Call myself a frugal gardener, yet I bought apples a week ago to make rhubarb and apple, but I still haven’t walked out to the back yard to cut the rhubarb.
That’s it! As soon as I press ‘publish’ on this post, I’m going out there to get this job done.
Where I’ve been:Mum and Dad’s place.
Yesterday I drove down to Mum and Dad’s to take Dad to his surgeon’s rooms for an appointment after his hip replacement 2 weeks ago. After that, I went to Aldi to do their shopping.
It’s strange to think that if I hadn’t have made the geoarbitrage move down here in 2015, I would have been in a classroom and he would’ve had to have taken a taxi there. Mum gets dizzy spells so doesn’t drive anymore, so until Dad’s hip heals, they’re essentially stuck at home.
It’s a strange thing to see your parents with their wings clipped.
Where I’m going:Apparently, to the back yard.
See above.
What I’m watching:The wind in the trees.
It’s a sparkling day today and there’s a beautiful breeze. I love how this house catches the wind – just open the front and back doors and the breeze flows right through. Luxury!
What I’m reading:Same as last week.
Yes – very unusually for me, I’m taking more than a week to read a book! I’m still on Cloud Cuckoo Land and I only have 20 pages to go. I’m loving how all of the different times are entwining together.
What I’m listening to:Mum’s Boppin’ Bangers.
I’ve started cutting up the fabric for the quilt with over 5,000 squares. I whinged about the cost of the specialised ruler I bought to help me with this, but now I’m absolutely LOVING it. $100 well spent! It’s allowing me to fly through this stage, because I can cut 3 layers of fabric with absolute accuracy at a time. That’s 163 squares at a time. Today I just have the ‘lights’ to cut up, and then I’ll be done.
I’m so appreciative that Ryan27 shared a Spotify account with me. Cutting squares can be tedious but being able to belt out a song as I work really helps. Every now and then on ‘Mum’s Boppin’ Bangers’ a song will come on that I swear I haven’t heard for decades, yet I still know all the words. Loving it.
What I’m eating: A homemade bread roll.
For breakfast, with butter and peanut butter. Yum.
Who needs a good slap:Me, for eating that breakfast.
What I’m planning:A road trip.
May as well.
What has made me smile:The homemade bread roll with butter and peanut butter.
Last week my sister Kate rang and asked if she could spend the morning with me, as her car was being serviced and she couldn’t get a ‘loaner’ car. Of course, I made room in my hectic schedule (heh heh).
“We could go and grab a coffee and maybe take a walk around K-Mart,” she said.
Dear God in heaven. Does she not know me at all?!?
I decided to whisk her away to grab a coffee in a place that was far more interesting than sitting in a mall or on a city street. I hardly ever buy coffee when I’m out, but for her, it’s one of life’s pleasures. So we drove to Dromana, to the gardens of Heronswood.
Heronswood is one of the gardens that Diggers operates. It’s perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, with both ornamental and working vegetable gardens and orchards. They specialise in heirloom plants, which means that you can save the seeds from plants you grow and then use the seeds next year.
I’ve been a member for a while now. I don’t mind supporting them because I think they do really important work. Seeds should be able to be saved.
Lots of different sunflowers were planted around one of the veggie patches. Look at the bees in the middle of this one!
Along with the huge gardens, there were also little ideas like this planted around. I still think most succulents are ugly, but over time I’m warming to some. I thought these ones looked nice.
As we wandered around we came across this citrus orchard. The huge terracotta pots have rosemary planted all around them.
Here’s a close-up. I like the way the pots are positioned not in straight lines, but so they look appealing from the steps above.
We liked this espalier – it’s so well-established that the support wires have been taken off and the branches stand outstretched on their own.
The gardens are full of little outdoor ‘rooms’ like this.
Here’s Kate heading to the café for that much-anticipated coffee.
We stopped at the nursery on the way out and I bought some Evening Primrose plants for my hanging baskets. According to the gardeners, this plant is “as tough as nails” so let’s hope they’re correct. Four of the hanging baskets are in full sun all day and the petunias all curled up and died.
I was happy with this Little Adventure. It was only a short one, but it was by far more memorable than a gallop around K-Mart!
Tom30 works from home 2 days a week. Now he’s here in the mornings he uses the time he’d normally be commuting, to walk on the Backyard Beach. This morning he posted a pic on FB and it looked so good, I decided to switch it up a little and take the little woofs to the beach before breakfast instead of doing yoga.
Safe to say that they approved!
It was beautiful there – bright and sparkly without being too hot. It was so nice that I actually went paddling *gasp*! Normally I’m happy to stay on the sand. The Cavaliers shrugged their shoulders and went, “Ok, if we must,” and followed me in.
Scout, on the other hand, was delighted. “Mum! You’re joining me! Yay!”
We were only there for around 20 minutes and on the way home we bumped into the young Mum of the baby I mentioned yesterday. She was walking with her friend who also has a new baby. We had a nice little chat and then went on our ways.
This happened during what would be period 1 at work. (I may have sent the top photo to some friends at work who are planning to retire next year. )
To anyone who’s a little nervous about “what will I do all day if I retire”… it’s truly amazing how so many little things pop up to do during the days that you never think of when you’re stuck at work.
