Sunday 3 April 2011

End of daylight savings

...couldn't come quick enough. I hated getting up at 6.15 and it still being dark after 7. It meant we got the morning sun in our eyes driving Dobby to school and no joke, in some places it was an accident waiting to happen.

Anyway, last night it finished. Which meant that I went to bed at 10, but woke up at what would have been 7. But was only 6. But it was daylight...

So, this week? Well, workwise it was busy. There seems to be no slacking off time anymore. No days where I am not busy and can take it easy. We have had disaster after disaster, including the biggest gas company in the country running out of Butane LPG, and an ISO shipping container mysteriously changing the pressure of the LPG inside it. Stupid things that have meant that a customer who deals with both, has been digging their heels in and not helping us any further with exports or supply to other customers. Anyway, enough of that.

From my point of view, it's been a busy week. Tuesday saw my last photography lesson. I'm out on my own now. We have been given the names of some clubs we can hook up with. I think I'll look at two fairly close to home. Maybe...

On Monday Fluffy said not to make plans for the weekend we had something on. Oh, okay. What? Not telling. Well, that's no good. How can I plan anything? Don't plan anything was the answer.

So I didn't. Thursday night I found out what the surprise is. Fluffy sent me away here for the weekend. All by myself. Just me. Well, not to this specific place, but to a property owned by them.

It was a house on the outskirts of Gawler, and it was mine all weekend (well, for Saturday night anyway). As the tutor from the sculpting class I did has a studio there, I decided to take "Bertha" up to see if he could fire her. Turns out he has just done a firing and won't be doing it for quite some time, but he did give me some tips of what to do with her once she's been done. And suggested I take her to someone closer to home.

But I digress. So Saturday morning, I packed an overnight bag, loaded up my camera gear and Bertha, and drove the hour up to Gawler. I hadn't driven that far by myself since we moved to Adelaide 9 years ago, but I managed not to fall asleep. Quite proud of myself for that! Haha!

I did a drive by of the property, but wasn't sure if it was the right place, as there was a car in the drive and I couldn't see a roller door. The fellow said he'd open the roller door and put the key in a key safe inside the door.

But I figured I'd work that out later. I drove into town, and found a car park in a multi level thing. Lots of spaces - very rare to see that! I needed some new jeans so I stopped in BigW and found a cheap pair. Then, because it was still before lunch, I went for a walk around the main street. Found a couple of cheap shops but didn't have a lot of spending money for the weekend.

The bikie club was having a run through the town, so on the way up I went through two random breath test stations. Just after noon the first few police cars came through town, followed by a stream of bikies, followed up by another couple of police cars. One of those had a flat tyre thumping away and he didn't even seem to notice...

I phoned my art tutor and made arrangements to drop off Bertha. But, I got lost. There are two streets with the same name in Gawler, and I got the wrong one. Eventually, after several long waits at intersections, and several U-Turns, I managed to find him. Only, as I said, to find he couldn't help me.

Never mind. Time to go find my house. It was the place I had seen previously. Didn't even occur to me that it could have been the owner leaving the key for me that I saw before. D-uh! It's a lovely house, big enough for a family to live in.



And the fridge and pantry were stocked with all the essentials for breakfast.





Gosh! That reminds me! I hadn't had lunch and it was after 1.00pm! Ahh, but there is bacon, eggs, tomato, milk and juice, and a loaf of fresh bread. Perfect lunch right there. I cooked some up and sat reading my book in the quiet while I ate it.

After doing my dishes I decided to have an afternoon on the couch watching the Dexter dvd's my mother had given my for Christmas. It was fantastic, having nothing to do, only myself to answer to. No house work (apart from doing the dishes), no one fighting with me. I could get used to that.

In between episodes of Dexter I ventured into the back yard in search of interesting things to photograph. That mouse didn't sit still long enough to capture, but I did find some spider webs and a brick wall...







Eventually I decided I should venture out in search of dinner. It was about six I guess, still daylight, so I went across the road to the nature reserve creek thing and took these.





Then, drove up the main street in search of somewhere nice to eat. I turned a corner and found a little pub, which of course, was fully booked out. Except the beer garden. Well, lucky I have my jacket in the car.

After dinner I stopped to take some photos. They didn't turn out very well, but you may find a couple of them interesting.







After dinner it was back to the room for a relaxing spa.



What a way to pass half an hour or so. After the spa it was back in front of the telly. Watching something on the Universe. Bed at ten.



This morning when I got up, I made a cuppa and put Dexter back on. About 7.30 I cooked up the last of the bacon, some toast, tomato, and fried an egg. I dashed into the shower then packed up all my stuff. Then back to watch a bit more Dexter.

About 10.15 I left the room. I had seen adds for some markets on the way out of town. I found them, but there wasn't much there, so I just bought a bottle of home made olive oil for $5 (great price!) and hit the road.

I was him just after 12, and found the floors vacuumed, sheets changed, bed remade, house spotless. Yes, I could definitely get used to this....

**** Just thought I'd mention, too, that with my background, you might want to click on the photos to view them, then just click the back button to go back to the blog after each one. Might make them look a bit better... or not...

3 comments:

SOL's view said...

I usually look at your photos that way. :)

Glad you had a relaxing weekend. And to come home and find that stuff all done! Whoo! Have a tim tam to celebrate.

JoeinVegas said...

A weekend away, and a lot of photos - sounds like you had a good time on your own.

Chris H said...

Your photos are great.
What a wonderful weekend you had. I dream of having a relaxing, lazy weekend... *sigh*