Here you go, Ro

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

The plague ridden corpse

So, I've been a bit sick lately.

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

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

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

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

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

I stood about as far away as I could.

In Peru.

Only kidding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nightmares

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

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

*shrugs*

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

Purses, Curses and Skulls

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

Meet Snoopy

Snoopy is my oldest, bestest friend.

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

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

This is my Snoopy.




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

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

He'll be with me forever.

Make a wish

Last night we went to a quiz night for the Make a Wish Foundation.

My friend Mel is a volunteer for the Foundation and I'd been looking forward to it for weeks. I love quiz nights but I'm not all that good at them. Christian may be a repository of odd facts and trivia but I don't seem to retain it. But I do like to be involved, plus we had planned to go to see Minimal Exposure afterwards (our mates who DJ at the Velvet Lounge) so I was very excited.

The night was held at Gloucester Park, a dog racing place in Perth, a slightly more upmarket venue than last year where it was apparently just held in a hall. Most of the people at out table work with Mel and Christian so it definitely had a pie Networks feel about the night.

The quiz was supposed to kick off at quarter past seven so Christian, Mike and I got there at seven as I do hate to be late for things like this (much nagging was involved on my part but I won't go into that right now). I think by the time it actually did start, it was past eight and I had to put up with snide comments from Christian such as 'Gee, it's such a good thing that we got here early Annette, I really would have hated to be late'. I guess it did give us a chance to have a couple of drinks first though, to be honest I was probably slightly drunk by the time we started. Seeing as I had been designated the role of scribe for the evening, it didn't really help as my handwriting is shocking enough as it is usually. Mike kept on buying drinks though so who was I to argue?

There were eight rounds and a couple of extra questionnaire things they did to raise extra money and our table started off with a perfect score. I was very excited that I knew the answer to the first question (Which Utah city is home to the headquarters of the Mormon church?) and found that overall the questions were actually really well spread out over a variety of topics. The next round we weren't as good however and we had gotten even worse by the third. By round five our scores had been 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6 respectively but we couldn't overcome our pride to keep the pattern going by deliberately throwing questions. We're not that geeky.

I think by the time everything was finished up it was past eleven and by that stage I was reasonably drunk. I'm sure there are a few of you out there who would be quite proud of me and my new-found ability to get intoxicated, however I'm sure my Dad isn't one of them. I've since found out that he actually is reading my blog from his new home in Canada so I'll take this opportunity to say 'Hi Dad!'.

It had fallen to Christian to be designated driver so he piled Mike and I into my little red car and we set off for the Velvet Lounge. Being my car, I forced the others to listen to my choice of music and I was pummelled with insults the entire way there. For some reason the boys found Mark Owen's British twang to be highly annoying. I have reason to believe Christian doesn't like Mark Owen solely because little Markie was my first love, not Christian but I'd have a hard time proving that ;-)

We stayed at the Velvet Lounge for a couple of hours, highly entertained by the people dancing. There was one guy there who would have rivalled the gay guy at that club we went to in Edinburgh, I just wish you guys could have been here to laugh along with us.
The music was really good mostly, however towards the end another couple of guys got up and butchered it so that put an end to our running dance commentary...
I'd just like to state here for the record that I didn't get up and dance, mainly as I'm just too uncoordinated to look reasonably cool while dancing. I dance a bit like a Wiggle on acid but without the talent.

Around half two we decided to leave, dropping a very drunk Mike off at home and trying not to laugh when he assured us he'd be fine to get up at 7 the next morning to go Paintballing. I saw him at soccer today and needless to say, he didn't make it.

And speaking of soccer, Christian's ankle is finally good enough to start playing again. He played last Wednesday and after he'd survived that half hour game, he decided he'd be fine for the 90 minute scratch match today. His ankle held up reasonably well during the game, probably better than Christian on the whole. Not playing for six weeks has made him a little out of condition so he subbed off a bit, but I'm pretty sure it won't take long for him to get back into the swing if it.
And in the meantime, I get back into my 90 minute perv sessions, which I have missed horribly!
And that's about it. I won't post the photos I took last night because really, they're not that exciting. You've seen photos already of most of the people there and sitting around a table doesn't exactly make for exciting viewing.

Oh, and just in case you didn't know, it's Salt Lake City ;-)

I'm just a scaredy cat

Now, I'm willing to admit that I may have overreacted slightly here.

I'm the sort of person who constantly worries about everything, be it about the starving Jackalopes in Ethiopia to whether or not I'll like it at my new branch.

I can tell you know that I should not have worried at all (yes, yes, I'm expecting about half a dozen 'I told you so's in the comments :-P).
My new branch is fantastic.
It's very, very, very busy compared to my previous one but that can be a good thing. For one, I'm not Teller A so I spend a heap more time on the counter which means I see more customers and get more referrals. I actually got double my target this week and although it was helped a lot by one of the CSR2's giving me all her walk-ups, I actually got a heap of people down the front all by myself.

I was so proud.

I have to fax my results sheet to my old branch each week (I'm still officially attached to Basso until they decide if I'm staying here or not) and I made the comment on it for my old manager 'Do you know how freakin sweet it feels to actually make my targets for once? I love it here!'.

Also, one of the things I was worried about was if everyone would like me or not. For some reason I have this fear that everyone will hate me and they won't give me a chance. My friend Mike tried to reassure me last week about this by saying 'Just go in there, be yourself, be happy and cheerful like you always are and they'll love you'. But I worried that it wouldn't turn out like that.
I get on really well with everyone so once again, shouldn't have worried. Overall, the people who work there are a lot younger than my old co-workers and it's actually really nice to be working with people in my own age group. Also the branch is very social, I'm already booked in to go to the movies with them in two weeks and then to lunch a couple of weeks after that, and there was one dinner I can't make as I have plans. So very busy with the fraternising! It's really nice when you can get to know people out of work so it's going to be great.

