Score!

Picked up this really nice deco pedestal basin tonight. Someone on my work buy,sell, exchange was giving it away (yes, free, gratis) because they have just had their bathroom upgraded with modern fittings. This is a genuwine 1930's model, in pretty good condition, and here it is standing in front of the 1960s basin with cupboard underneath, which probably replaced a basin just like this. The irony of life and fashion; one person's modernisation is becomes someone else's idea of yuck. I never use the cupboard under the basin anyway. Mostly it stores bits and pieces that could find a home elsewhere. The new old basin looks great. My bathroom is very very small, so this will give an illusion of more space. And it looks like it belongs there; the bathroom is the most original part of the house (built in 1938) still with its original windows, light fitting and towel rails. The funny thing is that I could have looked for ages for a nice old basin like this and not found one, not for free anyway, so I've snapped it up.

Makes up for continuing difficulties in my work-life, where doors seem to be slowly closing, and the ongoing dreary saga of the city's rebuilding and a looming General Election (expect the usual patronizing rubbish from all sides, who really don't give a shit as long as they get elected). 

Tired

Arezzo

Not much doing today. I'm really tired after my work-week, Monday was hell on earth as it was busy, busy, busy and we had 2 people sick. Today I've stayed in bed and slept mostly.
  I laid out in the garden on my rug. Thomas found a new friend, a little kitten that I've not seen before, and talked and purred at it. My boy is a lover not a fighter; I feel sad that he's all alone, with no other cat to keep him company. I could get another kitten, but it's so expensive now with food and vet's fees.
  Still in the process of booking for the Italian trip, most is done now except the last week. I think I'll stay for a few days in Arezzo and do some local bus/train trips around there. Unfortunately, some of the places I want to visit are only accessible by car, and I need an international driver's license which I don't have, to hire a car. No doubt it will sort itself out in time; it's quite a lot of work planning a holiday.
  The pears are starting to fall, and I've just had three very juicy nectarines. Our weather here had turned cooler, sort of autumnal in the early mornings. Where did our summer go?

OMG

Had to get passport photos for a new passport. Oh my God! I never realised before how uneven my face is; no, I have not had a stroke, just look naturally miserable. We're not allowed to smile for our photos, or wear glasses ( I usually do, all the time) so this is the result. I even put a bit of makeup on so this is me looking almost my best. OMG indeed! Although, as a wit at work said, the passport photo probably reflects quite accurately what one looks like after flying halfway round the world.

Notes from a potty-mouthed underachiever

Had a PRD session yesterday - Performance Review and Development, an interview with the boss that is like a 6-month report card. Not that I've done anything wrong; my employing body likes to do these for all employees just to keep us on our toes and let us know how goodly/badly we're doing. It's full of the usual words like 'initiative' 'taking responsibility' 'making it happen' (whatever it happens to be). Everyone hates them, bosses included. The worst thing is that no matter if you are the best little employee in the world, being the best little employee in the world will not get you a pay rise. You might get 'mentioned in dispatches' as they used to say from the trenches in wartime, but there's little real concrete motivation to do more that go through the motions. I come in, I do my job as best as I can, don't try to rub up against my colleagues or the punters, and generally try to be helpful and cheerful. But this is not enough; I must 'continually seek to improve' 'work smarter' etc. etc. My boss was not in a good mood yesterday; the words 'potty-mouthed' and 'underachiever' were mentioned, so I'm feeling a bit hurt. Well, no, a lot hurt, really. When I compare myself to some of the other workers, I can't say that I'm any worse. (One colleague always gets away with doing what she wants all the time; for some, allowances are  always being made, why, I don't know. The rest of us have to toe the line and take up the slack left by those for whom allowances are always made). Life is unfair. I shall stay in bed all day and nurse my bruised ego.
  Still, I console myself with the garden. As pictured above, a little harvest of vegetables from the potager. At least I can feed myself. My other job comes to an end in a few weeks, so back to penury and austerity. My employing body has hit a cash crisis, so there is no longer money for casual or discretionary employment, which keeps the army of part-timers able to have a few luxuries in life. (However, there is money for the new mayor to employ five new 'advisors' for her office; funny, that. Hope 'they' are not reading this; does it constitute 'bringing my employer into disrepute?' Disclaimer: this is purely a personal view point from a personal person, not an official statement from an official of my employing body). Since a very small portion of the world's population reads my blog, I think not.)
  I've wittered on long enough. Tot siens! to my fans in the Netherlands.
   

Plum sauce

Finished and bottled the plum sauce this morning. I had to go and buy a stick blender because my old one broke and was thrown out ages ago. The sauce needs to sit for a couple of weeks, so that the flavours 'marry'. I like this one, it has no onion in it, so no tedious tearful onion chopping. It's more of a sweet and sour sauce than a savoury one. In the spirit of wartime, (see next paragraph) I've reused my olive oil and mayonnaisse bottles; no pretty little "mob-caps" of gingham here, I'm afraid. More plums wait in the fridge. I just have to decide whether to make them into jam (will it set?)or just cook and freeze them (easier and less nerve-wracking).

Reading two books about the Second World War at the moment. Just finished "La's orchestra saves the world" by Alexander McCall Smith, a 'nice' easy read, a bit predictable and just a little preachy) and a more weighty non-fiction tome, "A green and pleasant land; how England's gardeners fought the Second World War" by Ursula Buchan. Great pictures, the best is a poor, dismayed child confronted with a carrot rather than a longed-for icecream.

Later that day...

Our weather is quite predictable here, in a wild, dramatic sort of way; after a day of heat and hot wind, the wind has swung around to the South, so now the thermometer has dropped about 15 degrees and the wind is cold! The peril of living on a long, narrow island in the middle of the sea means our weather changes very suddenly. Tourists tramping in the mountains often get caught out. They don't believe that a calm sunny day can turn into a killer southerly with snow in about half an hour.
   Here's the southerly buster coming in over Kahurangi, pictured from my spare room window. It's probably hailing up there now.
   So this evening I'm indoors in the warm, making plum sauce from the day's windfalls. 

Summer - hot!

It's midday here in NZ, and it's about 31 degrees outside (Celsius that is). This is hot for us, and there's a hot wind blowing as well, which makes it unpleasant to be outside. So I thought I'd come inside in the cool and blog a bit. I took these photos this morning, when it was calm.

'Fragrant Cloud" rose growing among the cornstems in the vegetable garden, has a great fragrance, a full, fruity, true rose smell.

Lillies galore

Dahlia 'Lady Darlene'

Concha d'Or lillies

Japanese anemones: these are really tall, over my head

Feline photobomber!

The next door neighbour's plum tree is raining fruit on the garden.

A pretty Asiatic lily that I discovered in my search for windfall plums

Looking out from the conservatory,  and trug full of dead-heads.

Little pumpkins

Pumpkin plants need gallons of water, the big leaves just flop in the heat.