Every day since my return to Sydney seems to have been nonstop DYI. DYI, DYI, DYI. Didn't I do this before I left for my trip, too? Maybe I am more ambitious now, but I suspect I am recovering cognitively, and certainly physically, and just able to get more done. This fourth 'round the world trip was much harder than the previous ones, even if I made it simpler and shortened it by a week. Many of my friends told me I have changed a lot since last year, for the third year, calmer and more aware. I am definitely a lot different from this time last year. Putting myself through a week of catharsis to reset my body's chronic reaction to my accident/hip replacements trauma worked, and I never felt that agony I had felt for the nine months before, despite the travel with up to 85kg of luggage.
Moving location every three days, sometimes every day, for six weeks was grueling. I stayed at the boring beach in Zanzibar for four nights which was my longest stay anywhere.
Yawn. Ok, this looks pretty nice now I am in winter, and this was the flea and tout ridden backpacker part of the beach.
But evidenced by the path of destruction, this trip was tough going: destroyed posh Tumi suitcase, disintegrated posh Tumi backpack (a $450 backpack shouldn't fall apart in a few months! man..), damaged posh TAG watch, damaged pro Bushnell binocs, damaged iPhone, damaged iPad. The first week back, everything was sent for warranty repair. Whew. That is why I buy top quality stuff that is guaranteed to last, even if my travel is hard on them.
I relied on a series of paper todo lists my first few days back. On day three, feeling better finally from taking antibiotics, I swapped and merged my paper list into my Excel todo spreadsheet that I share with my team via Dropbox. Now I am being controlled by the computer, driven by its unsympathetic logic. I've been banging things off the list every day and every night, but then new chores come on to replace them. I've become a drone. Actually a female worker bee is more like it. Some of these garden chores take days. But at least now I have a record of what I am accomplishing. And it's starting to look a bit more like the Hotel Pakalika in the Lower Haight.
It's clear that my Alzheimer's meds, Aricept, that my mate Joe helped get on the market, are making me ever so slightly manic, at some times more than others. But with a todo list in charge of my time, and my trustee scrutinizing my finances until we get settled from this trip, I am not worried about revving too high. I've been getting great sleep, now that this frickin' annual TB-grade cough has finally waned.
Induced Asthma: Take slow shallow breaths and don't hyperventilate. Meditation is the best tool to relax the bronchials, she says; seems to be a theme.
Yesterday, Vicki was teaching me how to manage my resulting temporary asthma, since she's had it for life, and that helped, and I think I am almost back to normal. But Sydney is cold, like 16 degrees, though i am still wearing shorts everywhere. No wonder I can't shake this cold! Sitting in the night air at the footie wont help, but i don't care. I love the footie, and Sydney is on fire right now.
Am I manic on these meds? Who cares? I am getting so much done!
I even washed the panda's jumper
I reorganized my library today into a proper library classifications: Philosophy and psychology, Religion, Technology, Arts & recreation, Literature, History & geography
shelves for art, fiction, athletics, Buddhism and spirituality, computer science, geography, business. Language, Pure Science (Zoology) is on another shelf: animal science, travel, and language. The front shelf gets cookbooks and nutrition. I could actually give these sections Dewey Decimals, but I am not that manic. That opened up two botteom shelves to finally get my collection of miniature stuffed zoo animals off the unrespectable closet floor onto their own shelves. I need to go back and arrange the animals by class, at least keep the predatory cats away from the ungulates. Maybe I could arrange the animals by Dewey Decimal? No time, gotta get ready for footie, which means catering the event. Maybe infuse some vodka.
Several of my mates overseas and also Vicki yesterday rent rooms in their flats to tourists on AirBnB. In fact, David Kaye won the global grand contest promotion for AirBnB, and got a week at any AirBnB in the world including airfare for him and his husband Kevin. They invited me to their week in Ko Samui in September, and I am now scheming how to go. I'll probably use my accumulating UA, AA or QF miles since I have already blown through most of my travel and entertainment budget for the year. I have to plan one other trip, to New Zealand, for my mates Dale and Gary's wedding over NYE. That is if Dale can get time off from his international business travel.
