No harm in joining in and having fun!!

Today it is Halloween.  

This is probably more of a new tradition to our little country and many people moan their tits off about it.  I am of the opinion of what harm does it do.  I have a basket of lollies in case trick or treaters come knocking on our door.  If no one arrives then I guess we will be well stocked in the lolly department for the weekend so nothing is lost.  Sure it is a Tradition from the Northern Hemisphere and just another gimmicky thing for the retailers to hook into, but it is fun if you want to join in, and who doesn't like to dress up? No harm is done and you do not have to spend a fortune, a few bucks gets you some lollies!! If it ever gets to be a really big thing in NZ then believe me I shall be that scary woman that dresses up and scares the beejazus out of kids that come knocking on our door.  Mwahahahahahaha!!!!

Thirteen years ago I took Max and Jak with this motley crew out trick or treating around a posh part of town not far from where we live.  While all the other mums were sitting around chatting and drinking I went with off the little kids.  Jak was 6 so Max would have been 8 1/2.  It was really good fun, and the kids got all sorts of treats, even Oranges, which they politely thanked the adults for.  

My boys still remember that night.

Late this afternoon my good friend Annette

came around with her three gorgeous little grand kids.

 My paper bags containing treats.

My little tricksters  pretty tickled with their bags of goodies.

This little Mister played a good trick on me with one of those kids kaleidoscopes that had black stuff on the eye piece!!!  See all good fun, didn't hurt a bit, and to see little faces smile was so sweet.

 BOO!!! 

(with a grin)

And plenty or treats for door knockers or for us!!

Roll on Guy Fawkes,

  that is next weekend!!!

TOF loves to buy the big bangers! 

Now where is my BLACK cat?

I know some people already think I am a WITCH

(or is that a Bitch?)

Might go park my broom at the front door too!!

Have a great weekend!!!!!

Toothache is a biatch!

I have had a sore tooth for a few weeks now but last Friday a whole lot of filling came out of it and I spent the entire weekend with raging toothache.  Trust me I was taking pain relief on a regular basis all weekend.  Today I bit the bullet so to speak and went to my Dentist for an evaluation.  Where they evaluated how much money they could extract from me.  Turns out they want to do a ROOT CANAL and it turns out I am going to have an EXTRACTION!  $200 versus $1100, no brainer for me!

So next week this will be me!

I have a course of antibiotics to take and my pain relief until then, I may rattle when I walk with all the pills jumping around inside me.  Just hope they stop the pain.

Anyway, enough of that,

yesterday we did indeed drive out to Raglan,

in the rain,

in the Man Car!!

The West Coast was wet and wild for sure, but not that cold.  I don't mind what the weather is at the beach, it always looks beautiful, so natural and strangely relaxing.  Our country is pure GOLD when it comes to fabulous scenery.

 This is the road heading to a car park!!

No one was brave enough to take advantage of the outdoor seating

with the best views in the house.

People were out walking on the beach

but no one was  surfing.

 

A stormy looking Manu Bay.

The rain kept falling

and

the wind kept blowing!

This little dude brightened up a some what dull day.

We stopped in at a cafe for a hot drink and some cake, which we enjoyed in the warmth of the Man car while parked in our favourite Street, Cliff Street, which is on the edge of the harbor. 

The drive home was a wet one!

Somehow everything still looked awesome, slightly magical with the hazy rain and mist.  Cows huddled together to keep warm I guess, either that or they were having an important meeting at the fence.

 Back home Tex helped TOF read the paper.

Wonder how much I will get for my

manky old tooth?

$200 would be nice.

What do you do on a lazy Sunday on a long weekend.

Well round here we did as little as possible!!

The weather was decidedly shite so I skulked about in my jimmies for longer than normal, finally getting dressed and devouring my bacon and eggs that TOF had cooked.  Seems Mrs Potts has settled in perfectly but she seems to think she is a house chicken.  I had to escort her outdoors numerous times!

I even enlisted TOFs help as bouncer to stop her from entering the house!!  But she is one sneaky bird is our Joan, and Jak found her in the middle of his bed at one stage of the day.  I do like a pet with personality so she is a keeper.

It also turns out that she is a bit of a lap chicken!

At one point she was so comfortable in my ample lap

that she nodded off.

As for the rest of my flock, they like to chill out under the lemon tree. 

Thought you might like to see Sheba in action with her new ball and understand the importance of the old ball.  That is Jak playing with her who has since jokingly bitched about him being visible. I was not aware he had any exclusive magazine/television deals on the table!!