Well, the situation in Ukraine is too, but I have nothing to say about Putin etc that will make the least bit of difference, so let’s go with the yoga.
I did 40+ days in a row of the ‘Yoga With Adrienne’ online classes but then I hurt my left wrist. I took 5 days off, then did a class and felt ok, but in the middle of the night I woke with a slight pain in that wrist again. I gave it another day off, then this morning I did another class.
It’s funny. I thought that with such a long time off I’d never go back, but I’ve found that I quite like the morning rhythm of sneaking in a yoga class before breakfast. Poppy and Scout now lie on the floor watching me. They know not to come over until I tell them that they’re Very Good Girls. Seems a shame to forego the yoga when they’ve just learned to do this, doesn’t it?
So I might as well keep on the path to becoming more bendy.
Where I’ve been: Linacre Hospital.
Yesterday, at 11AM, when I would have been in a classroom in my previous life, I was able to quietly drive to Linacre Hospital in Hampton to pick up Dad. He’s just had a replacement hip put in. I felt really pleased that I was in a position to help him.
Then, I went and did a bit of grocery shopping for them and did my own at the same time. When I was at home unpacking, I saw a litre of lactose-free milk among my groceries.
Oops.
Luckily, my sister Kate is seeing them today so she said she’ll buy some on the way through, so Mum won’t have to go without.
Where I’m going:Evan25 and Jenna’s new place.
A little while ago Evan25 and his girlfriend Jenna moved into a flat over a pizza shop in a suburb in the west. Due to conflicting schedules, it’s been hard to arrange a time to see the place, so Jenna invited the whole family over for dinner on Sunday night.
David28 and Izzy are looking to move out on their own soon, so I’m sure they’ll be taking it all in. 🙂
What I’m watching:My solar torch shining.
A while ago I was reading a blog where the author was talking about preparedness. I was already doing a lot of the things she was talking about, but one idea that I liked was to buy a solar torch and just leave it sitting on a sunny window ledge. If ever the power went out, there’s always a light for you to scurry around with and find where you put away the candles and matches.
“But we have our mobiles,” Ryan27 said.
“Yeah, but what if the batteries are getting flat?” I retorted. Plus, unlike the phone batteries, the next day the torch will simply recharge itself by the sunlight on the window ledge. It also comes with a crank to manually recharge it should the battery run low before daylight.
They say once a month to switch the torch on and leave it running to empty the battery, then let it fill itself up again. I do this at the beginning of each month. I forgot yesterday, so today’s the day for March. 🙂
For twenty bucks, I think it’s a good buy. It’s one of those things, like insurance, that you hope you never have to use but it’s damned good to have when you need it. THIS IS WHERE I BOUGHT MINE.
What I’m reading:Cloud Cuckoo Land.
‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ by Anthony Doerr is the latest from the author of ‘All The Light We Cannot See’, which I think everyone in the world must’ve read. Apparently, it’s been 7 years since the last one – lucky it was such a huge hit, hey? Otherwise it would’ve been hard to pay the bills!
I’m only 50 pages in, but I’m enjoying it. It has characters ranging from far into the future to way back in the past, with the theme of the importance of stories seeming to tie them all together.
What I’m listening to:Casefile – the Zodiac killer.
I’ve been listening to the podcast ‘Casefile’ for years now. Currently, the Anonymous Narrator is onto episode 4 of the Zodiac Killer. OMG – what a terrible person. He just killed people at random… and lots of them. His victims were absolutely in the wrong places at the wrong times.
What I’m eating:Pancakes.
When the lockdowns started, we began a Sunday morning tradition of having pancakes for breakfast. This morning I remembered that there was some leftover batter in the fridge. I thought it’d be a bit past it, but by some miracle it was fine. So pancakes in the middle of the week it was!
Waste not; want not.
Who needs a good slap:David28 parking in a Clearway.
Sometimes people have to learn the hard way. He visited a music shop in Brunswick st and came out to find that his car ad been towed.
Only cost him around $400 to get his car back and I’m pretty sure he’ll get a $180 parking fine as well.
What I’m planning:My day.
Hmmm. What to do? I have a quilt to finish, some hanging baskets to plant, some dogs to wash and (maybe) a nap to have after lunch.
Might get in some reading, too, before I decide what we’re going to have for dinner.
OH! The freedom!
What has made me smile:Hearing the baby next door.
I have young families on both sides of me. One has 4 kids and the parents have a slightly more ‘relaxed’ attitude to parenting than I did. Hence there are a lot of tantrums and getting to school late, etc.
The other side has a young girl and they’ve just brought home a new baby in the last few weeks. As I’m typing by the open window, I can hear the baby cooing at her Mum on their verandah. Now, I’m not nearly ready to be a grandmother – I’m far too youthful and dewy for that! – but it’s lovely to hear, nonetheless.
Dad joke of the day:
I posted this to my FB page but it didn’t get the recognition it deserved…
It’s funny how my perception of worthwhile purchases has changed since I reached financial independence, (FI). The latest thing I’ve bought – the pizza oven – is a perfect example of this.
