The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

For the first time in four years, the serpent is squiggling at a spotless desk. Out with the piles of accumulated junk, the paper jungle, piles of books and tarot decks and a mish mash of unsorted CDs. Even the ink pots and pretty pens had to go and the zombie guardian of the Big Mac has been given a few days off duty.

It started ever so innocently with the resurrection of a strange item snaffled at a charity shop. It folds up like a concertina and is designed to hang from a wardrobe rail. While being the perfect shape and size for books, their weight would result in a serious wardrobe malfunction. But there was no reason the 8 compartments could not be used to store an assortment of quirky hats. Much neater and more accessible than their usual lurking ground on the top shelf of the same wardrobe. Next move in this game of musical objects was to use the new space for disks, DVDs and other digital gadgets.

This was the perfect opportunity to start again from scratch. Simply get everything off the desk and give the old Mac a bit of a dust and wipe and worry about the sorting later. That was the map. But once started and getting into the swing of things, it was time to make the most of this unusual mood.

The Izzie sister will be visiting in July so it’s finally time to make some sort of effort. After all the usual CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) is a piss poor excuse to keep some one away who has travelled half way around the planet to get to the Lair. Privet Drive is the main attraction but the Lair will also be on the visiting list.
It’s funny how reading “The Ring” that Japanese story about a definitely dodgy video tape has also added an extra incentive. The Japanese are famous for living in shoe boxes so small that they hire suitcases to go on holidays because there is no space in their flats to store such indulgent luxuries.
And there’s Izzie with all that space and simply wasting it with chaos and clutter.

So now a bunch of CDs and a couple dozen DVDs are sitting on the bed waiting to be sorted. Most of the tarot decks have been assigned to the upstairs linen closet where they now lurk with lots of books.
The real trick will be resisting the siren call of all that stuff as it attempts to sneak back to fill up all that bright shiny clean desk real estate.

Once again it is an external deadline that proves to be the most potent source of serpent motivation. Must make the most of the moment before the usual inertia returns with a vengeance.

While having long ago given up on the ever some ambitious “100 things in 1,000” days ‘to do’ list, still decided that the idea in itself is worth keeping but in some more useful and productive form. The aim would be more on a few big projects all linked to each other rather than a list that is so long that you end up making up stupid stuff just to reach the magical 100 things.
But regardless of form, certain items kept getting moved from one list to the next and on again and never quite managed to get themselves crossed off as finished.
Organizing the Lair with a place for everything and everything in its place is the biggest offender on this front. The best books on decluttering and sorting stuff all say that unless you concentrate on moving towards what you do want rather than obsessing about all the stuff that is wrong then you will never make any real progress.

( All sorts of stuff )

Less than 12 hours left of this year in Izzieland. It's still a pickly 40 celsius outside which is most annoying. Only good thing that it is a dry sizzling sort of heat rather than the disgusting steamy sultry humidity of recent days.

Been taking advantage of the particular energy of this time of year to do some ritual decluttering. Tossed ten things about ten times. A very simple but effective trick as it sneaks around the sabotage of the inner beasts bent in keeping things stuck in a rut and miserable and can be done even when the mercury is on the north side of 40
The funniest of all was the recent letter from a friend with a wonderful visual image for dealing with the toad dramas (This letter did not get tossed but added to the stash of treasures)

( Toad Turds and other tasteless tales )

So now it's time to scrub the scales again, slink off into the sunset and toast to the end of 2012 and the beginning of a bright shiny new year full of potential

Here's wishing a wonderful new year to everyone out there.

PS Here's hoping this entry will be the last one for a long time with that box ticking b@#$ as an icon

Izzie is beginning to suspect one of the real reasons for her incurable addiction to books. As well as being paper teddy bears or Portkeys to magical and mysterious worlds, they serve as a source for all sorts of inspiring or useful stuff. After all life is too short to reinvent the wheel.

( Lists and little black books )

Izzie had been plodding along slowly and steadily and gradually imposing the itsiest bitsiest bit of order on the chaos that is the Lair. First port of call was the witch’s kitchen. Some serious tossing and sorting got done and before long there were only three out of the eleven sections were left. But they were the worst of the three full of cobwebs, spiders and assorted bags of legumes, rice and other nibblies. Plastic bags are not quite as indestructible as we have been led to believe and all sorts of creatures have made their niche in this little nook that has not been touched since the froggie tenants came and went.

Then the same thing happened as before - a sudden serpent crash. Loss of interest, fits of tiredness and all sorts of subconscious attempts at sabotage.

Let the inner chaos monster run loose for a while but finally figured it was time to put it back on a leash. But would have to be ever so slow and sneaky about it. Just the thought of attempting anything significant was sufficient to induce the snoozes or a sudden desire to watch the grass growing. But there’s a three year plan to be kept since the end of May. Every week day has to be devoted to either sorting and tossing stuff, squiggling or gardening. Due to the storms yesterday gardening and slinking online were going to be rather limited so that left one option.

