The Natterings of Nettie

Aloha peoples

2012-01-23T18:45:00.002+08:00

Hey all,
I don't particularly have anything to write about but I felt like I should keep this post roll going.

It's very hot in Perth at the moment. Today was 36C and that's the coolest day we'll have all week. The forecast reads as follows ; 38C, 40C, 40C, 39C, 42C, 40C, 39C.

I think I'm going to go hibernate in a freezer somewhere...

Honestly, I love living in Perth but I hate summer and herein lays the problem. Perth is summer central. It's hot and sunny and dry almost all summer long. Therre is very little respite from the heat and when the temperature does finally drop down to the mid 30's, the humidity feels lonely and decides to visit.

I love winter. Our winter. Which is the equivalent of your summer my northern hemisphere friends. I'm sure though that I would die if I ever had to go through one of your winters.

And yet as hot as it gets here, I do love my little city. And so I'll forgive her scorching days and the sunburn she inflicts and instead look forward to cool, winter days when the wind blows the leaves through the streets and the rain gently falls down to the thirsty baked earth.

Bouncey Bouncey

2012-01-15T10:00:00.002+08:00

Flora has officially booked her holidays.

I AM SO BLOODY EXCITED!!!

Seriously, I'm bouncing around like I'm high on red cordial.

She'll be here in roughly nine months! So much planning to do! We've already got a list of things we want to do but every now and then another idea pops into my head. Then I phone her and our conversation consists of a lot of squealing, a lot of bouncing on both our parts, a lot of eyerolling from Matt and Christian and in between all of that we scour the internet for things to do whilst they're here. After our trip to Rotto we're going to have about two weeks to fit in catching up with Sarah; going to the zoo; having a girly night out followed by a nice evening out; heading up to York for the day; having a bbq by the river; playing super golf; having a big party for Flora's birthday; possibly having a slightly (ok, very) illegal driving lesson; maybe going to Scitech; seeing my Mum (who has adopted Flora) and doing lots of hanging out, watching Frisky Dingo and Middleman and just having fun.

I just can't wait!

Lights, camera, action!

2012-01-09T17:50:00.004+08:00

Hello all :)

First of, just to start off with some cuteness, here is a picture I took of Molly. She's utterly adorable but I must admit, I felt very sad when I took this photo. I was chatting to Flora on the phone and we were talking about Molly and when I took the photo I noticed just how much she's now showing her age. We very quickly changed the subject because we both got upset and were almost in tears.

On the weekend Christian and I decided to go shopping for some light fittings (by decided I mean I said 'Let's do this' and he went 'Whatever') .
We've been in the house for roughly four years and it's been one of those things I've said we need to do for ages and we've just not got around to doing.
The house did come with some el cheapo fittings but they a) looked horrid b) set on fire easily and c) nope, looking horrid and setting on fire were enough reason for me!

We looked at a couple of the big lighting stores and eventually found our way to a small little store tucked away in some shops on the highway. As soon as we walked in, it kind of felt we'd been transported to someone's Nan's attic or a little antique shop. It was absolutely cluttered as the shop was tiny but they'd tried to display as much as they could.
The ladies there were very lovely and we ended up buying from there, mainly because the service was unbeatable.

These are the basic fittings we got for rooms that didn't need fancy lights; the study, bathroom, laundry and toilet.
The glass is frosted and has a swirly kind of pattern on it.

We got these ones for the kitchen, dining room and random area in middle (technically the dining room but it's too small for a table so we put the dining table in the 'games' room which is too small to be a games room...).
It's kind of hard to see the pattern in this photo but like the previous fittings, these are frosted but the design almost looks like there are cracks through the glass.

And finally, our 'balls of string'. They're actually made of wood and we bought these for our bedroom, the loungeroom and the entry...hall? space? meter squared bit you stand in before it becomes either the lounge or bedroom?
Anyways, so we bought the last three the lady had boxed and as we were paying at the cashier, she climbed up and took down the display model, plonked it on the counter and said 'No point me trying to sell one, happy housewarming!'.
I was just over the moon, it was so nice of her. So that one went in the spare bedroom instead of one of the plain ones.

This is ball of string lit up.

Because the bedrooms are smaller than the lounge, the light actually throws shadows on the wall. I think it's awfully pretty :)

We also bought a full length mirror which is great as it means I no longer have to go outside and try to catch my reflection in the window if I want to see how an outfit looks. We just have to mount that on the back of the bedroom door as soon as Christian nicks some double sided tape from work!

Hurrah for getting small things done!

Happy last year on Earth...

2012-01-03T19:21:00.003+08:00

Hello 2012! Nice to finally meet you. Doomsday theorists have been speaking about you for so long I almost felt like you were a friend that everyone else knows but I never get to meet!
But at last we meet and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what all the hooha is about. Maybe it'll sink in when I finally stop accidentally writing 2011, or perhaps when December the 22nd rolls round and the theorists suddenly admit they made a calculation error and it's actually going to be 2015 the world ends.

Or maybe you won't be any different to any other year.

What am I saying??? Forgive me 2012, you will go down in history for me I'm sure, because there are some exciting things happening during you.

First of all, let's discuss those pesky things called resolutions. I made two this year but have kept to my tradition of making them small, simple things.

The first is a continuation of last years resolution which was to make a more concerted effort to keep in touch with my friends. This could mean making a regular coffee date, emailing more frequently or just sending a txt to say 'Hey, how's things.'

The second is to do my dishes more regularly. Simple really - I'm a freaking slob!

Also happening this year is the stair climb I spoke about in my last blog post. I've started a healthy eating and exercise program already in order to get prepared for that. I haven't made that a resolution however since I find they get broken too easily. Christian and I have also started a '100 pushups in 7 weeks' training program which will be interesting...

The most exciting thing planned for this year however is Flora and Matt are coming to visit! :D
I am so excited it's just not funny. You'd think by now I'd be calmer - it's not like it's the first time we've met or anything. But it seems to be that the more times I get to meet up with them, the more excited I get.
We've already started making lots of plans, including a trip to Rottnest Island where we're planning to do some telescoping, snorkeling and dog paddling frantically away from sharks.
We're also going to head up to York for the day, play Supergolf, catch up with Smerk, have an epic birthday party for Flora and go for a behind-the-scenes tour at the zoo.

So I apologise now for being unbearable to be around in the lead up to their visit.

It's just I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Goals and adventures

2011-12-18T21:52:00.006+08:00

Several months ago a girlfriend and I were walking and she told me that every year she does the MS Stair Climb (link is refusing to work http://www.stepupforms.org.au/event-information.html ) which is a vertical challenge event involving 53 stories, 1096 stairs and lots of sweat and tears. She asked if I would like to do it with her next year and I said yes, of course, why not???

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah wtf was I thinking??? lol

Seriously, I am looking forward to the event since I've never actually set myself this kind of goal before. Yes I've said I'll exercise to lose weight or get fit but fitting into a smaller dress size has always been the goal, not the doing of the activity itself.

Now I am unfit. Soooooo unfit. And lately it seems every time I start to motivate myself to start training again, something happens, I get sick or there's a family emergency or my mental health goes down the drain. There always seems to be one excuse after another. But if I am to do this stair climb, I am going to have seriously start training and soon.

In King's Park in the city there is a flight of stairs up the hill called Jacob's ladder which is roughly 240 stairs and the place to start training.
Unfortunately everyone else knows this and wants to be there at the same time and so it's crowded and busy and you get pushed along at a pace that is much faster than an unfit person should be pushing themselves. Also it's in the middle of the freaking city and is a bitch to get to through traffic.
And so I've found a set of 51 stairs down by the river up to the highway overpass and will start my training there. A couple of months ago I had started and got up to 11 reps (I need to reach 22) but now I doubt I could do 5. It's only five months till the climb though so I need to get this fat arse moving!

On Saturday night we were hanging out with our good mate Brooksey and he asked me if walking the Bibbulmun Track (and again blogger is not being cooperative http://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/ ) would be something I would be interested in. Obviously not the entire way since it's roughly 1000kms and takes about 8 weeks but walking it for about a week. He said it was something he has been thinking about doing for a while and he would feel a huge sense of achievement by doing it.

I was very vague about it, wasn't non-committal but didn't say yes; the idea intrigued me but we were off sky gazing and I had other things on my mind. The thought has been niggling though and the more I think about it, the more I think I'd really enjoy doing that. The first part of the track is about 75kms and it goes down to Canning and I think that would be a really great starting point. It would only take about four days to do that and it would be a great test to see if we were up to going further.

Obviously I really need to start getting my fitness levels up if I'm going to achieve my new goals but I think it's going to be a blast along the way! I shall keep you all posted!

Nerd alert!

2011-12-11T17:38:00.005+08:00

I know, I know, don't scold me for being gone so long. I've been busy dammit! Not with anything in particular, just busy with work and the lead up to Christmas and being sick and you know, life.

So today is mainly a photo blog but there will be words as well, just to keep everyone happy!

Last week we had some amazing thunderstorms. One lasted ALL day and it was lucky I was off sick because Molly was so scared that if she had been wearing pants, she would have shit them. Every few minutes for most of the day there were huge peals of thunder, some close enough to make the house shake.
And with the thunder came some rain.
Actually, a little bit more than just some...

The pond in the park across the road flooded. It usually has an island in the middle. That day, it did not.

This sign is usually about three meters out of the pond.

I had most of the week off work. There's several things going round at the moment and God only knows which one I had. The doctor ran a barrage of tests but couldn't find anything wrong. It was probably a virus as there was no infection. I'm feeling better now, not 100% (maybe about 70%) but that's still better! He did find a 14mm mass in my lung but he thinks that's a lymph node or something. In another week I'll be having another x-ray to see if it's gone.

This weekend has been the nerdiest, funnest weekend I've had in a while. Yesterday we began the day by going to our friend Tiho's place and playing board games and having a bbq. We played Barbarossa and Scotland Yard, neither of which I had played before but both were fun.

Then we headed off to Mel and Jann's place for our annual friend Christmas dinner. Brooksey also came but unfortunately Chiaki and their baby Kenji are in Japan at the moment so our little group wasn't complete which was sad.
Mel has also been sick so instead of our normal Christmas fare we ordered pizza and took it easy. I had bought all the boys a pump action Nerf shotgun and so the fun began after present unwrapping time.
The grins on their faces were priceless when they unwrapped their boxes. I should have known then that the grins were slightly evil and I would spend most of the night getting pinged with discs.
We spent the next couple of hours shooting, running and hiding and trying to find the discs all over the garden. It was immense fun and the next time I get to the shops I shall be buying another two guns so Mel and I won't be defenseless and also some extra ammo.

As you can see the boys enjoyed their guns...just don't tell them I posted their pics...they only posed cos I promised I wouldn't post them on the webbernet. This is payback for taking a disc to the throat! It fucking hurt!

Let's play Boondock Saints!

Soon it was eclipse time and we set up the telescope. There was a bit of cloud so we missed some parts but it was amazing to see anyhow. We didn't have any luck attaching the camera to the scope so we just took pics with my camera on the tripod.

I'm not too sure what happened in this next photo that Christian took but I think it looks awesome.

This morning I got up and gave MadCarlotta a call and it was great chatting to her again. There was so much to catch up on that emails (even 10 a day) just don't cover!

Then this afternoon we took FPos out to a track day. FPos started out as PosCar (Piece of shit car) that Christian and Brooksey have been working on but turned into FPos (Fast piece of shit) by the time they'd finished as she's quite gutsy! We finally got her finished this week (by we I mean all of us - I helped even if that help is just 'pass me the 14 socket' or 'tighten this nut' or 'thanks for the coffee babe') and we were all looking forward to seeing how she'd run.

The take off was a bit hard to get right. The fly wheel is very light so the guys either spun the wheels and she bogged down or didn't give her enough revs and she bogged down but hey soon made up time. She understeers quite a bit so they were spnning her quite a bit but the beauty of these track days is the guys go out to have fun, it's not a comp so there's no competing for the fastest time. Kind of takes the pressure off.

So Christian was driving down the long track and was preparing to take quite a hard left corner and the car didn't under steer like he thought she would but instead, over steered. The back end came around and before he knew it he was sliding up over the curb, clipping one tree before coming to a very hard stop against another tree.

In this photo you can see where he came over the curb on the left, nicked that tree and the white tree to the right (at the end of the skidmarks) is the tree he hit.

Luckily he wasn't hurt, although he'll have quite a sore neck tomorrow I'm sure. He gave me a bit of a scare though but all ended well.

Except for FPos...she's rather banged up...

Now we just have to decided if we'll get another shell and move everything into that or try and fix the door and front bumper of this car. Either way I guess now we have another project to work on!

Overall though it was an extremely nerdy, extremely fun weekend!

The adventure begins!!

2011-09-04T08:54:00.002+08:00

Well, it does in fifteen hours!

Yes folks, it's that time again. The Nettie gets airborne! This time around I'm heading back to Canada Land to see my Dad. I know that last time I went I was very very bad and didn't actually do any blog posts about the trip but I promise this time I will.

I'm very excited about going to see my Dad again. It's so hard having him live so far away :(
I'm also excited about going back to Canada itself. Although it's very similar to here, it'slso very different and those differences really make the holiday memorable. Plus, it's very green there! lol

Let's just all keep our fingers crossed that this time round I don't miss my flight!

Chicstar photos

2011-08-20T20:32:00.006+08:00

I discovered an amazing site, Chicstar that sells some lovely clothes. I absolutely fell in love with this dress. I wish I could marry it. It makes me feel so glamorous and fabulous!

That time of the year again!

2011-08-07T19:52:00.005+08:00

Gosh, this past year has gone by so fast! I was very sad when I realised that this time last year, I was in Edinburgh celebrating my birthday with my best friend. I would give anything to be able to back there :(
I told Flora the other day that I miss her so much that sometimes I just want to curl up in a ball and sob. Some days I love the fact that modern technology has evolved to the point that you can connect so deeply with someone on the other side of the world but other days it hits me that this is all well and good but she is still on the other side of the world.
*sigh*

Anyways, I'm very lucky in the fact that I have some absolutely wonderful friends who happen to live much closer and so I planned a little birthday celebration to mark the timely arrival of a few new wrinkles and a grey hair! Hopefully it won't be much longer that I'll still be asked for ID!

Even though we were having a casual party here at home where babies would almost outnumber adults, I wanted to dress up. I guess the party itself was an excuse to wear my new pretties! I made Christian get a photo of me before everyone else arrived.

What can I say? I LOVE this outfit! Just wearing it makes me feel so glamourous and graceful and beautiful (of course, I'm not nearly as graceful in real life as proven when I squat down to show a little girl our colour changing solar lights, stood on my petticoat and ripped a hefty volume of it right off when I stood up but I digress...) . After I'd gotten changed, I called out to Christian 'You wanna know something?'. He mumbled back something that sounded vaguely like a 'Yes' and so I made a dramatic entrance into the study and proclaimed 'I look fucking fantastic!'.
This is the power of this outfit. It can make a woman who has little self esteem feel amazing. Worth every penny in my books!

It wasn't long before people started showing up but I must admit, I was well off my game that night as I didn't take many photos at all. It may have had something to do with the drop in temperature. It was rather chilly and so we didn't venture outside but stayed congregated in my dining room. The evening therefore felt a little different to our usual gatherings. Maybe it's the Aussie in me but I prefer sitting around the outside table in plastic chairs, watching people play darts and just generally larking about. Inside, in a more confined space people seem to be a little more reserved. Of course it was still a great time, but nothing occurred that will go down in our 'party history' (see The Great Fire Blaze of 2010 or Christian's Drunken Stagger of '08).
I did take a few photos and here is a small selection.

Sarah, Tash and I show off our awesome outfits.

Awesome outfits deserve awesome shoes. I feel I may have let the team down somewhat here but I rather liked how my ankle boots looked.

Barb and Co couldn't make it since they are being plagued with pneumonia which left Darcie feeling a little bored I think. I took a couple of photos of us together but made sure they were fun ones.

Despite the numerous newborns, we still kicked on till after midnight and by then I was dead on my feet. Getting old is exhausting ;-)
I fell into bed and it was one of those moments where it just feels so good to be in bed that you just lie there in contented bliss for a while. I fell asleep soon after only to be woken relatively early the next morning by my Dad phoning from Canada because he'd missed my actual birthday. I felt bad that our conversation was so short but sleep beckoned once more and I slept for another hour or two.

The rest of the day was mostly spent in my jarmies, reading a book, eating copious amounts of leftover cake and shopping online for more gorgeous clothes. I discovered this website which is where my outfit originated from. Now that I have made this amazing discovery, I shall skip the middleman and save myself some money...not hugely charitable of me considering I bought the dress from a local supplier but in times like these it's every woman for herself. The money I save will be enough to buy more pretties. Vain, yes. Selfish, probably. Smart, you bet!

Other than having an awesome night for my birthday, things have being going really well for me lately. I'm actually happy. Which I don't think I have been in a long while. That 'special friend' I wrote about a while back has been pulled out by the roots and kicked to the curb. Am I upset about the loss of that friendship? Of course I am. But at the end of the day, it was poisoning my self esteem and was the main reason for my cutting. I realised that I'm worth so much more than that and even though it was the hardest thing I've ever done, I also think it was the smartest thing I've ever done. It's just improved my mental health so much which obviously has had a ripple effect on other aspects of my life. Things with Christian are better than ever, I've reconnected with my sisters, my self esteem has improved. And obviously reading my blog posts will be much easier for YOU since they aren't so God damn depressing anymore!

Thanks so much though, each and every one of you for being there for me. I know most of you live far away but knowing that I was never far from your thoughts made it easier to pull through.
Love you all xoxoxo

I heart Old York

2011-07-01T21:19:00.007+08:00

Several weeks ago Christian and I decided to go away for the long weekend. I understand that this is something that normal people tend to do rather regularly but we had never taken a mini vacation before. It just always seemed too much hassle to bother with, too hard to find a dog sitter, too many thing to do around the house...the list of excuses goes on.
But things have been a little rough lately and we decided that a couple of nights away would do us the world of good.

I suggested that we head down to Busselton, which is where we spent our honeymoon but Christian didn't really want to go that far away. Since we were dropping Molly off for a sleepover at my Mum's place which is already half way to York, we figured we'd give it a go. York is very small and fairly old (over fifty years!) so we knew there wouldn't be a hell of a lot to do while there but since the aim of the weekend was to relax, that was fine by us. I booked us in to the York Heritage Hotel and we were set to have a well earned break!

We arrived about midday and since we couldn't check in until 2pm, we went for a wander about and found our way down to the river. While it was very pretty to look at...

...you really wouldn't want to go swimming in in...

It was a rather overcast day and the river had lots of pretty reflections in it that looked amazing with the poles and ruins of old jetties.

One of the main attractions of the town is their swing bridge. Although the original was pulled down some years ago due to safety concerns (apparently bridges made in 1853 by convicts are deemed 'unsafe' by today's standards...) the new one stands at approximately the same site.
This is Christian looking utterly overwhelmed by the sheer excitement of being on the swing bridge.

After crossing the bridge we went for a wander down the track along the river. Lucky for us we had packed several changes of underwear because we were scared shitless by these terrifying beasts!

After lunch we checked into the hotel room and later that afternoon continued with our survey of the town. Many moons ago I did a post that included photos of some of the humorous signs that can be found in and around York. Yet again we came across some amusing ones...

I thought this was the best name for a junk shop.

In small country towns one must be flexible and adapt if one is to survive. This is especially true of small businesses. This shop sold lawnmowers, remote control cars and...

According to a newspaper writeup on the bulletin board of the town hall, this building is being developed into a collection of six small shops. The name generated much controversy and may explain why they still haven't opened yet despite passing the expected opening date.

Yes, the dog is pissing on the old man's shoes. For closeups of this sign and others for The Dog's Bollocks Emporium, see my FB album.

Times are tough at the moment in York. There was a crazy high percentage of homes and businesses up for sale; the bad economic climate has obviously had a hard effect on such a small community. Therefore one must do whatever one can to lure in a potential customer...

No exceptions!

When I had told people I was going away to York, everyone I spoke to told me I really must visit the new markets that have opened at the old mill. Apparently they used to have a market one day a month but now they have a permanent market every weekend. We thought we'd mosy over and check it out.
Turns out it's rather crap. Sorry York, I loved you and all but to draw in a crowd, you need more to tempt shoppers with than five dusty stalls in a leaky shed next to the mill that sell hand made tea cosies.

The mill building itself was much more interesting. The bottom floor contained a couple of furniture and giftware shops and Christian and I oohed and ahhed over a table that was made out of one piece of jarrah that would seat at least twenty people. It cost $25000 but really, what put us off buying it was because it just wouldn't fit in our dining room...ok...that's our story and we're sticking with it!
The next two floors held art galleries and we wandered about there for a bit but to be honest I was more interested in the wrought iron designs on the stair railings.

This is the mill from the outside. It looks rather rickety and that's because it is. Afterall, it is old (over fifty years!).

We had taken up the telescope so we could take advantage of the clear skies in such a rural location but alas, the Saturday was too overcast. We did scout for a good location though so the following night we would know exactly where would be a good spot to set up. It wasn't hard to decide upon Mt Brown. It's vantage point and open spaces were pros. However it was very cold...

That night we had an amazing dinner at the hotel restaurant (if you're ever in York you have to try the rosemary and sea salt potatoes at The York) and then we just chilled out in the room, watching telly and reading. We did discover the cons to staying at a hotel however when the noise from the bar downstairs got rather loud. Coupled with a rather rednecky rendition of 'Working Class Man' at 1am by a few drunk locals stumbling home, it was a bit of a disrupted night.

The following day we went to Gwambygine Park and did a small bush walk there and then spent the rest of the day antiquing and having a mosey around the rest of town. We had saved the Sock Factory for today so as not to over excite ourselves on the Saturday...

I was very tempted to buy a blue heeler hand puppet but Christian wouldn't let me so instead I bought two pairs of socks.
That night the skies cleared and we headed back up to Mt Brown to play with the telescope. We didn't stay for long because it was fecking freezing but we did stay long enough to find Saturn and her rings. We don't have the best lenses as yet so it wasn't exactly like looking through an observatory telescope but still, it was clearly recognisable as Saturn.