I’ve always made pizzas for my family. Firstly, I married an Italian, so I learned to make pizza, pasta and lasagne very quickly after I moved in. I was brought up in a Skip family in the 60’s and 70’s, and Mum’s repertoire was pretty much meat and 3 veg with tinned fruit for dessert. The Italian cuisine was definitely a step up!
Then, after the divorce, when the boys and I were living off the Sole Parent’s pension of around 18K per year and, (for the first few years when I wasn’t teaching), $20/month child support, pizza, pasta, pancakes and mince were my best friends. You can feed an army with those items and, with 4 boys, I practically was.
Back then, the only pizza ovens that were around were in pizza shops. But if domestic pizza ovens were a thing in the 1990’s/2000’s, there would have been NO WAY I would’ve even considered buying one.
So what if the taste of pizza made in a proper pizza oven was superior? I was baking perfectly adequate pizzas in my regular oven, thank you very much.
So it only takes a minute to cook a pizza, as opposed to around 12 – 15 minutes in a regular oven? That sounds good, but really… it’s dinner time. We’re already in the kitchen where we need to be – a few minutes saved isn’t that big a deal.
And of course – the clincher:
They cost HOW MUCH??? Are you KIDDING me? Who in their right mind would pay hundreds of dollars to make a pizza taste better and save a few minutes? Not this little black duck! I have far better things to do with my money.
And Past Frogdancer would have been correct. She DID have better things to do with her money, such as pay off the house, send the boys through school, buy braces and glasses for whoever needed them etc etc. I called myself a ‘little black duck’ a few sentences back and that’s a pretty apt description for how life was back then. My little webbed feet were paddling furiously under the surface to make sure that the boys and I stayed afloat.
But now that I’ve reached FI?
It seems that the rules have changed a bit.
The second pizza. We need to practice launching them into the oven a little more!
When I first saw that Thermomix was selling pizza ovens, the first thing I thought of was how fantastic entertaining would be with one of these working with me. I realised this was something that could definitely make a positive difference in my life. Safe to say, I was interested in finding out more.
But hey, let’s not get crazy here! The next thing I did was check out the price. I haven’t changed that much! There’s no point fantasising about owning something if it’s impossible to pay for.
Fortunately, the price was reasonable.
It’s interesting though. Unlike buying a thermomix, I won’t be using this pizza oven nearly as much. There’ll be weeks that go by when it won’t be touched. Granted, it’s not as pricey as a thermomix, but even so. The cost per use won’t be nearly as good.
But for the first time, that wasn’t the important part. The major tipping point for me was the thought of seeing my boys, my wider family and my friends gathering together and having fun, enjoying good food – because who doesn’t like pizza? – and it being something that everyone could look forward to doing.
In other words, the emotional draw of this product trumped (ugh – hate that word… I wonder why) the financial considerations.
This is the side of practising delayed gratification that we don’t often hear of. Everyone talks about front-loading the sacrifices to get to a point where you can loosen the reins and start indulging yourself. Not many people talk about what it’s like once they reach the point of being able to relax and reap the rewards earned by being disciplined with expenditure for so long.
Well, I’m at that point. I don’t want to run crazy, buying every shiny new bauble in sight, but it’s nice to have other things be the deciding consideration, rather than simply “How much does it cost?”
The decades of frugal living have left their mark, but in ways that I really like. I live a life filled with simple pleasures that don’t cost a lot, if anything. I love to go travelling – fingers crossed Antarctica can still go ahead this year – but I’m also extremely happy puddling around at home.
I spent years and years living on the knife’s edge of poverty when the boys were small, determined not to fall off. My theme song was Bon Jovi’s “We’re Halfway There”, except I changed the line to “It DOES make a difference if we make it or not.” I went without many things and made probably thousands of little sacrifices that, while I obviously noticed them at the time, have mostly faded into obscurity over the years.
All of those little daily frugal habits have brought me here. I hope that there’s someone reading this… maybe someone who feels like they’re stuck in the boring middle ground of FI when it seems like you’ve optimised every expense and now you’re just plodding through… someone who can catch a glimpse that it’ll all be worth it.
After all, the time will pass, regardless of whether you’re using the tool of delayed gratification or not. But it can make a huge difference as to where you’ll be when you’re older.
It’s 11:34 AM on a Tuesday. I’m about to get up and plant some new flowers into some hanging baskets, before making some bread rolls for lunches and then finishing off a quilt for my cousin. Tom30 is working from home and I can hear him singing in his room. Luckily, he has a beautiful voice! As I’m typing this I’m throwing a ball for Polly and Sout to chase, while Jeffrey is snoring beside me.
In an alternate universe, 11:34 AM on a weekday would mean that I’d be either in a classroom teaching 28 kids, or at my desk in the staffroom marking papers or preparing lessons. Not a bad life, granted, but I know which one I’m very happy to be living!
(In the comments last week, Maureen asked me for a review of the Ovana. Here’s the link, in case she missed it.)
What’s top of my mind:Finishing a quilt so I can start cutting out squares for another one.
