Happiness is a new lawnmower

When we first came to Australia our son talked my husband in to buying an old fashioned push lawn mower since he is heavily into environment and didn't think we should pollute unnecessarily and also because he thought hubby needed the exercise and also at first we didn't have a lot of lawn to mow. But that was the first house and now we are in our third rental property and it is getting more and more arduous to mow the lawn. You see, it is not just your own lawn you have to worry about but it is your responsibility to look after the outside which is called the nature strip. In our case it is on a steep slope at the back and quite difficult to cut. This brings us to the title of this little blog instalment. Aldi had an offer last Saturday on lawnmowers and hubby managed to snag himself one. He arrived before opening hours and there was a long queue already but fortunately he was able to get one of the mowers on offer for the same price that we had paid for the push mower 9 years ago.

Since I haven't written here for ages there is a lot to catch up on I guess but I can hardly remember . My mind is taken up by our silly house hunting. Last weekend we finally (again) found something suitable and we have now made an offer but haven't heard anything yet. I'll let you know.

In September we had Father's Day and the "kids" took us  out for a pub lunch in Redfern, near where our daughter lives. It was nice and hearty and English, roast and Yorkshire pudding and potatoes and veggies. You don't need to eat for a week after a meal like that.

In August hubby organised a wonderful surprise for me in connection with me turning 70. We had a lovely lunch by the river in the Lugano Seafood Restaurant across the river from where we lived previously in Illawong. The food was great and the setting sublime and the company wonderful. I am very grateful.

Hopefully, next time I write here I will have news about the house. They said that we will know tomorrow if our offer has been accepted.

So bye for now and see you soon!

Home is where the heart is

At least that's what they say, but I am not so sure. We have recently had to move house since our landlord wanted his house back, and we picked this house that we are in, in a bit of a panic moment. My heart is not at all in it, in fact I don't really like it at all. Luckily we have just signed the lease for six months and we intend to unpack only the bare minimum.  That means that we have two bedrooms for storage and the whole garage. I cook with one frying pan and one pot so no exquisite dishes at the moment. We are going to give ourselves that time to try to find a place to buy even if we don't sell the house in France simultaneously. So wish us luck.

Hubby has recently discovered the charm of shopping at Aldis. You always hear stories of people popping in for some groceries and coming out with a lawnmower and a TV bench or something else unexpected. Yesterday it happened to us as well. Hubby was just going in to get some drinks and I waited in the car. He came out looking just a bit sheepish with a big package. It was an outdoor shower that he intends to bring to the cottage in Sweden??!!?? As luggage!! Well, I am glad he didn't get the trampoline that was also for sale this week. I guess we are in for many more of these little surprises now that he has seen what they sell. He did mutter about some sliding mitre saw that seemed to be absolutely essential in a home-owners life.

So you can imagine that this move has taken up pretty much all our our time since I got back from Europe in September. We have however had a few nice meals out. One was a vegetarian lunch buffet in a Buddhist retreat down south somewhere. There was also a market and traditional music and dancing.

We were also invited to our dear friends that we got to know in Grenoble and who now lives here. We had a raclette of all things, first time since I came to Australia and it was a real treat. Apparently you can order raclette cheese from somewhere in Queensland.

I must go now and get dressed before the meter guy comes to read our electricity meter.

I gave hubby a little shopping list for things to get on his way home from work. I hope he doesn't succumb to the temptation to get the 3-D printer or the lawn mower that he was also ogling last time. We are supposed to down size for goodness sake not buy more stuff.

Have a nice rest of the week, dear readers!

PS The jacaranda trees are in full bloom and they are gorgeous.