Oh, and Christian took a photo of the moon...

The following day we packed up and headed home, picking up Molly along the way. She had enjoyed herself at Mum's, a little too much. Mum is not immune to Molly's doggy wiles and played ball with her the entire weekend. Molly had trouble walking the next day...

We had a lovely weekend though and I'm hoping we can do it again soon :)

ETA - Blogger is being a bitch and isn't letting any of my links work :(
I shall come back tomorrow and try to fix them then. Apologies.

Picking up the pieces

2011-06-29T18:44:00.003+08:00

I've not been very motivated lately. I've been meaning to do a blog post for the past couple of weeks now but I just haven't gotten around to it.

Things have gotten slightly better in my head, despite a few setbacks and a shitty couple of weeks. I'm having a rather difficult time with my psych, it's very emotionally draining and it takes a long time to process after each session. Low self worth, fear of being abandoned and panicking in vulnerable situations are the main issues she's identified and she says it all stems back to the abuse I suffered as a child. The guy who abused me did so in an extremely predatory fashion - it wasn't just taking opportunities as they presented themselves but he waited until I was the most vulnerable; when there was no chance of getting free or having help come. And since it happened when I was so young and was still developing emotionally, it's completely shaped the way I feel about myself. I don't feel like I'm good enough because if I was, someone would have come and saved me. I am scared shitless of being alone because it was when I was alone that he struck. I have a stronger than normal need to have people there for me when I'm vulnerable or having a bad time; and when people aren't there for me I blame myself because I think I'm not a good enough person for people to care about.

The hardest thing is that I've spent my entire adult life trying to move on from the abuse. I realised what had happened to me when I was 17 (before then it was just a neutral memory) and since then I've tried not to blame the abuse for the path my life has taken. I don't use it as an excuse to rob people or beat people up or to take drugs. I believe that even after suffering such an event, I still have a sense of right and wrong and therefore my decisions should be based on that. And so to be told that the abuse has actually had a long term effect on me is hard to come to terms with. For so long I guess I have run away before I've dealt with these issues. In some ways I feel that my self hatred is justified. Now I have to learn to see myself as others see me and not as I've always seen myself. That's going to be a very long, hard process.

I still have a strong compulsion to cut. I hadn't cut for three weeks and then after an extremely rough day, I ended up cutting again. I had thought Christian was at the gym; that I would have an hour or two to compose myself, even hide what I had done. But he walked in the door five minutes later to find me crying in the bath, bleeding like a stuck pig. And I hated myself for making him see that. Of everyone, I never wanted him to see me like that. And so, even now, when I'm feeling slightly better and know I don't need to cut, but still want to, I've managed to hold off solely because I'm terrified of putting him through that again.

The antidepressants are no longer making me physically ill. I cut back the dose for a while but after the last incident, I upped again to the prescribed dose. I guess I must have adjusted to them because I haven't had a bad reaction since. The hard part now is staying on them. In the past when I've started to feel better, I've come off them because I hate the idea of getting dependent on the meds, but I now realise that it's partly the meds that are making me feel slightly normal again and if I stop taking them, I'll just slide back in the hole.

I had a very rough time last week when I found one of my clients in his house, unconscious, seizing and very, very sick. He passed away a few days later and I've taken it quite hard. We got along so well, he was only young and although he was terminal, things had been looking up. He'd just had surgery that was supposed to have paved the way for a transplant and things had been going smoothly. It would have been a shock enough as it was to have heard that he'd died, but to be the one who found him...I keep asking myself what I could have done differently...if I'd just gotten there sooner...

Three of my girlfriends have all had babies in the past few weeks. I am excited for all of them, I really am, but at the same time it's been quite hard for me. I guess in some way it just really makes me feel like a failure as a woman. Normally I am very strong about our decision to forgo further fertility treatments and not pursue having children but every now and then I get slightly broody and I guess I react to those hormones and I get upset. I'm sure this will pass soon but it doesn't help when every single conversation we have is about their babies. Ya know, I get it, you have a new toy, it's all very exciting to you and I do want to hear about all the cute things your new bundle of joy does and how each of their babies is different but just not all the freaking time!

Things haven't been all bad though. I've booked my trip to Canada to see my Dad in September and I'm getting awfully excited about it.
I've been socialising a bit with one of the ladies from the office and she's absolutely gorgeous. We get on so well and I'm really enjoying spending time with her. It's always so nice to make new friends :)
I caught up with one of my friends who moved to Melbourne a year or so ago and we had a really good night. I got her to read the chicken story and she laughed so hard I thought she would wet herself. Then we discussed what our mundane super powers are. Mine is the ability to see dog hair in any lighting, Christian's is sarcasm (but his super hero name is Iceman) and hers is the ability to take any situation and complicate it. I believe that all three super powers were used that night lol.

I am planning on doing another blog post about our mini trip to York soon so hopefully this melancholy/depressing/holy-crap-I-want-to-open-a-vein theme will end soon.

Thanks so much for all being wonderful and I just want to say that your thoughts and hugs have been muchly appreciated over the past few weeks :)

The story of the sad woman

2011-05-18T06:44:00.002+08:00

Once upon a time there was a woman. The Sad Woman.

Although the Sad Woman would not say she had had a hard life, she had had to overcome many obstacles in her life, many of which were hard in themselves. And because of these obstacles she had been filled in the past with a great sadness that battled within her and occasionally broke through her walls and surrounded her.

It was not all hard and sad however. The Sad Woman's life was also filled with love and happiness. She met the Wonderful Husband and they fell in love. She had many friends, some of which were so close that they were closer than family. And at times, the Sad Woman was happy.

There came one day into the Sad Woman's life a Special Person, who was a wonderful friend and they shared many hobbies and did many things together. But one day, the Special Person did something that hurt the Sad Woman deeply. The Sad Woman tried very hard to be understanding as she had been in a similar situation and wanted very much to be there for them. But the Special Person was very much caught up in their own world and did not care how much they were hurting the Sad Woman.

The Sad Woman tried very hard to contain her feelings. She told the Special Person just how much they were hurting her but although the Special Person was sorry that they were hurting her, they would not detour from the path they had chosen. So she spoke with her close friends but many were far away and although they were wonderful and understanding, small comfort could be gained. She tried her best to hide her pain from the Wonderful Husband because she knew that he would worry and hurt if he knew and she did not want that.

One day, the Sad Woman was at a hardware store and as she stood in a certain aisle, she knew what she would do. Very calmly, almost as if someone else was doing it, she purchased a set of new blades, intended for a Stanley knife. She took them home and put them in a drawer and there they stayed for several days.

And then came the day of reckoning and the Special Person went down the path they had chosen. On the inside the feelings built up, the hurt, anger, betrayal and grief until they were too much to stay inside. The Sad Woman could physically feel the pain; it hurt deep inside, made her short of breath, made her feel sick.

And so she sat on her bed, and took out the blades and looked down at her pale flesh. And without hesitation she sliced at her thighs.
The blades were sharp and true and the Sad Woman was amazed at how easy it was. She cut again and again, each time as easy as the last. And the blood came and the pain and the release. The Sad Woman felt the sting of the cuts and the throbbing pain in the hours afterwards and for a little while, it made the other pain she was feeling disappear. For this was a pain that no one else had caused, except herself. The Sad Woman would not have to wait in dread to feel the next blow delivered, she would know exactly when the pain would come and how much there would be.

And so she continued. But she did not want the Wonderful Husband to know what she had done, because although it helped ease the pain, the Sad Woman was also ashamed. She knew that the Wonderful Husband would not understand and it would hurt him and that made her terribly ashamed. And so she cut herself on different parts of her body so he would not get suspicious. Her thighs, her upper arms, her forearms and her ankles. Some he noticed and she lied boldly, telling him that a dog had scratched her or a rose thorn had snagged her. Others he noticed not at all, even the cuts to her ankle that bled for days and needed butterfly clips to stop the flow.

The pain inside would not go away though, no matter how much the Sad Woman cut herself. And so one day she realised that she needed some help. She called the doctor and made an appointment for the following day so she could get some antidepressants. And when the Wonderful Husband came home, she told him what she was doing. Although he didn't know about the cutting, he had seen that the Sad Woman was sadder than usual and so he agreed it was a good idea.

But later that night as they were lying in bed, the Wonderful Husband saw the cuts on the Sad Woman's upper arm and when he asked how these ones had happened, she couldn't lie anymore. And so she broke down and told him that there had been no dog, and no rose thorn, only herself and a blade. And the Wonderful Husband was sad and confused but also understanding and non-judgmental. He told the Sad Woman that she needed more than just pills to make her better and pleaded with her to go back and see her psychologist again. And the Sad Woman didn't want to because she was so scared that she would be locked up. But the Wonderful Husband begged and she could not stand to see him hurting, like she was hurting. And so she agreed.

And now it is today and the appointment is this afternoon. And the Sad Woman is scared.

Making sense of scents

2011-04-16T08:07:00.004+08:00

I'd like to think I'm just a typical woman.

Sure, maybe there's a strong tomboy streak in me, I have none of the social etiquettes befitting a proper lady and I have yet to get a grasp on that pesky line, but deep down, I'm just as girly as the next girl. There's something that feels right about painting my nails unnatural colours, I like pretty things, if I didn't have gargantuan German feet, I would most likely have a hundred pairs of dainty shoes and I love perfume.

One of the best parts about being a little girl was when your Mum would give you her perfume bottle with the last few drops left in it. Back in those days, chemists and posh department stores would hand out little tester bottles of scent that would grow into a clinking pile on my dresser. I loved having something so grown up and it didn't take long before I discovered my own unique taste in scent.

Overall I love floral scents but every now and then something a little spicy. My mother wore Tabu for years. It was the only one she would wear. Some years ago now, she changed to a different perfume (how bad is it of me that I can't remember which one?). I'm a little more flighty when it comes to perfumes though. I couldn't imagine wearing the one scent for years at a time. I have a chest of drawers in my bathroom and the top drawer is absolutely stuffed with glass bottles and aerosol cans. My taste in perfume changes with my moods or the weather. And I have always been fond of scents that come both as a perfume and in a spray. I use the perfume after my shower and then take the spray with me to refresh during the day. If I can't get a spray, I make sure I have a bottle that is small enough to take in a handbag.

Also, one thing that defines my taste in perfume overall is that I don't go for the expensive stuff. It's not that I'm a cheap skate, it's just that I have never found an expensive perfume that I've liked well enough to buy. I find that cheaper perfumes smell just as nice and since they're cheap, I can afford to have a dozen or so of them so I can chop and change my mind as often as I like.

And so, here are my favourites :)

Urban Rituelle Cheery Blossom, Lychee Berry and Rosehip. I bought this first from a little fairy shop and then when they no longer stocked it, from online. It's not showing up on their website anymore so I'm guessing they no longer make it :(
This is my ultimate summer scent, so so pretty, I just wish the webbernet came with a scratch and sniff component!

So...? The original one, sometimes called So...? Red. One of the first perfumes I tried that spoke to me and told me we'd be together forever. This one I'll wear at any time but it has a very much 'going out at night' feel to it so I do wear it if we're going somewhere special.

Avon Imari. This, as well as the So...? is one of my usual suspects. If I'm not feeling in a particular mood, I'll wear this as an everyday perfume. I love that it's slightly spicy and oriental but also still very floral. I first got this when I was working as a relief manager at KFC and I remember the first day I was wearing it. Whenever I smell Imari I always have a momentary flashback to KFC Ascot.

White Satin. This was my sister's favourite perfume and I fell in love with it. Very feminine and girly, just gorgeous. The only issue I've ever had with it is that I have so many tiny bottles of it, I don't bother buying the spray, but just take one of the bottles with me in my bag. I cannot count the number of times they have leaked through my bag. My bad though. You'd think after the fifth time I would have learned my lesson...

The Body Shop Vanilla Oil. By far, my favourite scent of all. Like the White Satin, introduced to me by my older sister. I guess she had two years on me and used that time well to make some fine fragrance discoveries. The bottle of oil is tiny and compact so I always have one in my bag. I took this with me the first time I went to Edinburgh and now, whenever I wear it, I always have very vivid memories of my time there.
The only perfume Christian has ever bought me. He has trouble smelling anything (his nose was broken when he was a child, long story) but this one, he can faintly smell and likes.
I am wearing this one now.

My drawer is full of many other fragrances as well, these are just my favourites. I have bought bottles of perfume in the past when they were on sale and I liked them well enough but apart from once or twice, I have not worn them again. One day I'll go through and clean out the drawer and my nieces will have a field day.

Pity and poets

2011-03-31T10:42:00.004+08:00

It's been a bit of an eventful week and not in a good way I fear.
I ended up with tonsillitis. Again. I seem to get it at least once or twice a year. Which isn't that bad when you compare me to my niece Chiara, who comes down with it on average two weeks after her last course of antibiotics has finished. She almost always has it. So I really can't complain too much but still, it's kind of annoying.

I'm assuming everyone has suffered from tonsillitis before but just in case you haven't, I can tell you it's awful. Apart from the whole 'my throat is on fire and it hurts to swallow/talk/sneeze/breathe' aspect, there's also the lovely combination of fever, utter exhaustion and just general feeling like crapness. Yesterday I went from being so cold (on a 32C day) that I had to soak in a hot bath to getting all hot and sweaty late in the afternoon back to being so cold again that I dressed in my winter flannel jarmies.
Today I have managed the strenuous tasks of having a shower and going to the shop for more Panadol and now I feel like just napping away the entire day.

Unfortunately I can't do that.

For those of you who have Facebook, you'll be aware that my poor little Miss Molly had her own eventful day yesterday at the vet. She had to go and have her teeth cleaned and they were so bad (because her neglectful parents never thought to take her to the doggie dentist before) that she ended up having eight teeth removed. I know, eight! I actually asked the vet if she had any left over. After one of the teeth was removed, they found a suspicious lump in her gum which also had to be removed. Once we recover from this vet bill (almost $800) we can opt to have the lump sent off for testing to see if it's harmless or cancerous.

The surgery went rather well but since she's an old dame now her recovery time has been a little slow. When she was carried out to me, I thought my heart would break. She looked so dejected and miserable (and if I'm honest, downright stoned) that I felt a right cow for putting her through this. She perked up quite well once we got home but she's been very sooky, doesn't want to leave my sight and she's very jumpy. Every time I drop something or make any kind of noise, she jumps a mile and runs and hides under the bed.

To make matters even worse, just before my doctor's appointment yesterday I got a message from Christian saying he was going to have to fly to Melbourne overnight for work. Molly and I were going to have to fend for ourselves it would seem. And considering my poor darling has no opposable thumbs, doesn't even realise that I'm sick and is generally just a dog, the nursing was left entirely up to me. I had to suck it up.
Christian caught an 11pm flight last night, spent only 6 hours in Melbourne and has just gotten back on the plane, which will arrive here at half past one this arvo. He told me he's exhausted and didn't get any sleep on the plane at all. So when he gets home today, he'll be just as tired and grumpy and sorry for himself as Molly and I are.

I promised myself I wouldn't spend this entire post in a self pitying manner and so I shall move on to a more cheerful topic.

William McGonagall.

I first learned of the worst poet in the world from Boo when she posted on her blog and since then, I have been a fan. When we went to visit her last year, we took great joy in torturing Christian with readings of his poems. I even secretly signed Christian up for a 'gem a day' email, which he hastily canceled before speaking to a divorce lawyer.

What bought Mr McGonagall to the forefront of my thoughts today (surprisingly enough I can go days without even thinking about him or his poems!) was a status update from a guy on FB. I haven't met him IRL but he is friends with Mouse and Boo and so it wasn't long before we friended each other on FB. His status was this little snippet

'Upon yonder hill there stands a coo
I've just had a look
It's no there noo!'

I made the comment that it sounded vaguely McGonagall-ish and then figured I'd look it up and see. According to this page, because it's bad poetry and it's Scottish a lot of people think McGonagall wrote it but if you really think about it, you'd see that he clearly didn't.
If you're like me and half the time don't bother with links on blogs and whatnot, I'll copy and paste their reasoning here:

'It scans (more-or-less).
It appears to be deliberately comic (however unsuccessfully).
It's written in Scots vernacular, which McGonagall rarely did.
There's no mention of a date, or of an early death!'

The best part about this little discovery however is that they don't just leave it at that but then go on to say that if McGonagall had written the poem, it would probably be something like this:

'Upon the hill there stood a cow
But upon recent viewing I can say that it is not there now
For it died, most unexpectedly, of BSE
On the 29th day of September 1893.'

That just made me laugh and laugh and then go 'Ow, ow, it hurts, it hurts'.

I think however that this is one of my favourite of his poems, mainly because he's pissed that people don't like his poems so he seems to think that the best way to get revenge is to leave Dundee lol

A New Year's Resolution to Leave Dundee.

Welcome! thrice welcome! to the year 1893,
For it is the year I intend to leave Dundee,
Owing to the treatment I receive,
Which does my heart sadly grieve.
Every morning when I go out
The ignorant rabble they do shout
'There goes Mad McGonagall'
In derisive shouts as loud as they can bawl,
And lifts stones and snowballs, throws them at me;
And such actions are shameful to be heard in the city of Dundee.
And I'm ashamed, kind Christians, to confess
That from the Magistrates I can get no redress.
Therefore I have made up my mind in the year of 1893
To leave the ancient City of Dundee,
Because the citizens and me cannot agree.
The reason why? -- because they disrespect me,
Which makes me feel rather discontent.
Therefore to leave them I am bent;
And I will make my arrangements without delay,
And leave Dundee some early day.

Edinburgh photos!

2011-03-24T20:56:00.008+08:00

So it's only seven months late...but I finally got around to posting some of my favourite photos from my trip to wee bonny Scotland last year!

I actually have a good reason for it taking me so long too! Usually I upload all my pics to my own computer and then do blog posts etc from there. However, at that point my computer had decided it wasn't going to play well with others and I had upload my photos onto the HTPC in the lounge room and to do a post from there I have to sit on the floor and it's uncomfortable and my butt hurts but I am doing that right now for you people and my bum is hurting so stop your bloody whinging that this post is seven months late already!!!

*phew* Ok, now that that's out of my system, here we go!

This is our room. It will forever be our room. No one else can claim it. No one!

The ever lovely Arthur's Seat.

We are all laughing. Why? Because this dog's name is Bum. Oh yes, you heard me. Bum the dog.

Wait a second! I'm sure there was a castle here somewhere...where the heck could it have gone???

If this sign says it is so, then it must be so!

Sunshine and lollypops! Wait a minute, we didn't have lollypops...awwww :(

Our camping adventure begins!
Christian in a tree. Don't ask.

Who's in the bag? Are they wearing glasses? And a beanie? And are cold and wet? Is it Flora and Nettie? It is? Yay! I win!

Hush, the White Rabbit is sleeping!

Squirrels! Red ones at that! And a squirrel sized hat factory!

Do you think they would honour this?

I love wolfies :D

'Alice?'
'Yes dear Roger?'
'Don't look now, but there's something on the bench with us...'
'Oh dear Roger, should I get out the bug spray?'
'No Alice, I'm sure they'll scurry off soon.'
Play time!

Cawdor Castle. The crappest castle in the world. Seriously. They don't even make hats!

Horsey!

Pixie house.
Curses woman! I don't want my photo taken but I seem to be trapped in this giant web. I shall use my only defense against the likes of you...my cold, steely glare!
All dressed up, let's rock this baby naming ceremony!
Inappropriate canon behaviour. I'll just let the photos speak for themselves, shall I?

Fear him...I bloody do!
Follow the white rabbit.
And you will discover something veeeeeery interesting about Nettie...
I love this photo.

Up above the world so high...

Like a wacky Brady Bunch.
Eeep! It's a highland coo!
Don't look now but there's a furry white nose growing out of my ear!

At the zoo. According to Christian, this is apparently a wolverine. Honestly, just because he can tell the difference between a polar bear and a rock, doesn't mean he can see wolverines!

Evil King Zeph!No! Don't jump!

Boo!

To complain or not to complain...

2011-03-20T18:16:00.003+08:00

Or to return a product or not. To make a fuss or not?

I am one of these people who just cannot stand being rude, confrontational or the teeniest bit assertive. I am logical enough to see that being assertive doesn't necessarily mean being rude but to some extent it's always confrontational. It might not be violent or angry but if you pull someone up on a small mistake (however nicely you do it), there's always going to be an undercurrent of confrontation.

I however take things to extreme. My brain just doesn't work like most people's do. Returning something to the store because it's faulty makes me so uncomfortable because I fear I will be perceived as rude/annoying/arrogant/confronting.
I've been on the other end of the returns counter and in most cases I've never felt that way about the customer who is returning the item (unless they're being an asshat about the whole thing). If anything, I'm extremely apologetic and feel awful that they've been so inconvenienced. But once I'm the one returning the product I just can't do it.

It's so bad that it's a running joke in my family now.

Here are some examples of when I should have returned something or complained or spoken up and I have not. These have all occurred in the past couple of weeks.

* I bought some pre-grated cheese and it was mouldy. I threw it out and went and bought some more.

* I bought a 2L bottle of diet coke. When I opened it, I discovered the seal had been broken and the coke was flat. I poured it down the sink.

* The other night my mum took us all out for dinner and my meal didn't arrive. Everyone else was already almost finished but I didn't say a word. My mother noticed and called over the waiter to ask what had happened to my meal. He apologised, explained it had accidentally been forgotten about and he would be right back with it. I was silent the entire time, beet red and squirming from embarrassment in my chair.

* I went to Ikea the other day and wanted to try one of their Daim cakes. I left their 'market' store only to discover I had bought the wrong kind of cake. The friend I was with told me to go back and just swap it over but I wouldn't, I just said 'No, you can have it'. In the end he went in and bought me the right kind.

*I bought a different brand of cereal the other day, thinking I'd try the home brand since from the packet it looked exactly the same as the branded kind. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever had, it tasted like it had been burnt. Christian had it too and was so annoyed that he actually rang the company to complain. I would have just thrown it out and never bought it again...

