Warning, When I am Old I will Wear Purple

My mum loves this poem

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

By Jenny Joseph

Sadly I can see she has the type of spirit where she will darn well wear purple with a red hat too.
Unfortunately, she has been beaten too it by a group of ladies I met in Hamilton Central one evening.

They were all at the Carol Singing Evening that we attended and they looked so great in their purple clothes with red hats that I just had to ask them for a picture as I knew mum would love to see it.

Pink Dress

Last night I took the washing off the line in a hurry as a light shower was passing and I had just managed to dry all the clothes.
As we have the gazebo still up in the garden from the BBQ last weekend, I quickly wheeled the laundry trolley under there and promptly forgot about it until this morning.
I actually only noticed it as I was racing out the door to work, but seeing as it was going to be another glorious day and it was under the gazebo, I decided to leave it where it was till I got home.

This is where the mystery comes in......

When we got home, there was a salmon pink dress laid across the laundry trolley.

No note, no explaination, no nothing, just the dress.
It is a size 8, so way too big too small for me.
Definetely my style, little sleeves and scooped in at the waist, although it won't fit!

But no explaination as to where it came from.
I have searched the garden as it has been a little windy today, so thought maybe the note (if one was left) had got blustered away into the hedge, but no.

So I have this dress that I don't know where it came from or what I am meant to do with it?
Is it for me? It is 2nd hand but in very good condition.

So I will take it into the house today and wait to see if anyone texts me to ask how I liked it, or something like that?

Paint

Yesterday we went to a hardware shop to get some stuff.

As I had 5 minutes to spare I had a quick look at the paint sheets, we are doing the bathroom so am looking at colours for the walls.

2 minutes later I heard an 'Oh No!' and knew it must be trouble....

There stood next to me was Alex, with a sample pot of paint in his hand, with the lid undone!

You guessed it, all down his clothes, his hands, feet and of course the shop floor!

Luckily there was a shop lady on hand to help clear up and they didn't even make me buy the pot, which was lucky as I didn't like the colour!

Dreaming

As Steve dropped me off at work today, I happened to notice that I had dribbled toothpaste down the top I am wearing!
Nothing too obvious, but enough to make me wish that I had another top to change into. One exactly the same would be good because I like my outfit today, colourful and summery.

This then made me remember something from many years ago......

About 13 years ago I got to go on a short holiday (7 days) with my parents to Florida. Dad was there on business, mum was visiting dad and I went to do my first attempt at the NCLEX Exam (Nursing exam).
Whilst we were there, the people my dad knew there took us to this house. This house belonged to a very wealthy man and the guy my dad knew was looking after the house for him.
The house was situated on the beach front and had other very large houses, owned by famous people, nearby; it even had its own little private subway under the road by which to gain access to the beach by!

The house had everything anyone could ever dream of wishing for, a kitchen like no other I had seen, including a walk in fridge, complete with it’s own huge fridge just for the wine (I know, everyone’s main priority)
The library was amazing, one of those libraries that had shelves from floor to ceiling and a sliding ladder by which to reach the books by, a very business like library but so inviting to come and sit and read in.
The dinning room was huge and very welcoming to fabulous dinner parties as required.
There was art all over the house, obviously it was all very expensive art, but this was a house that had art on the wall for the art itself not the cost. Some of it was chosen because it was liked not because it cost the earth. Although we were informed that they own a piece of art that was currently not at the house because it was on loan to a museum! Man I wish a museum would pay me to loan a piece off my wall?

The garden was beautiful and accentuated the pool area nicely. (We did actually get to come back another day and have lunch by the pool and swim)

There was a guest wing, that was set aside for his daughter, if she ever visited, and the wing was set ready for someone to stay, and I mean totally ready, the towels were set out, the robe hung on the back of the door and the bed was made, although we got told that no one had actually stayed in the guest wing for over a year, but it was still all set up just in case. Oh and it was still cleaned everyday to keep it all fresh.
In the main house for every bedroom (I think there were about 5 or 6) there was a walk-in closet and bathroom. All the bedroom also faced out over the beach side of the hosue, so everyone had the same view from their room.
The main bedroom was grand but nothing too flash. Nice size bed and a little sitting area. The bathroom had the normal separate sinks etc and was well lit, no putting on your makeup in a dim lit room.
He apparently liked clean pyjamas every night and also liked to have clean sheets on the bed every night! Now at the time I thought this was extravagant, but everytime I climb into my own bed on the day we have changed the sheets I love that clean sheet feeling, and now looking back I am so totally envious of this guy having clean sheets everyday!

We then got shown something very private about the guy that owned the house, his wardrobe.
It was nothing special but what was amazing about it was the fact that all the shirts he owned were in colour order in the wardrobe and that there were 4 of every colour!
This is the amazing part…..this was because when he held a party or gathering etc if he spilt something on his shirt or he started to sweat he was able to excuse himself upstairs and change his shirt, but of course, by changing into a clean shirt of the same colour then no one would notice he had changed and everyone would just continue to comment on how smart and well presented he always looked.

