The last time I had an agapanthus to deal with I advertised it free - dig it yourself. Fortunately a young couple keen to line the very long drive came and took it all away. What a relief!

Today was a very slow one as I headed down to Hobart with one of my regular patients who has two appointments in one day - so home by 3:30 after an 8:30 start. I filled in time by reading, eating and generally doing nothing in particular, so I should be enlivened tomorrow.

What I did do was find a person to pump out the septic and find out how much it would cost as well as book Poppet in for vaccinations, spaying, microchipping etc. The two will not be happening in the same pay cycle. Depending on how much the spay costs I might be able to order the tiles for the kitchen which may take some time to be delivered the way Australia Post is going at the  moment.

That done I have eased into the warmth of the heater and am planning a relatively early night. The next three days will be rather chilly they say, so plenty of time to work out how to install the door between the kitchen and laundry, paint it, trim it and muck about on a grand scale.

That is indeed the risk of starting a project - I at least managed to decomplicate this today by identifying a solution that does not leave me having to find homes for endless books temporarily while I steal their shelving to house the recipe books. I dealt with the alcove today so I now have the 90m cabinet back in position and its doors rehung, topped with a temporary bit of packing that came with the original kits. The wall cabinet was supposed to come down to provide space for the bookshelves, but once I had the doors off I decided the best option will be to leave it there and  just add brackets to support it so it can carry the recipe books. The downstairs cabinet now houses all the larger appliances (slow cooker, electric fry pans etc) and the cupboard these came out of is now to house the toaster, kettle etc. On top will be the coffee machine and the wall cabinet can hold spare tea pots, coffee plungers, tea and coffee cannisters etc so as to declutter the bench top. That's just a single cabinet to the left of the oven, beside the freezer.

I have also finally settled on the colour scheme basically by looking for tiles I liked and then taking colours from them for the walls and edgings. So it will be mint green walls with milk coffee trims and the cream cabinets and varnished timber benchtops. I may get the person who installs the benchtops to also do the skirting and architraves as every time I look at it I decide it's all too hard.

I'm off to clean the bank sortly and have an early start for a long day tomorrow, so it's nice to have achieved one corner of the kitchen almost to completion.

It's certainly not a one-pot meal is it EMW! But very tasty so worth it. I have spent another day fiddling with the kitchen with the result I have now cleared all surplus items from the place apart from the folding table. Which is not exactly surplus as I will need to balance the door on it as I trim it's bottom off, balance the benchtops as I paint them and cut a hole for the sink etc. I emptied out the preserves cupboard (and not before time!), removed its doors and middle shelf, wiped that down and set it aside and now I have to work out whether I want  to wrestle the lids off the jam jars or just throw them out entirely. I think the latter will be the solution.

The floor has also been given a thorough mopping so looks as it should.

I also discovered my toaster - this has been missing in action since I pulled the kitchen apart three years ago so I have been enduring bread in soup and other such indignities, as well as having to keep bread in the fridge as frozen bread does not make good sandwiches. I had thought it was on the bottom shelf of the 90cm cupboard currently residing in the spare bedroom, but it turned out to be on the bottom shelf of the bookshelves (also in the spare bedroom) and hidden by the heavy shade cast by its housing. So I celebrated with toast and peanut butter for lunch (after checking for mouse corpses and other such nasty possibilities).

I hope to position the cupboad in the alcove I have just cleared out and replace the upper cupboard (where the preserves were) with a book shelf which can do a better job of housing the recipe books than my previous arrangement. I might even be able to find them!

Before I can move the 90cm cupboard into position I will need to clear a path so I can move it with minimum aggravation, and I also want to paint a swatch of the bright lime green I bought some time ago on a part of the wall that will be hidden by the cupboard. So it may not happen tomorrow.

Thursday I have another patient transport which will be a long one, but other than that my time is uncommitted (apart from Bank cleaning) till the following Monday.

A nice sleep in to wake to bright sunshine - lovely day, if a little chilly. Today's culinary venture was a lasagne. In a Le Creuset tray designed for a 90 cm oven. It fits in mine if I suspend it from the rails that the oven shelving sits on. It is huge, so another seven meals to be had from that effort. They are now portioned up and frozen for  future reference. Tomorrow I may challenge myself with sausages - what to do?

Apart from that I had a wee trip into town for more capsicums and other such luxuries. And a bottle of red to flavour the lasagne sauce and the balance dedicated to the hare in the freezer.

The last of the Rhubarb Crumble will be finished tonight - once I have sufficient space in my stomach - so I will have to give thought to future dessert options, haha. All this food and so little exercise is probably not the best, but at least it's healthy food from fresh ingredients - beats my frozen dinner of recent times.