And now I have the conundrum that our new toilet seat we got the other day is broken. The thread for the screw is buggered so we can't attach it to our toilet. I've asked Christian to take it back so he can explain why we need a new one but he just gave me a look and told me that I wanted the damn seat so I can take it back and get a new one.
I know that I just won't be able to do it, I'll end up having a panic attack and then leaving it until it's way too late to return in and we'll end up wasting the money we spent on it.
I know it's illogical but unfortunately I did not inherit my father's Vulcan personality so logic be damned!

I may need to use my cunning womanly wiles to convince my dear husband to do this for me. More likely I need to bloody well grow a damn pair and man up.

I'm putting my money on option A...

Attack of the GIANT spider of DOOOOOOOM!*

2011-03-06T18:55:00.008+08:00

*No actual attack took place...

Today was an absolutely glorious day! It was only about 27C or so and the sun was out and there was a lovely breeze and so it was the perfect time to go for a walk down through Bassendean (a suburb very near me that sits on the banks of the Swan River).

I parked my car near the main road and headed off in the general direction of the river. There were lots of other people out and about and I would have probably walked right under the GIANT spider of DOOM if not for some cyclists taking photos of him.

He was perched in a tree right about the footpath. Isn't he awesome???

Complete with web and eggs!

I then headed down to Point Reserve, one of the many parks in Basso (I will take this opportunity to say that spell check has an issue with 'Bassendean' but not for 'Basso'...interesting). The entrance to the park has some painted murals depicting native fauna.

The Killer Kookaburra.

The Deadly Dragonfly.

The Bloody Bobtail.

A Fearsome Frog.

So there have recently been lots of floods over East and up North and I have wondered how likely it is that we will ever suffer the same fate. A newspaper article in the local rag I read a couple of weeks ago said that if the Swan did flood, experts expect Bassendean will be one of the worst affected areas.

I wonder how often this has come in handy in the past...?

There were a gaggle of geese frolicking around on the grass. As soon as I got within 20 meters of them, they formed up and started advancing on me, honking furiously.
I'm well aware from reading Footrot Flats that geese can be a (literal) pain in the arse so I high tailed it away from them.

"And don't you come back now!"

This pink and grey was much more sedate.

The river is rather pretty.

Just look how the morning sun shines off it!

Marvel at it's murky browness!

I rather liked this tree so I snapped a pic of it from the end of the jetty (contrary to popular opinion I cannot walk on water).

Finding my thimble sized bladder alarmingly full, I decided to make use of the facilities at Point Reserve. I had never ever before used a chain flush toilet.
I can now strike that from my bucket list.

I want this house! I'm pretty sure this used to be a church of some kind that is now being renovated.

Unless it's just a seriously cool house...

After about an hour I was making my way back to the car and spotted these magpies. Apparently there was good pickings along the wall!

Smorgasbord!

And lastly, for your viewing pleasure - ducks!

In a land far, far away.

2011-02-27T13:37:00.004+08:00

I love where I live. Sure it gets bloody hot, mother nature is currently trying to kill everyone in Australia and we have a ranga as our PM yet I still have a kind of fierce love for my country.

However, there are times that I wish I lived anywhere else.

Because anywhere else would be closer to everyone else than where I am now.

Ten years ago I would never have dreamt that I would become such close friends with people who live on the other side of the world. I would never have imagined that I would visit far away places to meet almost complete strangers, people who I only knew from chatting on MoH and could well have been hoaxes themselves (as I almost believed when Boo was an hour late meeting me at the airport! Oh how we laugh about that now!). Ten years ago I had few female friends let alone close friends.

But a lot can change in ten years and so it has. And that leads me to where I am today, looking back through photos taken from various holidays, reminiscing about the good times (most of them), wincing at the bad (Will's disappearing act) and being a rather sad, miserable wretch.

I miss my friends dammit!

I miss hanging out with them, how easy it is to laugh with them, the fact that we have the same sense of humour.
I miss the quiet times and the times we rushed around like headless chickens because we were running late for the bus.
I miss Edinburgh itself, the city that stole my heart with it's history (over fifty years old!), majestic buildings, creepy graveyards, culture and flair.
I miss arguing with Boo over things I wouldn't eat or even try.
I miss Zeph's cheeky grin and the funny faces he pulled.
I miss the way that Christian so effortlessly became mates with my friends.
I miss showing them around Perth and watching them fall as much in love with my tiny city as I am.
I miss our girly outings, dressing up, wearing the biggest boots and shoes we had and teeming them with lacy gloves and black lipstick.

I speak to Mouse most days via msn. I rarely see Boo online so we have regular phone calls (weekly when we can but rarely less than once a fortnight).
But it's just not the same! I want to be able to call them up and say 'Let's hang out tonight' or meet up with them for coffee (or tea!). Talking on the phone whilst browsing 80'stees.com is not the same as shopping together. Watching videos of Zeph impersonating a pirate is no where near as wonderful as seeing him do it in person. Writing *hugs* isn't even the shadow of a real hug.

Gah! It's just so frustrating sometimes. The world is so small now but at the same time, it's bigger than it ever was.

In roughly 18 months Boo and Matt will be coming to visit again. Rarely have I wished time to fly by so fast...

Baby lawn and fish!

2011-02-19T18:49:00.004+08:00

But not exactly in that order...

Fish first! I love our wall mounted aquarium, it's different and pretty and a talking point. Getting photos is kind of difficult however but these are a couple we managed to get.

I took this photo about two weeks ago. The bubble is still there!

This is Skeletor, our Glass Catfish. He's just insanely awesome.

Christian captured this photo of Coolio, our Kuhli Loach. Isn't he adorable?

Our Glowlight Tetras are amazingly difficult to capture on camera. Christian and I both tried a heap of times and this one of mine was the best picture we got.

So, onto our new lawn! I never really took a 'before' photo which annoys me now. How I wish I had! This is the closest I have and it's a 'half way through' photo. You can kind of see where the huge pile of dirt had been (it's mostly smoothed down now) but it was towards the back of the fence.

So I smoothed down all the dirt, as best I could, raked through some soil improver and water crystals and put down some seed and made a wish! It's not exactly the best time of the year to plant lawn because it's just so hot but I've been watering it twice a day and voila! Baby lawn! This was about a week after I planted it.

And now after about two and a half weeks. The area under the tree is growing much better because it's in shade for most of the day so retains moisture but the rest is slowly starting to come along.
I'm not sure if you saw the creepers along the fence in the first picture? Well Christian has pulled them all out and we'll plant some Jasmine or other nice smelling creeper at some time in the future.

For Christmas my mother in law got us a dwarf peach tree which I potted (the front pot) and I've always wanted a dwarf lemon tree so I got myself one last week. It's been too hot to re-pot it but tonight it had cooled down quite a lot so I popped it in it's new pot. The lemon is the pot next to the fence.

And finally, this paper wasp nest was outside my lounge room window several weeks back. When I used to garden I received several stings from these little buggers and I know they bloody hurt. But I couldn't see a way of getting rid of them without antagonising them. Eventually though they moved on and they took their nest with them! It's entirely gone now. Weird huh?

Why I'm looking forward to winter*

2011-02-16T20:16:00.003+08:00

* Perth winter, not crazy freezing northern hemisphere winter...

So it was bloody hot today. Got to 39.6C officially but the temp gauge in Osborne Park that Christian drives past every day said it was 43C. Either way, it was awful. Throw into that mix the chance of a thunderstorm and you have some lovely humidity as well.
Perth is full of hot, sticky, sweaty and grumpy people and I am one of them. Bring on winter!!!

It's not just about the temperature though. I love winter for more then just the cooler temperatures and lower risk of bush fires (even though we live smack bang in the middle of suburbia, we are still threatened by bush fires like this one yesterday that flared up again today. To put it into perspective the intersection they talk about in the alert is 600m away from my house). I love winter because I have so many awesome things that I can only use/wear during the cooler months.

This is the hat that Crafty made for me. I have promised for over a year now to take a photo for her but I kept on forgetting. Please excuse the perspiration on my face, it was hot when I modeled it! lol

And to go with the hat are the prettiest gloves ever!

Knee high socks are a must in winter. I also have several pairs of tights and stockings but they don't cooperate with the camera...

My Diego hoodie complete with bat wings and ears. You can see a photo that Boo took of me wearing the hoodie here.

I cannot wait until it is cold enough to wear my new Snoopy scarf!

For Christmas, Christian got me these felt beanies from an awesome shop in Melbourne when he was there for work. I keep on stealing his Kangol beanie so I can understand why he got me my own bunny ears.

For Christmas I got a Madness Hamsters Heat Bear from my best friend. However, customs confiscated the wheat bag from inside because it might have contained some odd European parasite so we had to make our own wheat bags up...

And finally, on an unrelated note, I promised a photo of my froggie biscuits so here it is for those of you who missed it on FB. I'm not the most patient icer in the world so they're not very neat but they were yummy all the same :)

An unexpected trip to the zoo

2011-02-13T10:37:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I had gone round to my visit my best friend and after watching the new episode of Big Bang Theory, we found we didn't really have much to do. I was being a bit of a grumble bum because I'd had a headache for two days straight and probably wasn't being the best of company and I soon found myself bundled into the car and on my way to a 'mystery location'.

The mystery was soon solved when we pulled up into the zoo car park and I became much less grumbly. I love the zoo! Christian and I used to have a zoo membership and we'd go all the time but life has become so busy lately that we haven't been for quite a while.

It was already about half past two in the afternoon so the crowds had mainly dispersed which was good but of course, being mid afternoon on a warm day, a lot of the animals were having a siesta. We passed enclosure after enclosure where all we could see was a distant lump of fur in a tree top (sun bears), a streak of orange against the far fence (tigers) or absolutely nothing at all (wombats, lions, cheetahs and otters).

Some of the enclosures were being refitted so we couldn't see anything (the crocodile Simmo was having his glass replaced and was supposed to be in his outdoor home...he wasn't so we trod carefully until we were faaaaaaaar away) and the dingo enclosure was empty after the death of their last dingo, Durka. I always love visiting the dingo so I was very sad when I learned he had died :(

There were however a few animals who were being very voyeuristic. The Little Penguins are always good for a laugh, however stinky they may be. The elephants were demonstrating how strong they are by carrying around big tree trunks. The orangutans were being very orangutany and usually I'm not a fan but they had babies and were being very cute. The Meerkats are adorable as always and were doing very cute Meerkat things. The rhinos started to get into a fight, there was some stamping and a few horn butts but they settled down eventually.
The most surprising of the day though was one of the hyenas. Usually you hardly see the hyenas as they're always bloody asleep. But one hyena was having a bath in the pond by one of the viewing windows. He was jumping around, splashing, scratching, looking very cute and then he would go bounding off, run all the way around the enclosure (which is pretty big) and then eventually he would come running back and jump into the pond with a huge splash. It made my day :)

I'm just sorry I didn't get any photos but as it was a surprise trip I didn't think I'd have any need of my camera. I did however go to the gift shop afterward; a place I normally avoid since I spend too much money there. I ended up leaving with a zoo calendar, a froggie cookie cutter and a spiderweb necklace. I plan to make froggie cookies soon so I shall get photos and post them here :)

A productive afternoon

2011-02-06T19:05:00.003+08:00

I had one of those eye opening moments today about my house. You know the type. Each week you tidy the house, do the floors, clean the bathroom, get the laundry done. The house if tidy and you think nothing more of it. Then all of a sudden, you actually *look* at your house and go 'My God! It's filthy!'. Yeah, one of those moments.
It happened when I was doing the dishes this afternoon and I looked out the kitchen window and realised I could hardly see out of the window. We've been in this house for three years and we've never washed the windows! How bad is that??? The amount of dust and grime on them, inside and out, was disgraceful. And then I started looking around the house and started seeing other things. Not just the accumulated dirt, but half completed or never started jobs, things that needed fixing, those sorts of things.
And so I made a list. I figured if I wrote down what I thought needed doing, then maybe it would poke at my memory every now and then and I would actually get around to completing these tasks (or nagging Christian to do the ones I can't do).

Clean the windows.
Wash the curtains.
Put up curtain rod and hang curtain in laundry.
Buy rod and curtain and hang in study.
Mow and edge the lawn.
Put in simple retic system for back lawn.
De-cobweb outside of house.
Clean off top of fridge.
Clean out kitchen cupboards.
Clean out bathroom cupboards.
Pot dwarf lemon tree.
Put up brush fencing along retaining wall.

Quite the list eh? And I didn't even include clearing out all the junk in time for our next curb side collection and de-skanking my yard. I've already started on the yard. Last week I dug out all the old, dead grass from out the back, smoothed down all the dirt and have put down some lawn seed (which probably won't take since it's the wrong time of year to plant but I was feeling optimistic). Our yard has just become really run down over time; to be honest, it was never really up to scratch in the first place. The backyard at least was pretty much a blank canvas when we bought the house off Dad and apart from my pots and a demented attempt at re-doing the lawn (major fail!) we haven't really done much except accumulate crap and grow weeds. I know my neighbourhood is Dodgeville but I'm sick of blending in with the trailer park trash who surround me (uncharitable I know but somewhat justified). Anyway, I'm hoping that our bulk collection will be soon so we can throw away all the junk that's built up round the place so I can start getting the yard organised.

Sorry, I digressed quite a bit there...I was talking about my list! So anyway, I wrote the list and then decided, you know what? It may be half past two on a Sunday afternoon but it's not too late to get started.
Christian also inspired me because he decided to change the washers in all the taps around the house since they hadn't been done in a while. So I started with washing the curtains from the kitchen, bathroom, toilet and the curtain that's destined for the laundry. Then I washed the kitchen window and the laundry sliding doors. The outside of the house got de-cobwebbed and I also put WD40 on all the interior doorknobs so they would stop squeaking. I made a trip to Bunnings to get a part for the spare curtain rod we have here and while I was there I bought a pot for my lemon tree and a new peg bag for the washing line. I got back only to discover I had bought the wrong part for the rod. And so I went all the was back to Bunnings, only to find they didn't have the part we needed so I had to buy a whole new curtain rod. When I got home I discovered it was an inch too long to fit in the laundry...we can put that rod up in the study but I have to buy curtains for in there first. I almost cried.

So by this time it was getting late and so I gave up on my list for now. But considering I started so late in the arvo, I thought I'd accomplished quite a lot off it. I'm just hoping that I can get everything on it done since that would make me feel a lot better.

The chicken and the egg

2011-01-27T20:13:00.002+08:00

Christian cooked dinner tonight and he made scrambled eggs. In order to complete his culinary vision, he had to go buy some eggs. When I saw the eggs he had bought, I smacked him round the head and told him very plainly that in this household we don't buy cage eggs, only free range or cage free.
This is the conversation that followed.

Christian: Does it really matter?
Me: Yes! I don't want anything to do with stuffing chickens in tiny little boxes! See, listen to this. 'These fresh eggs are laid by healthy, grain fed hens that roam free in large, cage free barns, safe from predators. They have fresh air, natural light, perches, constant access to food and water, and nests in which to lay their eggs'. See, much nicer than a box!
C: (laughing) Nests???
M: What's so funny? My chickens had nests when we were kids!
C: They don't have nests, they have the floor of a warehouse!
M: No they don't, it's a barn! They have perches!
C: Oooooooh, they have a bar! (waves his hands around like a pansy)
M: You're not very nice sometimes, did you know that?
C: I just recognise reality. You seem to have this delusion about the chickens being in a day spa! (waves hands around like a pansy again)
M: Bugger off.

Honestly, sometimes he drives me mad. Anyone want to take him off my hands??? lol

Fresh is best

2011-01-24T20:53:00.006+08:00

This time of the year is one of the best times here for getting a good range of fresh fruit and veg and since I've been making a real effort to eat more fresh foods, this has been very timely.
I thought that tonight I would take some pics of what we had for dinner :)

The menu is Teryiaki chicken stirfry with fruit salad and icecream for dessert.

It was only after I got back from the shop that I realised that I didn't have as big a selection of veggies as I would normally include in a stirfry so tonight's ingredients were pretty basic.

Cooking the chicken. Somewhere in there is a chunk of my thumb...

Add veggies and sauce. Nom nom nom.

I'm one of the weird people who can't handle eating noodles. It's the soft, squishy texture. I know they're essentially the same as pasta but I eat my pasta al dente...
So we have our stirfries with rice.

It's stone fruit season here which means that for about two months we get a supply of nectarines, peaches, apricots and cherries. For about two weeks they are actually affordable.
I live down the road from the major wine region in WA but as of yet, the vineyards aren't selling their table grapes and so I had to part with a large sum of my hard earned cash to buy them from the supermarket.

The fresh peaches didn't look all that nice so I went with tinned. Tinned peaches always make fruit salad feel a little more 'desserty' anyway I feel.

And serve with icecream. Yummy!

We enjoyed our dinner very much. It might not make for such exciting photos as octopi but it was tasty and healthy :)

Whiteman Park

2011-01-21T17:37:00.003+08:00

I can't really think of much to post about today but since I want to try and keep up regular posts, I thought I'd post some pics of Whiteman Park. We were there just after Christmas for a bbq with friends and it was a glorious day :)

We always head down to the areas surrounding Mussel Pool. Honestly, when you drive into the park it looks bleak and barren and not really a nice place for a picnic, but once you get into the heart of the park, you come across places like this.

Scattered about the park are old farming relics such as tractors and machinery. They've also bought in an entire windmill.

The windmill isn't attached to a bore as far as we could determine (if it is, there's no taps or other outlet to access the water by) so this sign was pretty pointless...

Most of the trees had numbered metal tags on them. We have yet to determine the reason for these although some of our theories included : Dieback surveys, orientation marks and general tree species surveys. Next time I see my brother Scott, I shall ask him since he's a fandangled botanist and all!

Not the best specimen I've ever found but the best found that day. Our beloved Honkey Nut! When Boo and Mouse came a visiting, we made sure they collected some to take back to Scotland with them.

A chain that was around a tree log that was being held up by a big tractor.

Some of the frisky wildlife. I wonder if it was the same bugger who took a chunk out of my birthday cake when we were there last year...

That is all :)

Kick me when I'm down

2011-01-17T14:54:00.004+08:00

Urgh, why is it that as soon as you're unwell or out of sorts, your body decides that you're not suffering quite enough and throws even more at you?

Last Monday I noticed very early on in my work day that my back was giving me some trouble. I limped through the day and made an appointment with my chiro for the following day.
I headed off to see him early Tuesday morning and then had the day off work. It's always an uncomfortable day after one of those appointments because it always takes a while for my back to settle down and it's very hard to get comfy anywhere. I was resting on the couch when it started - nasty, nasty period cramps. And the worst bit? Not even a stupid period to go with them, just the pain.
My back get much better during the week although I had to be extra careful with it. I have organised with work to drop a day from my schedule just to give it a bit of a break. On top of that, apart from swimming one day, I've avoided the gym as well, just to make sure I don't over do it.
So by the weekend I was hoping life would get back on track. But no, it wasn't to be. Saturday night I had a slightly sore throat, by the time I woke up on Sunday I had a full on cold. I ended up napping through most of Sunday and have dosed myself with cold and flu tablets and strepsils to try and get rid of it as quick as I can. It seems to be working because I feel much better today although still rather lousy.

I just wish it would be one thing at a time, not a whole load of shit thrown at me all at once.

Anyway, just wanted to have a bit of a whinge since with the floods over east I haven't really been able to whinge lately. If you complain about a bad back or having a cold you very quickly get shot down because with what those poor people are going through, back pain and the sniffles are trivial things that people don't want to hear about. I agree mostly with that but I just thought I'd come over and hide in the corner and just have a quiet whinge. Promise not to yell! ;-)

Sunshine, swimming and sweltering heat

2011-01-09T11:46:00.007+08:00

Hello there my lovelies :)

Just a rambling kind of post today.
First of all, I love this piece of music. I first heard it on 'The Walking Dead' and asked Christian to find out where it was from. Turns out it's the main piece from the Sunshine soundtrack. We hadn't seen the movie and so Christian downloaded it so we could watch it. The movie was ok, rather depressing to be quite honest but the soundtrack was awesome so it wasn't a complete loss.

It's been so awfully warm lately. Well, to be honest, hot. I know, I know, Perth isn't the hottest place on Earth and we actually have rather mild weather on the grand scheme of things but all the same, it's felt bloody horrible lately. It's more the humidity I suppose. I can handle dry heat well but throw in some humidity and I'm sweating up a storm. And yes I know, compared to somewhere tropical (Darwin or QLD) our humidity isn't that bad but it's all relative to what one is used to.
The trouble I have is I do a rather physical job in differing environments. The majority of my clients don't have air con and so I have to put up with sweltering conditions while doing my job and it's not pleasant. I never thought I'd miss my cushy office job but it's times like these that I do...

I've been trying to chop and change the types of exercise I do so I don't get bored with the one activity. When I stop exercising I just lose so much energy and get grumpy and it's just not worth it. So to make sure that I'm getting enough, I've expanded my horizons.
Besides the gym I have had a friend teach my kick boxing basics, I've been going for bike rides, hiking and I've now started swimming.
I've never been a great swimmer. I could never get the breathing down pat since putting my head under water at all made me panic and bring on asthma attacks (considering swimming is supposed to be good for asthma, this was rather counterproductive) so by the time I came up for air I would be hyperventilating and wheezing. So apart from the first couple of levels I never did swimming lessons and the only strokes I really can do are doggie paddle and side stroke.
But after seeing my niece at her swimming lessons I thought that perhaps I should just give it a go and so I did.
I went to the pool with Jo and Darcie this morning and spent a whole hour doing laps. I did a few laps in the walking lane but mostly I swam. Not very well and not very fast but I wasn't there to break world records so it worked rather well.
I ended up doing breast stroke (keeping my head above water the whole time), side stroke and survival back stroke.
I had fun and plan to go back every Sunday.

