30 December, 2006

Post Christmas exhaustion

I don't know why exactly but I'm absolutely exhausted.

The last few days I've come home from work and had to take a nap for an hour or two. Then after dinner I'm barely able to keep my eyes open. I guess the busy season is just catching up with me. Work has been flat out as well, so I guess that doesn't help.

I really could use some time off. I haven't had any real time off, just my usual rostered days off (which happened to coincide with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). Handily enough the same rostered days off give me New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off. Not that I'm much of a party animal. We are going to a friend's place but it won't be like the party one of my workmates is going to (that one involves jelly wrestling in the blow up pool apparently).

So I guess the next step now is to think of some New Year's resolutions... will have to get back to you on those. Got any you'd like to share?

27 December, 2006

It was a lovely Christmas

Hope you had a lovely day. We certainly did.

Chickie let us sleep in until 6.45am (we were expecting a lot earlier) and then had a look at the presents Santa brought. After that we opened our presents to each other.

Then it was around to J's parents for a delicious lunch. Nothing fancy - cold meats (leg ham, pork, turkey, chicken), about 5 different salads, potato bake, fried rice and chicken shaslicks.

After that it was more presents! Chickie ended up with a very Pirates of the Caribbean Christmas. He was given the sword that makes sword noises when you wave it about, a Jack Sparrow dressup kit, Jack Sparrow's old style pistol and a big pirate ship with various characters (not Pirates of the Caribbean but very cool). He also got other things that his letter to Santa asked for - like a tank and toy electric guitar.

The funniest thing was when he was opening his stocking from Santa and pulled out a small Matchbox type car of Lightning McQueen, sighed and said "Now, I'm happy". I think if Santa had known that that's all it took, it might have been a lot cheaper for him ;)

24 December, 2006

Chickie's excuse

Chickie's in the bath and is squirting water up the walls with some toy. I went in there and shook my finger at him and said "No water outside the tub". His response?

"I didn't want to, but my bones are doing it and I tried to stop them, but they won't let me. Naughty bones!"

And yes, I did have to walk away quite quickly so he wouldn't see me laughing.

23 December, 2006

One year old

Hard to believe I've been blogging for a year now. Who would have thought I'd have this much to say!

22 December, 2006

Only two things left on the 'to do' list.

  1. Christmas present shopping - tick!
  2. Put the tree up - better do that tonight
  3. Grocery shopping - tomorrow (oh that's going to be fun)

I can't believe I'm this close to Christmas and I've only just finished the present shopping. Why on earth do I always leave it this late? Next year, I will be more organised, I swear!

Ok, ok, I say that every year, but next year I'll have to be. I'll have most of my family (if not all) coming to visit/stay, and there's no way in the world I want to be out present shopping with everyone here. Hopefully that will be enough of an incentive!

Chickie's much better. Thanks for all the well wishes. He had a very lazy day watching tv or sleeping. I can't believe I managed to convince him to have a nap - mind you it helps when the power goes out for a couple of hours in the thunderstorm (yes, it rained, and quite a bit too). He didn't eat much - half an apple, some vitawheat crackers with vegemite and a couple of bites of watermelon, which is very different from usual. By the end of the day he said he was 'a big daddy bit better and a little baby bit sick'. Fyi - that's how he asks for juice - a big daddy bit of juice and a little baby bit of water.

And luckily, whatever it was doesn't seem to be contagious. Both J and I appear to be fine. Perhaps it was something he ate, a bit of heatstroke or something. I'm also very glad it didn't happen Sunday. That wouldn't have made for a very fun Christmas Eve!

21 December, 2006

Matchbox 20 says "It's 3 am I must be lonely"

I say "It's 3 am and I want to go back to bed!". But I can't just yet - it's my turn.

Chickie's not well, and has been having bouts of throwing up for several hours. J really needs to go to work tomorrow, er later today, so he's off to bed.

Apparently Chickie will get about 30 minutes of sleep before he wakes up again, so I figure I'll stay up for half an hour and see how he goes. We gave him some kids Panadol (paracetamol) this time since he's also running a fever, so perhaps it might help him sleep. If he stays asleep after the half hour mark, I might chance lying down again though.

Chickie did say that he had a 'stummy-ache' before he went to bed, but he seemed perfectly fine. Now he says his insides taste strange. I hope it's not catching because I feel a bit queasy myself. Mind you, that could just be because I'm not so good with people throwing up - I tend to gag a bit myself.

If past illnesses are anything to go by, the Panadol should help. He's the sort of kid that throws up when he's got a fever and if we can bring that down he should be able to get some sleep.

It's a good thing I have a proper clothes line now, since it's sure to get a workout tomorrow! Um.. later today...

19 December, 2006

Tony vs. Paul

This is quite funny and very well done.

The thought of all the effort put into it though - amazing!

18 December, 2006

I'm exhausted

This time of year is so busy so I'm usually over it by about now. This year is no different.

The Christmas shopping is mostly done - just the present from Chickie to J and something from my mum to Chickie (she's sent the money and I'll just pick up something). Everything to my family has been sent off. Groceries are mostly bought - a ham and salad fixings need to be picked up, but they can wait til closer to the day. The Post Office was madly busy. I'm only expecting one more package to arrive though. I'm just glad I'm mostly finished the shopping. The crowds in the shops give me the willies, a bit. I sort of feel a bit claustrophobic and just want to get out of there. Not the best mood to shop in...

We do need to put the Christmas tree up. We were going to do it two weekends ago but just haven't got there yet. We tend to put it up fairly late as the house isn't large, plus we have two inquisitive cats. I daresay it will go up sometime in the next day or two. Hopefully...

We've done the Christmas lights tour (Saturday night). There's a small town not too far from here that goes all out. Almost the whole town decorates in some way and the main street is like a street party for the two weeks beforehand. They even have a nativity play twice a night, with a real baby and animals.

J and I went out to dinner last night. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day we met. 9 years! We also went to a movie - Eragon (not much else showing here right now). It was ok but I think now I would have preferred to see the Holiday (timing wasn't right though really).

I had my car serviced today. A big service with a big price to match. I guess I really didn't have to have it done now but I had a voucher that gave me 20% off as long as I had it done by the end of the month and today was the only day I could organise it. Nothing wrong with the car, which is good, though it drives a bit smoother now. I do need to get new tyres, but I've known that for a little while. They can wait until after Christmas though.

Then in events to come, we have a dinner out on Thursday with friends and other friends coming from Sydney to visit (but I'm not sure when).

On top of all that it's actually quite busy at work, so I'm exhausted!

15 December, 2006

Tag! You're it.

I've been tagged by Charm School Reject. My first meme ever!

So, apparently I'm to name my 5 favourite Christmas tunes.

1. O Holy Night. Chokes me up every time.
2. Good King Wenceslas. Not sure why, I think I just like the tune.
3. Song of Joy. Ok, so not really a Christmas carol, but they always do it on the carols shows on the telly.
4. Six White Boomers. Fun and matches our season for Christmas (we don't get much of that).
5. The Chimney Song by Bob Rivers. Yeah, I know - twisted.

Ok, now I'm supposed to tag 5 people. Um... ok, randomly grabbed from my links:

Steve
Izzy
My Float
Zazzy
and
YOU!

Btw, leave a comment if you're a reader but I don't have you listed in my links. I'd like to see your list :)

14 December, 2006

A change is as good as a holiday...

or so they say. In that case, I've had a lovely holiday today ;)

I got my hair cut. Not just a trim either - my hair used to be just longer than my shoulders but now it's about level with my mouth. I now have a sort of bob that comes up a little higher at the back of my head.

I got it coloured too. I have mid to dark brown hair (with several grey hairs mixed in!), though it was jet black when I was a kid. Now it's a sort of coppery coloured brown mostly but with a bit of almost black around the hairline.

I really like it. I just hope I can style it properly tomorrow, I have very little mirror coordination!

13 December, 2006

Fooling myself.

I was under the impression that things were going fine with my diabetes. I was getting a decent HbA1c (the three monthly average of my blood glucose levels). I've had results in the 5's for the last year. I've also lost 14 kg (30 pounds) in just over a year and my cholesterol levels are excellent.

In the past I've tested regularly after my main meal with good results. It was always my morning results that were higher than I liked. So, I've only tested occasionally after the evening meal recently, but test every morning to monitor.

But I think I've been fooling myself.

