Order status, palm-fringed
Dad and Stepmother came back from Australia on Saturday. They were staying the night at Stepsister’s house this time instead of with us, but they dropped in at our place to pick up their car (which they’d left at our place to avoid paying for long-term parking at the airport – what with Brother’s car and their car parked in our backyard, we were starting to look like one of those houses surrounded by wrecks of cars up on bricks (except Dad’s mercedes is a bit too nice looking to fit that image!)) and stayed for a cup of tea so we got to hear all about their holiday.
Our lack of a log basket came up in the conversation, so of course Dad immediately offered to take us to get one, and we set off on a fruitless search in all the obvious places along Blenheim Road (which is where most of the big hardware and homeware shops are, and which is one of those annoying places that’s really only accessible by car), but it seems most sensible people buy their log baskets at the beginning of winter, not the end, so nowhere had any in stock (well, Mitre 10 had small ones that looked like they’d fall apart in a few minutes anyway, and Four Seasons had some of those stupid little metal rack things that hold about three decorative logs, but we couldn’t find any decent baskets). Finally, just as we were about to give up (and resign ourselves to carrying on using an old cardboard box like we have for the last couple of winters) I vaguely remembered seeing some baskets once at Impulse Imports in town. So we raced into town and managed to get there just as they were closing, and lo and behold they had a huge range of baskets of all shapes and sizes, so we managed to find a perfect one for a log basket. So we are now the proud owners of a large sturdy cane basket, and the old cardboard box has been consigned to the tip, so our lounge is looking much nicer than it was.
Once we and the basket had been delivered safely home, Dad and Stepmother headed back to Stepsister’s place, and MrPloppy and I did a quick last-minute tidy up before our next lot of visitors arrived. I’d decided it was my turn to host a games evening, so we’d invited lytteltonwitch, gwilk and Mrs gwilk (who brought along a friend of theirs who it turned out knew lytteltonwitch through tramping club – Christchurch is a very small town), and one of the women from Chick Flicks (who brought along her neighbour, who I’ve met at previous games evenings at her house). The gwilks had brought some of their games along (luckily, because we’ve only got a few games), so we were able to play all the usual suspects: PDQ, Alhambra, Category 5, and Bean Bonanza. It was a really fun evening, and I think even MrPloppy enjoyed himself.
Yesterday we’d planned to go into Riccarton to look for a gift for a friend (I can’t say any more than that, because they might read this). Things didn’t quite go according to plan – we couldn’t find some things, other things didn’t look right, a shop we wanted to try was shut – but despite not ending up finding a suitable present we had a nice morning wandering around the shops anyway, and somehow ended up buying a few presents for ourselves instead – a couple of DVDs (season 1 and 2 of Scrubs), one of those little one-cup teapots with matching cup and saucer (MrPloppy has been drinking a lot more herbal tea since he’s been cutting down on caffeine, so we’d been thinking of getting a teapot anyway, and we spotted this one with a cute cat design so couldn’t resist it), a mug that caught MrPloppy’s eye, and a useful little jar for the bedside table. Oh well, we don’t go shopping very often, so the occasional splurge won’t break the bank. And we’ve still got another week or two to find that gift…
After having our fill of shopping, we wandered down to Ground Floor for lunch and sat out in their courtyard enjoying the sunshine, so it was a very pleasant and relaxing day overall.
Saffy is showing a vast improvement after only a couple of days on the antibiotics. She’s stopping licking and biting at her back, and the sore has already dried up and started to heal. She’s looking much happier, and doesn’t even mind taking the antibiotics – I think she quite likes the taste of the paste, because when I squirt it into her mouth she just licks her lips a bit and doesn’t seem too concerned. A lot easier than trying to force pills down her!
Still currently reading In Custody by Anita Desai – it’s really not capturing my attention greatly.