De-cluttering continues...

Yesterday I found a large plastic box on the bottom shelf of the built ins in my sewing room which was full of school 'stuff' left after I sorted out 4 boxes of school related items about 4-5 years ago. This time I decided to throw out the worksheets for assorted year levels that I had kept. This resulted in a small 'mountain' of now empty plastic sleeves as I decided that I would only throw out the sheets inside the plastic. I made another pile which contained items that my neighbour's grandson may like, art projects, books, stickers etc. Another pile was made of books for the charity bin and another pile was things I would keep. (thankfully very very small!) Another pile was my 'throw out' pile. Now my 'keeping' pile has been placed in a box which has already been packed with items that I brought home from my classroom, soooo... I now have a whole shelf which is empty in my sewing room which means I can put away some of the clutter on my sewing table!

So that means I have decluttered 3 'areas' and that is a good start. Early this year, I colour coded my yarns and fabrics and put them into zippered sweater bags and sorted my sewing accessories and put them into various containers. At that time (January 2010) we knew that we needed to 'free up' another bedroom as one daughter was coming back from the UK and even though she had lived with her mother before she worked OS, that was no longer possible. The room was absolutely shocking because, as well as my sewing equipment being on a table in there, the room had become a dumping ground for all members of the family. I spent hours and hours sorting out things and eventually cleared enough to have a made up bed ready but really very little or no space for Meg to put her own belongings. Then her sister moved out and we had a large bedroom spare but it was quickly occupied by another daughter who had come home for some TLC after a particularly trying time in her personal life. DH and I are at present on our own and will continue to de-clutter our 'stuff'!

Today I also did some scanning of some magazine pages today as the mags were from the library and are due back tomorrow. The use of the photocopier at work I'll really miss as the scanner takes a lot longer and there is no A3 size on it. So I've copied a knitting pattern or two and 2 quilting ideas.

Talking of work, last night I finally did a task that I've been putting off for ages...re-newing my teacher registration! Normally you just pay the fees but this year they (the Queensland College of teachers) are tying registration to professional development completed. Full-timers have to do 30 hours per year. As a .6 I had to do 18 hours. The QCT had been sending us letters and emails discussing this PD etc and I was of the opinion that it would be complicated to re-register. I have to re-register as technically I'm on leave not retired. Time was running out to register so last night I made my reluctant self re-read all the letters etc and I went online. The site wouldn't accept my password, and even though the site indicated my password had been emailed to me after my request it did not arrive. No panic! remember I'm more laidback now that I'm almost retired but it would cost extra $$ if I couldn't register by 31st. Luckily I found in one of the letters that they had reassigned me a new password. So when I finally got into the site, it took me just over 5 minutes, including a redirection to pay the fees! No justification or filling out forms regarding my PD just the somewhat gentle threat of a possible audit of my paperwork showing what training I'd completed. All that procrastination!!! I could have done the re-registering before Nov 15 and have been in the draw for an iPad for heaven's sake!!!! lol

Waiting for the water taxi to head over to St Marco Square. We were amazed by the obvious complete lack of O.H. and S!!!

DH and I went out today to the movies. We saw 'The Tourist'. I loved every minute of it...pure escapism with the added bonus of beautiful Venice being the setting!

The characters in the movie tended to use the faster water taxis! DH and I (in the aqua hat) enjoying a gondola ride with others on our tour.

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp's characters went to a function at the Dogue's palace; we just had a tour!

The scenery in the movie was delightful and I couldn't resist turning on the portable hard drive and looking back at our photos of Venice. Great memories!

On Monday night DH and I went for a drive after dinner to look at some of the Christmas lights displays in our local area. The photo above is of the Baptist church where Pamela and I go (as customers) to some excellent craft markets the first Saturday of the month. It's always been a church noted for its ministry, including a lot of work with refugee groups. The photo doesn't do justice to the magnificent display. There were crowds of people there looking at the lights, lining up to file past all the life-size 'dioramas' of the Christmas story, sitting having food from the sausage sizzle or the coffee shop, watching the puppet show, looking at the model railways' display or buying from the craft and cake stalls. It all engendered feelings of times past for me and I found my self overwhelmed by emotions as I gazed at the Nativity scene. We also looked at the lights at St Gerard Majella Catholic parish church as well as some private homes with displays in the area. 

Next morning, I was up early to wrap up some more gifts as well as package some homemade goodies in my decorated 'lunchboxes' I had previously bought at 'Packaging Direct'. I met 2 friends for coffee and a good old 'catch up chat' early mid morning! Then I took a box of my 'homemades' to my hairdresser as a thank you for all the homecooked goodies she has sent me this year via her son who was in my class this year. Antonietta then worked on my hair and gave me a new colour and new style to celebrate finishing work. She generously deducted the price of the haircut from my bill as a 'retirement present'...how generous of this lovely woman!

I've had the tree up for a few weeks now but have been very slow putting out other little Christmas 'touches'. Above is my beloved knitted Nativity. Note the angel on the lefthand background. The Archangel didn't come with the original figures and a dear friend Thelma, knitted an angel for me! Below is my little village which has lights that change colour. I could watch it for hours! lol

Below are 2 shots of a Christmas card I received from my friend Lee and her husband Alf. Every year Alf makes the cards himself. I loved his sense of humour this year regarding their beautiful cat Sabrina Maud.

On Monday afternoon, a GP whom I had consulted just under 2 weeks ago rang me back to tell me some swab tests she had organised had come back and I needed to come down to the surgery as there were some infections involved. Amazing! I had been suffering a lot of discomfort in the 'nether' regions and put it down to 'my age'... and vaguely thought I'd have to see the 'gynae' at some stage soon. I have a viral and a bacterial infection so now have some medications. I am thankful to the  thorough, caring and active listening female GP!!! So that explains the unwell feeling as well as the acute discomfort of the last week of term and the holidays so far. I'm feeling really good about Christmas now as my energy is coming back, even as I type!!!