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.