My morning results now seem to be mostly fine. Usually around the 5.5 (99) I'm meant to aim for. This morning I was 4.2 (75). But after my main meal seems to be going bad on me.

You see, I've downloaded some software to keep a track of my levels. I have a trial which allows me 30 entries, so I've been testing a bit more so I can get a bit of an idea on how it works. I've found so far, that 2 days out of 3 I've been over the 6-8 (108-144) after 2 hours, that the doctor wants me to aim for. In fact I've had a 9.4 (169) yesterday and today a 10.2 (183).

It's depressing... I've been eating the way I'm supposed to (according to the Diabetes Education Centre and the dietician) - in fact I haven't changed anything in my diet or exercise plan since the last time I was testing regularly.

I feel so restricted sometimes. Eat this many times a day. Eat only this much. Eat only this much of that type of food. Exercise this much. I do this - honest, I do (in fact the dietician thinks I'm too hard on myself) and still get levels this high?

I'm tired of it. I feel like such a failure.

10 December, 2006

Ack! Disaster...

Waaah! Our air conditioning isn't working.

Chickie decided it was cool enough so fiddled with some switches to turn it off. Unfortunately now it won't come back on.

J's had a look at it, but we're kinda thinking it's time to replace. It's one of those ones that sits in the wall or window and a pretty old unit - not very strong and probably not very energy efficient compared to newer models. So J's off investigating a new model. I'm hoping it might be one that he can install, because if it needs specialist installation we're sure to be stuck without it for a while.

At least today is meant to be cooler - it's currently only 30 degrees (86F) instead of yesterday's 42 (107F).

Update:

Crisis averted. New air conditioner is installed and working beautifully. Not only is it much stronger (yay!) but it has a sleep feature that will make it easier to get to sleep but not so wasteful once it's no longer needed.

Phew!

08 December, 2006

Hot, damn hot...

It's 39 degrees (102 F) outside - and I've spent the day wearing a tshirt and jeans (gotta love the casual dress policy at work) and wondering if I should have brought a jacket to work. One of the other girls in my team was wearing her jacket and I think that might have been a smart idea!

The air conditioning in our building is weird. Sometimes it feels like we wear warmer clothes in summer than in winter. I'm told it's kept to about 22 degrees (71) but I'm not convinced. Some days we're shivering a lot of the time.

I just hope we don't have power outages when it starts to get really hot. Sometimes in January/February we'll have weeks where the temperatures are 40+ for over a week. We tend to get power outages then, usually due to the load on the power grid, though sometimes we've had bushfires cause them in the past. Dressing in warmer clothes when that happens is awful! Perhaps I should be keeping a change of clothes in my car.

I once worked in a refrigerated environment (smallgoods packing company) over the summer school holidays and actually enjoyed the temperatures there. Possibly because we didn't have aircon at home growing up (mum and dad love the heat - I only really tolerate it). I prefer winter to summer myself - though it doesn't get anywhere cold enough to snow, so it's not freezing, just cooler. I have to wonder, if I liked the temperatures in that job, why am I having a problem with it being too cold now?

What about you? Are you a cold weather person or a warm weather person?

06 December, 2006

okay...

Chickie and I were sitting watching a dvd this evening. We've had a really busy day (went to an indoor play centre with a friend and visited another afterwards) and he was very tired.

So, back to the dvd - they were playing some incidental music, which happens to be a variation of the show's theme. Chickie looked up at me and said:

"Mum, I love this music".

I said something non-committal like "really sweetie?". He nodded and replied:

"Yep, it's really beautiful music".

And what were we watching you may ask?

Bob the Builder. Yep, Bob the Builder!



I have got to start playing some real music around this house...

05 December, 2006

testing expandable posts... hopefully

Well, here we go - just testing this out.


Would someone please comment on whether it works or not.

go to main page

For the aussies

This is an interesting link - how does your postcode rate?

For the record, our suburb got the star for being a melting pot - more people born overseas than the national average.

I thought this was interesting too:

Battle of the Bulge
7 Food outlets 23.14 Food outlets
Lets' get physical
21 sports/health clubs 14.83 sports/health clubs

(first figure is my suburb's and second is the national average).

04 December, 2006

Urban Ninja

Saw this on someone's blog and had to share.

28 November, 2006

Balloon pics

As promised, here are some pics from my balloon ride. These are from August 2004 when things were a lot greener than now. One of the other passengers took these and kindly gave all of us a copy (and permission to post these).

We started the balloon ride in the very early hours of the morning (before the sun was up) and it was very cold. We helped to inflate the balloon and then got in and floated off.

This first one is in the pre-dawn light. It was very misty out.


Then the sun came up. Such a beautiful sunrise it was. The rays of the sun lighting up the mist was a sight to see.




I can't believe how green the hills and fields were.




Aerial train spotting...


We saw a lot of abandoned houses and buildings. Some burnt out, others just falling slowly to pieces.


Believe it or not, we brushed over the tops of these trees.


And this is how we landed. I was in the bottom right section of the basket. We had to crouch down and hold on tight when landing. It was a pretty smooth landing too.


We then helped flatten out the balloon, roll it up and went off for a champagne breakfast!

27 November, 2006

helicopter joy flight pics

This is the helicopter before we boarded.



We headed out over the coast and saw a lot of yachts and other boats out enjoying the day.



Found a new water slide to investigate sometime in the future.



At the end, we landed and got out and another couple of passengers took off for their joy flight. This is them taking off.



So much fun! I loved every minute.

26 November, 2006

How the helicopter flight went...

It was fantastic! Loved every minute of the (way too short) 20 minute joy flight.

We headed mostly over the coast and saw some lovely scenery. J took pics but I haven't seen them yet. If there are some good ones, I put them up later.

I wanna do it again!!

all excited!

I'm all excited this morning. In a few hours time I'll be on a helicopter - using my joy flight gift voucher. I've never been in a helicopter before.

It's funny, I caught up with a friend on Friday night and she called me a dark horse. Apparently I don't seem like the dare-devil type. I have to admit, I don't feel like I'm a dare-devil. I have been tandem sky-diving, gliding, had a joy flight in a tiger moth plane and had a balloon ride, in the past few years but I just figure the fact that my friend is a bit afraid of heights is the reason she thinks I'm a dare-devil.

I did the balloon ride in August 2004 and I was looking at the pics again recently. I may put some pics up of it later. The views from the balloon were spectacular. Here's a teaser...


Oh and if by any chance, you were wondering how the night out on Wednesday was - it was lovely. I had Rabbit and Pork Terrine to start, Spiced Lamb for mains and Triple Chocolate for dessert. The food was mostly really nice, particularly the Rabbit and Pork Terrine - I've never had Rabbit before. The only thing I was disappointed in was one of the pieces of lamb. We were given 3 pieces of it and two were melt in the mouth delicious, but the other piece was gristly and fatty (of course, that happened to be the last piece I tried, so it disappointed me a bit). The dessert was heavenly! White chocolate custard, chocolate mousse and a rich chocolate tart. Since I took my blood glucose levels before dinner (I was feeling a bit weird) and saw a 10 (180), I figured I'd better go easy. So I only had half the tart and a spoonful of the custard. I ate all the mousse though (yum!). Good thing though was that about an hour and a half afterwards my levels were 4.7 (84.6).

It was very strange not to have Chickie there for the night. He apparently had a great time with his grandparents though. I think he really missed us, because he's been telling me he loves me and that I'm the best mum ever, a lot in the last few days (and yes, he's said similar things to his dad too).

22 November, 2006

a rare event

Tonight Chickie is staying over at his grandmother's. This is only the second time he's stayed over at somebody else's house.

The first was when I had my lasik surgery. J thought it may be best, that first night, since I had to be careful about being bumped. Tonight is the second - we're going out to dinner and since J's mum looks after Chickie Wednesday's and Thursdays anyway, she suggested he just stay there the night.

It feels quite strange already. Here I am at home - by myself! Knowing I don't have to go pick him up. Very odd. It will probably be even stranger, going to bed knowing he won't come into our bed in the middle of the night after having a bad dream about Humphrey B Bear, or that I don't have to be deathly quiet when I get up in the morning, so I won't wake him too early (that never works anyway).

Dinner tonight should be good. J's involved in his work's social club and they've organised dinner at the TAFE school of catering. I'm told it's usually very nice food.

20 November, 2006

first case of idol worship?

No, not Australian Idol...