Finally, across the road from us there is a park and in the centre is a pond thing fed by drains. Living in the pond is a flock of Ibis, whom we regularly see wandering about the park. Tonight we were walking down to a friend's house for dinner and as we were passing the pond I noticed that none of the Ibis were there. I commented to Christian but we thought nothing more of it. We crossed the park and were heading down the road when Molly stopped to sniff at some bushes. Christian happened to look up at a white gum in the front yard of the house we'd stopped in front of and low and behold, the entire flock of Ibis were perched in the tree! I was surprised as it was because I thought they were water birds and didn't think they could fly to be quite honest (apparently they can since they didn't have any abseiling gear on them) but also because of the company they were keeping. In the same tree were magpies, galahs and pink and greys. We're not sure what it was about that tree but apparently it's the coolest place in town to hang out if you're of the winged variety.
It's not the most world stopping event I'd witnessed but it made my day.

A Christmas Adventure

2010-12-28T11:38:00.006+08:00

As most of you know, I bought Christian a telescope for Christmas. We decided that on Boxing Day night we would have a play around with it and just see how it all worked. There's way too much light pollution from the city where we live so we figured we may as well head up to Mundaring since we were going to visit my Mother in Law anyway.
We went to North Ledge which has views out over Mundaring Weir and it was a pretty good spot but there were an awful lot of trees still in the way so we didn't have an unlimited view of the sky. But at short notice it was the best spot we could think of so we stayed put.

We arrived about half six so we still had an hour and a half of light left so I wandered about taking photos. It's such a pretty spot and it really bought back memories of when we took Boo and Mouse there when they visited us.

This was such a pretty flower. I loved the colours and also the feather type texture of the petals.

The view of the weir. I know it's probably just the wind but it looked like there was a current through some of the water.

The view out over the valley.

Pretty bush.

I liked this tree.

And this one.

As I write this, the colour of the white background of my draft page perfectly matches the colour of the sky. I can't tell where the photo ends and the page begins. I know it will be different once I've published.

The setting sunlight looked so pretty through this palm.
The valley just as the sun was dipping behind the hills.

This is the rock that we climbed all over when the Scots came to visit.

Once the sun had set, we went about putting the telescope together. I'd assumed we'd put it together before we lost the light but it was so windy that Christian decided it would be safest to do it at the last possible minute.

It didn't take us long and we were soon trying to find something in the sky to focus on. The star finder was ridiculously difficult to use and so we soon gave up, looking through the eyepiece and moving the scope about randomly. We soon discovered Jupiter and it's four biggest moons. It was very pretty and looked very much like this photo.
We had forgotten to see when the moon was rising that night and unfortunately it was rather late and so we didn't get a chance to have a practice on the moon. It seemed the most likely starting point for complete amateurs like us but I guess it shall have to wait until next month.

We had a great time but we had to leave rather early as Molly was being dogsat by Christian's mum. But we figured we'd give it a go the next night as well. And so yesterday we headed back to the same spot but much later than the first time. Unfortunately we had a few problems and didn't end up staying for long. Quite a lot of cloud cover came over while we were there which prevented a lot of viewing and also the telescope seemed to be rather wobbly. The previous night we hadn't noticed the problem so we're not sure if it's faulty, if we didn't set it up exactly right or if it's just like that and moves around quite a lot.

I guess we won't know for sure until our next adventure out. The night wasn't a complete loss however - we spied on Jupiter a lot more and could see a faint stripe under it's belly. That was pretty cool :)

The creativity bug has struck

2010-12-27T16:51:00.003+08:00

Well I must say the end of this year has really got my creative juices flowing! I've been taking photos like crazy and framing a heap of them, I started work on a secret project with Boo and then on Christmas Day I was inspired again.

Christian and I had lunch at my older sister's house on Christmas day and after a lovely spread, we all sat around the table picking at the gingerbread house Jo and Darcie had decorated. Afterwards, I was looking at the sorry remains of the house (parts of the roof had been broken off and most of the lolly decorations had been eaten) and I asked Jo 'Do you think this would be covered by their home and contents insurance? Or would it be considered an act of God? I mean, if you believe in God, would he send giants to eat your home?'
Jo wasn't sure so we asked Christian. 'They don't call it an act of God any more.' Christian informed us. 'They call it force majeure.'
'And that means?' I asked.
'Same thing really, it's a force beyond their control.'
'Ah, so do you think the gingerbread family would be covered?'
Christian shook his head. 'No way, the idiots built their house out of gingerbread, they were just asking for someone to come along and eat it.'

And so I had the idea of writing a story about an insurance agent in Fairy Tale Land. Upon getting home from Jo's I had two hours before our friend Tash was coming over and I finished the last sentence as she walked in the door. It's not been edited and it's rather rough but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

(I must apologise for the spacings - it didn't transfer properly from Open Office...)

Once upon a time, in a magical land where fairy tales were real, a place called Fairy Tale Land, there lived a man called Mr Jones.

Mr Jones was not a fairy tale creature - not a troll or a dwarf, a prince or a warlock, but just an ordinary man.

On the first day of the new year he got up in the morning, had toast for breakfast, dressed in a neat gray suit, kissed his wife goodbye and went off to work.

Completely ordinary in every sense.

It was the nature of his work that made Mr Jones the subject of this story; for where he worked was an interesting place indeed.

Mr Jones was an employee of the IAF – the Insurance Agency of Fairy Tale Land. All day long he assessed and processed claims submitted by the magical and not so magical creatures of Fairy Tale Land. As you can well imagine, these sorts of insurance claims are rather different to the claims you or I might submit in our world; there are very few claims for a new washing machine or a new car. The nature of their world changed the nature of their claims but for us to understand these, how about we spend a day with Mr Jones and see what he comes across?

Mr Jones arrived at the office just before 9am. He worked down town on the main street, right opposite a bakery and he enjoyed the smell of the fresh bread that wafted across through his open window. Like insurance agencies in our world, the IAF was a large room separated into small cubicles, with a desk, a phone and a filing cabinet in each one.

Mr Jones' desk was neat and tidy and had a framed photo of Mrs Jones upon it. After hanging his jacket on the hook by the door, Mr Jones sat down and looked at his full 'in tray'. The period after Christmas was always the busiest of the year for the IAF and many claims had already been applied for. His whole day was full of appointments and his first client of the day had just arrived.

Mr Gingerbread knocked at the door to the cubicle and Mr Jones ushered him in. The poor biscuit man looked totally dejected and close to tears. Mr Jones pulled out the appropriate paperwork, along with a notepad and pen.

“What brings you to see me today Mr Gingerbread?”

“Oh, my family had a terrible, terrible holiday Mr Jones!” Mr Gingerbread pulled out a handkerchief and wiped at the tears escaping from his licorice eyes. “On Christmas day itself no less, our house was destroyed!”

“Oh dear” said Mr Jones. “How ever did that happen?”

Between sobs, Mr Gingerbread relayed his story. “The wife and kids and I were outside, building a snowman in the garden before we sat down for lunch. We heard them before we saw them – laughing and joking, full of festive cheer. A whole family...” he broke off, blowing his nose on the hankie.

“Go on” Mr Jones urged, handing the sobbing pastry a fresh tissue.

“Well, as I said, we heard them first. We'd seen the news reports, we know this happens almost every Christmas and so we had a fair idea of what was coming next. The wife and I scarpered across the road with the kids and hid behind some fairy floss bushes and then they came. The giants. And they...they...oh it was terrible! They ate our house!” Mr Gingerbread broke out into fresh howls as he relived the nightmare again.

“I see. Well I'm glad none of your family was hurt Mr Gingerbread; there have been fatalities in the past.” Mr Jones said sympathetically.

He pulled out a manual from his desk drawer and flipped to the appropriate section. “Yes, it is as I recalled, you're in luck Mr Gingerbread. The IAF recently changed the policy regarding these types of claims. It used to be that they considered these sorts of incidents to be 'Acts of God' and wouldn't pay out but since none of the Gods would tell us who was responsible, they decided to start paying for the claims. Your house will be fully rebuilt and in the mean time you can stay at Old Mother Hubbard's Lodging House, all covered by your policy of course.”

“Oh thank you, thank you!” Mr Gingerbread exclaimed. “That's the best news I've had all holidays!”

“Happy to help,” said Mr Jones. “Now, if you just take this paperwork to Nancy at the front desk, she'll get you all sorted. Goodbye.”

Mr Gingerbread shook Mr Jones' hand and left the cubicle, looking much happier than when he walked in.

Ten minutes later, Mr Jones' second applicant arrived, towering in the doorway.

“Ah, Mr Bear! Come on in, what can we do for you today?”

Mr Bear squeezed into the cubicle and into the visitor chair. “We've had a bit of trouble with a break and enter Mr Jones.”

“That's not good! Did they catch who did it?”

Mr Bear nodded. “It was that young scallywag Goldilocks, from down the road. I know I shouldn't blame her, coming from a broken home and all, never being brought up proper and whatnot but she did quite a bit of damage. Baby Bear is quite upset and Mrs Bear is in all a tizz.”

“Understandably,” Mr Jones nodded. “Do you by any chance have the police report with you? We need it to file the claim.”

“It's right here.” Mr Bear handed over some documents he had brought with him. Mr Jones accepted the bundle and looked through them.

“I see, so according to this report the damage was, luckily rather limited. Locks need to be replaced, kitchen chairs were broken and some bed linen was soiled.”

“Yes, we were lucky we came home when we did,” Mr Bear nodded. “Otherwise there's no telling what she may have gotten up to. The police say that she's been known to steal quite expensive items and we had the new DVD player I bought Baby Bear for Christmas sitting right there in the lounge room.”

“Well, this is a very straight forward claim Mr Bear, you won't have any problems. Nancy will write you a cheque to replace these items, just see her on your way out.”

Mr Bear nodded and stood to leave. “I appreciate your help Mr Jones.” He held out his paw for a shake and then squeezed his way out of the door.

Mr Jones had time for a quick coffee before his next visitor. He choked on a sip of coffee when he saw his applicant and tried not to cough too hard as he showed his hairy guest to the chair. A long nose and beady black eyes peeked out from under a bonnet and from beneath the cotton dress a large hairy tail swished backwards and forwards.

“Ah, how can I help you, Mrs...?” Mr Jones managed after his coughing fit passed.

“Grandma Hood,” supplied the rather gruff voice from beneath the bonnet.

“I see...Grandma Hood. So, how can I help you today?”

“Well, I've got health insurance and needed some new glasses and was wondering if they were covered?”

Mr Jones nodded. “Certainly, we have a range of glasses to suit such big eyes as you have.”

Grandma Hood gave a shaky laugh. “Oh, but you'd think they'd see all the better for it, wouldn't you?”

“Indeed. Is there anything else we can help you with?”

Mr Jones' hairy visitor gave a nod. “I was also wondering if I could book in for a scale and clean.”

“For your big teeth?” Mr Jones asked.

Grandma Hood nodded. “I do like to keep them clean...and sharp.”

“I'm sure we can arrange that. If you take this paperwork and wait in the waiting room just outside, my assistant Nancy will be with you in just a moment.”

“Why thank you, kind sir.” Grandma Hood rose and sauntered from the room, her bushy tail wagging behind her.

Once she had left, Mr Jones picked up the phone and rang through to Nancy's extension.

“Nancy dear, do me a favour and get security to apprehend my last client. Can't miss him, he's a wolf dressed as an old lady. And once that's done, call the Fairy Tale Land PD. I think we've found that serial killer who's been knocking off those old ladies and their granddaughters.”

“Certainly Mr Jones.” came Nancy's reply.

“That's a good girl. Now I'm off to lunch. I'll be back in an hour.”

Mr Jones left his cubicle and decided he'd go to the bakery across the road for a bite to eat. On his way out the door he passed 'Grandma Hood' scuffling with three security guards and as he crossed the street he heard distant sirens getting closer. By the time he entered the bakery, police officers were storming into the IAF office.

The Muffin Man stood behind the counter, serving his customers with a smile on his face. Mr Jones was happy this business was doing so well now. Just last year his old premises down on Drury Lane had burnt down during the night and The Muffin Man was sure he'd never recover from his losses. But the payout from his insurance policy had covered the cost of buying this new bakery and due to the more central location, business was booming.

Mr Jones waited his turn and then bought himself an egg and lettuce sandwich which he took outside to a table to eat. As he ate his lunch he saw 'Grandma Hood' taken away in the paddy wagon, exchanged a greeting with The Pied Piper as he led a procession of rats along the main street and gave directions to a rather scary looking lady who was in search of a spindle shop.

After a refreshing cup of coffee and a quick phone call to his wife, Mr Jones was ready to face the rest of his work day.

The afternoon was just as busy as the morning. He had to finish the paperwork regarding the claim made last month by The Pig Brothers. They were trying to claim damages to their houses during a freak storm but upon further investigation it was found that they had not sought council approval to build their houses and also the structural integrity of the dwellings was rather shoddy. This was one claim the IAF would not be paying out on.

After Mr Jones finished with his paperwork, he got himself ready for a very important client. A powerful merchant was coming to see him regarding a specialised service that the IAF offered – K&R. Although Fairy Tale Land was normally a peaceful land, some times bad things happened and the IAF tried to cover all scenarios. The Kidnap and Ransom service was expensive and only the richest and most powerful people could afford the service.

When the merchant arrived, he was visibly upset. “My daughter, Beauty has been taken from me by a horrid beast. He's not made any demands as yet but he refuses to communicate with us. What do we do?”

“First of all, you need to stay calm.” Mr Jones told the merchant. “The IAF is happy to act as negotiators on your behalf. This is our fee,” he showed the merchant a figure on some paperwork. “If you're happy to pay, I shall get you in a meeting with out top negotiator this instant.”

“Anything for my daughter! I shall pay right now.” The merchant snapped his fingers and a servant came into the cubicle carrying a small wooded chest. He opened the lid to show the gold inside.

“Excellent.” Mr Jones said. “If you'll have your servant see Nancy at the front desk, she'll take care of your receipt and I'll have you escorted to conference room four where you'll meet with our negotiator. I wish you all the best of luck with getting your daughter back.”

“Thank you so much.” The merchant said. He nodded and then left the room , his servant following, taking the chest with him.

Mr Jones' last clients of the day were none other than the King and Queen of Fairy Tale Land.

“Your Majesties, how may I be of service this afternoon?” Mr Jones asked, bowing deeply.

“It seems we may have a bit of a problem. A princess asked for shelter during that big storm last week but our son, (you know how he can be!) wanted to find out if she was a real princess or not. He hid a pea in her bed and when she woke up she was black and blue, covered in bruises. Turns out she was a real princess and she's not happy at all. She's talking of suing us!”

“Goodness me! That's not very gracious behaviour after you put her up for the night!” exclaimed Mr Jones.

“My thoughts exactly,” murmured the Queen.

“Well, never fear your Majesties,” Mr Jones assured the royal pair. “Your public liability policy is very extensive and if any judge in the land would decide against you, you wouldn't have to pay a cent.”

The King nodded. “That's good to know Mr Jones. I'm sure it won't come to that, I'll have a talk with her father, and I'm sure we'll get it sorted. My son just fancied her but he's determined to have a 'real' princess. I just wanted to make sure our policy would cover such an incident if need be.”

“Ah, young love, it causes everyone so much grief, does it not!” Mr Jones laughed.

“Indeed it does Mr Jones! Let's just hope her father sees sense. Well, good day to you.”

“You're very welcome Your Majesties.”

After Mr Jones' royal clients had left he finished up the last of his paperwork, turned off the desk lamp and gathered up his briefcase. As he was leaving the office he nodded goodbye to Cinderella, the office cleaner who had just started her shift and helped Nancy carry a box to her car. Then it was a short drive home to a lovely dinner cooked by Mrs Jones and a relaxing evening on the couch watching his favourite television shows.

In which Nettie takes Molly to the vet...

2010-12-17T20:19:00.004+08:00

Many years ago we started noticing that one of Molly's eyes was getting cloudy. She still seemed to be able to see out of it fine and so we didn't worry about it too much. Then one day I was at the vet and asked to have it checked out while we were there. I was told that Molly had a cataract but she could still make out shadows, light and dark and see movement.
Then about a year ago we went back to the vet for some unrelated issue and whilst there I got the vet to check her eye again. By this stage the cataract had developed to the point where Molly was completely blind in that eye, a fact that we had begun to suspect anyway. Several times Molly had had trouble seeing things on that side and it had become sadly obvious.

Last Sunday I was sitting on the couch with Molly perched on my lap getting wuzzes when I noticed her other eye had a bit of a shine to it. Suspecting the worst, I took her to the vet the following day only to have my suspicions confirmed. A cataract was already almost fully developed in her good eye. It's just a matter of time before Molly is fully blind.

The vet discussed the options with me, which were rather limited.
1) We get a referral to a doggie ophthalmologist and have an operation to restore sight in one or both her eyes. This will cost approximately $3500 per eye.
2) We do nothing and the cataract continues to develop, rendering her blind but on an indeterminable time line.

Christian was in Melbourne for work and so when I got home I rang him and we discussed the options, since if we decided to operate, the sooner the better.
It was hard but we ultimately decided to go with the second option. Several factors influenced our decision but the main ones were a) the first cataract took several years to develop enough to take her sight and since Molly is already almost 12, the chances are good that she will have some sight up until her death b) the vet said that dogs adjust very quickly to a loss of sight and she would cope rather well.
Cost was obviously a factor too and if Molly was half her age, we wouldn't have hesitated to spend the money on her. Finding the money isn't an issue - we've made extra payment into our mortgage that we can access at any time but due to her being an elderly dog it just seems silly to fork out so much money and put her through the risk of surgery.

Maybe that's callous, I just don't know. But I think we made the right decision.

I am curious to know what everyone else would have done if you were in my position. What do you think? Did we make the right call? Or should we do whatever it takes?

Shoot me in the brain

2010-12-14T16:30:00.002+08:00

Christian and I have been watching The Walking Dead and the other day watched the episode in which the CDC scientist explains about Test Subject 19. For those of you who haven't seen this episode, basically Test Subject 19 was a scientist who got bit, gave permission for their transformation into flesh eating zombie be documented and then when the transformation was complete was shot through the head by Mr CDC. Glaring obvious from the beginning was the fact that Test Subject 19 was in fact Mrs CDC. It's a great show but please don't think we're dumb...

Anyway so after we'd watched the episode Christian and I had this conversation.

Me : If I turned into a zombie, would you shoot me?
Christian : Looked honestly shocked at the idea that he could shoot me.
Me : If you turned into a zombie I wouldn't hesitate to shoot you.
Christian : Looks honestly shocked that I would shoot him.
Me : Well I wouldn't want you to have to walk around for eternity, decaying flesh falling from your bones, the hunger for flesh never stopping, driving you mad with every waking moment.
Christian : Oooooooookaaaaaaaaaay...
Me : So you'd have to shoot me.
Christian : I don't think I could.
Me : But if you didn't shoot me, I'd bite you and then you'd be a zombie too! And in my heart I'd know I was responsible for destroying your soul.
Christian : I'm sure I could stop you biting me.
A wrestle commences which culminates with me biting him on the neck.
Me : See how easy that was! Wouldn't have happened if you'd just shot me. That's a lesson. Why? Because now you're a zombie.

After that we shuffled around a bit, ate raw flesh and then spent the rest of the evening moaning 'Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains'.

Turns out being a zombie isn't that bad after all ;-)

Yet another post

2010-12-05T12:35:00.003+08:00

Wow, I'm really pumping them out aren't I? I hope you believe me when I say I haven't been abducted by aliens and replaced by a cyborg - it really is me!
It's just I had a bit of time to kill the other day and I went back and read some early posts that I had done on this blog but also early posts done by Boo and Mouse. And it seemed that way back then we actually spent time writing about what we did on our weekends, places we'd been, things we got up to. I've just found that recently when I've been posting at all it's been more about specific events or thoughts or just a bit of a photo dump.

I don't know if I'm making any sense and I'm not saying posts like those are bad in any way but I always enjoyed reading ramblings about the everyday lives of my friends and since we're all so similar I'm sure you guys are the same.
I guess that was the whole point of this blog in the first place. I have so many great friends, who don't live anywhere near me and this was a way of keeping in touch and up to date, not just for the big events and occasions but for all the little things along the way too.

And so here is my weekend so far!

Friday : Mum came round for dinner and trying to be healthy I made chicken stirfry and we had strawberries and custard for dessert. Mum marveled over my solar lights, completely forgetting that she's seen them all before, numerous times. The night wrapped up pretty early as Mum had to go and pick up my nieces. I had found a package thrown into my backyard while Mum was looking at the solar lights and it contained a Snoopy scarf I had ordered for my older sister.
Now Jo and I have had a falling out (long story but it's bad enough that she's uninvited me from Christmas) but I thought I'd be the bigger man so to speak and I gave it to Mum to pass on from me. I could have been spiteful and kept it but what does that achieve? I was rewarded with a thank you message on FB but that's been the extent of her olive branch extension.

Saturday : I was up at 6am and as I usually do at that time on the weekend, I jumped online to chat to my Scottish sisters. Boo and I had a rather interesting conversation which led to a few ideas being bandied about which then led to a full on exciting secret project. We've decided to keep it a secret for now for much the same reasons as pregnant people don't tell people they're pregnant until the first trimester is up; if something goes pear-shaped and we don't complete our project we won't have to face the horrifying prospect of informing everyone of our loss.
Let's just say it's combining our creative talents and we're both very excited.

I dragged myself away from the computer and went and had lunch with an old school friend of mine. It was great to see her but odd because she now has a baby bump. For some reason (maybe just my age?) a heap of my friends are all pregnant at the moment. I know it's silly, I don't even really want kids, but because I can't have kids, I'm feeling slightly like a failure as a woman at the moment. I know, I know, it's irrational and silly but that's the best part of being a woman - we're allowed to be irrational and silly at times.

That night Barb and Mikey came and picked us up and we went out for dinner. Mum had all the kids and so my sister and brother-in-law were enjoying their first kid-free night out in quite a while. We had a good night out and had thought of extending the night by having drinks back at our place but in the end Barb and Mikey decided that an uninterrupted night of sleep was beckoning and they headed home.