I’m making a quilt for my cousin and it’s very time-consuming. I’ve been chipping away at it over the last couple of months, but then I saw a pattern and a ‘Quilt Along’ for the quilt pictured above. I saw the quilt in real life when I went on my Little Adventure back in June last year.
It’s made from 1.5″ squares and there are over 5,000 of them in the quilt. As Kellie says, “This quilt is easy to put together but it takes stamina to finish!”
I ordered a ruler that is hellishly expensive but will shave hours off the cutting time. I know I’ll be using it for years to come, so it’s not an expense – it’s an investment, right?!? It arrived today, so I’m planning to get Robyn’s quilt finished by the end of the weekend, so I can dive in and start getting organised. The quilt-a-long starts in the middle of March! There’ll be a lot of cutting of fabric between now and then. 🙂
Where I’ve been:on a Little Adventure.
With my sister. Stay tuned…
Where I’m going:Into my sewing room.
See above.
What I’m watching:Killing Eve.
I’ve been meaning to watch this show for a couple of years now and when I saw it was on Stan I was on board. I’m really enjoying it. There are 3 seasons so far (I think) so I have many nights of viewing pleasure ahead of me.
What I’m reading:NOTHING.
Yes, really unusual for me to not have at least one book on the go. I finished book #19 for this year and I have a couple of holds waiting for me at the library, so I might go and pick them up today.
What I’m listening to:The dishwasher running.
See below.
What I’m eating: PIZZA from my new pizza oven!!
Tonight is the night that Ryan27 and I fire up our new pizza oven and see how it performs. I bought this one along with all the extras. I bought a gas bottle, my sister Kate and Ryan27 put it all together, the pizza dough is proving on the bench and we’ve given the oven its first warm-up.
Tonight’s dinner is going to be EPIC!
Who needs a good slap:Putin.
What a wanker.
What I’m planning:to get my dining room table back.
Tom30 has moved back in, but he has SO MUCH STUFF. I said that every single piece of kitchen equipment he owns has to be put through the dishwasher before we pack it away.
There have been many dishwasher loads-worth of stuff and all of it is now piled high on my table. It’s doing my head in. I can’t wait until he has the weekend free to pack it all away.
What has made me smile: Tom30 trying to get Scout to drop the ball.
What’s top of my mind: Congratulating myself for my forethought.
A big part of being attracted to the Financial Independence/Retire Early idea is that we are all people who are actively using forethought. We can see that although we may like what we’re doing for a living now; we may not want to be still doing it a few decades later.
Part of the reason why I bought The Best House in Melbourne was the overall design. One of the neighbours told me that a daughter and her Dad built it. It’s perfectly designed for adults to share the house without having to trip over each other all the time.
Here’s the house plan from the sales brochure:
The only shared spaces are the kitchen and the laundry. I knew as soon as I saw the listing online that this would be a perfect house for Boomerang kids. You know, adult kids who move out for a while and then move back because they’re either wanting to save money for a deposit or because something unexpected has happened.
Ryan27 boomerang’d back home about 3 years ago and now it’s Tom30’s turn.
He’s been out of home for 7 years, living with a friend from school. They’ve known each other for around 15 years. Anyway, on Saturday night this housemate broke one of the most fundamental rules of the Bro Code, so their friendship is over. Tom30 is moving back in with us for the next few months.
I’m so very glad that I have the space to be able to offer my boys a safe haven when things turn dicey. This whole ugly situation would’ve been far worse if he’d had nowhere to go on a moment’s notice. This way he can move in, catch his breath and work out where he wants to go next, without being forced to grab the first thing that’s offered.
Where I’ve been:David28 and Izzy’s engagement party.
Yes, six months after popping the question, the engagement party finally went ahead. Izzy comes from a very large, exuberant Italian family, so my family was definitely in the minority! We ended up sitting outside because my brother, who had a very serious stroke a couple of Christmas Days ago, was worried that if we stayed inside he’d be at risk from covid. He’s booked for a procedure in hospital next week and he didn’t want it put off again.
I hope we didn’t look like snobs…
David27 and Izzy are very much in love and they were both so HAPPY! But gee, David27 is a good brother. He left his own engagement party early to drive back with us to Tom30’s place to help move things back to my place.
Where I’m going:For the next few days – nowhere.
And I’m happy with that. I really like puddling around here at home.
What I’m watching: the red light blink on my aircon.
*sigh*
That red light blinking means that it’s going to be expensive, I’m sure.
I don’t know where I saw the recommendation for this one, but I’ve had it on hold for ages. I finally finished the Murderbot books, (thanks to whoever it was who recommended them to me in the comments – I really enjoyed them!), and now I’m reading this as a change of pace.
The plot is that it’s set around 2030 in England and there’s a horrifying virus/bacteria/disease that is making otherwise normal pregnancies end up with a baby who refuses to take a single breath. The stats for these pregnancies is slowly growing. Pregnant teen mothers are disappearing and society is becoming more repressive as people’s fears grow.
Of course, the protagonist is a pregnant teen.
I’m only 100 pages in so far, but it looks ok. These dystopian novels set in the near future are interesting.