J, Chickie and I went to a birthday lunch, today, with his family. There were grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and guest of honour - a great grandmother. Yep, Chickie's great grandmother is 92. Some great longevity genes on that side of the family (great grandmother's sister is still with us too, she's 93 and going strong).

Chickie was pretty shy, at first, with the other kids. After a while though, he was having the time of his life. One of the kids was a nine year old boy (S) and Chickie was just following him around like a puppy (and S was enjoying it too!). When we got home, Chickie was talking away on a toy mobile phone - laughing and basically saying how much fun the day was. Then he 'hung up', came up to me and said "that was S, he was just calling to say hello". Very cute.

We also saw more indications that he's going to be tall. One of the girls there is two years older than him, but Chickie is almost as tall as she is. He's also about shoulder height to S (the nine year old).

Oh, and I got my results back as well. All good - total cholesterol 3.6, HbA1c 5.8 (same as last quarter) and heart tracing normal. Mind you the doc wrote down that I'd lost 5 kg in the last year, but she's obviously recorded my weight at diagnosis of diabetes (7th of September 2005) incorrectly. Every time I've gone in there, my scales have been about a kilo less than hers and according to my scales I've lost 13 kgs, not 5. It didn't seem like anything to make a fuss over but on thinking about it, I wonder if there are any other little errors in my notes.

14 November, 2006

Misheard lyrics

I love this site - kissthisguy.com - every now and then I'll browse through it for a laugh. Though I must admit it's been a while since I visited.

What brought it to mind was the Eskimo Joe song "Black Fingernails, Red Wine". Now, I'm going to admit something here... but I have my own misheard lyric from this song. There's a line in there that says "All of us stand and point our fingers" but any time I heard it, all I could make out was "I don't understand the point of fingers". hehe

Now, I knew that couldn't be correct, but I just could not figure out the line. I don't know why I didn't just google it to start with. Problem is, now I can't stop thinking of my line instead!

So... do you have a misheard lyric at all?

13 November, 2006

You know there's going to be a wait...

... when you visit the doctor's surgery and the only free seat is next to a man who has fallen asleep and is slightly snoring!

I went to have my usual quarterly blood tests (to get an average of my blood glucose levels for the last three months), as well as my yearly cholesterol etc etc. Good thing I don't have a problem with needles or having blood taken.

I also had a heart tracing done. Never had one of those done before and it was kinda strange. I had to hop up on the bed and the doc put that sticky gel stuff on my arms, legs and chest. I had these sensors strapped onto my arms and legs and then the little suction cup thingies on my chest. All was normal, as expected. Basically my doc wanted a 'baseline' so that if there were problems in the future (apparently that can be common in diabetics), we'd know what was normal.

Because I had to fast for the cholesterol blood test, I did something naughty afterwards and had Macca's breakfast. A bacon and egg mcmuffin and a hash brown. Mmm... it's really the only McDonald's I actually like, except for their roast chicken salad, but that's now gone from their menus (dammit! All their other salads have cabbage in them - blech!). I have to admit I love their hotcakes and syrup too, but I thought that might be pushing things a bit far.

This is probably the second time I've had Macca's breakfast in over a year, the muffin isn't going to be good for my blood glucose levels - bread seems to be something that spikes my levels, whereas potatoes (ie: the hash brown) don't seem to be too much of a problem. It's also not good for my weight, since I'm trying very hard to lose it! 4 kilos to go, until I reach the recommended BMI score.

11 November, 2006

It was a dark and stormy night...

No really - it's true!

At the moment it's thundery and raining quite steadily. This is a blog-worthy event since Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in 1000 years.

It's weird really. Where I grew up was never hugely affected by low rainfall. In fact I remember our backyard almost becoming a swimming pool at times. I remember sitting on our front verandah and watching the storm clouds coming over. It seemed like it would storm every afternoon in spring.

I've lived in quite a few different places. Some that had a slight amount of snow in winter and good rainfall. Because of the climate there, the town had planted many English type trees (please don't ask me to name them, I have no idea). It made for a stunning autumn though.

I've also lived in a couple of other places that were quite rural. Not outback, as such, but not too far off. Places where rain was a big talking point. Places, mind you, that had long lived floods, because the land was so flat. The flooding would take a long time to arrive and then just as long to leave. I was a radio announcer during one flood and I remember reading flood reports for weeks!

One place I lived in, had dam levels down to just 4%. As bad as that was, it was fascinating because a town that had been flooded when the dam was built had been uncovered for the first time in many decades. It became quite a tourist attraction to go see the dam and the old town. It was quite amazing to walk on the dam floor and look up at the walls and see the markings of the different water levels of the past.

Water plays a big part in the day to day life of Australia - I'm sure it does everywhere really. So, a simple storm can be a big thing sometimes.

Lest we forget

From the Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs website:

10 November, 2006

Eye surgery anniversary

A year ago today I had LASIK surgery to correct my short-sighted vision. I am SO glad I had it done.

It was discovered I was very short-sighted when I was in 5th class and have worn glasses or contact lenses ever since. I've had problems with contacts - I developed an allergy to the soft lenses (dammit!) and had to move to hard lenses. They weren't very comfortable and I could only wear them about 6 hours a day, so eventually I gave up and just went back to glasses. Glasses themselves were never very comfortable either. My prescription was quite strong so even with those special lighter material ones, they were quite heavy on my nose.

Several years back I'd looked into LASIK and was advised my level of myopia was beyond the limits, but told to wait a few years because those limits were being extended all the time. Eventually I was told I could have it done, but I never did get around to it. I had the money (it's not cheap!) but I have to admit I was a bit scared of complications. I've had acute bi-lateral Iritis in the past and the treatment was six weeks of drops to fix the size of my irises. What that meant is six weeks of not being able to focus properly on anything unless it was at a certain distance. No reading, no tv, no driving, high sensitivity to light and a bit of pain in the early stages (it was too painful to even open my eyes the first day). The thoughts of not being able to see terrified me really.

Then I was diagnosed with diabetes and all I could think was that now I'd be ruled out because of that. I was encouraged to ask and I'm glad I did, because I was told it wasn't a problem. So, I booked myself in and now, I'm loving being able to see normally. It is the most self-indulgent thing I've ever done and I don't regret it.

The habits of a lifetime are hard to break though - every now and then I'll wake up and still automatically reach for my glasses!

09 November, 2006

My little ninja

Chickie at Halloween...



Please excuse the crap photography. I'm always cutting people's head's off or managing to get the blurriest shot ever. I need to do a course or something.

08 November, 2006

Natalie Bassingthwaighte & Shannon Noll - Don't Give Up

So what do you think of this then? I heard it on the radio driving home and my initial thoughts were that Natalie's butchered her part. Having previously worked in radio though, I'm finding it hard to actually come out and say that. Every song you play in commercial radio is the BEST you've ever heard, don'tcha know...

I've had a few listens and I've decided I don't hate it, but I much prefer Kate Bush/Peter Gabriel's version.

I don't think I like Natalie's phrasing very much though. Funnily enough, there's a comment on the youtube page that says they've sung it exactly as Kate/Peter. I think Shannon might have but Natalie is quite different.

07 November, 2006

stream of consciousness blogging?

Some random stuff...

I won third place in a Melbourne cup sweep at work today - thanks Maybe Better :)

J found another shingleback lizard in our yard over the weekend. It's definitely not the same as the other one I've blogged about before, since it's half the size. I wonder if it's a mate or possibly a baby of the other lizard. I think it's kind of cool we have a couple of lizards in our yard. I just don't want snakes around... anyone know if snakes will also hang out where lizards hang out? I'm scared of snakes and concerned J or Chickie might get bitten - particularly since J is currently paving our back patio area and that means there's a big pile of rocks out the back.

Hopefully this summer I might actually have a nice back patio area and a proper clothesline again. A few months before Chickie was born (yes, almost 5 years ago) we bought a few 100+ year old cobblestones to pave with. When I say a few, it was two dumptrucks worth and they basically filled our whole driveway. It took J and his mates quite a bit of time to shift them around the back (average weight of the stones is 20 kg) and since then J's been slowly paving the back patio area. It'll look lovely when it's all finished and I can't wait! I want to have it all finished now (or to be completely honest a couple of years ago) - with a new outdoor setting, a proper clothesline that will fit more than two small machine loads of washing (at the moment we just have a line slung up between the shed and the old clothesline post), a swingset for Chickie and lots of lovely new plants to hide the hideous back fence. J's been buying some new plants to get things going - we have two lovely Japanese maples in huge pots out there now. He also bought some of those solar powered garden lamps. I can see an end to the paving too - 4 or 5 more short rows and he should be done there.

