Day 6, Level 1: Vacuuming, Minutes and Screwcaps

A bland grey and rather unexciting sunrise this morning, with no lovely tangerine tones and not even a hint of sunshine - quite different to 7:30am yesterday morning. But the day turned out very nice, regardless. Yet again!

This weather truly has been incredible since - well, lockdown! January wasn't great - a constant and chilly southerly and a general lack of warm reliable sunshine. The water was cold too. February wasn't much better; not bad, not great, but okay. 

But as we've moved through Autumn and into Winter - via lockdown - glorious weather. It's still pretty warm - 15-20C by day. In the north, anyway!

Snow and frosts in the south, but it's winter, that's what should be happening! And that means skiing!

I did a bit of sorting of things this morning. And I eagerly tried out my new vacuum cleaner!! I wasn't going to mention the new vac until I'd tried it. It cost me all of $39(!) from The Warehouse and I was resigned to it potentially being a disastrous waste of money, a write-off. But I at that price I had to chance it and I kind of had a sneaky feeling that it could be just the ticket for Omaha. 

I am extremely pleased to report that ... it's fan-bloody-tastic! Vac-boom!

As I've mentioned many times in my life, I LOATHE vacuuming, worst chore ever. The old Electrolux vac up here at Omaha is heavy to lug around and performs only moderately. It's particularly hideous for doing stairs; so heavy and cumbersome. Combine a loathesome vacuum cleaner with the loathesome task of vacuuming and my very worst nightmare is upon me whenever the floors need attention!

Bring in the new Living & Co cheapie corded stick vac - which works a treat - and I could even get enthused about vacuuming! The design is similar to the Dyson stick, but it must be said that the quality of components is certainly not in the same league. However, the suction and function seems to work in the same way and just as efficiently, whirring dirt and dust and bits and bobs into the plastic canister in cyclonic fashion, and whirling it around with gusto while you go about finding more bits to suction up. And when you're done, flick the tab, empty the canister and hang the contraption up on the wall bracket. So simple!

My new handy easy-to-use cheap natty vac did the best job ever and is ideal for up here, where sand gets everywhere and getting rid of it is an endless job. It's lightweight and easily stored. At first I thought the cord could be a bind (rechargeable better to be free of potential tangle and getting to the end of the line just as you're about to finish the far corner of the room and it won't reach) - but in all honesty, it's better not to run out of battery charge half way through things. And it has a very long cord that is ample to do each floor in one plug-in. 

I even screwed the holder into the wall in the under-stairs cupboard and now it's hanging there waiting for me for next time. Little vac, you're a game-changer! Long may you last!

I think I can cope with getting this off its bracket, plugging it in and doing a quick whizz around the place more often than I might otherwise. The old vac is banished to the back corner of the cupboard and I hope I never have to handle it again!

Did a bit of contract work this afternoon, working on board minutes for a client. 

Worked on EGGS AGM and committee minutes. 

Didn't get to work on my own biz stuff - but want to make a few contacts tomorrow before moving into final stages. 

Went for a beach walk around 4pm, it was very pleasant, but a little breezy down there. Gorgeous light and cloud reflections, not many people about and I was yakking happily to a friend as I wandered along. Sunday afternoon pleasantness although it was starting to get cold by the time I headed back. 

Omaha Beach: Late afternoon perfection

Sister Jacqui's bar - Pym's of Milford - is going great guns since opening on Tuesday (first day of Level 1). Packed to the gunnels every day apparently. In fact, by 4.30pm on Friday afternoon they were at full capacity and turning people away! That's got to be good - but also stressful. More or less. 

More takings, less sleep. 

More staff and plenty of restocking required. 

Watched a bit of TV. Picked up with The Luminaries - had missed a few episodes although had caught up a bit on demand, not fully. Just can't get engaged. Find it depressing and slow and dreary. Not what I feel like on a Sunday evening. Turned it off and put on cool music instead while writing and doing some work. Much more enlivening and inspiring. 

Am still loving my Covid soundtrack of Mako Road (so good!), Ocean Alley, Sticky Fingers and others. Bands for young people. I must still be young!

LUNCH: Egg mayo, cheese, lettuce on Turkish pide, lightly toasted

DINNER: Sweet & sour vege udon noddles. And more Wispa bars! Plural!

My fab new $39 stick vac, ready for action!

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:

Screwcaps ...

Today I undertook, quite by chance - and with a "what the hell am I doing" concern about myself - a strange exercise which I felt impelled to do. For several years I've been collecting the screwcaps from wine bottles - for charity. I've been amassing them but have never got round to sending them off to charity. 

The other week I got an email from the Omaha Beach Club that they're collecting screwcaps for Lions and asking locals to bring them in. So I brought up my collection from Auckland and added to it the ones I'd started collecting up here after getting that email. I emptied them all onto the bench to give them a wash (the email asked for them to be washed, which I hadn't actually done). 

Thus began a puzzle of sorts as I was laying them out to dry on the dish drying mat ...

I started nonchalantly sorting them into wine brands. Villa Maria here, Babich there, Mission here. And before I knew it I was putting them into a grid. This is really not the sort of thing I would usually do but I had this weird feeling that the number of caps would exactly create a grid, without a missing last one, or several left over with nowhere to go. And as I worked, it also seemed likely that they would fit perfectly onto the blue dish drying mat. 

It didn't take long to sort and lay them out in clusters and patterns ... and, you know what ... it did end up as a perfect 15x12 grid which exactly filled the dish drying mat. All the branded screwcaps were used - and not one leftover, or one gap!!! I was a bit gobsmacked - but after all, it was why I'd set out on the exercise to start with, to see this eventuate. It seems that Villa Maria has been a favoured wine brand over the years, as they featured prominently!

There was also a separate pile of unbranded plain caps in various colours. My next weird feeling was that there would be exactly the right amount of plain caps to make a border around the branded ones without missings or leftovers. 

So my next mission was to place them around the outside - and yep, I had just the right amount, not one too many (oh, too weird, just as I typed these words right now "too many" was the lyric that was sung on the song I'm listening to, at the exact time!) and not one too few. They went right around the dish drying mat perfectly!

So the whole grid ended up being 17x14 = 238 screwcaps in total. It was a strangely satisfying 15 minutes or so - and twice as satisfying when my weird feelings turned out to be spot on in terms of numbers/pattern/dish mat size!!! As Pauly of OMC said - How bizarre!

Branded on the inside, plain as a border.
Not one cap too many, not one too few.
A bizarre little exercise!

And tomorrow, I will scoop them all up and deliver them to the beach club so that charity will benefit from all our wine drinking!