Now that I’m commuting, podcasts are taking longer to work my way through. I mentioned this one a few weeks ago – a journalist investigating a cold case of a young woman brutally murdered up in Queensland in 2012.
I was slowly working my way through the episodes, but then WHAM!!!!! The most shocking development I think I’ve ever heard of has happened and I was gobsmacked. I’m a couple of episodes behind, but with all of the to-ing and fro-ing from Tom30’s place to mine, I’ve been able to listen to quite a few episodes so I’m nearly up to date.
This is the sort of project that gives journalists a good name.
What I’m eating:Homemade bread.
Now that Ryan27 is working, I’ve been making bread rolls for him to take for lunch. For those of you with a thermomix, I’m using THIS RECIPE. The rise on the dough is amazing and the texture of the bread is really good.
I make a batch and put them in the freezer for him to work his way through. Every now and then I leave one out on the bench to defrost for my lunch.
Yum.
Who needs a good slap:Tom30’s flatmate.
‘Nuff said.
What I’m planning:my next Little Adventure.
A friend of mine from work suggested a place for me to take a little holiday in the country and I’ve started to look into it.
What has made me smile: the adaptability of the Little Woofs.
So far (touch wood) I haven’t missed a day of my morning yoga practice with Yoga With Adrienne. I finished the ‘Move’ series and now I’m working my way through through the ‘Breathe’ series.
Part of being successful with new habits is creating a routine around when you want to do them. My ironclad rule is that I can’t have breakfast until I’ve done my yoga.
Most mornings, unless it’s going to be really hot and I want to water the gardens early, is that I’ll feed the dogs, then unroll the yoga mat in my room while they’re outside. When they come inside, I lift them onto my bed and I start the day’s practice.
Jeffrey and Scout have now started to come inside and then go straight to my bedroom, waiting for me to lift them. Poppy always optimistically goes to the kitchen in case some rump steak or a cow carcass has suddenly fallen to the floor while she’s been out for 5 minutes.
It makes me smile to see Scout and Jeff sitting by my bed, wagging their tails. They have no idea why I’m doing these weird movements every morning but hey. They’re more than happy to have a snooze while they wait for me to finish!
Time for another recap of the best books I read last year. I listed some of them HERE, but there were some thumping good reads that I really want to tell you about. There’ll be one more instalment after this post. I was lucky that my 2021 books had so many good ones nestled in there.
There are 3 books in this series so far, and they’re fantastic. I ‘read’ two of them on audiobooks as I was driving around on my holiday up the Great Ocean Road and Adelaide last year, so Cormac Reilly’s character has a deep woman’s voice in my head. Oh well.
Cormac Reilly is a detective in Ireland – so in the audiobook version you get to hear that delectable accent. I won’t summarise the plot – the link will do that. But I thoroughly enjoyed this series of novels. Cormac Rielly is a wonderful character, flawed in some ways but he’s certainly not stupid and he, along with the other characters, is immensely relatable and believable. Followed by The Scholar and The Good Turn, my only recommendation would be to read them in order. When I was away I only had books 1 and 3. When I read book 2, it was spoiled slightly because I already knew the future of some of the characters.
My local library had Rosalie Ham come and give a talk, so in preparation I read all her books. This one was by far my favourite, though there are some others that are also fantastic.
Marjorie Blandon looks back over her long life and her dysfunctional family. I won’t lie -she’s an awful woman, and completely oblivious to it. The family dynamics are so terrible as to be very funny. This is a black comedy, with grief at the heart of it. I couldn’t put the bloody thing down.
Better known for her debut novel The Dressmaker, Rosalie lit up like a Christmas tree when I said this was my favourite! “Mine too!” she said. “It was never really promoted by the publisher so it didn’t get the audience I think it deserved.”
This was another audiobook that I ‘read’ while on my holiday. Even though I’m clearly a highly intelligent and literate person, it wasn’t until near the end that it dawned on my mighty intellect that this is actually about the formation of the Oxford English dictionary. The Scriptorium was a real place. D’Oh!
I really enjoyed the appreciation of the importance of words, the unconscious sexism of the world just before the First World War and how Esma finds her place in it. This is a novel that you can lose yourself in.
This novel is something very special. I read it in a day and a half… helped in part because I locked myself out of the house and I had to wait for Ryan26 to get home from uni. Thank goodness I had it in my bag!
This novel is set in the very near future, in a world that is very recognisable. Klara is an Artificial Friend, waiting to be bought as a companion to a child. She’s a curious mix of innocence and curiosity about the world of humans and what it means to love. The writing in this novel is exquisite. Not a word is wasted. It’s in the category of novels where you want to race to the end to see what happens, but at the same time, you desperately don’t want it to end.
It’s a thought-provoking tale that stays with you.
I picked this up, thinking that it’d be a light read, you know, something that you skim through and then move onto the next with hardly a backwards look. But this novel was so much better than I expected.
Rose and Fern are fraternal twins. The story is told from Fern’s point of view. She’s neuro-diverse and to cope with the world, she leads a life that is carefully structured around her job as a librarian and her ties to her family. When her sister is unable to have a baby, Fern comes up with a way to help…
I loved everything about this novel. It’s un-put-downable.
