Working at being happy

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.

Where the bloody hell are you?

...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.

Why hello there!

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

Job prospects and a new baby on the way!

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

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

Nettie Natterings in the New Year

Ok, so I know it's already February and I haven't done a post as yet. I also know that I've been extremely lacking in my mod duties over at MoH and even worse at getting onto the forums to chat with you lot. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I've been...busy. Kind of.

I guess the only excuse I have is I'm going through one of those points in life where sitting all night in front of the computer seems like a poor way to be spending my time when I have so much else on. It happens, I'm the first to admit it but please know that it's not out of a lack of love for my mates online, it's just sometimes priorities change. I shall endeavour to make sure that even if my time on the forum doesn't increase much, my blog posts do.

Is that a good enough explanation to stop me from getting lynched? I surely hope so...;-)

Ok, so what's been happening in the life of Nettie?
Hmmm, I must say that the start to the year has been great. I'm in a very, very happy place at the moment. It's been a good long while since I've felt this happy and I'm very much liking it.
Christmas was hectic as usual for our family. I spoiled everyone rotten which is how I like it. We spent most of the day with family and it was good to catch up with the extended rellies since it makes me remember why I avoid them for the rest of the year lol. Kidding. Sort of. Only about most of them - there's a few I can stand.

I was given Twilight for Christmas and so on Boxing Day I took advantage of the city being open to go and buy the next two books (yes, it is a novelty that any of our shops are open on Boxing Day). I got home mid afternoon and proceeded to spend a solid eleven hours devouring Twilight and New Moon. The following day I read Eclipse and then went and saw the movie before begging Christian to call in at a late night book store when he was out at Minimal Exposure that night to buy me Breaking Dawn. I read that on the Sunday.
I'm sure you can guess that I kind of liked the series :) I must say I had a hard time trying not to point out all the similarities between this series and the Sookie Stackhouse novels but at the end of the day I love both series so I can live with them.

New Year was spent at Jo and Myles' place and I had heaps of fun. Christian was going to drink but then had the work phone so he had a couple but couldn't get blind drunk with me. So that was left up to Myles and me. Myles is a very fun person to get drunk with, even though he isn't a people person as such we get on quite well but it really broke the ice between us I guess. Up until then I think he just saw me as his wife's friend but after that night we can be called friends in our own right. I like making friends :)

So New Years Day I spent mainly in bed. I wasn't actually hung over but I didn't get to bed until half four since I was being introduced to Little Britain and then I was up and about at eight. Needless to say by the time I got home I was exhausted.

Not much else has happened since then but somehow I'm keeping busy. Work has been ok apart from one disastrous week I spent as Team Leader. It really reminded me why I got out of management in the first place. I'm hoping for a bit of a change around in the roles since I'm doing training at the moment and I'd really like to go back into BEDS but we'll have to wait and see if that will happen or not.

I'm back to playing squash, trying to go to the gym but keep getting sick so that's not been very regular (although hopefully this week it will get back on track) and apart from that just busy with friends and my family.

It's a pretty boring update I suppose but it's an update nonetheless. Hope you guys are all well, I do miss you all and as I said I shall try and keep the updates coming.
*hugs*

Christmas Parties

I thought I'd take a break from doing holiday posts and do a quick one about my work Christmas parties.
I've been to two official ones this year, a branch specific one and one thrown by the social club.

Last year for our branch do we went on a river cruise and as we all had so much fun on that we decided to do the same thing again. There was a smaller crowd of us this time but our friends Jo and Myles were there and that was all that really mattered to us. I make Christian attend one of the parties and it's always the one that Myles makes it to.

Here's some photos of the night.

This is Amy and I. Amy is relatively new to the branch but we get along great. We've already been out after work together and had pedicures and foot massages done and other girly stuff.


Jo and Myles. Jo just looked absolutely stunning on the night.

Christian and Myles get up to some manly bonding. Last year they didn't really know each other very well and just sat there not talking but this year they actually conversed. Hurrah!

Christian and I. Isn't he just so cute?

Jo and I have a joke that I'm Myles' second wife and he's my other hubby. The she calls me a floosie but since she's actually madly in love with me I tell her that that makes her a floosie too. So this is Myles with his two floosies.