So overall it was a great week. I've had a few run-ins with customers but in general it's going well. I even got a scratchie because today I served about a hundred customers more than any of the other tellers (256 in total) so it's nice to be rewarded for something else other than making your referral target.

Ok, that's about it for now. I'm going out tomorrow night so I'll try and get photos for you all.
Have a great weekend!

As promised, the second post

I sometimes worry about posting twice in as many days. Not so much that I'll bore you buys (because I'm sure you just wouldn't bother reading more if you were bored), more that I worry my first post will be overlooked.
A Spiderman party is a momentous occasion and one that deserves it's limelight :)
So, if you've stumbled upon this post, please make sure you continue on to the next, so the Webbed one can be fully appreciated.

Having gotten that out of the way, I now give you the promised pictures of the trackday.

This is Christian's Levin GTZ. It's his dream car and although he had some issues with fixing a fuel line this morning and swore his head off at the car, he really doesn't want any other. I guess you could say that Neville (that's the car's name but with a Kiwi accent) is my only competition ;-)


This is Mike's GTR, and today was the first time he had done anything like this in it before. He imported her from Japan ages ago and only recently got it registered so he wasn't pushing overly hard. Mike's been gradually upgrading his car, he started out with a R30 then got a 31 and now has the 32. He won't keep going though as the 33 is a tosser's car and the 34 is just crap. But this is one sweet car! At the end of the day Wazza, who was running the day let the guys take me out for a spin so I got a go in Neville but Christian couldn't push it as his brakes weren't the best and then Mike took me out in the 32. I came back with this silly grin on my face that I couldn't wipe off.

Christian hates having photos taken and in most of them he is either giving me the bird or he turns quickly away so I only capture the back of his head.
This was one of the latter.

I actually managed to get a pic of Mike today but how someone so damned hot can be so unphotogenic is beyond me, it really is. He always looks as pale as a ghost and stoned in all the pics I have, but this is one of the better ones...oh, and I've told him he needs to have a haircut. It's getting a bit mullety and that's never good.

The track is outside of the Belladrome in Midland where they do a lot of cycling. At the top of the hill outside the back of the dome are a couple of sea containers. One of them had this cute picture of a crocodile on it. I'm now annoying Christian by singing 'Schnee schni schnappy, schnappy, schnappy schnappy'



This is just a picture of a rope that was hanging down from the dome. I thought it looked like the place a depressed cyclist may come after losing an important race...Christian came upon me taking the shot and could only laugh at me.

Lastly this was a photo I took of the clouds through the pine trees. Not overly exciting but I thought the clouds were quite nice today.And that's about it really. I froze my arse off all day (May could possibly be not the best time for our international guests to come, but we survived Edinburgh, I'm sure they'll survive here) but it didn't rain a lot, only a bit of drizzle here and there. It was a fun day, I always enjoy these things even when I'm not driving and I was very excited to get a ride in the GTR! Plus, these days are always good for a perv! It might be just me but towards the top of my 'What makes a guy hot' list is the ability to drive hard!

Ok, I'll leave it at that for now, probably until next weekend! Bye guys!

Spiderman 3

No, not the movie. My nephew Caleb, who is Spiderman mad celebrated his third birthday today and in honour of this momentous occasion, a Spiderman party was held.

As part of his present, Barb and Mike bought Caleb a reversible Spiderman suit, worn normally and it's the traditional red and blue suit, tun it inside out and it's the creepy black suit from the latest movie. What I think is so adorable about it is the inflated chest muscles on it. He looks so cute!


Barb is famous for the birthday cakes she makes. She's made everything from a train, a Barbie fairy garden, a dog, a dinosaur, numerous dolly varden cakes, even Hanky, the Christmas Poo. She wanted to make Caleb a Spiderman cake and started working on these elaborate spiders made from moulding icing but in the end she wasn't happy with them so didn't use them. Eventually she ran out of time and at 2 in the morning before the party she whipped up the cake below featuring Spiderman's mask. She says she's disappointed that it didn't turn out the way she wanted but I think it's bloody fantastic!


In addition to the Spiderman cake, Barb went whole hog with the licensed party paraphernalia. The kids had a Spiderman tablecloth, cups, plates, hats, lolly bags, drink bottles, even the balloons were blue and red. Caleb just loved it all.


Jo and Darcie drove up from their place for the day and also brought Shiver with them. No longer a tiny puppy, Shiver has shot up and is now the same size as Malta. The two of them spent the whole day playing in a rather exuberant fashion, knocking several children down in the process. I took a photo of them and contrary to what it looks like, they're not trying to a) kill each other or b) make lots of dingo/mastiff babies.


Darcie grabbed hold of my camera at one stage and took a few photos, mainly of me. She's the right little professional, telling me to stand up, sit down, do this or that. She also demanded that I stick my tongue out. It's by far the best photo so I thought I'd share it with you (and best as in centred and in focus - it's a rather shocking pic of me in general)


Scott and Mike also came and it's amazing just how much like my Dad my brother is becoming. The resemblance is amazing!
It was great to catch up with them and I just want to say a huge congratulations to Mike for making his first front page of The West Australian. He scored a coveted position as Cadet Journalist for the state's paper and has had quite a few articles published so far but this was his first front cover. It was an article about a 97 year old man who has just taken up helicopter flight lessons, but Mike says he'll be much more excited when he gets a breaking news front cover. I say he kicks ass anyway!

