The other afternoon, on the long way to grab a carton of milk, I stopped at the Centenary Lakes.
There has been lots happening there recently with new structures being built for the Chinese Friendship Garden.
To be 100% honest, since I first saw they were putting it there I was disappointed. It was a change I didn't want to see. But now that it is getting closer to being finished. I think I might kind of like it. It'll be even better when grass and other plants blend it in a bit more.
The thing is, I've always quite liked coming to this spot, it is usually peaceful and the water makes it relaxing. A bit of nature that felt like nature, right in the city. I didn't want that feeling ruined. But it seems I might come to quite like that red reflection on the water in among the green. Maybe I was too fast in my judgements.
It doesn't seem to have bothered the locals either.
I can see how it will end up blending in quite nicely, making that cement not seem as stark.
Meanwhile the water in the Centenary Lakes is getting pretty low again and there was talk on the news the other night about the need to put in drought/ water management for the sugar cane farmers now so that if the wet season isn't very wet, they'll be right.
It is pretty hard to think of a lack of water in the tropics, but it does happen. It is even harder to think of it when every morning for the last week or so it has rained. It is starting to drive me batty. But the reality is no one is expecting much in the way of rain when wet season comes around, whether they live inland or on the coast. But there is always hope. Those weather people are also saying that it might just be a late wet season.They are predicting at least four cyclones after all, even if they come late in the season.
So this little stop off, that really is out of the way for getting milk, was to save my 'stuck at home' sanity and get me outside for a bit.
It worked well.
Other than my trip away for a week, nothing much has been happening. Just the same old work and job hunting. Try that on a dilapidated computer that gets slower and slower every minute until you have to restart it and begin the process again.
I did mention to my boss that I could do more hours and straight away he jumped on putting me on all day Monday, a split shift. I wasn't too keen on the split shift idea, not with the travel around it adding up to around 2 hours. Hardly seems worth it, but then maybe I should just do it. Money and all that.
Oh, on the weekend we nearly headed down a very grown up path, coming close to putting an offer on a house. The lure of a 800m squared block with a 3 bedroom house with plenty of living space and a shed was pretty high. Prices for housing up here just keep creeping up and up so it was a bargain according to that. So close but then the call was never made to make that offer. Secretly, the idea of it is still sitting in the back of my mind but impulse buying a house is probably not the best course of action. We literally had seen the ad for it that morning, went to look and got told the other people who where there at the open house were going to put in a offer, which they did. They gave us until Sunday lunchtime to put in our. Really too fast to make a decision on a idea that was just forming.
Instead we have gone with another very adult decision to keep saving and looking. Really, neither of us want a house here unless it was an investment in the end and prices don't seem to match up with rental values very well.
That was all very serious, wasn't it.
The next thought was looking into costing a wedding up here at a place that appeals to both of us. It literally involves a shed on a farm. Think catering, think photographer, oh we didn't even get to the grog bill. I can see how easy it is for people to have those tens of thousands of dollars weddings, it would be so easy to rack it up. But you see we want cheap. Not cheap and nasty but cheap and nice. It was interesting to do a quick look anyway. We don't want to waste a deposit on a place on a wedding but we do want a wedding.
Money, if only it grew on trees. Which brings me back to the job hunting.
I better go do some applying.
Mind you I am that close to just going 'stuff it'I'll go back governessing'. Not to make it sound like a last resort just more of a 'I don't want to hardly ever see Mr Sparky' thing.
Even our bits and pieces of time together is better than only the odd weekend.
Ah well, time to stop time wasting and get too it.
Enjoy your week.