With my two husbands :)
The river cruise was fun but it's rather expensive. It's a hundred dollars a head and for that you get a buffet and all you can drink beer and wine. As Christian and I don't drink beer or wine we're basically paying two hundred bucks for dinner. It's lucky that we have such good company that it makes it a great night out anyway.

The second Christmas function was being held at Fraser's restaurant in King's Park. We were all looking forward to this one as Fraser's is a pretty spiffy place and the function held there several years ago was apparently pretty good.
We were only to be disappointed.
The view was great (always is at King's Park) but the food and the service were really bad and where we were sitting there was a huge gap in the patio blinds and so we froze our butts off.
Luckily a) it wasn't so expensive and b) yet again the company made the night and c) next year it will most likely be at Burswood which should be better.

Here's some pics from this night.

The boys didn't come along so Jo was my hot date fpr the evening.

Notice the change in hair colour? I thought I noticed you noticing ;-)


This is my Team Leader Heather and I. Heather has been whisked away to another branch for a couple of weeks and so we haven't really seen much of her and won;t up until Christmas.
This is Jess and I. A while back I said no to filling in for the Team Leader role while Heather was away and so they've been getting Jess to do the job.

Jo, Jess and I, the three musketeers.

Jo and Jess both look really pretty in this photo.

In this pic you can almost see my shoes! I'm wearing my new ones that make me a GIANT! Yay!

All the girls from the branch.

Pretty trees! These are the tree lights that weren't on when the Scots invaded. Dammit! I think we were too early back then. But they make the trees look so pretty! I kept on sneaking out through the gap in the patio blinds to take photos with the night setting on my camera.

This is Jo, Gordon and I. Gordy used to work at our branch but left when a lot of the business managers were moved into the new contact centres. He's just an absolute laugh and we've really missed him being about. He's actually on paternity leave at the moment to look after his son, little Gordy.

Quiet a while back half the branch were out at dinner for some leaving do or something and I was having a conversation with one of the managers from another branch. She was saying that she had never met Gordy but always heard stories about him from the BSR who would come back from meetings drooling. Just as I made the comment that I thought Gordy was hot and 'I'd do him any day' the entire table fell into one of those lulls in conversation and so I actually yelled that comment out for all to hear. I have yet to live that down but I also still stand by my statement ;-)

Dinner was served really late and so several people got really really drunk because they didn't get to eat until 10pm. One of these people was Sue. Sue is a lovely lady who I don't get to work very closely with as she's a customer service rep and not a teller but we get along really well. Last week on the cruise she had also gotten rather drunk and spent half the night telling Christian how nice I was and how lucky he was to have me and the other half kissing my cheek and trying to look under my dress. So you can see why I like her! lol.
This week she didn't drink as much but due to the lack of food still got rather intoxicated. I ended up looking after her again and made sure she managed the treacherous stairs that led down to the loos. She spent the rest of the night telling everyone who would listen that she was ok only because she had her Annie to look after her and kissing me on the cheek some more.
It's been a good month for Sue affections!

The night rolled to a close and even though no one had anything good to say about the venue (the DJ would have given my neighbour Andy a run for his money) we all raved about the good times we had with everyone there.
My night however was made on the drive home. I have never laughed so hard in my life!
Gordy lives just down the road from Jo and so when he found out we were there he begged a lift home. He was also very drunk by this stage and so it took a while to get him to the car since he wanted to stay behind the barrier and do tiger impressions.


We finally got him in the car and after dropping Heather and her friend off at the hotel they were staying at we headed off to my house. Gordy was in his element and Jo and I (who don't have the cleanest minds as it is) soon found oursleves matched for Gutter Mindness. It would have made a zealot blush but we didn't care, we were having a blast.
By the time we'd gotten to my house Gordy had made me change seats with him while waiting at the traffic lights, given us both a massage (he's a remedial therapist as well), sworn at us several times in Italian, screamed that he'd get shot dropping me off at home and announced rather matter of factly what he would have done to us if he was ten years younger and none of us were married. After I had been dropped off he also tried his very best to get an old granny to drag them and did an apparently very accurate Stevie Wonder impersonation before getting home and realising one of his mates had his keys and he would have to wake his wife up to get inside. When Jo left him he was knocking very softly on the door so one can only assume he was thinking he'd be in less toruble if he woke Pat up quietly than if he did it loudly?