Oh, and looksie what I got! A photo of Mike (Wolfbyte) actually being affectionate towards Malta. He was complaining earlier how he never wanted the dog and how annoying she is but shut up soon after I pointed out he's actually admitted on his blog that he loves her, even though it was in the middle of a rant about how annoying she is. Then I walk in the house a short while later and low and behold, the two of them are snugged up on the couch having a cuddle.
Not that this is going to change the world or anything, I just wanted to have proof that deep down he thinks she's alright!


So, that's about all I have to report on the Spiderman party. You should get another post with photos this weekend though as there's a track day tomorrow that Christian is taking his GTZ down to and Mike (Brooksey) might turn up with his GTR. For those of you who don't like cool cars, it might bore the crap out of you, but tough. I didn't get to be Deputy Curator in charge of fast cars for nothing!

They say a change is as good as a holiday...

We shall see...

As some of you already know, work has been a bit crap lately for me. I love my job, I really do and I also really enjoy working with these people, unfortunately the bank doesn't really endear itself to it's employees.
I'm not a very sales-driven person. I hate being a customer when someone is trying to hard-sell me and so I don't like having to do from the other side of the counter. In my opinion if someone comes in to do their banking, it's up to them if they want to open a new account and they'll let me know if they do. Otherwise I just want to do my best to be friendly, helpful and efficient.

Unfortunately, the bank doesn't see it this way. As a teller (CSR1 to be technical) I don't have to actually sell the products but I have to 'identify a need' and 'refer the customer to the CSR2's'.
Now this is something I believe I do. If someone is paying too many monthly fees or has money sitting in a low interest account, I bring it to their attention. I don't think it should be my problem if they then don't want to do anything about it.
The bank however says otherwise. I have to get a certain amount of referrals a week that actually go and open a product or 'have a quality needs based conversation'.

Now, the real killer is that because of all this new bullshit legislation which has removed our award, the bank is now allowed to keep from us our old 4% per year mandatory pay rise. Only employees who make their targets will be eligible for the raise. So, to put it another way, my ability to keep up with inflation, interest rate hikes and the ever-increasing price of fuel now rests in the hands of a third party - the customer.

I do my job, I talk to customers, I inform them of our different products, blah, blah, blah, but according to the bank, I'm not doing my job, hence I don't get a pay increase.

The branch I'm at now is a very quiet branch, we see mostly the same customers, we have our regulars, we don't get a lot of new traffic. It's very hard to meet my targets. Actually, it's nigh on impossible. I'm at 46% for crying out loud!

And so today I mentioned to my boss that I'd like to talk to her about maybe seeing about a transfer to a busier branch. She said that yes, we could discuss it later on in the day and she would talk to her boss about it.
Within an hour I was told that on Monday I'd be starting at the next branch over, a very busy branch in a new shopping centre.

I didn't think it would happen so quickly!

And now I'm shit scared. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, it would solve all my problems. Now that it's actually happened I'm wondering why I didn't keep my big mouth shut!

Apparently they're going to do a six week trial to see how it goes as they're swapping me with a girl from the other branch but I know that even if I don't like it, I won't get sent back to my old branch. However I can hope I'll settle in well and actually enjoy it.

I mean, you do adapt to change, don't you? You eventually adapt to anything I guess. And it's not even that big a change really, it's just a different work place, it's still the same job.
I'm just a scaredy cat.

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted about how it goes, I'm sure it won't be as bad as in my imagination.

When soccer becomes 'more' than a game.

Several of you already know about the 'incident' at Wednesdays soccer match so please feel free to amuse yourselves while I regale those unfortunates who have not yet heard the tale.

First of all I think you all need to know something very important about my husband, Christian.
Christian is a very non-violent person. He swears like a pirate, his sarcasm cuts to the bone, he watches action films and plays all sorts of nasty games on his wii and PS2 but when it comes to physical violence he's just not into it. It's also very rare for Christian to lose his temper.

So anyway, Christian still can't play soccer at the moment as his ankle just isn't fully recovered, we've still been going to the games however as we want to support the team. So on Wednesday we went round to Sexy Mike's place first so the boys could play Magic (I helped Tiho and we lost horribly so perhaps my aspirations to become a kick arse Magic player are a little deluded, but I digress) and then we headed off to watch the game with Kat. The boys were playing a team called Nothing Suss and I would like to point out here at the onset that there was a lot of things suss about them.

So, the opposition score two early goals but despite this they yell and swear at each other and get rather aggro all round. The boys score two goals and then we're even. Then we get called by the ref for not throwing in from the sides correctly. The ball has to be thrown in from behind the head, not released when it's over of in front of you. Fair enough but then the other team do it and don't get called.
So Christian (who has become a rather vocal spectator) calls at the ref 'So, how is that any different???'. This guy from the other team stops and yells out at Christian, the conversation going something like this.

Loser : 'Do you need your prescription checked mate?'
Christian : 'Come on, there was no way that ball was thrown from behind'
L : 'You've got no fucking idea mate'
C : Yeah, maybe if you're head was this big it might have been ok' (Christian holds his hands out a foot or two)
L : (grabs crotch) Well what do you think of this then?
C : I think I'd need a prescription to see that!
L : Oh you're so gonna fucking cop it after that
C : Whatever mate, it's just a game
L : Nah, you're fucking dead. Ref, sub!

So Loser then proceeds to march off the court and come yelling at Christian about how he's going to beat Christian's head in. Stupidly (it seemed like such a good idea at the time) I step in front of this guy and say 'Look, just calm down mate'.
Now, this guy wasn't going to calm down. Quite the opposite in fact. I honestly thought then he was going to punch me. Obviously so did Christian because when Loser yells out 'So, you gonna hide behind your fucking woman???' Christian then went 'Fine, you want to have a go at me?'

