Day 10 of 14 - Hair hair hair hair, flow it show it

...ummm no...

"How 'bout No! Scott!"

I have this thing about hair.  I know that mine is gradually finding somewhere else to live and that's OK.  But I figture that what I've got left, I should keep tidy.


Once upon a time in a salon far far away, lived an evil hair stylist.  She would lure me into her clutches and as I gradually fell under her spell, she convinced me that I should let my hair grow longer.  


When I first was lured into her capture, she started me looking like this:

After a while of listening to the hum of her cutting, it looked like this:

That is not the hair stylist by the way.  It is my friend Emma.

As all fairy tales go, I eventually escaped her evil clutches and met my new hair stylist:

The savior of all hair-kind!  Yes - that is me and Pop enjoying a night out on Sydney's famous Oxford St.  

He's worked on famous people both here in Australia and in Thailand, his home country.  Note the change in my hair.  It's not clear in that photo, but much better.

But the story unfolds, it hasn't always been as tidy as it should be.  Especially at the start of this 14 Day Project, I found myself being totally disappointed with my hair. 

At the start of this project, it looked like this:

And now - as if by magic...

Unshaven & working t-shirt... too classy.

When I've got more of my room done, I'll have a shower & shave.  Then I'll take a new pic.

Day 9 of 14 - Battling the phantom menace

I found this photo, and I really like it because it says a lot about what I'm feeling.  I'm always battling my own thoughts and beliefs. 

This is my underlying thought:  

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right - Henry Ford.

This is sometimes quoted with a slight variation:

Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.  ~Henry Ford

I like the second variation.  Thinking... thinking can sometimes be our own worst enemy.  It's the internal battles that we wage with ourselves every day.  

I have been fighting thoughts for a long long time.  Actually you can insert as many "longs" into that sentence as you like.  It would be about right.  I fight a battle of self expectation and others expectations.  I fight battles of self destructive learned behavior. I fight battles about what I think people think of me - even if they don't think it!

My inner Phantom Menace can at times be my nemesis.    

This post is not complete... I am posting it up as work in progress, because I have a lot to say about my inner voice.  

Day 8 of 14 - Starting to see clearer.

My room is really difficult for me to do.  It's been something that I've struggled with for a long time.  When I first moved to Sydney, I used to have a really nice tidy & clean place.  I often wonder what happened to that place.

Well, let's launch into the results so far.  Yesterday you saw how it looked.

These are the same areas of the room:

The bedding has been changed.  I call this my "Austin Powers" set.  I really felt like I needed something bright in the room.

The garbage has been taken away.  Believe it or not, most of the stuff in the before photo was stuff that needed to be gone weeks ago.  Now I can get through to the balcony.

And now you can see what the bed looks like.  The soft toys are gifts from friends over the past few years.  One of my friends used to give me a bear at christmas time each year.  It was the bear of the year for the department store that he got them from.  Fortunately that fad only lasted a few years.

Day 7 of 14 - Halfway. Is the room half empty or half full?

This next part of the project is really the most difficult for me.


THE BEDROOM:


Let's take a look at some before photos:

Entering the room, the first thing that confronts you is an overwhelming sense of chaos.

Next to my bed.  Behind that curtain at the end, is the glass sliding door leading out to the balcony.  As you can probably see, I don't go out there that much.

This is the end of my bed.  That desk in the background should be usable.   

This is only part of what I've got to do, but I'm determined to make it happen. And I'm going to break the oppression that this type of chaos causes

Day 6 of 14 - The storm nearly finished.

Yesterday's marathon produced results that I didn't imagine.  I'm finding the whole process a massive challenge, but I know that at the end of it, there is going to be an amazing change in my life.

Now, let's take a look at where the food gets cooked...

hmmm...

This is better.  The baked on marks are going to require a few more cleans to come off fully.  Each time they're scrubbed, a bit more comes off.

Here's what the kitchen looked like earlier...

The clutter on the bench is just the remains of chaos that once ruled supreme.

This is what it looks like now:

The remaining things in this room are as follows:

• Go through the drawers and clear them out.
• Mop the floors.

Day 5 of 14 - The kitchen storm continues...

OK - so I went to sleep on Friday night after cleaning the exhaust range hood.  The chemicals actually made me feel like I'd been drinking all night.  When I woke up on Saturday, I felt like I was having a hangover.

Anyway, here we go!

Cupboard above the fridge - before.

Cupboard above the fridge - part complete.

Cupboard above the fridge - finished.  *NOTE* - the fridge top at the bottom of the photo is clean, dusted, and clear.

This project is not just about completion, but it's also about not cutting corners.  That includes cleaning out the fridge!

Here we go...

Fridge before.

Fridge front on.  Before.

Fridge - After.

Fridge front on.  After - complete!

So now the fridge is done, the next thing is to move on to the spice cupboard & microwave.

Spice cupboard before.

Spice cupboard after - complete!

It's really hard and confronting for me to put these pictures up.  This whole project is one of the most important things that I've done in my life.  The key thing is to keep going till it's finished.

So with that in mind, let's clean the microwave...

Microwave before.

Microwave after - interior and exterior cleaned.  

No kitchen is complete without bench tops.  Let's take a look at the before & after.

Clear bench - I love it!

Of course, under ever bench is the storage cupboards & let's see what mysteries are in there.

Most of this stuff isn't even useful!  Why keep it Pete???

Ready for cleaning.

Clean, tidy and complete!

And now - let's slide along and look at the storage next to this one.

hmmm... what *is* this all about???

Ready for cleaning...

The final result with everything having a purpose - complete.

OK - so now we'll move under the sink... careful... beyond yonder doors there be dragons!

Yep... there's dragons

And the dragons are gone!  YAY for no more dragons.

Now, before we go to the cooking side of the kitchen, we need to fly up to the flatware cupboard.

Stacks on the mill... more on still...

And simplified, clearer organisation.  

Let's fly across to the other side of the kitchen, beverages & food.

I'd make you a cup of coffee or tea... but um... 

Actually, I will make that coffee now - Milk and sugar for me please. 

And next to the beverages - we've got the food... 

hmmm - just how do I manage to turn this chaos into delicious food?  

Ahhh yes... that's where everything is.

But you can't cook anything at all if you can't find a pot to cook in....

Cook if you can - or if you're not afraid of something falling on you.

And yes - now you can find something to cook with.  

This really was a mammoth task.  It took the whole day to do this and it was about 4am by the time I got to here.

Day 4 - Cleaning up a storm in the Kitchen

I love cooking.  Anyone who's been to my place knows this.  I'm also a pretty good cook, and anyone who's been for dinner knows this too. 

So what's with the kitchen?

It's one of those things that has gradually got out of control.  Just like everything else really. 

So here we go - 

This is how it looked on Friday night (I started on Day 4) 23rd April 2010.

I decided to start in the the first cupboard on the left & work my way through.

 

Glasses cupboard before.

Glasses cupboard after.

Cupboard above the exhaust rangehood - before.

Cupboard above the exhaust - after.

De-greaser on the exhaust fan.

In the process of cleaning...

Exhaust de-greased & cleaned - Finished!

It was late on Friday night, so I went to bed after I finished this.  More to come tomorrow!