I've been pinged by Mikey! Thankfully he knows just how clueless I am when it comes to the interweb and so he emailed me to let me know he'd tagged me.
Bless him.
So now I have to come up with a list of stuff I couldn't live without.
I'm following everyone else's lead on this and keeping it to materialistic stuff, not people, since my list of people I couldn't live without could be a tad incriminating ;-)
1) My bag. I won't go as far to call it a 'handbag' as that invokes images of pretty, quaint little things that come from expensive shops and are used by ladies. Mine is a satchel bag, it's red, covered in big black spiders and goes everywhere with me. It's contents include: my purse, puffers (Ventolin and Seretide), comb, contact solution and eyedrops, body spray, lip balm, tissues, phone, house keys, car keys, work keys, sunnies, antihistemines, girlie stuff for that time of the month and my camera.
And it's not even a huge bag.
Needless to say, it has almost everything I need to survive in it.
2) Mentioned above but important enough by itself is my mobile phone. Once I thought people were silly to rely on such a contraption but I must admit I have succumbed to it's charms and now panic slightly whenever I leave home and realise I don't have my phone. Whatever would I do if I broke down? Or if someone needed to contact me? Oh good Lord, how did anyone survive ten years ago???
3) My puter. Christian finally gave in to my nagging several years ago and built me a computer out of spare parts he had laying around and a monitor he nicked from the rubbish at work. It's gone through a few upgrades since then (when he got his 22 inch widescreen monitor I got his old one, yay me!), and the background is Skeleton Cow from Edinburgh, and I absolutely love it. It's my link to the outside world, I get up in the morning and as I have brekkie I chat to Boo and Mouse on msn, check my email to see who loves me, see what new shoe spam has cropped up on MoH and catch up on all numerous blogs I read.
4) My car. Not just because of the shear distances that need to be traversed in this part of the world and that our public transport system sucks, but because I adore my car. She's a little red Corolla GTi, 1.6L, twincam, 4AGE and she rocks. She's got an after-market exhaust that makes her sound grunty, but not too grunty and she's rather zippy.
5) My jewellery. I'm not a huge jewellery wearer but the items I wear are extremely sentimental to me. Obviously I have my wedding and engagement rings which I just adore. The engagement ring isn't the one Christian proposed with as many years ago the sapphire in the centre came loose and I lost it. Needless to say I was devastated (I think I cried for three straight days) and I originally didn't like the one he bought me as a replacement. However I have come to love it and now would die if anything were to happen to it.
I also have the necklace and pendant that Christian bought me back from England when he went travelling. It's a Celtic symbol with an amber stone in the middle and although he's given me many other pendants throughout the years, this is the one that I wear almost constantly.
My other treasured jewellery is the wolf earrings and bracelet set that my sister Barb bought for me for my birthday a few years back. As you all know, I love wolves and it was the perfect gift for me.
Right, now I've been told I have to tag five other people who must blog about the stuff they can't live without.
Boo - My pseudo lesbian adopted half soul sister from Scotland.
Mouse - The person my husband has most reason to be worried/jealous about.
Smerk - The magic dragon who lives by the sea.
MadCarlotta - One of my newest friends who I still have much to learn.
OppieJoe - Always there with the hugs when I need them.
I look forward to it guys.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Shocking!
Wow, what a weekend!
Ok, first of all, since I've just finished it, Harry Potter.
Oh my God!
Wow, is about all I can say. I won't give it away for those of you who haven't finished it, that's just not fair, but I do want to say beware, she really does kill off lots of our favourite characters. I was bawling my eyes out, absolutely bawling.
But it was an amazing book, I loved it. I'm so sad that it's over.
Right, the other shocker of the weekend was Collar and Cuffs, the male strip show I went to as our farewell do for Rachael at work.
Now, as most of you are aware by now, I'm not exactly a prude. I'm not easily shocked by much, I like to have a good laugh. My older sister actually thinks the way I act is 'disgraceful', so really, I'm sure general opinion would have it that I'd be one of those women up the front, screaming and groping...
Let's just say I have never blushed so much in my entire life!
I don't know if it was because the group of ladies I was with were much more reserved than I am and their influence was rubbing off on me (I can't believe I've just used the word 'rubbing' in a post about strippers...lol) but I felt like a really sleaze! I tried to look everywhere but at the men! I felt like I had reduced them to something cheap and nasty. How rude of me to make them degrade themselves all for my entertainment! It was really odd! Not at all like my usual self.
Lastly, I had a very pleasant surprise last night when Christian found out by way of the interweb, Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule is going to be made into a mini series directed by Sam Raimi! Yay! (this is actually really old news but we hadn't heard it yet...)
For years we've said it would make such a great movie, we've debated over which actor would best represent the characters, how they would portray the magic sequences (how do you get thunder with no sound to come across on screen?) and other generally nerdy discussions regarding it.
So we are very excited about that!
And that's about it for now. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and sob into my pillow a little more!
Ok, first of all, since I've just finished it, Harry Potter.
Oh my God!
Wow, is about all I can say. I won't give it away for those of you who haven't finished it, that's just not fair, but I do want to say beware, she really does kill off lots of our favourite characters. I was bawling my eyes out, absolutely bawling.
But it was an amazing book, I loved it. I'm so sad that it's over.
Right, the other shocker of the weekend was Collar and Cuffs, the male strip show I went to as our farewell do for Rachael at work.
Now, as most of you are aware by now, I'm not exactly a prude. I'm not easily shocked by much, I like to have a good laugh. My older sister actually thinks the way I act is 'disgraceful', so really, I'm sure general opinion would have it that I'd be one of those women up the front, screaming and groping...
Let's just say I have never blushed so much in my entire life!
I don't know if it was because the group of ladies I was with were much more reserved than I am and their influence was rubbing off on me (I can't believe I've just used the word 'rubbing' in a post about strippers...lol) but I felt like a really sleaze! I tried to look everywhere but at the men! I felt like I had reduced them to something cheap and nasty. How rude of me to make them degrade themselves all for my entertainment! It was really odd! Not at all like my usual self.
Lastly, I had a very pleasant surprise last night when Christian found out by way of the interweb, Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule is going to be made into a mini series directed by Sam Raimi! Yay! (this is actually really old news but we hadn't heard it yet...)
For years we've said it would make such a great movie, we've debated over which actor would best represent the characters, how they would portray the magic sequences (how do you get thunder with no sound to come across on screen?) and other generally nerdy discussions regarding it.
So we are very excited about that!
And that's about it for now. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and sob into my pillow a little more!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Pure blond?
While I'm not the dumbest creature to ever have walked this earth, I am the first to confess that I am far, far from the smartest person around.
