Edinburgh photos!

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

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

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

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

The ever lovely Arthur's Seat.

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

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


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

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

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

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

Hush, the White Rabbit is sleeping!

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

Do you think they would honour this?

I love wolfies :D

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

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

Horsey!


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

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

Up above the world so high...

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

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

Evil King Zeph!No! Don't jump!

Boo!

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.

'Insert humourous title here'

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND SHAKE YOUR BUM!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Going on a trip!

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

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

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

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

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