101 Lists

Kate has inspired me to start a new 101 list - there are many things on my old list that I don't want to do anymore or that just aren't relevant. I have written about half of a new list and actually started some of them too. Who knows, maybe I'll finish this one?!

There are acutally many things that I ended up doing on my last so I thought I would run through it all:

How many have I done? 28/101

FIRST TWENTY:
1. Pass my BFA
2. Run 2.4KM in under 12 minutes
3. Run 10KM
4. Run a 5KM funrun in under 36 mins Accomplished!
5. Do 5 pullups/heaves
6. Eat vegetarian meals for a week (0/7)
7. ??
8. ??
9. Wake up in the dark and go for a run while the sun rises
10. Get a pedicure
11. Have a massage
12. Walk from the city to Chelmer
13. Complete a triathlon
14. Try 2 different group fitness classes Accomplished!
15. Bench press with a barbell Accomplished!
16. Go to the races
17. Do a massage course
18. Buy something from an op shop for our home Accomplished!
19. Go skiing
20. Walk the Kokoda trail

I decided that some of these I didn't really want to do such as run 10 kilometres or go to the races. Other projects were just too big for this time in my life, such as skiing or walking the Kokoda trail.

SECOND TWENTY:
21. Do a ghost tour
22. Visit the zoo
23. Visit Tangalooma
24. Visit Fraser Island
25. Go whalewatching
26. Visit the planetarium
27. Abseil 90 metres
28. Abseil the Kangaroo Point Cliffs at night
29. Go camping Accomplished! I went on Australia Day long weekend with my three youngest brothers - it was a blast and something I hope to do again :)
30. Visit a farmer's market Accomplished! Went with mum and some of my brothers.
31. See a court trial
32. Make pesto
33. Attend an outdoor performance
34. Try surfing
35. Go hot air ballooning
36. Sleep under the stars
37. Do a 15+ KM bushwalk
38. Take a trainride holiday
39. Go to the drive-in
40. Climb the Story or Sydney Harbour Bridge

THIRD TWENTY:
41. Go indoor rockclimbing - Accomplished! It was great and I want to do it again XD
42. Go on a twilight kayak tour
43. Go skinny dipping - Oooh, how naughty of me! ;)
44. Take a CityCat tour by night
45. Read one new book a month - I think I wrote this one in as I'd stopped reading due to studying and working so much - I have started reading again and would be averaging more like one a fortnight!
46. Memorise a poem that I enjoy
47. See a movie at the French Film Festival - Yep, done.
48. Go to the orchestra
49. Sew something useful
50. Make a scrapbook page each month (10/33)
51. See a musical
52. Add five more Chalet School books to my collection (1/5)
53. Go to the ballet - I have just been to see the Paris Opera Ballet, probably a bit outside the time line of this list but I'll still count it. :)
54. Try a new recipe each month - I don't know if I've done one a month but I've done a lot!
55. Make vegetable stock
56. Make chicken stock
57. Make pasta from scratch
58. Make a fruitcake
59. Make a ragdoll
60. Learn to knit and make a blanket

FOURTH TWENTY:
61. Make a quilt
62. Make homemade bread
63. Buy flowers for someone for no reason at all - For mum - twice :)
64. Make Dad's Father's Day present - Done and he loved it :)
65. Contact Jen and try to rekindle friendship - I tried to no avail
66. Meet up with a friend once a month ouside of my regulars (8/33) - I started doing this and it was great so I'll start again
67. Take the three little boys on a day trip
68. Have a night with my college girls
69. Go on three family holidays for at least one night (0/3)
70. Ring the Meyer family
71. Invest $1000 in shares
72. Budget, budget, budget! - Done but I need better tracking systems.
73. Make a will - Done but needs to be updated
74. Attend a house auction
75. Return DVDs and library books on time
76. Host a Christmas lunch or dinner - Done
77. Give 10% of 07-08 income to charity - Done
78. Give blood - Did this a few times but due to crap veins they've told me not to worry about it again for a few years after three failed attempts
79. Go carfree for three weeks (0/21)
80. Bushcare work 3 times (0/3)

FIFTH TWENTY:
81. Go 4WDing
82. Watch the original Pink Panther - Yes and it wasn't great
83. Have a scrapbooking party - Yes and it was a lot of fun!
84. Do a stint at Meals on Wheels - One of the best things I did out of this list.
85. Execute a fundraiser - I guess through Rotaract I've done several - my initial aim was to do a Greatest Morning Tea/Girl's Night In or similar but I don't want to double up on what we do at Rotaract
86. Put $1000 into super for 06-07 financial year - Done
87. Go a month without takeaway or eating out (0/31)
88. ---
89. Put together my exchange book
90. Finish my Yr 12 memory book
91. Do a "month of love" for Peter (0/31)
92. Buy winter woolies for charity
93. Back up blog entries on CD
94. Make the bed and keep the room tidy for a month - Accomplished! And I now often make the bed in the mornings :)
95. Make, buy second-hand, regift or give experiences for all the presents I give at Christmas - Accomplished.
96. Write a letter each month not counting Peter (8/33) - Again something that I didn't finish but was definitely worthwhile
97. Get a Brazilian - Ouch but done several times. Not anymore. TMI? ;)
98. Have a papsmear - The first thing I did and probably the best wrt my heatlh.
99. ---
100. Journal about all these things (4/101)
101. ---

No spend week

I thought about driving down to Maccas this morning and buying a bacon and egg burger for breakfast but two things stopped me:

1) Hmmm, not very healthy! and
2) $$$ are tight at the moment and each dollar counts.

