tielan, posts by tag: life - LiveJournal

The period turned up and turned the start of this week into an exhausting ball of pain and suffering. I also have to update my COVID period tracker and send it off to the person doing the research.

Alas, one of the work servers went down over the weekend - a major one that is the gateway between the organisation's finance systems with an external banking system, and which deal with payroll. And a pay run is due this week. The server maintenance is not specifically our area, but it affects us, because we are the finance system, and I deal with 'the finance is connected to the gateway' part before the gateway connects to the banking system, which means I'm the point of contact for a lot of the issues that are cropping up.

Still, at least my stress is not as bad as the guy who had to rebuild the gateway server. He didn't end up getting a weekend at all, and they need him here at work this week, so he's not going to get TIL anytime soon.

Meanwhile, payment things are not happening and need to be sorted out in the next half-hour. And my connection has just gone down...

Okay, sent that mail off.

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Really want a cup of tea. Also, could do with a couple of hours extra sleep rn. But that's nothing new.

Skipped my gym workout last night because: pain and exhaustion loopiness. Went down the road and got takeaway, that was about as much as I could manage. Better sleep this morning, but still not 100%.

Okay, tea made, connection issues sorted, now to this new bit of work.

Also: trying to work out if I have leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch or dinner. I'm thinking lunch because I can't be bothered trying to work out dinner right now.

Need to do more running/fitness but the humidity is 80% and over and it's just awful. And running is not fun with my right toe feeling twitchy and tender now and again.

Last night, around 10:30pm, we get a message from our aunt.

Our cousin's boyfriend ("friend") is COVID+, and our uncle went to visit cousin & bf the day before yesterday, unmasked. They're all double-vaxxed, but just to be safe...

The Sheriff of Nottingham got his wish: Christmas got cancelled.

The day was basically going to be us (me and the Bs, parentals), uncle & aunt, cousin & bf, cousin and cuz-in-law and their four kids. Cousin & CIL and their fam live down south - about 50 minutes drive across the city. They decided to stay home - they also have CIL's mum, and someone else staying with them (a single mum). Cousin & BF are isolating, so are uncle & aunt, and we had Christmas Eve lunch with the parentals yesterday. So cancelling made sense rather than trying to relocate.

Tomorrow was going to be parentals, sistren and I, and stepbro-J and stepSIL-J, who are pregnant and were due on the 23rd. This afternoon ~3pm, baby started moving. So they might have a Christmas baby, but they'll still be in hospital for another couple of days (here in Australia, I think they keep you for at least three days). And with cases on the rise, hospitals have changed up the visiting options. So...no hospital visits this year. If they even want us to visit. (We are not quite the 'red-headed stepchildren' in the scenario, but out of all the family, we are probably the farthest branch, and the one that is last on J's list.)

The gist of it is that lunch tomorrow is still on, but without the people that we really wanted to see. *sigh*

I feel like fate, the universe, God, doesn't want us to get to know SSIL-J. J&J started dating during the pandemic, we didn't meet her until around Christmas last year, they were married in Jan. Then they go pregnant. I was going to visit them out west in August...and then Sydney/NSW went into lockdown. I was hoping to see them when they got to Sydney...and then they were busy. And then I was hoping to see them tomorrow...and the baby is coming.

IDK. Maybe it's all pointless: they're a decade younger than me, I'm the spinster stepsis, the person that nobody has ever asked to godmother a kid, not someone that people particularly want their kids to emulate - at least, not in my circles where people have kids...

Anyway, this is the first Christmas in all my 45 years where I haven't had somewhere to be on Christmas Day. I know there are people who do this as a matter of course, year after year, but it's a new experience for me. Not entirely a bad one, but...I rather like Christmas for the people and the food.

I had my first summer social!

GOOD: It went well! People enjoyed it! (There were only 4 people and they were 'regulars' in visiting. That's fine.)

BAD: After everyone left for the evening, suddenly I felt like my chest had a hole in it.

GOOD: Panadol helped me sleep.

BAD: I think something I ate gave me issues.

GOOD: I was planning to go for a COVID test anyway.

BAD: I wonder if the antibiotics I was taking for the foot masked the chest issue (I've been having chest issues for at least 9 months tbh), and now that I've stopped taking them, the bugs have come back with a vengeance.

No test results yet.

