear attack on the verge last November. I was convinced it was the Grinch but it turned out to be a jerk from the council. So this time I am definitely going to reclaim Christmas and make a schedule so that I hang up decorations, make baubles and the place look as unDursleyish as it is possible to be.
The Financial New Year starts on Friday 1st July. This time I am going to make another attempt at sticking to menu plans and doing a more detailed budget rather than just the current version of getting set amounts deducted automatically for bills and an emergency stash.
Getting that shower last year pretty much raided the nest egg. But I was lucky I got it done last year because now it is so hard to get tradies that people are waiting 6 weeks just to get a quote. The shortages of workers and materials have also drastically increased prices. So I guess I would be now another $2,000 out of pocket if I had waited until now not to mention that it may take a whole year to get the job finished.
I have definitely noticed that scheduling as many things as possible in advance and writing To Do lists for each day definitely makes it a lot less likely for me to get overwhelmed. Making decisions can be so tiring so best to do as many as possible in one go when my batteries are fully charged.
I started reading the first Potter book today. It's hard to believe that it was published exactly 25 years ago tomorrow and it's now 21 years since I first got hooked.
I also found a book of myths and legends by Anne Terry White that I often borrowed from the library when I was a kid. Such a feast of nostalgia. The illustrations are really gorgeous. I cannot believe that this book is more than 50 years old. I also got an study Bible with the NRSV translation which is my favourite. A lot less of the usual "Brotherhood of Man" BS as in most other translations. Especially the King James with all those thees and thous.
I loved spotting all those Greek and Roman legends along with Bible quotes in the Potter books.
Lord Voldemort will provide!
A bit like Animal Farm. You don't need to know about Hitler and Stalin to appreciate the story but it certainly does add to the 'magic' which is not quite the appropriate word to describe such a gloomy doomy depressing book. I am still thinking of the brilliant stage adaptation of Animal Farm that I went to see last October. So good that I went twice.
I am also reading a Daniel Silva thriller which only came out last year. It's strange to find a book with Covid, Novichok and Russian Oligarchs living in London.
In the meantime, I'm waiting for the latest Bill Browder book "Freezing Orders" to cross my path.
As a kid, I loved stories about monsters, witches, vampires and spies. Now my favorite genre is Goblin Porn.
Stories about spooks, scammers, oligarchs, card sharks, whistleblowers, bankers and buckets of money.
The Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, Enron, the GFC. Banks behaving badly. All that sort of thing.
Reading an old fashioned paper book is just so different than reading online.
The 2 days are like from a different planet. Last December Christmas Day in this bit of Oz got to 42 celsius and was the first of a string of 40 plus days. It put an end to what was the mildest start to summer since I came to Oz way back in November 1993.
Today was a crisp and crunchy gorgeous sunny day. It probably never got over 20 degrees.
I felt happy and content and could enjoy my coffee crawl without fear of melting. I had not realized how much a difference it makes to my mood to be able to potter about peeking in peoples' gardens, smelling the roses and snaffling the odd cutting here and there.
Yesterday I filled up a big bag of dark red and brown autumn leaves. They looked like fingers. The tree seeds were like spiky little balls so I am guessing that it was some sort of maple. On Wednesday I got a bag full of gingko biloba leaves from the park near the local library. I am always reminded of Petunia when I go gathering my bags of leaves like some crazy weed lady.
I started on my SSRI happy pills on Friday 1st April which coincided with the change in weather. So I am not sure if it was the cool change and the ability to get out and about again or the pills that have made the biggest difference. I had planned to go off them for a month in the middle of winter to see if it made a difference. But aside from - when you're on a good thing stick to it, the doctor said there is no problem going off them just so long as I do it by taking half a pill for 4 days rather than going cold turkey and then same thing in reverse when going back on. But I find it just so hard to cut the things in half that I have simply not bothered.
I have been picking up Christmas cards and wrapping paper for a pittance over the last few months. Especially from the charity shop. I got a bit distracted last year with the operation and the nuclear attack on the verge last November. I was convinced it was the Grinch but it turned out to be a jerk from the council. So this time I am definitely going to reclaim Christmas and make a schedule so that I hang up decorations, make baubles and the place look as unDursleyish as it is possible to be.
The Financial New Year starts on Friday 1st July. This time I am going to make another attempt at sticking to menu plans and doing a more detailed budget rather than just the current version of getting set amounts deducted automatically for bills and an emergency stash.
Getting that shower last year pretty much raided the nest egg. But I was lucky I got it done last year because now it is so hard to get tradies that people are waiting 6 weeks just to get a quote. The shortages of workers and materials have also drastically increased prices. So I guess I would be now another $2,000 out of pocket if I had waited until now not to mention that it may take a whole year to get the job finished.
I have definitely noticed that scheduling as many things as possible in advance and writing To Do lists for each day definitely makes it a lot less likely for me to get overwhelmed. Making decisions can be so tiring so best to do as many as possible in one go when my batteries are fully charged.
I started reading the first Potter book today. It's hard to believe that it was published exactly 25 years ago tomorrow and it's now 21 years since I first got hooked.
I also found a book of myths and legends by Anne Terry White that I often borrowed from the library when I was a kid. Such a feast of nostalgia. The illustrations are really gorgeous. I cannot believe that this book is more than 50 years old. I also got an study Bible with the NRSV translation which is my favourite. A lot less of the usual "Brotherhood of Man" BS as in most other translations. Especially the King James with all those thees and thous.
I loved spotting all those Greek and Roman legends along with Bible quotes in the Potter books.
Lord Voldemort will provide!
A bit like Animal Farm. You don't need to know about Hitler and Stalin to appreciate the story but it certainly does add to the 'magic' which is not quite the appropriate word to describe such a gloomy doomy depressing book. I am still thinking of the brilliant stage adaptation of Animal Farm that I went to see last October. So good that I went twice.
I am also reading a Daniel Silva thriller which only came out last year. It's strange to find a book with Covid, Novichok and Russian Oligarchs living in London.
In the meantime, I'm waiting for the latest Bill Browder book "Freezing Orders" to cross my path.
As a kid, I loved stories about monsters, witches, vampires and spies. Now my favorite genre is Goblin Porn.
Stories about spooks, scammers, oligarchs, card sharks, whistleblowers, bankers and buckets of money.
The Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, Enron, the GFC. Banks behaving badly. All that sort of thing.
Reading an old fashioned paper book is just so different than reading online.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-26 05:43 am (UTC)When Boomers Go Bad
Date: 2022-06-28 01:25 pm (UTC)Unlike Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris got outed while he is still alive. I think he is currently in jail.
His nickname used to be The Octopus.
I am still amused that those 6 white boomers made it all the way over to Canada.