Ozzy and Milo enjoying some much needed sunshine
Of late blogging has taken second place to a number of other things so I thought I would share a little bit about what I have been busy with.
Firstly I am on a mission to de-clutter my life. I am systematically going through cupboards, rooting out stuff that we no longer use, need or like and packing it up for charity or charity shops. OH wants to know when I’m going to chuck him out – LOL
The de-cluttering is hard for him because he is by nature a hoarder whereas I am able to live without holding onto stuff for fear that I might at some future stage need it. Of course I like to have nice stuff, but only things which I can use or, in the case of art, things that bring me pleasure to look at. I am not a collector of things that require dusting and the less that has to be moved to clean the better as far as I am concerned.
OH is the exact opposite but there is no logic or order in the things that he holds onto so he can never find something when he wants it anyway. I am trying very hard to get him to keep like with like and not just stash things wherever he can find a gap. We have been married 38 years and this is a battle I have fought for every one of those years. How it starts is he can’t decide if he needs to keep something or not, so he leaves it lying around where he (and everyone else) can see it. After a couple of weeks I ask him to please find a home for it or throw it out and so off he goes in a huff and stuffs it anywhere where he thinks I won’t come across it again in a hurry. Then of course he can’t remember where he put it and it becomes my fault 😦 I hope I’m not boring my readers with this …
I on the other hand like to keep “like things” that are worth keeping for whatever reason together so that I will know exactly where to look if I want to retrieve something. OH’s excuse is that he does not have enough storage space allocated to him which is nonsense, it’s just that he uses it badly and refuses all my efforts to help him organise the space better.
I am also busy researching my family tree and gathering information that will assist me in finding my ancestors. So far I have just started but even 2nd generation ancestors are a bit of a mystery so there is lots of work to be done.
And then going on faith I have started researching a trip to the UK next year. We obviously want to see our daughter and granddaughter but there are other things that we would like to do as well and because this might well be the last trip that we will be able to afford to make we would like to make it meaningful and do and see the things that hold the most interest for us. So a wish list is being drawn up and over the next year we will have time to do more research and amend the list accordingly.
Meanwhile OH has been busy with some rather unpleasant DIY. Our shower tray cracked some time back and had been held together with off cuts of plastic and clear packaging tape for far too long. With a great deal of difficulty OH has removed the tray and the bottom row of tiles and discovered that where the tray cracked there was nothing underneath except for the trap and that was also loose.
He has done a great job at preparing the area for the next step that is throwing a new base, tiling with mosaic and replacing the bottom row of tiles but it is not easy working at floor level in a 90 by 90 cm area and the old bones are complaining somewhat. He has done an excellent job so far, no damage to the surrounding tiles at all. We were lucky enough to find matching tiles in a broken box at Builder’s Warehouse but what a performance to buy them. We had to hear how they send damaged tiles back to the manufacturer and don’t sell them. We only needed 20 tiles and the other 18 in the package were all damaged and literally lying all over the floor. I don’t believe for a minute that it would have been sent back to the manufacturer, the damage probably happened at BW and had we not bought the “good” tiles I am sure the whole lot would have ended up in a skip!
So bloggers that’s what I have been up to, there just does not seem to be enough time in a day to do everything that I want to accomplish. I have also been going for physio treatment for a neck and shoulder problem that is not settling down and the discomfort disturbs my sleep a lot so come 8.30 pm I am ready for bed.
walkingoneggshellsdotcom 
Just have to say how gorgeous Ozzy and Milo are – sending Surrey Boxer hugs x.
Thanks so much, Ozzy has been blogging again
OH and I seem to have a lot in common, except I can remember where junk the junk 🙂
Your pups are adorable! I’ve been trying to de-clutter my life too, but I have that obstacle of thinking I may someday need just about everything. (Can I hire you to be ruthless and chuck it all out behind my back?? LOL) Problem is that just when I’m about to throw something out that I haven’t used for years, the need arises for the use of it. ::sigh:: What a battle…..
Wonderful pic of the dogs, poor OH, it sounds like hard work!
You don’t bore me Optie. I find day to day stuff seen through the eyes of the bloggers much more interesting than some of the more exotic blogs 🙂
Thanks footsy, when you are pre-occupied with the mundane things in life it is difficult to be brilliantly interesting or entertaining 🙂
It is such a wonderful feeling when everything is decluttered, but always a huge job. I have started decluttering too, very slowly I am starting to get somewhere.
Ooh I just love it when a cupboard or storage space is so well organised that you could put your hand in blindfolded and pick up the item you wanted. Keeping it like that is another matter altogether 😉
What a lot of stuff to accomplish, optie. I hope your neck and shoulder are soon sorted. Lack of sleep is so debilitating. Your trip to England sounds exciting. I’m so glad things have worked out between you and your daughter. 🙂 xx
The trip is a year away AD but there is a lot to plan for, one of the most pressing issues is what to do with Ozzy & Milo. Ozzy did not do well in kennels the last time we were overseas. And with the Rand so weak we need all the time possible to save because who knows what the exchange rate will be in a year’s time.
Yes, that’s very true. The exchange rate is a big problem if you don’t have money overseas already. 😦
I hope you find someone willing to house sit your dogs for you.
We have had very good dog-sitters in the past but none of them are available anymore. However the last one took the opportunity to invite friends to stay and turned our house into a B & B, emptied my grocery cupboards, ran up a huge phone bill and even left the “Thank-you” cards she’d received from her guests for us to read when we got home. That experience has made me very wary and I will check references very carefully if we go that route again.
Quite exhausting, all you’ve been up to and are planning!
The pooch part of the family are looking fit and frisky.
After neglecting genealogy for several years, i came across just in passing another fourth great grandfather and -mother.
I wish I’d paid more attention to my grandmother’s stories when I was young. She was the only grandparent that I knew and she died when I was 19. Now there’s hardly any one left to ask for clues. On one episode of “Who do you think you are” someone traced their ancestors right back to 1066 and William the Conqueror – helps to have good lineage because more precise records are kept 😉 I would love to know why both my maternal and paternal grandfathers came to this country and where their ancestors came from. I don’t expect to find anyone of importance but there may be an interesting rogue or two to uncover 🙂
De -cluttering is the pits! I have already given stuff to the Hospice shop and I swear that overnight other items take their place. I am now trying to prepare my flat for the viewing by the estate agents. Less is more, so they say. Do I leave my flat to look homely or do I start packing things away? What are bookshelves without books, or display areas without things to display? I wish we had a place nearby to buy neat cardboard boxes instead of using old shop boxes. Oh well, carry on regardless. Strongs, optie, with the de-cluttering 🙂
Oh, and well done to OH with the shower.
When I look at how OH and I have spread ourselves out in the house that we raised our children in I wonder how we would ever manage to downsize. There is a great packaging place in Cape Town called Merrypak where you can buy plain and printed storage boxes and any kind of packaging imaginable plus a huge selection of craft supplies – and they have a great little coffee shop as well.
Love the photo of Ozzy and Milo, they are looking so well, sorry to hear you have had health problems, hope you are feeling better and wonderful and OH is so handy and able to fix the shower…exciting to be planning a trip….
Thanks for popping in annie, I feel OK, just get a bit tired from the discomfort and disturbed sleep.