COVID is shooting back into the 1000s here: a week ago, we were at ~500 cases, today it's ~1700. And our state premier (maybe two months in the job) is the 'don't let the economy die' neocon economist sort, so there'll be no further lockdowns happening in NSW, and screw the health professionals.

I am absolutely shattered (woke up 1:45am, went back to seel 2:30am, woke up 4:30am, went back to sleep 5am, woke up 7am...) and have to return a report on a new technology that we'll be implementing next year, and have to prepare the chook guest house for a chicken that we were willing to 'kennel' during the holidays when it was mentioned a month ago, but which we never heard back from the owner about. Until this morning. Dear reader, they are leaving tomorrow. Oy.

The rising COVID cases has made me a little chary of putting on the summer salon for the rest of the summer. It was one thing while our numbers were reasonable, but the increase in case numbers and the complete lack of any kind of restrictions (it's all "personal responsibility" now - and, of course, "personal risk" if you end up catching COVID) - is really concerning.

The Library At The End Of The World

So. This is my country. The kind of people who'd buy farms in Tasmania and move down there to make their own 'bunker communities' are the kind of people I know. I think I might be that kind of people if I wasn't so rooted in communities here in Sydney. My people - my family, my friends, my social connections - are here. ( Collapse )

Anyway, I've had a morning. Chooken medication, catten to the vet, work issues, all of it all at once.

I just need a bit of time to recover. Some sleep would be good. I feel like I got a few nights of really good sleep and then I pulled something in my butt and the next thing I know it's all achey and hard to sleep again.

ARGH.

Sincerely. My hockey club asked if I'd take on the secretary role for 2022. I felt bad, because I know that we're hard up for people to work with the management committee, but I had to say no, because I don't have the time and I'm probably overextended as is.

And then one of the Edible Garden Trail committee members made a joke about how I'm practically the committee, anyway, and I basically said "Noooooooooo...."

They were both good about it, but seriously, people. I cannot. Can. Not. Even.

( Collapse )

Ultimately, I appreciate the compliment that people think I'm good at organising things, but seriously. No.

Frankly I'm tired just thinking about it!

Spent Sunday morning and Sunday night watching Bridgerton with rmc28, very enjoyable to watch with someone, but definitely an added dimension to watch with someone both genre-savvy but also seeing it/experiencing the series for the first time.

And looking forward to Series 2.

Got up at 5:30am this morning for PT. Kind of tired, but at least this week is pretty quiet - nothing but the usual Tuesday hockey, Wednesday bible study, and maybe a party on Friday night at a friend's house whose garden will be shown on Gardening Australia. The PT didn't hurt as much after Thursday night as it did the other week, so that's good. Either I'm strengthening, or my body is finding 'workarounds' to avoid pain...

I need to change up what I'm eating. I'm snacking on sweets during the day and I think it's not helping my waistline, which is growing steadily out of even all my elastic waistbands.

Look, I'm both lazy and can't be arsed shopping, and I'm a cheapskate/saver and don't want to buy new stuff, so I need to do something about this.

Weather is presently grey and rainy and more suited to the tail end of winter than the tail end of spring. I mean, nobody wants the ridiculously burning summer of 2019-2020 (or even 2018-2019), but I would like a bit of summer, please. Up to about 35C for a month or so, varying, and then slowly dropping back again.

Feeling a little discombobulated right now. Everything's a little out of whack, a little uncertain. Even traditional 'safe spaces' are becoming less safe. eg. On the weekend, the 'father of permaculture' walked in the anti-mandate protests of Australia beneath a Permaculture banner, alongside neo-nazis and fascists. And I am reminded of Homer Simpson saying of Sideshow Bob, "I disagree with his Bart-killing policy, but I agree with his Selma-killing policy..." before voting [1] for Sideshow Bob.

I said it a couple of years ago, but I'll say it again: I do not think I will die in this world with all the rights with which I was born into it.

So, today is the 'busy day' of the week. I arranged to meet an aunt & uncle (my dad's cousins) - possibly two - for lunch, and probably for a walk afterwards; then I have an appointment at 5pm, and will have to get back to the island on the last ferry.

It's probably been around 25 years since I've seen these relatives, mostly because they had kids my age, and we hung out at church and youth group at the time. Then, as we got older, went to uni, grew up and married and moved way, we all drifted apart.