I first became aware of modern re-telling of myths when I read The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley when I was in my 20’s. This tells the story of Cassandra of Troy and was a very easy way for me to discover the story of Troy without wading through a tedious Homeric dirge.
I wasn’t very familiar with the character of Circe, but Miller has brought her to life. Achilles, of course, is far better known. I really enjoy learning about these old tales by reading novels like this. They’re fresh, modern, stick to the basic outlines of the myths and so we get to see these ancient characters with new eyes.
Imagine living in a world where gods and goddesses roam the earth! Unfortunately, the Greek gods have all of the frailties of humanity, so this can make life ‘interesting’ for everyone else.
This one took me totally by surprise. Back in the 1980’s I picked up a paperback called ‘Daggerspell’ and fell in love with it. It’s a fantasy novel set in the fictional land of Deverry, where characters are intertwined over lifetimes – prior decisions by incarnations of the characters heavily influence their current lives. It’s fabulous.
Little did I know that this was the first in a looong series of novels… and none of the subsequent ones had been written yet. I spent the next twenty years grabbing the next novel as soon as it was released, gulping it down to find out what happens with Nevyn, Jill, Rhodry and the others… then having to wait another couple of years for the next novel to be written.
NEVER AGAIN! Ever since, I’ve waited for series to either be finished, or nearly finished before I’ll embark. After 16 novels, the Deverry cycle was complete. I cried at the end, then moved on with my life.
A few months ago I saw that she’d released a new novel in 2020, so I thought I’d see what it was like. Imagine my incredulous delight when I realised that this was set in Deverry, 300 years in the future from when the last books had left off!!! OMG – I was so happy I can’t tell you. I had the tippy tappy feet and the grin from ear to ear.
Deverry back in the Daggerspell days was like a medieval society and now it’s moving into a more renaissance-style. Coming across my old friends in their new incarnations was so very sweet, though the new cycle has a whole new set of main characters.
If Kerr sticks to her old pattern of a new book every two years, I’ll only have to wait less than a year for the next instalment. Excellent!
Gee, but Jane Harper’s an excellent writer! I read her first 2 books pretty much back-to-back a couple of years ago and then let the next ones slide, but I caught up again this year.
She writes about the Australian Outback like no one else – it’s so vividly drawn that even though I’ve never been that far, after reading her novels I feel like I have. I don’t know why anyone would choose to live in a blistering climate like that. Wonderful to read about, but I know I’d hate to live there.
This novel explores what happens when a man is found dead in a paddock on a very remote property in the Outback. Did he die of natural causes or was it murder? Considering how few people live out that way, if it’s murder then there are not many people for a murderer to hide amongst.
Harper’s characters are particularly well-written and we peel away layers of this cattle station family and community to see the dynamics. It’s a terrific read.
Yesterday in my Wednesday W’s post I talked about what was front of mind – should I take a tutoring job at a school? It was a dilemma that took me a little over 2 days to decide what to do, but the questions it brought up, both from myself and from others, were fascinating.
First up; a bit of background.
On Monday I received a message on FB from a friend who used to work at my school, but has since moved on. Her question: ‘I know you’ve retired, but would you be interested in doing some tutoring?”
Such a simple question, but gee it brought up some stuff.
The simple answer would be, “No thanks. I hate tutoring!”
But…
It brought up a lot of emotional stuff.
Anyone who’s read this blog for more than 5 minutes would know that since I retired at the end of 2020, I’ve absolutely loved my life. Don’t get me wrong – I loved being in the classroom with those very funny teenagers, but the increasing amount of admin, micromanagement and more and more meetings were sucking the fun out of teaching. So when covid came, I evaluated my situation, realised I could retire, (thanks to The Mayor for nudging me!), and so I walked away.
At the time, I fully expected that I’d be asked back to do CRT (Emergency teaching), but then lockdown after lockdown happened so there was no CRT work. When schools went back to face-to-face teaching at the end of the year, I have a feeling that the person responsible for hiring CRT’s gave the work to the people who were relying on that income and who’d had such a bad year. Rightfully so. I would’ve done the same.
The result was that I had a whole year away from school. Sure, I visited my friends a couple of times, but that was it. For the rest of the time, I was here, basking in the luxury of freedom over my time, discovering this thing called “relaxation” and enjoying the sweet, sweet sound of silence.
(As I’m typing this, it’s nearly lunchtime. All I can hear is birdsong, a couple of cars going by and Jeffrey snoring on the couch beside me. Bliss. Being around 2,500 kids every weekday is a very different level of background noise.)
So when I got the message, it came completely out of the blue. My instinctive reaction was to shake my head, race away from Facebook and let it sit for a couple of hours. I had all these conflicting things swirling around in my brain.
Many of you may not know that, back when I was 34 and had 4 boys under 5, I left my husband. I had $60 cash. We shared a 90K mortgage and 2 very old, crappy cars. That was it.
In the property settlement, I managed to hang onto the house, but I had to pay my ex 18K to pay him out, and also promise to forgo spousal support. That would’ve been all ok if he’d been paying child support at the time, but for the next few years it was all very erratic. For most of the time, until I began teaching again, I was getting $20/month from him to ‘support’ our 4 boys.