Let's say that you'd never have me down as your phone-a-friend.
Christian is an extremely intelligent person, he knows something about everything and even if he doesn't know the answer to a question, he can kind of work out the general concept or theory behind it. And he's usually right.
He would be someone you'd have down as your phone-a-friend.
Every now and then I will do something, or say something and I see a look in Christian's eyes that I'm pretty sure means he's thinking 'Oh God, what on Earth did I marry her for???'.
I honestly think that he has moments when he can't comprehend how we can possibly be meant for each other. Opposites attract to a degree but on occasion I can be really really daft.
Take for instance something that happened last Saturday.
I had been out shoe shopping with Kat (unfortunately shoe stores in this part of the civilised world do not stock pretty black heels for fat German feet so it wasn't a successful shopping day, but I digress) when we called into an Op Shop on the way back to the car. Kat went to look for a cardy and I wandered up to the back to have a look at the books. One immediately caught my eye and I picked it up. It was called Man or Mouse by Matt Whyman and it's about a man, who after failing to win the affections of a girl in real life, heads into the shady world of internet chat rooms in a bid to woo her there.
There's a bit on the blurb that goes something like this : The story of a man and his mouse, destined to find his true love even if it means looking where he'd never ventured (Jo now has the book so I can't quote it for you but I'm sure you get the drift).
So, I read that, my brain processed it, made a mental picture of the story for future reference and filed it away, I paid for the book and went on my merry way. Later on I got home and was showing my beloved the several books I'd purchased that day when in my head the little mental picture I had suddenly burst.
I had been thinking of a man sitting on his computer with his pet mouse for company while he looked for love. Honest to God, with a little cage and everything.
Shall I pause here while you pick yourself up off the floor? Seriously, you can stop laughing at me now...
Anyway, I could have kept this thought to myself, hidden away deep in my shame, no one would ever be the wiser. Instead, I blurt this thought out to Mr Intellectual and almost instantly I see that look. Christian then goes on to explain, as if to a four year old, that it means a computer mouse.
Yup, a huh, I kind of figured that, when the mental picture burst!!!
Anyway, so apart from reinforcing any doubts my hubby has regarding our match made in heaven, I've also just shared this piece of incriminating evidence with you lot, therefore proving that I'm not the smartest person on Earth. I mean, come on, who else would do something that dumb and then think 'I might just share this with a worldwide audience'.
Only me.
But that's why you love me, isn't it?
Let's say that you'd never have me down as your phone-a-friend.
Christian is an extremely intelligent person, he knows something about everything and even if he doesn't know the answer to a question, he can kind of work out the general concept or theory behind it. And he's usually right.
He would be someone you'd have down as your phone-a-friend.
Every now and then I will do something, or say something and I see a look in Christian's eyes that I'm pretty sure means he's thinking 'Oh God, what on Earth did I marry her for???'.
I honestly think that he has moments when he can't comprehend how we can possibly be meant for each other. Opposites attract to a degree but on occasion I can be really really daft.
Take for instance something that happened last Saturday.
I had been out shoe shopping with Kat (unfortunately shoe stores in this part of the civilised world do not stock pretty black heels for fat German feet so it wasn't a successful shopping day, but I digress) when we called into an Op Shop on the way back to the car. Kat went to look for a cardy and I wandered up to the back to have a look at the books. One immediately caught my eye and I picked it up. It was called Man or Mouse by Matt Whyman and it's about a man, who after failing to win the affections of a girl in real life, heads into the shady world of internet chat rooms in a bid to woo her there.
There's a bit on the blurb that goes something like this : The story of a man and his mouse, destined to find his true love even if it means looking where he'd never ventured (Jo now has the book so I can't quote it for you but I'm sure you get the drift).
So, I read that, my brain processed it, made a mental picture of the story for future reference and filed it away, I paid for the book and went on my merry way. Later on I got home and was showing my beloved the several books I'd purchased that day when in my head the little mental picture I had suddenly burst.
I had been thinking of a man sitting on his computer with his pet mouse for company while he looked for love. Honest to God, with a little cage and everything.
Shall I pause here while you pick yourself up off the floor? Seriously, you can stop laughing at me now...
Anyway, I could have kept this thought to myself, hidden away deep in my shame, no one would ever be the wiser. Instead, I blurt this thought out to Mr Intellectual and almost instantly I see that look. Christian then goes on to explain, as if to a four year old, that it means a computer mouse.
Yup, a huh, I kind of figured that, when the mental picture burst!!!
Anyway, so apart from reinforcing any doubts my hubby has regarding our match made in heaven, I've also just shared this piece of incriminating evidence with you lot, therefore proving that I'm not the smartest person on Earth. I mean, come on, who else would do something that dumb and then think 'I might just share this with a worldwide audience'.
Only me.
But that's why you love me, isn't it?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Happy Birthday Chatterbox!
Last weekend both Christian and Barb had their birthday (do you know how many headaches a shared birthday causes???) and we went out Go Karting and to dinner to help them celebrate.
Christian won the night at Go Karting (as he usually does) and got a very nice trophy for his efforts. My niece Darcie thinks it was 'Birthday Luck' (gotta love the brutal honesty of children) but I tried to explain that Christian wins everytime he drives a Go Kart so there wasn't much luck involved at all. But he had a great time and everyone seemed to have fun (except for Barb who had a slight mental breakdown regarding getting the kids to Mum but that worked out ok in the end).
After dinner we all came back to our place to have a few drinks and I was surprised to find Christian partaking in the revelry. Christian may have one drink occasionally but that's all he has. I've never seen him drunk as the only time he's been drunk was his bucks night and I obviously wasn't there. But he decided to have a few and his drink of choice was Pulse (one of those energy drinks with vodka).
I'm a bit hesitant to give all the credit to the alcohol as it could have been the caffeine (Christian also never consumes anything with caffeine in it), but after a couple of drinks he got rather ... different.
Barb describes Christian as 'The Iceman' as she claims he never shows emotions and never speaks. I must admit that in company, it takes a lot to get Christian talking and even then he's quite reserved, except for his cutting sarcasm. But once you get a few drinks in him, you can't shut him up!
I knew it was going to be fun when he swaggers outside, gives me the thumbs up and announces 'I'm Pulsed!'
Man is he a funny bugger when he's drunk! I've told him that he'll be drinking with me on more occasions as I spent most of the night laughing harder than usual. And the next day I had so many people message me commenting on how much of chatterbox Christian was and how good it was.
I think everyone got to see a different side of him.
