Right Space

I like growing plants but some of them don't like growing!

I am guessing it is a number of reasons:

- I am not good with plants

- wrong pot size

- wrong position in the house for light

- too much water

- not enough water

You get the idea.

I can grow plants, some I have had for a long time and yes, it is possible to kill them, but they seem to survive.

One such plant was this succulent plant 🪴 

It never did anything. It was just there, no flowers no nothing. It got moved into the kitchen and placed on the lower shelf but still did nothing and due to purchasing a coffee machine, it had to be moved up a shelf.

Since then, it has given us a single flower now and then.

And now, as you can see from the picture, it has found its full life.

Flowers in abundance. 

Either I am ignoring it sufficiently or just loving it enough.

Working

 And just sometimes, you have to stay at work whilst it is dark.

In New Zealand, whilst we do have daylight savings, our wintertime is never a time that we get really early sun sets, usually 5.30pm will be the earliest and it will only be for a very short time. Unlike the UK that can have sunset as early as 3.55pm

So, if I am still working and it is dark outside, then something has gone a miss and, in this case, it was to get a student assessment completed for them.

Temu

 Oh the wonderful power of Temu shopping, the dark hole we all fall into and then surface from, minus a healthy balance on the credit card!

I don't think I know of one person who has ever not bought some crazy little thing from Temu, thinking it will be crap, happy to spend the small amount of cash for it just to see what it is like, only to then find it is the best thing they have ever bought and wonder how they survived life without it all this time! Ok, I do also know that there really is some total crap on there too!

When I shop there, which I do not make a habit of doing, I have found some good items on there at times, although jigsaws tend to show in the suggested section. I have often wondered about their 1000-piece jigsaws for only $7-9? Are they any good, are the pieces going to be paper thin and useless staying together. Are they going to even go together?

On my last order, I tempted fate and ordered a jigsaw, just to see what I got. I was prepared to sacrifice $9 for the cause.

I chose a design that I thought would be fun to complete, but also maybe a little on the semi easy side due to the main bold colours that would be easy to sort.

It came in my parcel a few days later, they are actually quite fast at getting deliveries to NZ, almost like it has actually come from NZ! 

Now, immediately, when I removed it from the delivery bag it was obvious there was going to be an issue but there were also the odd positive to start with. It came in a nice solid plastic box, and it had a poster of the picture too. It also had the alphabet on the back in a grid fashion so that you could complete sections if you wish by collecting all of the pieces with the letter 'A' and complete that section.

The quality of the pieces was good, nice thick sturdy pieces not paper thin, and they joined together very well. The only one downside of it all.......

The size of the pieces, yes, the box was no bigger that an A5 sheet of paper and the pieces, well a Paracetamol capsule was bigger than the pieces!

Yes, I had hit the one main problem with this jigsaw, it had micro size pieces. Now I don't remember seeing anything on the page that suggested it was a small jigsaw when finished, measuring maybe only A4 paper size and if I was to look at getting another jigsaw from Temu, I will definitely be checking the page thoroughly for finished measurement size!

I will report back more when I actually complete the jigsaw but for now, I would say the size is probably the only thing I can find wrong with it, so giving it a 9/10 on the product for what I can see, feel and establish that it seems to be a reasonably good quality jigsaw, just a little small!

Screen Door

 I have always wanted a fly screen door on the back door. I know, not your average wish but here in NZ I have noticed that the doors and windows are open a lot of the time. We do not have central heating, well, not that we don't have it in NZ just that most homes do not have it. I find that we need air movement in the house due to the fluctuating temps.

Back door can remain open but that leads to flies in the house and that aspect annoys me.

When I first started looking at screen doors then the roof we had over the back door prevented this from happening. I wrote about this back in March when the porch roof finally came down due to the pergola being acquired. That has led to me investigating doors and finally I found one. It has only taken a couple of many years to achieve this, but sometimes I can be patient.

Finally, I have a screen door at the back and I love it, just in time for the summer.

Guess What?

 I won first prize.

