Nigella …

There are storms over Jannie again tonight and M Kaz is awake and keeping me company. I wonder if they scare her too. I like sleeping on her desk in the office when there are storms about – probably because it’s the furtherest away from the lightning and the thunder – and there’s certainly been a lot of both of those tonight. I’m surprised she’s awake because she went to bed a couple of hours ago – just after 8pm. Yes, she’s being a bit woozy because she hasn’t been totally well. That’s how loud it’s been with the storm – it woke her up and while she was up having her lemonade ice block (for her throat) she called because she knew I would be scared. She’s having a cup of tea now that the storm is passing and I’ll just finish dictating this post so we can both go back to bed. Luckily M Sooz hasn’t seemed to catch whatever it is that M Kaz has. People need to take a lot of things when they’re not feeling well. M Kaz is still taking her cold and flu tablets, the throat spray, anti-dripping tablets (ewwwww) and handsful of tissues travel with her – especially when she goes out. I don’t think they were just for her cold today though when heaps and heaps of tissues went with them when they went to see ‘Wicked: For Good’ with Aunty A at the cinema. M Kaz watched the first ‘Wicked’ here the other night and there were certainly some tears throughout. I hadn’t seen it before so it was quite a surprise to see green people on the television screen again (it’s a while since we watched ‘Shrek’) – and from what I saw it should have been all the other people in the film who were green (with envy over Elphaba’s powers). I’m not saying I could hear the crying from here while they were out but M Kaz certainly looked like she’d been crying when they arrived home (but don’t tell her I told everybody).

The other problem with the storms is that they seem to be coming from totally different directions these days and they’re encroaching more and more into the Outback. If M Kaz has to move my litter tray any more away from the sides of the Outback area, it’s going to be back inside. Wouldn’t that be good!

And before anyone asks – no, those shelves aren’t out of the box yet – but M Kaz has been sick!

We had huge storms here this morning and I have to tell you that I was a little bit frightened by the thunder and the lightning. Those Mummies were of no comfort really although M Sooz did at least get out of bed to check where I was and that I was okay; M Kaz just rolled over and went back to sleep, although to be fair, she hasn’t been totally well. She’s had the cold and flu tablets and the throat-numbing spray out, and she’s been using them. And at about 3 o’clock this morning she was sitting on the couch with a lemonade ice block – her go-to when she has a sore throat.

I like it when they go out and come home with presents. They went to Ipswich yesterday and came back with six large anodisid (read: very colourful and shiny) cups. Aunty Sooz loves them but it’s going to take M Kaz a moment to use them because she’s in love with her Yeti cups.

Believe it or not, M Kaz has not finished putting the Kallax shelf together but as she told them all at breakfast yesterday, she has made a good start: she has opened the box – and read the instructions. She had most everything she needed except a spirit level and yes, we all know about when she and Uncle Wayne went shopping for the spirit level (which is now travelling with him because she could see no need for one) – so it was music to M Kaz’s ears when Aunty S said she had some. And imagine M Kaz’s surprise when she mentioned the spirit level in Ipswich and Aunty D & A pulled a spare spirit level (which one do you want?) out of their “junk drawer” and insisted M Kaz bring it home to Jannie. The other thing Aunty S mentioned was that she was happy to help put the shelves together! Will M Kaz be able to accept the offer of help. Stay tuned!

Those Mummies went to Mouse’s 100th birthday on Sunday and they didn’t even ask if I wanted to go. I knew it was going to be special because M Kaz ironed her pants and shirt for the event. She even wore her ‘polar bears with cameras’ pins – because she was taking her camera so she could take photos at the party. And she took a few – it took her four hours on Monday morning to go through them all and pick out the ones she was going to put on the website. She ended up with 66 and yes, she did dive back in to the photos to find one more so she’d have 67, she’s funny like that.

The closest I got to the party was snuggling in to M Kaz’s shirt when she took it off and left it on the couch.. It was a little like being there – that’s what I told myself anyway – although I think I missed out on a lot – like seeing the birthday cake – and it would have been good if I’d be able to see if for real; I’d certainly heard enough about it over the last couple of weeks – and I’d peeked when M Kaz showed M Sooz the photos for the top of the cake.

Now that M Kaz’s done everything she’d said she was going to for Mouse’s birthday, I guess she’ll turn her attention to “the box” . No, it’s not the television, it’s the box propped up against the wall near the dining table – it’s the one I wrote about last time – the shelving cubes from Ikea. She’s only got four of them to assemble and I’m keen to see how long it takes her to put each one together. She took 36 minutes to build the little grey stool the other day. Will it take longer? Will she get faster as she does each one? And how many times will she consider hiring a handy person to do the job? stay tuned!

I can’t believe the Mummies had Aunty Anja get up on their bed to change the light bulb. I took M Kaz’s point that that was the safest option – in the absence of Uncle Wayne. It’s because the beds are so heavy the Mummies can’t move them – and the fan/ light is above the bed. If only M Kaz had had the right size globes (small with the larger screw-in mount) Aunty Anja wouldn’t need to go back up there the next time she’s here. But it is good to have a light in the bedroom again.

M Kaz has been up at 4.30am the last couple of days to go down to watch the sunrise. It’s just a pity. the sunrise had other ideas. But as she said, it’s good to go to the water then because it’s quiet and peaceful even if there’s no “sunrise” pics.

We have had some lovely weather here – lots of rain and storms (thunder and lightning) and some lovely sunny days as well. The air conditioner in the living area has also been having a bit of a workout. When it’s on M Kaz closes the door to the wc, the bathroom, my bedroom, mostly closes the door to the laundry (and the Outback … I can just shimmy through) and opens one of the doors to the hall cupboard … all to decrease the size of the area the air conditioning is itcooling. It does seem to work as well because the areas outside the cooling zone are a bit warmer.

Sooz is still running the air conditioner in the bedroom, and the ceiling fan and the Vornado fan (some days). M Kaz was telling M Sooz about the personal/handheld fan she saw at Harvey Norman which when you blow it on your face gives the same face-flapping effect as when someone is parachuting out of a plane. It has slower speeds as well if you just want to be like a dog hanging its head out of a car window. It may be something M Kaz keeps an eye out for in the Black Friday sales in a couple of weeks … I think she would buy it for M Sooz (she really does feel the heat) if she didn’t have to pay the full price of $129.

M Kaz has started moving boxes into the house … there is a small one and a big one at this point – but not so big that M Kaz can’t move the big one – although she did wheel it in on the trolley. I believe she bought the boxes (and the other three big ones in the garage) from IKEA and she’s going to build whatever’s in them. Flat packs. That’s what she called them. But one of them isn’t so flat anymore thanks to my excellent efforts as an apprentice/helper. Who knew she was going to make something that flat into a stool – or is it a small table? I can’t wait to see what she does with the big box and what she makes out of that one (and the other three in the garage if they are the same).