Are Black & Gold and other brands really cheaper?

The last couple of times my husband went to the shop to finalise some details on our fortnightly spending, actually one was our afternoon tea, pre shopping day I think, we have a couple of days overlap. He found the biscuits I think, Arnotts cheaper than the cheap ones, and today the Saxa salt was cheaper than the Black & Gold.

So here is the question? If you buy some or all your things plain label, do you check the price or just throw it in the trolley? Do you think they were just hurrying up the older stock because it was a smaller shop than say Coles? Or do you think you just have to be on your toes, as they are getting quite a few cents more out of you if you don't check the price.

Bocktober

What an apt title in some ways. Today was my son's last day of school before the exams. They decided to stay up all night instead, then go to the breakfast at school. My son got home at 4.30. No it didn't look like he had been drinking really. He was able to stay awake and go shopping with me after this breakfast thing. We took advantage of the fact his sister was home except for when she had to go to the hospital and have a bandage dressed.

So I drove to the regional centre, got there feeling like I needed a coffee, but no where near as bad as last time. I had woken each hour to see if he was home and must have given up at some point. We were able to get a formal outfit for him and his sister, plus shoes for him. The formal wear is for the high school graduation. His sister needs possibly shoes at a later date. The other sister has a dress that she made herself. That is good because the race wear, that is formal and in the shops at the moment has dresses at $250? My daughter tried on a yellow dress in kids size that she liked but was too long. I saw a yellow dress in a boutique window shorter and less than half the price of the other ones. Very pretty, but she thinks the thick fabric is a bit nana, and hopes to find a cover up for the front. It has a fabric flower on the front.

In our country there is an ad for Vinnies (op-shop) that says to shop there and outfit yourself for the races for $50. Sign of the times?

We also have needed a sandwich or toastie maker for a long time, and got a spongebob one. I find it hard with him smiling up at me, had to try one out though.

Menu at Last!

Thursday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise
Friday ~ Mexican Mince
Saturday ~ Pork Mince (Pork Stroganoff)
Sunday ~ (Prosciutto) Lentil & Cannellini Bean Soup
Monday ~ Red Curry Beef & Bok Choy Stir Fry (Mince)
Tuesday ~ Chinese Cabbage & Lamb Stir Fry (Mince)
Wednesday ~ Tuna with mixed bean salad with lemon dressing
Thursday ~ Pork Sausages (Stir Fry Sausages)
Friday ~ Chickpeas with Chorizo & Silverbeet
Saturday ~ Simple Pork Pies with mashed potato (Pork Sausages)
Sunday ~ Zucchini, Tomato & Chilli Rigatoni
Monday ~ Mee Goreng

Simple Justice

Today I was watching a program on TV called Border Security. There was a man being filmed who came from Canada I think. He was questioning being body searched I think because he said he didn't have any drugs on himself. In the end they were going to get a Justice of the Peace to talk to him, because he was doing it for the principle of the thing. After watching it I was wonder really, how many people would do that. I don't think too many. Before I thought maybe some would. I have that tendency myself, so if no one really does it, yikes.

Does justice have anything to do with simple living? The blog Voluntary Simplicity and Social Justice has made that connection.

Here's Where I Am Up To

Making : blog bundles to share (haven't quite finished them)
Cooking : pies, peas & potatoes, hopefully
Drinking : hopefully a cup of tea
Reading: re-reading Tender Grace by Jackina Stark and her discussion questions and blog
Wanting: another book to read
Looking: ahead to buying some things at the real shops
Playing: just sitting on the lawn with my daughter
Wasting: time sitting under the tree at school waiting for the bus instead of reading the notice
Sewing: nothing at the moment
Wishing: for a part time job for our second son
Enjoying: A Golden Gaytime
Waiting: For hubby to come home from the shop
Liking: sitting on the grass in the garden
Wondering: if my husband will have the chance to get his hair cut
Loving: the sound of birds outside all the time, so special
Hoping: for good results on my son's VCE results
Marvelling: at being able to dry things on the line after a puppy and a foggy winter
Needing: to go grocery shopping, plan my menu and pay some bills
Smelling: unfortunately fumes in my car after taking the mower and petrol in it
Wearing: a black t-shirt & jeans
Following: it is very hard to read my reader at such a slow speed, but I tried
Noticing: how the bluebells are finished and there is a first rose on the arch (Renae)
Knowing: Christmas is coming, vaguely
Thinking: about planning some more things, like a trip to the dentist
Feeling: nicer after being in the garden and down the street
Bookmarking: I don't bookmark
Opening: my icecream
Giggling: maybe about the animals that my daughter saw today at the sanctuary
Feeling: Tired