I've spent the last couple of days getting photos printed and making collages. I always get lots of copies of the photos I take so everyone featured in the photos gets to take them home with them. It's nice to have those memories to keep don't you think?
Now all I have to do is get Christian to hang some hooks so I can put my collages up and I'll be all set...

Opportunities and pant wetting

I resigned from my job today.

Yay me!

Even after my talk with my bosses about lightening my work load several weeks ago not really much has happened in that area. I had a task or two taken away from me but within a week I'd been given several different jobs so it hasn't exactly been lightened, just rearranged. My stress levels haven't decreased at all and at the end of the day that's what's stopping us from falling pregnant. I decided I had to get my priorities straight. Having a family is more important to me that staying in a job that, although I love the job itself and the people I work with, I'm a bit disenchanted with the bank in general at the moment.

So, what will I do now?

This is where the pant wetting comes in! lol

I haven't gotten another job as yet, haven't even looked. I've done what I did with my previous two jobs and quit without any where to go. The difference is this time I have a mortgage. However the way the job market is at the moment I doubt I'll have any real difficulty getting another job. Since I need about six weeks off in October I doubt anyone will want to hire me fulltime so I might just look for a casual or temping position. I don't really mind what I do, stocking supermarket shelves actually sounds quite appealing at the moment!

At the end of the day hopefully I'll find something that won't cause me any stress and with any luck we'll soon have a baby on the way and that's the most important thing :)

Trip to Emergency

Had an asthma attack at work today and was taken to the ED, against my will I should say. I didn't think it was bad enough to be taken to hospital but my boss disagreed.
According to the doctor I'm over worked and way too stressed. He thinks it may have been a mix of an asthma attack and an anxiety attack.
Whichever it is, it sucks.

Work, work, work

I've been rather busy lately, work has been rather hectic and by the time I get home after going to the gym (I do try and get there but it all depends on how buggered I am), watered my garden, cooked dinner, had a shower, all that jazz, I'm finding it difficult to get online. So no one's really seen much of me over the past couple of weeks.

So what have I been doing?

I went out to dinner with some work friends last Saturday and that was really nice and we have a leaving do for one of the girls this Saturday. We're all going out to an English pub in the city (Laura is British) and to make the night even more special Laura, her partner Leanne, Christian and I are going to catch a limo in.
Yay!
It's ever so exciting.

On the Sunday I took my nieces to Adventure World along with my sister Jo. It was a good day but we didn't stay too long. I was rather surprised at my nieces, especially Chiara. Chiara is the sort who loves rides and she went on the kiddie roller coaster and Bounty's Revenge (a big boat that swings you up to a 75 degree angle) and a dragon ride but refused to go on the paddle boats. I really thought the roller coaster would have been too scary but apparently it's not as scary as a paddle boat. Darcie is a little chicken and doesn't go on anything but she loved the paddle boats and even went on the roller coaster. Of course she screamed the whole way and all you could hear from the ground was 'Mummy, stop it, stop it! Why? Whyyyyyyy? Mummy please make it stop!'. Poor thing, she was sobbing and shaking afterwards and it only did three laps...
The girls seemed to have fun though and didn't want to leave but Jo and I were exhausted after three and a half hours and over-ruled the girls!

I'm going to buy a tent this weekend so I'm thinking of going camping over the Easter long weekend, even if it's just overnight. I'd love to camp at Lake Leschenaultia in Chidlow as it's just gorgeous there and they have great facilities (like showers and toilets). I like camping but I do like my little luxuries too! We go there rather often for barbecues and I think it would be great to spend a longer period of time there. There's heaps to do, canoeing, swimming, bush walks, lounging around on the beach. Should be fun!

Baby making is still in progress and with any luck we'll be pregnant soon. I'm very hopeful for this month - we did everything the doctors asked plus more so fingers crossed people! I am trying not to get my hopes up too much but dammit, I'm sure it's time for luck to look our way!

That's about it really. I'll keep you posted about how this weekend goes and I'll make sure to get photos of us in the limo!
Take care and I'll see you later!
xxxx

I'm so dizzy my head is spinning

Aloha cousins.