Barb also had a good time but she didn't drink. She tried but after one sip gave it up as a lost cause as she had a bit of a bender in Kal a while back and now can't even look at a bottle of booze without feeling ill. Mum had taken the kids so it was nice for her and Mike to just sit back and relax. They didn't stay too long past midnight however since with three kids getting sleep is a bit of a novelty. Best take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself!
Oh, and also over the weekend, Mike (other Mike) and I swapped cars like we'd said we'd do a few weeks back. Before we left for Go Karting we had a bit of time to kill so I suggested he take my car for a spin. It's the first Corolla he's ever driven and he seemed to like it. When we got back he offered to let me drive his GTR to Wanneroo where the Go Karting track was and after my initial panic, I accepted his offer.
I've never driven a four wheel drive before or a turbo (the GTR is a twin turbo just to add to my panic) so it was very different to my little car. I was very worried I was going to break something but as Mike pointed out, his clutch is pretty much stuffed and if I broke it, it would just be putting it out of its misery.
So I drove out there and didn't break anything which was good, and then I also drove it back and had heaps of fun.
We also had a really good chat and, unlike Christian, who is such a natural at driving a car that he doesn't understand where I'm coming from, Mike actually got what I was saying. For example, I've never been able to heel-toe so he told me about how he learnt to do it and made me feel a bit better about no being able to do it and also a little more confident to give it a go. We also said that when summer comes we should take out cars down to the drags so we can see the time difference between my car and Christians' (his is almost the same but is super charged) and I found that Mike didn't laugh when I said the only thing stopping me from doing that was I can't do a burn out and I'm scared I'll make a fool of myself when I'm warming up my tyres. Apparently he felt exactly the same way with his old car and that's one of the pluses with this one - 4WD means you don't have to.
So it's been good to have someone to chat to about crap like this who a) doesn't laugh at me and think I'm silly or b) like you lot, are falling asleep while I talk about it ;-)
Anyway, I'll leave it at about that for now. Nothing else too exciting has happened except for going to see Transformers (that movie rocked!).
I'll catch you guys around later!
Christian won the night at Go Karting (as he usually does) and got a very nice trophy for his efforts. My niece Darcie thinks it was 'Birthday Luck' (gotta love the brutal honesty of children) but I tried to explain that Christian wins everytime he drives a Go Kart so there wasn't much luck involved at all. But he had a great time and everyone seemed to have fun (except for Barb who had a slight mental breakdown regarding getting the kids to Mum but that worked out ok in the end).
After dinner we all came back to our place to have a few drinks and I was surprised to find Christian partaking in the revelry. Christian may have one drink occasionally but that's all he has. I've never seen him drunk as the only time he's been drunk was his bucks night and I obviously wasn't there. But he decided to have a few and his drink of choice was Pulse (one of those energy drinks with vodka).
I'm a bit hesitant to give all the credit to the alcohol as it could have been the caffeine (Christian also never consumes anything with caffeine in it), but after a couple of drinks he got rather ... different.
Barb describes Christian as 'The Iceman' as she claims he never shows emotions and never speaks. I must admit that in company, it takes a lot to get Christian talking and even then he's quite reserved, except for his cutting sarcasm. But once you get a few drinks in him, you can't shut him up!
I knew it was going to be fun when he swaggers outside, gives me the thumbs up and announces 'I'm Pulsed!'
Man is he a funny bugger when he's drunk! I've told him that he'll be drinking with me on more occasions as I spent most of the night laughing harder than usual. And the next day I had so many people message me commenting on how much of chatterbox Christian was and how good it was.
I think everyone got to see a different side of him.
Barb also had a good time but she didn't drink. She tried but after one sip gave it up as a lost cause as she had a bit of a bender in Kal a while back and now can't even look at a bottle of booze without feeling ill. Mum had taken the kids so it was nice for her and Mike to just sit back and relax. They didn't stay too long past midnight however since with three kids getting sleep is a bit of a novelty. Best take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself!
Oh, and also over the weekend, Mike (other Mike) and I swapped cars like we'd said we'd do a few weeks back. Before we left for Go Karting we had a bit of time to kill so I suggested he take my car for a spin. It's the first Corolla he's ever driven and he seemed to like it. When we got back he offered to let me drive his GTR to Wanneroo where the Go Karting track was and after my initial panic, I accepted his offer.
I've never driven a four wheel drive before or a turbo (the GTR is a twin turbo just to add to my panic) so it was very different to my little car. I was very worried I was going to break something but as Mike pointed out, his clutch is pretty much stuffed and if I broke it, it would just be putting it out of its misery.
So I drove out there and didn't break anything which was good, and then I also drove it back and had heaps of fun.
We also had a really good chat and, unlike Christian, who is such a natural at driving a car that he doesn't understand where I'm coming from, Mike actually got what I was saying. For example, I've never been able to heel-toe so he told me about how he learnt to do it and made me feel a bit better about no being able to do it and also a little more confident to give it a go. We also said that when summer comes we should take out cars down to the drags so we can see the time difference between my car and Christians' (his is almost the same but is super charged) and I found that Mike didn't laugh when I said the only thing stopping me from doing that was I can't do a burn out and I'm scared I'll make a fool of myself when I'm warming up my tyres. Apparently he felt exactly the same way with his old car and that's one of the pluses with this one - 4WD means you don't have to.
So it's been good to have someone to chat to about crap like this who a) doesn't laugh at me and think I'm silly or b) like you lot, are falling asleep while I talk about it ;-)
Anyway, I'll leave it at about that for now. Nothing else too exciting has happened except for going to see Transformers (that movie rocked!).
I'll catch you guys around later!
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Crap, crap, crap
Well, apart from only a few things, everything has been rather shite lately.
It's been the end of the financial year so work has been really flat out, there's so much shit going on over at MoH that I'm about to wash my hands with the whole thing, Boo and Ro are going away on holiday so for the next two weeks I won't have anyone to chat to on msn and we've finally been getting some rain (which is a big yay) but it means that I haven't been able to get out and about to take photos of Bimpkin. I'm running out of time to do that as Alex gets back in two weeks and I need to have the gnome arrive in time. I have a couple of pics so maybe I'll have to leave it at that and hopefully Bimpkin will make his way back to Perth if Smerk volunteers to be a host...
Anyway, I'll not go on and on about all the crap that's been happening as that doesn't make for a fun post so I'll fill you in on the good stuff.
Work-wise I've been told I've got a permanent place at my current branch which is what I was hoping for. I really do love it there and it's much better off for me targets wise. It will be a challenge however as there are so many new entrants that there's not a lot of experience and the experienced tellers there are really lazy (on the whole) so there'll only be one or two of us who carry the workload. But I can handle that...