Sunday - I was up early again and so found myself again chatting to Mouse and Boo online. Mouse headed off to bed early and Boo and I tried to discuss our project but her msn kept crashing. In the end I just phoned her and it was so good to actually speak to her. It's just so hard sometimes being on the other side of the world to them and it's kind of painful how much I wish most days that we all lived closer to each other.
I was going to head to the gym today but period cramps have reared their ugly head and so I'm just having an easy day. I'm off to a friend's place tonight but until then I think I'll just curl up and read my book.

I do hope I haven't bored you all completely. I just missed our bloggy interactions :(

Walking into walls

2010-12-04T22:15:00.003+08:00

I've always been a bit of an accident prone, ever since I was a child.
Here is an account of a conversation I had this evening with Christian.

I pick up my favourite mug from the sideboard in the lounge room and take it through to the kitchen. On the way there the mug mysteriously gets broken.
Christian : What the fuck?
Me : Bugger, I broke my favourite mug! How did that happen???
Christian : Uh duh! You just walked into the wall! Like you always do!
Me : I don't walk into walls! The gap is there, I see it and then all of a sudden I'm walking into the wall...
Christian : Do you need a race?
Me : *blank look*
Christian : *making closing in gestures* You know, a cattle race, so you get herded through the doorway so you avoid things like, you know, walls.
Me : *tries to come up with a snappy retort and fails* Shut up, that's why!

Walls - 40659, Nettie - 0

RIP Mug

Dad

2010-12-01T22:09:00.002+08:00

Last Sunday was a sad day.
Dad had been visiting from Canada and he had to go back home :(

I had a great time while he was here and I'm looking forward to visiting him again next year. It's so hard, knowing he's so far away. When he's here, it's like he never left, nothing has changed. And now I can feel the great distance between us and it makes me miss my Daddy so much :(

I may be in my thirties now but you never stop being a little girl when you're around your Dad. Especially when he's such a joy to be around. The photo below is a perfect example of how wonderful he is. Dad is always up for a joke, can't keep a straight face in photos and is ultra supportive.

An unfortunate event

2010-11-21T07:07:00.004+08:00

Last week whilst driving her fire truck through King's Park, Barb failed to see Darcie skipping through the playground.
This is a photographic montage of the events of that day.

Working at being happy

2010-10-29T13:27:00.002+08:00

I must confess, I love my new job. Granted I'm cleaning houses but to come home and know that you've helped out people who really need it makes you feel all warm and happy inside. It's corny I know, but it's true. I love the fact that I'm not spending my time making some company richer, I'm helping someone who would otherwise be institutionalised stay in their home and independent.
And it's nice when you have clients who love having you there. Fair enough, I have the odd one who is a pain in the butt but the majority are so happy to see you. To be hugged four times and thanked a hundred after each visit really makes it hit home just how much this service means to some people.

And one of the great things about the job are the hours. I'm only working part time but with Christian's income we comfortably pay the mortgage and other bills and have enough left over to start building back up our savings. And the work is pretty easy - I mean, it's exactly what I do when I clean my own place every weekend. It keeps my hands busy but allows my mind to wander. And one of the things I think about often is my recent trip to visit Boo and Mouse.

It's amazing what small things pop to mind when I think about the trip especially since you'd think it would be the major things that get remembered the most.
It's just little things like...

*I can still remember the buses we used to get into the city. The 42 stopped right outside of Boo's house but wasn't as frequent so we most often caught the 4 which was a short (or if you were tired, LONG) walk away.

*I wonder if those cats from the window sill ever showed up...

*Even after telling the story (several times) of our niece vomiting into my sister's mouth after throwing the baby into the air, Boo went ahead and did the same thing. With the same results. Yum.

*There are no rocks in Scotland.

*There are however a LOT of hat factories.

*Spending forever walking around trying to find somewhere to have lunch at that would a) admit babies and b) fit the pram in.

*Marveling at the differences to home whilst grocery shopping (you buy oranges per orange, not by the kilo! And you can get FRESH raspberries! And they're so cheap!)

*Suddenly finding myself humming the music from Little Big Planet.

*Wishing Molly was a lot smaller and more rodent like so she could climb all over my head and wuzz my hair.

*Hearing the *thunk thunk thunk* of Sam getting her ball stuck in the kitchen doorway.

*The view from our window of Arthur's Seat.

I just have so many memories, most of which pop into my head randomly, making me miss my friends so much. I wish I could come visit again soon but I know it's not viable until at least 2014 :(

I've been thinking about doing a photo post from the trip but since Boo has covered it so nicely I feel like I'll just be boring everyone with the repetitions. Plus the photos are on the other puter...lol. I'll see how I go, maybe I'll get to it one day.

Spring has sprung!

2010-10-24T17:42:00.003+08:00

Spring is in the air and so are the bloody allergens! Gah, I don't think my allergies have been this bad since before my desensitisation injections. My poor little Molly is suffering too - she keeps biting her feet, rubbing her nose on everything she can and dragging her arse along the ground. Hopefully our meds will kick in and ease the suffering somewhat.

Before I really get into the swing of things I promised Boo that I would shout out a big hello to her friend David, whom I've never met but apparently keeps asking after me. So hello David! Not sure why you find me so interesting but hello nonetheless :)

This weekend was chocked full of busyness, I don't think I've stopped! On Friday night I took Molly to the vet, had dinner at my sister's place and then found myself home alone as Christian was out at a mate's place. I ended up going to the gym and then when I got back decided my fringe was a bit too long and my hair was a bit too brown. So out came the scissors and hair dye, I hacked off the fringe and have retured to my normal blue/black :D
And since everyone has been nagging for photos, here's a couple.

Both my sisters have recently started a weight loss campaign and as usual I jumped on the bandwagon. But then found that I was stressing and feeling shit about myself simply because I get obsessed with my weight when I'm dieting. Boo gave me this link which is a blog by a lady whom embraces herself for herself and believes in being healthy at any size. It really got me thinking and I decided that instead of hating myself, why don't I give up trying to lose weight, accept myself for who I am and make choices that are healthier than the ones I have previously made. That way, if I have a piece of cake one night I won't beat myself up because I've made five other choices that day that were healthier than I normally would have made.
Does that make sense?
Anyway, I guess what I find most difficult is accepting that there are people out there who find me attractive, since I just don't see it. But obviously there are people out there - otherwise I wouldn't have gotten married, seen that hot semi-lesbian action in Edinburgh (lol), had an affair or had a close friend tell me she's fallen in love with me. And so I decided that if other people find me pretty then I should start telling myself that I am and hopefully I'll start feeling like it!
The hair job had me feeling pretty good and so to further this cause yesterday I made sure I dressed in affirmative and pretty clothes. I may have been doing nothing other than going furniture shopping with my bestie but that didn't matter in the slightest.

I wore the top I got in Walmart in Canada with pride, which I have always felt self conscious wearing in the past...

And to top it off my favourite black skirt with pretty stockings and my bear shoes.

And you know what? I felt absolutely fucking fantastic the whole day!

On another note, my Dad arrives in a week and a half (YAY!) and so I've been busy getting the house all nice for the visit. This weekend I've really concentrated on the garden and I'm quite happy with the results. I got all my pots out the back tidied and weeded, the paths and driveway sprayed, my front garden beds weeded, manured and mulched and the lawn mowed. With that all done I can spend the next week making sure the inside gets up to scratch :)

I won't bore you with the rest of the details from my weekend since it mainly involed catching up with friends and watching the F1 race (*sob* poor Webber!) but at least I'vr gotten around to posting!

Veggie bake!

2010-10-11T16:57:00.005+08:00

I got home this arvo from work and after walking Miss Molly decided that my back was just way too sore to go to the gym. So I was looking around for something to do and I figured that since I had to make dinner anyway I may as well make it into a blog post! We all seem to be very interested in what everyone else is making in the kitchen so I hope you like it.

Veggie bake is something my Mum used to make and it's very easy to make changes to the recipe to add or subtract things you don't like.

First of all you need a quite deep baking dish.

Then peel and slice enough potatoes to cover the dish twice. I generally use about 6 large or 9 or 10 small potatoes. Once sliced, parboil the spuds.

Slice 2 or 3 carrots and also parboil. Then slice a few sticks of celery and one large or two small onions. Put to one side.

Take 6 eggs, a large spoon of chopped garlic and a nice shake of parsley and whisk in a jug. Put to one side.

When potatoes are done (cooked enough that they will continue to cook in the oven but firm enough that they don't fall apart when handled) cover bottom of baking dish with one layer. Generously sprinkle paprika over potatoes.

Then layer carrots, onion and celery and finish with a layer of frozen peas and corn.
Layer the rest of the potatoes on top of the other veggies. Sprinkle on more paprika and also some ground pepper.
Pour egg mix over potatoes.
Cover with grated cheese and place in moderate oven for approximately 1.5-2 hours (cheese should be nicely brown and egg cooked through).
Your house is going to smell amazing by the time it's cooked :)

This makes enough to have four serves by itself or you can use it as a side dish for steak or chicken.

Nom nom nom.

Where the bloody hell are you?

2010-10-06T19:20:00.003+08:00

...I hear you ask.

I've been around - much like Lara Bingle...(apologies to non-Aussies who won't get that). I've been meaning to do a blog post for some time now but stuff happens, things come up, life gets in the way, I'm sure you know how it is.

So, what's been happening since I last posted...

Well, Christian and I went to visit Boo and Mouse in Edinburgh as I'm sure you all know from a) Boo's blog and b) photos I uploaded to FB. I'm not sure if I'm going to do a belated post about the trip or not, I guess I'll see if anyone is really interested in it. Boo seems to have covered it pretty well but if there's a demand I shall have a go!

While I was away I came to the conclusion that I no longer wanted to garden for a job. There were several reasons behind my decision - the fact that gardening is so dependent on the weather that it's not a reliable source of income, the amount of travel I had to do, the fact that I really didn't have the proper training and knowledge and then also the fact that one of the ladies who I gardened with is a bit of a cow and we really had a clash of personalities going on.
And so when I got back I gave my notice and started looking for a new job. I applied for a managers position with Australian Geographic and actually got the job which I then turned down. The salary was rubbish, the hours long and then there's the retail Christmas to put up with. I really didn't want to be in retail again and only applied because I didn't think I was qualified to do anything else.
However a friend of mine encouraged me to apply with a nursing agency as a Home Help and so I did and got the job. Basically what I do is help clients with their domestic tasks (vacuum, mopping, laundry etc) so they can stay independent and not have to be institutionalised. I absolutely love the job, it's a nice feeling to come home each day and know that you haven't spent your time making the company an extra few hundred bucks but have actually helped make someone's life a bit easier. I've also quit my night job too and it's loveley to only work the one job now.

My dad is coming to visit next month and I am super excited. I miss him so much and I haven't seen him in a couple of years now. I'm hoping I'll be able to get a couple of days off work to spend with him but if not I shall just have to make do with after work and weekends.

I started a new blog about my Pig of Hapiness. He's a happy pig and loves making friends so please check it out.

And really that's about all that's been going on. Life unfortunately doesn't get more exciting just because you're not blogging (though one could argue the less you blog the more of a life you've actually got but I digress). I shall try and update more regularly I promise.

Not quite as they seem...

2010-06-20T21:51:00.005+08:00

I was laying in bed the other night thinking about things that sound much better than they actually are. This is what I came up with...

*Falling asleep in someones arms - sure, it sounds romantic and it is nice to snuggle but you wake up with a sore neck or a dead arm and one of you will undoubtedly be covered in drool...

*Starting a health regime - I always find myself getting really really motivated...just before I go to sleep at night. I lay there, planning all the things I'm going to achieve the following day, from eating a healthy brekkie to getting to the gym to taking a vitamin supplement. It never seems as easy the following morning.

*Offering to do the dinner dishes when at a friend's house - it's the polite thing to do and really, the fair thing to do. You've imposed on your friend for dinner, they've gone to a heap of trouble, slaved over a hot stove all day and you innocently suggest that you could help clean up. They're not supposed to say yes! lol

*Camping - I love camping, sitting by a fire, sleeping under the stars, have billy tea, having an adventure! Well, in my head I do anyway. In reality it's always cold, damp and uncomfortable.

*Telling the truth - just because it's the truth, doesn't mean it's all fine and dandy and won't hurt. Sometimes it's ok to sugarcoat it a little to make it easier to swallow.

[The following may be TMI]
*Sex in a pool or spa - sounds naughty and adventurous but the water washes away your natural lube and it kind of just hurts...

Are there any other really obvious ones I've missed?

'Insert humourous title here'

2010-06-18T23:33:00.002+08:00

Hmmmm...the other night Christian and I went to see The A Team with Mikey and Scott and due to none of us correcting Christian when he told us the wrong start time, we had about an hour to kill beforehand. We decided to go for dinner at Fast Eddies and were seated next to a large birthday group. Amongst them were a set of twin boys, about ten and dressed identically in jeans and check shirts. It was the outfits that first drew my attention to them as they had obviously gone to great pains to make them as individual as possible without annoying Mother. One of them had untucked his shirt and was looking ruffled while the other had his shirt tucked in and his jeans pulled so high up he surely had some wedgie action going on. I nudged Christian to show him the outfits and he took one look and declared loudly 'Twins Basil!'.
For those of you who don't know, this is a quote from the third Austin Powers movie and we tend to trot it out whenever we can. It has been stuck in my head now ever since and I was going to use it as the title for this post. However...after my last entry I figured that it may be in poor taste and so decided not to use it...

My older sister and my neice flew out to Canada on Tuesday to go and visit my Dad and I must say, I am insanely jealous! I really enjoyed my last trip out there and miss Dad like crazy and so I would have loved to have gone with them. But I'm hoping to get out there next year and it's not like I don't have a trip of my own to loook forward to. Jo and Darcie leaving was actually a bit of a landmark for us since we leave for Scotland before they return and so I knew our trip was really close when they left. Only four weeks to go! Yay! I cannot wait! In many ways it's very similar to Jo's trip in that I'm returning there and it's going to be a really nice feeling to be familar with the area and to re-discover things that I loved last time I was there. Small things won't be such a big shock (Weirdly shaped 2L bottles of Coke, I have you sussed now!) and the best thing is that we're going to visit loved ones too :)

And now a story that I feel is blogworthy but actually happened to Christian, who feels having a blog is pointless and lame...
About a month ago he and his workmate Steven saw on some photo-a-day site (I have no idea which one and he isn't here to ask) a photo of how Subway are supposed to put cheese on their sandwiches. It is cut into triangles and so they should be layed in opposing angles to cover the most amount of bread but as I'm sure you're well aware, they don't generally do this. Then last week another photo popped up, this one of a photocopy of a Subway internal memo documenting the new proceedures for laying cheese. Christian looked at Steven, did a fist pump and then they made plans to have Subway for lunch.
When they got there Steven was in front and when the girl put his cheese on the new way he turned to Christian and gave him a big thumbs up. Then Christian ordered his normal veggie delight and waited with breathless anticipation*. There was a bit of a sandwich backlog and Christian's veggie roll was stuck behind a guy whose sandwich contained a shit load of what looked to be raw bacon. The girl came to do the cheese and laid cheese all over the bacon and then went 'Oh, that's the wrong one' and then took off the cheese from on top of the raw bacon and put it on Christian's Veggie Delight! And to make things even worse, she didn't even lay the slices the right way! Christian apparently stood there glaring at the girl but she didn't even notice, just turned around and put the bacon thingy under the grill. I asked Christian why he didn't make a complaint and his reasoning was that he didn't really care, he just wondered what would have happened if a real vegetarian had been in that situation.
I told him they probably would have blogged about it...

*Or rather, slight anticipation of a small detour from normal routine.

When three become two

2010-06-13T08:34:00.002+08:00

I have quite a large family, my Mum is one of seven kids and my Dad one of five. However, the older I got the less I saw of my extended family. As kids we were always going to visit aunties and uncles and my sisters were quite close to some of our cousins (I didn't have any my age so I was always either hovering around the older kids or looking after the younger ones). As time went by things changed - couples split up, family members were disowned for being complete twats, others were just a little too strange or feral to make the effort. Now I very rarely see any of my extended family and it doesn't particularly bother me that much.

Christian's family on the other hand are very very close. His mother is a triplet and over the years he and his mum have lived with one aunt or another at times or lived just down the road. Christian's cousins are more like his sisters than cousins, and it was rare for a day or two to go by without them seeing someone. When I met Christian 14 years ago I was welcomed into his family and they became my own extended family. From the beginning I could always tell his Mum from the others but it took me a couple of meetings to tell his aunties apart and even longer to distinguish their voices on the phone. We've moved away now and so Christian and I don't see his family anywhere near as often as we used to but his Mum saw her sister's almost every day and if she didn't see them in person, they spoke on the phone. For 63 years they had almost unbroken contact, something that normal siblings rarely have. I mean, I'm close with my sisters but sometimes a week or two will go by before I speak to them.

So what happens when three becomes two? One of Christian's aunties was diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of the year but she had been sick for rather a long time before that. A combination of keeping the fact she was so ill quiet and also having Gall Bladder cancer which is extremely rare made the diagnosis late in coming. But apparently even if it had been caught straight away, there would have been little they could do and so the sisters soildered on.
Her condition worsened and then last Wednesday she passed away.

It was not an easy passing. My MIL had always said she wasn't so upset about the fact that her sister would die but what she would go through before she did. And from the snipets of details we've heard it was worse than anyone imagined. When a family sits around just hours after her death and laments the lawlessness of euthanasia, it's obvious that no one should have gone through so much before the end.

The grief that followed was unimaginable. I've had those thoughts that everyone has in those dark hours - what would it be like to lose a partner or parent or sister? I'm not as close with my sisters as I once was, but even so, we are still close. I live just 15 minutes away from them both and see them whenever I can. And I know that I would be devastated if one of them were to pass away but the truth is, we just don't have and never could have, the bond that triplets would share. I can only guess but I'm sure if would be like losing a limb - a loss that physically hurts and can never ever be replaced. Christian's aunty said that she will be sad every single day from now till she dies, she doesn't think she could ever be completely happy again. People often comically describe the crying of others as 'howling' but I had never understood the meaning of that phrase until my MIL broke down. It was a primal, soul destroying, outpouring of grief. It broke my heart.

We have a memorial service for her today, just family and a few close friends, a celebration of the life that was lost and the joy that she brought to those who knew her. We'll share the memories that have stayed with us the strongest. And I'll dwell on the fact that I'll never again get to see the look on people's faces as they try to figure out what exactly it is they're seeing when they see three identical women walking down the street towards them.

A world of pain

2010-05-28T17:33:00.002+08:00

The last couple of weeks I've found my back giving me quite a bit of trouble. I had been at the point where I was only going to the chiro every two months for maintenance adjustments but two weeks ago, almost a month short of my next scheduled visit, I was in enough pain to justify an early appointment.
After the appointment my back was still a little niggly but I assumed it would settle down and I would make it through the seven weeks until my final appointment before flying overseas. I would end up being very wrong with that assumption...

This week, as I mentioned in my last post has been very quiet on the gardening front and I only worked the one day, a six hour job at a complex we do in swanky Claremont. This job is done on a weekly basis and every week is much the same - we put down the wheelie bins and then clean them when they're emptied, we sweep both driveways and carports and then depending on how much time we have and what needs doing we rake the lawns, sweep all the footpaths, deadhead roses, clear garden beds and do any trimming that needs to be done. Lately I've been waging a war on several deciduous trees that have gotten the urge to shed their leaves and show the world just what their undergarments are made of. That means that this week I had a lot of sweeping and raking to do and anyone who has ever spent several hours at these kind of tasks know that it's not as easy as it sounds. It's actually rather hard work, you work up a nasty sweat and you also spend the majority of the time twisting to one side.

It was this twisting I think that lead to my current problems. Yesterday I was sitting in bed reading, moved to get more comfy and felt the air rush from my lungs as a sharp pain ripped through the middle of my back. Those of you poor sods who have back problems will be familiar with that nasty feeling of a pinched nerve and I apologise for the wince that I know crossed your faces as you remembered your own pain. As soon as I could hobble to the phone I made an appointment for today and then spent the rest of the night in that agonizing state of immobility - your muscles ache from tensing them as you try to avoid making any sudden movements that will lead to that excruciating moment when you realise that lifting your arm just so causes all the pain centres in your brain to turn on the red flashing lights and sirens.

My chiro appointment today went well, or so my chiro and I believed. It was painful in it's own way but he was confident that he had ironed out most of the wrinkles and that he wouldn't need to see me until my original next appointment. I was feeling rather spritely as I left and headed round to the house of one of my best friends whom I was spending the day with. Unfortunately one of the first things he did was give me one of those rib cracking hugs that I generally adore. Today it just made me shriek, followed by several whimpers that a milk deprived pup would be proud of.

And so I rang my chiro back and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. I'm just hoping that the inflammation has gone down enough for another adjustment :(
My friend was kind enough to call my night fill job and inform them I wouldn't be in tonight which I was a little worried about. Being part time means I have very little sick pay and with it being so quiet at my other job I really didn't want to have to have a day off but I wouldn't have been any use anyway. Night fill is such a physical job and I can't see me dragging around heavy pallets of drinks with a pinched nerve, especially since tonight I was vomiting from the pain.

Finger's crossed and if anyone runs across a spare back on the black market, let me know!

Why hello there!

2010-05-26T16:14:00.003+08:00

Aloha cousins! How goes it with you all?

All is good on this end, life seems to ramble along at it's own pace and lets us try and catch up with it when we can. With the weather getting a lot cooler over here the gardening work has slowed a little. This week is really quiet, I only had a job on Tuesday but the next few weeks look to be busy with some new jobs and so I'm just going to relax this week and enjoy being indoors while it's wet and cold outside.