Just two shelves of one cupboard was on the agenda last night. A fruitless search for a certain deck of vampire tarot cards missing in action since Halloween 2010 led the Izzie to sorting out the official location of the rest of the stash. Most of the cards were keeping company with a handful of books. These included tarot related stuff as it seemed the logical place to put them and a stack of Graeme Base picture books that really should be in the Big Bad Gift Box as they make the most gorgeous Christmas and birthday presents. Now if only Izzie could remember who she had already given some to. There was a collection of supernatural spooky stories, some Stephen King novels, Michael Leunig cartoon collections, Lord of the Rings things and a very grand and elaborate copy of the Koran got as a freebie at the local university. It’s not just the Christians who proselytize.

There was also one very precious tome in there all wrapped up in paper - a first edition and the only book Izzie ever bought from a proper antiquarian book shop (and also the very first thing the serpent bought online way back in 2006)

Most of the gorgeous Baba decks were there including the Fairytale, Fantastic Menagerie and two version of the Bohemian Gothic along with Deviant Moon, Necronomicon, Dark Angels and other assorted Gothic delights. Turned out that these did include the Ian Daniels Vampyre deck. It had fallen down behind the rest of them. So often the Izzie has put things exactly where they are supposed to be but being as blind as a bat simply cannot see them.

Took all the books out except the Koran. It gets the job as a probably pissed off security guard minding this den of iniquity. Tidied up all the decks and attempted to put them in some sort of logical order which in the end meant the box sets at one end and the packets at the other with their tops facing outwards so that it is possible to see their names at a glance. Counted a total of 36 decks in all but there are another few lurking around the Big Mac computer and the all time favourite in the green every day back pack. With another two presently conscripted on Camp Nano brainstorming duties, that most likely gives a total of 50 something. Really must gather them all together and do a proper head count. Peeking through this old but new again gothic deck was almost like seeing it for the first time. No need to get any more when the fix for novelty can be satiated by randomly choosing one and playing with it all over again.

Until the brilliant folks from Baba come up with their Alice in Wonderland deck, the Izzie is quite content in thinking that she has conquered her tarot acquisition addiction. Now if only the same could be said about that other vice concerning stationery, books and pretty paper of all kinds.

It took around 30 minutes to dust and sort this lot but now there is yet another stack of books sitting in the corner looking for a nonexistent shelf to lurk on.
Also went on a bit of a blitz this evening in the loo, the stove top and the kitchen table. Even bought two expanding folders. One is for miscellaneous articles and clippings and the other for packets of seeds and gardening information. The spell has been broken and the serpent is getting back into the spirit of sorting.

Tomorrow will include a visit to the cute little cafe in the bookstore visited last week. Must bring along a third box of muses and see what inspirational ingredients they have to add to the soon to be brewed cauldron of alphabet soup

There's magical numbers about today but the serpent's green cells see very few ones but lots of zeros today
But kept plodding anyway

Been a baby steps year so far. Not just on the decluttering and gardening front but also in nano land

Slowly catching up on all those Wriye Big Yellow Board word building exercises

Two reasons - to get into the habit of sticking to a schedule as outlined in recent assignments and because it is too hot to do anything else the last few weeks or so

Sometimes keeping going when nothing is happening is the secret to lighting the spark plugs

Will not be unleashing the big bad decks until February for which there are many ritualistic reasons
In the meanwhile, been thinking that it might be interesting to associate a certain deck with each of the main characters and give a quick shuffle and stir to see what happens to them next

The main thing is to stick to the 200-500 words per weekday plotting, planning and outlining routine and gradually ramp it up as November gets ever closer

Using a similar baby steps trick on the decluttering front. Instead of the usual fasting followed by a rare feast indeed, decided it is best to stick to a simple rule of tossing out ten things a day - be that old grocery store receipts, bank ATM slips or out of date bus time tables
No rule that says we cannot do more but it is the routine that is the main thing. Some days even managed to binge and fill a few empty Amazon boxes with assorted junk

But the number one rule now is to not accumulate any new useless stuff. No more six month old Woolworths Spring Recipes magazines or brochures from last year's Arts festival gathering dust under the bed. Time to let go of the past to make more room for the present

Had intended this interesting date to be the occasion for a visit to the Secret Garden cafe after work to do a newly invented "Wheel of the Year' tarot spread to find ideas about what projects to give extra attention for each month
But it was a seriously shit day at work and missed the bus back to the Lair so decided to just do the return bus ticket thing to another cafe for mundane stuff like reading today's paper

While we are all melted over here and there's bushfires raging down south which is usual for this time of year, up north in Carnarvon and over in Queensland, they are literally swimming. It's a veritable deluge of rain of plague proportions
Particularly strange and spooky when a town on the top of a medium sized mountain range gets flooded. It must have a strange geography indeed but Toowoomba is indeed drenched by torrential rains. This was the town some several years ago where the mayor tried to bring in recycled water due to the dangerously low levels of water in the damns. Now they are overflowing

Praying for rain is not a good idea these days in Oz. Be careful what you ask for and all that.

The more local and parochial story which becomes more like a soap opera with each passing day is the Taj Mahal on the Swan. The owners have apparently filed for bankruptcy because the shit has literally hit the fan (they own fertilizer factories) and the builders have packed up their bags leaving the place half completed
There's been some seriously amusing suggestions concerning the possible uses of this Peppermint Grove Palace.