I've had a few late nights recently (again) which meant I didn't get online to say bye to Boo and Ro before they left for Wales as I've been sleeping in a bit longer than normal. Wednesday we had soccer, Thursday we went and saw Rise of the Silver Surfer (as Mike so aptly put it 'I feel dumber for watching it, but it was rather entertaining'). On Friday I went to the pub after work for farewell drinks as the Team Leader has left. I got felt up by Mr Ugly Universe '06 while standing at the bar. I was too shocked to do anything but glare and move as far away as possible but in hindsight I would have loved to have slapped the bastard. But it was a first for me as no one's ever attempted to pick me up before so I'll hopefully learn from experience.
After the pub Christian and I went round to Richard's workshop again so he could do some tuning on his Levin. I spent most of the night helping Mike change his dash lights to coloured LEDs. We had a choice of blue, red and white globes so we spent about an hour just moving them around and seeing what all the effects looked like with mixing the globes. Eventually we decided on just the blue ones and it looks really good.
Yesterday, being the last Saturday of the month, was the night Minimal Exposure play at the Velvet Lounge (our mates Lachlan and Adrian who DJ) so Christian and I made plans to go see them. However, last minute, as I knew he would, Christian piked on me, saying he wasn't feeling up to another late night out. So I scrapped the plans to have a few drinks, donned my Designated Driver hat and swung by to pick Mike and Richard up on my way through.
It was a really good night, even though Lachlan was too sick to mix so he stayed home but Adrian was there and he was really good.
It was so packed there, as there was a US DJ who was on before ME as a guest performer, much busier than I've seen it before. Mel and her boyfriend Jann were there too, so it saw all five of us trying to squish onto one couch. Mel sat on Jann's lap, Richard was next to Jann, then me and then Mike made himself very comfortable by trying to squash me to death. By the end of the night pretty much everyone there had sat on me, or fallen on me, or lay on top of me, until I finally asked if I had suddenly become a couch.
Now I am known as Mrs Couch.
*sigh*
But it was heaps of fun, we had a lot of laughs during the night. At two thirty we headed off home, discovering on the way that my rev limiter kicks in at 8000 rpm. It wasn't by accident either, Mike wanted to know so when I dropped them off, my car was boycotted to satisfy his curiosity. I'm sure he'll regret that as we've promised to switch cars one day and his GTR will be at my mercy, muhahahahahahahahahah.
I can't wait actually, although I am just slightly scared of driving his car as it's quite a bit more powerful than anything I've actually driven...but it should be fun nonetheless!
And that's about it for now. Sorry, another boring post about cars and crap, I'll try and make the next one more interesting!
It's been the end of the financial year so work has been really flat out, there's so much shit going on over at MoH that I'm about to wash my hands with the whole thing, Boo and Ro are going away on holiday so for the next two weeks I won't have anyone to chat to on msn and we've finally been getting some rain (which is a big yay) but it means that I haven't been able to get out and about to take photos of Bimpkin. I'm running out of time to do that as Alex gets back in two weeks and I need to have the gnome arrive in time. I have a couple of pics so maybe I'll have to leave it at that and hopefully Bimpkin will make his way back to Perth if Smerk volunteers to be a host...
Anyway, I'll not go on and on about all the crap that's been happening as that doesn't make for a fun post so I'll fill you in on the good stuff.
Work-wise I've been told I've got a permanent place at my current branch which is what I was hoping for. I really do love it there and it's much better off for me targets wise. It will be a challenge however as there are so many new entrants that there's not a lot of experience and the experienced tellers there are really lazy (on the whole) so there'll only be one or two of us who carry the workload. But I can handle that...
I've had a few late nights recently (again) which meant I didn't get online to say bye to Boo and Ro before they left for Wales as I've been sleeping in a bit longer than normal. Wednesday we had soccer, Thursday we went and saw Rise of the Silver Surfer (as Mike so aptly put it 'I feel dumber for watching it, but it was rather entertaining'). On Friday I went to the pub after work for farewell drinks as the Team Leader has left. I got felt up by Mr Ugly Universe '06 while standing at the bar. I was too shocked to do anything but glare and move as far away as possible but in hindsight I would have loved to have slapped the bastard. But it was a first for me as no one's ever attempted to pick me up before so I'll hopefully learn from experience.
After the pub Christian and I went round to Richard's workshop again so he could do some tuning on his Levin. I spent most of the night helping Mike change his dash lights to coloured LEDs. We had a choice of blue, red and white globes so we spent about an hour just moving them around and seeing what all the effects looked like with mixing the globes. Eventually we decided on just the blue ones and it looks really good.
Yesterday, being the last Saturday of the month, was the night Minimal Exposure play at the Velvet Lounge (our mates Lachlan and Adrian who DJ) so Christian and I made plans to go see them. However, last minute, as I knew he would, Christian piked on me, saying he wasn't feeling up to another late night out. So I scrapped the plans to have a few drinks, donned my Designated Driver hat and swung by to pick Mike and Richard up on my way through.
It was a really good night, even though Lachlan was too sick to mix so he stayed home but Adrian was there and he was really good.
It was so packed there, as there was a US DJ who was on before ME as a guest performer, much busier than I've seen it before. Mel and her boyfriend Jann were there too, so it saw all five of us trying to squish onto one couch. Mel sat on Jann's lap, Richard was next to Jann, then me and then Mike made himself very comfortable by trying to squash me to death. By the end of the night pretty much everyone there had sat on me, or fallen on me, or lay on top of me, until I finally asked if I had suddenly become a couch.
Now I am known as Mrs Couch.
*sigh*
But it was heaps of fun, we had a lot of laughs during the night. At two thirty we headed off home, discovering on the way that my rev limiter kicks in at 8000 rpm. It wasn't by accident either, Mike wanted to know so when I dropped them off, my car was boycotted to satisfy his curiosity. I'm sure he'll regret that as we've promised to switch cars one day and his GTR will be at my mercy, muhahahahahahahahahah.
I can't wait actually, although I am just slightly scared of driving his car as it's quite a bit more powerful than anything I've actually driven...but it should be fun nonetheless!
And that's about it for now. Sorry, another boring post about cars and crap, I'll try and make the next one more interesting!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Runs in the family
Yonks ago last year, I posted about the times when I've stopped to help out people who have been having car problems and ranted a bit about how it doesn't seem to be the norm these days for people to play the good Samaritan.
Well, last week my sister Barb was taking the kids for a drive so they could get out of the house for a bit. She was heading in the general direction of Jacoby Park, a really nice park in Mundaring that has been closed for about a year now due to roadworks but has recently opened again.
She's driving up the hill (Greenmount Hill to be precise but for anyone living in the general Mundaring area it's 'The Hill') when she saw a car broken down and two ladies standing next to it.
