A combination of the threat of visitors and my complete irritation with the state of the house has led to a major housework binge today. The bed has been stripped and re-made with a doona, and the winter quilt. The floor has been vacuumed to within an inch of its life (this was interrupted while I had a long think about why the Dyson was not sucking very well, worked out the problem and addressed it) and the oriental rug which has been gracing the floor of the lounge in its rolled-up and packaged state for some time now is no longer packaged and is unrolled on the newly washed linoleum. This has unfortunately reminded me that the dog, while we lived in NZ, had the misfortune to assume that the Christmas Tree was a thoughtfully provided indoor toilet (a reasonable assumption since both the cats and I had one - so clearly this was meant for him). Since it took some days for me to realise what he was doing, it has resulted in the rug having a permanent odour (easily overlooked when wrapping in packing plastic - not so easily overlooked right now), which is most unpleasant. I am sure there is a powder of some sort that you can rub into a rug to deal with this sort of thing, but I have yet to find it - not that I have actively sought it. No point trying to shampoo it out as the rug is coloured with vegetable dyes, and so not amenable to shampoos or steam cleaners. One day I will be able to afford to take it to a professional oriental rug cleaner (is there such a thing in Tassie?) and deal with the problem on a more permanent basis, but for now, I will let the smell remind me I must do something about it. The quilt that has come off the bed has been washed, as have the various dog and cat beds and they are all merrily drying in front of the fire which has been burning all day due to low temps and high winds. So this winter the house will be positively civilised!! Still with the summer nighties though as I suspect there are one or two more warm nights remaining in this autumn's repertoire.

Well that's a disappointment. A friend posted on Facebook that the Doctor is back on Sunday. Presumably on ABC which I have always assumed was an inalienable right for all good Australians. Apparently not if you live in the country though. I plugged in the telly and did a channel search and woe is me, despite numerous tries in various locations for the antenna, and the signal booster set to maximum, I get a very fuzzy channel I assume to be SBS and another that I think is PAL. So no Doctor for me. I will have to increase my download limit so I can watch it on I-channel I guess... how sad is that!? A lovely sunny day which was mainly spent trying to phone people who had arranged times to call but who were no there to answer their phones. I guess they consider it is fun to mess with peoples' heads like that, but personally, since it was they who called us - I am not cold-calling - I think it is downright rude!! Anyway, life goes on. I managed to pick enough firewood out of the stack to avoid getting the chainsaw out - it will be 14 degrees tomorrow with wind, so probably feeling a lot cooler. So have the fire set to go when I find out whether tomorrow is as bad as they say it will be. A nice walk along the high street between calls garnered various conversations and gossip opportunities, so not all was lost.

From time to time I dabble in a little genealogy. It was quite exciting for the first few generations and then all those ancestors with significant contributions to the global population started to confuse and bewilder me (particularly the men who re-married and started naming their second family with the same names as those of their first family - darn Scottish naming traditions!!). One of those families - this one from Nottinghamshire - turned up about 12 children a couple of generations back and so I didn't bother finding out who had married whom beyond my own direct line. Then the other day I was cruising through Genes Reunited and spotted two people with my mother in their family trees. She had an unusual name, so this was grounds for a possible match. Turns out this family is descended from my great grandmother's eldest brother - so there you go - another 15 or so people in the family tree, and a couple of extra surnames!! I sort of forgot it was Good Friday today so stunned the neighbourhood by starting up the lawn mower at 10am to get back on top of the growth that has eventuated from the recent rain (paltry though the rain itself was). Fortunately I ran out of petrol so was able to withdraw, honour intact, not too long afterward. Hope I didn't offend anyone ... Another genealogical website has recently sent me a reminder that I have not been logging in (they must do wonderfully regular house-cleaning of their inactive membership as this happens fairly often). Ancestry Aid holds the unique position of actually being free. What is more, they have bored genealogists who will devote time to checking out obstacles on the family tree (relatives called John Brown who were born in England, for example) and sieving the data to get you a good match to the family history. They did wonders for my Eliza Taylor who was born in London, and confirmed that the one I had hoped was her, was indeed her, taking her back out of London a couple more generations and into the counties. A pretty chilly morning this morning provided the perfect excuse for a fire to start the day and, though I nearly let it go out around lunchtime, it has been given a new lease of life to get me through the evening. ALso sorted out an excel table so I know who I will be phoning tomorrow when I start hitting the phone once more - I have emailed it to my coach so that we are both singing off the same page (it has notes of previous contacts etc...)

