a journey of gratitude, inspired by a car crash
Picture this:
It’s Friday. The end of a LONG week.
It’s cold.
First day of Winter.
You’ve had an on/off scratchy throat for a good two weeks.
You arrive at your parents house, hungry.
And you find… SOUP.
Not just any soup… it’s your Mum’s soup.
Ahhh! Angels sing!
There is no soup like your Mother’s. Of course it’s the best.
How did she know?
Of course she knew… Mum’s just know.
😉
You don’t need cocktails.
You don’t need food.
You don’t need a happening hotspot.
Nor do you need lights, crowds, people and ambience to fill the scene.
All you need are your friends…
And now I’m going to eat my words (along with tonight’s not-so-mild curry) and say that I had ALL of these tonight!
But seriously, I might as well have been eating fish and chips from a dodgy booth somewhere for all I cared. Sure the surroundings were cool, and I love heading out to different and new places… but when you are in certain company, and you realise that where you are doesn’t really matter, just THEY do…
That’s a good sign. 🙂
When I was teenager, the word sick could have meant 3 completely different things:
Sick (1): Something great. Too cool for school. Ultra awesome. Best-thing-since-sliced-bread good.
Eg. “That N*Sync and Richard Marx love-song collaboration is sick.”
(Yep. I said teenagers).
Sick (2): Filthy. So wrong. Depraved. Inappropriate. Get-away-from-me-now-I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that, sick.
Eg. “I love Maths.”
“You’re sick.”
The third definition of sick is funnily enough, the only one I have anything to do with nowadays, being a parent of a kindergarten-attending girl.
Sick (3): Of having your immune system worn out. With cold. Feverish. Unwell. Tired. Sniffly. Coughing, sneezing, achiness usually presents.
This is the sick I was dealing with today.
But I couldn’t help but be thankful for the timing. How is it that often the sickness comes when you have nothing on? For the first time in ages we were home today, and the last 3 Fridays we’ve had appointments appointments appointments. It’s been mad crazy busy, so when we woke up this morning and baby girl was still suffering with a sniffily and snotty nose, feeling very worse for wear and overly tired, I knew it was going to be that kind of day.
That ‘tending-to-her’ day.
I was actually glad I was the one to be there. I didn’t have anywhere to be. I wasn’t cancelling appointments – sure we had to cancel a playdate, but for now that leisure would have to wait. I gave her Panadol, checked her temperature, felt her forehead a billion times… blew her nose a trillion times… bathed her and fed her and cuddled and kissed her every time she asked… and didn’t.
I was grateful I was home with her for this most important of sick days – the first one is always the hardest – and though tomorrow I AM away from her, I sure as hell hope the worst has passed, and the love and support I gave her today will help her on her road to healing.
So the cold, though shit, had good timing. Sick. (Number 1!)
Friday nights are the epitome of Dreams Manifested.
It always signals the end of something tiring, mundane, routine, demanding or difficult.
In my case today, it signalled almost the end of driving.
Photo by Michael Coury on Unsplash
I’ve been driving all over the place for 2 days. All good things, but it is getting exhausting and frustrating at this time of year. I have some more set up for me tomorrow, but having this little in-between break called Friday Night, where I chill-axed with Hubbie and baby girl, eating takeaway and reminiscing about SIA, it was just what I needed.
And tomorrow’s driving road leads to… The Wiggles. If the insane storms that have been predicted by the weather bureaus fall flat on their winds, that is…
Oh man. You know that feeling when you get to the end of something, and you just sigh?
Ahhhh.
Yeah, but mine is a little like ahhh brrrr ahhh.
With everything that has been happening lately, (and by everything, I mean EVERYTHING), I’m just glad I’ve gotten to the end of it all.
The end of Friday. I love Fridays with their beautiful weekend promises, but after keeping with appointments and driving all about the place today, I’m just glad it’s all over.
The end of the week. In fact, it has been exactly one week that I have survived with no ducted heating! Such a 1st world problem I know, and yet as I cast my mind back, I can’t ever think of a time when I didn’t have proper heating to nestle back into… even when we holidayed overseas in July of 1997, it was Summer, so there was absolutely no need for it. I’ve got my eye keenly planted on the day in which the gas heater man will come over and reinstall our new heater (roughly 6 days time) so the countdown is ON. You can be sure I’ll be damn happy and super grateful when that happens.
The end of July. Sure sure, it’s not THE END, yet. But we are days away, and guess what peeps? We have survived 2 months of Winter! I barely consider August a Wintery month. I know it’s still cold, and the mornings are still icy, but I’m adamant a Spring-like change starts to appear around my birthday (of course I would proclaim that) and anyway, I am usually so busy celebrating all kinds of August-fun festivities, I have no time to even feel the cold.