So Loser goes for Christian and we all thought (Christian, Kat and I) that this guy was going to throw a punch. Instead he takes a running kick right at my husbands family jewels.
Well, that did it.
Christian starts grappling with him and this guy just goes beserk, punches Christian in the face and pretty much body slams him onto the ground. I jump on top, trying to pull this guy off and one of his team mates comes running and tries to help. Meanwhile this guy can't really do much except squish Christian (he was much taller and much, much heavier than Christian) and Christian, after discovering this guy doesn't flinch to being punched in the head then starts gouging out his eyes with his thumbs. On the court our keeper Enzo notices something's amiss and jumps over to help, bringing half of our team and half the other team with him.
In the end it takes four guys to pull Loser off Christian and drag him away, and within a minute this guys is all like 'I'm so sorry, it's my fault, I overreacted and I shouldn't have lost it'.

The court is in an uproar, everyone is yelling at the ref (who did diddly fucking squat the whole time), the manager on duty of Loftus comes down and takes this guy away to do up a report, Loser keeps apologising and my heart is beating six hundred times a minute. Kat and I are in complete shock that this guy just lost it so completely and Christian is spewing his glasses have been twisted (and although he didn't show it at the time, his balls must have been killing him).

Eventually the game resumes and we sit in silence for quite a while. Loser comes back down to the court, again saying how sorry he is. Christian doesn't want a bar of it and retorts 'Yeah, well try telling my nuts that'.
The game ends and at some point Mike scored a goal without us realising it and so we've won the game. As Enzo put it 'We weren't going to let them win after that.'

As they're leaving, the other team each walk up and apologise to us and the manager comes down to inform us that Loser has been banned, although we don't know how long for. We discover Christian is bleeding from several carpet burns but he manages to bend his glasses back into shape. We stood about in the carpark for a bit afterwards chatting and then headed home, but it took me a long time to fall asleep that night. I don't think my heart stopped pounding until about four in the morning.

And so Christian's first punch up will echo on down through the ages, immortalised by Blogger. He probably won't ever read this (actually I know he won't, no matter how much I nag him to) but I'll say this anyway.
Christian, I salute you. Also, I hope your left testicle will finally decided to work it's way down from behind your left ear sometime before Christmas.

PJA

'Hi, my name is Nettie and I'm a PJ-aholic.'

This was the text message I sent my beloved to inform him of the addition I had made to my pyjama collection.

I just couldn't help myself. I was out shopping last weekend with my sisters and I saw at least six pairs of jarmies that, if I had a much, much larger disposable income, would have found a new owner. Instead I settled on one pair, that were reduced right down for Mother's Day (bargain!).

So now I have : three pairs of flannelette PJ's, my new ones that are pink with froggies on lillipads, my neon orange ones with moo cows and daisies and my bright pink ones with love hearts and ladybugs (although really I should throw these out as they're falling apart, but I refuse.)
I also have a pair of winter black satin jarmies with an embroidered rose. Then I have two pairs of summer satin jarmies, both blue, one with teddy bears and one with whales.
Up until very recently I also had another two pairs of pink satin PJ's, one pair I gave to the Salvos as they were much too big for me and I rather looked like a giant musk Lifesaver in them and the other pair I gave to my older sister who needed a new pair and really liked those.

Christian says my 'spare pair' excuse is wearing a tad thin...

I don't even really know why I buy jarmies and I can't pinpoint when it started as I've not always done it. I just can't walk past a gorgeous pair and not think about adding it to my collection.

Oh, and I apologise if this is too much information for you all, but the really, really silly thing about the whole situation is I don't even wear pyjamas to bed! Yup. that's right, I get twisted and tangled and can't stand it, so I sleep in the nip. I own six pairs of PJ's and they only get worn around the house.

But then again I guess obsessions aren't supposed to be logical.

Who noticed?

I thought I'd lay to rest Cigarettes Alcohol and Rollerblading as the title of this blog as I feel the Father Ted reference my be a tad ambiguous. I've had several people comment that as I don't smoke, rarely drink and have only rollerbladed in the distant past it seems an odd choice of title.

I then have to launch into the whole lent explanation and end up sounding odder than usual.

So, in keeping with the general atmosphere of my blog, The Natterings Of Nettie is born.

CA&R will live on however as I do hope to win the 'longest url' competition one day.

A rant not aimed at any of you

Warning - contains unlady-like language.

I've had a shitty week.

I've been sworn at by customers, had to put up with idiots of the road, been stressed because of understaffing at work and had generic crap happen pretty much every day of the week. This is on top of my Uncle Ian passing away on Tuesday.

It's all accumulated in me being in a very grumpy mood when I arrived home from work yesterday. In response to Christian's query of how my day had been I retorted 'I have come to the conclusion that the human race are a pack of c*#ts and on the whole I want nothing to do with them ever again.'

Now, I swear like a pirate at the best of times but Christian was rather shocked at my use of the C word. I'm sure there will be others of you out there who will be equally as shocked.

That's how crap my week has been.

The end.

P.S. I like stories.

Girls night out

To make up for the often weeks on end I don't post, I'm in the middle of a flurry of posts at the moment, averaging about two or three a week. So I apologise if it's all a bit overwhelming but I may as well post now while stuff is happening than wait until I have to do a completely random post.

So, went out on a girls night last night. Katrina had been organising it for a while and we finally got it under way. We met up at her place to begin with in Scarborough before heading out and about. I actually was feeling a little left out as our mate Mel was there, Kat's sister Mel came along and also her cousin Katrina came out to. Two Mels and two Katrinas and only one Nettie :(

But I guess one Nettie is all the world can handle at once to avoid imploding.

Anyhoo, I got some pics of the girls for so it might be a little less confusing when I talk about all the Mels and Kats.

Right, this is Mel, Kat and me (duh).

