Back to the grindstone

Just a short post this week. Nothing terribly exciting has happened. Well, perhaps it has, but not as dramatic as most of my boring old posts :-)

This week saw Fluffy and I return to work after our epic peninsula adventures. It's hard going back. For most people they go back refreshed and ready to go. For me, I know I face the arduous job of catching up on everything that was not done in my absence. So there is that mild sense of dread of what may be waiting. As Dobby is home on holidays, I am free to come and go as I please so I have been getting to work earlier and leaving later to catch up. Make up for some of the time I had to take off I suppose, and will still have to take off.

She has another doctor's appointment on Monday, at 2.15 which means I will have to leave about 1.20. That means I won't go back to work after. If we finish at a reasonable hour I will take her to finish her uniform shopping just up the road from work. Boss flies to Sydney that afternoon so he'll be out for the week. I get lots done when he's not there so it's catch up time.

Fluffy seems to be settling into his new role of Acting Contract Manager. He'll feel it when the boss comes back in March I think. He has enjoyed having the perks that go with the job - meetings offsite, dinner now and then, plus he got taken to the cricket this week. That was fun. Do Not attempt to go anywhere near North Adelaide when the cricket is on. There are no provisions for parking or traffic and it took half an hour to go a few kms. Stupid. And I found the cause of it was people trying to do a left hand turn were blocking traffic and backing it up right back into the city. But he enjoyed the night anyway, in a corporate box, food, drink... someone even gave him a stubbie cooler with Mitsubishi 380 on it - a very rare item indeed. (for those who don't know, we drive one of those).

So, anyway, he has been obsessed with updating our caravan lately. We would need to take out finance to do this. But we do not have a mortgage, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem. We just never really gave it any thought.

Until this week. Sometime this week, not sure when, Fluffy took himself down to the caravan people. He brought me home a brochure to look at, and a quote the lass down there gave him. He was so excited. We were told they could give us a certain amount as trade in for our van, but if we sold privately we could get a couple grand more because everyone is looking for vans with bunks.

And, if we don't manage to sell, they will still take it at the price they quoted. Good to have that choice, isn't it? How many places take that!

So, we went down for a look yesterday. Indeed, the layout of the one I like is rather nice. Single beds, middle kitchen like ours but bigger, and a front dinette. Dobby found she could lie on the longer seat relatively comfortably. Not as long as a bunk, and she would have to bend her knees slightly, but no different to her sleeping on the couch at home really.

So, we put down a deposit and ordered one....

I can't download any picures from their site, but here's the website: Jayco.

If you look at Poptops, Sterling, floor plan 1755-6, that's ours. Fabric and laminex will show you the laminex we chose of Quartz Gloss, but the fabric we chose (well, Dobby and I chose) is not on there. It's an unusual one. Chocolate corduroy type fabric for the seats and the back is a cream colour with black felt sketch style straight flower stems with leaves. Not sure if there are actual flowers, but they have the odd red and yellow-ish leaves. The others are either brown or unfilled. I call it "happy fabric". It's kind of uplifting. Fluffy chose a blue one, which I must add, was lovely. In fact, I always wanted a blue interior. But for some reason I kept coming back to this other.

We have yet to see what it looks like made up because it's so new, but I have been assured that toward the end of the month they will start getting a few sample vans through the yard and we are welcome to go down and see. If we don't like it we can change. The colours are neutral type colours, and as it comes with beige curtains and bedding (yes, it comes with two single bed quilts and pillows), we thought this one would match. When I can find a pic of it I'll put one up.

If you want to take a virtual tour, you'll find our model is not there. But if you look at the 1755-7, it's the same except ours had single beds.

So, there you go. We spoke to the finance guy yesterday and should know something later this week. He didn't seem to think there would be a problem... Now we just have to tackle the task of cleaning out this one and putting it up for sale.

Then, after that little stint, we had to make a dash to KMart for Dobby. Recently she "won" (I say that because everyone who enters the draw wins) a free photo session at Studio 2000. I had this done years ago, and it was expensive then. But she wanted to do it, totally against her father's wishes though.

So, we went down there for something to wear. She just doesn't have anything. I found a few bargains, and off we went.

Now, as these are terribly expensive photos, I guess we won't be able to afford to buy any, so when we got home, we took some photos of each other just so we knew what we looked like on the day... what do you think? I think Dobby's make up is lovely, but not sure about it on her. It's what she wanted, and she did some sweet rock chick photos. I didn't think the photographer did quite what she could though. She didn't encourage Dobby to let loose, just posed her how she wanted her to look.











Same with mine. We were posed some ways, but I thought there would have been more seated shots. However, some were with that new technology that really brings out the colours. I know we won't be able to afford to buy them but I am really looking forward to seeing them.

Sigh. Well, never mind. It was a fun afternoon. I think the highlight for Dobby was, while we were standing outside waiting for Fluffy to pick us up, still in full make up, a taxi drove past staring at us with a huge grin on his Indian face. I wondered what that was about then I realised, we must look like a couple of hookers! All dolled up like that, loitering outside on the streets on a quiet Saturday afternoon! Dobby roared with laughter! So after that I decided we had better hold our stuff while waiting.... just to make sure....

Stupid Blogger. It has been taking close to ten minutes to upload two photos. I just did some more, and it said "Done" but the photos didn't come though. Now I have to start all over again!