Deprivation..or is it?

A week ago I temporarily deactivated my FB account. I needed to stay focussed on some other important jobs and it’s too easy to lose hours on the various sites and general internetting that I do.  So I have entered a period of what I thought would be web deprivation.

However, I’m here to report that it really hasn’t been as bad as I thought – the first two days were the worst.  A FB friend sent me a text message on day 2 asking how I was coping…I told him ‘crap’.  Then after another day or so I started to notice how much I was getting done (not blogging obviously).  I caught up on some work I was behind with, I listened to some teleclasses and audiobooks while I was working and got a little bit inspired to do some other things.  It’s been good. Really it has.

I have to confess that I do pop back to Facebook every few days to tend my farm for 15 minutes, then I shut it down again.  I also had to leave it open for a day so that a friend in Egypt could add me – but I didn’t spend any time there and as soon as he’d done that I closed it down again until I’m ready to be permanently open. 

I think eventually I will be able to reactivate it and just not spend as much time there, but to begin with I had to make it a bit more definite.    

Go me.

Jack

You may recall some months ago I wrote a post about our ‘new addition’. As he approaches his first birthday I thought an update was in order.

Back then he looked like this…

…now he looks like this - handsome… 

….he loves his family….

…and is a creature of habit…. 

…and with the current decorating and renovations going on he really believes in helping whenever he can.

He’s still a little naughty and loves to chew things he shouldn’t and steal the girls’ toys and run away with them.  But, for the most part, he’s a gentle, funny and loving dog.  We love our Jack.

**Sorry about the quality of the photos – taken in poor light with my phone.**

My new obsession

I mentioned the other day that I had been playing Farmville a lot while I was sick. I also alluded to the fact that I had eased off on the Farmville. Here’s why….

…meet my new love, Civilisation IV (otherwise known as CiviliZation IV - pfft). I have long hankered after this game and when I was ill Tom was sick of seeing me pathetically milking my cows, planting my crops and rearranging my farm* for the umpteenth time. He took pity on me and came home from the shops with a shiny copy of Civ IV. I was very excited.

In case you don’t know Civ IV is a strategy game where you start with a small settlement and build a civilisation. It’s complex and detailed and a lot of fun. It’s like chess on steroids. Being a lover of chess it’s exactly the kind of game I like, you have to think and plan and strategise and practice diplomacy. You can play alone or online in a multi-player game (I play solo). It keeps your brain working. A bit like reading and work and conversation used to (hee hee, kidding there, I still to all those things).

So I started playing Civ and fell in love. Tom is beginning to regret his decision. Sadly I’m back at work and the girls are back at school after the summer break and I haven’t had time to play Civ for a few days. But it will be the weekend soon.

*I still love my farm and play Farmville, in fact I recently expanded and rearranged it all again. That could be a blog post couldn’t it?

Australia Day

Today is Australia Day. Yay.

It is the national day of beer and barbeques and sport. I’m not going to have or attend any barbeques. I’m certainly not watching any sport and it’s unlikely I’ll even have a beer.

Yesterday was Robert Burns’ birthday.

I didn’t go to a Burns’ Supper, nor did I have any haggis but I did have a small whiskey last night (medicinal of course).

Today is also my late Mum’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mum.

Hopeless

That’s me, completely hopeless. I had every intention of doing at least a couple of posts a week. In case you hadn’t noticed it hasn’t happened. I’d like to use the fact that I’ve been ill for a week as an the excuse. So I will. No really, I’m not well. Horrible flu thing with violent coughing, achy joints, snuffly nose, croaky voice. It’s not a pretty sight … or sound.

Anyway, here I am now. With very little to report other than the afore mentioned flu.

If things had been different I had hoped to report on the party I went to on Saturday night and the Art and Wine festival we attended on Sunday (we had invitations to two different wineries). Sadly I didn’t get to any of them due to, you guessed it, the flu.

I should have had that flu shot.

Instead I shall report that I complained a lot, slept a lot, and played Farmville. Until today that is….but I’ll save that for another post (see Dave, I’m getting the hang of it now!).

Once I had a farm…

…in fact I still do. It’s not in Africa though, it’s in that global village that is Facebook. Today I’m going to show you my farm because a while ago when I complained about having nothing much to post my friend Dave told me to post about my farm.

So I will.

I’m quite attached to my farm. Occasionally I think I could be putting my time to better use, but the truth is I actually find my farm quite relaxing. I feed my animals, plow my fields, and plant then harvest my crops. I visit my friends and do a bit of work on their farms and generally enjoy myself. It’s not hurting anyone, I’m not killing aliens or destroying civilisations. I’m not spending hours on it, just a few minutes a day quietly farming. Considering I rarely get into my own garden these days it’s a poor but adequate compromise. Admittedly in the beginning I would fret that I might miss my crops ripening and they’d wilt. But now I time them to be available when I’m ready so there’s no pressure any more – and if I don’t get there and they wilt – meh, so what? It’s all good. And I think my farm is quite lovely too….

The obligatory weather post

Things wouldn’t be ‘back to normal’ in my blogging world if I didn’t post about the weather and have a good old bitch about the heat.

As usual the Australian summer is getting to me. That will come as no surprise to you all, it always has been a thorn in my side and I’ve let you know it. However now there seem to be more extremely hot days (days over 35C) and they are lasting for longer periods – several days in a row before any relief – then starting up again too soon. This does not a happy Caitlin make.

My Northern hemisphere thermostat is designed to deal with this…..

Not this…………….

……….so that all you want to do is this……………

Stupid weather.