I met both these two girls through Christian as they have both worked with him (Kat left a little while ago). Kat and I hit it off with right away but with Mel it took a little longer. She's actually a little shy so she never really spoke to me, giving me the impression of being a little snobby. But we got chatting at a party a while back and found out we have heaps in common and get on like a house on fire now.

This is Kat's sister who I shall call by her full name Melanie to avoid confusion. She's very loud and outrageous and very very funny.

And this is Kat's cousin Katrina. I hadn't met her before but she seemed really nice although quite young. She's early twenties I think but is still very much into the going out clubbing and getting drunk stage which is fine, it's just not something I can relate to much.

Anyway, so we had a drink (or three) at Kat's for a bit and then called a taxi to take us into Mount Lawley where we thought we'd get some dinner and then go to The Velvet Lounge next to The Brass Monkey where Lachlan (another guy who works with Christian) and his mate do DJing. Unfortunately no where were still serving food (that's the down side to living in Perth - it's shocking that you can't get a decent meal after ten on a weekend) so we headed over to the Velvet Lounge with the idea that if we can't eat we can still get a drink.
While there we ran into Lachlan and his mate and also Mike and so we stayed and chatted to them for quite a while.

Now I must stop here and point out that although I consumed quite a bit more alcohol than is usual for me, because we stopped and started and did a lot of running about, I never actually got drunk, just tipsy. Sorry to disappoint Ro! ;-)

Anyway, so we stayed about there for a bit and I chatted with Mike about cars (urgh, can you believe he wanted his first car to be a Commodore??? Thank God he's found some sense now!) and other various stuff until we headed down to HJ's to get something that vaguely resembled food.

After dinner we decided to take a run into Northbridge to go to The Universe Bar where Katrina's Dad's band was playing. We made the executive decision to drag Mike along on our girls night which I think at times left him with a slightly panicked look. Oh, and I tried taking a photo of him but he's a wily one and avoided it rather well. This is the best one I got.

So, The Universe Bar. The music was good. That's about the end of the list of pros.
It was so crowded, I swear you could hardly breathe, let alone move. I'm not used to negotiating my way through such crowds and found I was constantly getting elbowed and shoved around. It was a good thing I didn't have that much to drink because I would have ended up on my arse otherwise.
The drinks were also ridiculously expensive, ten bucks for a fucking Smirnoff for crying out loud! There's no need for that!
Mike didn't stick around too long as he didn't like the music and it was just too crowded so we said goodbye to him and then fought our way to the front near the band to have a bit of a dance. Mel then got a little woosy as she was finding it hard to breathe so she, Kat and I left and decided to call it a night as we were so damned tired.

The three of us got a taxi back to Kats' place and then stayed up for a bit chatting before heading to bed. Kat cooked us brekkie in the morning which was nice of her and we spent the rest of the morning chatting and watching the storm come over the coast.
It was such a fun night out and I hope we can do it again soon. It reminded me of The Edinburgh Adventure a bit actually which was really just an extended girls night out with a couple of blokes thrown into the mix for good measure!

Anyway, I won't bore you any more as I'm sure I'm dribbled on enough for one day.

Golf, injuries and other facinating tales of the macabre

Right, I hope I haven't gotten your hopes up with the post title. It's not all that exciting...

Ok, where to begin?
Last Sunday would be a good place to begin. I'm doing a kind of Back To The Future 2 thing here as I've already posted about last Sunday and then we'll come forward in time and then go back again and by the end we'll be really confused but I think Marty will make it through it.

Ok, so I said we played Mini Golf with our mate Jason. I won (and it wasn't even because Christian and Jason were being gentlemen either, I won on pure talent and a lot of luck!) and so I thought I'd post some pics of the day for you.

Right this is Jason, you may remember him from our frolic in the park a while back. If not, we came across him traipsing through Hyde Park with his normal bike plus a unicycle. We met him through a friend of ours and have always gotten on well with him. He drives an MR2 which is just gorgeous and he's very funny so we always have a great time out with him.

The next photo is of Christian, trying not to do a 'Happy Gilmore' as they're banned and they've even put up little nets to stop the balls from going too far. Unfortunately not all the holes have them and so Christian came last as he kept on hitting the ball too hard and having to take a penalty each time his ball left the course.

They have a big pond there and from a distance we could see lots of big ripples. It turned out to be some bloody massive Koi all swimming frantically around the ducks that had decided to go for a swim. They were all very cool colours and were all chewing on a human leg. (Ok, that last bit was a blatant lie but it would make a great movie - Attack of the Killer Koi)

So as you all know by now we then headed to soccer where Christian proceeded to injure himself. He's doing quite well now but won't be playing soccer for a while (dammit there goes my number one opportunity to perv on Mike *sigh*). He's been hobbling about on his foot and finally took the bandages off. I took this photo to try and show you some of the bruising and swelling but it didn't turn out very well. It looks much cooler in real life!

Ok, that's the slide show over now as I didn't get any more photos during the week. Which is a pity as we had people over on Wednesday but I just plain forgot to get some pics. I have already asked Christian to spank me on your behalf so rest assured, punishment has been meted out.

Anyway, so Wednesday was ANZAC day and we all got the day off. Hurrah for public holidays! As Christian still wasn't mobile at that point we invited a few people over for lunch. Mel, Kat and Mike turned up and we all had lots of fun watching Zoolander (But why male models?) and Candy Mountain (Chaaaaaaaaarlie).
Later that night even though he couldn't play, Christian and I went to watch his team play soccer. Tiho awarded Christian the fictional Man of the Match award for turning up at all which was very nice of him even if it didn't really exist. The boys played really well especially since they didn't have a sub (Enzo wasn't there either) and they won 7-1. It helps that the team they were playing isn't very good but lets not let that distract from their effort eh?

