She PINK!!!

 Happy Saturday everyone from this glamorous Granny!

Working from Home

 I've had an epiphany about working from home. Last year it nearly did for my sanity, but now I have a lovely little desk, a comfy chair, a big monitor and a window with decent light, in a room I love and it's a game changer.

My own laptop and a whiteboard are on a chair just to the left (I'm left handed) so I have music playing on that one while I work on my teeny work one. Thank goodness for big monitors at reasonable prices! And on my beloved whiteboard I can plan and brainstorm and organise things

When we went into proper lockdown in April last year, I was caught completely short. I immediately took leave because I needed to be at the shop looking after locking it down too, and so got no time to collect furniture or equipment. It was dire with a broken chair and no decent screen or keyboard!

Anyway that was a long time ago in a flat and job far away. Most of us work from home at least one day a week to alleviate the space issues in the office. And I find I do really get a lot of work done in my happy place!

Dino Quilt

 So the dinosaur quilt that tried to wreck my back is done, delivered and made the recipient cry. I feel my work there is done.

It's not everyone's idea of a baby quilt that is for sure! but given developmentally babies really only see bright colours, and her Mama is nuts about dinosaurs, I am unapologetic in my pastel dodging ways.

Felix held it up for me and even when he is just peering over the top, you can see how mischievous he is!

Red roses are another Mama favourite.

It is SO good getting this finished. I thought I would during lockdown but I lose my sewjo, my gojo and every other creative jo going! now I am crazy busy, I am getting stuff done.

Oh the irony. Time is about as objective as the climate.

Parking

 

Our city council in their wisdom is trying to keep cars out of the city by hiking up parking charges and extending their hours of operation. 

Wellington is not a big city and the buses are rubbish - they neither cover the whole area or run extended hours. 

I've done official things to object, however being me, I wrote some songs about it. Last night these went into my Music Quiz round. I thought you might enjoy them:

From Suburbia - Tune of In Suburbia by The Pet Shop Boys

Lost in the city, where the wardens
Are ticketing suburban cars
Mother's got her hairdo to be done
She can’t afford to park her car
Stood by the bus stop hour after hour
But the buses never come
She calls an Uber, twenty minutes
That cancels after 21
She can’t get a ride into town today from suburbia
Can’t get a ride into town today from suburbia...

Ticket my Ride - Tune of Ticket to Ride by The Beatles

I think I'm gonna be sad
I think it's today, yeah
I want to drive into town
but it’s not okay
They’re gonna ticket my ride
They’re gonna ticket my ride
They’re gonna ticket my ride
And they don't care

Yesterday - the Beatles

Yesterday I could drive to town from far away
Now it’s far too much we have to pay
Oh, I preferred it yesterday
Suddenly it costs far more than it used to be
There's a warden hangin' over me
Oh I preferred it yesterday
Why’d things have to change,
I don't know, they wouldn't say
I parked an hour too long, now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, town was such an easy gig to play
Now I‘m risking being towed away
Oh, I preferred it yesterday

Joan Baez I may not be, but a protest song I can do!

T-Rex Injuries

 I know that homo sapiens did not inhabit the Earth at the same time as dinosaurs but we'd all agree they are DANGEROUS. And they still are today!

Dinosaur quilt mid quilting

This quilt is a panel featuring lurid and savage looking dinosaurs, I love it!! I made up the patchwork top in 2019, and having a Saturday to devote to sewing at a quilting retreat, I proceeded to quilt it.

Quilting is the part where you use stitching to hold the top, batting and backing together. It takes time.

All in all I sewed from 10am-9pm, with breaks for lunch and dinner, and to go talk to people from time to time.

Not often enough, however.

Since then my back has been in spasm. Erk. I can hardly walk. The dinosaurs got me.

But we're in lockdown alert 2 thanks to an Australian tourist who spent the weekend in Wellington, visiting exhibitions and cafes and partying at a bar all night, while positive with Covid. So I wasn't going to be out and about much anyway.

Trans Tasman relations come with a high price.

Pointy stick, steep slope.

 I've been pushing something uphill with a pointed stick since forever. I've found it hard to get up in the morning, but I can't sleep, and my brain is porridge. I put this all down to working 6-7 days a week.

So, yesterday I was so tired I took a day off. And mentioned to my son Jack that I had a bit of a pain in my chest and tingles in my left arm. It was kind of worrying me but I was explaining it all way - oh it's muscular, I'm left handed etc. Jack cut through all of this with a call to Health Line and they sent an ambulance! I was so embarrassed, such a fuss, but he reminded me of what I would say to someone else in the same situation and of course, I'd be bustling them off to ED as well.

I had an ECG and blood pressure test in the ambulance, then the probably 1k drive to the hospital, I insisted on walking in, Debbie came to join us and I spent the day in there having tests.

The outcome is, my heart, blood pressure, blood sugar and other vitals are all really good. The pain IS muscles, but, the winner on the day was, I am anaemic. Very anaemic. Which explains why I have been so tired and unable to string thoughts together. And, I have to give up the antiflam medicine that has been keeping my knee pain under control as it is wreaking havoc on my system. So that's fun.

Anyway this morning I joined a Zoom call through my work with Dr Siouxsie Wiles, NZ's foremost science communicator. Because I was on my home laptop, my home Zoom image came up! My friend Lucille who was also in the call at work, took this screen shot. So funny. We're all pink together.

Scrubbed up

 We, (Leo, Hans and I) did a wee gig last night and decided not to go full clown, so I did a Frida look.

I don't think I've worn this little slap in years! Well, when wearing slap that is! I put MASCARA on, can you believe it?! It's probably the second time in 5 years. Normally I just put on false lashes, it's easier.

It was a fun gig -we did Catering Song, So Happy Together and the mash up of The Winner takes it all, I'm not OK and Dust in the Wind. We call it inter-generational angsty wailing. I'd love to think of a song from the 50s to replace Dust in the Wind as it is very close to Abba erawise. Except that existential crises songs really only started coming out in the late 60s!