End Friday, End week, End July. I am happy for these closing ceremonies, because where one door closes, another one opens… and today I have 3 exciting doors to peek through…
As it has been for the last little while, we have been thinking and planning for our upcoming kitchen reno. And as I look forward with eagerness to the new, clean, fresh-looking cupboards and benchtops and appliances and work spaces, one little nagging thought has continually entered my mind…
Will I have any more storage space?
Storage for me, is a big thing. I am not just a hoarder. But in the kitchen, I do like to experiment. Cook like this, cook like that. I won’t ever say no to a different recipe, and if I fear a certain way of cooking/preparing/baking a dish, my curiosity and fascination always wins out and I do it anyway.
Curiosity is a powerful force. I find I rarely fail in these endeavours. I’m not saying I’m a Masterchef… but I do well.
So I have bagged up a few or so items/appliances/crockery/servingware in my culinary adventures. And I don’t intend on parting with them anytime soon… in fact, I plan on ADDING to the family.
Sheesh. Don’t tell Hubbie.
Which is why I look with concern as I scan my kitchen, my old, out-dated kitchen, NOW. I stare at it, squint my eyes, and think of the new kitchen… and I honestly don’t think there will be much additional storage.
This is a concern, because as mentioned in a post late last year, I still have about 7-8 boxes crammed-full of kitchen stuff, that currently does not fit in my kitchen. They have been piled into corners elsewhere, but currently are out of action…
Brow-furrowing issue. Hrmmmm….
Cue the inconvenient “gas heater break-down problem,” A.K.A. Blessing in Disguise.
So today, I found out, it probably wasn’t worth fixing our old heater that broke down on us last Friday morning. Sure, it could be repaired…. but after forking out even more $$$, there was no guarantee that another major issue wouldn’t occur for this almost 40 year old (not even exaggerating) heater that was seriously getting on.
Needing a new gas heater throws a spanner in the works, in that it obviously requires $$$, bills are coming in, we are focusing on the kitchen primarily, and also, it will need to be rejigged and refit outside.
Our current gas heater sits inside our house you see, right around the corner from the kitchen. It’s in the hallway, so almost in the kitchen. Ripping the old one out of the cupboard from there, will…
Leave the cupboard bare.
!!!
Despite the $$$ gas heater re-fit bill looming in my head, the storage lover in me could not help but see the beautiful potential.
The potential in turning the old gas heater cupboard, into another pantry/useful cupboard for my kitchen items.
Ta ding!
And just like that, a little bit like when I started this blog and was grateful that when that car hit me that fatefully annoying day in Feb of ’16, I slowly grew to be grateful for the fact that when he hit me, he hit my side, and so the car was less affected, and more easily repaired with just the removal of the back door.
This new gas heater will be a costly and time-consuming exercise, but when it is done, my kitchen will definitely have ample storage… and that, is nothing to squint at.
Grateful for our dying gas heater. Who would have thought?!
Today I’m loving this girl
This guy is super awesome too
I like this black one
And this emanating one rocks in a real chilled out, undercover way
This other identical white one is much appreciated
And even this ancient relic, that DOES blow warm air, while at the same time simultaneously releasing some kind of cold gust from the sides, making you need to turn it off because you just can’t take anymore cold air, well even this one is somewhat liked. Somewhat.
All of this because our ducted gas heating broke down on us last Friday morning.
I spoke about my love for our ducted gas heating when after ages of trying to get it fixed here after Sea changing (the gas pipe leading into the house had rusted, having had no occupants in here for years before we moved in) we finally got it working after repeated, repeated, repeated visits from our gas heater/ plumbing guy.
Back then he said it was old, but the unit was really good. It was dependable.
Dude, the thing has shit itself half-way into Winter. I don’t call that overly reliable.
When it worked though, it was the BOMB. It heated us up so efficiently and quickly, that honestly, baby girl would be left red-faced as she strolled around the house with no socks. I loved the heater, and it treated us well, until I turned it on one chilly morning last Friday, and waited…
And waited…
And waited…
And then went, “Oh Damn.”
All I can hope is our heater can get fixed soon, and for the smallest amount of $$$ possible. Make it just $. In the meantime though, those above beauties are gold, and actually doing a decent job of keeping various main rooms, bathrooms and bedrooms around the house, cosy.
They are saving us immensely, especially this cold-hating girl. And yet I have to wonder…. who else in this world today, is writing a post about being grateful for a portable heater, huh? I bet you NO ONE.
Challenge: Prove me wrong!