I've not exactly been well this last week. It all started with a killer headache on Monday that hasn't let up since, I started feeling a bit nauseous (well, a LOT nauseous) and then the dizziness started. Throw in a bit of vertigo and you've got yourself a recipe for a crappy time!
I went to bed Tuesday night feeling awful and even though I just don't vomit (as much as it would probably make me feel better to just have a good spew my body just physically won't do it. I have to be on my death bed to actually vomit), Christian bought me in a nice red bucket and placed it next to the bed. I slept horribly the whole night thanks to the room that would just not stop spinning. You know when you're rather drunk and every time you close your eyes you feel like you're on a merry-go-round? It was like that.

So Wednesday morning I get out of bed to call my boss and tell her I'm not coming in. Not too sure what happens next but I can tell you this. The room started spinning like crazy and then one hand is landing in that delightful red bucket - thankfully it hadn't been used for it's intended purpose, my knees are cracking onto our hard as nails tiles and I'm moaning in pain.
Yes dear readers, I had fallen out of bed.

Not happy Jan.

Christian looks down at me and gives me 'a look'. A look that asks 'What are you doing down there?'
Trust me my beloved, I didn't do this intentionally.
The following conversation takes place.

Christian : 'Come back to bed.'
Me : 'I have to ring Di to let her know I'm not coming into work.'
Christian : 'Get back into bed and I'll go and get the phone for you.'
Me : 'You know, since you're getting up maybe you could just call her for me.
Christian (with a look) : 'That would look rather dodgy.'
Me : 'I call in for you all the time! You never make that call yourself! Why won't you just call for me?'
Christian : 'I just think it would look really suspicious. I really think you should call.'
Me (sulkily) : 'Fine, get me the damn phone.'
Me : 'Hello Di? I'm not coming in to today, I've just fallen out of bed and it fucking hurts!'

I ended up going into work on Thursday since I couldn't get a doctor's appointment. I really shouldn't have since I felt like shit all day. Di and my Team Leader Heather both gave me a good telling off for going in and when I left that night I was told not to come in the next day if I was still feeling that bad.
So this morning I've gotten up, almost fallen over in the shower (bending down to wash your feet isn't too bad but the standing back up afterwards part is the killer) and so I've managed to get a doctors appointment today. Hopefully it'll just turn out to be some stupid virus that will go away in a few days and not an inoperable brain aneurysm. The Doctor I'm seeing isn't the best with his English so whatever he says I'll just take it as 'stupid virus that will go away in a few days'.

Okie, have a great weekend guys and I'll let you know how it all went.

The worst of Perth

The last few days haven't been the best for me. Last Thursday I woke up and found that I couldn't move my neck from side to side and when I even attempted to it hurt like crazy.
I'm stubborn though and since my next chiro appointment wasn't for another month I plodded off to work and just put up with it. I felt like, and must have looked like, a robot. My moves were so stiff and mechanical.
Stubbornness however can't break the pain barrier and by Thursday night I had to admit to myself that I had to make a chiro appointment - pronto. My regular guy was away on holidays but his brother (also a chiro) fills in for him and so I had no problems getting an appointment the next day.
Naturally (this is me we're talking about) I felt guilty about not going into work, especially on a Friday but my neck had gotten to the point that I had no choice. Apart from sharp stabby nerve pinchy pains I also has muscle soreness from trying to hold my neck straight and a constant headache, probably caused by tension.
My fill-in chiro figured out what was wrong (sublaxation C5 was mentioned but I only have a vague idea of what that means) and started the slow process of fixing me. He also gave me a certificate for work and told me I was to take it easy for the entire weekend and was also to stay home today.

So, in between an achy neck, spasms of guilt and bouts of feeling sorry for myself, I had to find a way to keep myself occupied today. Mikey had mentioned to me a blog called The Worst of Perth so I thought I'd check it out. It was well worth it!
Basically it's a blog that highlights the low points of Perth. Dodgy sculptures, god awful architecture, painful colour schemes, the lot. The guy who runs the site must live around my area because the surrounding areas feature prominently. The purple church across the road from me gets a dishonourable mention, and there are so many places on Morley Drive featured (that's the major road I live just off of) that the whole road has become a bit of a joke.
I know that at the end of this year (how I wish it were sooner) a few of you are going to come visit me so I highly recommend that you check out the site and make a list of the worst places in Perth you'd like to sightsee to. I think it's going to be a heap of fun!