Yesterday, I had a great idea. Since these trips are each shorter than two weeks, I could have a mate care for my cats, and I could rent out my beach flat on AirBnB. If I could rent it, it looks like about $200/night in mid-September and $300 over peak NYE. It's a great apartment for tourists. That's say $1500 in September and maybe $3500 in January, then maybe another $1000 in January when I go to Aussie open, after costs, such as a fee for looking after my critters. AirBnB guarantees your flat against wholesale damage or theft, so it seems like a no-brainer. That would make my ongoing travel guilt free and I could throw in a few nights at the Peninsula.
Furthermore, I was noticing visiting the AirBnB mates, actually staying in the hotel Pakalika this time in San Francisco, that the guys tend to keep their flats very tidy and fresh, and they also tend to use hotel-like amenities including things like easily accessible plugs for guests in their rooms. It dawned on me that the chore of looking after their Inns has the side effect that they always live in a pristine hotel-like environment. I want that!
Getting tidy
My mum gave me posed portraits of herself and Dad on this trip. They look a bit like Kath and Kim's portraits.
Kath and Kel's connubial pics from Kath and Kim.
A posh hotel would not have scraggly plants in its garden. I have had my star jasmine since I moved to Sydney in 2005, from a way overpriced plant store in Darlo I must have sought out being from overpriced Manhattan. But it never really bloomed much after the first few years and despite training it around my front terrace, it looked like a weed. It had to go, but as a Buddhist, I felt I could not kill it. So I passed the buck to Jamie, who had no problem issuing the order.
"Kill it!", Jamie says.
I had to turn the poor rooted plant upside down in it's wedged pot to get her out. She's a survivor after all. I could not do it. I had to save her. Not that I am going to keep her in the front row. I planted the gorgeous bougainvillea and some lavender in its place and moved the jade plant I grew from a clipping to under the Meyer lemon.
It's SO much better now. But I was felt feeling guilty. So I drove my hybrid SUV to bunnings an got three bags of potting soil, a new tree and a ceramic pot for it. (Here's the lack of frontal lobe impulse control.). Long story short, I transplanted the jasmine to against the wall in the back terrace, roped along the gutter. Three days out, I can tell she LOVES her new home. I didn't really plan it this way, but it's a great example of Columbia business school's negotiation methods in which everyone walks away from the table with a win.
Jasmine is so happy in her new home.
Bougainvillea is going to be beautiful trained up this sunny front terrace, and the lavender smells great.
Thinned out my table of flowers.
Herbs: planted new oregano, after it had somehow died back to sticks, next to the taragon; new basil.
New chives and rosemary in less citrus planter sunny spot. Jade plant in least sunny spot.
The new west wing: what to do?
Sunday DYI will be to figure out how to build my new creeping wall of flowers. I redesigned the west wing after my design guru Ivo relaid my living room and we gave it a William Morris Art's and Crafts look with a beautiful handmade Indian rug for 70% off. He moved the furniture from the glass wall so now the terrace looks like part of the inside living room. I just extended the nighttime and dawn LED lighting to give it a glow. It's pretty cool. But I am not sure how the plants should sit. We shall see!
Sunday arvo: Trained three plants in two hours. Lots of painful resistance from bougainvillea. Plants are just like animals; they know evolutionarily that our husbandry is good for them.
Damn, have to meet nephew for Indian. Do the other six at dusk
Ten hours of labour later, I had all of my plants trained. Ivo came by for a final subtle but necessary design fluff, and now it is simple, pure comfort.
I tried orange-rubbish-bag-wrapped LED lights but the orange is too intense
The next night, I rewrapped the LED cord with scented pink Woolies rubbish bags. Better but needs another wrap for a darker glow.
My candid gardening comrade Jamie reports: "Looks nice honey. Seems to create a bit more space." The new West Wing is now part of my living room atmosphere.