That branch of cousins is the branch that 'Cousin T' came from - T, who gave me my initial username on the internet, who was two weeks older than me, who was the brighter, 'out there' one with a love of life and a love of God, who died six years ago, before she was even 40. Fuck cancer.

I'm getting my writing done this morning, then, because I'm not sure I'll be in a mental space to write tonight.

It's probably rats. Lots of rustling noises, and some scratching. I have no idea how they're getting up to the roof since our eaves are sealed. Although it's possible that they've gone in under the tiles via the gutters, since I don't think those are fully sealed anymore. We really need to get a roofer in.

Heck, we need to get a builder in to look at extensions.

But back to the rats. Dealing with them without poisoning them straight off means a process of deterrence, since they're probably eating the chook food and scraps around the place. This is not ideal, but apparently vermin are semi-expected with chickens. I can deal with the vermin, I just wish they weren't nesting in the roof. ICK.

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I woke up at 5am to do my PT from 5:30am-6:30am. The waking up was not good, but the day went pretty well. Ofc, now I am zonked and about ready to go lie down.

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1st November is NaNo. I've written just over 1667 words today, and while it's not great words, it hasn't been terrible either.

I now need to write a conflict between my MC and her former workplace workmates, after she left them for what they perceive as a 'rival' organisation. It's gonna be interesting.

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Four days I spent trying to get this preset subroutine to work, and ended up writing a dozen lines of code that does exactly the same thing and WORKED FIRST TIME.

Now I just need to get the rest of the solution working.

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I have a 'staycation' planned next week. Going to spend the week in an Airbnb just to avoid having to work, get away for a bit, and to focus on writing.

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Hockey starts tomorrow night. I have the option of going running tomorrow morning and then playing two games tomorrow night, or possibly going running on Wednesday and Friday morning. Or possibly just Thursday.

Maybe we'll see how we feel after tomorrow night...

Beltane supper last night was awesome. So nice to sit with friends and chat. Also: they brouhght some food and I offered some food and we had lots of little plates of stuff and it was so good to sit and chat and enjoy company, and particularly to do so at my place!

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This morning, the permabee didn't just get the roof frame up and the netting over it, they also trimmed some of the trees, chopped up the branches, sieved my compost, and helped gather up the leaves all around the yard for a new compost.

What would have taken me a couple of weeks to do, piecemeal? All done in four hours. FANTASTIC.

Although the compost is a bit stinky. There's a dead rat, and some seriously rotted vegetable matter in there.

And, as it turned out, two neighbours left me their grass clippings. I am slowly training my neighbours to bring me their grass clippings...although come to think of it, I should check if they're using any broadleaf herbicides, because some of those things are Not Good for gardens.

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Tomorrow is a sewing day, from 9-4pm - I'm going to take some clothing to try to get finished. I always have Intentions for making clothing in spring and it never actually eventuates. *grr*

Then the neighbourhood trick or treat from 4-6. Still have to decide what I'm going to wear for a costume. I mean, there's always the wonder woman t-shirt and the tiara I have. Don't have the bracelets, though. Could probably make them out of foil, but they wouldn't match the tiara.

I am kind of wishing that I'd invited a few close church friends over for the trick or treating tomorrow night, but I think I'm socialised out this week. I might see if friends are free/interested next week, maybe for a Friday night BBQ. BYO meat and alcohol (we're not big drinkers)? Must check the weather.

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I have a plot for YT! It is plotty! And likely to be long! EEK!

It's going to be a mildly crazy weekend.

Friday night: Beltane feast with my gardening friends
Saturday: permabee to get a netting roof across the chook yard.
Sunday: Trick or treat.

To do:

• make pumpkin frittata (I might skip this; there will almost certainly be plenty of food and snacks with 5 guests bringing a dish, and I defrosted a vegetarian tagine, so there'll be that for food.)


• carve pumpkin


• get countersink drill bits and check if reinforcing pieces needed


• clear up porch and get chairs out

Doesn't help that I got bitten by mosquitos on Tuesday night during training and at least one has become swollen and the skin under is a bit tingly.

Reminder: drink moar water today.

Also reminder: book an appointment with the doc sometime today.

Well, at least the friends who are coming around don't expect a spotless space. I can be excellently hospitable, but tidy and neat? That's another matter entirely.