Productive day

OMG, just googled "Jake Graf and Hannah Winterbourne", what an inspiration.

After 10 years of working alone, due to staff changes at work I now work with a young lady (late 20's). While we've worked together briefly over the last couple of years, getting used to working with someone else 40 hours a week has been interesting and I think we are getting into a good work rhythm as we seem to think alike on projects. The down side for me is no nail polish, no mascara, no bra underneath my clothes while at work.

The big excitement this week, has been the neighbour's 1960's weatherboard house that was lifted, put on a truck and driven off. The rumour is that the owner (who has never lived in New Zealand) intends to build 2 two story houses on the land. Of course no one here except the Auckland Council likes the idea of our neighbourhood changing.

Today, we had visitors over and apart from an hours outing this morning to have a coffee and read the paper the rest of the day has been spent on renovations (mowing the lawn, remove gutters, paint under them and reposition all the brackets). Daughter has had me make some poles to string overhead lighting and I spent the evening with the wife around a small outdoor fire - really wishing I had bought some beer.
Tomorrow I have to refit the gutters, paint some chairs and I'm sure I heard mutterings of other jobs to be done - we always tend to do stuff like this when overseas family are arriving soon and staying with us. I doubt I'll be allowed out over Christmas as my extended family take over Rachel's room.

I love summer, specially as most of my clothes are summer clothes.

Almost Summer

Well, yesterday was, as I worked the day in the garden while the sun worked on my tan.

Today I was also hopeful, that the light cloud layer would open up to a beautiful blue sky.
I dressed lightly for such a day, deciding pretty lace was required as I headed out for my 7 am coffee.

After coffee, I decided to change to a nice singlet in the hope of getting a bit more of a tan.
For some reason in the trans world, there's a bit of a "thing" about how un-feminine it is for shoulders to be on display. I for one, love shoulders and I don't know why, maybe because they are expressive in the way they show either tension or relaxed attitudes almost as much as the face does

 

My optimism in the weather was dashed by midday by a light rain that settled over Auckland which looks like it's here for the remainder of the day.
Back to boy mode, t-shirt and shorts and grocery shopping with the wife.
Over coffee with the wife, she is concerned still, that my work would find out about my dual personalities and would prefer it if I just had the occasional girls weekend away. I doubt that her idea would be a solution and expect it would just encourage my female personality.

Dog has been repaired (not fixed)

Dog was fixed years ago, but last Tuesday we finally had his bladder stones removed (again), total bill $3,500.
Cat has an eye issue that's gotten a lot worse in the last week, he'll be visiting the vets in the next few days.

Wife is really happy watching her garden develop. The trellis that was leaning against the fence for 2 years, has now been framed and fixed into the ground, deck has been cut back a few feet in preparation for new shrubs. I think I'll need a new back after all this work and I still have to add the top soil.

Saturday night - my Uni girl left her fake tan in my room, so wanting to look good for you, I decided to tan my legs and my upper arms to hide the T-shirt tan - I love the results.

Today (Sunday) 
Windy, rainy morning, but only a little chilly so I can still wear a skirt for you.
I had to drop one of the girls off at a course.
We stopped at a McDonald's close to her course venue, shared a McMuffin for breakfast and just before we drove across to her venue, she mentions I have lipstick on my chin - how the heck, I've no idea. Wiping it off also removes my foundation, but better than than leaving it there.
After dropping her off, I then returned to McDonald's for my coffee.

It was kind of weird wearing my black boots, just because I had forgotten how to walk in them after so long. While I was relaxing, the weather changed into a windy but warm sunny day so I did another car change.














Sylvia Park shopping center and time for a browse around, check out new fashion, so many pretty summer tops and dresses to fall in love with.

Ever been shopping, looking at girls clothes and when asked, you say it's for your wife or "a friend"? - "a friend" is a code word for yourself - just saying.
In this case, I was hoping to find some nice office pants for a friend, who wasn't myself because I don't need to pretend anymore.

I did have to use the ladies room while there.
Two 20 ish girls smiled as I walked in.
As I was washing my hands, a woman in her late 50s also went to wash her hands, gave me the look that could have pealed lead paint off a 2 story house.
I doubt the way she looked at me had anything to do with age, maybe more about her culture or about her life experiences.
Either way, it was more her problem than mine.

I did manage to buy white bikini pants cheap as now I'm into that new white skirt as seen in last week, black undies just don't work.

I really hoped to get to Spotlight to buy some new material to re-cover the cushions on the cane chairs on the front porch. Wife nearly through the chairs out yesterday she was so upset about the rips in the covers. I love relaxing in the cane chairs on the front porch. Yesterday morning while sitting there in my pyjamas, the neighbour came over to complain how the house next to him is being demolished and he's expecting a 2 story to be build which would kill his view and sunlight.
I didn't have time so will have to try to get to Spotlight later in the week.

Off to a shared lunch soon, don't tell anyone but wife is making my contribution as well as her own as reward for working so hard on her garden project.
It's the first year I haven't gone 100% on making my own food for this yearly "friendly" but very competitive competition. Often between the 14 of us, we often produce top restaurant quality dishes.

Update: Okay I didn't place in the top 3 for this years food competition, I've no idea why wife made a sweetcorn muffin on my behalf and next year I promise to cook my own food instead of spending all my time gardening, to redeem today's shocking entry.
But it's still a great event and next year hopefully it will be a cocktail making competition, or even "best curry".