A ball of a time

Last night I had the bank's social club Christmas function which was a Charity Ball. It was held in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency hotel in the city and was a pretty glam affair (as far as bank social occasions go).

I had a fantastic time and I'll post a few pics but I won't go as overboard as I did with the river cruise. I know it's not heaps of fun looking at hundreds of photos of people you don't know.

This is K-Lee, myself and Jess.

Our branch had the most amount of people attend from a single branch - we took up two tables. This was our first attempt at getting a group shot but the guy taking the pic had a bit of trouble using my camera so you can probably tell that some of our group got a bit bored standing in the same place for five minutes. (These pics are just of the bank staff, not partners as well. I think there was about 20 of us all up).

We'll try it again shall we, but this time we'll line up.

This is my branch manager Di. She's the loveliest boss you could ever ask for, I'm very lucky to have someone like her around.

And finally this is me and Dan. I used to work with Dan over a year ago but he was transferred to Broome. I've missed him so much, I have never met anyone funnier. You always have a laugh when Dan's around. He's just recently been promoted to Branch Manager and has been moved to York which is only about an hour and a half from Perth. Hopefully I'll catch up with him more now.

Not too much else has been happening. I'm going to try and get my Christmas tree and decorations up today since I'm a bit behind this year. Usually it's all up and done by now but for some reason time has just gotten away from me this year. I've got holidays at the beginning of December and I think my brain has just decided it's going to just get everything done then.
Stupid brain.
I like getting things done early for Christmas!
I haven't sent any international presents or cards yet so I'm warning everyone now, they most likely won't get there in time for Christmas!
I've hardly started my Christmas present shopping yet. I have no idea what to get for the darn husband of mine. He's always so hard to buy for! I think it won't be anything too exciting.

And that's about it really. Same old, same old as usual. But I can live with that :)

Cruising

It's not even half way through November yet but we're well into the swing of Christmas Parties for the year. I'm attending three work dos this year, one for my current branch, one with my old branch and a generic bank social club charity ball.
On Saturday I went to the first one of the season - a river cruise for my current branch. I managed to convince Christian to attend one of them and I think in the end he was glad he came. Whereas at my old branch everyone is much older than us, the people I work with now are much closer to us in age and so we have more in common.
We had to fight our way down to Barrack St Jetty as there was a festival on in Northbridge, a Justin Timberlake concert plus a Muse concert all happening at once. It's a miracle we managed to find parking within a ten block radius of the jetty!
Anyway, it was a fantastic night and I managed to get lots of photos which, naturally, I'll share with you all, whether you like it or not!

This is Jess and her partner Paul. Jess and I work on the business line together although she's recently been trained up in sales and will soon be leaving the teller's line.

This is Clelie, Rachel and Elaine, the blonde brigade.

This is Laura (on the right) and her partner Leanne. Laura is the third member of the business trio and works out processing the express business deposits. Laura and I get on fabulously and had a wonderful time that night. Last Thursday I cam into work all frantic because I'd had a bad dream that when I met Leanne she didn't like me. It was awful! But Leanne was just gorgeous and apparently likes me (and Christian) lots so I was very relieved! We've already agreed that we'll all get together soon for another night out because we all get on so well.

Oh hurrah, there were Christmas Crackers at the tables and for some reason most people found it entertaining to wear them.
Our table didn't participate...

This is Kristie-Lee who works in sales, her fiancé Lee and our branch manager Di. Both Kristie and Di are such fun, you always end up laughing around them.

This is Heather, my team leader and Kay, our business manager.

Rachel is our old team leader and looks absolutely fabulous now she's left the bank. I envy her, I really do. Mid thirties and retired!!! It's just not fair!

Laura, Leanne and I wanted a Titanic photo but we were all too scared to actually climb up on the front bit (not to mention that we'd probably have been kicked off the boat for doing so) so we settled for this.

They're just the cutest couple!

A photo of Christian actually smiling! I should post the one of him looking positively grumpy but I think I'll stick with the happy ones.
Everyone commented that they love his shirt which you can't really see in this shot. It's got a manga type picture on the front and back and we discovered a lot of manga fans on board that night.

