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RuthsArc

~ Looking forward, looking back & enjoying now.

RuthsArc

Tag Archives: time

Bunnykins

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by RuthsArc in 100 word challenge, all about me, creativity, weekly photo challenge

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

art, time

I had a Bunnykins plate, bowl, cup and saucer and egg cup, when I was a baby.IMG_9675

Our daughter had some of the items which had survived. We added to the set, a money box, a different bowl.IMG_9661

Now our grandson has the collection, plus a new mug.IMG_9686

I posted one of these pictures in my Photo a Day group and someone asked if the plate had the controversial trademark image?….. Oh!…… yes they all do, except the mug purchased this year.IMG_9678

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These round items fit this weeks photo challenge Rounded

No alarm clock today

20 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in my place

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Tasmania, time

Today is a public holiday in Tasmania.
Well, in part of Tasmania.
On a Thursday.

Tasmania is just one of 8 states and territories of Australia.
There are national holidays.
There are state / territory holidays.
Then there are regional holidays.

The organisation I work for, has 11 offices dotted around the regions of this little island state.

Today’s holiday in the south is for the Royal Hobart Show. So five offices were closed.
Two offices closed for the Burnie Show in September.
Two offices closed for the Royal Launceston Show earlier this month.
One office will close for the Devonport Show in November.
And one office closed back in May for Agfest Show.

Confused?

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Time changes

03 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

me, time

It’s the end of another working week. Aussie Mate and I have both now worked a full week for the first time since August 2014.

He has been working a couple of days a week for several months and I’ve done a few weeks of part time volunteer work. Last week he did extra shifts covering holidays and I’d moved to a different office where full time hours were appropriate.

So for the first time in twenty months, our leisure time is significantly reduced. We are back to weekend chores, laundry, housework, food shopping.

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We are still adjusting to the change of lifestyle, to the new demands on our time.

I’ve not had time for my creative outlets and relaxation, photography, knitting, crochet, reading novels, writing here.

Communication has taken a hit too. I’ve been slack with emails and messages, hand writing letters and post cards.

I’ve skipped through reading your blogs and I’ve not posted as many comments as I’d like.

So apologies to family, friends and fellow bloggers as I get used to a new work / life balance and reset my personal priorities.

Full time work will be in my future, whether paid or unpaid. But first we’ve got a six day holiday up in Sydney 🙂

A sentence a day

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, remembering / musing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

me, time

I have been recording a “sentence a day” for three and a half years, as part of a long term journal.

It is fun to look back …
… to routine days,
… to unusual days,
… to special days,
… to family days,
… to days that unknown at the time, changed our life journey.

20th July 2012
We were living in the UK, working full time, in Maastrich, Netherlands for a family wedding. Relatives from Australia were also there.

20th July 2013
We were in Australia on a four week trip to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary.

We’d had a wonderful three weeks in Sydney, renting an apartment in Narrabeen overlooking the ocean. We had watch dolphins from our balcony. We’d been on a whale watching trip. We’d caught up with all the family.

Our eldest daughter, S~E, who already lived in Sydney, got engaged while we were there. We were part of that celebration, meeting her in-laws for the first time.

We were at a cross roads in our life. Our younger daughter, C~M, had finished college and was preparing to travel to Argentina for six months volunteer programme. We were about to be “empty nesters”.

On occasion, Aussie Mate and I had wondered about living in Australia. Sydney is expensive and too hot for us. Canberra is cooler but we wanted to be on the coast. Melbourne? Not for a Sydneysider. Adelaide? Maybe. Neither of us had been to Tasmania before, so we planned the final week of our holiday there, just the two of us, to see if it could be somewhere we could potentially move to.

On this day in 2013, we spent our first day in Tasmania, in Hobart.

20th July 2014
In the UK, working my redundancy notice with six weeks to go. Planning to sell our house, have an adult gap year in Tasmania. After lunch with my Mum the previous day, on this day we were packing up some of our belongings, sorting CD’s, DVD’s and books to sell.

Eleven months ago I started the photo a day challenge and have completed each day since.

Ten months ago we put up decorations in preparation for C~M’s twenty first birthday weekend.

Four months ago there was a solar eclipse in the UK but too cloudy for us to see it in London.

Three months ago we had been in Hobart for nine days and we moved into our rental waterfront apartment.

This date two years ago was one of those days that did change the course of our lives.

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half 2

A long flight and a misunderstanding

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, making changes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Australia, me, time

The journey from UK to Australia is long, but we knew that and just had to get through it. It is one of those situations when time has it’s own level.

Our flight left London Heathrow at 10pm on Thursday, so after takeoff, dinner was served then lights were dimmed for the night flight. The plane was not full for the first leg so the two of us had three seats to spread out over. The twelve and half hour flight was comfortable, with a breakfast served before landing in Singapore at 5.30pm. After a two hour refuel stop, it was dark outside when we boarded again.

We lost one whole day on the flight. It was then another night flight for the eight hours to Sydney, arriving just before 6am.