I visited my friend who had the baby recently. I got to hold the little sweetie and she's so tiny! She was 5 pound something (2.5 kg) at birth and has been a little slow to put on weight (she was a bit prem). It was amazing to hold her and then pick up Chickie who is 46 pounds (21 kg) now. He's been going through a big growth spurt lately. He's always hungry and pants fit him around the waist but are now three-quarter pants in length. I picture him as one of those teenagers that will tower over everyone and eat you out of house and home!

I'm loving these Eclipse Cinnamon Mints. They're not easy to find though - all they seem to have in the shops are the empty boxes left. I hope that means they'll keep stocking them. The closest supermarket has a habit of no longer stocking my favourite stuff. I reckon they track our buying and do it deliberately! ;)

Ok... suggestion time. I will have this Friday and next Monday off and alllllll to myself (can't wait!). So, what should I do with my 'me time'? What do you like to indulge in when you have time all to yourself?

03 November, 2006

Feeling a bit flat

I don't know what's going on with my mood lately. Feeling flat, disinterested and disconnected.

We've had 2 days training as part of the new role at work, though there is more to come. The next lof of training will be more specialised though, what we've had is what the front line people get.

Only problem is, most of the people doing the front line role have been doing a related role for years. Several in our team had the training (2 or 3 years ago) for the related role, but then haven't had anything to do with that role since. Basically office politics meant we weren't able to get access to the required systems so it wasn't possible to keep up or practice. So this new role has new systems but a lot of the technical troubleshooting is the same. All very well if you've been doing that related role, but for the handful of people who haven't (ie: me!) we're a bit lost. Two days of being shown the new systems and then we're let loose on the phones.

The other thing, is that one of the new systems seems like it is really poorly designed. To get something as basic as name/address/date of birth to do an id check, you have to go through 4 different levels to get to these details. As an example, if you had someone ask a question about their plan - say 'when is my contract up', and 'is my service currently active', you'd have to view about 12 different sections. I don't know if it's because I'm unfamiliar with navigating it, or if it is poorly designed but in the billing system we've used for my original role (which we are still doing by the way), you could see all that information in two sections.

I think part of my disconnected feelings come from that. I don't think that's completely it though. Even though I'm feeling like I'm floundering, I can see that it won't be like it forever. I'm getting the hang of the basics and the technical side of it (particularly with the other training to come) really interests me. The geek in me must be coming out, because I'm fascinated by the details like line attenuation and signal to noise ratio. I have to say I'm liking it way more than the line faults role as well.

The team event that I've spoken of before was also on tonight. I didn't end up going. I was going to, but coming home today, I felt so tired and completely and thoroughly disinterested that I just couldn't face the thought of driving over an hour, in Friday night traffic, to see a movie in a genre that I dislike. I tried to nap for a little beforehand but I couldn't shut down my thoughts to rest.

Anyway, this mood has been here for a few days. Not sure what exactly is causing it, but I'm hoping that voicing it here will be a bit cathartic. To be totally honest, I feel like I just want to curl up in a little ball, in a dark room and be alone for a while. I can't do that at home (Chickie won't even let me go the bathroom by myself, some days) and I'm pretty sure people would get a little concerned if I hid under my desk at work.

I'm sure I'll be back to my usual self soon. As they say "This too, shall pass".

01 November, 2006

Happy Halloween!

We don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia. You might see a few costumes and scary props in a few shops if you're lucky but that's pretty much it. Apparently there was some house that put on a big display for Halloween and they made the national news. Either it's a slow news day or that shows you how rare it is.

Anyway, Chickie's childcare centre seems to like doing fun stuff for any occasion they can think of. They dress up, they have games or events for the kids etc etc. Because of this Chickie was really really really wanting to go trick or treating for real.

So, I organised with some neighbours/friends for Chickie to come over and do his trick or treating. He was so cute - all dressed up in black as a ninja. I might even have to post a pic when I get the photos off the camera. He was having fun and wanted to go to 'thousands and thousands of houses'. I had to convince him that we could only go to a couple of houses because we didn't want to be greedy. His reply? 'We'll just go show them my costume then'...

30 October, 2006

Here's a way to waste a bit of time...

One thing I've been doing is clearing out my inbox. Well, more truthfully, one of my inboxes - I have several inboxes set up in my email program.

I try not to be a packrat with most things. We don't have a lot of storage space in this house (don't even have a linen closet!), so I try to toss out stuff I don't need/want. I'll readily admit I'm not always successful, but I try.

One area I'm pretty bad with though, is my email. I save so much crap! My work email has stuff going back 5 years in some of the folders. Home is not quite so bad - but not by much. So, I've been ruthless and deleted over 1000 emails in the past few days.

On the upside, I found a few cute links from years back that I'd forgotten about. One of them is the make your own snowflake site. I've been playing a bit with it and here's one I like.


You should check out the gallery too. Some people's snowflakes are fantastic!

29 October, 2006

I am *such* a nerd...


I'm feeling a little nostalgic tonight. I was surfing youtube and found Gary Brolsma's numa numa video again. I have to admit I kinda like the song - it's catchy. So... I searched for the lyrics and I've been singing along with the original clip for the band O-Zone (well it says it's the original clip, I've no idea really).

All I can say is - I'm am such a nerd! Thank goodness I don't have a webcam huh?

You can find the (phonetic) lyrics here.

27 October, 2006

Happier now

Much less grumpy today :)

Had a way less stressful day yesterday doing our old role, sent off a job application for something that looks interesting (but I'm not too fazed if I don't get it), I have a day off today and my friend had the baby! She had a little girl called Chelsea and everyone's fine.

Another thing I'm pleased about is some cool things happening for Ian at Splendor-Solis (he's the one who took the pictures of the flowers in my header and profile). He tells me that he's had a photo of his used by a local council in a (two story high) sign used to promote the suburb, and he's been approached by a large charity in the U.S. to use one of his photos in an ad campaign. Cool huh?

Here's something I remembered seeing on House & Baby's site a while back and thought it was cute - a word cloud.

25 October, 2006

grumpy

I'm in a grumpy mood today. Lotsa reasons (well, in my mind anyway), so to get them off my chest, I'm going to write them all down.

In no particular order:

  • Chickie woke up half an hour before my alarm this morning (and that was already set for 5.45am). I'm so not a morning person.
  • The line faults role we've been doing for the past 8 months was supposed to finish yesterday. I arrived this morning to find the techies hadn't switched over the phones and we had 4 hours more of it.
  • The powers that be have decided to redo the roster so that instead of sharing around the loading for Sundays, they're giving us set shifts each week. Mine is Tuesday to Saturday - so in effect, a drop in pay. This will start in a few weeks time, thankfully I do have a couple of Sundays before then.
  • Our team won an award a while back and we're having a team event which will be a movie, at a gold class cinema, with all the trimmings. I was really looking forward to this, but everyone else voted for a movie that I'm really really not interested in seeing.
  • A friend sms'd me yesterday to say she's gone into labour and I haven't heard anything more yet. I hope everything's going alright - she's managed to make it to 35 weeks (she had to go on bedrest at 24 weeks since she was in danger of giving birth back then).
  • Someone reminded me that daylight savings starts this weekend, which means I'll have to adjust to getting up an hour earlier again. Oh and by the way, did I mention I'm so not a morning person?
Ok, that feels much better. Chickie's been trying to get me out of my mood too, by giving me lots of hugs and kisses, which is really sweet of him.

23 October, 2006

pics as promised - pt 3

The one is red is actually a woman (there were two women on the field that day).



OMG - real swords.



Grand Melee!




The man in green was quite good even though he didn't seem to have quite the same amount of armour as the others (not sure what he had on under the padding though).



You can't really tell just how hard they were going for it, in the photos. We saw one shield get splintered, so there was a fair bit of force going into those blows.

pics as promised - pt 2

J made a comment that this was the medieval version of dance dance revolution.



Zavana dance of Azerbyjan.



Just for Steve!

pics as promised - pt 1

This was a volunteer rifle regiment. They were able to fire the rifles at a rate of about 4 times a minute. Well, all except the second guy from the left. His rifle just made a tiny 'pop' each time. At the end they attached their bayonets and charged (the crowd surrended without resistance).



