Sunday Selections #721

 Long ago, Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, (who no longer blogs), dreamed up a meme called Sunday Selections. 

A place where those who were willing could put up photos they wanted to share, new, old, good, bad or indifferent, any photos you please. 

Nothing rude or vulgar though.

And we don't mind at all if other bloggers care to join us.

The meme is now continued by Elephant's Child and I join in as do a few others. Andrew is one.  Messymimi is another. Drop in to their blogs and have a look.

Wisewebwoman has also been joining us more often.

this month's calendar page, I wasn't able to find a Sugar Skulls/Day of the Dead calendar for this year.

Our Victoria Square Christmas tree, the same as every year for quite a while now, with its red and gold bows, the gold at least is a bit glittery.

street decorations were minimal

Rundle Mall had a giant inflatable Santa-with-camera surrounded by some small trees

in my own neighbourhood this was the only house decoration I could find, but in the next suburb just a couple of blocks away,

there was a brush fence covered in gold and silver bows

and a gate a bit further on had two of these pretty wreaths.

this year's Nordic gnome has legs, while my older one has just a rounded base

fireworks seen by "no-one" and her best friend down at Semaphore Beach on New Year's Eve

and a very short video of those fireworks, I hope it plays

I finally got my new kettle down off the shelf, it's been up there for ten years waiting for the old kettle to die. The old one isn't quite dead yet, but the auto shut-off doesn't always work anymore, so I retired her. I quickly discoverd the new kettle has a shorter cord

and the only available power point (outlet) is way over in the corner behind the huge microwave where I used to have the old kettle in the furthest outlet but had to swuitch the plugs around so the new kettle plug in now on the right and the microwave is on the left. Of course I can't reach that far (which is why the old kettle remained switched on all the time) so I now have a wooden chopstick to reach over and flip the microwave on when I need it. 

All this means there is no available power point for the toaster, so I carry it on a tray (to catch crumbs) into the living/dining/everything else room and plug it into the powerboard under the tv bench. And when it cools down after making my toast I carry it back into the kitchen where it lives beside the hotplates (hob).

here's a great start to 2025, filthy stinking sludge bubbling up out of my bathroom floor again. (Friday) I cleaned it up after a lot of swearing and a few minutes later>

it happened again running across the floor and down into the shower drain.  I wasn't going to phone Housing and be stuck on hold for hours so I stormed off to the bus stop and into the Housing office in the city, where I still had to wait almost an hour before a housing officer could see me. He arranged a work order and told me plumbers would be out asap to fix the problem.

That happened yesterday, a lovely tall man with his daughter apprentice came out and checked the flushing of the toilet and noticed the swirling burbling inefficency of it and proceeded to open three separate drains, then a fourth, and began trying to remove blockages caused by tree roots. The stench was incredible. The drains are all very old and cracked and this happens on a regular basis.  

When they finally finished I gave them each a cold ginger beer as a thank you for doing such stinky work on such a hot day.

Now for something more cheerful:

"no-one" left a couple of chillies to dry on the plant and drop seeds which grew and now she has 23 seedlings to give away. 

the girls had their nails polished again for Christmas, shimmery rose pink.

protective apron/poncho with her hair bow worn as a bow tie while drawing with chalk on the back porch

swinging high

another hair bow as bow tie outfit

and on the swing again.

Happy New Year everyone!