And that's really been it for this week. I had an error at work and stressed my head off over it but in the end we found out what had happened so there was no need for me to start slashing my wrists. We're going to see Hot Fuzz again at the movies tonight as it was so funny we want to see it again before it finishes. I'm going out on a girly night tomorrow which should be fun and I'll let you all know how it goes.

*hugs and snuggles*

Off to Candy Mountain with Charlie

Even funnier than Dr Tran!



I love the magical bridge, full of hope and wonder!

*Note : I deleted this post and re-posted it in the hope it'll get my comments page back. We shall see I guess.

A little re-organising

Well, I've not been able to find any magic button to show my labels at the bottom of each post so I've added the label element to my template so there's a big loooooong list of them over there on the right. *points*
I also went in and edited a whole heap of my posts, dating back to May last year to add labels to them. If I can be bothered I'll try and get to the rest of them some other time.

Had a pretty interesting day today. Yesterday wasn't that bad either. After gyming I headed off to the shops to try and find some shoes to go with my pretty dress I ordered (it should arrive this week - yay!). To my surprise I did find some shoes that fit my fat arse German feet. They're really just fancy silver thongs but they have some strapping that wraps around your ankles to smarten them up a bit. They were also on sale, ten bucks! Can't argue with that.

This morning Christian and I played mini golf with our friend Jason (you last saw him at Hyde Park with his unicycle) and had tremendous fun. Then after lunch we headed off to soccer under a cloudy sky (honestly, it had been completely clear all morning till then!). Mike was at soccer and after reassuring myself he was ok after the split, the boys started to play.
Now, their Sunday games are just a scratch match - pretty friendly but they can get a bit rough (accidentally of course). Today Christian went to kick the ball and Steve went to kick the ball and Steve ended up getting Christian's ankle instead. Apparently a 'crack' was heard, Christian couldn't walk and I went to get an ice pack. After ten minutes or so, Christian's foot was very swollen, starting to bruise and extremely painful. It was at that point we decided a visit to the hospital wouldn't be a bad idea. Mike and Nick both tried to help Christian to the car but it didn't really work well as he's just so much taller than both of them and so he hobbled out himself.
We went to Swan's and didn't really wait very long at all at the after hours clinic. It turns out Christian has damaged several ligaments but nothing is broken so he should recover fairly soon.
I think he rather enjoyed it when we got home and I ran around fetching stuff for him, turning on the telly, passing him the PS2 remote, cooking dinner...pretty much what I do normally ;-)

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll stop now before I bore you all to tears with the second post in almost as many days.

Like sands through the hour glass

Yesterday was the eleventh anniversary of Christian and me being together. A lot of people say we're silly to celebrate that particular date considering we're married now but to us, this anniversary, as opposed to our wedding one, is much more important. We were togther for seven and a half years before tying the knot and all that really did was make the whole thing official. We'd much rather celebrate the date we met than the day we signed some papers and had a fancy cake.


Anyway, we decided to go out for dinner and, long story short, both my sisters and super intellegent, hunky sex god brother Mike came too. We had a good night out, even though my dress never arrived in time so I had to wear something different. I only got one photo the whole night because I just plain forgot, and the photo I got isn't very good at all, but here it is.


Let's just say these types of photos don't usually work out when someone has really short arms and is trying to take a photo of themselves and someone who is much taller...

So anyway, it was a good night and after dinner Barb and Mike came back to our place, bringing with them what seemed like an entire liquor store. We had fun making up different cocktails but as usual, even with such a large quantity of booze at my disposal, I didn't get drunk.

Nothing else has really been happening. I was rather sick last week with a nasty tummy bug but I seem to have survived. Before soccer on Wednesday we went to Tiho's house so the boys could play Magic. I guess watching a group of guys (most much older than myself) play a card game based on you being a wizard can rub off because I've asked Christian to teach me how to play it. I believe my transformation into full blown nerd is almost complete.

It was a bit of a sad week at work because one of our regular customers died. She was a rather disturbed older lady who was always a pain to serve (man could she berate you on bad handwriting!) but she had had a hard life and was always in a lot of pain. She ended her life herself in the most horribe way imaginable - she set fire to herself but hopefully she has found some peace now.

And the only other news I have is that after seven years together Mike and Julie have broken up. They were always an odd couple and I could never understand the relationship but it seemed to have worked for them to a degree. I was a little shocked when I heard the news but I guess not overly surprised. Julie is apparently heading off down south as she's been appointed as priestess of some strange religion...go figure. Christian says Mike has been a bit moody but he's not sure if it's because of the split or because of the giving-up smoking. With Mike it's sometimes hard to tell. Oh and I'd just like to say :P to Brother Mike for his little comment. When he found out about the split he said to Barb 'Oh, so has Nettie called it off with Christian yet?'.

Mike's hot and all, but he's no Christian.

Ok my loves, that's about it for now. I've promised Boo when my dress arrives I shall get many photos for you all so you have that to look forward to anyway.

Ciao.

A question

Who on here can see the labels I put at the bottom of each post?

Because I can't.

I can see them on everyone else's blogs but for some reason I can't see them when I view my own? Is that the way it's supposed to work? I don't know!

An unexpected visitor

A lady I work with had a little soiree at her house yesterday which ended up being heaps of fun. Her name is Karen and she's an absolute blast to work with. Very very funny and can keep the straightest face I've ever seen. Unless you see the tiny wink she gives you, it's very hard to tell if she's being serious or not. She's also a kiwi and even though she's been here for 27 years now, she still sounds like she's just stepped off the plane. We have loads of fun with her accent, especially when she swears (Oh shut! What the if have I done?)
She lives forever away though so it took a bit of strategic planning for me to get there without driving myself (I was having a few drinks). In the end I managed to get a lift there and back with various other co-workers.

