Penny pinching

It's hot and humid today. I suspect this is pretty much what Brisbane will be like so I hope the arthritic flare up I'm experiencing today isn't a forerunner of what life there will be like. I don't like humidity at any time but for a West Aussie girl heat is not a problem. I imagine the folk coming in from overseas or for that matter southern Australia in general won't enjoy it though.

Due to a complete lack of dresses in the shops to fit the likes of me I have been sewing. It was quite therapeutic once I drafted a couple of patterns. I have sewn a lot using commercial patterns but never drafted before and it was a long-winded and complicated task but once past that stage so far things have gone smoothly (she says touching wood). Given my current state of penury it has also helped the bank balance i.e. it actually is balancing. Of course that's ignoring the credit card bills yet to come in but I'm doing a Mr Micawber on that. After all someone has to win Lotto, don't they.

My to do list is getting shorter at last but having been out of the loop for a week due to computer and other problems I have to catch up on the flurry of email activity on the Clarion website where much has been happening. The start is getting alarmingly close and requests for information, accommodation arrangements and much more have filled the email list. I feel more than a little guilty that I haven't participated as much as some of the others but life has been too frentetic. I've been like the character in one of Lewis Carroll's books runnning furiously but getting nowhere.

I still have to read some more of the tutors' work but our library is located at a major shopping centre and the pre-Christmas rush is making parking appallingly hard to find. As the library's opening hours are later than the shops every place has been taken before it opens. Virgo works at the shopping centre and staff parking is forbidden during the holiday season. Since our local bus service is less than satisfactory on weekends I dropped her off this morning an hour before the shops opened because she had an early start. There were already dozens of cars in the carparks and it's even worse during the week.

Ah well it will all work out no doubt but not if I don't start on today's tasks which I am going to do right now.