You will have noted the lack of updates on the kitchen - that's because I have not made any progress and have been enjoying the newfound food prep surfaces. I expect I will get on with it again in the not too distant future, but for now it is at least workable. Getting the two tall cabinets in to flank the fridge will be good as that will permit me to unpack the larger items. I will wait till the bench top is in position before messing around with the upper cupboards which I want to rearrange into a more functional position.

Not a real fan of podcasts simply because I am not into extraneous noise (a nuisance when it helps block out the noise from outdoors). But the UBI is an excellent idea, though like every other one that comes along, is unlikely to be maintained at a reasonable rate by those in power. Having that set at current NewStart rates would be good however as it would allow me to earn additional income without the penalty that is presently imposed.

I hope your Anzac day was a bit more exciting than mine. I woke at 6:30 and the total absence of signs of life outside led me to conclude I was not the only laggardly one. So I went back to sleep and got up at 7:30 instead.

My only other excitement for the day was going to clean the bank and splitting a bit of firewood for use this evening. And having several pointless arguments on Facebook.

The missing ingredient from the Chicken and Potato casserole was the two capsicums i discovered in the fridge while looking for something else. These have now been added and cooked into the general stew and it has been portioned off for freezing, allowing a nice hot meal for lunch. Tonight I will be less adventurous and eat some Chow Mein. The large dish has been washed in preparation for tomorrow's lasagne cooking and the kitchen remains clean and tidy (if incomplete). I am trying to train myself to make a habit of sweeping the floor and putting stuff away - better late than never.

Couldn't agree more EMW - the present Jobseeker rate is actually higher than that received by pensioners! Go figure. Apparently the Deserving Poor concept has been reintroduced to our outlook. If Junior jobseekers went up to the present rate of Newstart, Adult newstart recipients went up to the current rate of the pension and pensioners were eligible to receive the equivalent of what is now on offer for Jobseekers (including the bonus), then a lot of the poorer Australians might have half a chance of bettering their lives.

Today I headed in to the doctor in the morning and had my jab as well as discussing the letter. He has provided one but has also advised it may take a bit of back and forth before I see action. I then rang my employers and discovered they have done nothing to progress the matter. So I have now sent a second email advising them of the recent developments and suggested they get their shit together.

Then home to put a Mediterranean Chicken and Potato casserole in the oven and back into town to convey my patient for her own shots. Home now, the casserole smells good and I am planning an early night, so no progress likely on the kitchen, masks or anything else I might have considered.

The trip to Centerlink was successful on a number of levels - first being that I got paid. My favourite man served me and I raised with him my concerns about working in the bank but what impact would leaving have. He said a letter from the Doctor excluding me from the work for the duration of the Covid restrictions would do the trick, so I have an appointment with the Doc on Friday.

This has a second benefit - that is, that I will no longer be losing the $20 from my payment that is punishment for daring to work. That, in its turn is particularly useful as I was listening closely to the words chosen by Scotty from Marketting which made it clear the $550 bonus payment will only go to those who are entitled to full Jobseeker payment and that $20 penalty would deny me access to that - so that was a happy ending.

Having arrived home I was busily adding bits to the kitchen when someone turned up at the back door offering me various bits and pieces of sewing and knitting paraphernalia. Most of it was useless to me but the Brother Super Pro II quilters edition will come very much in handy (once she finds the cable for it). So I have been gaily distributing knitting needles, crochet hooks and other such stuff around the neighbourhood and the overlocker (which duplicates the one I have) has gone to a good home also. Apparently there's at least round 2 of deliveries, but this one was very pleasing.

Yesterday I took one of my regular patients down for Radiation treatment and managed to collect my groceries at the same time (I even scored 24 toilet rolls, haha), but had to give back two of the four cans of tomatoes I have wanted as they had a quantity limit of 2.

Tonight's dinner is a bit of a cheat as it is pre-made tortellini with a jar of sauce. But very tasty for all that. Tomorrow I will be heading into Oatlands to see the doctor and have a flu shot, and collecting a local passenger for the same treatment in the afternoon.  Meanwhile i may have time to make the fabric I hunted out today into masks, but I doubt it. I feel it is a whole day's commitment once I find a pattern, work out how to cut the fabric, sort out the measurements in relation to the strips of fabric I have chosen etc. The majority of these are for a friend who has had a bilateral mastectomy who does not sew.

I did manage to get two loads of washing dry today which was nice, and all the contents of the laundry basket are back in their proper places.