This obviously had the effect of making securing an income very important. It continued to be important as I tried different ways to bring money in. I cleaned houses, and opened an Etsy shop and tried to sell knitted baby hats, doll quilts and other bits and pieces. (I shut it down after a couple of years – people simply don’t want to pay what hand-made goods should cost. It was a waste of my time.) When I discovered the Thermomix and became a consultant for 4 years, I was finally able to move the needle. Paired with my teaching wage, the money I earned from my Thermomix business enabled me to pay the house off, as well as go on my dream holiday in the UK and Europe after my youngest son finished high school.
Even after I put domestic geoarbitrage into action and moved down here to The Best House in Melbourne and dropped the thermomix business, it was still engrained in me to keep my income up. More money = security. I wasn’t planning to retire at the end of 2020. Covid brought that decision forward.
All this is going to say – when an offer comes along to earn substantial money for easy work – it’s ground into my bones to leap at the chance. Even when I know I won’t enjoy doing it. Money = security.
I didn’t WANT to take the job. But I felt I SHOULD do it. Teacher guilt is a real thing.
I was genuinely torn.
I put my dilemma out to Twitter and received some excellent feedback.
Some women on the Simple Savings forum also had some good things to say. The consensus seemed to be (from women who are still in the workforce) that I should try it and see if I liked it. Nina, however, had this to say:
“Frogdancer, only you know what’s right for you. In my huge govvie organization we have all sorts of employees as you would imagine. One lady retired last year but came back as a casual temp and she loves it – easy money, not as much responsibility.
Another came back under similar circumstances and hated it. She did her 3 months as promised and vowed never to return. It was just too hard to be ‘sort of’ part of a team but still not really committed, and she felt like her head was geared towards working every day but just getting paid for 20 hours. To each their own. You could give it a try and then like Sandra gracefully walk away if it’s not for you.”
Also, a friend from work pointed out, this is an election year. The available money for schools to offer tutoring won’t be around next year. I heard back from my friend who was offering the job. The terms and conditions were really great and she was prepared to work around anything I’d want.
Dammit.
As the hours went by, I started asking myself why I was so reluctant? It came down to a few points:
I don’t enjoy tutoring. One-on-one teaching isn’t all that much fun for me. I like the cut and thrust of being in front of a class, with all of the banter and repartee that comes from funny teens and their quick wits.
Tutoring kids who are behind in literacy skills means that you have to administer (and then mark) all of these BORING tests. There’s so much admin and paperwork to plough through. Leaving all this behind me is a huge part of why I’m loving my life so much now.
I’ve had tutors sitting in my classes. The kids who the tutors are helping HATE having them there. It’s a huge sign to the other kids that they’re ‘dumb’ and falling behind. No red-blooded teenager wants that! So although I’d be there to help, I’d be pushing sh*t uphill for ages to get them to even listen.
I’d be in an ill-ventilated space with 28 kids and a teacher in the middle of a pandemic. Admittedly, the situation is better now than in 2020 because we’re all vaccinated, but even so. This is what I retired to avoid.
All of these reasons are a bit whiney and selfish. I know I’d do a good job and I’d be doing the right thing by helping the kids. But ugh…
Yesterday morning I woke up and decided that I wasn’t going to do it. I waited until the afternoon, in case I had second thoughts, but by 2 PM I knew I’d stick to the decision. I rang my friend and let her know.
She was great about it and offered short-term tutoring, closer to exams, if I felt like it, which might be an option. But do you know what the absolute clincher was?
She was talking to me in a space where I could hear lots of kids around her. THE NOISE!!!!
omg.
It made me laugh. People who are surrounded by it every day have no idea how it chips away at you. The serenity of the soundtrack of my days here is so nourishing and peaceful.
Interestingly, it occurred to me this morning that I probably wouldn’t mind doing the occasional CRT day. I’d be in the classroom, yes, but with absolutely no admin work or diagnostic testing to mark. It would be fun to ‘earn’ things like the $600 pizza oven I just ordered, rather than pay for it out of my dividends.
Maybe I could look at dropping my resumé off to a school or two in the area???
What’s top of my mind: Should I take a tutoring job?
Argh!!! I was so prepared to do tutoring last year but then all of those lockdowns happened so nothing eventuated. Now I’m all fat and happy at home, a friend from a different school has asked if I’d be interested in some work.
Anyone who’s read my About page would know that it’s so difficult for me to knock back money. For many years since I left the boys’ father, I’ve been chasing it just to keep our heads above water. It’s difficult to get away from that mindset.
Plus, I could put that money towards Antarctica. Or Easter Island. It might be nice to spend some time with some kids and not have to mark 28 essays all on the same novel.
But then again… my glorious freeeeedom! And I don’t particularly enjoy tutoring. Though maybe I might like it better when I’m not doing it on top of a full teaching load.
It’d help some kids who really need it.
I’ve asked her to send me some information. I’m genuinely in 2 minds about it. I’ll keep you posted.
Where I’ve been:in the veggie garden.
