The reason you shouldn't paint when it looks like rain...

Dripping paint in the rain. Jason doesn't know I took photographic evidence.

Jason's gamble with the weather and deck painting didn't pay off yesterday.

It started bucketing down during an early morning paint session and did not stop all day.

Oh dear.

To say he was upset would be an understatement. The man is gutted.

Saying, "What did you imagine would happen?" didn't improve his mood either...I'm keeping a low profile for a while.

For Jane

I feel incredibly sad. This morning I found out that Jane was unwell. I don't really feel like writing what I was intending to blog about this afternoon...

I always try to find sunshine during dark days. It is all about FUN here after all; it says so in the title header.

So, I went through some of my old blog posts for the most hilarious Jane comments. We always look forward to a Jane comment because you know for sure your blog post was worthy!

Here are my favourites:

In response to Julia Gillard becoming PM and about Julia's humble home in Altona:

I personally am pretty excited -a female GG swearing in a female PM I never thought I would live to see the day.
Regardless of what you think of her political leanings and her Coon and Cabana accent.
The house is very Australian isn't it. But much more worrying are her ill fitting suits. We need someone to fix that. Desperately.
But that hair. How I love that deep auburn colour.

Her commentary on the $5,000 mouth-blown Poppy lamp I was coveting:

You are like me. I always want the most expensive thing in the room. The thing I like the most about it is the MOUTH blown glass. What other bit of your body would you use to blow the glass I wonder?

On discovering Mr Rooney was not an old fart:

I must be a bit daft but I had this idea in my head of Mr Rooney as a slightly paunchy silver haired middle aged man on the edge of retirement.
I am quite stunned to see his perky form complete with rather nice thighs.
A competitor for Jason.
Forgive me. It has been a long week. Already

When Jason was outed by the press for being "sexy and shirtless":

HA - love it. 'Sexy shirtless behind the scenes glimpses'. Much better than 'creepy overweight beer bellied behind the scenes glimpses'. Go Jason. !! My lord it could be a different kind of blog with a few more images of Jason. The mind boggles. 

Jason doesn't mind to be objectified for a good cause. Photo dedicated to Jane

Comment when Jason returned to his shirtless state after the winter months:

Well it's about time we saw more Topless Jason. I was beginning to notice his laziness and fully dressedness around the house. Good job on the deck. I hate doing that.

When I started blogging, never did I realise that I would encounter such lovely people. People I could classify as friends.

Take care Jane. We are thinking of you and we will be waiting to read your wonderful My Pear Tree House and looking forward to your golden comments when you return. xx


P.S Just Martha from Jelly Shane has come up with a lovely suggestion if you are a fan of Jane (or if you know anyone you care about going through challenging times). Click here to join forces.

Asbestos Removal and the talented Mr Rooney

Mr Rooney, our builder of many talents, is licensed to remove asbestos.

And that is what he did this morning at the Sow's Ear. The fibro sheeting in the sunroom was removed in preparation for the installation of the new old windows.

Here is a pictorial of the morning:

Asbestos removal sign

Mr Rooney barricaded the area and hung out his shingle.

Mr Rooney in his lovely outfit

Mr Rooney suited up in his disposable white coveralls. I swear he would've been singing Suspicious Minds a la Elvis, if it wasn't so disgustingly hot and humid today. He has a nice lower register.

Thick black plastic is used to contain any dust.
Image courtesy of Mr Rooney

Thirsty work

Mr Rooney's beverage of choice before he commenced work on this hot day was Powerade.

Old lino on the floorboards.
image courtesy Mr Rooney

There were remnants of old green lino which Mr Rooney discovered when he removed the fibro sheeting.  Interesting to see an image of house history, now long gone in an asbestos bin somewhere.

Unsheeted walls in the sunroom

The walls are now denuded of their old fibro lining. They will remain like that until Mr Rooney returns, which is most likely after Christmas.

After the storm

Not long after Mr Rooney left, a massive electrical storm hit over Brisbane. The rain came in at all different directions and it became eerily dark at 1.30pm. Buster the budgie's cage was blown over and smashed during the storm, but he's okay.

You know it is a bad storm when the undercover deck is completed saturated and your budgie is blown off his perch!!

Books, endings and winner

Uummm... I've been a member of a book club for the past six years. Yeah, I know what you're going to say and stop rolling your eyes.

Last night we had our last book club ever to be hosted at L and R's place.

They rent two old flats on the River. The owners recently sold the property for a multi-million dollar sum - the poor rickety building will be knocked down and the land will be redeveloped. L has already found a new place to call home while R will have to find new digs in 2011.

R lived in the bottom flat, while L lived in the top flat

We were all sad. It was a nice green and character-laced oasis in a sea of schmick building developments.

Whenever R or L hosted a book club evening, we always admired the priceless views of the City; lights sparkling in the river. It was just a lovely location.

Vale to one of my favourite spots in Brisbane. It will be missed.

Anyway, on to books.

L catalogued the books we have read over the past six years. It is always great to look back at what we loved reading and what we hated. The discussions are always animated and downright hilarious.

For your interest, here are the book titles we read in 2010 :

January - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
February - The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
March - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
April - The Women in Black by Madeline St John
May - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
June - Indignation by Philip Roth
July - The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
August - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
September - Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
October  - The Invisible Man by H.G Wells
November - Like Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
December - Squirrel seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris


And I am pleased to announce the winner of the Ferrero Rocher by BKH Christmas Centrepiece is Leah from Sugar Snapped.

Congratulations Leah!!

Fellow bloggers

Ana from Travelling with Ana paid us a visit today.

She's a pretty groovy chick. I think she may be one of Fun and VJs' youngest readers. She is pure cuteness and we get along like old pals.

Ana coordinating nicely with the furniture on our deck

And because she is such a mover and shaker, she brought along a new Brisbane blogger on the scene - Fiona from The Self-Raising Kitchen. She's another groovy chick.

Veteran blogger Ana gave Fiona and I a few blogging tips, while she was here. One can learn a lot from an 11 month old. Isn't that right, Fiona?

Appropriately, Fiona brought along these cupcakes in miniature for our gourmet pleasure.

Fiona's blog is brand spanking new and it's about her gastronomical-educational adventures (and she is a great writer by the way).

Her first post includes a very cool Thai Green Curry paste recipe which would make a thoughtful Christmas gift for your foodie friends.

I'm going to give it a try because we have a family Christmas dinner this weekend and I always like to include "homemade" into the gift equation.

Anyway, I hope you will all give Fiona a warm welcome.