Wednesday, June 27, 2007

More Dr Tran!

They've released more Dr Tran!

This is one of my favourites. I laughed my arse off.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Runs in the family

Yonks ago last year, I posted about the times when I've stopped to help out people who have been having car problems and ranted a bit about how it doesn't seem to be the norm these days for people to play the good Samaritan.

Well, last week my sister Barb was taking the kids for a drive so they could get out of the house for a bit. She was heading in the general direction of Jacoby Park, a really nice park in Mundaring that has been closed for about a year now due to roadworks but has recently opened again.
She's driving up the hill (Greenmount Hill to be precise but for anyone living in the general Mundaring area it's 'The Hill') when she saw a car broken down and two ladies standing next to it.
So she pulls over and asks if she can help in anyway or make a call. The older of the two women, who was 72 , was in tears and explained they've come up from Mandurah (about an hour away) so her daughter in law can visit her husband who is spending a little time in Acacia, the minimun security prison in Wooroloo. The car has completely seized up and it looks like she won't be able to visit.

So Barb says she's got a spare seat and if the DIL doesn't mind a twenty minute drive with three kids, she'd be more than happy to drive her to Acacia. So they set off and after Barb has dropped her off, she returned to stay with the Mother in Law while she waits for the RAC and her hubby to arrive.
Once help has come, she tries to give Barb some petrol money, which Barb refuses to accept saying she's sure this lady would have stopped to help if she'd seen Barb broken down with three kids. After some friendly arguing (not quite Mrs Doyle vs Mrs Dineen, but close) Barb agrees to give the lady her address so she can receive a thankyou card.

Yesterday Barb receives in the mail a Happy Feet dvd for the kids, a real pearl necklace and $20 for petrol along with a letter saying it was the kindest act anyone has ever performed for this lady (I'm sorry, Barb did tell me her name but I've forgotten it...).
Barb was in tears while she was reading it and couldn't believe her generosity. After all, Barb never expected anything in return.

I just thought this was a really nice story, it out a smile on my face and I hope it does for you guys too.
:)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Late nights

*yawn*

I have been so tired lately! I put it down to too many late nights in a row.

Last Saturday I didn't get to bed till the wee hours of the morning (see previous post for details), then on Sunday night we went out for Kat's birthday to a Belgium pub in the city. Originally Kat was supposed to go and see a band play in Freo but she couldn't get tickets so opted for a few quiet drinks instead. It was a good night though but some of the beers looked rather potent. A couple of the guys tried one of them that was 11.5% but I wasn't game (apart from the fact that I don't like beer). I chose not to drink as I thought I'd already had enough that weekend.

On Monday I went out again with Kat, this time for a family birthday dinner at The Cinnamon Club in Leederville, her favourite Indian restaurant. It was a really good night and I had heaps of fun, plus I actually got to give Kat her pressie, an Orchid that was too big to cart along to the pub.

Then last night Mike had organised a paintballing night so I went along to watch.

I don't paintball.

I don't find getting injured fun. Within the first round Christian had split his knuckle open from a hand hit and by the end of the night was bleeding from about four places and had numerous welts, Mel had a shocker of a bruise already forming on her arm and everyone else was showing similar injuries. I welt enough as it is, I don't need to go looking for trouble!

There was an observation deck upstairs so I spent most of the night up there watching and about half way through Kat came to find me as she'd run out of ammo and couldn't be bothered playing anymore. The observation deck (well, really it was a function room with big windows overlooking the game area) was in darkness and there wasn't really any great lighting on the stairs so it was nice to have company up there as it was a bit creepy.

The best part about the whole complex was the big signs on almost every door that read 'No Escape'. Obviously they were complying with fire safety regulations but it was rather funny especially the ones of the door to the loos. Kat and I couldn't resist getting a photo of the one of the gents.



The boys have a bye this week with soccer so tonight I'm planning on having an early night. I went to the gym for a bit longer than I normally do and I've walked the dogs and then I'm not planning on doing much else after I've made dinner. Maybe I'll watch a bit of Eddie Izzard...

Oh, and speaking of the gym and whatnot, I've been going really well with the diet and exercise thing. I've lost almost 10kgs now and I think it's starting to be noticeable. At least I'm not looking at photos and going 'Ewww, they'll never see the light of day!'.
So, I'm very proud of myself!

That's about it for now guys. I'll post again when something vaguely exciting happens!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Here you go, Ro

Ever since my new found ability to get inebriated, I've been promising Ro photos of a drunk Nettie. I've yet to deliver on that promise as I've always gotten distracted when I'm out and about and just plain forget to take photos.

Well, last night we had a thing at our place and I managed to get rather drunk. I seem to have developed a knack for it actually. I also managed to remember to take photos.
So Ro, here they are babe, just for you.