This was very very loud!

22 October, 2006

Fun at the farm

Had a wonderful day today. There's a farm not too far away that has an open day every year and holds something like a renaissance fair.

We saw all sorts of fun things. Lots of different dance troupes - morris, highland, pictish, medieval, colonial, belly, azerbaijani(an) and more we didn't get the chance to see. There were all sorts of displays - military (new and vintage), medieval knights fighting (some with wooden weapons, others with steel), a punch and judy show, and an archery display (with a medieval peasant and a viking). There were also lots of stalls with all sorts of interesting things. Btw, I'm saying medieval but I really don't know what era they're meant to be from.

Overheard quote of the day:

There was a stall/tent set up for the Wildlife Rescue people. They had a display of various lizards in there. I overheard one lady tell her child that one particular type of lizards were "skanks".

Chickie's favourites of the day were the knights fighting (he was practising his fake dying at the end of the day) and, believe it or not, a $1 'magic wand' bought as we walked out (it was a plastic stick with gold metallic streamers on the end).

My favourite was the grand melee the knights put on. I'm betting most, if not all, of them went home with bruises. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

21 October, 2006

Things I have learnt from my son

During daylight hours, no matter how tired you are, you never ever yawn. Ever! Yawns only ever occur during nighttime hours.

You do, on the other hand, do 'special burps' that indicate how tired you are.

So sayeth Chickie...

20 October, 2006

19 October, 2006

What is the point?

Earlier today I sent an email to our state premier asking him if there were any way the government could assist with a centre that is closing due to lack of funding. A few minutes ago, I received a (presumably auto) reply asking to provide my postal address for a response.

What is wrong with emailing a reply - since I emailed in the first place??

Its not the first time I've experienced this. A couple of years ago I sent a complaint to a long life milk company because the openings on their cartons were often poorly placed and a real nuisance to open (yes, you'd often see me hacking away at the box and no, I don't know why I didn't just switch to a different brand). I used the online form on their website and received a two line apology by post. Honestly, why bother? What's wrong with using email? Its not like my communications to them were so vital that it required a paper copy that they could file away.

I emailed the premier and said not to bother replying if it couldn't be done via email. I don't see the point in wasting paper, envelope and stamp for (what will probably be) a standard 'thanks for your feedback, we'll consider it' answer.

As my Chickie says 'that's a-diculous'.

17 October, 2006

I want this shirt!

Friends at work call me the spelling police. Heh, I can't help being pedantic - years ago I used to do a bit of proofreading for book catalogue and newspaper. Spelling/grammar errors etc tend to bug me.

So I just found this shirt from One Horse Shy. I think I'm going to have to buy it. I kinda like the messenger bag too.

On the other hand, the shirt here, makes me twitch just looking at it. Link provided because I don't think I could actually stand seeing the pic on my blog.

Australian Idol

I haven't really been watching this show much. A bit here and there. I did watch the show on Sunday night though and then Monday's elimination show (well, some of it). I was a bit curious to see who'd be eliminated. And it was Bobby.

I have to say, I just don't get the whole Bobby Flynn thing. Everywhere I hear or see anything about him, people are raving about how talented and how unique his 'sound' is. Yeah, he can sing and all, but they all can (have to, to get this far, wouldn't they?).

Honestly, anything I've seen of him, he sounds exactly the same. As far as I'm aware, the show tries to showcase different musical 'styles' (within the pop type genre) but honestly, to me, Bobby always did everything his way. All very well, but I don't think it shows much versatility.

I really am a bit confused as to how he got onto Idol in the first place. In my opinion, his talents (and I'm not denying he has some) don't lie in the pop genre.

And then Mark Holden's reaction, when he was eliminated? Devastated doesn't cover it. I just don't get it...

15 October, 2006

Note to self:

When Chickie says he's flushed something down the toilet, clarify exactly what it is that he's talking about.

Scene:

Chickie went to the toilet and said "I flushed mumble mumble down the toilet"
Me "What did you flush?"
Chickie "That" and points to the toilet paper holder
Me (stupidly assuming) "Toilet paper? That's ok"

Turns out that, no it wasn't toilet paper, it was the cardboard tube bit in the middle. And yes, the toilet is backed up a bit. Of course it's now a Sunday so getting a plumber out will not only cost an arm and a leg, but a kidney, three fingers, two toes and an ear.

J's about to have a go at it with the plunger - wish us luck!

Update: Looks like the plunger's done the trick. A very good thing, since I really didn't want to get a plumber out on a Sunday!

13 October, 2006

something new

Another new look. What do you think?

The flower is a photograph done by a friend over at splendor-solis. I think his flower photography is just lovely. Thanks heaps for letting me use it, Ian!

11 October, 2006

search hits

In the last week or so I've been getting quite a few hits from search engines using the terms Big Brother Australia and turkey slap.

It's quite funny what can come up sometimes. If you read Tom Reynold's Random Acts of Reality, you'll see he has a little comment that he's the number one search result for womble porn (I wonder if by mentioning it, I can be number two?? heh). I've also seen other bloggers talk about their search hits and how mentioning sex tends to get some really random hits. Makes me wonder if I should just add in some random sex-related terms to see what comes up.

Now, I posted about the turkey slap incident on our Big Brother months ago, so I don't quite understand the sudden interest in it now. The hits seem to be mostly coming from the U.S. but I have had some from Europe as well. Can anyone enlighten me at all? Is the Australian Big Brother being shown in other countries? (and if so, WHY??)

08 October, 2006

Excuse me while I rant a while...

I hate hate hate it when other drivers sit right up my backside. Take this afternoon:

I'm finishing work and, to get home, I have to merge with a very busy main road. There's a set of traffic lights right on the corner and I have to use the slip lane to get into the traffic.

Now usually it's busy, so most of the time you have to wait for the traffic lights to get a gap. Sometimes you can get lucky but as it's in a 80km zone (with a 100km speed limit just up the road a little) traffic is usually travelling pretty fast - and my car is not the biggest or the gruntiest (0-60 in two weeks is the usual joke).

Then this idiot, in his minivan, gets right up my butt. Given that I don't have a big car and his is huge, you may not be surprised to hear that I don't move out into traffic immediately when a gap emerges. Mainly because I can't see a damn thing past his van!

So, I hear you ask, why didn't you just move forward a bit so you could see? Well, I did - several times, in fact, until the slip lane ran out. Unfortunately this guy immediately filled the gap.

So a break in traffic happens, I still can't see it so he zooms out - honking his horn at me! Then to top it off I can see him ahead of me and he's weaving in and out of traffic, causing other drivers (in both lanes) to brake suddenly several times.

Bloody rude drivers!

06 October, 2006

Summer is coming - I can smell it!

J, Chickie and I went to the supermarket last weekend to do the weekly grocery shopping. We chose a trolley and wandered into the fresh fruit and veg section and I said "I can smell mangoes". I looked around and saw the paw paw and pineapple next to me and felt disappointed. I figured it must have been these that I could smell.

J went on ahead while I got some apples, then he called me over and waved a mango in the air. I nearly danced for joy! I adore mangoes. In my mind, the smell of a mango means summer.

I remember, when I was a kid, we'd go visit our cousins who lived in Queensland. They had a mango tree and we were able to eat as many as we liked. We'd have fun throwing the overripe ones at each other (our parents must have hated doing the laundry) and we'd climb the tree and just hang out. We had so much fun in that tree.

It was such a long time ago now, that my memories are a bit hazy. I do remember the feelings and smells though. This is why the smell of a mango represents summer to me.

So, a question for you. What smells do you associate with summer? For those in the northern hemisphere, what about winter? What smells mean winter to you?

04 October, 2006

A health update

J took Chickie to the doctors again - basically as a follow up for the pneumonia that Chickie had.

Chickie's still coughing so the doctor's given him another round of antibiotics and we need to take him back once that's finished. J, on the other hand has bronchitis and he has antibiotics too. Once those are finished, he needs to go back and if he still has symptoms, he'll need a chest x-ray.

I'm the only one healthy!

03 October, 2006

A very good thing to hear from Chickie...

a few minutes before my alarm was due to go off (at 6.30) this morning:

"Hey mum! I stayed in bed until the sun came up!"

02 October, 2006

So what do you think?

This is going to be a work in progress, I'm sure.

I like this template but it's not perfect. It feels a bit squished in the middle to me. What do you think? What do you like and what don't you like about it?

