I am trying to focus on enjoying where I am right now rather than obsessing over the fact that I'm still stuck in this house. Recently the deaths of two lovely people, both sudden and unexpected, has reminded me to 'live in the moment', so that's what I'm trying to do.
For example, this weekend we didn't have an open inspection (long weekend and to tell the truth, I think the agent is just a bit fed up with driving all the way down here....) so I have been getting stuck into the garden. There is nothing like pruning when you feel you have no control over anything in your life. Pruning is all about control. Not happy with this bit? Chop it off!!
It is that moment, when you plunge into water at the perfect temperature, washing the sweat from your face as you surface smoothly to glide towards the warm rocks; it is at that moment that it all seems worthwhile. All the topping up; the vacuuming; washing the filter out; emptying the skimmer box; removing the leaves, palm blossom and never ending gumnuts; all the associated bills: water, electricity, bags of salt and algaecide, all this fades from your consciousness as you scull on your back, looking up at the afternoon sky.
I will be glad when it's someone else's job though.
I'm also keeping a few promises I made to myself. I'm going to get back into amateur theatre. I've reconnected with an old friend who is a local choreographer and she has asked me to do backstage, dressing room supervision and quick changes etc for a season of 'Cats'. It's a start! Plus I might be painting sets for another group and.... it's senior school musical year (oh boy oh boy)!! After the excitement of running the Primary School musical last year, I return to the realm of costumes alone for the secondary school.
Here's a bit of last year's fun and games:
Modest costumes for 10 year old 'harem dancers'.
A Babylonian crown. Of course.
The only picture I took of the set! And this was as we were bumping out.
Ever since my SLR camera died and I was forced to replace it with a point and shoot digital (with no view finder :-(.... ), I have kind of lost my photo mojo. During the production of this show, I was so flat out I didn't even think of it until the last night. Since then I have packed the camera away along with everything else in my office but, hopefully, I will have moved house and unpacked all my boxes before the next show, ensuring a more faithful reporting of all our endeavours. The whisper right now is that we will be doing 'The Jungle Book'.
The other exciting thing in my otherwise limbo-like life, is the Church Centenary Quilt...I mean Banner.
When I was invited to be on the Centenary Committee, I was asked to think of a way to decorate one of the halls for the celebration lunch. One thing lead to another and I suggested that we see about making a banner for the chapel, to commemorate the event. I approached another two ladies whom I knew were crafty and keen and we have been plotting and planning ever since. We've now got our basic design (and guess what...it will be two banners) and we've started handing out squares for people to create upon. This is to be a community effort, with 24 squares representing the many ministries of our church surrounding two central panels, one the old church and one the new, and linked like chains. Hard to picture I know. Don't worry. I'll post progress reports.
Finally, I have hired a personal trainer and I'm trying to get my body back. As often happens in times of stress, I allowed myself to put on a lot of weight last year, and more importantly, to become very unfit. Now, with my twice weekly training, I was able to comfortably lift a 25kg bag of salt yesterday, as well as cart 6 boxes of books downstairs for the Bestie, who is in her own 'moving, selling and building a new house', hell.
So there you are. Living in the moment, doing what I love to do.
What have you done with yourselves this past week? I'd love to hear.
