Reasons to be cheerful

After the last terrible post, things have improved no end and so I thought I'd update you all a little with some photos of the delights of Melbournes grooviest suburb, Northcote, where I happen to be house sitting at the moment. This is the Art Deco palace that came with airconditioning, every cookbook you could ever wish for, use of a car, a fabulous cd collection, and a lovely garden. Ricardo's friends Jono & Sue were off to Sri Lanka for a month & the pleasure was all mine.

 

It also came with a dog called Sal,

& Sal had to be walked every day, so it was off to the park nearby every morning early.

 Past the lemon scented gum that smelled like heaven.

Usually with a ball.

At first the lead & her pulling on it hurt my shoulder & arm but after a while I think it strengthened it as it's beginning to feel better.
I finally got a diagnosis too of  frozen shoulder which has helped enormously. I'd been thinking that I'd damaged myself beyond repair, but the wonderful osteopath Bruce Cameron that I went to see last week has helped me feel a ray of hope that I might end up in one piece again in the near future. He was so consoling, saying that usually after 3 weeks of such unremitting pain, thoughts of suicide would surface; it's been 5 months and there has been a lot of that going on (see last post!)
The other thing that's helped ENORMOUSLY is that I have a job! At a company called Silkworld and I'm here to tell you soon we'll be called Silk Universe! There are so many beautiful fabrics that I can hardly contain myself.This is the lunch room filled with samples of amazing beaded goodies.

It's busy all day long and 5pm rolls around mighty fast.
The other amazing aspect of having a job is that you get paid and when you've worked for yourself for years, let me tell you, that is such a novelty.
So now instead of the full aisle of crisps in every English supermarket, there is an entire aisle of tinned tomatoes. Melbourne and Northcote in particular has a huge Italian population and the culinary rewards are great.

Instead of the "Full English" complete with fried slice at Tesco, it's now all Lattés & macarons at La Manna while shopping.

The other Melbourne delights are musical. I saw a wonderful band called the Harmaniax last weekend at a groovy pub called the Pinnacle. It was so very good to see some great music played by a relaxed & proffessional bunch.

 

So things are on the up & up. Mind you it's till BLOODY HOT here.