Oh, and no - the girl in the picture is not me.

01 October, 2006

Opinions requested

I've opened another blog - mainly just to fiddle about with templates and things. You can find it here.

The template there is a premade one that I'm thinking of using here. I plan on adding my title to the picture eventually, but otherwise I think I like it. What do you think?

Eventually I'd like to play around and create my own, but at this stage I'm just learning. I have a friend who is an excellent photographer and he's going to let me use one of his photos here. If you'd like to see his work, please do go visit!

29 September, 2006

Updated links again

I've updated my links again. If you link to me but I haven't put your link in bold, please let me know and I'll correct it.

Also - feel free to recommend any blogs I don't have listed. I'm always looking out for more :)

I'd also encourage you to visit the nice people who link to me - a great variety to read and you may just find yourself a favourite!

Happier post as promised!

I found the upside to having lower levels than usual - it made me feel better about being a bit naughty (food-wise)!

I'm still on the lower side of things today, so with lunch I had a whole bread roll. I adore fresh white bread and bread rolls, but I've found that's one thing that my body can't handle too much of. Today though, I had a roll with my lunch and then my manager was handing out donuts (cinnamon sugar) and I figured 'why not!'. I haven't had a donut in aaaages. Two hours later and I was at 7.1 [127] - smack bang in the middle of the range I aim for.

Not to mention - it's the weekend!!! Gotta love that :)

As for plans - not much so far. I was thinking of going to see 'The Devil Wears Prada". Anyone seen it? Is it good?

28 September, 2006

weird day

I've spent most of today feeling not quite 'right'.

I have type 2 diabetes and my blood glucose levels normally seem to be higher than they should be (dietician keeps telling me that perhaps I should be talking to the doctor about medication).

I'm meant to aim for under 5.5 [99] before breakfast and between 6 and 8 [108-144] two hours after meals. Normally I average 6.5 [117] before breakfast and closer to 8 [144] after meals - sometimes higher. I also start feeling a bit strange at around the 5ish [90] mark (hard to concentrate, shaky, hungry, very sleepy and just plain weird), though since I'm not on medication the doctor says I don't have hypos, but I know that I feel strange if my levels get lower than usual.

So far this week, I've managed to be under 6 [108] all week before breakfast. This is unheard of for me, so to be so close to 5.5 [99] four days in a row is very surprising.

This morning I woke up and tested my level - 5.4 [97] - pretty good. I have some breakfast (same stuff as always) and off to work I head. I test myself before lunch because I don't feel quite right - 5.6 [100] - good level so I shouldn't be feeling odd. I have my usual lunch and then an hour later, I feel even less 'right'. 4.8 [86], ok so I figure I can pinch a few hot chips off a mate at work (mmmm, hot chips with chicken salt are the best!). A bit later I test again - 4.2 [72]. This is not usual for me so I have some chocolate and some almonds (all I had handy) and test 20 mins later - 5.8 [104] - good! Forty five minutes later I test again and I'm 4.7 [84]! I'm home again now and just tested at 5.1 [91].

I have spent the whole damn day feeling 'wrong' - feeling like I have to force myself to stay awake and really concentrate, shaking my head to get rid of the wooly brain feeling, shaking my hands since my fingers feel funny, as well as trying very hard to remain calm - I've been very grumpy and even had an urge to throw the phone through the window at one stage. I've had lower readings than today (I had a 3.9 [70] two days ago) but these weird feelings usually don't last very long - unlike today. It's very confusing (and damn hard on the fingers!). It's also a bit depressing to think that my levels today are closer to what is normal than the levels I usually get.

Ok whinge over... I promise to make the next post a happier one.

26 September, 2006

A quick update

Chickie is fine. Phew!

We took him back to the doctors, as they wanted to keep an eye on him, and apparently he has a mild case of pneumonia which is responding very well to antibiotics. We had to keep him quiet for a few days (not easy - even when he's sick, he's always been an active kid) and then he could pretty much go back to usual activities. We do have to watch him to see if he starts acting 'flat' or his energy levels drop, or if he develops a fever - then we have to take him straight to hospital. The doctor doesn't expect this to happen though, he says Chickie is doing really well.

I'm back on to the phones and after 2 days, I'm already tired of arguing with some people.

There's a charge to investigate a phone fault IF the problem turns out to be the customer's equipment (or deliberate damage by the customer), otherwise there's no charge. This is charged by the wholesaler (not our company, we just pass it on). You would not believe how many people refuse to pay this.

I personally think it is reasonable - the fee is expensive, yes, but the theory behind it is reasonable. Why should the wholesaler send a tech out - free of charge to the customer - when the problem is that the customer's handset (that couldn't possibly have anything wrong with it because it's worked fine for the last 50 million years) now isn't working? Why would it be reasonable to get a FREE tech out to investigate a problem when the wholesaler's network/equipment is working as it should but the customer's equipment isn't?

For goodness sakes people - things break! How many times have you had a hair dryer or a toaster that just suddenly stopped working? I know it can be inconvenient to do the testing sometimes but honestly, wouldn't you rather do a little bit - just in case it's a matter of unplugging one bit of equipment so that you get your service back now and not have to wait a couple of days? GAH!!

Ok, rant over... just had to get it out of my system. I have just 13 more actual days of this to go. I can make it (I just have to keep telling myself that).

22 September, 2006

Yipes!

Chickie has been coughing for a couple of weeks. Nothing too major, we thought, though we did notice he was coughing a lot at night. This morning he had a bit of a coughing fit though. He was coughing so hard, he almost threw up.

J had to go to the doctors today anyway (he's had an x-ray and blood tests done as he has a painful foot and the doc didn't know what it was), so he decided to take Chickie to the doc's too. Luckily it's a walk-in type place, so no appointment necessary.

So anyway, I get home to find out Chickie has pneumonia! Good grief - other than a cough, he seems fine. He's happy, very very active and no temperature. Only other symptom is a slight runny nose. How the heck did he manage to get pneumonia??

He's had a chest x-ray done and apparently the doc rang after it was done to let J know what it was. He said if Chickie starts getting 'flat' or runs a temperature, we need to take him to hospital. We also have to take him back to the doc's tomorrow. J says I should get checked out too, as not long after Chickie started coughing, I did too. I do have a nasty cough, but I feel fine otherwise. Is pneumonia contagious - anyone know?

As for J - well the doctor still doesn't know what's wrong with his foot. All the usual tests came back normal. He's on anti-inflammatories and the doc wants to see him once the box is finished. He's had this problem before - mystery pains in his feet and the doctor could find no cause. It's odd...

On my side of life - the week's training is over. The presentations have been done (and we did ok). Some of the teams put in an amazing amount of effort - one team even put together a bound booklet of their presentation! Mind you, some of the most interesting didn't rely on much more than a printed sheet with points on it.

Back to work on Monday... but I have to say, I have not missed those phones one iota!

21 September, 2006

My brain is mush

I've been doing a training course all this week and tomorrow we all do a presentation on the topic. I'm working with another person, so we'll have to speak for about 20 mins all up.

I'm not worried about the actual talking in front of people (I've done so many presentations to people in my centre lately that it feels second nature to me now), but I'm hoping we're on the right track with the subject info. I kinda feel like I'm missing the point somehow.

Oh well, hopefully all will go well and then it's back to work on Monday. I kinda like doing the training though. Even though there are some occasions where it's hard to give my full attention (lots of info = mushy brain thing).

Another thing, I'm quite excited right now - my counter will shortly hit the 1000 mark! My thanks to everyone who visits :)

I just love it...

when Chickie asks me to drive home a different way (he loves his little 'adventures'). I'll be approaching our street from the other end (to usual) and he'll throw his hands in the air and cheer, saying 'Yay! We made it!'.

I'll readily admit to having poor navigation skills, but surely they're not that bad!

17 September, 2006

trying to be creative


Not very many interesting things to talk about lately, so here's a picture instead. These are my first two efforts to make bracelets with memory wire. I'm quite pleased with these, for first attempts.

15 September, 2006

MY car

The bank no longer has a partial share in my car! Yup, today I went in and paid out the loan (two and a half years early!), so it's alllll mine now.

It's a good feeling.

I missed an anniversary

It's been just over a year since I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I got the official diagnosis from the doc on the 7th of September, but I really knew on the 26th of August.

