Everyone was asking me why I wasn’t drawing pictures of Amy, so I thought I’d prepare a little surprise for our 11th wedding anniversary. I started with one of us together and then ones with Amy and one of her friends. I then sent these digitally to her friends and asked them all to send them back to Amy digitally today. It was fun to plan all this and it got me a lot of practice with sketching.
Shaun and AmyAmy and JessicaFern and AmyMay and AmyAmy and MueyAmy and GraceBillie and AmyMai and AmyAmy and Bookie
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the TV in our hotel room last night. The porter switched it on when bringing in our bags and I thought it was weird to turn on the TV. As I was waiting for Amy I switched channels by total coincidence they had the ABC Channel and the Swans game was being shown live. I managed to watch the first half before we had to go out for dinner.
I am so happy and grateful for my iPad – I can read comics and books and right now I’m watching Sydney v Richmond at the MCG. It’s a replay and I know Sydney won but it’s great to be able to watch us play so well.
Looking forward to a good day today. Coriky on jukebox – don’t know song title.
Fun dream last night. Met Cake – she is still cool. Wonder when I’ll see her again. Muslim food – Yum.
Amy happy – friends moving near here – excellent news. Update Coach app – new habits – feel myself improving. Watched Sydney Swans game last night but that wasn’t fun.
Dodgy knee maybe okay now?! Realise last night that it’s not hurting anymore. Fix my toe next?! Hope. Bubble of hope. Rubber bubble of hope! Someone fix my neck forever! But don’t kill me I don’t want to die yet. Gonna happen any time. History – doomed to repeat it. Humans innit?
De Lanna by the river – enjoy your thoughts flowing by.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful that I spent time to put up our decorative lights last night. It was fun and they look cool.
To-do list
Compliment – silent wishes – savour ½
Finish audio for ‘good friends’ clip ✅
Get next blog post ready ½
Record new TCRAH in evening? ½
Scan photos
Now it’s Monday evening. The weekend was a little bit of everything and I was either lazy or too busy to write here but I’ve been feeling fine, getting things done and keeping my head straight. I didn’t get enough sleep last night though – it was Amy’s 41st birthday – dinner with her, her grandmum, mum and dad – and drama.
Anyway, I need to sleep so will come back and write more tomorrow, along with an updated checklist.
Our final day of freedom before students return to school tomorrow. The last two days have been lazy, hot and humid with nice bright sunshine. Though as I’m writing another storm has blown in from the mountains. It’s lovely to cool down but damn, that rain is cold and the air is still warm.
Feeling good again today doing bits and pieces for my blog, a little bit of video editing and drinking coffee. I cannot complain about my life situation currently. I’m happy to be healthy and able to enjoy it. I’ll try to maintain it.
I am so happy and grateful to be able to watch the football in Australia from here in Thailand. It’s a nice feeling when your team does well.
To-do list
Visa in the morning ½
Enjoy drive and visit with Matt ½
More blog posts
‘Thank you’ mantra ½
Damn, something happened to me on Sunday. I went to visit Matt and he showed me all his cool modular gadgets which was pretty interesting. After a couple of hours though I suddenly felt like I’d had enough and left quite abruptly. I didn’t really understand it – it seemed like it was time to go.
I got home and felt ok but perhaps a little odd. Amy came home and we got into a ridiculous argument over nothing so I went to lie down and breathe away the emotions. Then suddenly I felt super tired so took a shower and went to bed. This was at about 6 pm.
Apart from waking up at different times for about 3 hours total I slept through until Tuesday morning! I just felt completely exhausted and had a headache and wondering if I still have some residual pain from the work on my tooth (headache is on that side). I can also imagine this made me cranky on Sunday too.
Needless to say, I didn’t get much of anything done during this time. Now I’m having to run around to prepare things for my visa. Our annual fun week!
I am so happy and grateful to have a lot of free time and not feel under pressure.
“How do I know that the wind should blow? It’s blowing!” She adds “I realised that it’s insane to oppose it. When I argue with reality, I lose – but only 100% of the time.”