This is Mel and I, me after about 6 Smirnoff's and Mel after almost a full bottle of wine. We were having a competition to see who went the most red and I think I won. But I had so much fun, Mel is just such a blast to hang out with. We laughed the entire night.

We hadn't seen Jason since we played mini golf with him and so we were really excited when he said he'd be able to make it. He spent most of the night playing wii with Christian and laughing hysterically at things that weren't that funny. He hadn't been drinking so God knows what he found so funny.
Maybe we're just funny people?
He hadn't seen Charlie goes to Candy Mountain or Dr Tran so we enlightened him. He found them to be funny too, but then again, so do most people.
We also played thumb wars quite a bit, and he beat me every darn time. I think all that time he's been spending at the gym has been dedicated to strengthening his thumb muscles!

Another person I've found myself getting drunk with is Mike. Actually, every time I've been drunk both Mel and Mike have been there. I think maybe they're bad influences on me...anyway, Mike is also a heap of fun to have a few drinks with.
I did have my hair in pigtails earlier in the night but Mike decided twirl them around as fast as he could until it pissed me off and I punched him. Didn't work, I at odd times have the patience of a saint and so he pulled them out in disgust. When I'd done them though my hair was wet so I had a huge kink in my hair when it came down that looks a bit funny. Please feel free to laugh amongst yourselves about it ;-)
This isn't the best photo of him but it's the only one we managed to get with both our heads in the frame, courtesy of Jason. Everytime we tried to do the hold-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-click thing, we'd miss.


Christian avoided all my attempts of getting a photo of him but eventually Mike managed to pin him down so I could get one. The fact that my hubby only looks amused and not pissed off was the icing on the cake.

Finally, for some reason or another, we'd found it highly amusing to put empty Smirnoff cartons on our heads. So of course we had to get a photo of that.
Just to embarrass ourselves.
I hope you appreciate the lengths I will go to for your entertainment :)

Mikey was there earlier on in the night but I didn't get a chance to get any pics of him as he left early to go home to help with the kiddies

So there you have it. I hope you like them Ro.
Oh, and as you can see most of the red I put through my hair has decided to wash out, leaving it kind of brown again.
*sigh*

Monday, June 11, 2007

The plague ridden corpse

So, I've been a bit sick lately.

Well, quite sick actually for most of last week. It started with the dreaded lurgy that's going round here and quickly affected my asthma. I soldiered off to work on Wednesday and Thursday but by Thursday night I was feeling like complete shit. I couldn't go two minutes without trying to cough up a lung and was pretty miserable.
So you can imagine I wasn't too happy when Christian announced he was going out for the evening to work on his car.

I'm sure you all know me well enough by now to know that that didn't go down too well and I made sure Christian knew that. I was sick, I felt crappy and I really didn't want to be home alone. Even though my husband didn't think a draughty workshop was the best place for me to be, he must have felt some pity for me as he allowed me to tag along.

Now, I don't know about the majority of women out there but I actually rather enjoy nights like that (not the being sick part - the sitting around watching guys work on cars part). Not too sure why, but I'm quite content to sit back, watch the action and engage in conversation. I think maybe it has to do with helping my Dad out as a kid. I didn't actually do much when he was working on the car or one of his carpentry projects (hold this, fetch that, get me a cuppa) but it was more about keeping him company. I'd sit there for hours and we'd just chat about everything and nothing.

I don't seem to have grown out of that so the prospect of hanging out in a workshop instead of being home alone was quite appealing. The workshop belongs to Mike's (Brooksey) house mate Richard and they were going to be helping Christian change his fuel filter. Usually a five minute job, this turned out to be 'that job' on Christian's car that was proving to be a royal pain in the arse. There's always one thing.
The problem was that Christian couldn't actually remove the fuel filter as one nut seemed to be stuck. No matter what he did, Christian just couldn't get it off. So Richard was going to put it up on the hoist for better access.

Three hours, several different attempts to remove the nut, the fuel line half removed and a risky power saw job later, the fuel filter was free. The little sucker just didn't want to come off.
Against everyone's better judgement the boys resorted to cutting the connection between the nut and the filter with a mini saw thingy (no bloody idea what it's called but it's too small to be a saw, too different to be an angle grinder and that about exhausts my knowledge of power tool names). The fact that we had sparks flying everywhere right next to the fuel line didn't escape anyone's notice. We just chose to overlook the fact out of frustration and stand by with a fire extinguisher at the ready.

I stood about as far away as I could.

In Peru.

Only kidding.

So, the night was going well. I had actually perked up a little by then. When I first arrived I had announced that a plague ridden corpse in the corner adds to any social gathering and Mike agreed I looked like shit. I informed him that he looked just as bad given how sick he'd been and from the hacking coming from the far side of the workshop, I gathered Richard was ill too.

So I was a little surprised when both of them had lit up within five minutes of us getting there. I'm not a smoker myself but I fail to see the point of inhaling more shit into your lungs when you can't breathe as it is.
I'm not an addict though so who am I to judge???