I had gestational diabetes when I had Chickie (2002). I was on the diet for two weeks and, after that, insulin until I gave birth. I have to admit I was pretty freaked out by the whole thing. I managed to prick my fingers ok for the many blood glucose level tests, but the insulin was a whole 'nother ball game. I had to get J to do it for the first um... several times. It probably didn't help that I was told to do the injections in my stomach (lower sides) and there was that whole pregnant belly to account for.

My levels, while pregnant, were all over the place. I had the occasional low (around 3, or 54 for those in the U.S.) and the more common high (10, or 180) - I was aiming for no higher than 7.7 two hours after meals. Generally the levels just kept rising, as did the insulin dose. I was told my levels should return to normal shortly after the birth but they took their time to come down. People were starting to make noises about me having more than just gestational diabetes. The levels did come down though, thank goodness.

I had to have regular tests afterwards to ensure my levels were normal - and yes they were, until the test on the 26th of August. At that test my bgl was so high that they wouldn't do the test. I went to the doctor and she did another test - the HbA1c. For that one the doc said the cutoff for a diagnosis of diabetes was 7 - which was exactly where I was. I found that out on the 7th of September 2005.

So, I missed my 'anniversary'. Not that it's something I want to celebrate anyway. The only thing to celebrate about this part of my life for the last year is that I've lost 12 kgs (26 pounds). People tell me I'm fading away (ha!). I'll need to lose another 6 kgs (13 pounds) before I'm within my ideal weight for height (I'm just slightly too short, you see ;) hehe).

On the whole that side of my life, this last year, has been quite confusing. What with figuring out what and when I should eat, what foods affect my blood glucose levels and trying to like exercising every day. Hmm... I don't really have any of those down pat yet.

At least my HbA1c levels are ok - last one was 5.8 - so I guess I must be doing something right.

13 September, 2006

Ch-ch-ch-changes

If you've read past posts, you might know that I'm currently doing an extra line faults role at work. You might also be aware that I don't particularly enjoy that role.

Well, hooray hooray... I won't be doing that role for much longer. My team will be going back to it's old role (well, we're still doing that along with the extra role), plus we'll be taking on another role. This new one will be more internet oriented (where my interests lie). It will be a challenging time though, so I will probably be complaining about it later!

Oh and I'm outraged...

Not only have the IAU demoted Pluto, but now they've renamed it. Unbelievable! Read about it here.

It will always be Pluto (the planet) to me.

A very special lunch


Yesterday's special at the local cafe near work:

11 September, 2006

owie

I have a fat lip...

Chickie was mucking around and accidentally headbutted me in the mouth. I caught my teeth on my lip and now I have what looks like a blood blister and a fat lip.

You know, I'm told babies are born with such soft flexible bones, so how the heck do they become so hard just a few years later!

The poor thing was so sorry he hurt me, that I felt bad for him. I have to tell you though, this kid's head should be declared a lethal weapon!

09 September, 2006

confession time

I have a confession to make...

I have absolutely zero interest in playing with lego. There, I said it!

Chickie has a huge box of lego bits and pieces (it used to belong to J and his brother when they were kids) and he just loves playing with it. And he always wants someone to play with him. It's understandable, I guess, since he's 4 and doesn't quite have the skills to make the cool stuff he sees in the shops etc. Problem is, I have no interest in building/making stuff myself. J does but sometimes he's busy or Chickie just wants me to play with him.

J and Chickie will cruise the aisles of the toy shops and check out all the different kits - the Star Wars ones, the pirate ships, the cars/trucks etc. Me? Well, my response, is a nod and a less than enthusiastic 'cool'.

I'd much rather play with his Thomas the Tank Engine sets. He's got two different types - the Take Along sets (he has the sawmill and the island quarry set) and the plastic sets with the battery operated trains (he got the giant set for his birthday).

08 September, 2006

RIP Peter Brock

Peter Brock - one of Australia's motor sports legends died in an accident, during a rally, today. Another famous Australian killed, doing the thing they loved, this week. See the story here.

What a week...

07 September, 2006

This is cool.

Check this site out. Some of the stuff it said about my birthdate:

You were born on a Monday
under the astrological sign Capricorn.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2439142.5.
The golden number for 1966 is 10.
The epact number for 1966 is 8.
The year 1966 was not a leap year.

You were born in the Chinese year of the Snake.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Goose; your plant is Bramble.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Famenoth, the third month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 25 Tevet 5726.

As of 9/7/2006 8:18:16 AM EDT
You are 40 years old.
You are 488 months old.
You are 2,120 weeks old.
You are 14,843 days old.
You are 356,240 hours old.
You are 21,374,418 minutes old.
You are 1,282,465,096 seconds old.

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.80939334637965 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

There are 132 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 41 candles.

Your birthstone is Garnet

The Mystical properties of Garnet

Garnet is used as a power stone

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Emerald, Rose Quartz


Your birth tree is

Elm Tree, the noble-mindedness

Pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, tends to a know-all-attitude and making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humour, practical.


There are 109 days till Christmas 2006!
There are 122 days till Orthodox Christmas!

05 September, 2006

Happy birthday J

J's birthday today and the only birthday surprise is that he's caught a cold. He doesn't look very well, but unfortunately today is his study day (he's doing a part-time diploma in software engineering) and if he doesn't go, it will be hard to catch up.

At least he's already organised to have tomorrow as a day off. I've been trying to think of some fun things we could do to celebrate his birthday, but he may just want to use it to rest, if he's not well. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

For a birthday cake, he's put in a request for a choc-mint mud cake from The Cheesecake Shop, so I'll head down to the local one later and see if they have one.

As for the rest of my day, I was thinking of seeing a movie (since it's cheapie Tuesday). I can't decide between Clerks 2 and Pirates of the Carribean 2 though. Hmm, decisions decisions :)

04 September, 2006

RIP Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin - the crocodile hunter has died in a diving accident. I'm stunned. See the story here.

Chickie loves 'Crikey' as he calls him. I was never a big fan but you can't deny his love for Australian animals. His website is here (but timing out right now).

RIP Steve.

In case you weren't aware...

4 year olds can not keep secrets.

Heh, I should have known better. You see it was father's day in Australia yesterday and J's birthday is tomorrow. So, on Saturday, Chickie and I went shopping for presents. We bought some DVDs that J's been wanting for a while (Stargate, Futurama and American Dad).

Now I know from last year that Chickie has trouble with keeping secrets so I suggested we play a big trick on his dad (Chickie loves 'tricking' people at the moment) and tell him we got him tools. Chickie thought this was a great idea and on the way home we practiced what we'd say.

So what happened when we got home? "Guess what dad? We got you Stargate". D'oh!! Oh well... at least he didn't mention the others. So I wrapped up Stargate for father's day and wrapped the others separately to put away for his birthday.

J has a sleep-in yesterday and then when he gets up, Chickie tells him - "Dad, we got you tools!" (too late kid, hehe). J opens the Stargate and then Chickie asks me where the Futurama and American Dad was... double D'oh!!

Ah well... maybe next year.

03 September, 2006

Something I've never done before...

Chickie and I were heading out to get J a father's day present (happy father's day for all those celebrating it) and we found the 'other member' of our family sunning itself in the driveway. S/he's a shingleback lizard that we discovered a few months back. It hung around for about two months, then we didn't see it for ages. I thought it had gotten too spooked, since Chickie had to check on it every time he went outside.

So, it was right behind my car - just when I'm wanting to drive over that very spot. I'm standing there wondering how to move it. There was no way I was going to try touching or moving it by hand, and I have to tell you, lizards do not respond to hand-flapping and loud 'shoo'-ing. Next thought was to get a broom but I was a bit reluctant in case I hurt it.

Luckily, when I blogged about it months ago, I did a bit of searching and discovered that it was a Shingleback and that they are very partial to yellow flowers. Next door has a huge bush with yellow flowers (probably the reason it's hanging around this area) so I grabbed a flower and lured the lizard over to the grass. Problem solved! Though I'll bet the guy mowing his lawn, across the road, must have thought I was a bit odd.

So there you go - caramaena, the lizard lurer!

01 September, 2006

I really should be in bed...

busy day tomorrow, but I'm up very late because of a very funny movie called The Happiness of the Katakuris. It's described thusly:
From prolific Japanese cult director Takashi Miike comes an all-singing, all-dancing zombie horror flick. The story centres on recently retrenched Masao Katakuri who has decided to take over a bed and breakfast on a piece of land he bought which was originally a rubbish dump in a remote mountain area near Mountain Fuji. This venture is intended to unite his dysfunctional family but the dream doesn't seem to be going to plan as their guests keep dropping dead one after another.
It's hilarious. Even the zombies get in on the act. The grandfather doesn't sing though, he shouts. Oh and anywhere where you'd expect to see stunts, it changes to clay-mation.