It's only 51 days to go until I'm getting on a plane and heading to Scotland to visit my adopted sisters, Boo and Mouse. Yay! :D I am so so excited, I just can't wait. Christian changed our VOIP plan last week and so now I get free international calls and I've been making the most of it by ringing the girls whenever I can. Obviously it's easier to call Mouse as she's at home with the Mousling during the week but as often as I can on the weekend I call Boo. With daylight savings over there now it really makes it hard, that extra hour is a pain! I used to be able to get up at 7am on a Saturday here and call Boo since it was only 11pm over there but now it means midnight and it's just too late. I work till 11pm on Friday nights and it's just not viable getting up at 6am. But we manage to work out suitable times and I've really enjoyed the regular chats I've been having with the girls. The frenzy of excitement we're building ourselves up to is rather scary at times lol.

I've been busy in the kitchen a little bit lately. Every now and then I just get the urge to cook or bake and surprisingly I don't even watch Masterchef! I think it's just a genetic thing.
The other day I decided I was going to make soup. This was a big decision. Why? Because I don't like soup generally. I think there have been two times in my life when I've enjoyed soup - once was on a school camp when one of the teachers made a vegetable soup and the other was the Mediterranean vegetable soup we had at our wedding. And so I decided to make a veggie soup. I looked at a couple of recipes online and hobbled together my own from them. It was really just experimentation and apart from a little too much chili powder, it was actually really nice. I shall definitely be trying it again!
Today I decided to make some biscuits and wanted to make some with peanuts in them. My Dad used to make the yummiest peanut bikkies! So I stopped at the shops and got some peanuts and also picked up some macadamias and white choc chips. Then I just used a very basic biscuit mix (literally an egg, some butter, sugar and flour) and to one I added the macadamias and chocolate and the other some peanuts and peanut butter and threw them in the oven. They ended up turning out to be quite good although slightly crumbly but that's not always a bad thing.

I ended up ordering a new Kindle USB cord from Amazon UK and having it sent to Mouse who has posted it on to me. I'm hoping it will arrive in the next couple of days and then I can try it out and hopefully get some of the books on my puter across to it. I will be so mad if it doesn't work! So keep your fingers crossed!

That;s about it for now guys, take care, I'll catch you all up soon xxx

What gives you the right???

2010-05-20T20:47:00.002+08:00

Every now and then something will happen to me and I'll just sit back and think 'Did that really just happen'.

This occurred yesterday when I went to check my Facebook page and found I had a message waiting for me from a lady I worked with when I first started at the bank. As happens with probably the majority of people's FB friends, I had very little contact with this lady, saw the odd one or two of her updates but never commented or posted on her wall. She was just there, a virtual acquaintance. I hadn't worked with her in a number of years and apart from FB, I didn't have any contact with her whatsoever in the real world.

When I checked the message all it had was a frowny face. I was a little confused and thought I would check her wall to see if it would shed any light on the matter. I found a status update from last week saying (and I'm doing this from memory, I didn't save it) 'Just found out that a lady I used to work with had an affair with a co-workers hubby. And you think you know people! Well, Karma is a bitch, especially to sluts who do stuff like that'.
A few people had commented, begging for a name and the lady had said 'No names ladies but I'm sure that when the slut in question reads this she'll know exactly who she is.'

Ahhhh! thought I, I never saw that status and apparently after getting no reaction she thought she'd send me a enigmatic message so I would find it.

Now on principle, I haven't replied to any of the nasty messages I received during all of this but I felt like I had to respond to this one. Why? Well this lady wasn't at the branch I was at when all of this happened. She was on maternity leave I think. Apparently she had only transferred to that branch a couple of weeks ago. And I couldn't help but ask myself 'What gives her the right to judge me on something that a) happened a year ago and b) didn't involve her at all, in any capacity since she wasn't even a co-worker of the people involved.
I was rather pissed to be honest. I had thought that after a year it would be safe to turn on my computer without getting harassed every second.

So I replied. At length. I'll just summarise it here since it really is too long to do in full.
I asked her if she had ever made a mistake before because apparently I am the only person in the history of the world to have done so judging by the reactions I have had. I then went on to dispel all the false rumours I knew had been spread about me. No, I haven't broken up any other marriages, no I hadn't tried to sleep with every man who had worked at the bank and considering I've only slept with two men in my entire life I'm hardly a slut. I told her that I didn't do what I did out of spite or viciousness, it just happened and I am truly sorry for the hurt I caused but at the end of the day it is no one else's business and people need to keep their noses out from where they don't belong. I will not tolerate any more abuse or threats towards me or my family and then I said I had deleted her from my account and I hoped she had a happy life.

I got back this.
'Well I didn't expect such a full on response but just for the record no one has been gossiping about you, I only found out last week I think in error & all I can say I was shocked, I truly was stunned & I've struggled with it over the past few days, I hope that you & your husband deal with it, I hope it's something you have learnt from & I do truly believe that you AREN'T a spiteful person. If you have been threatened I am sorry that your family has been, I haven't heard anything like that or do I know who would so such a thing, I don't believe that is the right way to deal with anything, I haven't mentioned your name on facebook, I don't believe that is the action anyone should take or do, I would never try to upset you on purpose either, the whole situation saddened me. I do wish you well though, so take from that what you will & I guess in closing have a happy life too.....'

I know this is turning into a bit of a rant but honestly! She didn't expect such a full on response??? Did she just expect to be able to say whatever she damn well pleases and not expect a reaction? I felt like replying back and addressing some if the things she mentioned (like the fact that this all happened a YEAR ago - Christian and I have already dealt with it!) but in the end I didn't think it was worth the hassle.
I've blocked her entirely now like I have done with all the people at the bank, but I honestly hadn't even thought of blocking her before since I didn't know she would take it upon herself to get involved. I toyed with the idea of having as a status update 'I had an affair a year ago. For those of you who didn't know and would like to send a nasty message, please do so now and just get it over with. Thankyou' but I'm sure that's not the best idea lol.

Gah, I'm just so miffed by this whole thing, it just seems some days that I would have been better off committing genocide or something. I'm sure people wouldn't have kicked up anywhere near as much fuss then...probably because they'd be either dead or too scared of me but that's beside the point! At least I'd have some sort of a chance of getting my life back on track. I guess what most people don't realise is that no matter how hard they are on me, I've been hardest on myself. I know I did an awful, unforgivable thing but what's done is done, I can't go back and change things and no amount of abuse will change that.

So just give it a damn rest.

Mother's Day

2010-05-13T11:02:00.007+08:00

Mother's Day this year was very busy for us. First of all we went to my older sister's house for morning tea for my Mum. Mum works every weekend from 12-9 and so the only chance we get to see her is during the morning. The morning tea was great, it was so nice to catch up with my mum and sisters. I've seen so little of them lately and I do miss them. Mum had asked for door mats for her present (I know! Only my mother would ask for something so practical and boring!!!) and so as a surprise I also put together a goodie bag for her. It included some of her favourite lollies, the soap she loves to use, some bed socks and some garlic infused olive oil and she loved it.
We had taken Molly with us for the visit as we knew she'd be home alone for most of the day and she had a blast playing with Shiver and generally bossing her around. It's very funny to see a small dog boss around another who i at least five times bigger than her! At one point the kids had started playing with a ball, and those of you who know her will know that Molly is ball mad. As soon as Shiver showed any interest in the ball Molly got quite aggressive and started really bullying Shiver, so much so that she got a telling off from her Dad.

After we left Jo's place we dashed back home to drop off the hobbit and make some sangas and then we legged it to the Perth Zoo to meet up with Christian's family. All the triplets were going as well as most of the kids and so it was going to be a huge family gathering. It turned out to be a great day although by the time we left we were buggered from walking so much!

This is Sue, Christian's Aunty with her grandson Owen.

There seems to be no shortage of cute babies around at the moment!

My Mother in law Margaret with Christian and his Aunty Liz.

There were a heap of fake snakes laying here and there in the bushes.

The crocodile is never very active when we're there and this time was not really an exception although he did slowly float to the top of his tank.

I have no idea what type of bird this is but he was very pretty.

The triplets, Christian's cousin Lisa and Margaret's partner Gary.

Otters are so cute!

I've never really liked the Orangutans before but they were rather interesting today. I named this one Mr Grumpy :)

A baby playing with his surprise box

Blink and you'll miss it! My action shot of this big boy!

I refuse to believe that this sequence was caused by my crappy photography skills and still insist that the tortoise was dashing away on a very important errand!

I love Meer cats, they are some of my fave animals at the zoo and just so darned cute!

This one was standing right up against the glass and I managed to get a shot from right above him.

Another animal in the African Savannah who was right up against the edge of his enclosure was the Rhino.

Zebra butt!

I didn't get the name of this tree but I thought the...nuts...were a very interesting shape lol

Christian is never cooperative when it comes to getting photos of me, he hates having pics taken of him and I'm sure he thinks that anyone who requests to have their photo taken is a bit up themselves. And so I didn't even bother asking him to take a pic of my outfit. But just to give you a run down, at the beginning of the day I was dressed in my blue snoopy tshirt, a black skirt, my new leggings with stars, my silver Doc Martens, huge hoop earrings and the blue newsboy knitted hat Shawna sent me. I did take the hat off for the zoo because it was rather warm but I did manage to get a photo of my leggings and shoes for you!

Nothing else much has been going on. I have been having heaps of trouble getting a replacement usb charger for my Kindle because Amazon will only post it to America, not Australia and so I can't use my Kindle. I tried contacting them but because I received it as a gift and there's no record of me buying one through my Amazon account, they won't help me *sigh*.
If any of my American friends could get one and send it to me, I would love you forever! I have a paypal account and am more than happy to send you the money for the cord plus the extra postage. It would mean so much to me especially since I'm about to give up and throw my damn Kindle away! lol

Okie, that's about it now, take care, chat later xxx

Wassup homies???

2010-04-17T16:32:00.005+08:00

I haven't done a post in a while and although I have very little of interest to say, I figured I should post just to keep the habit going.

I'm currently chatting to Boo on msn and am going to be phoning Mouse tomorrow night (hopefully) and it's all making me terribly excited about the upcoming visit. To make things even worse, I have been going back and reading Boo's old blog posts about my last visit and now I'm twitching with excitement. According to Boo it's only 13 weeks away! Yay!
We've all been throwing around ideas for what we can get up to while we're there and so far we have : see some castles, go to some festival shows, see the differences between their beaches and ours, have a fancy dress party, wander about town, climb 'the big hill' again, Zeph's baby naming ceremony and maybe an overnight trip somewhere. And there's more I'm sure I've forgotten to mention. It's going to be an awesome trip!

I bought some new plants for my garden the other day and I potted them today. They are a different type of Dahlia, I haven't seem them before. There is an orange one (Mars), a yellow one (sun) and a purple one (star) and they are very very pretty. They are lined up along my front window and hopefully they will not get stolen, as some of my more cynical friends have predicted...

I've been wanting to get more active and so a couple of weeks ago my best friend and I bought some bikes. We've been trying to ride together as often as we can and we've averaged once or twice a week which considering I'm working two jobs and he works shift work, isn't too bad. I'm also going hiking with a girlfriend tomorrow which will be fun but punishing as I know I'm really unfit at the moment. But it's more about actually getting out there and doing something, anything, other than sitting on the couch. My jobs are more physical than a desk job but I'm still not doing gruelling work so I need to be more active after work. Hopefully I shall keep it up this time (how many times have you all heard that? lol).

And finally, I am thinking of growing my fringe out. I do like it, but I'm not sure if it suits me or not...what do you guys think? I just feel like I can not do much with it...at least if the fringe is long I can pull it back...ack, I don't know...

Me with the fringe and hair down. My hair had been straightened here and it hasn't been since lol. It's normally much more messier than this, it rarely looks brushed.

With fringe and hair back (and looking unbrushed).

With long hair and fringe, tied back.

And finally long hair and fringe, down (and looking unbrushed)

Torture!

2010-04-09T23:32:00.002+08:00

Those of who who are on Facebook will no doubt have heard that I have recently been to the dentist. 'And why is this so big a deal?' I hear you ask. Well, I am absolutely terrified of dentists and that fear kept me away from a dentist for roughly 12 or 13 years.

About ten years ago I was in a cinema (I have no idea which movie we were seeing) and I was chewing on a Mintie and suddenly there was something foreign and crunchy in my Mintie. It turns out that besides being moreish and yummy, Minties are also very good at removing fillings...
And so I had a nasty big hole in my tooth that I went on to ignore for a very long time, much the same way as a teenage girl would ignore Ricky Martin's obvious homosexuality. But over time the hole got bigger and deeper and a couple of weeks ago it started to get very sensitive to cold foods and then it got very achy and I really couldn't put it off any longer and so I made an appointment with a dentist. Obviously I don't have a dentist to call my own and no one I knew could really recommend a good one near me and so in homage to the place I lost my filling, I recalled the Abashee Dental Clinic ad that plays before every movie one can see at Ace Cinemas in Midland. Heck, cinema advertising has to pay off somehow, right?

Fate was in good humour that day as it turned out they had a free appointment that afternoon. When I arrived they were all very nice to me (the receptionist had asked initially why it had been so long and I had told her of my fears) but I still was extremely nervous. Monica (the lady in the white coat with the scary drill) wanted to know what had caused my fear and I couldn't decide if it was either a) having the anesthetic wear off while having teeth pulled out before my braces and feeling everything or b) having the cement of my braces chipped off with a chisel (ouch!) or c) waking up several hours after getting home from the hospital after having wisdom teeth removed to find electrodes still attached and freaking out. But I feel that I have an honest enough reason to dislike dentists!

Monica poked around and told me I needed a very big filling and while she was sticking painful needles into my mouth and gums I started to really lose it. Within minutes I was having a full on panic attack with tears and hyperventilating, plus due to my numbed state, much drooling. It took a long while for Monica and her assistant to calm me down but they eventually did, although they had really wanted to call someone to come be with me but no one was available. But they were lovely and managed to fill the gaping hole in my tooth and were so nice that I felt brave enough to make an appointment for a scale and clean.

And so it was due to that appointment that I found myself back there today. I was prepared however and had one of my best friends with me to hold my hand (and also to joke extensively at my expense but I digress). I got through it relatively unscathed, was told that I had lovely white teeth but that I also required three more fillings and I should get a splint to stop me from grinding my teeth at night.

*sigh* fare thee well pay check :(

Oh, and I was given a prescription for some sedatives that I must take before I have the fillings to prevent another panic attack. And if they don't work they have gas as a back up. And if the gas doesn't work, Monica is prepared to dose me with Valium...

Obviously I left a lasting impression lol.

I'm just hoping that by the time this next appointment is over, I shall be an old hand at the torture chamber and will be less fearful of returning.

Evoking memories

2010-03-31T16:53:00.002+08:00

I was just munching on a frozen lamington (the ONLY way to eat them!) and it really brought back memories of when I was a child. I then started thinking of other things that always evoke those sorts of memories and came up with this list.

*Frozen Lamingtons.
For those foreigners who read this and don't know, a lamington is a sponge cake covered in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut. They used to be big fundraisers back when I was in promary school (before Cadbury cornered the market with their cocaine laced Freddos ;-) lol) and since there were three of us, Mum would usually put in an order with each class. So the end result was quite a few boxes of lamingtons all arriving at the same time. So they wouldn't go stale we would freeze them and now it's just habit to do that. What makes it even more special is if they're raspberry ones!

*Playing darts.
My Mum was a champion darts player and so from the time we were tall enough to throw a dart without missing the board, we were playing. It used to be a family affair too - uncles and aunties and cousins would all converge on our place and we'd play in teams. Many a New Years Eve was spent playing darts and ringing in the New Year with a game of Burma Road.

* John Forest National Park and Fred Jacoby Park.
Dad took us out to many, many places when we were little but these two really stick in my mind. Whenever we go there now for a bbq or just a wander about it always brings back memories of Dad and all the fun we had there. My sisters have always enjoyed taking their kids there too since we all want them to have the same happy memories of those places as we do.

*Coke and salt and vinegar chips.
When we lived in Roebourne the hub of the social scene was The Club, basically the pub with a family area so kids were allowed. It was at the front of a large oval and it had an old concrete skating rink and an even older steam train for us kids to play on. Mum and Dad would head down to the club, Dad for a quiet drink, Mum for the darts and us kids would get a baby can of Coke and a bag of Samboy S&V chips and we'd run off and play with the other prison officer brats. Whenever I have that combination it always brings back memories of the Roebourne Club.

*Indoor potted palms. I spent a substantial amount of my childhood in the Roebourne hospital, usually bed ridden and awfully sick. But when I'd start to get better I would get very ansty at being kept in bed and would want to go and play. Hospitals however are not generally equipped with great play areas and so when they would allow me out of bed I would head down to a small waiting room area between the X Ray room and the ward where there was a small atrium full of potted plams. It wasn't a playground but it gave me a quiet, out of the way area in which I could stretch my legs and be free of my bed for a little while.

*Corned beef and AFL.
I don't know why but it always seemed that Mum would cook a corned beef on a Saturday at exactly the same time as Dad was watching the footy. I just always remember the feel of the house when those two things combined, the smell of the beef cooking and the sounds of the tv mixed with the busy but relaxed feel of the place on a Saturday when no one was rushing off to work but we were all home at once. The weird thing is, it was never a very comfortable feel. I don't know why, maybe it's because I don't like AFL but it always made me feel slightly on edge.

There are many many more but I just can't think of them at the moment. What about you? Is there any particular object or scent or song that reminds you of your childhood? I'd love to know.

Recipes!

2010-03-20T16:04:00.003+08:00

There's not much of note going on in my life at the moment but in the spirit of keeping the blog posts up, I thought I'd post a few recipes that I rather enjoy or make on a regular basis. Some of them use cheats (such as ready made spice mixes etc) but I don't care so much for making stuff from scratch, but more about convenience.

Apple Slice

Ingredients:
-340g pkt golden buttercake mix
-1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
-125g butter, melted
-400g can apple pieces
-300g sour cream
-1 tsp cinnamon (I've also used nutmeg or mixed spice, whichever you prefer)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 20cm square cake pan. Line base and the two opposite sides with baking paper, extending the paper 5cm over edge of pan.
Combine cake mix, coconut and butter in a medium bowl. Press mixture evenly over base of prepared pan. Cook for 15 mins, or until lightly browned. Cool slightly.
Spread apple evenly over base, then spread sour cream evenly over apple and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. Cook for further 20 mins, or until sour cream has set.
Cool in pan. Cut the slice into fingers to serve.

Now, I must say, I am not a fan of sour cream but this is super yummy. I don't even tell people it's sour cream on top until after they've tried it and it always gets a surprised reaction.

If you like quite a thick base, you can always double the cake mix part, also if you want a variation I've also used peaches or apricots.
Just a note - the first time I made this I was going by very hazy recollections of a recipe handed to me word of mouth and made the mistake of actually making the cake mix up as per the instructions on the mix packet and baking it. You actually just put the *dry* mix in a bowl and combine it with coconut and melted butter...

Chevup Casserole

Ingredients:
-One packet of Chevups (I use the normal ones but you could use the chilli ones if you wanted)
-One onion, chopped
-One carrot, chopped and pre-cooked until just tender
-Beans (however many you want, about a cup though)
-Peas and corn (same as above, I use frozen)
-Devilled sausage mix
-One tub of tomato paste

Method:

1. Cook Chevups in fry pan until done. Whilst the sausages are cooking, pre-cook the carrots until just tender.

2. Cut Chevups into quarters (bite size pieces), add onion, stir until brown, then add remaining vegetables.

3. Mix Devilled Sausage mix with tub of tomato paste and 1 1/2 cups of water and then add to sausages. Cook on low until sauce thickens.

You can also use normal sausages if you'd like but I prefer the spices in the Chevups. You can serve with mashed potato if you need to stretch the meal further or do what I do and use some fresh buttered bread to mop up the leftover gravy. Yum!

Apple and Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

- One large tin of pie apples (roughly 400gms)
- One large tin of peaches, drained
- 6 tablespoons of self raising flour
- 5 tablespoons of fine desiccated coconut
- 5 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of butter

Method:

1. Layer apple and peaches in a medium sized but deep baking dish (I use a round casserole dish for this)

2. In a mixing bowl add dry ingredients and then rub in the butter. The above ingredients are from a recipe I have doubled and then modified. I doubled it because there wasn't enough crumble to really cover the apples and I took out some coconut and added a little more sugar. Add and subtract ingredients until you get a crumble you like.

3. Spread crumble over apple and peaches and bake in a moderate over (180C) for 20-30 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve either warm or cold with custard or icecream (or both!).

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

2010-03-15T11:26:00.003+08:00

AND SHAKE YOUR BUM!!!

*cough* Sorry bout that...a conversation I had with Boo yesterday involved my old neighbour who used to play his music so loud that it sounded like it was being played in my house. One of Andy's favourite songs to play was The Chicken Dance...do I really need any further explanation? lol
Unfortunately, Andy passed away last August. I say unfortunately because although his music drove me wild (mainly due to the fact that he would play the same song over and over for hours) the new neighbours are complete and utter ferals.

And that is the nicest possible thing I can say about them.

I think it's three generations of the same family - grandmother, mother, kids, and due to the slight elevation of our block and their impressive vocal projection abilities, their arguments (of which there are many) sound like they are taking place in my lounge room.
*sigh*
And when I say feral, I really do mean feral. Who speaks to their children (or any child for that matter) thus : 'You stupid f*#king little c#*t, get your f*#king arse in the house right now or I will make you curse the f*#king day you were f*#king born'???
Ferals I tell you! Only ferals!
I curse the day that these people were allowed to breed!
They yell and scream and swear all day and night, till the wee hours of the morning, and there is never a respite unless they have gone out. It's state housing and although I have nothing against people who need state housing to survive (my older sister has lived before in state housing and is on the waiting list for another place) these people just ooze the stereotype. None of them appear to have any form of employment which leads me to believe that my hard earned taxes are going towards not only paying their rent but also paying for the cigarettes they smoke one after the other, the booze they consume only to leave the empties littering their yard and also, judging again from the rubbish carpeting their front lawn, the sheer quantities of fast food they consume.
Yet again, I don't have a problem that my taxes go towards helping those in need, even these people in particular, but I just wish that they had been placed elsewhere. I really don't want to have to hear every conversation and every argument at top volume, I really don't. And I have proof that they can be heard as far away as Scotland! Just ask Boo!