So I declared this week a no-spend week (apart from petrol and on-a-shopping-list-groceries) and made myself toasted ham, cheese, tomato and avacado sandwiches. It was so yum except that I couldn't find the regular cheese so I used two Kraft plastic cheese slices and now it's left a nasty taste/texture in my mouth. We don't normally have them but S our homestay student buys them. It's strange as years ago I used to love them and now...yuck, I'd prefer to have no cheese at all!

I'm hopefully off to the coast today to visit my cousin and her boys and also my grandma. Then back home to tidying and starting to get ready for school tomorrow!

Back from holidays

I have just spend three days out at St George with family friends who live on a property near there. I learnt plenty about building stock fences and actually managed to help out a bit rather than just get in the way. I loved it there so, so, so much and want to go back out in the next school holidays. I continue to maintain that I was meant to be born west of Toowoomba. :)

I also want to redesign my whole house in country chic a la the friends I stayed with - although they consider it country practical! - but it just doesn't suit this house. Still, I think I will inquire on Freecycle and at the library for copies of Country Living!

I both love the crisp, fresh air of winter, especially during the middle of the day, but I hate how cold it is in the mornings and how dark it is. I cannot believe that it's half past six in the morning and I'm awake and sitting at my computer on school holidays. But Peter went off to work a small while ago and I have to take the car in for a service at 7:30 so there didn't seem much point in going back to bed.

We have just spent the past few days in Gladstone visiting our friends who live there. Four of us made the trip up and we discovered Apples to Apples, a really fun (and completely inappropriate at times) board game. It made me miss all those years ago when we used to hang out every weekend and play cards or board games. I have brought out Scrabble though so perhaps Peter and I can play that tonight.

Tomorrow I am heading to St George to spend a few days with our friends who live on a property out there. I am very excited but I have a few things to accomplish today such as taking the ute in for a service, writing another Religion assignment (so that I can receive full accreditation to teach religion, always helpful when one works in a Catholic School!), a long list of Rotaract activities, and some paperwork. It will be worth it though to go away on holidays fully relaxed and knowing that everything that needs doing is done!

Guest Room

School holidays, yay! It's almost worth it just for the luxury of two weeks of doing nothing (well, not quite - lots of schoolwork to do next week).

My new pet project is putting together a guest room in our house. For ages we've had a double mattress in the 'long room' at the end of the house but for some reason, that neither of us can remember, we did not have the movers bring up the bed frame. Instead it's in the underhouse storage area. Peter and I are hoping to bring it upstairs tomorrow. I have some new bed linen and towels that match the room beautifully. Eventually I want to bring upstairs one of the armchairs we acquired with the house and find a slipcover for it. Also, a bedside table, lamp, and some drawers for clothes. It'd also be nice to put my grandfather's antique desk in there when I finally get it from Mum and Dad's house to mine.

I'm not sure why I'm so excited about creating this guest room, especially since we've only had guests once since we moved there just over six months ago. I don't spend money on many things, especially new things, but I do love manchester. Please, come and visit me so that I can feel justified in spending lots of money (for me) on a guest room!

Our friend D moved back home and I'm starting to put together her room but with the intention of hosting a second homestay student. Again, I need to transport a single bed from my parents to our house but I have new sheets, towels and a doona. I still need to find a suitable desk and a lamp.

PS: Speaking of spending money, I have probably spent approximately $100 on second hand books via LifeLine bookfest and school fetes and I probably scored well over 100 books!

Enjoying the weekend

I was planning to head into school today for a few hours to tidy up from last week and get myself ready for next week. And to perhaps make some more headway on those report cards which are due...um, this Friday!! [I think I will have a few late nights this week]

Instead I've decided to stay at home in my jimjams and make some headway on my house which was quickly turning into a brothel. Not literally of course. Even though we are a household of three females, no men this week! Peter is en route to Puckapanyal for a two week course. He opted to drive down and back though which makes it closer to three weeks.

So far I have hung out two loads of washing; straightened up, dusted and 'vacuumed' (with a carpet broom) our bedroom; swept all of downstairs and the long hallway upstairs; put away the clean dishes; put some frozen meals into the fridge to defrost for dinner; swept the deck; tidied the kitchen; restacked dishwasher; and 'vacummed' the sitting room.

Still to do: bring in and put away washing; clean microwave; tidy eating area and sweep; set out work clothes for the week; sweep the stairs; clean the toilet and sink; and write up my school planner for the week.