Richard disappeared for a bit later on in the night and I heard him coughing amidst a plume of smoke and couldn't help but pass a comment about the whole thing. He turned around as asked 'Would you like some?'.
I did a double take and realised he was smoking a joint and almost freaked out.
Nice, naive Nettie doesn't do stuff like that!
I just really wasn't expecting it there of all times! Yeah sure, at a party you kind of expect it, even if you don't partake yourself but on a Thursday night while working on a car ... no, didn't see that coming. Made me a tad uncomfortable to say the least.

Anyway, about half eleven the old fuel filter was off and the guys were working on getting the car back together with the new one and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Mike offered to drive me home and normally I would have declined (I really hate putting people out, it's rude) but I said yes because I just wanted to have a sleep, plus I couldn't allow an opportunity to have a ride in the GTR pass me by. God, I love that car!

So despite how sick I was, I actually had a really good time. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it was an enjoyable evening.

And now it's time to bring this rambling post to an end.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Nightmares

I had yet another nightmare about a tornado last night. Makes it the third one in a week.

I have no idea why I'm terrified of them, it's not like they're a regular occurrence around here.

*shrugs*

Oh well, just thought I'd share that with you all.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Purses, Curses and Skulls

This weekend has seen me out and about all over the countryside and I've spent very little time at home. Considering I have the lurgy, this isn't necessarily a good thing. I probably should be getting lots of bed rest and doing sickly things like eating jelly and icecream and watching bad day time telly.

Ah well, that's just me I guess.
So anyhoo, I went down to visit Jo and Darce on Saturday and we went out shopping. I had to look for a birthday present for Mel as we're going out for her next Friday which means I was running out of chances to go pressie hunting. I discovered this wonderful little shop at Kwinana Hub and although I didn't find anything for Mel there, I did find lots of great things for me!

First of all was this Nightmare Before Christmas purse. I kind of needed a new purse (which means that my other one was getting old but was in perfectly good shape - but I could convince myself I needed a new one simply because it was getting old and I'd had it for so long) and so it wasn't long before it joined my services.
There is a little coin purse that attaches to the inside of the bigger one but I have so much crap to fit in that the big purse won't shut with the coin purse inside. But I can live with having them separate.


Next of all I bought some skull hair clips. They were a mite expensive ($14 a pair) but so cute that I thought, well bugger it, spoil yourself.
So I did.
Nothing really much to say about them. They kind of speak for themselves.


Yesterday I went into Freo with Barb and had planned on getting many spectacular photos for your enjoyment. However, as we were driving in I took out my camera to get a photo of a church (The Immaculate Conception Parish. I kid you not, I was trying to get a photo so you'd believe me) and I discovered my camera wasn't working. No surprises there I suppose. One normally needs to put the battery in to get one's digital camera to function.
My battery was still sitting in it's charger back home.
*sigh* How that tortured me all day.

Barb and I are planning another trip into Freo sometime in the near future so I can go and take all the photos I wanted to take yesterday. So never fear my dear comrades, they'll be coming to a blog near you soon.

Today (Public Holiday, yay!) I was supposed to be going out for coffee with Kat and Mel but I have a feeling I won't be making it. I'm really not up to driving into Scarborough today since I've been everywhere else this weekend. I really just want to nap the day away and hopefully when I wake up this accursed lurgy will be gone. Needless to say I think that's a pipe dream.

I have one other photo to share with you today though. It's of Christian's table. Now when Christian first said he was going to make us an outdoor table, I must admit, I scoffed. Not very wifely I know but the only things I'd ever seen Christian build before were computers. He'd never really shown an interest in carpentry in the past.
But what Christian sets his mind to do, he does, very well and so our table is complete. It's very big and triangular and very bloody heavy. It took five (or maybe only four, I can't remember...but five sounds more impressive) men to lift it and Christian needed a truck with a crane on it to get it from his friend's workshop where it was built to our driveway. So needless to say I'm not going to worry about anyone nicking it.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Meet Snoopy

Snoopy is my oldest, bestest friend.

I've known Snoopy since I was a baby and he's gone everywhere I have. A loyal and firm friend.

And I'm not talking about a black and white beagle with the sarcastic eyebrow thing.

This is my Snoopy.




My older sister had an orange coloured Snoopy and I got a brown one but by the time my younger sister came along, Snoopys were no longer for sale. My parents bought her a Popple instead I think which later got mauled by our dog Sam...

Anyway, he's a bit bald in patches, his ear has been sewn back on too many times to remember and he's starting to get cataracts but if Snoopy is anything, he's a survivor. As I've grown, I've gotten more and more harsh when it comes to keeping sentimental items from my childhood and most have been discarded along the way. Snoopy however has nothing to fear.

He'll be with me forever.