So she pulls over and asks if she can help in anyway or make a call. The older of the two women, who was 72 , was in tears and explained they've come up from Mandurah (about an hour away) so her daughter in law can visit her husband who is spending a little time in Acacia, the minimun security prison in Wooroloo. The car has completely seized up and it looks like she won't be able to visit.
So Barb says she's got a spare seat and if the DIL doesn't mind a twenty minute drive with three kids, she'd be more than happy to drive her to Acacia. So they set off and after Barb has dropped her off, she returned to stay with the Mother in Law while she waits for the RAC and her hubby to arrive.
Once help has come, she tries to give Barb some petrol money, which Barb refuses to accept saying she's sure this lady would have stopped to help if she'd seen Barb broken down with three kids. After some friendly arguing (not quite Mrs Doyle vs Mrs Dineen, but close) Barb agrees to give the lady her address so she can receive a thankyou card.
Yesterday Barb receives in the mail a Happy Feet dvd for the kids, a real pearl necklace and $20 for petrol along with a letter saying it was the kindest act anyone has ever performed for this lady (I'm sorry, Barb did tell me her name but I've forgotten it...).
Barb was in tears while she was reading it and couldn't believe her generosity. After all, Barb never expected anything in return.
I just thought this was a really nice story, it out a smile on my face and I hope it does for you guys too.
:)
Well, last week my sister Barb was taking the kids for a drive so they could get out of the house for a bit. She was heading in the general direction of Jacoby Park, a really nice park in Mundaring that has been closed for about a year now due to roadworks but has recently opened again.
She's driving up the hill (Greenmount Hill to be precise but for anyone living in the general Mundaring area it's 'The Hill') when she saw a car broken down and two ladies standing next to it.
So she pulls over and asks if she can help in anyway or make a call. The older of the two women, who was 72 , was in tears and explained they've come up from Mandurah (about an hour away) so her daughter in law can visit her husband who is spending a little time in Acacia, the minimun security prison in Wooroloo. The car has completely seized up and it looks like she won't be able to visit.
So Barb says she's got a spare seat and if the DIL doesn't mind a twenty minute drive with three kids, she'd be more than happy to drive her to Acacia. So they set off and after Barb has dropped her off, she returned to stay with the Mother in Law while she waits for the RAC and her hubby to arrive.
Once help has come, she tries to give Barb some petrol money, which Barb refuses to accept saying she's sure this lady would have stopped to help if she'd seen Barb broken down with three kids. After some friendly arguing (not quite Mrs Doyle vs Mrs Dineen, but close) Barb agrees to give the lady her address so she can receive a thankyou card.
Yesterday Barb receives in the mail a Happy Feet dvd for the kids, a real pearl necklace and $20 for petrol along with a letter saying it was the kindest act anyone has ever performed for this lady (I'm sorry, Barb did tell me her name but I've forgotten it...).
Barb was in tears while she was reading it and couldn't believe her generosity. After all, Barb never expected anything in return.
I just thought this was a really nice story, it out a smile on my face and I hope it does for you guys too.
:)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Late nights
*yawn*
I have been so tired lately! I put it down to too many late nights in a row.
Last Saturday I didn't get to bed till the wee hours of the morning (see previous post for details), then on Sunday night we went out for Kat's birthday to a Belgium pub in the city. Originally Kat was supposed to go and see a band play in Freo but she couldn't get tickets so opted for a few quiet drinks instead. It was a good night though but some of the beers looked rather potent. A couple of the guys tried one of them that was 11.5% but I wasn't game (apart from the fact that I don't like beer). I chose not to drink as I thought I'd already had enough that weekend.
On Monday I went out again with Kat, this time for a family birthday dinner at The Cinnamon Club in Leederville, her favourite Indian restaurant. It was a really good night and I had heaps of fun, plus I actually got to give Kat her pressie, an Orchid that was too big to cart along to the pub.
Then last night Mike had organised a paintballing night so I went along to watch.
I don't paintball.
I don't find getting injured fun. Within the first round Christian had split his knuckle open from a hand hit and by the end of the night was bleeding from about four places and had numerous welts, Mel had a shocker of a bruise already forming on her arm and everyone else was showing similar injuries. I welt enough as it is, I don't need to go looking for trouble!
There was an observation deck upstairs so I spent most of the night up there watching and about half way through Kat came to find me as she'd run out of ammo and couldn't be bothered playing anymore. The observation deck (well, really it was a function room with big windows overlooking the game area) was in darkness and there wasn't really any great lighting on the stairs so it was nice to have company up there as it was a bit creepy.
The best part about the whole complex was the big signs on almost every door that read 'No Escape'. Obviously they were complying with fire safety regulations but it was rather funny especially the ones of the door to the loos. Kat and I couldn't resist getting a photo of the one of the gents.
The boys have a bye this week with soccer so tonight I'm planning on having an early night. I went to the gym for a bit longer than I normally do and I've walked the dogs and then I'm not planning on doing much else after I've made dinner. Maybe I'll watch a bit of Eddie Izzard...
Oh, and speaking of the gym and whatnot, I've been going really well with the diet and exercise thing. I've lost almost 10kgs now and I think it's starting to be noticeable. At least I'm not looking at photos and going 'Ewww, they'll never see the light of day!'.
So, I'm very proud of myself!
That's about it for now guys. I'll post again when something vaguely exciting happens!
I have been so tired lately! I put it down to too many late nights in a row.
Last Saturday I didn't get to bed till the wee hours of the morning (see previous post for details), then on Sunday night we went out for Kat's birthday to a Belgium pub in the city. Originally Kat was supposed to go and see a band play in Freo but she couldn't get tickets so opted for a few quiet drinks instead. It was a good night though but some of the beers looked rather potent. A couple of the guys tried one of them that was 11.5% but I wasn't game (apart from the fact that I don't like beer). I chose not to drink as I thought I'd already had enough that weekend.
On Monday I went out again with Kat, this time for a family birthday dinner at The Cinnamon Club in Leederville, her favourite Indian restaurant. It was a really good night and I had heaps of fun, plus I actually got to give Kat her pressie, an Orchid that was too big to cart along to the pub.
Then last night Mike had organised a paintballing night so I went along to watch.
I don't paintball.
I don't find getting injured fun. Within the first round Christian had split his knuckle open from a hand hit and by the end of the night was bleeding from about four places and had numerous welts, Mel had a shocker of a bruise already forming on her arm and everyone else was showing similar injuries. I welt enough as it is, I don't need to go looking for trouble!