I said to Ryan27 this morning as I came in from the backyard, “I’m glad we only have two people living here. If I was trying to feed five of us on what this garden’s producing this year, I wouldn’t be happy.”
We have millions of green beans and lots of silverbeet. We can produce enough squash/zucchini to make a zucchini slice each week. Capsicums are starting to form and we have heaps of cucumbers.
But the crops I REALLY want to have heaps of are tomatoes and pumpkins. They’re not doing at all well this year. Damn.
Where I’m going:Dromana, to buy lots of champagne.
Why? See below.
What I’m watching:Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
I’ve decided that I’m going to pull out all the stops and, when Australian Survivor isn’t on, I’m going to watch the rest of the Ru Paul series. I’m up to season 12 so I only have number 13 to go and then I’ll be up to date and can go back to watching just 1 episode a week of the new season as a normal person does.
I know I’m coming late to the party here, but I finally picked up this book. I’m really enjoying it. So many books about investing are written about HOW to do it – this one is about WHY people make the decisions that they do. It has nice short chapters full of anecdotes, which is a smart thing to do because everyone loves a story. It educates in a gentle, easy-to-digest way. Morgan Hausel is an author that I’ll keep an eye out for. I wish I’d read The Psychology of Money earlier so that I could’ve given it to my sons and nieces. Maybe I’ll compromise and just add it to the list of books I’ve given them.
What I’m listening to:Ryan27 talk about his job.
When Ryan18 left school, he enrolled in 3 uni courses one, after the other. None were a good fit. Then, with a little nudge from me, he decided to try Remedial Massage at RMIT. I thought he might like it because he’s the most chill person I know. Turns out that, as a gamer, he loves the problem-solving aspect of it. When someone comes in feeling pain, he has to work out what’s the root cause of it before he can treat it.
After he finished that course, he decided to stick around for another year and learn about myotherapy, (dry needling.) Now that he’s finally out in the workforce and earning a wage, he’s so happy. He’s already got return clients and the numbers of bookings he’s getting each day are steadily increasing.
It’s lovely to see someone who seemed to be spinning their wheels for years finally getting traction in their career. He’s loving the work and I’m loving hearing about it.
What I’m eating:Mashed potato.
Do you know how good mashed potato tastes when the potatoes are grown in your own garden?
They taste even better when they’re potatoes that have sprung up from a crop I first planted 4 years ago. Free food – my favourite flavour.
Who needs a good slap:Ryan27.
The dishwasher is empty. EMPTY. I emptied it first thing today before I fed the dogs. So why are there dirty dishes in the sink?
What I’m planning:an engagement party.
Finally, 6 months after David28 popped the question, he and Izzy are holding their engagement party. I was on the phone last Sunday with Izzy’s Mum. The party will be at her place and their family is huge. My Mum was an only child so our family gatherings are a lot smaller, so this one will be a huge Italian party with a few Skips wandering around. LOL.
As a joke, I said I’d cater for the Skips by bringing fairy bread. I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth. Izzy’s Mum and brother got so excited that I now, as well as providing a dozen bottles of bubbly and a Costco tray of wraps, I also have to go and buy that awful white bread and hundreds and thousands, just to bring a plate.
(For those wild and crazy Americans who apparently don’t know what fairy bread is – look at the picture at the top of this post.)
The trouble is, I haven’t had fairy bread for a decade, at least. I know that once I start making it, I won’t be able to resist that sweet, delicious crunch.
What has made me smile:Yoga.
I completed the free 30-day program called ‘Move’ that Yoga With Adrienne offered at the start of the year. Didn’t miss a day.
I’ve continued on with last year’s program, called ‘Breathe’, which is located on her website. It would’ve been pretty easy to let it slide, but I’m liking the routine I established during January. It’s nice to think that by the time I have breakfast each morning, I’ve already completed a yoga class.
Dad joke of the day:
I wasn’t sure how comfortable the new couch would be. But sofa, so good.
Retirement Reading Quest – Reading my way to ‘free’ council rates.
I’m on a quest to borrow and read enough books to, in effect, cancel out the cost of my council rates per year.
It’s outlined in this post.
Year 8: 2018/2019 – $1,800
I may as well continue back-tracking. I moved here in 2016, so I’ll chip away at all the rates I paid up till then.
Running Total – $15
Year 7: I’m already a year ahead on my rates, so I’m taking a reader’s suggestion and I’m going to go back and start covering the rates from the year before I started. I may as well.
Year 7: Total needed: 2019/2020…$1,800
Finished! 12/12/2025
Year 6 (2025/2026) $2,590 AREADY COVERED!!!!!!
10/08/2015 – I won’t have another rates notice until August 2026, so I have time to kill. Let’s knock over a previous year’s rates, just for fun.
Year 5 (2024/2025) $2,339 and dog rego ($63) = $2,435.
Finished it before I even had the new rates notice ready.
Year 4 (2023/2024) $2,413.
Success! Not sure exactly when I passed the total, because I was waiting on the dog registrations to come through. But yes – I blitzed it.
Year 3: (2022/2023) $2,350
12/01/2023 FINISHED! Not working gives me heaps more reading time – I recommend it!
