The skies are back to grey today.  It’s been the kind of day to get out while you can and cross your fingers that you’ll be under cover for when the rain starts.  Which it has just now, with added thunder.

At least there’s still plenty of sunlight.  All the better for confronting the mess of the spare room with.  I love a good before and after photo series, don’t you?  There’s nothing like decluttering on a rainy day to make you feel less guilty about also the afternoon watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (and all the ads for funeral plans).

A few months ago, Mr SSG and I tidied the other side of this room by getting a tall shelving arrangement for our stockpile of dry goods.  And then, we just neglected the rest of the room, really.  The months went by and the clutter built up again.

In a bid to reclaim floor space, drastic action was required.  To get things going, Mr SSG did a vacuum and found a few things from the kitchen that he felt needed to be ‘stored’  to free up bench space.

It was all the motivation I needed.  I found these metal serving trolleys at Costco and they were just the right size and height for our needs.  They also have wheels which makes them easy to move around.  There are wheel locks as well for when you’ve found the final resting place for your trolley.

With the second trolley in place, order has been restored… for now.

Then it was time for more trashy television and a review of this week’s glossip mags (they do have a habit of putting a bit of gloss on things, don’t they?).  I hit celebrity overload just after reading about Bill and G’s gorgeous newborn son.  Which is fine because I have all of tomorrow to read about Jessica’s post baby body and (yawn) whether or not Kristen is back with Rob….  Very difficult to tell with her facial expression because it hasn’t moved a millimetre for a few months, I’d say.

What I have been getting into with relish are old favourites from my childhood.  How did I manage to forget how much fun Dr Seuss was and still is?  I read both Cat in the Hat books yesterday.  Erm.  Aloud.  To provide a bit of balance to the steady stream of Fox Sport, Arena and SBS Chill that would otherwise be bathing Baby SSG’s developing hearing.  We haven’t quite made the jump to classical music yet.  At least I don’t read OK! or NW aloud, I suppose.

I also have the entire 10 book set of Maisy.  Who wasn’t around when I was a little one.  Maisy has all sorts of adventures with her bestie Tallulah and Maisy’s stuffed toy Panda.  I’m hoping my reading Doctor Maisy will help Baby SSG make sense of the world next week when I (sigh) return to work and start talking for 9 hours straight…  Don’t worry, I also have Maisy Goes Shopping as part of my collection and we shall be reading this several times with feeling over the coming weeks.  I might add a few pertinent sentences here and there to keep things interesting…  I’m going to enjoy bedtime story duties, I think.

I’ve been so organized today, dinner is already sorted.  It’s going to be Malaysian chicken curry tonight.    Cooked in my trusty Le Creuset cast iron pot. I’m getting better at using mine.  I’m finding a little more oil than usual helps reduce the amount of browning and burning on the base.

I’m a firm believer in leaving curries to ‘soak’ for as long as you can before serving so I made mine this morning.  With a cheeky couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a can of crushed tomatoes in addition to the jar of curry paste.

And that’s about it from me tonight.  Take care and talk soon!