There was an observation deck upstairs so I spent most of the night up there watching and about half way through Kat came to find me as she'd run out of ammo and couldn't be bothered playing anymore. The observation deck (well, really it was a function room with big windows overlooking the game area) was in darkness and there wasn't really any great lighting on the stairs so it was nice to have company up there as it was a bit creepy.
The best part about the whole complex was the big signs on almost every door that read 'No Escape'. Obviously they were complying with fire safety regulations but it was rather funny especially the ones of the door to the loos. Kat and I couldn't resist getting a photo of the one of the gents.
The boys have a bye this week with soccer so tonight I'm planning on having an early night. I went to the gym for a bit longer than I normally do and I've walked the dogs and then I'm not planning on doing much else after I've made dinner. Maybe I'll watch a bit of Eddie Izzard...
Oh, and speaking of the gym and whatnot, I've been going really well with the diet and exercise thing. I've lost almost 10kgs now and I think it's starting to be noticeable. At least I'm not looking at photos and going 'Ewww, they'll never see the light of day!'.
So, I'm very proud of myself!
That's about it for now guys. I'll post again when something vaguely exciting happens!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Here you go, Ro
Ever since my new found ability to get inebriated, I've been promising Ro photos of a drunk Nettie. I've yet to deliver on that promise as I've always gotten distracted when I'm out and about and just plain forget to take photos.
Well, last night we had a thing at our place and I managed to get rather drunk. I seem to have developed a knack for it actually. I also managed to remember to take photos.
So Ro, here they are babe, just for you.
This is Mel and I, me after about 6 Smirnoff's and Mel after almost a full bottle of wine. We were having a competition to see who went the most red and I think I won. But I had so much fun, Mel is just such a blast to hang out with. We laughed the entire night.
We hadn't seen Jason since we played mini golf with him and so we were really excited when he said he'd be able to make it. He spent most of the night playing wii with Christian and laughing hysterically at things that weren't that funny. He hadn't been drinking so God knows what he found so funny.
Maybe we're just funny people?
He hadn't seen Charlie goes to Candy Mountain or Dr Tran so we enlightened him. He found them to be funny too, but then again, so do most people.
We also played thumb wars quite a bit, and he beat me every darn time. I think all that time he's been spending at the gym has been dedicated to strengthening his thumb muscles!
Another person I've found myself getting drunk with is Mike. Actually, every time I've been drunk both Mel and Mike have been there. I think maybe they're bad influences on me...anyway, Mike is also a heap of fun to have a few drinks with.
I did have my hair in pigtails earlier in the night but Mike decided twirl them around as fast as he could until it pissed me off and I punched him. Didn't work, I at odd times have the patience of a saint and so he pulled them out in disgust. When I'd done them though my hair was wet so I had a huge kink in my hair when it came down that looks a bit funny. Please feel free to laugh amongst yourselves about it ;-)
This isn't the best photo of him but it's the only one we managed to get with both our heads in the frame, courtesy of Jason. Everytime we tried to do the hold-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-click thing, we'd miss.
Christian avoided all my attempts of getting a photo of him but eventually Mike managed to pin him down so I could get one. The fact that my hubby only looks amused and not pissed off was the icing on the cake.
Finally, for some reason or another, we'd found it highly amusing to put empty Smirnoff cartons on our heads. So of course we had to get a photo of that.
Just to embarrass ourselves.
I hope you appreciate the lengths I will go to for your entertainment :)
Mikey was there earlier on in the night but I didn't get a chance to get any pics of him as he left early to go home to help with the kiddies
So there you have it. I hope you like them Ro.
Oh, and as you can see most of the red I put through my hair has decided to wash out, leaving it kind of brown again.
*sigh*
Well, last night we had a thing at our place and I managed to get rather drunk. I seem to have developed a knack for it actually. I also managed to remember to take photos.
So Ro, here they are babe, just for you.
This is Mel and I, me after about 6 Smirnoff's and Mel after almost a full bottle of wine. We were having a competition to see who went the most red and I think I won. But I had so much fun, Mel is just such a blast to hang out with. We laughed the entire night.
We hadn't seen Jason since we played mini golf with him and so we were really excited when he said he'd be able to make it. He spent most of the night playing wii with Christian and laughing hysterically at things that weren't that funny. He hadn't been drinking so God knows what he found so funny.
Maybe we're just funny people?
He hadn't seen Charlie goes to Candy Mountain or Dr Tran so we enlightened him. He found them to be funny too, but then again, so do most people.
We also played thumb wars quite a bit, and he beat me every darn time. I think all that time he's been spending at the gym has been dedicated to strengthening his thumb muscles!
Another person I've found myself getting drunk with is Mike. Actually, every time I've been drunk both Mel and Mike have been there. I think maybe they're bad influences on me...anyway, Mike is also a heap of fun to have a few drinks with.
I did have my hair in pigtails earlier in the night but Mike decided twirl them around as fast as he could until it pissed me off and I punched him. Didn't work, I at odd times have the patience of a saint and so he pulled them out in disgust. When I'd done them though my hair was wet so I had a huge kink in my hair when it came down that looks a bit funny. Please feel free to laugh amongst yourselves about it ;-)
This isn't the best photo of him but it's the only one we managed to get with both our heads in the frame, courtesy of Jason. Everytime we tried to do the hold-the-camera-at-arms-length-and-click thing, we'd miss.
Christian avoided all my attempts of getting a photo of him but eventually Mike managed to pin him down so I could get one. The fact that my hubby only looks amused and not pissed off was the icing on the cake.
Finally, for some reason or another, we'd found it highly amusing to put empty Smirnoff cartons on our heads. So of course we had to get a photo of that.
Just to embarrass ourselves.
I hope you appreciate the lengths I will go to for your entertainment :)
Mikey was there earlier on in the night but I didn't get a chance to get any pics of him as he left early to go home to help with the kiddies
So there you have it. I hope you like them Ro.
Oh, and as you can see most of the red I put through my hair has decided to wash out, leaving it kind of brown again.
*sigh*
Monday, June 11, 2007
The plague ridden corpse
So, I've been a bit sick lately.
Well, quite sick actually for most of last week. It started with the dreaded lurgy that's going round here and quickly affected my asthma. I soldiered off to work on Wednesday and Thursday but by Thursday night I was feeling like complete shit. I couldn't go two minutes without trying to cough up a lung and was pretty miserable.
So you can imagine I wasn't too happy when Christian announced he was going out for the evening to work on his car.
I'm sure you all know me well enough by now to know that that didn't go down too well and I made sure Christian knew that. I was sick, I felt crappy and I really didn't want to be home alone. Even though my husband didn't think a draughty workshop was the best place for me to be, he must have felt some pity for me as he allowed me to tag along.