Byron Katie
To-do list
Just Dance ✅
Again, yes again – think before writing and speaking ✅
Start grading if you can ✅
Meditate (Inner Engineering) ✅
Sort more CDs ✅
Watched the first Swans game of the year (not sure we’ll be in any contention this year – we have good players but not a good team for some reason) and taught Ellen, so the day has flown by.
Feeling good and positive again – maybe because I’ve been laughing at myself playing Just Dance in the morning. Going to do it again tomorrow.
12 Jun 2024 – The Swans finished 16th out of 18 this year. One of the only years they have not played finals in the last couple of decades. It was a time of rebuilding and if memory serves me correctly they made the Grand Final a couple of years later.
Record of the week: The Dickies – Walk Like An Egg Highest entry: Angelic Upstarts – Teenage Warning
25th May 2022 – My ‘record’ of the week seems to be just different songs from the Dickies album. Well, it is that good, I suppose. Angelic Upstarts – fantastic youth anthem, Teenage Warning – classic. I wonder if I could play it on guitar? Definitely not the guitar solo though!
12th August 1979 Might be watching the match on Saturday vs Forest
25th May 2022 – I think this would be the first of two times I saw Ipswich play. The other was in Bristol, vs Bristol City, though I’ve no idea what mum and I were doing in Bristol. Maybe just visiting Bath?
13th August 1979 I’m writing this on Thursday and I can’t remember what happened today 2p 93p* 86p* 179p*
14th August 1979 Went to Sharon and Ken’s 2p
25th May 2022 – Before moving to Dorset to live with my grandparents, we lived in Devon. I also don’t really know why we moved to Devon from Cumbria, though I would guess it would have something to do with my mum’s then-boyfriend committing himself to more than one girlfriend at a time. I never really saw my mum with another guy after that. Anyway, in Devon, my cousins, Sharon and Ken lived about 3 miles away from where we did. After leaving Devon at the end of 1976, Sharon and Ken moved too, also to Dorset, about 10 miles away from us. I used to enjoy Ken’s sense of humour and playfulness. Also by this time, they must have had a least one of their two children, Mungo followed by Kim. I was deemed to be close enough in age to play with them and get out of my mum’s hair for a while.
15th August 1979 Came back from Sharon and Ken’s 2p
16th August 1979 1. Boomtown Rats 2. Cliff Richard 3. Ian Dury 4. EWF 5. Abba 6. Hersham Boys 7. Police 8. Dooleys 9. Darts 10. ELO 2p 173p*
17th August 1979 Go on holiday to East Anglia Not Dead 2p 171p*
25th May 2022 – Hehe – I’m not sure why I wrote ‘not dead’. I suppose it was a long drive. I was excited to be in the county of my team and to be going to see them play the following day. Here, we stayed with my Auntie Eileen and Uncle Dick, after them having stayed with us last week or so.
18th August 1979 Up until now because I’ll be giving Ipswich’s scores Ipswich 0-1 Forest – Boo Watched the match live. 2p 169p*
25th May 2022 – In East Anglia I remember being allowed to drink Cinzano, which was Eileen and Dick’s favourite tipple.
I also managed to convince my mum to buy the Sham 69 Hersham Boys 12″ which no one else was very impressed with but didn’t stop me from playing it. Especially showing these ‘old people’ how angry and mature I was by enjoying the beeped-out swearing on the live tunes.
We also went for a walk across a heath with lots of brackens and their old dog trailing behind. But the football match that I was so excited about I don’t remember a thing, except perhaps, being disappointed at losing.
The other time I saw them, they lost too and that trend continued many a time I went to watch the Swans play in Sydney too. There was a very big difference in the atmosphere at matches between English football and Aussie Rules.
In England there was always a tension, a palpable possibility of violence, not even my mum could protect me from. In Australia, everyone is there to have a good time and enjoy watching the sport. Overzealous fans tend to be frowned upon. There is also no separation for supporters because it just isn’t necessary. Fans would poke gentle fun at each other, that was as violent as I ever saw at a game. Even opposition fans could make me laugh when one time, Collingwood scored their first point and shouted ‘You’re losing, Sydney!’
1994ever 