Kristie-Lee grabbed my camera later that night to make sure that Christian and I had a photo together. I tried to tell her I'd (surprisingly) already gotten several but that didn't deter her. (I should mention for those who care that this is the dress I was wearing the other night for those who wanted to know just how low cut it was!)

Christian then took several photos of Kristie-Lee and myself. K-Lee didn't like them much so kept on making Christian take photo after photo until she found one she liked.

After all of that she much preferred the photo that I took of us.

This is Grace, who I'm training at the moment. She's such a lovely lady and is so helpful. Her first day in the branch and she's answering phones, jumping onto the meet-and-greet desk. Such a trooper!

Ok, now he's starting to get annoyed with all the photos...

After a while, I went back inside and Christain stayed outside playing with my camera. I'd wanted to get some pics of the city but we were having trouble with my night mode and all the different settings. But a few of them worked out quite well.
I love this shot.

And this one.

And this is a photo I took at the beginning of the night as we were leaving the jetty. Perth has our own Hollywood sign! How cool is that! I think they only put it up for the Red Bull Air Race and I'm sure they'll take it down soon but I thought it was cool. Now, it would have been really tacky if they'd shoved it up on the hill at King's Park...

We all went out to the pub after the cruise had finished and then headed into Northbridge, hoping to catch the end of the festival. We were too late though as it had already wound up for the night and so we did the nerdiest thing - we stopped off outside of the Northbridge branch and peered in making comparisons to our own branch! Lets just say I don't think I'd like to work in Northbridge as there's no glass partition between the tellers and the customers. Talk about dodgy!

On Sunday it was our four year wedding anniversary and the day got off to an ok start. We slept in, watched a few of our shows and then headed off to soccer. After soccer it was getting rather hot (36C) so I suggested to Christian that we head off to the beach. Now, considering it was our anniversary, I assumed we'd go by ourselves. Christian however invited along Kat, Mike and Mike.
Now, to be fair, I usually invite them everywhere we go and I really enjoy spending time with each of these people, however, I didn't really want them coming along that day. Not just because it was our anniversary (although that was a large part of the reason) but mainly because Kat, Mike and Mike are the last people I want to go to the beach with.
To explain further, let's just say that I don't really like the beach much. I rarely swim and this may be influenced but the fact that every time I try to get out of the water Greenpeace come and try and coax me back in and when I refuse they pour buckets of water over me to keep me moist.
As you may have noticed, I have rather big self confidence issues. I have about enough self esteem to fill a thimble, if that. Now, Kat is one of those absolutely gorgeous people who everyone wants to be like. Her partner Mike is a health fanatic, rides everywhere, six pack, whole kit and kaboodle. Other Mike is rather athletic too and almost as skinny as Christian.

Then there's me.

I was in tears before we'd even left the house and was feeling like shit. Christian couldn't understand what was upsetting me but being both a boy and almost 20 kilos underweight, he was never going to get it.
And so we got to the beach and I sat on a towel and watched everyone frolic in their bikinis and boardshorts, hating myself more and more as the minutes dragged by.
We had a barbie afterwards and I felt even more isolated as the night went on since I can't really participate in conversations about getting high and which elicit drug you'd like to try next.
That's just not me.

And so the night finally came to and end and I got home and went straight to bed, feeling more lonely than I've ever felt in my life.
Not the best way to spend our anniversary night, that's for sure.
And the worst part about the whole thing is that it's entirely my fault.
I just can't let go and be myself. Not everyone is going to love me for who I am but I can't accept the people who do and to be happy with that and be damned to everyone who doesn't. I care way too much about what other people think of me and I let it affect my confidence levels.
I messaged Christian this morning after he'd left for work to apologise for ruining the day and he made me feel a little better when he messaged back with 'Don't worry, we'll have plenty more to get right'.

I just hope that I don't end up ruining them as well.