Tomorrow I plan to do the weekly shop and then cook up some vegetarian freezer meals. Not for myself but a teacher at school who is recovering from a broken leg (and living on her own). Another staff member, my TA, has resigned due to serious family illness and I'm hoping that my class and I can use the kitchen this week to cook something for her, even if it's biscuits or a slice for lunchboxes.

The beginning of June means I need to start thinking about what charitable contribution I/we'll make for the end of the year. It definitely won't be at 10% this year. I'm hoping we can make it 5% of our joint net income excluding Dani's rent money. I think that we'll sponsor part of a teacher's salary at The School of St Jude in Tanzania and donate the rest to Brisbane Youth Services, an organisation that works with homeless young people and families in Brisbane.

** Hmm I think those dinners will be for tomorrow and tonight I'll get Thai takeaway for S (homestay student) and myself. Um, supporting the local economy?!

Making progress

Car: $14 500.

Woohoo!

And I still have $400 set aside from the economic stimulus bonus. We intend to use it for a holiday in June/July school holidays, driving out west to St George and a few other places.

Busy

I am so busy with school, teaching ballet, tutoring, sacramental program, Rotaract and other various things I do (oh yes, try and spend time with Peter and my family!) that I rarely get onto my blog anymore or read other people's. Occasionally however the starts align and ballet is over, tutoring was cancelled, I've decided to take the whole day off from school work, and Peter is on guard so I have the whole afternoon to myself. Blogs and SS here I come!

We ended up getting a homestay student and it's going so well. She's lovely and it's nice to repay in a way the hospitality that I received when I was an exchange student overseas. Because I told her dinner is at 6:30 I am arriving home earlier so that dinner is cooked and ready to go. Oh yes, we actually eat a proper meal every night! We haven't had takeaway at all since she arrived a fortnight ago! On the one night we really couldn't be bothered cooking, due to an earlier blackout, we ate meals from the freezer.

On the financial side of things we receive $205 a week. The first two payments are paying back the things we bought to set her up such as a phone card, new sheets, her first week of lunch stuff for uni, that type of thing. From next week we'll be putting $150 of it towards the car (the rest will go towards grocery and electricity/internet bills).

The car loan is current at $15 700 and by next Friday will be at $15 000 due to a combination of a car payment being made and putting just under half of my stimulus package towards the loan. So, we'll have paid off $5000 in five months. I think we really need to up this pace. I'm hoping it can be paid off by June 10? If we can manage $600 a fortnight we will make it well before the deadline. That's the regular payment ($300) as well as homestay money ($150), ballet money ($120) and tutoring money ($30).

(Also, as well the car, we have paid off 5k off the principal of the mortgage in the December to April period! There's also another 5k on there but that's for emergencies.)

When the car is paid out that money will all go on the mortgage so that we can get far enough ahead that we can afford for Peter to return to uni in a year or two.

Anyway, I am now off to read up some more on one of my favourite hobbies next to budgeting....disaster preparation! I am keen this weekend to put together at least the basis of one 72 hour bag. I also want to stocktake the contents of our pantry so I can buy some more things at the shops tomorrow. All the flooding around us during the week really made me realise the importance of having a good stockpile just in case you do get cut off due to weather events! (Or the flu!)

Taking a day off from school

I'm actually really upset about this - I want to be at school but I don't think I have much of a choice:





(Water Over Road)



(Looking down from the deck)



(My neighbour's fence)




(We are the third house up)



(The roundabout is under water)




(Drowned Witches Hats)



(It's beautiful but it's normally green grass)

Pumpkin soup

The sweet potato and leek soup worked so well last week that I thought I would try pumpkin soup this week since I have some pumpkin in the fridge that needs using. I feel quite pleased as I had the idea to make roast pumpkin soup then to add cumin to the pumpkin before I roasted it. I googled "roast pumpkin soup" and the first recipe also suggested using cumin! It also calls for roast garlic and nutmeg which sounds yummy.

(Hmmm, it didn't turn out all that great. I don't actually have any nutmeg, I peeled the garlic and burnt it instead of roasting it unpeeled and taking it out before the pumpkin was done, and I added too much stock so the soup is a bit too watery for my liking. But it will do for dinner tomorrow night!)

I have also finally updated our budget, for the first time since we bought this house. I think I finally have everything in there except for our personal spending (which covers work expenses, mobiles, medical expenses but not my health insurance) and now I can hopefully start tracking how much we are spending and putting away for expenses. Even with my extra ballet teaching and the board we receive from D, we are still only paying off an extra $65 a week off the car so I daresay it won't be paid by the end of the year. Oh well.

I think with the extra money from the government we will put half towards the car and the other half on purchasing things for the house (yes, stuff) particularly a pitchfork for the compost bin, a wide broom for the paved areas, a whipper snipper for Pete, and hopefully a hand-powered mower. And maybe a little holiday in the hinterland...!