Now, I don't know about the majority of women out there but I actually rather enjoy nights like that (not the being sick part - the sitting around watching guys work on cars part). Not too sure why, but I'm quite content to sit back, watch the action and engage in conversation. I think maybe it has to do with helping my Dad out as a kid. I didn't actually do much when he was working on the car or one of his carpentry projects (hold this, fetch that, get me a cuppa) but it was more about keeping him company. I'd sit there for hours and we'd just chat about everything and nothing.
I don't seem to have grown out of that so the prospect of hanging out in a workshop instead of being home alone was quite appealing. The workshop belongs to Mike's (Brooksey) house mate Richard and they were going to be helping Christian change his fuel filter. Usually a five minute job, this turned out to be 'that job' on Christian's car that was proving to be a royal pain in the arse. There's always one thing.
The problem was that Christian couldn't actually remove the fuel filter as one nut seemed to be stuck. No matter what he did, Christian just couldn't get it off. So Richard was going to put it up on the hoist for better access.
Three hours, several different attempts to remove the nut, the fuel line half removed and a risky power saw job later, the fuel filter was free. The little sucker just didn't want to come off.
Against everyone's better judgement the boys resorted to cutting the connection between the nut and the filter with a mini saw thingy (no bloody idea what it's called but it's too small to be a saw, too different to be an angle grinder and that about exhausts my knowledge of power tool names). The fact that we had sparks flying everywhere right next to the fuel line didn't escape anyone's notice. We just chose to overlook the fact out of frustration and stand by with a fire extinguisher at the ready.
I stood about as far away as I could.
In Peru.
Only kidding.
So, the night was going well. I had actually perked up a little by then. When I first arrived I had announced that a plague ridden corpse in the corner adds to any social gathering and Mike agreed I looked like shit. I informed him that he looked just as bad given how sick he'd been and from the hacking coming from the far side of the workshop, I gathered Richard was ill too.
So I was a little surprised when both of them had lit up within five minutes of us getting there. I'm not a smoker myself but I fail to see the point of inhaling more shit into your lungs when you can't breathe as it is.
I'm not an addict though so who am I to judge???
Richard disappeared for a bit later on in the night and I heard him coughing amidst a plume of smoke and couldn't help but pass a comment about the whole thing. He turned around as asked 'Would you like some?'.
I did a double take and realised he was smoking a joint and almost freaked out.
Nice, naive Nettie doesn't do stuff like that!
I just really wasn't expecting it there of all times! Yeah sure, at a party you kind of expect it, even if you don't partake yourself but on a Thursday night while working on a car ... no, didn't see that coming. Made me a tad uncomfortable to say the least.
Anyway, about half eleven the old fuel filter was off and the guys were working on getting the car back together with the new one and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Mike offered to drive me home and normally I would have declined (I really hate putting people out, it's rude) but I said yes because I just wanted to have a sleep, plus I couldn't allow an opportunity to have a ride in the GTR pass me by. God, I love that car!
So despite how sick I was, I actually had a really good time. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it was an enjoyable evening.
And now it's time to bring this rambling post to an end.
Well, quite sick actually for most of last week. It started with the dreaded lurgy that's going round here and quickly affected my asthma. I soldiered off to work on Wednesday and Thursday but by Thursday night I was feeling like complete shit. I couldn't go two minutes without trying to cough up a lung and was pretty miserable.
So you can imagine I wasn't too happy when Christian announced he was going out for the evening to work on his car.
I'm sure you all know me well enough by now to know that that didn't go down too well and I made sure Christian knew that. I was sick, I felt crappy and I really didn't want to be home alone. Even though my husband didn't think a draughty workshop was the best place for me to be, he must have felt some pity for me as he allowed me to tag along.
Now, I don't know about the majority of women out there but I actually rather enjoy nights like that (not the being sick part - the sitting around watching guys work on cars part). Not too sure why, but I'm quite content to sit back, watch the action and engage in conversation. I think maybe it has to do with helping my Dad out as a kid. I didn't actually do much when he was working on the car or one of his carpentry projects (hold this, fetch that, get me a cuppa) but it was more about keeping him company. I'd sit there for hours and we'd just chat about everything and nothing.
I don't seem to have grown out of that so the prospect of hanging out in a workshop instead of being home alone was quite appealing. The workshop belongs to Mike's (Brooksey) house mate Richard and they were going to be helping Christian change his fuel filter. Usually a five minute job, this turned out to be 'that job' on Christian's car that was proving to be a royal pain in the arse. There's always one thing.
The problem was that Christian couldn't actually remove the fuel filter as one nut seemed to be stuck. No matter what he did, Christian just couldn't get it off. So Richard was going to put it up on the hoist for better access.
Three hours, several different attempts to remove the nut, the fuel line half removed and a risky power saw job later, the fuel filter was free. The little sucker just didn't want to come off.
Against everyone's better judgement the boys resorted to cutting the connection between the nut and the filter with a mini saw thingy (no bloody idea what it's called but it's too small to be a saw, too different to be an angle grinder and that about exhausts my knowledge of power tool names). The fact that we had sparks flying everywhere right next to the fuel line didn't escape anyone's notice. We just chose to overlook the fact out of frustration and stand by with a fire extinguisher at the ready.
I stood about as far away as I could.
In Peru.
Only kidding.
So, the night was going well. I had actually perked up a little by then. When I first arrived I had announced that a plague ridden corpse in the corner adds to any social gathering and Mike agreed I looked like shit. I informed him that he looked just as bad given how sick he'd been and from the hacking coming from the far side of the workshop, I gathered Richard was ill too.
So I was a little surprised when both of them had lit up within five minutes of us getting there. I'm not a smoker myself but I fail to see the point of inhaling more shit into your lungs when you can't breathe as it is.
I'm not an addict though so who am I to judge???
Richard disappeared for a bit later on in the night and I heard him coughing amidst a plume of smoke and couldn't help but pass a comment about the whole thing. He turned around as asked 'Would you like some?'.
I did a double take and realised he was smoking a joint and almost freaked out.
Nice, naive Nettie doesn't do stuff like that!
I just really wasn't expecting it there of all times! Yeah sure, at a party you kind of expect it, even if you don't partake yourself but on a Thursday night while working on a car ... no, didn't see that coming. Made me a tad uncomfortable to say the least.
Anyway, about half eleven the old fuel filter was off and the guys were working on getting the car back together with the new one and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Mike offered to drive me home and normally I would have declined (I really hate putting people out, it's rude) but I said yes because I just wanted to have a sleep, plus I couldn't allow an opportunity to have a ride in the GTR pass me by. God, I love that car!