Photos, photos, everywhere

This is pretty much just a photo post as I've got lots to share, so I shall apologise now to Acci and the likes who don't have net connections technologically advanced enough to view posts such as this without great difficulty ;-)

Saturday night saw me getting ready to attend a Casino Royale themed Cocktail night for our work social club. It was being held in the city and there would be a Bond look-a-like competition, martinis and cocktails on arrival plus Black Jack, Roulette and several Money Wheels.
Everyone at work had been looking forward to it for months and I was very excited as at my old branch we would never have done anything like this. I'd bought a new dress for the occasion, spent way too much money on it, but I'd never done anything like this before and thought I'd splurge. Besides, I'm sure I can wear the dress out to a wedding or something so it'll see the light of day again.

I am hopeless when it comes to doing my hair in fancy arrangements but I was very lucky as I had several offers of help from Barb and Kat so I didn't have to go and waste money getting a hairdresser to do it for me. Kat ended up doing it and bloody hell, she was good! In about two minutes, using only bobby pins, she had whipped my hair into the style as pictured below. I was amazed, it was fantastic!

Ok, this is me in the dress. First if all I always get all self conscious in photos and never know quite what to do with my hands, the behind the back look is never good but it's what I usually end up doing...
Secondly, Barb says the dress is actually much more flattering in real life. It makes me look very ... hippy in the photos I have of it. But all in all, I was very happy with it :)

We picked up Jess (far right) on the way and then met up with Heather and Rachael at their hotel just down the road from where it was being held. I absolutely loved Jess's dress, it was gorgeous!

This is Jess and I again. I'm getting slightly better at taking these types of shots as my new camera has a screen that flips around so you can see what you're doing. They're still not the most flattering photos, but they're the most fun!

And this is the whole gang from my branch who turned up. Clelie (next to me) was very, very drunk. She had drunk two bottles of champagne before coming and after the fourth time of falling on her arse, her partner deemed it necessary to take her back to the hotel room so she could sleep it off. She won't live that down for a while!

After that finished up, Jess, Dan(third from left) and I had had plans to head to the casino for some real gambling. Jess wasn't feeling quite up to it though so we dropped her off home and then Christian, being the most wonderful and fantastic husband that he is, dropped Dan and I off at the casino and then went to hang about at Mike's place so he could take us home again after we'd finished.
I'm rather crap at gambling - it hadn't taken me long to lose the 'money' we'd been given to spend at the cocktail night by way of some dodgy decisions at the Black Jack table. I do however rather enjoy Keno. Maybe it's because it's a mix of lotto and bingo, or the fact you can sit down, or even because it's an old lady game, whichever reason it is, I will happily play a couple of games. Dan had never played Keno before and so I proceeded to explain the game and after the first go, he was hooked.
That was all we did the whole night. Keno. Gotta love it.
I didn't win anything, never do but I didn't lose too much so really, what more can you wish for?

By the time we'd walked over to Mike's and then dropped Dan off, it was half four before my head hit the pillow and I tell you, I was looking rather zombified the next morning when I went round to Barb's place to help with the prep work for Chiara's fifth birthday party.
Lucky for me, fairy wings, a wand and a tiara can really make that look vanish!
As you have no doubt guessed, it was a fairy party!

This is Caleb and I. Caleb was Spider Fairy! Mikey even made up a song about him to the tune of Spider Pig...

This photo isn't really lit enough for you to see properly but I'd knicked Barb's wings. I felt rather like the tooth fairy...
Mikey trying to keep Will occupied so Barb could finish running around trying to get everything done in time.

The birthday girl herself, after her beauty bath.

The kids had been banished outside several times as they were getting in the way more than they were helping. After one such banishment, Caleb stood at the door howling for Mama and after a while he was joined by Darcie.
I am such an evil Auntie...I was laughing so hard when I took this photo that I'm surprised it isn't more blurry.

Barb make another one of her famous cakes, this time a fairy garden. I thought it was wonderful but got into trouble for saying it wasn't as 'elaborate' as the last couple she'd done. All I was saying was that she usually builds 'up', in that her cakes are mainly 3D structures. But I thought this one was very, very pretty and as usualy, it was delicious.

A close up of one of the fairies.

Finally, Chiara blowing out her candles.

All in all it was a very fun day, even Uncle Christian showed up after soccer was cancelled, much to Barb's surprise.
I left before most of the kiddies and didn't stick around to witness just how many diabetic comas eventuated. There was that much sugar being consumed I think the tooth fairy will be very busy in the coming weeks! But I guess that's what kids parties are all about :)