Alas, I know I should confront them and ask them politely to keep the noise down but I must admit I am too chicken shit to even try. I fear I would be either a) beaten to a pulp or b) wake one day to find my car and front yard trashed. I guess these are the perils of living in a slightly dodgy suburb.

Anyway, onto more enjoyable matters...
It's four months tomorrow that I leave for Scotland! Yay!
I seriously cannot wait, I am so excited. I'm probably driving everyone batty over here because I've been going on and on about it so much. But I don't care because I am so very very excited!
I will try not to bore you all to tears with it now and will leave it at this, but I just needed to release a burst of excitement lol.

I had a very weird dream last night that I had broken my mobile phone and I was running around and around trying to get it fixed and worrying because I couldn't return messages. I guess it's a reflection on just how much I rely on that little piece of plastics and electronics but honestly, I don't think I could live without it. I would go insane. I am truly a child of the electronic age.

Easter is just around the corner...mmmmmm, Easter eggs. Nom nom nom. For the first time EVER I was going to go away with my family for the long weekend. My nightfill shifts are Friday and Monday nights and so due to public holidays I was going to actually have the entire weekend off. We've never gone away before over the long weekend and it was something that my sisters and I had been talking about. Unfortunately Barb didn't realise we were actually that interested and booked a camping site for just her family and Jo wanted to go down to Wave Rock and invited Christian and I along but it's just not going to happen. Christian's aunty has been diagnosed with Gall Bladder cancer and it's very advanced and so I think we're just going to spend as much time as we can with his family.

And on a final, happy note, April sees the return of some of my favourite tv shows! SGU, Glee, Doctor Who just to name a few. Yay!

(Note - for some reason Blogger is screwing with my font size, sorry if this looks weird)

SPACE RAIL!!!

2010-03-10T19:13:00.003+08:00

A couple of years ago I bought the kids a couple of sets of a toy I found at the two buck shop. It's essentially some plastic rails that you build up however you fancy and you roll marbles down when you've finished the track. The kids, especially Darcie love playing with it when they come over.
Whilst looking around for ideas for a birthday present for Darcie, Christian came across this online.
It's essentially a high tech version of what we already have. We figured that it would be a great thing to get for all of the kids to play with here and so Christian ordered it from Deal Extreme, a dodgy Chinese site that has free postage. Other exciting purchases from there include piggy LED keyrings, a line of LEDs for our patio and a cute necklace.

So it arrived today and although we haven't had the excitement of putting it together as yet, we have derived many minutes of entertainment from the box.

I just love bad Chinese translations, don't you? ;-)

Here are my favourites...(oh, the spelling, spacing and punctuation are directly quoted!)

'SPACE RAIL is a suit-toy which could be assembled freedom with its base, shaft and rail. the steel ball could run on the two lines sometimes snail and sometimes scour, it is for adult playing indoor.
How to play the SPACE RAIL:For the loop-rail installed already.It just need take little time to adjust the corner of railto ready the rail.
It will bring the sweetness and exciting feeling of the SPACE RAIL word to you although it just for playing indoor.'

'The primary mold for the beginner.
For the loop rail assembled already, it just only need little time to ajust corner parts to finish loading the novel SPACE RAIL mold
(average time: about 90120 minutes)'

Only a little time???

Now that you have a clearer idea of what the SPACE RAIL is, it's very important to take into consideration SAFETY!

'*Please don't put your fingers to the elevator when it on running to avoid hurting accident.
*Please don't put any article except the steel ball into the elevator to avoid breaking it or falling off
*Please don't force the motor to stopping to avoid scalding or other risk caused by the overheat of motor or battery
-Caution: the battery would appear overheat, blow out or leak risk for misusing.
*Once (Not if - ONCE lol) the battery liquid spurt into the eyes, please washing it with clean water at once or ask help from doctor
*Please don't use the rechargable battery'

'Please don't cumber the elevator (motor) running when the power offering to avoid risk caused by the overheat motor'

Once we have the SPACE RAIL built and running, I shall post photos and/or video of the finished product. If this is the last you hear of the SPACE RAIL, then it must be assumed that we could not follow the instructions or due to a catastrophic overheat we are dead or seriously maimed.

The latest in Ancient Greek mythology!

2010-03-09T14:10:00.002+08:00

On a slightly lighter note...

The other day I was at the dodgy local shopping centre and was leaving Woolworths when I passed a booth that had been set up in the middle of the mall (and when I say 'mall' I mean the open space in front of the supermarket as our dodgy centre is tiny. I just didn't want to confuse any Americans...). A toy tiger caught my eye and I stopped to have a look. Christian absolutely loves tigers and if I ever run across anything tigerish I try and pick it up for him.
It was only eight bucks and so I got it for him and took it home, eager to surprise him.

He laughed his head off when he saw it.

I think he's quite realistic and scary looking, would you not agree???

However, Christian just couldn't get past the tiger's mouth.

'Whatever is wrong with it?' I hear you ask, as I did.

Well, apparently, his mouth is too pink and gummy to make him look as ferocious as he should.

And I suppose Christian has a point...

Anyway, I sat Mr Tiger on the bookcase and the following day I asked Christian if he would scare any the ladies coming to my Tupperware party and, if so, I should probably move him.

The following conversation took place.

Christian - 'Ahhhh...no.'
Me - 'But he's so scary looking and frightening!'
C - 'Yeah, there's no possible way in the world that he is going to scare anyone.'
M - 'How about a dentist?'
C - 'The rest of him is so realistic, how could they have stuffed up so much on the mouth?'
M - 'Yes, well, apparently 'they' don't know what a reindeer looks like either...'
C - 'It's just he has this big baboon mouth. He should be called a Babiger! *cue majestic voice* he has the body of a tiger and the head of a baboon! Everyone flee from the Babiger!'
M - Yes, the Babiger, the latest monster straight from Ancient Greek Mythology! His terrifying gums will have you flossing every night!'
*Much giggling as I take Mr Tiger and chase Christian around the room*

Note - Spell checker really does not like the word 'Babiger' much...

A dilemma

2010-03-07T20:11:00.004+08:00

Quite a little pickle I've got to share with you today.
(You know who I like? That pickle stork. You know...the one with the pickles...no? *cough* sorry, I thought a little Frisky Dingo early on may lighten this post a little...)

Anyhoo...so, the dilemma...first, some things you should know (if you don't already).
- I was sexually abused as a child.
- My mother was sexually abused as a child.
-My uncle has just been released from prison for sexually abusing a child.

Heavy issues...

Ok, so basically several years ago my uncle was caught molesting a child he was babysitting.
My mother was extremely upset, as you can imagine and basically disowned him. Having being abused as a girl, she was horrified he could do anything like that, especially when he'd seen first hand the lifelong damage it causes.
However, it was left up to my mother to become the executor of his estate so she could ensure that his daughters (late teens) would be cared for. During the course of this time my mother spoke to my uncle regularly and came to understand his remorse for his actions. He had refused bail so he would be removed from temptation and he eagerly attended courses and counselling whilst in prison to learn to cope with the compulsion he felt (one of which actually meant an extension of his sentence so he could attend as it was only held at a regional prison).

When he was released, my mother was there for him and helped him get on his feet again. Both of my sisters have refused to have anything to do with him but apart from a quick glance at the shops, I had yet to have any contact with him that forced that decision upon me.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I received a request via Facebook that was from someone I didn't know with a message attached. It was actually from my uncle, explaining that he was using a different name and just to see how I was.

I was torn. Having been abused, I felt a lot of anger towards him, and I didn't think it was my place to offer forgiveness - it wasn't me he had wronged so I can't grant that.
On the other hand, it must be hard, trying to rehabilitate into society when society isn't allowing you the chance to prove you've reformed.

And so I debated about it for a while and finally decided to accept him on FB.

Of course, I'm not a complete dimwit. I did go and edit all my security settings so he has no access to any of my photos, only very very basic information. At the end of the day I may be trying to help him reform but the well being of my nieces and nephews comes first.

I told my sisters what had happened and what precautions I had taken and they reacted in rather the manner I was expecting. Basically they flipped out. They feel a lot of hate towards him and don't want me to have anything to do with him. I had to assure them of the precautions I had taken to prevent them from de-friending me.
But the way I see it...both my sisters have a lot of friends on Facebook (until a week ago when some glitch went and deleted a heap of Barb's friends, she had over 350! ). Just how well can you know 350 people??? At least with my uncle, we're aware of his past and can take the measures to ensure the safety of not just the kids in my family, but also that of children of our friends (and by this I obviously don't mean physical safety, but the safe use of any photos on FB). But any one of those 350 people could be dodgy, you just never know and they have complete access to Barb's profile and photos. So in this case I really feel it's better the devil you know...

And ultimately I really, honestly hope that the man who abused me has been given this chance by someone out there who has faith in him. Because if he hasn't, that means he's still out there, still a potential threat and for all I know, subjecting other little girls to the same fate as me.

So, what do you think? Have I done the right thing? Or do you agree with my sisters and think I should delete him and have nothing to do with him?

The sum of the whole equals?

2010-03-02T18:18:00.002+11:00

I've been thinking about doing this post for a week or two now but kept putting it off due to the fact that it may come across as me fishing for compliments. I would just like to assure you that I am indeed not doing anything of the sort, this is an honest conclusion that I have come to and it would be interesting to see if any of you have found it to be the same.

A couple of weeks ago I was suffering from a bout of low self esteem (as per usual) and started pondering the whole self image idea and how I am perceived by others and how I would like to be perceived and then it just moved generally onto the concept of what is attractive and how people view attractive people.

That got a bit rambly, sorry.

Anyway, I thought about this for a while and for once tried to be quite objective about it. I get very depressed and it generally revolves around my body image and so for once I tried to identify why this means so much to me. I didn't actually come to any forgone conclusions regarding that but I did come to this conclusion - bigger women are never described as beautiful
(and I say women because I am one and I am not going to attempt to dissect the problems men have with their body image here today). And I know they say 'Big is beautiful' but we all know that fat women came up with that logo to make ourselves feel better about ourselves...

I'm not saying that there aren't attractive larger people out there, but when people describe those of us who are fatter than the norm, beautiful isn't a word that crops up generally (and I'm putting myself in this category based on my BMI, clothing size and those things in your head called eyes).

Following is a list of words that, in my experience, tend to be used when describing a bigger person of above average looks...
*Pretty
*Attractive
*Cute
*Curvaceous
*Voluptuous
*Sexy

It seems that when people use the word 'beautiful' to describe someone, they are taking into account the whole package. It's someone who has a great figure, great hair, gorgeous eyes, nice skin, a sense of style, perfect posture and poise, are graceful, you know, the whole kit and kaboodle.

Bigger people don't seem to ever have the 'whole package' (except to those few people who defy the norm and fall head over heels in love with us and therefore they are biased)

Instead, if given a compliment it generally refers to a specific feature.
For example I have been complimented on -
*My boobs (on the sheer basis that they are large enough to exert their own gravitational pull)
*My eyes (apparently some people find beady little black eyes nice. I on the other hand wish I had that gorgeous green that both my sisters were blessed with)
*My teeth (The orthodontist promised me that two years of braces would pay off one day)
*My hair (when I actually try it can be quite soft and in winter when it gets damp from the drizzle little ringlets form and frame my face)
*My calves (especially when I've been gyming but even when not I seem to have well defined calf muscles. Above the knee it's cellulite hell)

Now I'm not saying that being called pretty or attractive isn't nice - it is! But at heart every woman wants to be told she's beautiful, and not just during sex because we all know those times don't count! Little girls long to grow up from the ugly duckling into the beautiful swan, teenage girls wish they would be plucked from obscurity by an undercover modelling agent who can see dormant beauty waiting to be discovered, older women want to be those perfect women we see on the cover of magazines and in movies. It's just a fact that every woman want to feel special and beautiful.

What is your experience with this? Are you bigger than normal but get told you're beautiful every day? Or have you come to the same conclusion? Or are you a normal sized person who thinks that bigger women can be beautiful. Or are you just one of those nice people that think beauty is within and no matter what you look like, if you have a beautiful personality that will shine through? Let me know, I'm interested to hear what you have to say.

Cocktail night

2010-02-28T14:55:00.006+11:00

For the longest time now, my friend Mel and I have said that one of these days we'd have a cocktail night. We finally arranged it for this Saturday and this is what happened.

Firstly, some of you may have noticed my Facebook status updates. Yes, we had a hobo situation. They had messed up my house and it took me a while to get it clean again. They were just not being helpful and got in the way while I tried to clean.

Some people have ants. I have hobos...

Moving right along...
So I thought that perhaps I'd gone slightly overboard with all the cocktail paraphernalia that I had bought for the night.

Turns out though that we used pretty much every plastic cocktail glass, all the umbrellas got used and the swizzle sticks. There was some fighting over the naked lady swizzle sticks...

Christian got called into work when an alarm went off and so I was stuck at home alone and completely bored for about an hour before people started turning up. So I made myself a cocktail and set about taking photos of things.

I just loved the shadows.

Barb and Mikey came round with the boys and we made the boys mocktails so they'd feel included.
Perhaps Will has watched too many Bond movies because he wanted an olive in his glass. He settled for a marshmallow.

I would like to assure the good folks at Child Protection that these glasses do not contain alcohol!

In a very short space of time my kitchen returned to Hobo State, including the empty booze bottles and paper bags lol

One of the more dodgy cocktails of the evening. Called Death In The Afternoon, it was an aniseed liquor concoction of questionable drinkablity.

Barb refused to have her photo taken so I warned her I would take a photo of whatever was visible. This turned out to be her boobs lol

My friend Jann, who wasn't happy to just have his photo taken. He wanted to display his exceptional 'Asian poses'. Here is 'Hello, this is me'.

Here is 'Peace man'.

And 'I'm drinking a beverage'.

Christian had experimented with numerous cocktails, the disappointment of the night being the 'Flirtini'. He says it was because of the lime juice, I thought it was because of its ability to make even a manly man seem girly. The jury is still out on that one.
He was not deterred however and bravely searched for other enticing concoctions.

Vanessa and Sarah find something amusing. Owing to the sheer volume of alcohol consumed, I doubt there was much happening that wasn't amusing...

Helen and I trying in get a good photo. This one seemed to be the pick of the crop.

Vanessa and I have been friends since we were 9. We lost contact in our final year of high school but thanks to the glory of Facebook, we've gotten back in touch :)

Aha! I jump upon poor unsuspecting Sarah for a photo.

And force Mike into having his pic taken too.

The night had progressed to the 'drunken game of darts' stage. Somehow I managed to get two darts in at a physically impossible angle. That's the beauty of alcohol i guess!

Christian and Barb teamed up and it was Christian's skill at anything, drunk or not and Barb's sober state that saw them kick our arses.

Christian's winning shot. We played 501 and you have to finish on a double. His first shot hit the beam, the second lodged in the magnetic clasp that keeps the cabinet closed. His last shot snagged a double 3.
Bastard.

That's the end of my photos. People started disappearing home soon after and the night wound down. I still have a shitload of booze lined up in my kitchen and so there's a pretty good chance that another cocktail night will be held in the near future.
And now I'm going to go and lie down in a quiet room because I'm feeling slightly delicate at the moment...

A day in the life of...

2010-02-26T14:44:00.002+11:00

What I have done today so far...

*Was enjoying my sleep in since I'm not gardening today and was absolutely exhausted.

*Was woken up by my sister at 7:30am who was under the mistaken impression that I was working but would still actually be home at 7:30am. Wrong on both counts Barb!

*Discovered that my hunch I had critters living in my keyboard was correct. Last night I sprayed it with fly spray and found this morning that numerous tiny cockroaches had crawled out and died on my desk.

*Said 'Ewwwwwww' really loudly and as quickly as possibly disconnected Roachville and replaced it with an old keyboard of Christian's.

*Headed out to the shops. First stop, Dan Murphy's for Passion Pop and Champagne needed for punch and cocktails. Secondly, got petrol before car starved to death, Thirdly, head to Woolies and spent much, much more than I was intending on food and snacks for cocktail party...

*Got home and made a fruit smoothie.

*Sat on couch reading 'The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl' and eating Easter eggs.

*Begin blog post.

What I will do with the remainder of my day...

*Finish blog post

*Go to a friend's house for the afternoon where I will most likely watch bad tv, play with his exuberant dog and store up on cuddles.

*Come home and feed Miss Molly Moo.

*Go to work (nightfill) :(

*Come home and phone Mouse :)

I bet you are now overwhelmed by the sheer excitement of my life ;-)

New blog

2010-02-21T15:58:00.002+11:00

Just letting y'all know that I have me a new blog, especially for photos. Yay!

Nettie's Photos

The garden and Darcie's birthday outing.

2010-02-20T23:38:00.007+11:00

A garden post for Shawna and Boo! Enjoy ladies :D

Last Friday I wasn't being paid to do anyone else's garden so I thought I'd take the time to actually do something in mine. It had begun to look rather sad and neglected and lots needed to be done. On the Thursday night I had headed to Bunnings (the major hardware and gardening store here) and had what I like to call 'A Bunnings Orgasm'.
You see, I have a Bunnings fetish, I simply cannot walk out of the store without something for my garden, usually over a hundred bucks worth of something for my garden...
And this time was no different. $115 later I had compost/soil conditioner, petunias, garden ornaments, a dwarf apricot Oleander (one of the Mighty Tough, Super Hardy range lol), a new miniature rose and some sheep poo (yay for manure!).

I was kept rather busy on Friday. Apart from taking a slight break to drive the twenty five minutes to Christian's work to pick up some house keys after accidentally locking myself out (loooong story) and another trip to Bunnings when I realised I didn't have near enough plants to fill my empty pots, I accomplished quite a lot.

These are my pots out the front (please note the soil here is shocking and so I have a mainly potted garden). I replaced the miniature rose on the right after the last one succumbed to the intense heat we've been having lately and replaced the annuals I had in the small pots with some white Petunias. I also swept around and picked up all the dead leaves and it looks much better.

Out the front we have two garden beds my Dad built, the only ones we have. The beds have been built right up but the soil is still pretty bad. I weeded and then dug in compost and sheep shit and I'm hoping it will improve the soil a lot.
Apart from some bulbs that aren't out at the moment, I've ripped out everything from the beds apart from the Frangipanis.
We have two Frangipanis, one scarlet which is a very traditional shaped Frangipani...

and our white one which is not so traditional...
It seems to have the traditional shape with a smaller flower in the middle. My gardening bosses are coming round in a couple of weeks for a party and I'm hoping to get their opinion on it as I've not seen one like it before (not that I in any way, shape or form claim to be a Frangipani expert)

I forget what this small tree is called (something like Snow Bush I think...) but it sits to the right of my front door and in summer has thew most glorious pink leaves. This photo just doesn't do it any justice at all. The dog stake is new :)

This little guy is another of my new ornaments and he's sitting the rose closest to the door. When the wind moves him, he waves!

Just a general view of my front garden (please ignore the dead and uncut lawn!)

A while back I was doing a job of laying roll on lawn and there were six rolls left over. Our back lawn has been in a very sad state, full of weeds and so we let it die off this summer and our plan was to rip it up and start new with seed. Six free rolls of lawn though was too good an opportunity to pass up and so we laid it a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be taking nicely. Our plan when it is fully established it to rip up the rest of the grass, fence it off to keep Molly out and plant seed. Hopefully we'll swing it so the seed and roll on merge nicely together.

And moving out the back. I just hope you're not too thoroughly bored as yet ;-)
On my second trip to Bunnings I picked up several Gerbras because they were just so pretty and as they like full sun should do well in this spot.

Just a quick shot of some of my pots. Nothing much has changed here except a tidy up and a Petunia added. Boo wanted to see it though :)

Oh and this little man...

The opposite fence. This is a trouble spot for my poor plants and some things just don't do well at all. I had several pots, the gloomy graves of long lost plants, that needed to be filled and so I used up the last of my Petunias and my remaining Gerbra. The plant in the white pot on the far left is the Oleander and I hope it will go well there. It's a funny spot. Just out of sight on the left are my ferns and palms that do really well in the shade of the house but that one spot gets morning sun but afternoon shade. My Geraldton Wax carked it, I think due to not enough sun and the rose I used to have there just never flourished, possibly for the same reason. I'm hoping that being Mighty Tough and Super Hardy will help increase it's chances...

I can never remember what these two trees are called. Some kind of Elm maybe? My Dad potted them when he lived here and shortly after I moved in I repotted them in these massive pots (that Bunnings encounter was much more expensive...) and they have just gone berserk. I have strung up some solar powered fairy lights in them but unfortunately I have been unable to get a good night shot of them so you'll just have to use your imagination.

So there you have my garden. Still a lot to do but looking much better than she has lately.

Now my niece Darcie has grown up all of a sudden and next week will be ten. Ten! Can you believe it! It's scary to think that a whole decade will have passed since she was born. I feel old!
I told her I would take her shopping for her birthday and so she came over today (Saturday) and we went out with her mum, Jo.

Before we went out though I told her I needed pics of my garden and we inevitably got more than just the garden.

This is Miss Molly Moo wanting us to play ball with her.

Darcie pulling a face...

I don't think she realises that is the wind changes, she'll be stuck like this forever...

We were heading out to Carousel, a huge centre in Cannington but on the way I told her we had a stop off to make at our small local centre. She didn't know what was install but when she saw him, her face just lit up.

Isn't he beautiful???

However, after months of wanting a ride in the Snoopy kennel, Darcie came over shy and refused at first to get in. Eventually she did though and found that one of the down sides to being almost ten is that you're not the target group of shopping centre ride inventors.
It was a little small...

Oh the disappointment!

After that we headed out to Carousel and while there I tried to find this shirt. I bought it the other day from a surf shop ( I never go into them! Ever! I lost my surf shop virginity!) and was wearing it this morning when I rang Boo. I described the shirt to her and she said that she'd rather like one and so I figured while I was out I'd pick one up. Unfortunately, they seem rather popular and they only had XXL ones left :( So I will probably have to get one online but for some reason they don't ship direct to the UK so it'll have to take a roundabout way to get to her!