Karen has recently had a spa installed so we were told to bring our bathers and it turned into a spa-ree if you will. Unfortunately for me on Friday Aunt Urma decided to visit me rather unexpectedly. She came with a vengeance and I've spent the last few days in a bit of a pain-killer induced daze. Hurrah for being a woman!

I do however have a few new odd spots to share with you.

Odd Spot #324 : An ostrich egg can make 11.5 omlettes

Odd Spot #80 : A blue whale's heart beats nine times per minute

Odd Spot #70 : A claque refers to a group of people hired to applaud an act or peformer

Odd Spot #134 : There are more people in the world who eat alligators than there are alligators who eat people

Odd Spot #316 : When viewed from above, rainbows appear to be doughnut-shaped

Odd Spot #216 : Someone who has an irrational fear of meat is carnophobic

Odd Spot #216 : Pandas spend approximately 12 hours a day eating bamboo

Odd Spot #277 : Before launching his movie career, Keanu Reeves managed a pasta shop in Toronto, Canada

Odd Spot #197 : Lungs are 100 times easier to blow up than a child's balloon.

Odd Spot #101 : The literal translation of the word 'wonton' is "swallowing a cloud"

Odd Spot #54 : In Pacific Grove, California, it is a misdemeanour to kill a butterfly.

Rolling on the river

Well Easter has come and gone for another year.

Thank feck for that!

I didn't get any eggs this year (by request) but I still ate too much of everyone else's eggs and other horribly bad stuff at family bbq's and so forth. A bit of a stand still in the dieting saga but I'm rather forgiving of myself (it was Easter after all!)

Unfortunately the gym was closed over the long weekend so I found myself not doing the 45mins of exercising a day I'm supposed to be doing. I managed it on only one of the four days and on another I did half an hour. But still, it was Easter! I can only use that excuse once a year so I'm planning on taking full advantage of it ;-)

Sunday, the day that I did manage to get off my butt and do something physical saw me going for a long walk along the river (about an hour and twenty minutes). I started off at the bird sanctuary and found myself at some historic tearooms before turning for home again. The silliest aspect of the walk was that I started it at 6:40 in the morning. Easter Sunday and I'm out walking before the bloody birds have even woken up! (ok, so that was a tiny exaggeration - the birds were stirring in their little sanctuary). I guess you could class me as being a bit mad.

Anyway, I took photos for you all, think of it as my little Easter pressie for you all!

This is the view of the river and The Garrett Road Bridge with the clouds looking all pretty in the background.

I like the mirror image in this one of a pond.

You can't really read this sign but it basically says don't drink the water or play in it. Well duh!

Around the bird sanctuary area there are lots of little wooden boardwalks over the plant revegetation areas and in some parts the river itself. They're very pretty.

And finally not the best photo in the world, but one of me! I always have a bit of a furrow going on but that could have been because I forgot my sunnies and it was rather glary! I just know I'm going to get told of by Boo and Ro because 'glary' will turn out to not be a proper word or something... :P

Lastly, I found out the most exciting news today! Alex messaged me and he's sent his manuscript off to his editor! Yay! I'm literally bouncing up and down I'm that excited! So it hopefully won't be too long before we all get to read his new book. Go Alex!

Off on an Adventure!

Well, almost.

Adventure World (Perth's rather second-rate amusement park) had a corporate day today and through my social club at work I managed to pick up some super cheap tickets for my family.

We loaded two cars with kids, eskis and picnic blankets and were on our way.

When we arrived we discovered that quite a few more tickets than we expected had been sold. We ended up parking a mile away from the front gates and had to then lug kids, eskis and picnic blankets all that way. We did have a rather scenic view of Bibra Lake on our way though, looking lovely and ...dry. Damn drought.

We couldn't find where my social club had set up so we found our own little spot in the shade and after lunch we got down to the business of the rides. The kids were uber excited and we headed off towards the kiddie rides first. Several more rides had been bought in especially for the day and so they had a ball going on as many as they could. Darce was a little scared of some of them but Chiara had a heap of fun on the more daring ones.

This is Chiara on the Little Leaper (third from left). It was the second time for had been on it but both times she went on alone as Darce was too frightened.

The guy who was operating the ride was really fun and had a great way with the kids. He'd ask which of the kids wanted to stay dry and then spray the others with a hose. As most of the kids had just come from the water slides, not too many said no.

The castle in the middle of the park has recently had a make-over and we got all excited thinking that they had re-opened it. About twenty years ago when we were kids they had it decked out as a vampire castle and you'd walk through it and look at ghouls and monsters while dodging vampires, before ending up on a balcony with a stunning view. There were signs everywhere pointing to the Castle Lookout and so we made our way over to it.

Unfortunately it was still closed off. The 'lookout' was up one flight of stairs on the outside of the castle. The kids were pretty disappointed, almost as much as we adults were!

My sisters and I then went on a few rides, including the one below, the Power Surge. I went on it first with Barb and thought it was really fun as it did all the upside-down things but you didn't get jerked back and forth like some rides tend to do. So Jo decided to go on it with me as I said it was pretty lame and she's not too fond of the scary rides. Thirty seconds into it she's proclaiming how much she hates me and how she will never ever forgive me. I replied asking her if she'd lost her balls on her thirtieth birthday.

Another one of Adventure Worlds' signatures is the Skull Cave. It's pretty cool looking and I knew I just had to get a photo of it for my Goth friends (you know who you are!). Unfortunately it's pretty boring inside. You just climb up some stairs to get through it and it's very fibre glass looking inside.

There's an enclosure near Kids' Cove that has lots of native Australians (of the animal variety!) and I took some pics for them for you. There were lots of emus but they ran away when I tried to get photos and I didn't really want to post seven different photos of an emu's butt as he's running off. This is the only decent photo I got.