And that is what made me think of this this morning, me needing to change my top and how I wished I had another exactly the same in my wardrobe so I didn’t have to think about what to replace it with.

Maybe when I win the lottery, then I can buy 4 of everything for that just in case moment!

Hand Me Downs

My sister in law and I got together several years ago and decided we would have 2 boys each and we would mix them in with the ages and then hand me downs would work well.....yea right!

My sister in law and I are very lucky in that we do have 2 boys each and their ages mix together quite nicely. She has Ellis who is 8, I have Ben who is 5, then she has Harvey who is 41/2 and I have Alex who is 31/2.
It also means that when Ellis is turning 21, the same year we will have an 18 yr old, a 17 yr old and a 16 yr old! Imagine those 4 together in the same house for the weekend!
Not that we planned any of it, but hey, that is life.

I have a friend who has a 10 yr old boy and she is wonderful in passing on old clothes to me, I have happily kept them in the cupboard until Ben fits them, but then decided that in fact Claire could get more use out of them with Ellis, so they now go there and because Harvey is slightly bigger than Ben, even though he is younger, as long as they are still in good condition when they have finished with them, then my two still get to see them as well.

So hand me downs are doing the long run with all of us.

Washing

I am sick of washing clothes. I think we should invest in disposable clothes, would make life so much easier.

It is not that I don't like doing the washing, sometimes I do, it is just the amount we seem to create and then the joy of getting it all dried on wet days.

I have realised that of course it is worse in the winter due to the fact we are wearing more clothes.

In the summer the average person wears a t-shirt and shorts, with underwear of course, so this amounts to very small things per person per day to wash. Unfortunately in the winter everyone wears 15 layers, well it feels like it!

But when you have had to wash per day for one person, socks, trousers, vest, shirt and jumper, some which are not thin things because that wouldn't keep you warm! Well then you end up with a full basket after just 2 days with 4 of you wearing the clothes.

No wonder it is never ending in the winter but so easy to get through in the summer.

Oh by the way, I do now own a tumble drier, only a little one, just big enough to do a small load if need be, my spirits are rising..

To Dry or Not To Dryer?

We are in the middle of a huge storm that has come across New Zealand.
We have had torrential rain for about the last 2 weeks on and off.

It is cold and very wet!

Ok we have had some spectacular lightening and thunder storms to go with it which have been amazing, house shaking amazing actually. Apparently we had 1500 bolts of lightening on one night, I am not actually sure if anyone in the Waikato was asleep at 3am that night, well with the exception of Alex!

Now I don't own a clothes dryer, never have!

In fact I was never bought up with one. Mum never had one, it wasn't the thing to have in England.

I have never had one the whole time I have lived in NZ either. Can't see the point, have a wonderful clothes line in the garden and a heater in the house that when clothes are placed on a rack and left over night they would be dry the next day.

When I rented accomodation when I first lived here, then yes there was a dryer, I did use it but only for sheets, towels and underware and this was only when I couldn't get them dry on the line.

In the last 2 weeks I have decided I am sick of wet washing.

I don't particularly need a dryer, but I can see the advantage of having a second hand one in the garage for those odd times. I know they are electricity eaters and that in these expensive times everyone is recommending that you get rid of your dryers, but like my mother, who has one in the garage but never uses it, it would be nice to know it is there in those desperate times.

I usually take the pile of wet towels and sheets to the local launderette to get them dry when the weather is really bad that I can't hang them outside. When we were in Auckland I could do this and it only cost $6.50 for the biggest load you have ever seen. Here in hamilton it is so expensive. One small washing basket load, which is probably 1/3 of the size I would have in Auckland, cost me $6 the other day and before that I got charged $10!

With Alex toilet training at the moment, which is going really well, then I am constantly having racks of wet washing in the garage which are not drying, the heater in the house is always drying the clothes in the evening and I am not enjoying it.

Add to this the fact that we are just about to install a heat pump in the house so the heater will dissappear and suddenly I am going to get over come with wet washing.

Now I don't want a brand new one, I am happy to go to Trade Me, auction website and purchase a second hand one, just something that will finish off the clothes if need be and also make it so my house no longer resembles a chinese laundry!

Moving and Mould!

Yes that is right I have said mould in the title.

Turns out I discovered a bucket in the garage today with a lid on, that I had planned to have in the bathroom for wet cloths that need to go out to the laundry, which is in the garage btw, and I opened it to discover a pair of jeans and a shirt of Ben's in there!

Thing is they were in the laundry in the old house and in the move the lid got put on and the bucket got placed in the garage, I consequently forgot all about it and 2 weeks later I have discovered these mould stained clothes!

I have rinsed them in very hot water and am soaking them in hot soapy water but have resigned myself to the fact that they will get thrown out as I don't think I will get rid of the mould stain on them!

Oh well the joys of moving house.