I know it sounds absurd...........................

G'Day All!

After Sunday's pity-party of a post, I think that I need to clear a few things up.

Ahem.

We do have water in the shed. We have town water in the garden taps, and we use this to fill a 25litre drum camping drum with a tap in the bottom, which supplies our water each day for cooking and washing up. You don't drink the town water here in Wattle Grove: no-one does. It's treated bore water, and it tastes disgusting! It's lousy for washing clothes as well. It's a bit of a lottery when you wash white clothes; often it can be brown and turbid. You end up with "beige wash" in no time. And for those who are confused, "Wattle Grove" is the pseudonym concocted by the lovely Lisa. I like to use it because it's much more interesting sounding than "Denman"... and maybe a little more romantic, as well.

Anyway..... the kitchen.
One of the first things we had to do here was pull out the old kitchen, as this room was the one that was the most desired by the termites that were dining at our house.

Yep... that's right... we bought a timber house, complete with non-rent paying occupants.

We fixed them, though...muhwhaahahahaha (that's an evil laugh, in case you didn't notice).

I painted up the old kitchen, which consists of 2 bench cupboards and a sink cupboard, glued floor vinyl over the top of the old laminate top and we put them into the shed. The sink is plumbed into the drainage, so that even if I don't have running water, at least the grotty water drains away. This is preferable to having to empty a bucket from under the sink all time..... I know.

And yes, I do have a stove that a friend gave me, but no, it isn't wired in. I cook on the barbeque (it has a hood and a side burner, (thank heavens friends of ours won a BBQ in a raffle, and sold us their old one quite cheaply), in the microwave, electric frypan and wok. In a very rash move, a few weeks ago, I bought a $39 toaster oven from Golo. It is most cute, and is my favourite household appliance. Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches were added to our menu again!

And muffins... scones....... mmmmmmmmmmm

We have lights that you can turn on with wall switches in the shed, too.

And 2 double power points to run things from. Ah, the luxury of it all.

Now.... The Bathroom.

We are fortunate that we can still use the old bathroom on the old back verandah of the house. Even if it doesn't have a door, just a curtain.

It has a toilet. You fill it manually with a pair of multigrip pliers, but it does flush. The handbasin has a single tap, but that's ok; it works. The old bath is in pretty good condition. In fact, I'm going to re-surface and re-use the bath in the new bathroom. It has a shower, and you can take a bath, too. Just not a deep one. You see, the hotwater service is very small, about 80litres, I think, and you turn it on at the power point to heat it up. The other thing about the water in this town is that it is very hard, and crusty. We've replaced the pressure release valve on the hot water service twice in the 2 years that we've been here, at $96 each time. I don't think the the hot water unit is worth that much.........

But the side effect of all this is that our water usage is very low; you can't use what you don't have access to, and you won't keep showering in a frosty shower, will you?

I have an automatic washing machine under a lean-to on the back of the house. It is this beast that uses the most water around here. It will be connected up in the carport of the shed when the water is connected. We're just waiting for the plumber. The dryer will be too.

We're waiting for the electrician to come back and finish here. That's why we've no ceiling lights in the house, only power points. Mates Rates. We waited 9 months for the electrician while we were living in the caravans. I complained to Beloved at the time, that we could have paid someone to do the job with the rent that we paid while we were waiting.

Anyway.

We are not uncomfortable here. Just not as luxuriously appointed as others are. And I guess that our kids are becoming resilient. But they've got their electronic games, computer, tv, music... bikes, motorbikes.... sport to play. Places to go. It will be interesting to see the choices that they make as adults.

So it all works. It's just a little more primitive than most people are used to.

And that's the trade-off. There's always a trade-off. Making priorities. Finding the balance is hard.

Granted, motorbikes are not my priority. But they are Beloved's. And he can share this with the boys. They have always been his passion. He has tunnel-vision where they are concerned. He always has. I knew this when I married him. And after 20years, I can't expect to change him.

If I really wanted to, I could have shelled out the money and done all the things that I have wanted to over the years. But I'm a basically(Wiggleword) lazy person, who doesn't like to stress and strain of conflict. I have found that it generally goes nowhere in our relationship.

That's not to say that there haven't been any been any "discussions" over the years... there have been. Numerous times. Not all of them pleasant, either. That was how we ended up in this house. I said that we would be more able to have money for the things that we loved....... so, Beloved picked out a near-new bike each for Vegeboy and himself... Scorpaboy already had his... I made him wait three months before I to signed the personal loan agreement to buy SB's bike though... He could have done this in his own name, but he didn't.... And the rest is history.

At least Beloved knows what his passions are. I don't. And that is his argument. It's a bit of a bully-boy argument, and I know that. But we all have our little self-destructive habits, don't we? And I think that deep-down inside, maybe I like to be a martyr, just a little bit.

There are lots of things that I love about this life, even is motorbikes aren't one of them. Some times I absolutely despise them ..... but I always try to think of things in perspective...... the Big Picture and all......

And I have poisoned my Gorgeous Girl's mind in regard to motorbikes.................... I will laugh at the karma of life if she falls in love with a passionate motorcycle man...... She would hate to re-live my life......

But..... It is odd.... I'm re-living many aspects of my mothers' life.......

Anyway.

I'm off to work.

Have a lovely day.<3>


Acceptable, respectable presentable, vegetable.................