From here

Locktober, Remember Me As, Embracing the Seasons

Kuala Lumpur by my daughter in early October

Locktober, Remember Me As, and Embracing the Seasons. These are all the writing prompts I found for today, that aren't memes as such.

Embracing the seasons was the topic of a novel I think I finished last night. It is called Tender Grace by Jackina Stark. It is her first novel. It is about a 50ish woman who lost her husband to a heart attack. She has her house paid for, her two children, a boy and a girl are grown up. She has two grandchildren. She watches 10 hours of TV a day. She feels dead but alive, I think but don't quote me.

I like the way it was written, as a journal on her computer. She was easy to relate to, except maybe to Australians the scenes that involve yukky stuff may not appeal. It makes her not so middle class in some ways.

Basically the woman learned to see the tender graces as she called them of each day.

Break, break, break

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me. ~ Tennyson

She went on a roadtrip and basically got some perspective on her memories I think. And gave herself an opportunity to see people that she wouldn't have had in front of the TV.

Today as I wait for the big event of my second son perhaps leaving home. Loose ends tying up so we can get stuck into renovating again, and the weather going to warmer like it is supposed to, I find that I was doing nothing. The internet was too slow to upload some photos of my daughter's trip to show everyone. I ended up having a little sleep while the children were quite happy, settled they were. I think they liked the clean lounge, the lovely weather and one daughter knew her foot would not allow her to run around too much. My elder daughter seemed quite content and settled after her trip. After I phoned her Dad about why she wasn't in her afterschool cooking class that is.

Then I looked so uninterested, really I was too tired to wait for pages to load, so the sleep must have helped, my husband suggested I watch TV. Not sure why the couch was vacant then, asked where everyone was. The fact that the lawn was nicely mowed probably made it look inviting. I watched The Good Chef and the Bad Chef. They cooked southern fried chicken and a sweet potato and pecan pie to show us how things are done in the US. I noticed that Gary used mixed spice, probably because he knows we can't buy pie spice?

Then a nice salad for tea/dinner. I wonder when we had a salad last? My husband changed around nearly everything in the tuna salad. But it was good and he wrote out the recipe.

So here I am still shocked that I had a nightmare last night, and one of my daughters had a possibly fatal accident with a hair straightener. It gave her a zap, she moved her hand and it shorted out. Is that a tender grace or what? I can't even bear to think about it. I have always had circuit breakers, the electrician on this job didn't come back. We were meant to be moved into our newer house that has circuit breakers. May buy some plug in ones soon.

I enjoyed putting the fan on in my room today. Anyway that was probably a good reason to be not so "up" today. But I find it hard, Facebook is challenging to me. I put a picture of my daughter on it, with nice hair. Others didn't think so, and she does miss her hair straightener, the one I didn't want her to have. When walking around the zoo I thought she looked nice, that she goes to the trouble to look nice.

How do I want to be remembered? I think I do things for myself, to my own standards as much as is possible, because everyone seems to live their life to their own style and they may not like anything I do, even if it is at a good standard. They may not care for them. Hopefully it will be a benefit to someone and they will be pleased. At the moment working out what a person my age is supposed to do when it is no longer necessary to copy what our parents did is challenging. Simple living with a twist? I thought so, but maybe simple living is still fashionable and it is OK for me to do not so much in this season of my life, and I am glad my husband told me to just chill and watch TV, I enjoyed it. And the book is good, I can recommend it, it follows along with the part of the bible called John. I tend to be a little lost after such a big weekend as we had last week and the catching up this weekend. Now back to normality if it is possible with the end of the school year going on. I was pleased with the little debriefing email from the teacher that took the kids to Kuala Lumpur, that helped. Sort of restating the positives of their trip, and I guess our effort.

John 1:16 "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another."