So despite how sick I was, I actually had a really good time. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it was an enjoyable evening.
And now it's time to bring this rambling post to an end.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Nightmares
I had yet another nightmare about a tornado last night. Makes it the third one in a week.
I have no idea why I'm terrified of them, it's not like they're a regular occurrence around here.
*shrugs*
Oh well, just thought I'd share that with you all.
I have no idea why I'm terrified of them, it's not like they're a regular occurrence around here.
*shrugs*
Oh well, just thought I'd share that with you all.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Purses, Curses and Skulls
This weekend has seen me out and about all over the countryside and I've spent very little time at home. Considering I have the lurgy, this isn't necessarily a good thing. I probably should be getting lots of bed rest and doing sickly things like eating jelly and icecream and watching bad day time telly.
Ah well, that's just me I guess.
So anyhoo, I went down to visit Jo and Darce on Saturday and we went out shopping. I had to look for a birthday present for Mel as we're going out for her next Friday which means I was running out of chances to go pressie hunting. I discovered this wonderful little shop at Kwinana Hub and although I didn't find anything for Mel there, I did find lots of great things for me!
First of all was this Nightmare Before Christmas purse. I kind of needed a new purse (which means that my other one was getting old but was in perfectly good shape - but I could convince myself I needed a new one simply because it was getting old and I'd had it for so long) and so it wasn't long before it joined my services.
There is a little coin purse that attaches to the inside of the bigger one but I have so much crap to fit in that the big purse won't shut with the coin purse inside. But I can live with having them separate.
Next of all I bought some skull hair clips. They were a mite expensive ($14 a pair) but so cute that I thought, well bugger it, spoil yourself.
So I did.
Nothing really much to say about them. They kind of speak for themselves.
Yesterday I went into Freo with Barb and had planned on getting many spectacular photos for your enjoyment. However, as we were driving in I took out my camera to get a photo of a church (The Immaculate Conception Parish. I kid you not, I was trying to get a photo so you'd believe me) and I discovered my camera wasn't working. No surprises there I suppose. One normally needs to put the battery in to get one's digital camera to function.
My battery was still sitting in it's charger back home.
*sigh* How that tortured me all day.
Barb and I are planning another trip into Freo sometime in the near future so I can go and take all the photos I wanted to take yesterday. So never fear my dear comrades, they'll be coming to a blog near you soon.
Today (Public Holiday, yay!) I was supposed to be going out for coffee with Kat and Mel but I have a feeling I won't be making it. I'm really not up to driving into Scarborough today since I've been everywhere else this weekend. I really just want to nap the day away and hopefully when I wake up this accursed lurgy will be gone. Needless to say I think that's a pipe dream.
I have one other photo to share with you today though. It's of Christian's table. Now when Christian first said he was going to make us an outdoor table, I must admit, I scoffed. Not very wifely I know but the only things I'd ever seen Christian build before were computers. He'd never really shown an interest in carpentry in the past.
But what Christian sets his mind to do, he does, very well and so our table is complete. It's very big and triangular and very bloody heavy. It took five (or maybe only four, I can't remember...but five sounds more impressive) men to lift it and Christian needed a truck with a crane on it to get it from his friend's workshop where it was built to our driveway. So needless to say I'm not going to worry about anyone nicking it.
Ah well, that's just me I guess.
So anyhoo, I went down to visit Jo and Darce on Saturday and we went out shopping. I had to look for a birthday present for Mel as we're going out for her next Friday which means I was running out of chances to go pressie hunting. I discovered this wonderful little shop at Kwinana Hub and although I didn't find anything for Mel there, I did find lots of great things for me!
First of all was this Nightmare Before Christmas purse. I kind of needed a new purse (which means that my other one was getting old but was in perfectly good shape - but I could convince myself I needed a new one simply because it was getting old and I'd had it for so long) and so it wasn't long before it joined my services.
There is a little coin purse that attaches to the inside of the bigger one but I have so much crap to fit in that the big purse won't shut with the coin purse inside. But I can live with having them separate.
Next of all I bought some skull hair clips. They were a mite expensive ($14 a pair) but so cute that I thought, well bugger it, spoil yourself.
So I did.
Nothing really much to say about them. They kind of speak for themselves.
Yesterday I went into Freo with Barb and had planned on getting many spectacular photos for your enjoyment. However, as we were driving in I took out my camera to get a photo of a church (The Immaculate Conception Parish. I kid you not, I was trying to get a photo so you'd believe me) and I discovered my camera wasn't working. No surprises there I suppose. One normally needs to put the battery in to get one's digital camera to function.
My battery was still sitting in it's charger back home.
*sigh* How that tortured me all day.
Barb and I are planning another trip into Freo sometime in the near future so I can go and take all the photos I wanted to take yesterday. So never fear my dear comrades, they'll be coming to a blog near you soon.
Today (Public Holiday, yay!) I was supposed to be going out for coffee with Kat and Mel but I have a feeling I won't be making it. I'm really not up to driving into Scarborough today since I've been everywhere else this weekend. I really just want to nap the day away and hopefully when I wake up this accursed lurgy will be gone. Needless to say I think that's a pipe dream.
I have one other photo to share with you today though. It's of Christian's table. Now when Christian first said he was going to make us an outdoor table, I must admit, I scoffed. Not very wifely I know but the only things I'd ever seen Christian build before were computers. He'd never really shown an interest in carpentry in the past.
But what Christian sets his mind to do, he does, very well and so our table is complete. It's very big and triangular and very bloody heavy. It took five (or maybe only four, I can't remember...but five sounds more impressive) men to lift it and Christian needed a truck with a crane on it to get it from his friend's workshop where it was built to our driveway. So needless to say I'm not going to worry about anyone nicking it.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Meet Snoopy
Snoopy is my oldest, bestest friend.
I've known Snoopy since I was a baby and he's gone everywhere I have. A loyal and firm friend.
And I'm not talking about a black and white beagle with the sarcastic eyebrow thing.
This is my Snoopy.
My older sister had an orange coloured Snoopy and I got a brown one but by the time my younger sister came along, Snoopys were no longer for sale. My parents bought her a Popple instead I think which later got mauled by our dog Sam...
Anyway, he's a bit bald in patches, his ear has been sewn back on too many times to remember and he's starting to get cataracts but if Snoopy is anything, he's a survivor. As I've grown, I've gotten more and more harsh when it comes to keeping sentimental items from my childhood and most have been discarded along the way. Snoopy however has nothing to fear.
He'll be with me forever.
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.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
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 ;-)
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 ;-)
Friday, May 25, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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!
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!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, May 11, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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.
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.
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