We made an incorrect assumption. When we checked in at Heathrow, our baggage was labelled to Hobart via Singapore and Sydney. So at Sydney, we left the plane, went through passport control and walked out through customs with just our hand luggage.

We then went to the domestic transfer desk to check in for our flight to Hobart. The girl found our bookings easily and stated “You have three bags to check in.”
Um no.

We had to go to the other end of the terminal to the Singapore Airlines baggage services, explain the situation and wait for them to collect our cases and clear customs. This would take a while, so we knew we would not make the Hobart flight.

We waited. Airports are a fascinating place to people watch. We waited, along with a few other people. We weren’t the only ones to make this mistake.

Eventually our bags arrived and we went back to the domestic transfer desk. Our domestic flight was with Virgin Australia, but they could not rebook us, they had to get Singapore Airlines to rebook as they’d originated the ticket. So we waited. And people watched some more.

There were a few other Virgin passengers who came to check in, then a long line of people queued up all at once. We overheard that a flight from Bali had been delayed so forty people had missed their connections and needed rebooking. In the midst of this our boarding passes were ready and we checked in our luggage again. We could then get the shuttle to the domestic terminal and people watch there as we waited for our 2pm flight. We waited.

The Virgin flight was fine and on time so we got to our motel and had time for a walk to see our surroundings, before dusk on Saturday evening.

We stayed awake for a few more hours then sleep overtook us and we enjoyed the comfort of a bed for the first time since Wednesday night.

Things I have learned …

~ no matter how your luggage is labelled, you have to collect your cases at the point you enter Australia, not at your final destination.

~ I don’t want to work for an airline on their check in desks.

~ Hobart International Airport has no jet bridges to link aircraft to the terminal building. Everyone climbs down movable stairs and walks across the tarmac.

~ Hobart International Airport has just one baggage carousel.

~ Hobart is an international airport because, apparently, flights go to New Zealand and to the Antarctic, but there is nothing listed on the departure boards for the next few days. The only listed flights are to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

100 words – house frustrations

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in 100 word challenge, all about me, more to life

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

100 words, home, me, time

They say that buying / selling a house is one of the most stressful things we do in life. I can vouch for that and we are only selling.

The stressful elements include …..

~ Keeping tidy for house viewings.

~ Buyers who pull out.

~ Estate Agents who give you the big sell but not the reality.

Right now, we are chasing our solicitor, our buyer is chasing their solicitor, the estate agent is chasing everyone.

I would like to get the two solicitors in the same room and bang their heads together.

It’s an ongoing frustrating waiting game.

Time

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, fifty something, midlife, more to life

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

me, time

“Time is like water, it always finds it’s own level”.

This is another insomnia blog post. It’s 2.30am and my mind is wide awake, even if my body does not feel the same way. My mind will not switch off at the moment, so rather than lying in bed, awake, I am listening to some soothing music and contemplating time.

I heard my Aunt say the above quote a few days ago, when I stated that my life is busy even though I no longer commute for two hours or work for seven hours in an office. How can my weekdays still be so full?

This is the end of my first month of non-employment. On occasion, it still feels as though I am “bunking off” but it definitely has a different sense to being on holiday from work.

We have not been restricted by time. We turned off our alarms and we wake to our own body clocks. We have slept longer so feel less tired. We spend time with the morning newspapers, with some online updates, or with a book. We sit down together for breakfast, take our time rather than eating on the go or whilst multitasking.

We have removed time pressures, so we are able to walk to places, rather than jump in the car. We joined a local gym and walk there each day. We are building up time on the various equipment, then have a swim, sauna, steam and jacuzzi. That takes up a couple of hours of our day, but we do not have a fixed time to go, sometimes it’s morning, sometimes afternoon. We have learnt the hectic times to avoid but we are not limited to a class timetable.

I’m drinking more tea, but enjoying it, noticing the taste, rather than drinking it unconsciously whilst focusing on a task. The same applies to a glass of wine, to our meals.

The only appointments we have set have been for social reasons, meeting friends for lunch or birthday celebrations at a fixed time and place. Lunches have drifted on through the afternoons.

I don’t often look at the clock, because it is not important now. I’m doing more spontaneous things. I saw some recipes for “cakes in cups” or “muffins in mugs” and just tried one there and then. Easy and delicious.

Time goes so slowly when I’m trying to get to sleep in the middle of the night. But now, when I am focused on something, forty minutes has gone by, the album I selected on iTunes has finished. I have written this but I have allowed my mind to wander off on tangents. (How should you punctuate with speech marks or brackets?)

There are days when I wonder if I am my own Time Lord, when it seems that I control time, that time does not dictate my day, my activities, my thoughts or actions. It is great to get lost in a task, to see where something leads, not be limited by hours or minutes. After decades of chasing time, sometimes battling against time, this is a new freedom.

Time to go back to sleep now but I don’t have to be anywhere or meet anyone until late afternoon, so if I want to sleep in to nine o’clock on this Tuesday morning, I can. Sweet dreams.

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