Late afternoon TOF and I decided we needed to go out.  We were searching for a train we could here whistling, but it was long gone so Lake Rotoroa or Hamilton Lake was where we ended up.

This mother duck was having a mission 

trying to get all her little ducklings in a row.  

Speaking of that one of Max's flat mates has a room full of duck decoys that I lined up like skittles on his bedroom floor the other day.  Looked hilarious, and Tom thought it was Max, but did laugh at my suggestion of Duck Skittles!!  Game on I say!!

Meanwhile back at the lake the sky was brewing, a lone sailor was sailing, and plenty of people were enjoying lakeside.  Waikato Hospital is the big white building in the photo on the right.  Fabulous views from there if you get a room that side of the hospital.

I talked TOF into wandering along the boardwalk into the native bush, not to have my wicked way with him but so he could see what it was like.  It is truly lovely there.  Not sure what the rich folk that back onto said walkway think as you can peer into their back yards now. 

Boo fricken Hoo!!

There is a good selection of native birds that reside at the lake, all going about their business like we were not there.  The huge white building in the photo is a home!  Ex mayor and his wife live there, not my cup of tea, too big, too white, too new, and imagine cleaning the sucker, not to mention the cost of running it. Each to their own I say and lucky we are all different too!!

 Someones cute little orange and white dinghy 

was bobbing about on the water.

I really could have done with my zoom as the water lilies looked lovely.  I have never walked around the entire lake, lazy like that, but maybe if TOF and I harnessed the dogs we could do it.  I shall work on him and hopefully we will do it one day, we have plenty of time, the walk way ain't going anywhere.

After all, he is very forthcoming on the selfies now!! 

We didn't wander for long because back waiting in the Man Car were the dogs.  By the time we got back it looked like Sheba was the driver.  Funny how dogs love to get up front and pretend they are the drivers when you leave them in the car.  Oscar loves the Man Car because he can see out the windows without having to be perched on my lap.

We came home to cook our diner and feed Sexy Texy as by 5pm he is in starvation mode.  He is such a funny loveable old boy is our Tex, he has a huge personality that cat.

Max came round for dinner much to the joy of Sheba!

She thinks she is a lap dog.

Today is not the most pleasant day weather wise, one of those indoor kinda days.  TOF is making scones for lunch, Jak is watching Cricket on the TV (that has just been rained off for a moment as it is being played in Hamilton) and I of course are blogging!!  TOF and I may go for a drive out to Raglan later on this afternoon and catch up with some friends of ours, apart from that, the long weekend has been very RELAXING, as it should be.

And this is exactly why I do not plan!

Due to the wind being far too windy, TOF and Max did not get to go out on the fishing charter, it was cancelled, and they were not pleased.  So my home alone do what ever the hell I want day went tits up first thing this morning!  Never mind, I spent time with the lads instead.  As in Max and I went out to our local shopping centre (The Base) for him to sort some banking stuff, so I went and got vacuum cleaner bags for Jak so he can clean our house!  He gets a reduced rate in his board if he does the housework while he is off work, and it is working good with me, I bloody hate housework!! 

While out we had morning tea outside in the sunshine at a lovely cafe, bit of mother/son bonding and my treat!!  I also bought Sheba a NEW BALL, and she is so stoked.  Not that the old ball will be relegated to the dump or anything silly like that, she still has that in her gob while playing with the new one.

I scored this spotty bangle for $3 in a shop called Sunnies, bit like a dollar shop but bigger and  better.  I found the best medicine ever that I just had to buy, and I know exactly who will be the lucky recipient of  each package. Mwahahahahahahahaha!!!!

 So many candidates for this one!!

 TOF has a birthday in December!

He suffers from this a lot, he is 4 years older than me after all!

I know so many woman that suffer from this ailment

so this will easily find a deserving home.

There was a huge stand covered in hilarious medicine like these, I laughed so much, and at $4 each they will make excellent piss taking presents for friends.  Lets face it, as we get older it doesn't pay to take life too seriously anymore, and we all know laughter is the very best medicine.

TOF and I went off to a garden centre to buy vegetable plants for the garden.  I got horribly side tracked by these lovely willow climbing frames that just happened to be on SPECIAL, 30% off, so what is a girl to do right?  Yes, BUY a couple.  I have placed them either side of the swing seat where the creepers have been planted, so now they can climb up the frames and then over the top of the swing seat. 

 Pretty bloody fabulous!! 

See, I do not tell a lie, they look fabulous don't they??!! And we did get the plants we went for as well, Honey and Pearl Sweet Corn, Sugar Snap Peas, and a selection of Capsicums, which we planted this evening along with the Tomatoes and Sunflowers from Sue W.