The koalas didn't do much (do they ever?) except for sitting around looking stoned. Really, they may be cute but they're bloody boring!

This koala wasn't boring though. He went around the park giving everyone hugs and dancing and Jo was kind enough to take a pic for you all. Darce wasn't at all impressed with him as she could see his arms where his gloves were coming off and realised he wasn't a real koala. She then stormed off, mightily offended and when we asked her about it she huffed 'He's tricking everyone into believing he's a real koala, but he's not. He's a human! It's just a costume Mummy!'. We didn't have much luck convincing her that we had known all along that he wasn't a real koala...

Christian isn't a big fan of Adventure World and spent the entire day sitting on the rug. He didn't move once! I came back at one stage to find he had borrowed my hat to stop from getting burnt. It was then that I felt it necessary to inform him that we had sunscreen in my bag.

He didn't bother with the sunscreen in the end and spent a lot of time dozing. Honestly, it was the most expensive nap he's ever taken!

And that was my exciting day out! Honestly, I'm pooped. I just feel like going to bed but it's only 7:30 and that's too wimpish, even for me!

Take care guys and have a wonderful Easter!

How age has changed me

I've found that since I've gotten older I've become quite a lot more politically incorrect than I used to be.
I'm not saying I've turned into one of those dreadful old women who say whatever they feel like, usually uncomplimentary things about the person next to them in line at the shops, as loud as they possibly can.
It's more in my general conversations.
For example if I see someone doing something completely moronic I'm more often than not going to make the comment 'Gosh, are they retarded or something?'
Now when I was younger I would never use the word 'retarded'. This may or may not be due to my mothers' influence (Mum worked in Disabilities for years and would have cuffed me round the ear if she's heard that term come out of my mouth). I have just always thought it to be too derogatory a word to use. But something has changed in me and my way of thinking and I'm not too sure what it is.

Another example is I'll make bitchy comments about people in a grumbly sort of way. The other day Barbie and I were at the shops and this really tall guy was walking sooooo slowly down the middle of the isle and we couldn't get past. After we'd detoured out of our way I mumbled to myself 'Honestly, could you move any slower Goliath?'
Barbie heard me, gasped and told me off for being mean. As you may have guessed, she found this out of character for me.

I've also noticed that when it comes to the native population of Australia (and I'm sure calling them 'natives' isn't exactly PC) I've found myself becoming more and more cynical. When I worked in my last job I'd see a young Aboriginal girl walk in wearing a really nice top and I'd automatically think 'I wonder where she stole that from?'
Now I have a theory that I think this way about this particular group because almost every time I'd do a bag check as they left the store I'd find several small but valuable items shoved at the bottom of their bags.
I don't have this opinion about the whole race, I've met many upstanding citizens whose ancestors probably used to camp in what is now my backyard. It's just after a while the actions of a few really start to reflect badly on the rest of a group.

I guess in such a politically correct society any little thing I do I find myself over-evaluating. I'm just glad that I have a circle of friends who are probably just as un-PC as I am and don't get all huffy when I say something that I really shouldn't. And if any of you do, then you're probably hanging about with the wrong crowd.

Teapotty goodness

I was chatting to Boo the other morning on msn and I told her about how I got one of those tea-for-one teapots. I think they're awfully cute plus it was on sale! How could I resist such a bargain? Christian doesn't quite grasp the concept, saying if I want tea for one, I should just use a teabag. Christian as you may have figured, doesn't drink tea. I got a photo of my teapot for you all to admire.

Ok, go ahead, admire away :)



Boo also asked me what plans I had for the weekend. I told her I was going up to my Mums' to drop some stuff off, then I was going to soccer to watch the boys play and then I was going to go for a big walk around the river with Barb. I was instructed to take my trusty camera along with me to capture my day.

I wanted to try and get a photo of the scenery on the drive up to my Mums' as she lives in the hills just down the road from where I used to live. Problem was, it was just me in the car at the time. This is my one handed attempt whilst driving at taking a good photo.

Thankfully I didn't pass any cops as I'm sure they place photography while driving in the same category as using a mobile phone while driving. I got to Mums' in one piece and we had a cup of tea and a chat. I took a photo of her pond for you all and also of the hippo that spits water into the pond. I guess if I was a hippo with a tube shoved up my arse, I'd most likely spit water too.


There were some baby maggies playing up the back and I tried to get close enough to get a good photo. The maggies there are really quite tame as my Mum feeds them a lot (they'll come right up to the back door and even into the house if they can get in to sqwark at her to feed them) but with the babies they weren't as trusting and so this is as close as I could get. One of them kept rolling over onto his back, almost as a dog would and playing dead. It was quite funny.


Alas, after I left Mums' I failed miserably at my appointed task. I did go to soccer but I didn't really feel quite comfortable taking photos of the guys as most of them I don't really know very well. Mike was there ( a nice surprise as I thought he was away for the weekend) and I've posted photos of him on here before, and you've all seen photos of Christian so I didn't think you'd be missing out all that much. Especially Super Intelligent Hunky Sex God Brother Mike and Acci who I'm sure don't particularly want to see photos of sexy blokes anyway.
While I was at soccer I had a good read of the Thai Chi Times (I think it was called anyway). There was a wonderful piece in there written by someone called Smerk, no idea who that could be ;)

I also didn't end up going for a walk along the river as Barb pulled out on me as it was going to be just too late. Instead I dragged my dogs around the neighbourhood and unfortunately with a leash in both hands and a rocket on the end of each, it's a tad difficult to take photos.

Perhaps next time I shall be more successful. But you got to see my teapot and really, that's what's important eh?