We were all pretty tired and the three of us traipsed around numerous toy departments, getting more and more exhausted each minute. I explained to Darcie that she didn't have to chose something right now and she didn't even have to get a toy/game/dvd but could save the money and use it to go to the movies or play mini golf in the future. This appealed to her but since she also had some money that Nanna had given her, she eventually got a skateboard from Christian and I (all broken bones will be entirely out fault!) and kept the money from Nanna for future use.

We then headed down to Scarborough to the beach to have fish and chips for dinner and to have a play on the playground and to chase the waves. Darcie was very eager to get down to the water...

I love this photo even though she is a little poser!

It was rather overcast and we'd had a few spots of rain and so the ocean was rather wild.

Look! Some freak with only four toes has been down this way! lol

Wondering if it's too rough for a dip...

Darcie and I just before we left to go home. As you can tell, it was rather windy.

And so I got home, exhausted and sleepy and had my first bath of the year! I love soaking till I get more wrinkly than a Nanna and it gives me time to read so now I'm feeling quite relaxed.
After I finish this post I'll probably have an early night and sleep cannot come soon enough!

Scitech, The Saints and cheesecake

2010-02-14T23:18:00.002+11:00

Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate young love, old devotion and the clanking of gold coins in the florist's counting room...

When you've been together for as long as Christian and I have been, Valentine's day isn't something that takes priority. However, circumstances are a little different this year and so we made a special effort, not so much to spend a heap of money on cheap trinkets and inflated flowers, but just to spend some time together. What with me working two jobs and just the hours I work, we rarely spend much time together and the times we are both in the house at the same time we always seem to be busy with books/computers/games/paperwork.

Not that there weren't presents! But in true Nettie fashion, I forced Christian's on him a day early ;-)
For the longest time now Christian hasn't had a chain to wear, for various reasons. First it broke, then when I bought him a new one he had lost his pendants when we moved so he wouldn't wear just the chain, then I stole the chain when mine broke and finally I could never find him a suitable blokey pendant to go with a new chain. That has all changed now. I found a tiger charm (yay for the Chinese Year of the Tiger) to go with the new chain I bought him for Valentine's Day and I was so happy with the find. In return I received two jasmine vines to be planted along the fence when we finally re-vamp the grassed area.

I discovered that Perth had so little on offer for Valentine's Day as far as events go. Granted, there were heaps of dinner and accommodation deals for Saturday night but come Sunday, there was very little. I searched for theatre and comedy shows, special events or just anything kind of Valentine's-ey but to no avail. In the end we decided on a movie (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) in the morning and a trip to the Planetarium in the afternoon.
The movie was ok. It had heaps of well known actors in it and good ones at that but it still didn't really pull off a great show. The main kid was a Zac Effron clone and kept the teenage girls (the majority of the theatre) squealing the whole time and the movie just felt rushed and sloppy but never ending all at the same time. But I guess for what it was, it was ok.

I have wanted to go to the Planetarium at Scitech for the longest time now. Cosmic Collisions was a show on at 3:45 and we headed off in time for that. What I didn't know was that the admission for Scitech includes all Horizons shows and so as well as seeing Cosmic Collisions, we were also able to have a play in Scitech as well. We'd killed a few hours at home by reading and watching the cricket when we could have been shoving kids off displays and playing with static electricity! Dammit!
Cosmic Collisions was awesome and I'd love to take my nephews there some time. I'm always taking the girls out and about but the boys do tend to miss out. It used to be because they were so much younger but now I don't really have that excuse. Sure, they're a handful but I need to start being a more dutiful aunty...

After the show we had about an hour to have a play and we had fun with all the different displays. But there was so much we didn't get to do and I also regret not taking my camera so next time I go, I will endeavour to photo-document the entire adventure.

When we got home we sat down to watch Boondock Saints 2. We love the first movie, it's in both of our Top Three Movies of All Time lists but as always, it just doesn't seem likely the sequel will be released in theatres over here (like with 9 - we waited and waited and it still isn't out yet). And so we've resorted to downloading it and watching a slightly dodgy copy of it. But it was worth it because it was great. Probably not as good as the first but it was left open for a third installment and I've been left enthusiastic about that prospect.

Halfway during the movie, Barb called to invite us around to her place for cheesecake.
This may sound odd, but until you have tried Barb's baked lemon cheesecake, you just haven't lived. The prospect of driving the 20 kms to her place for dessert was very tempting but in the end we decided to give it a miss. It was our night in together after all plus I'm *trying* to be good so we compromised and I made some low fat brownies.
Which were good in their own way...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Errrr, actually, we don't quite know...

2010-02-12T11:30:00.003+11:00

Ok, so it's an airborne creature, but Christian and I still had an argument about this plush cushion my friend Tash got me for Christmas.

I think I threw it at Christian and said 'Eat the wrath of the reindeer' and he said 'Ummm, that's a moose, not a reindeer' and I said 'Uh, look again!'

Christian's argument is that he has a huge mouth, no nose and moose antlers.

My argument is that he has a cute Christmas ribbon...

Reindeer antelers...

And a tag on his bum that says 'Reindeer plush animal cushion'

I think I won the argument but it true Christian fashion he is still adamant that it is a moose.

Going on a trip!

2010-02-07T23:47:00.002+11:00

Was it really four years ago already that I was off on my Edinburgh adventure??? Wow, how time flies! The good news is that this year I'll be doing it all over again.
YAY!

Christian and I are flying out in July to go and visit Boo and Matt and Mouse and Chris in Edinburgh and I just can't wait! Boo phoned me yesterday morning and I don't think either of us sat very still during the conversation - we were both jumping up and down for joy!
I fell so totally in love with the city last time I was there and I'm really looking forward to showing it off to Christian and to seeing even more of it myself. It's going to be so much fun!
There's a bit that we didn't get to do last time I was there, like the zoo and Mary King's Close and the Castle and there's stuff that I want to do again, like the ghost tours and climb Arthur's Seat and so much more! It's so very exciting!

Another thing that will be different is that we're flying Emirites this time and so instead of flying Perth-Singapore-Heathrow-Edinburgh like I did with Qantas we'll be flying Perth-Dubai-Glasgow and then catching either a train or a bus into Edinburgh. Poor Boo and Matt are going to come and meet us (which I won't lie about - I'm glad they are, but I do feel like I'm putting them to a lot of trouble) and so we'll get to see a little countryside on our way into Edinburgh.

And so the countdown begins and we all begin to become almost unbearable to be around. Boo is boring her workmates by telling them about the trip, Christian has to watch me bounce around the house with the excitemt of a three year old and I'm sure Mouse is driving Chris equally insane.

But I don't care because I'm so very, very excited! :D

Job prospects and a new baby on the way!

2009-10-11T21:58:00.002+08:00

A couple of weeks ago I came to the conclusion that although working part time was a great break, I really wasn't getting enough hours to finance my lifestyle. I had only been averaging about 16-18 hours a week at my night fill job which was a bit of an issue considering a) the hourly rate kind of sucks and b) I was still spending as if I was working fulltime.
Ok, so maybe not quite as bad as when I was fulltime but almost as bad. Not that I've ever been silly with my money. But I like to buy books and we like to go to the movies and eat out occasionally and if I see an item of clothing that I like and it actually fits well, I like to be able to get it. And although we've got a bit of money in the bank, we've been eating into it and I like the security of having that there as a back up in case it all goes to shit.

So my first thought was to ask for more hours at work. If I could pick up more hours there it would save looking for a second job or even getting a brand new job. My current job may not pay the best and it certainly isn't the most glamorous job in the world but I like it and I like the people I work with and also I'm good at it. Filling shelves may not sound hard but it's physical and you have to be organised and fast but also neat and accurate.
Strangely enough when I arrived at work that day my department manager (night fill comes under the heading of longlife) said that she was going to change my hours so I started at 3pm every second day and work through till 11pm but my five hour Saturday shift would remain the same. So all of a sudden I was getting 27 hours a week and I hadn't even had to push for it.
I was talking to Chris, the nightfill manager about the new hours and said that it was good they had increased my hours because I had needed to extra money and otherwise I'd have had to look for a second job. Chris turned around and replied that she had told her partner in her gardening business about me and how she thought I was really hardworking and when she felt the time was right she was going to offer me a position.

I was rather surprised and flattered and rather chuffed actually :)

Basically it would be occasional work, just when they have a big job and need an extra pair of hands or one of them can't make it. Most of the jobs were cashies (shhhhh) and I could work as many hours as I wanted. Chris usually does about 4 hours per job but Di did 8 or sometimes 10. It sounded like a great way to make some extra cash, Chris would give me at least a week's notice of any jobs so I could plan around them, it wasn't going to be every week so I'd still get a break and it's completely different to anything I've done before. Fair enough, I potter about in my own garden but if you saw the state it's in now, you can tell I'm not fanatical about it. I weed when they reach waist height and I re-pot well past when they're due but I know the basics.

I had my first days work last Thursday and it was great. Weeding someone else's garden is much easier than weeding your own, especially when you're getting paid to do it. I did manage to get rather sunburnt so I'll have to be more careful of that in the future but overall I really enjoyed myself. It was never a line of work I ever thought I'd do, not because I think it's a crap job or anything but because I always thought you'd have to study horticulture or something first. Apparently Di has but Chris fell into it much the same way I did and started off just weeding and cleaning up after Di.

It'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Anyway, onto the second, more tantalising part of the topic ;-)
No, I'm not pregnant. Though it would be just my bloody luck after having gone through that damn op to make sure that we didn't. We tried, we couldn't, we moved on. I don't want to deal with that prospect now.

However, I am getting a brand new car! :D
I have never owned a car that was less than 10 years old. My first car was a Ford Laser that cost me $900 and lasted approxiamtely 9 months. After that I moved on my beloved Corollas and I have always found them to be reliable and hard working and I love them. No matter how old they were or how many kms they had done, if you take care of them they are so reliable.
My baby at the moment is just too sick. She is twenty years old now and has been so good to us but she needs a new starter motor, a new radiator, new suspension, the alarm fixed and an oil leak repaired that is near the cam belt so it's actually better to replace the whole motor instead (long story!). It's just getting too much.
So I convinced Christian to let me get a new baby and she arrives in two weeks! She a black Corolla seca (so the numberplates THRILSECA will actually make sense) and she is the fancy pants special edition Edge so she comes already kitted out with a spoiler and mags and body kit and a host of other fancy pants things that I would probably not bother with normally like bluetooth and fog lamps (I hate foglamps and think they're useless in sunny Aus). She's so pretty!
Once I get her I will post photos, most likely on facebook but if I am excited enough I may do a blog post as well.

And that's about it for now. Take care all and I hope all is well in your worlds.
*hugs*

A bit of this and a bit of that

2009-09-17T20:41:00.002+08:00

After that last explosive post it took me a while to really feel like writing another post but I think it's finally time.
My life has settled down a bit. I'm currently working part time, doing night fill at one of the local supermarkets. Christian just wants me to have a break for a while and since we're not really struggling for cash, I'm taking advantage of having such a good break. I'm not too sure when I'll return to full time work but I think it won't be until mid next year. We're planning on having another Edinburgh Adventure next July/August and I don't think there's much point in starting a new job only to tell them I'll need four or five weeks off in a couple of months time. And Christmas will see me getting heaps of hours at work now so I'll pick up some extra money that way.

I've been keeping really busy during my spare time. I've been reading lots, doing a little bit of gardening (when the weather behaves) and I've been making lots of balls! I make handmade Christmas baubles and I've made about twenty so far. I plan on giving them away as gifts at Christmas and as they're rather time consuming, I have to start rather early on in the year.
Speaking of Christmas, I've gotten a nice head start on my Christmas shopping and hopefully I'll be nice and organised this year. I don't know if I was early enough to make sea mail for the overseas crowd but that doesn't matter too much. In the long run you only save a couple of dollars here and there.

The only other big news is that I've just had some minor surgery done. There's a bit of back story to it so I'll back track so you don't get lost.
At the end of last year Christian and I were told that we pretty much wouldn't be able to conceive naturally. IVF just wasn't an option for us since I'm not mentally equipped to deal with that whole thing and so we came to the decision that kids just weren't for us. We'd given it four long years of trying actively and it obviously wasn't meant to be. Now, we're not the sort of couple for whom kids are the be-all and end-all. Sure, it would have been nice but if for some reason we didn't have kids, then we'd cope. I didn't marry Christian for his sperm and he didn't marry me for me child-bearing hips! So we weren't that heart broken at the decision.
I suffer from rather nasty periods and I told Christian that as soon as we weren't actively trying I was going to go back on the pill so they'd settle down. Three weeks after being back on the pill and I had a really weird episode. My brain wasn't talking properly to my body. Barb noticed it when I was updating my facebook page. What I was thinking, I couldn't type. I had written something completely different to what I had thought I had written (and completely nonsensical). She ended up ringing me and I couldn't speak properly. When my arm started shaking that much that I couldn't hold my toothbrush, she came round and took me to the doctors.
Turns out I had a migraine that was rather severe, and apparently the chances of stroking with that type were 1000 to 1. Factor in my contraceptive and the chances were 100-1. So needless to say I was taken off the pill.
A few months later and I was off to hospital to have a laparoscopy done and also a Mirena inserted. And now I am all owey and sore and whiny, with a hole in my belly button and hole a little bit further down and lots of stitches! And I can't bend over and I can't have a bath and I feel like I'm ninety!

But I'll live and I'm sure it'll get better soon.

That turned out to be a bit rambly, didn't it? Hope it made some kind of sense! Oh and no, no photos of the stitches! That would scare too many people!

I'll try and update again soon.
Mwa

Confessions of a Nettie

2009-08-14T10:29:00.004+08:00

Some of you know the reason as to why I've been an almost complete internet hermit this year. Some of you don't. Some of you will still be my friends after you've heard, some of you won't. Some of you will think I deserve everything that was threatened, some of you won't.
Contrary to how my story will make me appear, I am at heart an honest person. After 'the big reveal' there have been very few people I've kept this from. I'm good at keeping other people's secrets but when it comes to my own, I'm pretty much an open book. I've made a huge mistake, took a road that I never thought I'd have taken, but you know what? I'm human and at the end of the day, I'm still me.

I'll just explain, shall I?

I had an affair.
Everyone inevitably asks 'why'. Well, that is a very hard question to answer. The people I've spoken to who have been in my situation (including my mother in law) all agree that it just happens. Honestly, I didn't go out and plan to cheat on my wonderful husband as my aim for the day. It wasn't on a list of 'Things to do before I die'. It wasn't one of my New Years resolutions. It just happened.
To sum it up, it pretty much started on New Years Eve, went on for four months. During that time I was ridiculously happy. I had two wonderful men who loved me - daggy, nerdy, ugly Annie. For someone who has no self esteem and no self confidence, it was a real boost.
But even though I was happy, I also was awfully guilty. For obvious reasons. Christian was my first everything, and above all that he's also my best friend. That was a big betrayal. I know that. God knows I know that. Everyone has pointed that out to me, numerous times but I was the first to know it.
Also I worked with his wife. We socialised. She wasn't the best of friends, was only there when it was convenient, lied and bitched but for someone like me who has the bad habit of choosing people who are the worst friends, she was still my friend. And even after all that has happened now and the fact that I despise her more than I have ever despised anyone, I know that what I did was wrong. I am the first person to admit that. The fact that she was a bad friend does not excuse what I did.

The 'big reveal' came about on Mother's Day. Christian and I had spent a wonderful day with our mums and had come home in the arvo. I was really upset about everything that had been happening, I hated the fact that I had been the worst wife in the world. I hated lying to him. So I broke down and broke his heart. I told him everything.
Obviously he was upset. But as Margaret (my mother in law) said to me, Christian is the most non-judgemental person on this planet. Without fail. He was wonderful. Yes, he was hurt. But he was more worried about me.
In hindsight, I can see why. I was a wreck. I didn't want to live. I had hurt the two people in this world who mattered most to me. Because in telling Christian I also broke someone else's heart. I knew that this world would be much better off without me and so I planned how I was going to exit it. The only thing that stopped me was two men forcing me to promise that I wouldn't do anything to hurt them further.
After all I had done, how could I break that promise?
And that's the only reason I'm still here.

The wife was told the next day and obviously she went ballistic. She told me if I ever walked into work again she would kill me. My boss offered me a transfer but the wife threatened to make my life a living hell if I stayed at the bank instead of resigning. So I quit.
I still got nasty txt messages and calls from her. And other people I'd worked with. I didn't respond to any of them. I know it might seem callous but I was dealing with my own issues.

Two months late, past midnight Christian and I were woken up by a txt message on my phone. It came from one of the other ladies I used to work with. It read 'You are the biggest whore ever u fucking slut'.
I figured that the wife and this lady were out together, probably drunk, and I ignored it. Then ten minutes later this one came through 'Hello fucker! You're a dirty slag who can't get your kicks out of your own marriage so you go and fuck up somebody eles's. You have depression and you deserve it you fucking fat ugly slut. I hope you suffer in your own self pity you fucking sex freak pig dog. You better take care of your frangipanis! Poison is my favourite word - you better believe it slag! Take care xx'

Now, I'd kind of had enough by this point. Sure, I had fucked up, I know what I did was wrong but when you threaten to bring poison to my home where I have dogs and nieces and nephews who play in my garden, I wasn't going to take that lying down.
So I went to the courts the next morning and applied for restraining orders against both of these women.
My pysch was estactic. I was finally standing up for myself. As she said, what I'd done was morally wrong, but I hadn't broken any laws. But they had. If they had just insulted me, I would have probably just taken it, but in a round about way they were threatening my pets and the kids I love most in this world. My older sister still isn't really talking to me since this. She doesn't understand why I applied for the orders, even though she won't let Darce come and see me here anymore for fear of the wife coming round while Darce is here. She thinks I deserve everything I got. A lot of people do. The amount of friends I've lost through this has really reminded me that people rarely are real friends.

Of course I have discovered those few people who have been unquestionably loyal to me and don't think our friendship is so easily thrown away over events that didn't involve them. Mouse I knew all along would be my most supportive friend. And she was. My friends here, Mike and Mel have been wonderful. My mother in law has been a rock as has my cousin Ian. As for my other friends and family, a lot of them have been great, but the undercurrents of disapproval are so strong. There has been so much anger.

Anyway, we went to the initial court date, they ended up signing Written Undertakings so they could avoid a costly court battle and now they have to leave me alone for a year.

And my life is finally settling down a bit.

I know inevitably I will get spammy-type comments from random strangers on here calling me a slut and a whore. Save your breath. I've heard it all before. Besides, unless you're a complete angel who has never made a single mistake, you'll just prove a hypocite. I'm not seeking absolution from this blog post. I don't think anyone has the right to offer or withold that. All this is was an explanation as to why I haven't been around this year.

Bananas, Pyjamas and Literature

2009-04-29T18:57:00.002+08:00

Well, how crap am I? Here I am, proclaiming in my last post for the whole world to see that I will be more dedicated to the upkeep of this blog.
Fail!
Ah well, you're a forgiving lot ;-)

So what's been happening lately? Not a lot. But in true Nettie fashion I'll pad that out until it's a nice rambling blog post! lol

I'm currently putting my will power to the test every time I leave the house in the effort to come home without a new pair of jarmies. I think most of you know by now that I have a pyjama fetish, the problem being at the moment that I only have nine pairs, five of which are summer ones and it's only really when I get up to about 12 or 13 pairs that I normally start thinking 'Right, that's probably as many as you can REALLY justify having'.
So every time I leave the house, I'm bombarded on all sides by cute animals, brushed flannelette and four-piece combos. And considering mother's day is just around the corner, they're all horribly reduced. To say my will power is being exercised more than my flabby body would be rather accurate :(

Unfortunately, for some reason the fates are just not inclined to let me actually get to the gym this week. I've (for once) been motivated but something always happens that prevents me from actually getting there.
Take yesterday for instance. Work was flat out and we were very late getting out. It had been awfully busy, as it generally is after a public holiday and one of the tellers had an error that we were looking for. It was half five and I was thinking to myself that perhaps I could maybe skip the gym today when my mind pulled itself together and gave me a mental arse kicking. You will go to the gym today! So I headed to the loos with my gear and proceeded to get changed.
Cue mental dialogue.
'Hmm, that's odd, my sport's bra is damp. But it came straight from the mammoth pile of clean washing covering my bed...I'm sure it was dry when it came off the line. Oh well...oi, hang on a sec, my shirt is wet too! What the flip is going on? Maybe my water spilt in my bag? Ewww, what's that funny smell? Is that banana? Why can I small banana? Oh, that's why, there's a liquefied banana in the bottom of my bag! How long's that been there? Oh well, so you'll smell like a banana, big deal, you've gotten this far, don't back out of the gym now!'
Five minutes later I'm dressed and heading out the door when I noticed that my left armpit was in tremendous pain.
'What friggin now??? Oh, my bra wire is stabbing me. *sigh*'

I don't know how many of you are like me but I cannot exercise without a sports bra. It's dangerous not only to myself but to everyone else in the immediate vicinity. So yesterday I didn't make it to the gym...
Today I spent my lunch break searching for a new sports bra. Apparently the entire town has sold out of 16E sports bras! How many women are walking around this joint with size 16E boobs??? Honestly???
Throw in on top of that a nice little head cold and today I didn't get to the gym either.
Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for coffee.
Who knows about Friday!

*sigh*

There's always the weekend!

Apart from not updating my blog, not going to the gym, not getting on the forum and not buying pyjamas, I've been reading a lot :)
I can't be bothered looking up links for all of these so I'm just going to list them and if you want you can google them.

The Mortal Instrument Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
The Host, Stephenie Meyer (which I thought was even better than Twlight)
Hydra, an SG1 book
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Dianna Wynn Jones
Howl's Moving Castle also by Wynn Jones
Watermellon my Marian Keyes
Several Footrot Flats Comics
Mirror Mirror, SGA book
And I've just bought The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.

Some fairly good reasons to be anti social ;-)

Take care guys, I promise to try and update again soon!