I am hooked on my cafe style lunch that I can make at home, Ciabatta  toasted with Avocado, tomato, Feta and cracked pepper, with a nice hot drink of  Mocconna Mochaccino.  

Yummmmmmmmo!!!!

This afternoon we got a phone call from our lovely elderly neighbors across the road who thought they had one of our chickens in their back yard.  I went out to our back garden and did a quick head count and discovered that all our girls were indeed home.  TOF said go get it!!  So off I toddled across the road.  I explained that it wasn't ours but I was more than happy to rescue her and re home her with our girls.  As with all good chicken whisperers, I asked for a scrap of bread to lure the chicken out, we all know most animals are food driven.  So welcome Mrs Potts, but you can call her Joan.  Named after our lovely neighbor from across the road.  Another Red shaver to add to the flock, this makes eleven but lets not tell anyone!! She seemed to settle in well, but then again, why wouldn't she, we do have a rather nice back yard to live in if you are a runaway chicken!!  She is the third to do this.

Obviously you now know the  answer to that age old question:

Why did the chicken crossed the road?

To get to our place!!!!!

And just in case you were wondering,

yes I did wear the necklace I made last night!!

Happy weekend everybody!!!

Keep good company, it is good for the soul

I have had such a lovely time the last few days.  I have been blessed to have been in the company of people I enjoy being around, and making the most of having them about even if only for a short visit.  This weekend we get a long weekend, I have mentioned this before I know, but it is a long weekend after all and worth mentioning again!!  TOF and Max are off on a fishing charter tomorrow and Jak has gone away for the night up to Auckland with mates, so I shall have the house to myself tomorrow.

What will I do??

Pretty much whatever the hell I want to!!

On Thursday I threw this outfit together to head out for a day out and about with a good friend.  I confess to not wearing the under skirt as the temperature improved and I didn't want to cook myself.  I also wore necklace number two and got so many compliments on it and the colourful jacket I wore.

OMG I even wore lippy!!

The palest pink ever, but lippy all the same.

I was incredibly happy on Thursday.

I went to a mixture of second hand shops and retail shops, where I found this little lot.  The dress top left is only a size 10, in my dreams I am that small, anyway I am thinking of possibly just using the skirt part as it is full circle and making it into just a skirt.  Or I on sell, not decided yet, only $2.50 from Hospice.  The short Daisy dress came from K Mart and actually looks pretty cute on, well that is what the mirror in the changing room told me!!  The vintage Hawaiian kaftan I didn't try on but my friend did and talked me into having it, Salvation army $6.  It is pretty cool and if I don't wear it I can move it on to some one else.  The last thing is a skirt in the softest cotton with a shirred top to it (retail shop that sells wickedly cool shit at affordable prices).  It can be worn as a dress but with boobs the size of mine it is not a recommended look.  So a skirt it will be, good for twirling in!!

Basic black vintage handbag that I have been watching in the salvo for weeks, and it was still there on Thursday which I took as a sign that it was meant to be mine.  In fact I ended up using it for the day, $6.

Today was all about COMFORT!!!

Colour and comfort, with the last of my new necklaces I made.

Check out my shoes!!!

These are brand new El Naturalista shoes that I bought off trade me for $30.  These retail in the hundreds which is mad, but not mad at $30, and how gorgeous is the colour.  So comfortable to wear which went with todays theme of comfort and colour perfectly.

I asked TOF if I could use his Man Car today as I was going out to visit Sue, and I wanted to blend in with the country folk in my four wheel drive truck!!  My sister calls it the Ponsonby Tractor (posh area in Auckland).  I love the drive out to Sues lifestyle block and it was wicked sitting up high in the Man Car.

Us Sues had a good wander around her garden as we always do when I visit.  Normally we get followed by her two dogs, but unfortunately darling old Clyde who hasn't been well lately was put to sleep the other day.  That is one of the hardest decisions to make when you own pets, but it was the best decision to make for dear Clyde.  I will miss him running to meet me when I arrive and following me around with a toy to be thrown for him to fetch.  RIP old man, you will be missed.

Sue has been growing plants from seeds and her greenhouse and box gardens are thriving.  So much that I was sent home with this box of goodies for our garden.  Tomatoes, Sunflowers, and a courgette she thinks.  I know what I will be doing tomorrow while I am on my own, and the weather is supposed to be lovely.

 

Ages ago my sister gave me a necklace that I remade tonight using the big chunky colourful beads and added in the small colourful flower shaped beads.  I like it, I like it alot!!

Could wear this while gardening!!

I definitely will if I venture out.

So true......

....and just for all of you out there