Melbourne Zoological Gardens ~ for Stalktober

We took these photos last Saturday. It is simple living, but perhaps not cheap.

Docktober

Well there are no boats in my photos this month. But I do have this photo of the Tarrawingee cemetary, which reminds me of the Docker family, Docker the place and Oxley Plains and a vague memory of Dockers Plains.

I got all excited as google turned up a lady with the same name as one of my ancestors who lived in Dockers Plains and had made a very interesting quilt. It was made from blue bags. What are blue bags? It seems like they are things that bluing was wrapped in. Is that possible? Blue was added to the laundry in those days. Here it is in the National Quilt Register.

"DOCKER, JOSEPH (1793-1865), Church of England clergyman and settler, was born at Newby Head, Westmorland, England, the youngest son of William Docker and his wife Jane, née Betham. He was educated at Appleby Grammar School in Westmorland and at Oxford, was ordained deacon in 1817 and priest in 1818 by the bishop of Carlisle, and appointed curate at North Meols, Lancashire. In September 1823 he became assistant curate to his brother William, who held a living in Southport, Lancashire. He married Sarah Bristow of Liverpool and in 1828 sailed with her for Sydney. Their first child, Mary Jane, was born on the voyage. They arrived in November 1828, and next June Joseph Docker became rector of St Matthew's Church, Windsor.

He resigned in March 1833 and bought Clifton, an estate near Windsor, which he farmed for four years. Encouraged by accounts of Major (Sir) Thomas Mitchell's explorations, he decided to move to the Port Phillip District and take up a run. In February 1838 he set out with his wife, five children, servants, a flock of sheep, some cattle and a boat. The party travelled in covered bullock-wagons and carts through Goulburn and Yass, and crossed the Murray at the Crossing-Place (Albury). In September 1838 he arrived at the Ovens River where he heard of a hut and a run on plains called Bontharambo by the Aboriginals. The run had been deserted by George Faithful, whose shepherds had been murdered by Aboriginals. Docker took possession of the hut and obtained the squatting rights. His kind and understanding attitude to the Aboriginals was rewarded by their friendship and help, and for many years they held corroborees on the island in the lagoon not far from the house. Depression and drought in 1842 did not affect Bontharambo as severely as they did some other stations in the district. By 1844 a larger slab house with bark roof was built to provide more comfort for Docker's growing family. He prospered and within a few years began building a large stone mansion; 400 tons of granite, carted from Beechworth by bullock-wagon, were used in the foundations. By that time he had ten children.

In 1851 he visited England with his wife. Bontharambo remained in the possession of the Docker family and became famous for its stud of Aberdeen Angus cattle. The house has been preserved in almost its original state, but the pioneer's vineyard, orangery and other features have disappeared. He died on 10 April 1865, survived by six of his eleven children.

Joseph Docker was a man of wide education, a classical scholar, an enterprising and successful farmer and pastoralist, well known in the Wangaratta district as a just and kindly man and a respected pioneer." ~ From the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

To me the house was beautiful, and hard to see from the road. I always wanted to go visit it. Isn't Bontharambo a beautiful name. I read a book about it once, not sure what it was called. Maybe A Saddle At Bontharambo?

Always, Never, Sometimes...

Got this idea from her heart my hands who got it from Blinking Flights, Who got it from Good-ness who got it from Elise Blaha....

Lol. Too true.

Hopefully this is about real life everyday things that simple living is made up of.

I always:

* finish my cup of tea
* use my indicator on the car & stop at stop signs
* use old towels for rags

I sometimes:

* watch Ready Steady Cook
* sleep in (not saying I wake up with the birds, though around here sometimes it is necessary)
* put out snail bait, though that could be a good thing, especially when we have lizards and stuff around
* clean my reading glasses
* use up everything in the fridge, it used to be everything, now sometimes I don't use up all the spinach, yoghurt, and zucchinis


I never:

* play video games
* use my parker lights on the car
* sunbake (I should do that in the inbetween seasons, full clothed in a chair)
* put my meat out to defrost

Can you live a simple life without manners?

Back in the 50s and 60s when simple living was at its best perhaps, the wheels of life were greased with manners. What would happen if a simple life was lived without them? Is it possible or are the two interwoven together? Going back even further a quote from The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder would fit here.

Simple Fun