So the sales careers is onward and upward apparently. Five more calls today and four have booked conversations for Saturday. Lucky really as it seems my potential recruit has redirected her mail (presumably back to me) without opening it (I have a tracking number for it). Frankly I am happy with this as it struck me she might not be able to make her own financial decisions so it is a bit of a relief not to have to pursue her. So apart from running around making phone calls (which involve car trips due to the poor reception around here) and piling the odd log on the fire (the air having a distinct nip in between rain showers), I have not achieved all I had hoped to achieve. So it will be good to have tomorrow off as an obligatory holiday (not even sales people are crass enough to pursue leads on Good Friday!). Tonight's dinner is a serving of that luscious trout I cooked a few weeks back - so trout and olives for dinner, with perhaps some rice to pick up the juices. Not enough rain to be excited about, BTW.

Another new customer this morning!! WOo hoo - so happy to finally crack the point where money comes in, rather than goes out (not quite there actually as this is a trial offer so costs her less than me, but she seems a likely long-term prospect if her budget holds out). And another call to make tonight, which will hopefully have similar results. So sewing was a bit abbreviated today what with running out to place orders, send parcels, do phone calls and such like - will be easier to organise this once I am no long shackled to my coach who seems to be holding my hand rather too tightly at present. Still I expect we will get there in the end. The benefit of this is that I will now be able to afford more ads and so hopefully obtain more customers - and so the cycle goes on. Also booked one table for the Campania market (I hope as I had to text her, there being no answer on her home phone) and enquired for the Kempton Market, so fingers crossed on both of these. Now all I have to do it cook dinner for myself and off out into the howling wilderness to make another phone call. No prizes for guessing I may be opting for a landline and computer satellite service once I get a regular income back once more.

Another fun day of chasing leads - the down side of having a coach in WA who works full time, studies part time and fits the job in around these priorities, is that the last two calls will be at 9 tonight (past my bed time!!) as one of them is in WA. The slightly earlier one (8:15) has agreed to that time via a short call this morning. Fingers crossed!! This is much more fun that sitting waiting for a response to an ad...

Much excitement on the home front today - someone has accepted an offer of a Decision Pack which means she has started the journey toward becoming a distributor like me! A total gross income of $9.95 so far, somewhat counter-acted by the cost of sending the package to her (fortunately I had one to hand), but will be phoning her back on Saturday to follow up (if I don't call her before to confirm it arrival). Still, since it is registered post this should be easy enough to ascertain. My free mascara also arrived in the post today! And it works what is more. Happy me!! And today's freebie is a few sachets of coffee (I foolishly failed to scroll down so missed the pasta packs, which is probably a good thing for my waistline at least. Speaking of waistlines - I have lost 3 kg in the seven weeks I have been using this stuff. Not bad considering my tendency to fall of the diet wagon with monotonous regularity. This was confirmed yesterday when I was able to fit into the new corduroy pants i bought at the Op shop for $5.00. So not only a new waistline, but a new wardrobe item as well. I have solved the mystery of the freecycler's decision to throw stuff out - she has switched to a new fad diet - this one is called the paleo diet - I think I will stick to the one I am on - it might let me eat more interesting food. There was also half a bottle of very expensive hair conditioner, so I am not sure what that was all about. Oh, and we have a table to book for the Campania Market - I will have to call tomorrow now I guess, though will try tonight once i unearth the magazine the info is in.