Ah SBS... it's a treasure chest...

A school for Chickie and a whinge about my diabetes

Today J and I visited a school that we're thinking of sending Chickie to, next year. I'm pretty happy with it.

The classrooms looked nice. They have a program that places an emphasis on encouraging kids to believe in themselves (which will be good for Chickie). It used to be a lot bigger (now unfortunately shrinking in numbers), but they do have a lot of resources, because of that. All the computers are being upgraded at the end of this year and I hear a lot of good things about the school from different people. Also, very handily they have an onsite before and after-school care program (since J and I both work full time).

Chickie will look so cute in his grey shorts and red shirt!

In the afternoon, I visited a friend who's pregnant and on bedrest. She's been on bedrest for 4 weeks now and she's really 'over it'. On top of that, now she's been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. She's been measuring her blood sugar levels for a few days now and she showed me her numbers. To be honest, I'm as jealous as hell. She hasn't had anything over 5.9 (that one was two hours after a meal). I really wish I had those sorts of numbers. I got a 6.4 two hours after dinner today and was thinking it was pretty good (I'm supposed to aim for between 6-8 two hours after meals).

I'm still getting fairly high levels first thing in the morning. Was 7.7 this morning - recommended is 5.5 or lower, but that's pretty rare for me. My usual morning level is about 6.5. My doctor's not so concerned with the 6's for now, she wants to monitor it for a bit, but she's sent me off to a dietician to see if that helps bring it down. Plus she says the medication tends to bring down the levels overall, which might be harder since there are times where I get down to 4's (and feel pretty weird with it).

I've seen the dietician twice and she's told me that I'm doing all the right things and, if anything, I'm not eating enough carbs. She's said to make sure I have a snack before bed but mentioned that sometimes eating right isn't enough. I'm not really certain I want to start taking medication though. I know tablets aren't like the insulin injections I had to take when I had gestational diabetes, but still, medication feels like a slippery slope to me.

30 August, 2006

yay!

I'm now on annual leave for just over a week - woohoo!

I solemnly promise to sleep-in several times, to see a movie or two, do some beading, blog about some very random stuff, catch up with friends and generally do nothin' much at all.

As you can probably tell, J can't get time off so we're not going away or anything.

29 August, 2006

driving home today...

I'm stopped at traffic lights listening to the radio. Over the radio I can hear the beat of some very loud music right next to me. I figure it's some hoon in his hotted up car with his 'doof doof' music, loud enough for all to hear. So, I casually glance over at the car (I didn't want to make eye contact).

Wha?? The car is a white station wagon with the logo for a local plumbing centre on the door. Huh?

I steal another glance and there's a grey haired guy grooving to the music...

Intrigued now, I muted my radio to listen to the music. It's some wurlitzer organ version of the Animals' House of the Rising Sun.

Ooh-kay then...

24 August, 2006

Kids can be funny

I'm still chuckling about Chickie's reaction to something, from the other day.

Chickie has been totally resistant to cheese for as long as I can remember. I think he tasted it once and then refused to have anything to do with it after that. He's eaten it in stuff, but by itself, well put it this way - superman's reaction to kryptonite is a mild dislike, in comparison.

So anyway, his dad made himself a cheese sandwich on the weekend and Chickie decided he'd have a bite. Then he decided he'd have the whole sandwich, thank you very much! Since then cheese has changed from kryptonite to the most delectable ambrosia in the universe. Chickie now has to have it everyday.

I was driving him home from childcare the other day and cheese was on his mind, I guess, because he asked how it was made. I started to answer 'well, you know milk comes from cows, and what they d...' I didn't get much further because this startled 'WHAAAAA!?!?' came from the back seat. I repeated 'milk comes from cows' and he just said 'that's a bit strange' (in a very disbelieving voice). I had to try very hard to not burst out laughing.

Now, it's not like he hasn't heard this from us before. Not to mention that he has several books with that very statement in them. I guess it just didn't register clearly with him until now. I wonder where he thought it came from?

I never did get to tell him how cheese is made either...

20 August, 2006

Spending lots of money!

I've been on a bit of a spending spree this weekend. The weather's been great here so I finally succumbed to the shops' displays of new clothing. I bought myself two pairs of capri pants and a crinkly type shirt - the sort you twist up to dry and don't iron (heh, that's my type of shirt!).

I also bought a new pda. My old Palm Tungsten E is about 3 years old and it's been great. I use it a lot. Unfortunately it's developed a high pitched hum/buzz when turned on, the screen is losing sensitivity and, this week, I've noticed the button to turn it on is dodgy, taking quite a few presses to actually get it to turn on. I figured I'd better sync it and upgrade.

So, I did a bit of thinking about what I wanted in a pda, did a bit of research and came up with... the Palm Tungsten E2. Yep, pretty much the same thing as before. I bought it, it's just what I want. I'm happy.

I can't help but wonder if this means I'm a bit resistant to change, though. Not only have I just bought the newer version of the pda I've had for the past three years, but I did the same thing a few months back with our microwave (ours was on the way out, we had a look around and settled on one in the right price range with all the features we wanted, got it home and it's the same model as our old one - just updated).

I know I don't welcome major change, but perhaps I'm a little more entrenched in my ways than I thought.

19 August, 2006

Updated links

I've updated my links again because some very nice people have linked back to me. Thank you very much for the links everyone! Make sure you check out their blogs.

If you have a link to my blog and I don't have yours here, please let me know.

18 August, 2006

misdirected emails

Robin over at the Internet Institute for the Easily Amused has an amusing post about a misdirected email. Email is such a handy thing but can go oh so wrong if you're not paying attention.

I have many email addresses and one of them happens to be a very common name. As you might imagine, I get many emails sent to me by accident. Usually it's because the person with the similar email address gives it out incorrectly.

Some of the emails include boring stuff, like 'will you pick up Steven on the weekend?' and 'Joe, are you going to be at soccer on the weekend?' or I'll get a gazillion test emails 'just to see if this works'.

Others are more amusing. One was from someone who did uniform orders and was corresponding with someone about mistakes made in a school order. The first couple itemised the mistakes the employees were making, the last sounded like the poor writer was about to have a nervous breakdown. Not surprisingly since the mistakes in the school's order were pretty major. Sounds like the company sent uniforms in a range of sizes, including a large number of women's size 22, 24 and 26 (for those outside Australia those sizes are very very large). Then there were hats in sizes that were equivalent to a 1 year old and 2 year old's head size. To top it all off the embroidery was done in the wrong colours!

I think the most amusing misdirected email though, was the person who did an online IQ test. The results came back as:

Hello Joe (name changed to protect the identity)

Your age adjusted IQ score is 98 and the average score is 100.

Your IQ score is the result of a formula based on the number of
questions answered correctly on the test. This score has been further
adjusted to account for the differences in capabilities among various
age groups. Your percentile score means that you scored higher than 45%
of the people who took this same test.


Your Grade:Lower Average

Total number of questions:30
Questions answered:27
Questions not answered:3
Questions answered correctly:13
Questions answered incorrectly:17
Percentage correct answers:43%

Surprise, surprise - the other thing he got wrong, was his email address.

You know, I often wonder if he even realised that he'd given the wrong email address and was just sitting there anxiously awaiting the results that would reveal his brilliant IQ.

15 August, 2006

No decision required.

I rang the lady about the jewellery course and apparently they didn't get the numbers - so no class this term.

I'll wait and see what happens next term.

decisions, decisions

I'm tossing up whether to go to jewellery class again this term. I did enjoy it but last term I felt like sometimes it was a waste of my money.

About half the class was entirely new and the people who'd done the term before (including me) felt that we couldn't get the teacher's attention enough to get on with what we were working on. I understood that the new people needed a lot of initial instruction, but the things we were working on used new techniques too. I didn't get my project finished and I would like to finish it off, but is it worth the money if it's just going to be the same as last time?

The other thing they've done is move the class to a different TAFE campus. Now it will take me twice as long to get there.

Ah, I don't know. I'm kinda leaning towards not going this term and perhaps go next term instead. I have to make up my mind today though.