Everyone was totally taken with the tree, fascinated at what it was and the detail of it. So many people thought, from a distance, that it looked like velvet and then when they got up close, and realised it was actually tea bags, they were amazed. They didn't even realise, to begin with, who had created it as it sat on my colleagues' desk not mine. Then I got heaps of questions about its creation, the time involved, how I dyed the tea bags etc

So many positive comments and the judges thought so too.

Bring it on 2026. Last year we got 2nd place in the competition and this year 1st place. Got a reputation to maintain here, what will the competition be next year?

It is Finished

 The tree is now finished and just needs to be moved to the office

I am so pleased with the tea pot I found to place on the top. I have the lights pouring out of the spout

Crafting for Work

 Yes, you read that title correctly, I am crafting something for work.

For a competition within our office. Last year there was a Christmas theme decoration of your desk area. We built a Gingerbread house! The post about it can be found here.

This year, it was a Christmas Tree competition. I immediately knew what I wanted to do and so in consultation with my desk/pod mates, I told what I wanted to do, and they were happy to let me run with it.

Quite a few years ago, a friend of mine had created a tree for a display that was quirky, creative, Christmas themed and latched into New Zealand style.

In other words, a New Zealand Tea Tree.

A Christmas tree that represented the native Tea Tree that we have in NZ (Leptospermum, commonly known as Manuka or New Zealand Tea Tree, is a versatile native shrub prized for its vibrant flowers, aromatic foliage, and ecological benefits)

A Tree that represents all of this, made entirely from tea bags, yes, tea bags.

I set about dying over 200 brand new tea bags, four different colours and then laced them onto a wire mesh frame.

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Drying in the sunshine

Almost there, just need to add the top and the lights

Verdict

 The results are in, the plan is set, and we are all go

Today was the surgeon appointment and he confirmed my findings (😀) my gallbladder is coming out.

Now I just have to wait the 5-6 weeks until surgery time but at least we have a solution, although he did say it was only a 50:50 chance of it fixing the problem! A chance I am prepared to take.

Already

 I totally understand that nowadays, with the cost-of-living etc, that people need to prepare and plan and organise, but Easter eggs in January seems a little far from Easter?

Is chocolate at Easter really that big a deal that people will need to start buying it 3 months in advance, so they have it, or is it just that it is chocolate, and people will buy it in a different shape to eat at any time of the year?

Transport

 Now that I have moved back to the family home, I have realised that using the car to get to work each day is becoming expensive.

By the time I have paid for the daily parking ($6), not always guaranteed either! The petrol and wear of the car then I am looking at about $7-8 a day.

Now I only live about 5-7 minutes (about 4 km) drive away from work, in the morning it is quicker to get there as I leave before all the traffic but in the evening I end up taking maybe 10-15 minutes due to traffic, which for the city I live in is not bad, so I really have nothing to complain about, compared to some others around the world (joys of living in NZ with only 4.5 million other people and only 180,000 in my city).

I am happy to walk, which would take me about 30-45 mins but I usually have a heavy bag to carry and I found that this just wasn't suitable and then I had to take other shoes to wear once at work plus you needed a coat/jacket when you start out, because it was cold or raining, but by the time you got there you had taken it off as you are now warm. I decided that I didn't need that amount of crazy stress at 7.30am just to get to work.

So, I took at the bus

It is a 1 min walk to my choice of 2 bus stops and both buses run every 30 minutes. The price per journey is alright and I actually save $1.20 per day on parking costs and guess I save all the wear and tear on the car, plus petrol costs, so a win win all round.

Does it mean I can do a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home? Yes, if I want to walk there and then catch the bus from there, which is totally do able but carrying 6L of milk is not such joy, so someone else can grab the milk!

The extra steps I get in the day walking to the bus stop and getting off the bus a stop earlier and walking up a large flight of stairs to work is also good for me, especially as I am trying to maintain my steps per day.

Guess I will be taking the bus more often. It will take some good planning and ensuring my calendar is up to date and correct, nothing like realising that you forgot an appointment and then realising that you don't have the car to get there! But I don't have appointments too often, well apart from on a Thursday, so I guess I can take the bus 4 days a week, which I will be happy doing, even in the rain (I have several umbrellas)